I only have three days and 3 workouts before Muncie! I'm actually pretty nervous and excited at the same time. Part of me is nervous because I said I want to qualify and now I find 52+ fast girls in my age group. That's almost double what was there in 2011 when I first did Muncie. I'm really excited though because I know I'm much faster and much stronger than I was 2 years ago. If I can focus and keep my head on straight then I should be good to go. I'm forming my nutrition plan, I have people strategically placed on the course for cheering, and my workouts are all coming together. This looks to turn out well, now I just pray and see what happens! It's all going to be ok.
Thursday, July 11, 2013
Wednesday, June 5, 2013
Blog from my phone?
What?! Testing...I can now blog from my phone. Hmmm maybe I won't go almost a month between posts anymore :)
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
Wanting v Needing to Qualify
I want to qualify for 70.3 Ironman World Championship at Muncie in July. There, I said it. I want to qualify because it would be amazing. I need to qualify mostly to prove myself to some people and to show that yes my program is working. No, you don't need to throw tons of money at millions of high name coaches just to get better. You just have to push yourself and actually do the work yourself. Have you added any speed work to your workout? No? Ok, well then yes, you are going to be slow. Have you been eating right and not eating crap? No? Then yes, you are going to feel like crap and not lose weight. Have you been doing your long runs/bikes/swims they way you're supposed to? No? Then they will suck. Do you lift heavier weights and make progress in your strength training? If not, how do you expect to get better and stronger? I currently have someone who I've discovered really doesn't want to try that hard at anything they do, but they want to throw a lot of money and fancy words and names around to make it appear as if they are trying hard. Getting them to be out of breath and sweating during a workout is nearly impossible. The workout suddenly becomes too hard. Getting them to do speed work is impossible because they point blank refuse. My program isn't from a high dollar coach, it's from a fellow trainer who is bad ass and willing to train me for triathlons for free. Yes my training program is high intensity and high volume, the last I checked a half or full Ironman wasn't exactly a walk in the park. You need to work your butt off just to finish the bloody race, let alone be good at it. So that's what I'm going to do. I wanted to qualify before simply because it was cool and could be fun. I feel like I need to qualify now because then just MAYBE certain people will start to believe that I may be young and small, but I surprisingly do know what I'm doing. Rant done.
In other news. My Grandma is doing AMAZING and still continues to impress me on a daily basis. My mom and Grandma are going through a lot right now, but instead of freaking out or worrying themselves sick they are simply staying optimistic and moving forward. Things are still going to happen regardless if you worry about them or if you buckle down and deal with them. Giving up on your situation doesn't make your situation go away, it just means you gave up on it and now you get to sit and think about how badly it sucks while it sucks the life out of you. You can either fight harder to get through the situation, or you can give up and stay in it. Grandm is driving the doctors crazy because she tells them that she's still mowing her yard, still cleaning her house, still moving furniture, and still not sitting still. Seriously, at 84 she has beyond earned the ability to just hang out and relax, but nope, that would drive her crazy. So now is she not only my role model, but she has become a story that other techs, nurses, and doctors tell other patients about because there is no reason anyone should give up on anything when she's acting like nothing is wrong what-so-ever. She is still receiving weekly chemo treatments and has fortunately not had any issues really. Yeah she gets tired easier than she used to but that is even getting better. She's one of the few people who I bet could ever actually get stronger while going through chemo. She is why I set the bar so high for the rest of the world to do a simple thing called TRY and WORK and GET THINGS DONE. She is impressive, inspiring, and amazing. I sincerely wish that everyone could be at least just a little bit like her.
