2015-01-01 - Angkor WatHalf-Marathon post-mortem

I'm back from my trip and so have a little time to do the post-mortem on my half-marathon that I did a few weeks back in Cambodia.

This was my first half, and the first time I'd set out to do any event over 10k. As prep, I did a few things:
- Read some reviews of the event itself to know what to expect of course, conditions, etc
- Researched half-marathon training plans, and came up with one of my own based on these

- Trained according to the plan I'd come up with... at least at first. More on this below.

Research:

What I read about the event prepared me for the following: The course was super flat, with almost zero elevation change. It would be humid*, but with a 6am start time not too hot - though by 8am it would likely get pretty warm. Most of it would be paved, with a few portions on some packed gravel.

What I wasn't prepared for: The density of the crowd for the first 5k. This likely cost me 2 minutes on my total time, as there was a lot of traffic jams. The first few hundred yards, even after the chip-crossing, were at walking pace. I was consistently passing people for the first 7k or so, and it required a lot of zig-zagging, running on the gravel shoulder, etc, all of which cost me time.

*Regarding humidity, it was probably overly detailed for my needs, but I read this great blog post by Sami Inkinen, where he looked into studies of athletes' performance under different temperatures and humidity conditions. Bottom line is that (a) you can't cool yourself as well as temperature and humidity go up (thus the fastest marathon times usually being on colder-climate courses), and (b) it's worse the larger you are, because you are moving more mass, and can't cool it as well. Not that you can really DO anything about either one, but prepare to train to run as efficiently as possible, hydrate yourself appropriately, and set expectations as to your times. i.e. If I wanted to run a 1:55 time, I should be able to do 1:45 under cooler (i.e. Portland) conditions.

Training Plan:

The plan I came up with was to, over 3 months, do two 5k runs on Tuesdays, Thursdays; a varied set of strength-building runs (run with weight vest, sprints, hill runs, etc) on Fridays, and do a long run on Sundays, starting at 10k, then going up by 2k every 2 weeks. The plan on the long runs was to make every second one faster. So 12k for the first time, then 12k at race pace; 14k for the first time, then 14k at race pace. I planned to taper the last 2 weeks before the event. This was in addition to 6x week crossfit workouts.

I recorded all my results, as well as some runs that BCF had us do

Here's how it worked out. Top table was the plan, bottom was the actuals, with red being a miss, yellow being a 'below plan'. Green is close to or above target.

Some takeaways:
Initially, all was good, but as I upped the distance on Sundays, getting in another two 5ks plus a strength run, was just too much. You can see all the red as I dropped the Friday and Tuesday plans. Then, work got insanely busy before I headed out on Sabbatical, so that didn't help.

That said, things were proceeding well. The "increase distance every second Sunday, Increase pace every other Sunday" was working well. In the graph below, you can see all my pace times. The colors are for different distances. The purple are for the Sunday runs, and you can see that I was doing well up until early November both increasing distance AND speed. The blue line was my goal pace for a 2hr half-marathon, and the green horizontal line was the stretch goal for 1:40 time. By early Nov I was doing that pace for 18k, so pretty well on track, depending what heat and humidity would do to me. 

However, in late November I started developing a problem in my foot. Plantar Fascitis? Not sure. All I knew was that it hurt like heck to do even 5k, and it affected my pace time. You can see where the purple dots at that point go up to ~5:30pace, and those were all short runs. More on this below.

Stuff you can't prepare for:

1. Um, "digestive issues". We got some bugs from the food in Asia. Suffice it to say that things were not, err, optimal. I was worried I might have to pull off the course for a pit stop, but managed to not do so. Still, I think the disruption to diet over the week or two before the event cost me some time.

2. Injury. This was the big one for me. With all the training I was doing, everything went smoothly. Then about 3 weeks before the event, I did a 5k run and developed a massive throbbing pain in one of my feet. Not sure what caused it but it was concerning. I did no running for about a week, tried again, and it kicked in after about 2k. I decided there was nothing I could do but choose to do zero running until the event itself, and then hope for the best. It ended up doing the trick. It started to hurt a little about 5k in, but nowhere near as bad, and held out for the whole run. I do suspect that my shoes weren't fitting right, though, because it seemed to be related to that, and also one of my toenails turned completely black after the event. I plan on doing a proper fitting/assessment at one of the running stores in Portland when I get back.

Race Day:

The event itself was a blast. I got up at 4:30am, downed a protein shake and a coffee, got a tuk-tuk with some other racers from the hotel, and had a bumpy ride into the start line in front of the Angkor Wat temple, getting there at 5:30. Watched the sunrise before the start, then enjoyed the view of ancient temples through the course, high-fiving adorable Cambodian kids along the way, who'd all come out to watch.

Results:

My plan had been to get under 2hrs (a pace of 5:41 min/km), with a stretch goal of getting 1:40 (a pace of 4:44). The end result was a time of 1:54:39. Considering the injured foot, running with abdominal cramps most of the way, the crowd, and the heat, I'm happy with the result.

I'd said following the race that I'd never do it again, but... sure would be nice to get a full marathon under my belt. Hmm...