Time for another PR

Not sure why, but since my DNF at Enoree, I have not felt that anything was going right with my training, and general preparation for TRT. Everything, and I mean everything has got to be done to better my chances of that big fat shiny buckle. Last week, I did think I was getting back to basics, with plenty of lunchtime runs at Umstead and some good Jordan Lake runs, but just as I was getting into the swing of it, I needed to travel for work.

I need a boost in confidence – so for the heck of it, I decided to run a half-marathon on the hotel treadmill. Not only run a half-marathon, but beat my PR of 1:58:40.

Oh yeah, a quick word about my PR – this was at the Cary Inside Out Sports Half, probably 3 years ago. My official time I think is 2:02:xx. Yes, I cheated with my watch; I stopped it when I went to use the portajohn half way round. I guess that is cheating isn't it?

So, really, I have never run a sub 2-hour half.

Time to change that, and erase my cheating for good. (Feels good to confess)

So, armed with a bottle of orange Gatorade, a bottle of water, and MP3 player full of punk rock I set the treadmill in motion – it would only go for an hour, so I would have to reset at 59:59.

To keep me honest, I posted my intention on Facebook, there is no backing out now that it is public

I took the first mile fairly easy, about 9 minutes. Then I started to ramp up the speed a bit. As my average pace increased, I decided to target 7.1 miles for the first hour – having 6 miles left for the second half made everything a whole lot easier to figure out. To get there, I kept the 'mill at around 7.0mph, but threw in a couple of minutes from time to time at 7.5 – yes, I was doing speedwork. I hit 7.1 exactly on the hour, the reset took about 4 seconds, and I was away again.

 

Once I was approaching 9 miles total, I knew that the PR was in the bag, it was just a question of by how much. I was targeting now a time of under 1:50, with a couple of miles left – I figured 1:49 was a possibility if I picked up the pace. OK, so I have to try and beat it by 10 minutes. One mile left: GO! I ramped the 'mill to 8 mph and hung on for as long as I could. One thing I learned during this last mile was the amount of sweat made the belt slippery, which was kinda tricky. (So was updating my status with miles to go so that some FB friends could keep track of me).

YAY! Mission accomplished. 1:48:33.

 

Still no word from sponsors, so I am not going to say what helped me through, and what I was wearing. You see how this works? I would have mentioned the stuff I used, and both the people who read this blog would have been so impressed, and decided to run a treadmill half, that they would have flocked to their local running store in droves and bought your products. But NOOOO, you continue to ignore the kool kidz at the back. Your loss (and mine too).

Then I had a cheeseburger and a beer

Here's a picture of me on the 'mill.

Note, that being as Hampton Inn provided me with the treadmill -- I decided that they can get some publicity. See how that works potential sponsors? :)