In other news. My Grandma is doing AMAZING and still continues to impress me on a daily basis. My mom and Grandma are going through a lot right now, but instead of freaking out or worrying themselves sick they are simply staying optimistic and moving forward. Things are still going to happen regardless if you worry about them or if you buckle down and deal with them. Giving up on your situation doesn't make your situation go away, it just means you gave up on it and now you get to sit and think about how badly it sucks while it sucks the life out of you. You can either fight harder to get through the situation, or you can give up and stay in it. Grandm is driving the doctors crazy because she tells them that she's still mowing her yard, still cleaning her house, still moving furniture, and still not sitting still. Seriously, at 84 she has beyond earned the ability to just hang out and relax, but nope, that would drive her crazy. So now is she not only my role model, but she has become a story that other techs, nurses, and doctors tell other patients about because there is no reason anyone should give up on anything when she's acting like nothing is wrong what-so-ever. She is still receiving weekly chemo treatments and has fortunately not had any issues really. Yeah she gets tired easier than she used to but that is even getting better. She's one of the few people who I bet could ever actually get stronger while going through chemo. She is why I set the bar so high for the rest of the world to do a simple thing called TRY and WORK and GET THINGS DONE. She is impressive, inspiring, and amazing. I sincerely wish that everyone could be at least just a little bit like her.
Monday, May 6, 2013
Flying Pig Marathon Race Report A NEW PR!!!
So a couple weeks ago I was BEGGING for taper, and it finally happened. It really really happened! I had a great taper. Long run Sunday, off Monday, 6 miles Tuesday, then 4 miles both Wednesday and Thursday. Friday and Saturday were off days which were GLORIOUS. Tam, my sister-in-law, drove down Saturday afternoon in order to cheer me on with Red on Sunday. She helped Red navigate the course for awesome cheering throughout the whole race!
Going into the race I was slightly concerned because my longest run was about 18.5 miles, maybe 17.5 miles, and Ali ended up virtually dragging me home because I was dying. I knew that I was getting stronger because my short runs were feeling completely effortless and I was slightly antsy during taper because I was feeling really good. The race was interesting. My friend knows how horrendous I am at pacing and gave me strict instructions to hold back and relax the first 20 miles, then the last 10k go ahead and open up to finish strong. He didn't think I would jump from completely relaxed to go nearly as hard as possible in 100 yards as soon as I hit the 20 mile marker. Oops.
A quick glance at the race set up. We all started in downtown Cincinnati near the stadiums. We run across the bridge into Newport KY, across a bridge to Covington, KY, then back ANOTHER bridge into Cincinnati. After that we run all over God's kingdom in Cincinnati for the next 23 miles. This is all normal because that's the same route that the Pig has gone for the last few years. A few things were a little different this year. You may remember a few weeks ago that a couple of a-hole kids thought it was a good idea to attack and ruin the Boston Marathon for absolutely no freaking reason. The Boston Marathon is not a political statement, it is not a gathering of vicious people. The Boston Marathon is a race where people get to show off their running abilities who busted their butts for months in order to qualify to run in a prestigious race. But a couple of idiots took that moment in time to attack our sport. The funny thing? No one knows what they were trying to accomplish, but if it was getting people to stop running then they missed by a mile. There have been more runners going out when they didn't feel like it since Boston, and the Cincinnati Flying Pig was completely sold out for the first time. The Pig made modifications to the course, not in direction, but in military and police presence. Yes, I said military. There were Navy officers (or ROTC I didn't pay that much attention) checking bibs going into the corals. There were Police officers in full tactical gear spread out throughout the ENTIRE course. The upside was that their presence didn't obstruct the fun of the race, or how it actually ran. They were just there "in case" another idiot wanted to trespass on our sport.
