One of the more memorable races of 2011, for all the wrong reasons, was the 38th annual Hospital Hill Half Marathon in KC. 83 degrees at the start of the 7:30 AM race, with about 140% humidity, was something that you really can't prepare for. I had attached the 12 weeks of training for that race onto the back of training for a half marathon in Abilene, in which I was unable to hit my goal time. It took a while to figure out what I needed to do to hit 1:50:00, and it really started with Hospital Hill. Granted, no matter what I had done I was going to struggle through that oven of a morning, but even had the weather been right, I was not to a point in training where I was going to be able to shave that much time off in order to hit my goals. What I had learned was that it is tough to maintain a consistent goal pace, and that it is easier to pass that pace and then ease back towards the goal pace.
I was able to use that to hit 1:50:00 in Kansas City in October. After that two mile warm-up, it was all systems go, as I was running at a pace nearly 60 seconds/mile faster than what I needed. For a long stretch, I was able to set a pace that was drastically quicker than my goal, and allowed me to not press too much during the final couple of miles. I was just glad I hit the time, otherwise I would have questioned if I had it in me to hit goals.
Hospital Hill will be coming up on June 2nd, and I'm using it as an opportunity for a little revenge on the Hospital Hill course. I know it isn't the race's fault that it was a truly brutal day, but there were a lot of factors at work that made it so difficult. I'm going to be more ready this time around. I finally ditched the Brooks shoes (too narrow in the base, thus all the over-pronation issues), picked up some more comfortable kicks, and already have been able to enjoy the terrific weather we have had throughout the winter. Of course, if it is 80+ degrees again, I'm not sure things will go the way I want. I set some modest goals for times this year, but I didn't spend nearly as much time running after the Disney Marathon as I did last winter, and I certainly have lost my edge, speed wise. If I'm going to have any racing success this year, I'm going to really have to grind, and find a workable schedule. This probably means running when I get off work in the morning every time, as opposed to mixing and matching between evenings and mornings. We'll see how it goes. Until next time...later.
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Wow, it's tough to train for such a hot event. And with the humidity, your normal cooling mechanism - sweating - just isn't going to do much to shed excess body heat.
ReplyDeleteI don't have to worry about that for a while here (Toronto area) as we're still running in temperatures just barely above freezing.
I hear you on the training schedule as well. I'm just getting back to regular running after a long recovery from knee problems. Thinking about trying the 'Run Less Run Faster' approach to my running as I get back into it. It cuts the running down to 3 quality runs a week, but I still need to fit in the cross-training, which should work as I look ahead to a triathlon.
It's been particularly tough in recent years, as the winter's, minus this last one, have been brutally cold and extremely snowy, and then the transition to summer is very short, so it gets very hot very fast. Tough to fit in long runs in those extremes.
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