A bit of background: in the Cornell Chronicles video about her Olympic Trials marathon preparation, Bailey Drewes commented on how she valued the workout structure marathon training provided, marvelling at how hard it must be to work out every day with no specific goal in mind.
Well, I am much the same - so despite the massive changes in lifestyle that have occured since March 16th (as an IT person, i got sent home to work early), I clung to the half-marathon training program I was following. Because I was running at odd times of the day (or evening), and because other critical items such as sleep patterns and cross training were disrupted, I lowered both the intensity of the workouts (slower pace or fewer intervals) and my expectations for the race. Instead of breaking 2 hours, I just wanted to run the whole way without stopping. Modest, perhaps, but more than enough of a challenge for me this time.
Enough background. For those who use Strava, my race can be seen here:
https://www.strava.com/activities/3258283489/
But the short form:
PROS to the virtual race:
- easy to maintain social distance when one is the only runner on the road
- could work race around family schedule instead of other way around, with bonus of a stellar sunrise and perfect weather
- no waiting at the start!
- no lines anywhere
CONS:
- no bubble effect (the boost we all seem to get from running in a group)
- Really hard to make it a race not a long training run (kudos to Mike S for doing so!) I seemed to end up in the middle, overall pace wise (goal pace was 9:10, usual long run pace is 10:20…)
- I was trying to use my HRM to measure effort - but it went astray, there was no one nearby to gauge effort by
- had to carry all my hydration and nutrition
- no aid stations with cheering volunteers
- no crossing guards (amazed how many cars were out at 7 am on Sunday despite quarantine) - I actually reversed the order of the Rt 366 legs so I was always running into traffic
In the end, I did ran the entire way, but in a somewhat disappointing time. Sadly, I missed the skunk cabbages, but did dodge one turkey - and one runaway pheasant near the game farm. And I was thrilled to have company after crossing the finish - Yvette DeBoer had biked up to do her run, and Steve Jesch passed by at the halfway point of his virtual Skunk (started in Ellis Hollow).