Ok, enough soap box. As I said, I was a little nervous about the marathon because my longest run was a lot shorter than the entire race distance. Miller told me to hold back and do this novice idea of "pacing", you know, actually running steady splits for an extended period of time. I suck at this. But this race I made a point to attempt to stick to a relaxed 10:00 min/mile pace. I didn't actually stick to 10:00, but I was around a steady 9:30 which was very close for me! Anyone who knows me at all knows that listening is not my forte, but this race I actually listened! I had to constantly relax and tell myself to hold back until mile 20. Breaking the race down into sections of when I would get to see Red and Tam, eat, drink, and get to run without restraint. This worked really well! I made it a point to drink at every aid station from mile 4 onward, which was impressive and kept me from dehydrating like I normally do. I looked forward to getting to see Red and Tam at miles 6, 12, 18, 22, and the finish! Then I told myself to break down the food to miles 8, 16, and 24. I missed mile 24 because that's when I was on my own of "run how you feel", aka "Shan's not the brightest cookie and just wants to run fast". I held off and stayed steady all the way through mile 20, and felt great the whole time. I was at points in the race where last year I was absolutely dead and hating everything. I compared this years race to last year's, and it was night and day. It was slightly rainy, 65, cloudy, happy, and I felt great. Last year it was 90% humidity, 78 degrees (a sudden heat surge), sunny, and I was less than happy for the whole race. I didn't start to feel like I was dying until about mile 24, and that's when 1) my music died (Pandora needs you to mess with the music selection every few hours in order to keep playing, my bad), 2) I had picked a girl who was looking great and attempted to stay with her, despite the fact that it meant jumping over 1 minute in pace to stay with her, 3) I didn't stick to my plan of taking water and my gel after mile 23, and 4) seriously, I was at mile 24 I'm not going to complain. The last two miles were rough, and the last mile just sucked which was evidence in my splits. I went from 9:30's to 8:30's for a few miles, then my death mile was back to 9:30's. My finishing kick though was at a 7:30 pace, so not terrible. I felt just fine after the race outside of the normal soreness and tightness, didn't need the med tent, and was able to actually functionally walk afterward and move the rest of the day. My previous marathon PR? 4:19 on a completely flat course in Columbus. My new PR? 4:09 here in hilly, not so easy course, in Cincinnati!! Yeah ten minute PR!!!
Now I'm relaxing for a change. I'm in a strange limbo now. I have a half Iron distance race in 2 weeks, so now I need to recover and get the last bit of tough training in before my first triathlon of the season. I'm hoping to hop up to Caesar creek this weekend to get an open water swim in so I can get used to how badly the cold water is going to suck, and also remember how to site in open water. Begin nerves 2.0!
Going into the race I was slightly concerned because my longest run was about 18.5 miles, maybe 17.5 miles, and Ali ended up virtually dragging me home because I was dying. I knew that I was getting stronger because my short runs were feeling completely effortless and I was slightly antsy during taper because I was feeling really good. The race was interesting. My friend knows how horrendous I am at pacing and gave me strict instructions to hold back and relax the first 20 miles, then the last 10k go ahead and open up to finish strong. He didn't think I would jump from completely relaxed to go nearly as hard as possible in 100 yards as soon as I hit the 20 mile marker. Oops.
A quick glance at the race set up. We all started in downtown Cincinnati near the stadiums. We run across the bridge into Newport KY, across a bridge to Covington, KY, then back ANOTHER bridge into Cincinnati. After that we run all over God's kingdom in Cincinnati for the next 23 miles. This is all normal because that's the same route that the Pig has gone for the last few years. A few things were a little different this year. You may remember a few weeks ago that a couple of a-hole kids thought it was a good idea to attack and ruin the Boston Marathon for absolutely no freaking reason. The Boston Marathon is not a political statement, it is not a gathering of vicious people. The Boston Marathon is a race where people get to show off their running abilities who busted their butts for months in order to qualify to run in a prestigious race. But a couple of idiots took that moment in time to attack our sport. The funny thing? No one knows what they were trying to accomplish, but if it was getting people to stop running then they missed by a mile. There have been more runners going out when they didn't feel like it since Boston, and the Cincinnati Flying Pig was completely sold out for the first time. The Pig made modifications to the course, not in direction, but in military and police presence. Yes, I said military. There were Navy officers (or ROTC I didn't pay that much attention) checking bibs going into the corals. There were Police officers in full tactical gear spread out throughout the ENTIRE course. The upside was that their presence didn't obstruct the fun of the race, or how it actually ran. They were just there "in case" another idiot wanted to trespass on our sport.
