The highlighted splits are the ones in which I ran the fastest in comparison to the same mile in other years. For instance, on Sunday, I ran Mile 2 in 6:56, which is the fastest Mile 2 I’d ever run at 3M.

It’s interesting to note that when I ran a personal best in 2010, my first 8 miles were slower than they were in 2011 or yesterday. And then, Miles 9 to 13.1, I was able to drop the bomb for a super negative split. My lungs were absolutely on fire at the end of this race, but my legs were strong.

It’s easy to look at this chart and say that I should have run a more conservative 3M for the first 8 miles Sunday, especially since my legs were not 100 percent. But let me just add this: in 2010, I had no idea I could run that fast for that long (6:59 overall pace). Prior to 2010, I’d never run tempo runs at 7:00-mile pace, and only went that fast if I was running a 5K or 10k.

And yet 2010 wound up being a half-marathon PR by 5 minutes – I’d run a 1:36 at the Lake Benbrook Half Marathon in January 2009.

Since that breakthrough in 2010, I’d run dozens of tempo runs in sub 7-minute mile pace. So, when I toed the line for the start of the 3M Half Marathon in 2011 and again last Sunday, a 7-minute mile wasn’t something I didn’t think was doable.

But clearly, my legs are weaker now than they were two years ago. My lungs can handle 6:45s to 7:00s easily enough and so can my legs – up to a point, like an hour.

Yet judging by this chart, numbers don’t lie: either I need to get stronger, get flexibility and strength back in my legs, or run slower the first hour of a race.

I think the answer is both.

Negative splits are a good thing.

And I thought about it. Really thought about it. I mean, it’s one thing to run 6 or 7 miles with this leg malady, and an entirely something else to run twice as long as fast as you can.

But I’m stubborn. And since I’m in no pain when I run, I decided to race, with the hopes of, No. 1, not getting hurt, and No. 2, at least running a respectable time, which I deemed to be within a minute or two my PR – a 1:31 in the 3M Half Marathon in 2010.

Goals accomplished.

2012 3M Half Marathon Splits: I was never able to really challenge my heart and lungs because my legs wouldn't work.

I added my heart rate to these splits to give you a sense of how hard my lungs and heart were working. My maximum heart rate is 200. The average heart rate for the entire run was 172 or 86 percent. That is an effort I can run all day. And during the first 9 miles on Sunday, I was coasting along, lungs feeling fine, breathing feeling fine.

But I knew my legs were not holding up. With each half mile, with each crest of a hill (no matter how slight the hills were), I slowly began losing control of my ability to control my quads. And soon they began spasming and I had to stop a few times at Miles 10 and 11 just to quiet my quads down. Thank God the last two miles were mostly downhill, so I was able to regain some semblance of race pace, but as you can see, I never really challenged my heart and lungs by speeding up because my legs just wouldn’t let me.

In essence, my lung and heart wrote a check that my legs just could not cash.

But like I said earlier – I didn’t get hurt and I finished within a few minutes of my goal. I still feel like I can run a sub 1:30 if totally healthy. To do that, I think I need to strengthen my glutes and core, because right now, my quads do all the work and they tire out.

In each race, what I did after Mile 8 told the tale.

These are the Garmin splits from the last two times I ran the 3M Half Marathon, with 2010 on the right and the 2011 race on the left. (I’m signed up to run the race again this year. More on how I’ll do later in this blog entry.)

I’ve highlighted my total time at Mile 8 because that’s where things began to turn in both races.

In 2010, outside of a crazy downhill Mile 5, I stayed at or over 7:00/mile pace for each of the first eight miles, with an overall pace of 7:06 as I started Mile 9. Over the final 5.1 miles, and flush with energy, I was able to close pretty effectively, completing each mile in 6:53 or better and closing with a blistering 6:31 (faster than 10k pace) on Mile 13. I was just 99 seconds shy of qualifying for NYC.

Now let’s fast forward to 2011. I came into that race confident I could keep a sub 7:00/mile pace. No problem for my lungs or my legs, at least not for this distance. This was the race I was going to try to use my half marathon time to qualify for the New York City Marathon. I needed to run a 1:30, which meant averaging 6:52/mile.

So boom, out the gate I go, using the first 3 miles as a “warm-up” and then easily settling into goal race pace. I get to Mile 7 and my overall pace is about 6:55. I get through a hill-ridden Mile 8 in damn near the exact same time I get through it in 2010. My lungs are feeling good. My head is clear. And I think I am ready to crush Miles 9-13, just like I did in 2010.

