This training cycle has not been kind to me in terms of finding motivation to chase a PR that I’m not even really sure matters to me much anymore. But all that ruminating has been overshadowed by more recent news:
I am injured.
I didn’t have any symptoms leading up to the injury last week that would have predicted it, and no moment where I “did something” to cause such an injury. There was a moment that I felt something tight in my ankle and by the end of a three-mile loop in the woods, I was hobbling back to my car completely unable to run (and nearly unable to walk). Nonetheless, I now have an Achilles tendon injury and I am unable to run.
So, not only is my goal to PR my half marathon out the window, it’s unlikely that I’ll even be able to run at all a month from now by race day. Considering I haven’t even got a 10-mile long run in, running a half marathon in four weeks is not possible. I’ve been taking it easy with an overdose of rest that is making me crazy and I also started going to PT to try to figure out how it happened (and prevent any issues in the future).
The activities that I have been doing over the last few months – running and boxing and yoga – were offering me a lot of healthy balance, and I was feeling really good (even doing core workouts several times a week). But I can’t do any of these activities right now. I recently started playing tennis with my husband on the weekends, which I also cannot do. Looking forward to golf season starting next month? Well, looks like I’ll be driving the cart!
I’m trying my best not to be so fatalist, and I am not naive to the severity of the injury and its ability to render me inactive for the next 6-8 weeks. Inactivity is NOT good for me. I’m exploring my options at joining a local gym again solely for access to pool, weight room, and stationary bikes. Because apparently that’s all I can do for now. My active recovery has always been yoga and that is not recommended at this point.
I have races coming up in summer, which I hope to be back in shape for – though it’s difficult to think about right now when my mobility just for walking is strained (the pain of the injury, thankfully, has greatly subsided over the last week). In any event, send me your good healing vibes for a speedy recovery!
In the meantime, I’ll be making some new goals and writing more regularly over at my new blog: Heartland Transplant.
After a few weeks off to recover from fall and winter races, I have been easing back into running a couple times per week. After pondering “what’s next,” I selected the Drake Half Marathon as my first race of 2018. I’ll actually be participating in the Bulldog Double by running the Blue Mile that same week.
So, yeah, I know that I rebranded this blog for my ultra adventures (more to come on those plans later… oh, and I guess that I should get around to actually reviewing my 50k in this lifetime), but I’m kind of obsessed with breaking my half marathon PR right now. This will be a good way to get back into the swing of race training while going to school full-time with the benefit of a shorter training period AND, well, a shorter race.
Hello, speed work!
Training starts today (with the usual Monday rest day)! My plan is 12 weeks and I’ll be incorporating a lot of what I learned while working with a running coach. Boxing has been an awesome workout and stress-release for me – and includes 10 minutes of core, which will benefit my running. I plan to keep up my 3x/week classes and doing yoga once per week. I think I found my sweet spot in my workout schedule, so looking forward to seeing how the regular cross-training will aid in my training.
Big goal: SUB TWO.
Drake won’t be a gimme – I’ll have hills to train for! But since our running club’s group runs will be mostly around Drake’s campus, I will have plenty of opportunity to practice. I was registered for Drake last year, and decided not to run it because of ugly weather. The date and course are both different this year, but Drake relays notoriously have awful weather luck. I will have that as a potential challenge to work through.
Bonus: I get to implement some of the mental training into my own program to practice that I’ve learned so far in my grad program.
My RACE day half marathon PR is a 2:12:16 (Des Moines Half Marathon 2016) – I have since had SEVERAL runs under that, with my fastest 13.1 miles at 2:07:57 (I did the front half of Route 66 Marathon in a 2:09:49 even with THOSE HILLS). Best of all, a friend of mine has offered to run with me and be my pacer to help meet my goal.
the week:
I’m still working on my race schedule for this year… which is a little difficult to complete, as I do not have the confirmed dates for my summer internship (for which I’ll travel to the west coast). My goal focus will be my half marathon PR, and I am still undecided if I want to train further than my 20-mile trail race scheduled for summer. I think doing the shorter distances of some local trail races throughout the year would be fun, still keep me in good training condition, and allow me to focus on my graduate studies. I am tentative on a few traveling opportunities later this year (for races) – though my husband and I have two non-running vacations on the calendar!
weekend:
The Health & Fitness Expo is happening at the Iowa Events Center in downtown Des Moines this weekend, so I plan to check it out and participate in some of the free fitness sessions (yoga mimosas early Saturday AM, hello!). Also: weekend runs begin again this Saturday for Capital Striders from Drake University!
