Highs and Lows- Week 16

The end of this training week marks the beginning of the rest phase.

I feel like I'm already tapering. Maybe I'm not. I dunno...Welp, those 11 words were total waste of your time.

 

The Columbus Half Marathon brought some excitement to my training. I've learned this year that it's important for me to schedule other races into my training for the "big race." Whether the race is good or bad, you learn something from it. The Columbus Half provided an opportunity for me to practice my race pace. It gave me the confidence I needed to mentally tackle this full marathon in two weeks.

 

The fact that I'm so close to race day makes my training weeks more tolerable. Honestly, things feel so much easier (it probably helps that I'm finished with those crazy track workouts!). Here are my highs and lows for this week:

 

LOWS:

• Another week without lows! If I had to put one, it would be the fact that Marion hasn't been able to run. My sweet, fast friend finally has some answers about her health, and we're all hoping to join her for a run very soon!

 

HIGHS:

• Speed Workout. I did this week's fast workout on Tuesday. I planned to do it later in the week in case I needed a little more recovery from the race, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to run with Theresa. Of our core group of running partners, she and I (along with Jackie and Amanda) are the only ones that have to do speed work because everyone else ran their goal race. This week, we had 8 miles total [4 mile warm up, 4 miles @7:40]. As usual, my initial reaction is WTH! I didn't admit to T that I was unsure about this workout until she admitted it to me first! LOL!!! We both felt a little sluggish during the warm up, but we sucked it up and ran our fast miles in 7:34, 7:27, 7:35, and 7:22. The average for the 8 miles was 7:54! We even mixed in some hills.
  

  

  You know, it was REALLY early and I have no idea what we are doing here. Apparently ,it seemed like a good idea, or maybe even comical, at the time.

• Easy 6 with Amanda. Sadly, we missed out on time with Karen and Jackie. [side note: Karen just ran her 21st marathon! Holy crapoly!! We decided she is our marathon queen.] We ran a mostly progressive run (last mile +3 seconds) and averaged 8:15. Go us.
• Easy 6 Mile Stroller Run. After solely training with a stroller last year, I've come to appreciate the times I get with my boy this year. Yes, it's easier and more convenient when I can run without it, but I love a fun, easy 6 miler with James. He loves the wind blowing through his hair, the cars, saying hi to people...and eating snacks, of course! We averaged 9:01 and even dipped into the 8's for three miles.
  

  

  James doesn't understand the running selfie obsession. It's ok, son. Most of society doesn't understand either.

• Last Long Run. Crap starts gettin' real after the last long run. Two more weeks until race day! Theresa and Dani needed 10 miles so Amanda and I met early for the extra four. It was a stressful week for many of us. We made it a point to save 30 minutes for coffee afterwards to talk about everything that was not stressful. I finally bought my Endurolyte tabs at Front Runner. I spontaneously purchased a Spibelt while I was there. I wanted to see if I could tolerate wearing it for my race to make it easier to carry my gels and tabs. I honestly forgot I put it on. I'm planning on wearing it for every run the next two weeks to practice taking my fuel out of it.
  

  

  I felt a little more tired than I wanted to, but that was probably because we were running a little faster than I had planned in my head. Nothing a few donut holes can't fix!
  

  

  Theresa, Amanda, Dani, and me. They were shocked to hear that I've never cooked a turkey.

• The Dynamic Duo Run. Jackie was the first person I ever ran with...EVER. I never wanted to run with others because I didn't want to hold anyone back. Since J's my original partner, duet runs with her are special. I didn't look at my watch the entire time but Jackie was all over it! The girl has skills cuz she managed a progressive run (mostly). Only one of the miles was a second slower than the one before it...I'm pretty sure that still counts. [8.1 miles averaging 8:47, progressing from 9:28 to 8:11]
  

  

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This week, I decrease to 30 miles and follow that up with race week! I'm so close!!! My one and only concern at this point is what the weather will be like on race day. You can get ANYTHING in November. I'm pretty sure I can tolerate most temperatures as long as it's not precipitating. I'll just hope for the best! Either way, I know that Jackie, Amanda, and I are ready to conquer Indy!

