Domino effect

Well, the Gulf Coast Marathon in Biloxi, MS has come and gone. And with it, most likely, my opportunity to be in the Abbott Age Championships in London next year. I needed a sub-3:02 performance to get the combined score to be in the Top 85. However, despite starting off conservatively and aiming for a negative split (rather than even effort), by Mile 7 or 8, I couldn't keep even the 3:05 pace that I was on. My right glute started to get tight, and I progressively slowed down throughout the rest of the race. Given that the Biloxi course is pancake flat (except for a nasty uphill ramp after Mile 24 with the commensurate downhill after Mile 25), I never had any way of gaining additional momentum. Final time was 3:23:29, which puts me at over 400 points outside of what I needed, likely somewhere around 212th. Once I am able to claim the points on Abbott's website, I'll know for certain.

So, what dominoes? Well, naturally I didn't work out the following day -- that was my travel day home. I wouldn't have worked out anyway, since my right hip/glute were hurting. Tuesday I wound up getting out of work a little late and didn't take the opportunity to go to the gym. I also had a bit of a sorre throat that I had chalked up to my last hour at work where I was doing the bulk of talking in a conversation. Wednesday, I still wanted to take things easy. The sore throat had mostly subsided, and on Thursday throughout the day my runny nose (which is an intermittent but rather perpetual thing for me) was getting worse and I was getting congested. So, after getting home, I took it easy (no gym) and took some DayQuil to deal with the nose, congestion, and nasty headache. Today has been a bit of a rough day. While I haven't had a headache at all, there's only so much that the DayQuil can do for the rest of this. While I'm currently feeling fairly decent, I'm going to hole up way from the gym again. It's all I can do to prevent entering the downward spiral of no gym *and* eating poorly. When I'm feeling good and working out, food isn't a problem. But with the COVID precautions, even though I'm 99% sure this is just the same sort of cold I've had before (there's nothing new presenting itself), I need to stay in. And it's infuriating.

Moral of the story: Take care of yourself. Always eat reasonably well (occasional cheats help the mind, but don't make those poor choices a habit), and exercise as regularly as possible. When you treat your body well, it will treat you well in return. Occasionally some bug will slip past your natural defenses, but hopefully your regular good habits will allow you to persevere in short order.

Even harder goal for Sunday

Hitting 3:05:00 is tough enough, but I just checked one last time to see whether there were more people who have popped higher scores into the Top 85 and, lo and behold, there are. Now, instead of having to beat 3:05:00 to be pretty confident of being in the Top 85, I now need to PR, cracking below 3:02 to be pretty sure of being in the Top 85. Now to figure out what the best strategy is to make sure I hit that time. How much of a negative split should I attempt? Hmmm... (And, of course, this all assumes that the winner of my age group does NOT finish faster than the Platinum standard.)

Drumroll, please...

So, there are only two races left in the qualifying period for the Abbott World Marathon Majors Age Championships -- both happening next weekend. My current ranking is 2103 (415th in the U.S.) based on only having one qualifying race under my belt for the current qualifying period. 3430 points.

The top 85 overall qualify for the Age Championships. Currently, those who are tied for 84th have a total of 6790 points between their two races. So, if I were to tie with them, that means that I need to get 3360 points (and bringing our collective ranking down to 85, assuming no one else does similarly). Given the scoring mechanism, that means I would be finishing less than 32 minutes behind either the 1st place finisher in my age group or the Platinum standard of 2:34, whichever is faster.

I have to assume that our age group winner will finish in a similar time to last year's -- 2:43:35 -- which means the comparison for points would be against the Platinum standard. So, I must run faster than 3:06:00 to have a shot at a qualifying spot, assuming no one else in the two races is "in the running" for jumping into the Top 85 (and would jump me to 24th in the U.S. -- wow).

I'm sure I've got it in me. (3:02:02 is my PR from just over a year ago.) Now, it's really down to making sure I take good enough care of myself during this next week and the weather conditions are good enough on race day. No more tweaking of my diet beyond what I'm already used to doing. And as of now, the temperature at the start of the race should be in the low 50s (ideal), with mild crosswinds (9mph from the north), but a decent chance of rain showers (grr...). Hopefully it's only a light rain and intermittent (enough to keep me cool, but not so much as to have the shirt stuck to my skin even longer or soak through my sneakers and socks). Nothing I can do about the conditions, just mentally prepare myself for them, and keep myself as dry and warm as possible in the time before race start.

Fingers crossed!

Back on the trail

Wow, it's been a full month since the last time I posted anything? Yikes.

There have been several times where I mused over something to post, but just didn't get off my duff to do so. It really does feel like so much of the same-old same-old, how to write something new? Other bloggers seem to come up with something really easily on a frequent basis. To be sure some of my difficulty is because of the somewhat myopic nature of the posts. What sorts of things would you like to read beyond my training and (now rare) racing travails?

As at least one or two of the readers know from Facebook, I became slightly anemic several months ago. Taking an iron supplement wasn't cutting it -- still too anemic to donate platelets, which is something I used to do regularly (approximately every 2-3 weeks). I finally took the chance of putting spinach back into my diet. I had removed it quite a while ago because of GI issues I was having. That has definitely done the trick -- more than high enough levels to donate this past Sunday.

Previously it had been causing GI issues because I was eating the spinach regularly as part of my lunch. Apparently, even though I eat lunch anywhere from 4-6 hours before my afternoon workout (on workdays, I go to the gym after work), even that was apparently too close in timing, thereby causing some nasty GI issues. Out from the diet it went. But this time around, I'm having it as part of dinner -- typically less than an hour after my afternoon workout. No issues due to the spinach.

What's more, as would be expected, given my higher iron levels -- and, hence, presumed greater capacity to carry oxygen in my blood -- my training runs have generally been going even better than normal. Less than two weeks to go before my next "real" marathon, not virtual. Looking forward to seeing if it goes as well as I need it to: goal is to go 3:05 or faster. I'll be able to finalize my goal after next Sunday's Abbott Age Championship-qualifying race(s) to know just what score I need (and hence finishing time I need) to qualify for next year's championships in London.