Meanwhile, I’ll be starting some assignments — winter quarter begins on Monday. YAY!
seven things, seven days:
1. No cavities! Great way to start the year.
2. In 2015, I completed a 52 Books in 52 Weeks Challenge. While I don’t believe I can complete in addition to all my school assignments, I set 24 (2 books per month) as my Reading Challenge goal for 2018.
3. More yoga in 2018! Keeping with that promise to myself, I went to an amazing Good Vibes yoga session at the Windsor Heights Community Center this week. Every Wednesday, yoga for everyone, donation class. Come out and hug some strangers and connect deeper with your own practice and the Des Moines yoga community.
4. Another visit to the vet for my middle cat child. Because of our adventure before Christmas, I was worried that she was obstructed (given her litter box behavior) and seems the poor kitty’s stress has inflamed her bladder. 😿
5. Want to say “no” more in 2018? The Art of Saying No (to prepare you for saying “yes”). {TED Talk}
6. What are your predictions for fitness trends in 2018? {via Outside}
7. This is an excellent piece from Runner’s World on how to incorporate “gains” into your 2018 goals. All of their suggestions (except for maybe the cold showers, because NOPE I’d rather just run outside) are realistic and easy improvements to goal-setting that I plan to incorporate into my upcoming training schedule.
I took a break from posting, along with my Recovery week(s). Here’s a quickie wrap-up from my last and final week of training for the IMT Des Moines Half Marathon.
Let’s list all the things I did during my Taper Madness:
So. Much. Laundry.
Meal Planning for an entire workweek
Made an extra treat for our workplace “tailgating” food day (these Buffalo Quinoa bites with a yogurt-gorgonzola dip — so good!)
Signed up for more races (haaaaaaaaaaa)
Week 12, though, was all about mentally and physically preparing myself for race day. Everything this week was an easy run, and I started all of my easy runs with 10-minutes of foam rolling. (Friday, was more like 8-ish minutes because I was just impatient to get my run over with… I KNOW, I KNOW.)
MONDAY
Rest Day — and my last call with my coach before the race. Though it was an easy week for running, she still gave me some work to do, to prepare mentally and help visualize my success at the race. One exercise that I really enjoyed was going back through my training spreadsheet and picking out every hard workout and good run. Despite an entire training cycle of high temps and humidity (and bitching and moaning), I had a lot of successes on my list.
TUESDAY
Easy Run + Strides = 2.4 miles
WEDNESDAY
Easy Run (forgot my Strides, whoops!) = 2.0 miles
THURSDAY
Rest
FRIDAY
Easy run + Strides = 2.2 miles
SATURDAY
Rest Day — and Expo!
SUNDAY
Race Day for the IMT Des Moines Half Marathon — read my Race Recap! = 13.3 miles
WEEKLY RUNS: 4
WEEKLY MILES: 19.9 miles
TOTAL TRAINING MILES: 217.26 miles
That’s a lot of miles! And that’s exactly why I took an ENTIRE week off of running immediately following the half.
Up next: While I do have several races coming up (including two half marathons), I’m not training specifically for any time goals. My Accountability Mondays will look a little different in November, as I attempt a 100-mile Challenge for the month; the rest of my training will be getting me stronger to jump into Marathon training at the beginning of next year.
Week #11 of training was part of my “taper time.” And because the Taper Crazies get you when the mileage is down, there is a LOT of time for reflection (and apparently, meal planning, as I’ve been pinning and prepping up a storm for the week). To be honest, after I finished the Heartland Half Marathon, I felt like all the stress of running a PR race for Des Moines lift. Then I realized this week THAT I NOW HAVE TO BEAT THAT TIME. I know it still won’t be a 2-hour half, and my work is not done yet, but I am positively EXCITED to put all the good things that I’ve learned this training cycle to WORK. And it will be work.
Is this also where I tell you that I’ve signed up for another half marathon in November? In addition to the trail half that I’m doing in December? Because yay, RUNNING SEASON IS HERE!