The Columbus Marathon (NCH) 2015

I fell in love with this race the first time I ran it (even though I opted for the full and it was a total disaster). I wanted to do the full SO BAD  this year but knew it wasn't an option given other commitments I made earlier in the year. I ran the half marathon again this year and it was so awesome!

 

I would start from the beginning but I will post a link to my finish first. I'm the one in the bright orange top and baby blue capris. At one point, a spectator said "That outfit is ON POINT, Lisa!" LOL! If she only knew that I broke the cardinal rule of racing that states "DO NOT TRY ANYTHING NEW ON RACE DAY!" Those capris were not my friend. I bought them a few days ago and was really excited about them! I decided to wear these capris to the race because they were freaking cute...I mean, what could go wrong?! Those damn things were falling down the ENTIRE race. One positive is that I wore flesh colored panties. The problem, though, is that my capris were taking my panties down with them. I was flashing crack and panties the entire race! My shirt wasn't quite long enough for me to forget about it and just let the crack go. I can't wait to see my race pics! I'm sure they will show one of three things: 1) Me pulling my shirt down over my pants. 2) Me pulling my pants up. 3) My crack.

 

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On IG, I shared my first race day rule: Get up early to drink coffee. It will help you use the bathroom in the comfort of your own home.
 

So, I'm trying to get the bad out of the way because this really was a great race for me. Much to my surprise, I had only two freak out moments (the second I will mention later in the post). After finalizing what I was going to wear, I was making sure I had all of the crap I needed for race day. I went online to print off my parking pass and couldn't find the email ANYWHERE! I was fuh-reaking out! I knew I purchased my parking pass but had no record of it. I had the hubs confirm on our bank account that we made the purchase. I then called the parking company who stated that they had an issue with people receiving confirmation emails. Praise the Lord, they were able to send me my receipt and I was able to print my pass! I get so stressed out about parking downtown so this was not what I wanted to deal with less than 12 hours from race time!



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I planned to meet up with Dani, her daughter, Jordan, Debbie, and Karen near the 3:45 pace group. Karen never showed up, and we were slightly concerned. We assumed she was lost in the crowd.

 

I love the starting line of this race. Music blasting, sun rising, excited/nervous faces...so emotional!

My view from the start line!! Gorgeous morning!

I get completely nervous praying out loud but something was telling me to pray for my friends. Debbie running her first full marathon; Dani registering for the full just a few short days before in hopes of a BQ; it just seemed appropriate to calm the nerves.

Debbie, Dani, and me...looking hot and sexy in our throwaway gear. When I first saw this pic, I didn't recognize myself!
 

Because we didn't find Karen (my plan was to run around 8:20 pace with her), I started with Debbie and Dani who needed to begin at a slightly slower pace so they wouldn't gas out for the full. Our first two miles were 8:38 and 8:45. At that point, I was getting a little antsy about the race congestion. I needed to try to get out of the crowd! I sped up and the rest is history. Since I aborted the 8:20 plan, I decided to go with my original plan from weeks ago which was to try and run at my marathon race pace. My other miles ranged from 7:33 to 8:08.

 

I usually make friends during the races but I didn't do that this time. Not sure why. I think I was just soaking in the crowd. I was also thinking a lot about how I felt and what it will be like to run another full in 3 weeks.

 

Side note: I did hear a rumor that if you are able to talk and have fun during a race, you aren't running hard enough. I call BS on that one.

 

I was thinking about the weather and how it was one of the first cold runs of the season. My joints tend to ache a little in these temps. I was definitely feeling the achiness yesterday. I remember hoping it would stay cool these next couple of weeks so that my body could adjust and Indy wouldn't be such a surprise.