But it doesn’t happen. As I wrote here last year, I started cramping in my inner quads and finished the last two miles two minutes slower in 2011 than I did in 2010. Not only did I not qualify for NYC, I didn’t even get a PR.

When I toe the line for this Sunday’s 3M Half Marathon, it would be perfect if I could combine the first 8 miles of 2011 with the last 5.1 miles of 2010. But I know you can’t do that in real life. In fact, I don’t even think I’m in 1:30 shape now. I’ve still got that hitch in my giddy-up, where my right quad/hamstring misfires from time to time, the leftovers of overcompensating while running too many miles in October and November with terrible calf pain.

So what do I hope for this weekend: To come out of it as healthy as I am now. To have fun. And if a 1:30 comes, it comes.

I inputed a recent 5 1/2 mile run into the SportsTracks software which uses data from my Garmin and allows me to look at a run after a workout and extrapolate current mile pace, heart rate, etc., at any interval I chose.

For this run, I wanted to see what my heart rate and current mile pace were at .10-mile intervals. I only wanted detail about the last two miles of the run so that’s why this chart begins when I was at Mile 3.5 of the 5.5 mile run. That’s 21 snapshots in time.

From Mile 3.5 to Mile 5, I ran at my half-marathon goal pace (7:00/mile or better). And then the last 1/2 mile, I tried running faster than 5k pace.

My max heart rate is about 200 beats per minute.

So, for instance, From mile 4.9 to mile 5.0, my pace was 6:59 and my heart rate was 182 or about 90 percent of max. (Obviously, your instant pace at such small intervals can be wildly inaccurate for a number of reasons, such as GPS reception, or maybe you were surging down a hill. So, its better to look at your 1/2-mile and 1-mile intervals to get a better sense of how fast you are. But I wanted to show 1/10-mile intervals to show how fast my heart rate jumped as I pushed the accelerator on this run.)

Up until the 5th mile, I’m managing my breathing and my effort level pretty good. Clearly, things get out of control when I try to run at 6:00/mile pace or faster. When my heart rate hit 193, that’s like 97 percent of max. I wanted to throw up near the end.

Kids, do not try this at home.

(Oh, and the Twin Cities Marathon is in October 2012, not December 2012)

Enjoy!

My hips are weak. My core is terrible. And worse: I screwed up my stride. See, when I should have been resting while my calves were on fire, I still went out there three to four days a week and grimaced through the pain, altering my gait, changing up my landing and toe off to make it through a four or five-mile run.

And now I got goober gait. My left leg is fine. But my right one does not work right. It flinches. You know, when you think somebody is about to hit you and you duck or brace yourself? That’s what my right leg does. Just before landing, my entire quad collapses, causing me to land on the inside of my foot which is pointed outward and not straight ahead. Its like my brain is telling my right leg, `Duck!’

This is some muscle memory I don’t need.

All the physical therapists I’ve talked to say it’s because my hips are weak. (Yeah, I know this) and so they’ve given me all kinds of hip and abdomen strengthening exercises. Things are getting better, but not fast enough. The sensation when I run is like my right leg is shorter than my left. I have to think way too much to extend my right leg on toe off, which means I’m having some neurological issues, said one doc, who told me I’d have to retrain myself how to run.

Gah!!!

Oddly, it bothers me mostly when I run uphill, or when I run really slow. If I’m in an all out sprint or doing anything faster than 10k pace, my leg feels ok. But who wants to run that fast all the time?

Test run

After I signed up for 3M, we had a 14-mile run last week in which most of the route was the actual 3M course which finishes down Duval Street and through the University of Texas campus.

Hooray.

Downhill.

I’m good on downhills. So my goal was to take it “easy” the first 10 miles and then kick into half-marathon race pace the last four miles. Like I’ve said here many times here before, I need to run a 1 hour, 30 minute half marathon (1:30) to qualify for the New York City marathon next fall.

A 1:30 marathon means I have to average 6:52 per mile. My best half marathon was a 1:31 and change at 3M in 2010. That’s a 6:59 min/mile pace. Not fast enough.

During the aforementioned 14-miler, I met my goal of averaging 6:52 min/mile over the last four miles, popping off 6:55, 6:38, 6:54, and 6:51 on Miles 11 through 14. As you can see on Mile 12 I overdid it, so I spent the last two miles trying to run 6:52 exactly.

My lungs felt decent during this stretch and was actually talking to another Gazelle runner who was pacing with me. But I’m still not sure if I’m in shape to do this for an entire 13.1. Thankfully, I’ve still got about two more weeks to get my act together.

Here is a screengrab of my splits of the run from Garmin Connect