MONDAY
Had a wonderful 60-minute sports massage — they had this amazing upgrade that included an IcyHot rub-down and hot towels wrapped around my legs. OMG, it felt so nice. And I made sure that I was on the schedule for October 17, too. 🙂
Otherwise, for the day after a half marathon, I was a little stiff in the morning (after sitting for a few hours), but it passed by the end of the day.
TUESDAY
Rest Day – and Drake & Future concert at night (keeping me up until after 1 am ?)
WEDNESDAY
Having 4 hours of sleep the previous night and somehow surviving my workday, I swapped my tempo run to Thursday and completed my easy run Wednesday night.
Easy run: 2.66 miles in 30 min
Splits: 11:11 / 11:16 / 11:20
THURSDAY
Tempo run — in between an easy one mile warm-up and cool-down — and these speedy miles were fun. My last speed workout of this training cycle, and I was really pumped.
Splits: 11:42 / 9:25 / 8:54 / 8:12 / 11:41
FRIDAY
Rest (forgot to foam roll, whomp)
SATURDAY
Woof, dead tired legs for my Saturday afternoon run — an easy 3 miles, ending with some Strides. The immediate post-run recovery felt really hard, and I was really out of breath for a while.
SUNDAY
My plan called for 6 miles at an increasing pace after 3 miles. I started later than I intended, and I got through 5.13 miles before I ran out of time before our morning plans. It was another rough start on the legs, but by the end I kept wanting to sprint. Man, I feel SO READY for this race!
Little late getting this week’s post out — especially as I was out WAY past my bedtime on Tuesday and still feeling like I’m catching up from traveling over the weekend. YAWN. Thankful for a recovery week!
TEN WEEKS went by so quickly. I’m two weeks away from my goal race, and prepared by… running another half marathon. Yep, I had a 14-miler on my schedule for the week, so I took a little road trip to run the Heartland Half Marathon in Omaha, Nebraska. I’ll admit, I had a lot of confusion up-front as to WHY have a 14-mile training run when you’re only running 13.1 — my half training in the past maxed out at 10 miles — but I trusted the plan and my coach and her reasons for making my life miserable. I also listened to my coach when she told me to take it easy on myself if I felt like the cumulative fatigue got to be too much (spoiler alert: it has).
On the schedule:
Two easy runs
One speed workout — Pick-ups!
A half marathon…
Err, I mean, a 14-mile long run
Strength + Core workouts
MONDAY
Rest Day and foam rolling!
TUESDAY
It’s still crazy to me that my mid-week easy runs are 50-minutes long. I mean, I’m crazy impressed with myself that I’m following through on what I used to consider an extraneous workout.
My easy run was followed up by a core workout: 4.3 miles at 11:12 average pace
WEDNESDAY
Pick-Ups! These are still one of my favorite speed workouts to do. Wednesday’s challenge was 2 minutes of speed, followed by 2 minutes of recovery jog (x6). On my pick-up days, I also do a 10-minute warm-up and cool down.
Total workout was about 4.3 miles. My fastest 2 minutes (the last sprint) was at an 8:42 pace.
THURSDAY
Supposed to do my strength workout tonight, but felt like I needed the day off (my coach said I could!) 😉
FRIDAY
Rest day – and packing for my run-cation.
SATURDAY
Easy 30-minute shakeout run in the morning — I woke up SO EARLY and didn’t have to — and totally didn’t feel like unpacking my Garmin from my suitcase, so I let the treadmill record my workout. Got in 2.55 miles at a 11:46 average pace (woooooooo, that felt slow).
SUNDAY
Ran the Heartland Half Marathon, since I was scheduled to aforementioned 14 miles (my +1 actually ended up being around .7) — read race recap! I had a really GREAT experience in Omaha, and I had a great race!
And now… it’s TAPER TIME!
WEEKLY RUNS: 4 WEEKLY MILES: 24.8 TOTAL TRAINING MILES: 181.56
So, I ran a half marathon to train for my half marathon, and to do that, I drove to Omaha for a little running adventure. The closest long-distance race to me was in Nebraska for my 14-miler, and it seems like every runner that I know in Iowa is already tapering (*gulp*). The Heartland Marathon series, presented by the Omaha Running Club, has a full marathon, half marathon, a 10K and marathon relay. And YAY, I get to cross state #5 off my map!