Ok, enough soap box. As I said, I was a little nervous about the marathon because my longest run was a lot shorter than the entire race distance. Miller told me to hold back and do this novice idea of "pacing", you know, actually running steady splits for an extended period of time. I suck at this. But this race I made a point to attempt to stick to a relaxed 10:00 min/mile pace. I didn't actually stick to 10:00, but I was around a steady 9:30 which was very close for me! Anyone who knows me at all knows that listening is not my forte, but this race I actually listened! I had to constantly relax and tell myself to hold back until mile 20. Breaking the race down into sections of when I would get to see Red and Tam, eat, drink, and get to run without restraint. This worked really well! I made it a point to drink at every aid station from mile 4 onward, which was impressive and kept me from dehydrating like I normally do. I looked forward to getting to see Red and Tam at miles 6, 12, 18, 22, and the finish! Then I told myself to break down the food to miles 8, 16, and 24. I missed mile 24 because that's when I was on my own of "run how you feel", aka "Shan's not the brightest cookie and just wants to run fast". I held off and stayed steady all the way through mile 20, and felt great the whole time. I was at points in the race where last year I was absolutely dead and hating everything. I compared this years race to last year's, and it was night and day. It was slightly rainy, 65, cloudy, happy, and I felt great. Last year it was 90% humidity, 78 degrees (a sudden heat surge), sunny, and I was less than happy for the whole race. I didn't start to feel like I was dying until about mile 24, and that's when 1) my music died (Pandora needs you to mess with the music selection every few hours in order to keep playing, my bad), 2) I had picked a girl who was looking great and attempted to stay with her, despite the fact that it meant jumping over 1 minute in pace to stay with her, 3) I didn't stick to my plan of taking water and my gel after mile 23, and 4) seriously, I was at mile 24 I'm not going to complain. The last two miles were rough, and the last mile just sucked which was evidence in my splits. I went from 9:30's to 8:30's for a few miles, then my death mile was back to 9:30's. My finishing kick though was at a 7:30 pace, so not terrible. I felt just fine after the race outside of the normal soreness and tightness, didn't need the med tent, and was able to actually functionally walk afterward and move the rest of the day. My previous marathon PR? 4:19 on a completely flat course in Columbus. My new PR? 4:09 here in hilly, not so easy course, in Cincinnati!! Yeah ten minute PR!!!
Now I'm relaxing for a change. I'm in a strange limbo now. I have a half Iron distance race in 2 weeks, so now I need to recover and get the last bit of tough training in before my first triathlon of the season. I'm hoping to hop up to Caesar creek this weekend to get an open water swim in so I can get used to how badly the cold water is going to suck, and also remember how to site in open water. Begin nerves 2.0!
Friday, April 26, 2013
O Taper, O Taper, wherefore art thou Taper?
Yep, it's that awesome time of year where ever piece of my body is sore, tired, and really wants a nap. I've napped, compressed, and been eating fairly clean for a while now but my body is still protesting. I was joking a couple weeks ago about never knowing what fresh legs will feel like again, and I'm starting to think that is true. One week from Sunday I will be running the Flying Pig Marathon, then two weeks later, I will be in the Little Smokies Triathlon in Portsmouth, OH. I am feeling stronger and faster than I was last year, but I'm also a lot more tired than I was last year. I'm guessing this is a good thing? I don't really know. I know that last year I was content with 2:00 100's during my swim sessions, because I was faster than Red. But this year I'm swimming 1:35's for my 100's and I keep telling myself to get faster instead of content. I know my body can do these races, so all I have to do is take care of it and feed it correctly.