 

We traveled through downtown Columbus, Bexley, Nationwide Children's Hospital, German Village...it was a nice tour of the city. In the 11th or 12th mile, there was a decent incline which was a nice change to this flat course. The best part was that final mile after we traveled back into downtown. The crowd was going wild! There were so many spectators excited to see everyone run by!! This really pumped me up. I know I was supposed to stick with my race pace plan, but who can run slow in that atmosphere?! It was so motivating that I decided to do the Theresa challenge. Thanks to the amazing crowd (and those speed workouts), I ended my half marathon with a 7:02 mile! [This was supposed to be a 20 mile day for me but I ended just short of that getting almost 3 miles before the race and just over 3 miles afterwards]

 

Here's where my second freak out moment comes into play. My Garmin showed that I ran 13.13 miles in 1:43:17, averaging 7:52 per mile.

 

 

My first thought was "Dang, they were on point with the distance!" Typically, for half marathons, I end up with at least 0.10 miles over. After walking out my strong finish, I looked at the unofficial results on my phone and it said my time was 1:47:01! WHAT THE WHAT?! There was NO WAY my watch was that different! I remembered stopping twice during the race: once around 4ish miles to give myself a wedgie in hopes that my pants would stop falling down; the other around 6.5 miles to take a gel. I didn't stop my watch either time so I knew that wasn't the difference. I was racking my brain trying to figure this out. I know you runners understand how frustrating that is! I mean, 3-4 minutes is a HUGE difference. I messaged a bunch of fellow runners asking them what distance their Garmin had for the course. My only thought was that I might have accidentally paused it one of the 10,000 times I had to adjust my britches. I was bothered by this for about 6 hours when I decided to check my official results one more time. When I checked again, it read:

 

1:44:01!!

 

I felt so much relief! That was only 44 seconds different from my Garmin. For this being a training run, I wasn't going to fuss about that. Now, if this had been a hard core race for me, I would still be bitching about it today! LOL. I found out that the 1:47 was my gun time rather than my chip time.

 

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Final thoughts:

• I am so thankful for the process of training. Earlier this year, I couldn't fathom running this pace as a training run. Yes, I was running faster than my easy pace but this is pretty darn close to the pace I need to run for the full in order to meet my BQ goal [with some cushion room to be able to actually run in Boston]. The best part is that I felt great doing it! Minus the joints aching from the cold temps, my legs and lungs felt great!!!
• I sent Amanda my splits after the race and she said two things: "Look at that last mile!" and "You could have easily PR'd today!" That last mile was proof of many months of hard work paying off. Y'all, this race is my second fastest half marathon! It just blows my mind. It can be so tough, when you feel good, not to race something. As I was running this race, I thought to myself  "I can PR today." Then I remembered a text that Theresa sent me that morning. She told me "Steady and not all out. Save it for Indy." (this was in addition to her making sure I had an appropriate BM that morning!). I knew this race had a purpose. That purpose was to give me that last bit of confidence that I needed to conquer my BQ attempt.
• My friends. So many of them had the race of a lifetime. I can't express how incredibly proud I am of all of them. You guys were so amazing out there, and I enjoyed hearing and reading about your experiences!
• Marion. Sweet, sweet Marion. My heart sank when she couldn't run her race. She has worked so hard and been so dedicated. So many early mornings and never did I hear her complain. I think a lot of us had her in mind when we were out there running. Prayers for her health and healing...mentally and physically. We love you, Marion!!

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Alright, y'all. The countdown to Indy begins. LESS THAN THREE WEEKS. Oh my gosh.

 

 

 

 

Highs and Lows- Week 15

As of now, the Indy race nerves seem to have ceased. I had some anxiety, recently, about wanting to run my race and get it over with...I felt I was ready. I'm not sure what happened to change my mind, but I felt this peace about having a month before I could don my race bib. I thought this week would be hard because of the Columbus Marathon. This race was on my list of potential marathons to run in attempt to BQ. The only reason I chose Indy over Cbus is because I have tickets to the Colts game that same evening and couldn't imagine yelling at nasty Tom Brady after running my heart out that same morning.

