Stanford Dish times 2

As of 7:48pm this is one of the most tired I have been in a long time. I began the day at 7:30, 6:30 a week ago, and had breakfast. After breakfast I got my running stuff ready, and began the journey towards the Stanford Dish.

I left my house at 9am, and let me tell you, it’s absolutely freezing wearing only shoes, socks, running shorts and a long sleeve shirt (I didn’t bring stuff because I didn’t want to carry it on the run and didn’t want anything stolen). It would have been a great way to get warmed up if it were above 40 or so degrees, but it did the job and got some of my muscles some pre-running work. I parked my bike about 1.5 miles from the dish and began my warm up jog towards the venue. It took me 14:32 minutes to get to the dish, stopping my watch for stretching and a little walking. I decided to walk the introductory portion because my legs weren’t warmed up enough yet. I walked the opening part and then pondered the route to take, left or right, up or down.

Because I wasn’t fully warmed up I decided on right and down. I started my watch with pacing in mind, knowing that 2 loops would be completed within about an hour. There were a few people who I had followed on my way up that occupied the space about 100 feet ahead of me, and I had to keep telling myself not to race them or worry about their pace. My goals for the day were to not stop, and try to go the same pace the entire time (up down or flat), and finish each loop in the same time. After the long downward opening I climbed the steady incline and made my way towards the mid way point and the dish view. It seemed to take longer than I had remembered, but enjoyed the view as I strolled by. At the conclusion of the first loop it had taken 31:27.

I took a short break, drinking some water and eating half of my oatmeal raisin bar, and then trekked on, going the left and up route. Within the first 50 feet I wanted to weep and turn around, but that faded as soon as the incline had ceased. After the initial incline it is really easy, a gradual decline for the next mile or so, and then a decent gradual incline, then a really long decline and then finishes on a gradual and then pretty steep incline. The first ¼ mile at the beginning of the left route would be a horror scene at the end of a marathon, I’m sure the San Francisco and Seattle marathons have comparable and worse hills.

I finished the second loop in 30:44, 43 seconds faster than the first one. I think they were even because I took the first one pretty slow at the beginning due to my initial warm up. It felt incredible to finish the second one, as though I had fulfilled something magnificent, though it was only 7 miles. In total today I ran approximately 8.5 miles, and biked a total of 7 miles.

During the course of the run I made 2 goals for myself: to run at least 500 miles per year, and bike at least 2,000.

Tomorrow will be one of those days where I can either dread my life (due to soreness) or feel absolutely incredible and want to go out running, though I definitely won’t.

That’s all for tonight, my brain is beginning to shut down and I will be asleep in about an hour or two.

Anybody interested in the San Jose half marathon October 4, 2009?
Half marathons aren’t too bad; 13 miles would take about 2-3 months of preparation.

Goodnight
Ryan