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!!!