 

I'm looking forward to running the Columbus half with some friends! The plan is to run 8:20 pace which should put me in around 1:50. Somewhere in there I have to get 7 more miles (this is a 20 mile day for me). I'm guessing I'll get a 4-5 mile warm up before the race and get the rest afterwards when I'm trying to chase my friends who are running the full.

 

[Side note if you are running the full: I'm planning to run to Neil and 3rd which is around mile 24. I'll be looking for all of you there!]

 

My highs and lows won't include the race because, of course, it will have it's own race report. I'm going to remain positive and assume it's going to be a high. :)

 

LOWS:

• The non stroller friendly expo. I really wanted to be able to enjoy the Columbus Marathon Expo (I just said that in a whiny voice). I felt like I ran a marathon trying to find the appropriate elevators to take James with me. I had a couple of offers to leave the stroller, but  I thought "Why do these people think I have the stroller in the first place?!" If I wanted to let my toddler run around and get crazy, I wouldn't have brought it! Crazy people!

 

HIGHS:

• Track Tuesday. This was my last hard track workout before Indy. I have a race pace run next week and maybe an easy track workout the following week, but NO MORE crazy 7 minute pace intervals. I opted to trade my hill repeats for Theresa's track workout this week. Here was her plan:
  
  As I've mentioned 10, 000 times before, I need a long warm up...at least 4 miles but 6 is usually the best. We only had a 1 mile warm up so I knew the first set of intervals would be more challenging. The first 1600 actually felt good and we had a sub 7 minute mile. The next three intervals felt harder than they should have, and I was scared to go into another mile repeat! After complaining for several minutes, T and I decided we just had to get it done. I ended up feeling so much better as I started the second set of intervals. We ended the run with one of my best averages [warm up + intervals + recoveries] to date!
  
• Easy 6.85 miler. I knew that most of my friends were tapering this week and finding running partners might be challenging. Fortunately, I had an easy 6 miler planned so I called upon my New Albany friends again. I met up with Meggie and Allison, and we decided to get crazy and run an extra 0.85. This was also the day after a runner (a.k.a. "jogger" per news reports) was attacked in Dublin. I was just glad I didn't have to run solo after hearing this story.
• Easy 7.15 miler. I had to make it even out with my run the day before! I warned the girls I would keep running in the parking lot until my watch read "7.15." I ran with some great ladies for this run. I don't get to see Tracey a lot but she holds a special place in my heart (as do Ellen and Sarah). These ladies have a fire inside and strive to be their best. It's just fun to see. Then Karen and I had a chance to talk about the best way to meet up at the Columbus marathon this weekend. I told her my horror story about not finding Jackie last year. It was awful. Overall, fun and easy run with these ladies!!
• Easy 6 miler. Do you sense a trend with my week?! Lots of easy runs! I just wanted to feel good and enjoy myself during the Columbus Half so I made sure I took it easy after my track workout on Tuesday. Maybe I ran a little faster than I thought during this one (8:09 average! LOL), but it did feel easy so I guess it's ok! This was probably my favorite run this week. I was really excited that I only had to run 6 miles on a Saturday morning. On top of that, I met up with Theresa and the conversation was superb. We had a laugh when Theresa realized that my mom was the same age as her husband!!! I also diagnosed her with a bleeding eye after she was hit by a branch. For some reason, she trusted me when I told her it was ok and that we should keep running.

  

  T and me!

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Just wanted to give a summary of what I wore this morning in case some people were debating what to wear to the race. I know everyone is different but it might help anyway!

