Monterey Half Number 2

I ran the 2015 Monterey Half-Marathon.  The 2014 Monterey half was my first half marathon run, and I ran that in 2 hours 7 minutes.  My goal this year was to beat that time, maybe the Modesto time, at least under 2 hours, please.

My wife and I love Monterey.  We often have a good time there.  Perhaps I had too good of time, perhaps one glass of wine too many?  I also forgot my running shorts.

By the time I noticed this, it was too late to purchase a pair.  At first I was going to not run.  But I really wanted my 2015 medal.  I also wanted the sub-2 hour time.  Between the wine, and now this, it seemed that I was subconsciously sabotaging my efforts to PR.  I decided to run in my jeans.



1 hour 59 minute exactly.

There were a lot of hills that I didn't remember from the first time.  My jeans were soaked in sweat by the time I finished.  There was much chaffing.  I got a new blood blister on the bottom of my foot from the effort.  I finished 1635th place out of 6559 participants.  That puts me in the top third.  I'll take it.

Changes

My running is changing.

I used to run as many as 70+ mile weeks.  I've stopped that.  I dropped down to running 60 mile weeks on occasion, and now I'm in the 49-53 mile range.  I've decided to reduce the amount of running to get more of my life back for other activities, and because I'm not actually training for a marathon.  I run half marathons.  Fifty miles a week is plenty for half marathon training.

I've also dropped 16.5 mile long runs.  Hansen's half marathon book suggests 14 mile long runs, every other week or so.  I have a route that does 13.8 miles.  I like that.  I'm thinking every other week I will run it with the goal of finishing in under 2 hours.  If I can manage that, then I will always be able to run my races in under 2 hours.  That would be sufficient.

Insert Long Blogging Break Here

So I started this post many months ago.  In that time David Bowie died, and I started carrying a water bottle on my runs instead of relying on the water fountains along the canal.  I'm sad about David.  I'm able to change up where I run.  I've done a couple of 16 mile runs.

I started taking peanut butter cookies with mini-chocolate chips on my runs.

Probably not the healthiest running food, but it sure is motivating.  The recipe is basically your classic peanut butter cookie with mini-chocolate chips mixed in.  I also beef up the salt slightly for salt replacement during the run.