Registering for this race the week before, I was a little nervous in how I would do all of this on my own — this was MAJORLY out of my comfort zone. I also freaked out a little about not having limited details on the website (including not having confirmation of the course for the full, which can sometimes mean cancellation of the whole event) and not a lot of information about water stops, etc. on the course. For a race from the local running club, you’d think they understand what things runners are looking for when it comes to race day, but maybe we’re all just a little too close to things.
Registration and Cost: Oh, boy, this was an expensive race for me (when considering hotel, travel and late registration) — I tried recouping some cost by bringing a BUNCH of food with me. That said, cost of the race after fees was $102.13 (I think it was $95 before fees). OUCH.
Expo and Packet Pick-Up: Your typical small race expo that was at the OTHER convention center in Omaha at the Ramada (south side-ish of downtown). There was no race day packet pick-up. Very cool that Olympic runner Frank Shorter was a guest speaker at the Expo!
Free Swag: Another long-sleeve tech tee to add to my collection — and a beer koozie with the race logo o it (the joke was that you carry it on the course, and that was how they knew to give you beer instead of water LOL).
Bag Check and Transportation: There was a bag check at the start line, but I didn’t know about it until I was at the start line. I walked from my hotel, and the weather was OK enough not to have to bring any additional layers. The website mentioned having shuttles to the start line from the host hotel… but not if they were taking runners back (a big reason why I decided to stay downtown).
Start Line: As I mentioned, the host hotel was quite a drive from the start line of the race. I had a mild freakout when the email arrived for race day info that included a different start line location than what was on the website (it wasn’t different, but I just read it different). It ended up just being a non-helpful location of a FORMER store (hashtag, places that are not there anymore).
I was super impressed by the start line — it was like a mini festival before the race, with a few vendor booths, a line of port-o-potties, the chocolate milk guy (!!!) and some hot coffee (AWESOME). The race started at 7:00 am, which is really dark at this time of year, but they had a bunch of lights. I was more nervous about walking in the dark by myself to the start line, which ended up being OK.
Weather: I wasn’t too happy to see 90% humidity on my weather app the morning of the race. But good news was that the rain moved out of the area, so I didn’t have to worry about forgetting to bring my rain jacket. Small wins. It wasn’t super sunny until the last couple miles of the race, and the cloud coverage kept it the weather pretty comfortable.
Course: Out and back course, navigating two states! Not quite the experience of crossing the national border like in the Niagara International Marathon, but still a very cool race highlight! The front three miles of the course had a few unexpected hills, which are always fun for me. After you cross into Iowa, there is a lot of time spent on the trails, but it was flat and tolerable. To be honest, I found running around the cornfields more peaceful this time around than I did during the gnarly heat of Dam to Dam.
Fans: What I loved most about the “fans” part of the experience were the volunteers. I LOVED being able to hear them shout “Gatorade first; water last” before you approached the aid stations. THIS IS SO HELPFUL!!! And once you got to the stations, everyone was super supportive, cheering you on to continue. There were chalk drawings on the sidewalks near where the relay exchanges were, too. Man, this Midwest Nice is LEGIT.
Dark Start and Finish Line Showcase of the Race — the Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge!
Experience: The coolest experience of the race was running over the cable-stayed Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge — a 3,000-foot footbridge across the Missouri River, where you cross the border from Iowa back to Nebraska — and, perfectly, the “beginning of the end” approach to the finish line. It was lit up in the darkness at the start and a really neat element of the race experience.
Finish Line: Did I mention chocolate milk? 😉
There was also a TON of food available at the finish line — bananas, orange wedges, snack bars, cookies, pastries, chips, coffee. It was impressive! I didn’t stick around too long, as I had another mile to do. I did a portion of it (.7 miles), and then realized how tired my body was. So, I jogged back to the finish line party to hear the overall winners for the half, grabbed a cup of coffee, and then walked back to my hotel — on the way back, naturally, meeting someone who relocated to Omaha from Pennsylvania (Harrisburg). It was cool to do that East Coast vs Midwest exchange for a few minutes with someone who gets it.
After Party: Party of one for this lady (read: shower and a sandwich back at the hotel), and then I had a two-hour drive back home.