 

 

I was a little concerned about the weather when I saw that it was going to cool down over the weekend. I've never raced when the temps are in the 30s. I've raced in sub zero temps but, for that, you just put on everything you own! The 30s are tricky. This morning, it was 34-ish and the "feel" per my weather app was 30 degrees (at 6:30 a.m.). I wore a short sleeved shirt with my arm warmers to test out if that was appropriate for the race. It was pretty perfect! Of course, I was cold when I started, but I warmed up by the first mile. I wore a thin pair of gloves and my hands warmed up by the second mile. I wore tights because my capris were in the washing machine, but I feel confident that I would have been fine with capris. If I were running the full, I probably would wear shorts since the sun would be out warming things up.

My Wal-Mart throwaways!

So, my plan is to don capris, short sleeved shirt, arm warmers (to pull down if I get hot), thin gloves, and a hippie runner band that I can pull over my ears until the race starts...I'm afraid I'll get too hot wearing an ear warmer. I also have throw away sweats to wear while waiting to start.

 

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Reminder: For those running the full, I'll be around mile 24 (Neil and 3rd) until approximately 11-11:15 a.m. I have to head home after that! I'm so excited to cheer on everyone!!!

Highs and Lows- Week 14

I thought this was kinda cool! Cheers to my friends running their big races next weekend!!

Less than one month away from running my fourth marathon!!! CUH-RAY-ZEEE! This was supposed to be my cutback week (in some ways it was) but I ran 3 extra miles on Sunday. I threw in a track workout and some race pace miles into my long run this week to, in the words of Theresa, "make sure I'm still alive."

Me looking "alive" after that run! Ha!

After running 49 miles in 4 days, I felt surprisingly great on my rest day and was ready to rock and roll on Monday. Later in the week, I started my dreaded period...we all know how well that went last time around.

Here are my highs and lows for this week:

 

LOWS:

Nada.

 

 

HIGHS:

• Tour de New Albany. I was in a Westerville funk and needed a new place to run. There are two pretty great chicks that run fast AND live very close to me in New Albany. I met up with Meggie and Allison at the ripe hour of 4:45 a.m. and set off for 8 easy miles. Even though I couldn't see crap, I knew there were some really nice homes I'd like to see in the daylight. We averaged 8:28/mile, didn't get run over, and didn't see any critters. I'd say that's pretty successful.
• Donut Run (6 miles, 8:55 average pace). Thanks to a different Allison for putting together our monthly donut run! I must admit, it's more than a monthly event for me. I go to Schneider's 1-2 times per week when I run in Westerville.
  

  

  My real job ^^^.

  It was nice catching up with Karen and Dani! We got to hear all about Dani's PR on Sunday!!!

• Thursday Track Day. Track workouts are NEVER easy...EVER! I go into them expecting death. Surprisingly, this makes it more tolerable! I always whine to at least one person about how I'm not going to be able to do it. This week, Theresa was the lucky one. The workout was 10 total miles with 2 mile warm up and 8x1200m with 400m recovery. Goal pace for intervals was 7:10-7:15 min/mile. Two weeks ago, we had the same workout minus 2 miles/2 intervals. The workout a couple weeks ago was so tough at the beginning. I was praying this week would feel better...and it did! The 2 mile warm up was just enough to get me going this week. The first 3-4 intervals felt easy and then I started to fatigue. I wanted to stop after 6 but knew I had enough energy to finish. On the last interval, my legs were in the beginning stages of jello. That's when you gotta stop the yappin' and make $h!t happen. I saw a lot of 7:05 on my Garmin throughout the run so I was pretty excited about that! Overall pace for 10 miles was 8:04. The icing on the cake? I was accompanied by a lot of awesome ladies who kick major butt.
  

  

  Loved this pic. This is how I imagine the track when I'm running on it in the dark.

