2012 Hong Kong Standard Chartered Marathon - Pre-Race

It's been a busy and cold winter.  I'm not making excuses for limited training but just stating  facts--busy and damn cold.  Earlier this month I flew to Vegas for work (CES show) and only managed to squeeze in a 2 hour run, a couple of bike trainer sessions and a short swim.  Then the week after I headed off to San Diego and managed to run 51K over a week's time.  Coming back to Hong Kong I jumped right into to Chinese New Year holidays and family commitments (and jet-lag)--all of which had to take priority over training.  Anyhow, I cranked out a 42K running week and now I have to switch to taper mode with only a handful of days to go until race morning.

I looked back at my 2010 HK SCM performance to see if there were clear areas that I could strategically manage better.  Check it out:

This chart is primarily looking at heart rate.  From what I gather, "A" probably caused "B."  I set off too hard running in Z5 for 8 kilometers and then settled into race pace for the middle section and then finally collapsed at 32K and just suffered my way slowly on to the finish.

"The Called Shot" - Babe Ruth, 1932.

This year I'm not going to let myself get so excited at the start and will set right into a 5:15 - 5:20 pace and then simply try to hang on.  If all goes well that will land me a 3:45 marathon and a 10 minute PR.