Desert Tortoise meeting

On Saturday, our beloved Ragnar group will get together for the first time in what might be the only pre-race gathering of the Desert Tortoises.

We're getting together to run six miles. Part of our groups Ragnar Relay duties is to submit a pace estimate. The gist of it is that we have to have some sort of estimate in terms of how long it will take us to complete the 180 miles. And they suggest to base that off a recent 10K time. Hence, the six-mile run.

And we'll also take the time to discuss other details with group members, including some training tips for those in the group.

While everyone in our group is active, there are not many runners in there. An uncle of mine who is part of the group is amped up for a marathon. We were both originally excited about the Long Beach Marathon but that's out, so he's looking at the Santa Clarita Marathon in early November, while I've got my sights set on Surf City 2010 in Huntington Beach.

Anyway, he's probably the most experienced runner of the bunch, with me coming in at number two. There is at least one other member whose history I don't really know, and he may indeed be a runner, but at the most there are three runners in the group.

Not to say that others don't run. Seven of us ran the Mud Run last year together. We all like physical challenges and this is certainly one of them. But having the ability to play hours of basketball or soccer on end versus having the ability of running 10 miles are two different things. So translating the cardio needed to play two-plus hours of basketball to now go and run 10-12 miles is the challenge.

Saturday is actually the first third of my Ragnar training plan, one I didn't really blog about because I wasn't exactly sure of the other two thirds. In fact, I'm not even certain of the other two thirds right now, less than a week before our group run. What I had originally planned was to train for this as if it were a 10K and then figure out a plan afterward depending on where I was after the run.

So on Saturday or Sunday, I'm going to go ahead and do that. I want to incorporate the Lopers Sunday runs as well, of course, and that was also part of my unplanned plan.

My plan for this week is this: run an interval run Tuesday at the gym, run either a tempo run or a five-mile run at the gym (I'd rather run outdoors but oh well), rest Thursday and maybe run like two miles or something on Friday. Maybe. Then Saturday is the big day.

We're meeting out in Long Beach as there is a nice running path along the beach there, one I've run a couple of times with my brother Danny. So I'm sorta familiar with it. It's pretty much the anti-Ragnar route as it is straight, right next to water, pleasant weather conditions, etc.

I don't think we'll be able to directly translate our 10K times over to figure out an ETA. In fact, there's no way we'll be able to do that. For instance, I'm probably going to run the following amounts:

Either...
7.8 miles; 6.3 miles; 4 miles
7.3 miles; 5.7 miles; 6.3 miles
8.7 miles; 3.4 miles; 6.7 miles

So, taking my 53-minute Mission Inn Run, that's about an 8:45 pace. I'm guessing I'll complete my first leg somewhere in the 9:30 range, and then at least 10 seconds slower for the second leg and another 10 seconds slower on the third leg. And it might even be slower than that.

It's a race, yeah, but we'll be tired before the second and third legs and we're not going to sap our energy for the first leg.

But that's all stuff that we'll discuss on Saturday when the Desert Tortoises get together. There are 10 of us now, might be 11 come Saturday and then it's just a matter of either finding a 12th runner or having someone step up and run in two spots (I'd raise my hand for that if need be).