Bonus: After the race (the same day!), I received an email of my individual results. The race’s results page included a LOT of info via Online Race Results. And I really like that the race provided a participant summary:
Number of finishers: 253
Number of females: 153
Number of males: 100
Average time: 2:12:25
Notable 30-somethings: Shout out to Ann Hubl (age 37) taking Overall Female at 1:35:43 — WHAT AN AMAZING TIME!
Random Bullshit: My hotel key didn’t work when I got back to my room. GAH, SO ANNOYING!
OVERALL The Great: If you already follow me on Instagram, I ran another PR race! The Good: Despite my initial thought of this race missing some helpful info, I thought it was incredibly well organized, and I really enjoyed my experience. The Bad: Anxiety before the race was kind of dumb. The Ugly: The start time at 7:00 was SO DARK.
This is my first half with no splits in the 11-minute range. This race was some WORK for sure. It felt hard, and I kept pushing when my mental game was starting to fail me. And when I had that moment of “I can beat a 2:15,” I pushed even harder to get it. That last mile felt like the LONGEST length to the finish line of any race that I’ve ever done — and I was kicking it in at a VERY low 8-minute pace to end (I definitely thought I was going to throw up lol).
OFFICIAL RESULTS
2:14:23 — almost a 3-minute PR!
(My 10k split was 1:04:58)
13th in 35-39 age group
156th overall
I can’t believe that I’m 3 weeks away from race day of the Des Moines Half Marathon. I still have one (really long) long run before it’s Taper Time. Now is a great time to reflect on what has been going really, REALLY right this training (consistency, for starters) and really, REALLY wrong (ugh, the weather). I had a great conversation tonight with my coach, and I definitely feel stronger as a runner. I also love the accountability and growth that a partnership with a coach has brought me.
One area that I haven’t quite figured out this training cycle is my nutrition — I am literally all over the place in terms of eating habits and what fuels me on runs; some days things seem to click, and other days I feel like complete crap. I ran my 10-mile race on my usual breakfast and felt amazing — but that definitely was not my same experience doing my 12-miler run this week (though, I did run later in the afternoon). It’s all part of the practice, though (not perfect, but better).
My workouts got flipped around a little bit this week, since I needed to take my rest day on Thursday — date night! — my runs felt really good midweek, but I was TIRED for my strength workout by Friday, pumped up again by Saturday morning (I was up SUPER early) and then all motivation was lost again by Sunday.
WEEK AT A GLANCE:
2 easy runs
1 long run
1 tempo run
1 (marathon) yoga session
1 strength workout + 1 core workout
MONDAY
Rest Day and a good amount of foam rolling before bed.
TUESDAY
5 miles at an easy pace + core workout
54:47, 10:57 average pace
WEDNESDAY
Tempo run — 1 mile at slower-than-easy pace, then 3 miles at a 10k pace, followed by 1 mile at my easy pace. For my training this cycle, I’m learning all about finding my different effort levels — rather than running solely on pace. And this run was a lesson in finding some of those different gears. It was interesting to see how much effort I had left while I was running those 3 middle miles. I know that effort won’t always feel the same from day-to-day, but it aids in boosting my confidence when I get caught up in breathing heavy and sweating and feeling like I can’t maintain a pace… or feel like I’m doing to die.
Splits: 11:24 / 10:25 / 9:06 / 8:35 / 11:26
THURSDAY
Rest day
FRIDAY
Strength day – definitely felt weird to do strength on a Friday night, but I didn’t have any plans after work, so I just jumped right into it when I got home. I added jump rope as a warm-up to my regular strength workout a couple weeks ago to work on some flexibility, stability, and single-leg strength and balance. And I felt TIRED before the workout even started. It felt like I was doing the movements for the first time in weeks. This 30-something was in bed by 9pm ON A FRIDAY. #nowine
Something other than a treadmill pic. ?
SATURDAY
Woke up super early, so I could participate in the Namasday celebration at LifeTime in Des Moines: 108 sun salutations at sunrise, poolside, and in celebration of the fall equinox. It was a beautiful morning — they even had a ukulele player! — and the practice really helped me focus and find balance in a hectic week. For the first time ever, I found yoga to be meditative, and I did majority of the sets with my eyes closed.