• Long Run on the inclines of Dublin (LOVE MY INCLINES!). Cutback week equals shorter long run. I didn't originally plan to run race pace miles in this week's long run, but Ms. Theresa had to run 22 miles with 10 at race pace...I had to help a sista out! It was sort of a weird run. To accommodate for all of the people we wanted to run with, we started the workout with the race pace miles...NO WARM UP! Oh dear. Not our finest moment. After four fast miles, I told T to keep going and I would keep her in my visual field. After recovering with an 8:19 and an 8:29 mile (and after taking off my jacket cuz it was freaking HOT), I felt ready to speed back up again. I managed to pop (I bet you read that as "poop") out four more speedy miles before meeting up with Dani and Marion. I cooled down with some easy miles and averaged 8:12 for my 14!
  

  

  Missing Marion a.k.a. Fashion Icon. She was so fashionable that Theresa had to copy her entire outfit the following day ;) [me, Theresa, Dani]

• Half Marathon Sunday. So much for cutback week! LOL. I was supposed to do 10 but increased to 13.1 when Jackie said she was coming! I couldn't miss out on time with her. It doesn't happen often lately so it was worth the increase. My intention was to run an 8:45 pace but, not surprisingly, we got out of control. I didn't realize how fast we were running because I felt good. On mile 10, I decided to dial it down a bit so I could enjoy my extra three with Jackie.
  

  

  I show this because, one year ago, Jackie and I ran our hearts out at the Run Like a Girl Half Marathon. I think our time was around 1:50:13. Today, we ran the same thing and it was our easy run. If you want it, you have to chase it and work hard making it happen.
   

  Highlights of the run: gorgeous weather, running by Hoover on Sunbury Road, random Ouija board on the trail (and the demon dogs that put it there...Amber's theory), and the tunnel of dementors that I warded off with the gel I made in potions class. NERD ALERT and HARRY POTTER FAN.
  

  

  The Sunday crew! Missing a few of our favorites. [Theresa, Amber in the back, Jackie, Me, Dani, Karen]

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Random thought in my head:

• I wish they had track meets for adults who aren't elite or professional. Someone needs to make this happen or tell me if it exists.

 

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What's next? Hopefully a mostly easy week. I'm doing my hard track workout on Tuesday and running easy the rest of the week. Sunday is the Columbus Marathon! I'm running the half at 8:20 pace and somehow getting 7 more miles to make 20 miles for the day (my last long run before Indy). My miles for that long run will be broken up but I know I'm ready for Indy so I'm not too concerned about it. I am just completely thrilled to see many of my friends chase their goals next Sunday!!!

Highs and Lows- Week 13

The closer I get to the end, the more I wish I was running the Columbus Marathon instead of Indy. I would be tapering right now! Ugh. I just feel like I'm ready. The longer I have to wait, the more nervous I get! I wasn't nervous at all for Pig. Maybe because I had no idea what I was capable of. I mean, my first two marathons were 4:35 and 5:02 so I knew I would probably PR. Why am I nervous about this one?! I hate being nervous!!! I'm sure it's because I'm trying to BQ. Even if I meet the time standard, I won't know for 10 1/2 more months if I'll get to run it! WHY ME?!! LOL.

 

Ok...enough drama.

 

My week started off rough, ended with a bang, then sucked again. Here are my highs and lows for this week:

 

LOWS:

• Hill Repeats. Y'all know I like hills but this workout was for the birds. It was 8 miles total with 7 hill repeats. I used the Emerald Parkway hill which is 0.25 miles. It's one of the steeper hills in Columbus (which I've established is not actually hilly). I've done this workout before and loved it, but this one sucked so bad. I know where I went wrong, though. It was a mid-afternoon run for me...and before the temps decreased! It was in the low 80s on Monday afternoon and the sun was BEAMING. On top of that, I had just eaten lunch about an hour and a half beforehand so I was still full. Completely my fault. I had side stitches my entire 4 mile warm up. When I got to the repeats, I couldn't get my legs to move! Ugh. Stupid, stupid run.
  

  

  That face explains exactly how I felt about that run.

