Split Time Clarification and updated Plans

ORN:  4 miles, R4/W1

 

Blogging buddies Darrell and David joined in the analysis on my last post, wondering how on earth I tied with Jeff Galloway at the Portland Marathon when my splits were better than his for 18 miles. 

 

Boy, I love number crunching. 

 

There was no typo...here's how it works.

 

The reason is that those paces were cumulative paces to that point in the race.  They were not paces between the mile markers.  Thus, when I slowed from a 10:30 to a 10:40 pace between mile markers 17.5 and 20.0, the actual splits included miles at 12:05 and 12:15.  Ouch.  Conversely, when Jeff pushed his cumulative pace from 11:11 at mile 21.1 to 11 flat at the end, meant he was probably doing 9:30-ish over those last miles. 

I also wondered; with Jeff doing a 1/1, just how fast did he actually run during his one minute of running? Loading info from his 21.1 mile split into my run/walk pace calculating spreadsheet, he held a 8:53 pace in each run segment. That sure seems doable. Makes me very curious to see just how this might work for me.

 

And, while I'm at it, the cube root of the arc tangent of the number of shopping days 'til Christmas is 0.356. 

 

Thanks to many of you for your responses to my post on recurring knee pain.  With your input, and my own consideration and reflection, the pain seems to simply be a case of overuse.  I had only four weeks between the HOA Marathon and the Portland Marathon...that probably triggered the knee pain on that race day.  Attempting 20+ miles then only two weeks after PDX was more of the same.  Duh.  This informs my planning for future races, eh??  I've done some hard running but nothing long in the past two weeks and it feels fine...the legs are fully back. 

 

The realization also altered, nicely, my immediate racing plans.

 

I had planned earlier in the fall to run the Monumental Marathon in Indy on November 7.  However, while gimping down the long hill past the Adidas offices at mile 23 of Portland, I decided I needed to scrap that race.  But, alas, a light came on in my brain last week; that event in Indy also has a half marathon!  So, I've signed up to do 13.1 that morning.  My failed 20 miler turns out to be a perfect "last long run" for a HM.  Game on.  Just a little shorter game now. 

 

And the 50K trail race on Dec 19?  No decision yet. 

 

Thanks a ton for all your input, folks, I truly appreciate it and learn from all of you. 

 

Go Phillies.

 

Persevere.