Coming down from that peacefulness, I did my 30-minute easy run on the treadmill at LifeTime, ending with a few sets of strides. It was difficult to do my strides at the gym, as it was slow to increase speed; my treadmill at home is a lot more responsive.
32:40, 11:07 average pace
SUNDAY
The 12-mile run that I did NOT want to do. I woke up at 7am with a splitting headache (which is still lingering today), and a run just wasn’t how I wanted to start my day. So I pushed it to do later, after I felt like I finished laundry and some housekeeping. I battled myself at every mile — trying to talk myself out of doing the entire run. But I did the entire run. I feel tired and sore – I guess exactly how I should feel having run a 25-mile week! (I don’t often feel sore, so I’m chalking this one up to doing yoga on Saturday).
The second of my back-to-back 10-mile weekends of this training plan included the Capital Pursuit race. This race is held annually, and is the right distance and timing leading up to the IMT Des Moines Half Marathon. No ifs, ands, buts about it: This race felt AWESOME for me. Though it also made the reality of a 2-hour time for this upcoming half seem pretty unrealistic (but so in reach!!!). I won’t focus my thoughts there quite yet.
Race day prep!
Registration and Cost: The Capital Pursuit was super inexpensive for a 10-mile race, AND I saved $5 being a Capital Striders member — $40 in advance, $45 day of race. I registered online through GetMeRegistered.com for a total $38.69 charge (which obviously included some fees). There was also a 5K run as part of the Pursuit.
Expo and Packet Pick-Up: No expo, but packet pick-up was the day before at Fitness Sports in the Swanson Depot in Clive, or you could pick up your bib on race day. Note: No bag check or transportation at this race.
Free Swag: A nice blue long-sleeve tech shirt with the Capital Pursuit logo.
Charity: A portion of the race proceeds assist Iowa Kidstrong, Inc. — promoting healthy, active lifestyles among children. There were about 40 See Us Run students and their running mentors racing the 10-Miler.
Start Line: Plenty of Kybos (that’s Iowan for port-o-potty) and a DJ to entertain the runners at the start. We lined up at the Locust & 15th Street intersection at Western Gateway Park, heading straight into the city.
Weather: Well… it was sunny and mid-50s when I woke up. But 90% humidity. So while it didn’t feel oppressively hot, I was sweating profusely throughout the race (in a tank and shorts in 50 degrees, wtf Iowa). I’m glad that I opted not to wear a hat, to be honest. Official race weather states: 60s and partly cloudy. -_-
Course: I guess the course changed this year (I have no reference, but a couple people said this to me), supposedly skipping one of the hills going towards the capital building. But this year’s route was a nice out-and-back, running into the city, then out into the neighborhoods near Drake University where it was so peaceful. I was impressed by the elevation changes running back into town on Ingersoll — though the skinny lane with regular traffic outside our set of orange cones made me nervous at times.. And then there was that nice “sweet spot” of a downhill at the end of the race. A few weird turns near the end of the course, but I enjoyed sprinting in on that straight-away down Locust towards the finish line.
Fans and Experience: A few fans along the course (though not many), and water/Gatorade stations with volunteers at about every 2 miles. I made a new running friend, naturally, and we ran together and chatted for nearly the entirety of the race — even getting him to sprint with me to the finish.
The boyfriend caught this great movement shot of me sprinting into the finish line — look at them legs!
Finish Line: I love, love, LOVE when the runners’ names are announced at the finish line. And we got medals! There was also a tent set up with a BUNCH of post-race snacks — the usual bananas, but an additional spread of bagels and orange slices and more.
After Party: There was an after party with, supposedly, a bunch of food and free drinks for participants at Exile Brewing… but it didn’t start until 10:30am. I walked down to the brewery and realized this when NOBODY was there. Kind of dumb, considering the start time of the race and anticipated finish times. Eh, great idea in theory, but I didn’t feel like waiting around another half hour.
Bonus: Chocolate milk at the finish line, YAY!
Random Bullshit: A TRAIN. Yep, a set of train tracks runs through downtown Des Moines and right on schedule during the first couple miles of the race. I heard its horn, and saw the light creeping around the corner — and I booked it over that set of tracks. I didn’t look back to see if anyone got caught up, but MAN… that’s not something you plan for AT ALL for race day.