• Tempo Revise Workout. I hit or beat my paces on 9 of 10 miles which sounds great....BUT I FELT LIKE POO THE WHOLE TIME! I really don't know what I was thinking when I set my paces for this workout ( 2@8:40-9, 2@8:20, 2@8:00, 2@7:40, 2@7:20). WTH?! 7:20 as my last two...shaking my head at this one! Even though I rested the day before, I was feeling fatigued going into this run. It took me 6 miles to feel warmed up and comfortable. By the time I felt ok, we were starting the fastest miles. My 7:40 miles were closer to 7:30 so that might have set me up for failure on the last two miles. I wanted to barf after 7 miles. I had to slow down on mile 9. There was no way I could have knocked out two 7:20 miles that day. I decided to slow down and recover for that one mile so that I could try for a fast finish via the Theresa challenge. I didn't want to give up! I ran an 8:19 mile for recovery and was able to knock out a 7:17 for the last one!! At least it ended well. (Props to Amanda and Karen for keeping me motivated)

 

HIGHS:

• Easy 6 miler. This was a really cool run because I got to run with some ladies who were doing their 6 mile version of my 10 mile tempo revise mentioned above. The goal was to keep them on pace to run 2@9:20-9:30 then decrease the range by 20 seconds every two miles. They were amazing! Going into it, many felt it might be impossible but they proved themselves wrong. The girls hit and even beat the planned paces then killed the last mile! It was a pretty sweet run.
  

  

  Now, THAT'S the face of a happy runner. Post 22 miler!

• Long Run. Hello, 22 miles! This is the first training season that I've intentionally put in runs longer than 20 miles. I wanted to see if it would make a difference. Initially, I planned one 22 miler but that changed when I registered for the 40k trail race last month. So, technically, I'll end up with two 20's, a 22, and an almost 25 miler. I felt so strong but, going into it, didn't think that would be the case. Because I didn't feel amazing most of the week, I was nervous about doing this solo. I had no planned race pace miles for this run so that took some pressure off. When I started, I told myself to go "painfully slow." Really that just meant that I wanted my body to feel like my pace was easier than easy. I only looked at my watch for mile splits so that I could make sure I wasn't getting out of control. My first 8 miles averaged 9:09 (I only know this because I accidentally pushed save instead of resume on my Garmin when I was at a stop light...Ugh).
  

  

  I was averaging about 8:45 for the next 8 miles. I wasn't intending to go that  fast this run because I didn't know if I'd be able to do 22 at that pace, but I was feeling SO GOOD! I told myself, "As long as it feels easy, go for it!" I was surprised at how great I felt the last 6 miles (8:28, 8:10, 8:29, 7:59, 7:42, 7:53).
  

  

  I was so, so happy with this run. I just hope I can display the same vigor in Indy!
• Drizzly, chilly Autumn run. This run was full of drama on my part, which tempted me to put it on my low list, but, when I thought about the run itself, I felt confident it was a high. I was actually enjoying the weather (minus the wind). This was my fourth day in a row to run, and I was working on 48 total miles for those four days. The day before this run was my 22 mile long run. I thought for sure I'd feel like crap. I'd be lying if I said I had fresh legs, but they did feel good. I had an overall average of 8:29 for 10.68 miles with two sub-8 miles (unintentional...blowing off some steam, I suppose) and two more in the low 8s (you know, the Marion method in which you just want to finish).
  

  

  That's not a picture of me, but it would be really cool if it was!

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I was very happy with my week considering it was my highest mileage week for this training cycle. Next week is my cutback week which means only one killer speed workout and a shorter long run! I'm really looking forward to running the Columbus half marathon in two weeks (except for the fact that I have to run 7 miles beforehand)!!!