OVERALL The Great: Can’t beat a PR race! That’s two PR races in one month for me!!! The Good: Putting a plan in place and getting in a GOOD training practice for race day. The Bad: A MOVING TRAIN, YOU GUYS! Not ugly for me, but… holy crap. The Ugly: (Men-folk, look away your sensitive eyes on this one) My freaking period started the night before the race (3 days early). It looks like I’ll be on my cycle for the half now, too, and that is NEVER fun to practice. >:-(
Chocolate Milk!
Splits: 9:19 — WHOOOPS, started a bit too fast here! Blame it on the train 😉 (1) / 10:07 (2) / 10:35 (3) / 10:55 (4) / 10:50 (5) / 10:48 (6) / 10:45 (7) / 10:24 (8) / 9:45 (9) / 9:21 (10) — Check out the second half of that race! ?
OFFICIAL RESULTS
1:43:16 (no chip time)
#279 overall
45th in my age group
WHEW, what a week! There was a lot of tough work, but my spirits are super high. There are several small places where I can see opportunities to improve — and totally achievable, at that! — that it’s given me the gumption to keep working at this Big Goal. I even had a PR on my 10-mile race this week, which is always an enjoyable element in fueling motivation.
But here we go: Less than a month to race day!
WEEK AT A GLANCE:
Two easy runs
One speed workout (SPRINTS!)
One long run — coinciding with RACE DAY!
One core + one strength workout
Week in the life of half marathon training!
MONDAY
Rest day, and my biweekly call with my coach. I really needed a confidence boost, after too much negative self-talk. Receiving feedback and mental tips is one of the many amazing reasons to have a coach. She really helps me reign in and release this future-focused, all-or-nothing thinking. My old carry-over mantra from derby — “I can do anything for two minutes!” — has been revised to “I can do this right now.”
TUESDAY
Jump rope x 100 + strength workout (this workout always kicks my butt!)
WEDNESDAY
On the backside of my housing development, there’s a nice stretch of sidewalk to do some speedy sprints (is that redundant?). This week’s workout was HARD! But, fun hard. There were a couple walkers on the opposite side of the street trying to figure out my crazy, which just made me laugh more at myself.
That said, I found myself pooping out 40 seconds into every interval. My warm-up was 10 minutes (9:25 pace), followed by 1:1 sprints/recovery jog (spoiler alert: couldn’t even jog!) x 10. That madness ended with another 10-min cool down run (12:23 pace, whomp).
Zero energy to do my core workout after that, so I bumped it to after my Thursday easy run.
THURSDAY
Treadmill Thursday: 4.20 miles, 45:34
Splits: 10:36 / 10:56 / 11:12 / 10:49
Ended with Wednesday’s core workout. 😉
Treadmill Life (you need a good book!)
FRIDAY
REST Day (and Date Night). We went to members’ preview opening of the Vivian Maier exhibit at the Arts Center, followed by dinner at Eatery A.
SATURDAY
Back on my treadmill (the humidity is back, you guys) for an easy, SLOW 3-miler.
Splits: 12:09 / 11:56 / 11:41
SUNDAY
RACE DAY! And It. Was. AWESOME. Despite the humidity (OMG SERIOUSLY, WHERE IS FALL?!) making a comfortable 55 degrees feel 20 degrees warmer, I felt great for this 10-mile run.
I really focused on my coach’s prescribed “easy 7-mile run” mentality, which seemed to help! And I felt like I had the right amount of energy to increase my pace for the latter part of the race.
You know what was weird about this run? How good I felt on zero fuel. No GU or gluten-free figgies (though I had them both on me); no Gatorade on the course. I even packed a salt tab, too, JUST IN CASE. When I lined up for the start, that’s when I realized that I forgot to eat my pre-race GU. I just shrugged it off, thinking “I have two!” in case things went bad (read: I got SUPER hungry). I had my usual race morning breakfast (egg sandwich, holla!). And I only sipped water at the fuel stops (this race had stations at about every 2 miles). Totally, completely perplexing.
10 miles, 10:16 pace overall.
Anyways, I’ll have a race recap up soon!
WEEKLY RUNS: 4 WEEKLY MILEAGE: 21.2 miles TOTAL TRAINING MILES: 131.76 total miles!
After a few weeks off to recover from fall and winter races, I have been easing back into running a couple times per week. After pondering “what’s next,” I selected the 