Flaws

Great song and sort of how I'm feeling today. In a world full of stupid musicians, it's good to have talented ones who write lyrics that mean something. (I still like my booty songs...don't get it twisted)

 

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"Flaws"

When all of your flaws and all of my flaws are laid out one by one
A wonderful part of the mess that we made
We pick ourselves undone

All of your flaws and all of my flaws, they lie there hand in hand
Ones we’ve inherited, ones that we learn
They pass from man to man

There’s a hole in my soul
I can’t fill it, I can’t fill it
There’s a hole in my soul
Can you fill it? Can you fill it?

You have always worn your flaws upon your sleeve
And I have always buried them deep beneath the ground
Dig them up - let’s finish what we started
Dig them up - so nothing’s left unturned

All of your flaws and all of my flaws, when they have been exhumed
We’ll see that we need them to be who we are
Without them we’d be doomed

There’s a hole in my soul
I can’t fill it, I can’t fill it
There’s a hole in my soul
Can you fill it? Can you fill it?

You have always worn your flaws upon your sleeve
And I have always buried them deep beneath the ground
Dig them up - let’s finish what we started
Dig them up - so nothing’s left unturned

Oooooh
Oooooh

When all of your flaws and all of my flaws are counted
When all of your flaws and all of my flaws are counted

You have always worn your flaws upon your sleeve
And I have always buried them deep beneath the ground
Dig them up - let’s finish what we started
Dig them up - so nothing’s left unturned

Oooooh
Oooooh

All of your flaws and all of my flaws are laid out one by one
Look at the wonderful mess that we made
We pick ourselves undone

 

**********

 

Click HERE for link to hear song.

What is Your Racing Strategy?

I've had a few people ask me in the recent weeks about my racing strategy. Do you just go out and run crazy? Start easy and progress to faster pace? Stick to even paces? At first, I had to think about it. I haven't been as goal oriented with my racing until this past year. So, I can't say I've ever had a racing strategy until now.

 

(You've probably noticed I'm a bullet points person...so here goes...)

 

• The Start. In the past, I've considered myself to have that all-too-common problem of starting out fast. A friend helped me realize that maybe it wasn't so much the race adrenaline but the fact that you have to maneuver through the race crowd. We all know there are people in these race corrals that shouldn't be! With that being said, I'll probably, in some form or fashion, always start too fast.
• Negative Splits/Progressive Run. This is typically something I do by accident or on shorter runs. I NEVER intentionally do this at races. How do know at which pace to start?! Bear with me...if I'm running a half marathon and want to average 9 min/mile, do I run a third of it at 9:20, a third at 9:00, and the rest at 8:40? If I translate that to my PR half, that would be running 8:00 then 7:40 then 7:20. I can't imagine be able to do that! I know there are a bazillion ways to negative split or progressively run, but, in my head, it doesn't make sense to intentionally do it for a race. If I'm going to run within 5-10 seconds of my goal average, I might as well be running my goal average.
• Even Pace. I have this fear of starting slower than my average (as described above) and getting tired anyway. Therefore, not being able to speed up at the end. Because of this, I tend to side with the even pace method. I take my goal pace and try to stick as close to it as possible. I personally think this method is the best for courses that you aren't familiar with or courses with changing terrain. What if you are planning a progressive/negative split race and the second half is full of hills?! That might make the race feel really tough if you have to pick up your pace faster than you're used to in addition to tackling the hills. I go into a race knowing that I may slow down or speed up slightly at certain points. There are so many factors to take into account that it just doesn't make sense in my head to risk starting too slow. (THIS IS JUST ME. DON'T READ THIS AND GET OFFENDED IF YOU'RE A NEGATIVE SPLITTER...well, I guess you can get offended but keep it to yourself! OR tell me why it makes sense to you)
• The Finish. I'm still working on this one. Historically, the end of races are tough but I've really improved this year and have had some of my fastest miles at the end of my races. I think my mindset recently has been that I just want to get it over with so I speed up so that I can just get to the end and collapse/cry.

 

So, that's me.

 

What is your racing strategy?