Speaking of food, I feel like I am eating more in one day than some families of four eat in a month. Red can confirm that I will eat a full meal in its entirety, then say that I am hungry again in 2-3 hours and eat another full size portion of food. It really is getting out of hand. The funniest part? I haven't gained weight. I actually lost a little weight before I realized that I wasn't hydrating quite enough and increased my water and calories a bit more.
Ok, well I need to get a speed workout in before it gets dark. Two hour run tomorrow then a 4 hour bike on Sunday (weather permitting). Yep, I have no idea where my taper went, and if this is taper then I hate to think what peak week will be like before Muncie in July or anything else leading up to Beach to Battleship. Yeesh!
Quick update on Grandma. She is onto her weekly chemo treatment and doing great. She has actually become completely fed up with being tired all the time and decided to build her stamina up by doing laps inside her house. She wants to do them outside her house, but the weather here in Ohio is just fantastic. By fantastic I mean ridiculously bi-polar and can't decide if it wants to be 30 degrees or 90 degrees. Yeah Ohio. But I talked to Grandma today and she amazes me all the time. She has decided to give herself a project each day to keep her busy. The other day it was to clean and organize all 4 bedroom closets, and today it was to clean out and organize the cupboards in the kitchen above the sink. I know fully functional people decades younger than my grandma who have less ambition than she does. It's impressive how awesome she is despite having every right under the sun to complain, quit, and say screw it. Keep the prayers coming!
Speaking of food, I feel like I am eating more in one day than some families of four eat in a month. Red can confirm that I will eat a full meal in its entirety, then say that I am hungry again in 2-3 hours and eat another full size portion of food. It really is getting out of hand. The funniest part? I haven't gained weight. I actually lost a little weight before I realized that I wasn't hydrating quite enough and increased my water and calories a bit more.
Ok, well I need to get a speed workout in before it gets dark. Two hour run tomorrow then a 4 hour bike on Sunday (weather permitting). Yep, I have no idea where my taper went, and if this is taper then I hate to think what peak week will be like before Muncie in July or anything else leading up to Beach to Battleship. Yeesh!
Quick update on Grandma. She is onto her weekly chemo treatment and doing great. She has actually become completely fed up with being tired all the time and decided to build her stamina up by doing laps inside her house. She wants to do them outside her house, but the weather here in Ohio is just fantastic. By fantastic I mean ridiculously bi-polar and can't decide if it wants to be 30 degrees or 90 degrees. Yeah Ohio. But I talked to Grandma today and she amazes me all the time. She has decided to give herself a project each day to keep her busy. The other day it was to clean and organize all 4 bedroom closets, and today it was to clean out and organize the cupboards in the kitchen above the sink. I know fully functional people decades younger than my grandma who have less ambition than she does. It's impressive how awesome she is despite having every right under the sun to complain, quit, and say screw it. Keep the prayers coming!
Monday, April 8, 2013
Xenia Half Marathon
Well this was fun, actually it was a lot of fun. My coach sent me my workouts last week and on Sunday said there was a half marathon in Xenia and that I should do it. Well, he is wicket fast, so I knew there was no way I would run with him, Red has been having shin problems, so he wasn't able to run with me either. I have an awesome running buddy who jumped on the idea of doing a half marathon at the drop of a hat. Let me point out that Ali is super fast and super tall, but we can usually stay together during our training run, so I figure this was a great chance to see what I could do. This all sounds well and good, and on Monday and Tuesday morning it still sounded great. Then Tuesday evening I get ready to get on my bike trainer and I smash my pinky toe against it, not just a little bit, but it popped and cracked, and I'm pretty sure it's broken. It swells like a little grape and hurts like no other. Yep, perfect timing.
Well Wednesday I can barely walk in any remote sense of the word. Thursday I can walk a little bit better and attempt to run. Wearing shoes was not a thing, so I ran around the track in the grass with Ali for about 6 miles. So long as I was careful and barefoot, I could run. Well that's fine and dandy, but I have a half marathon that I can't go barefoot in and won't be in a nice little controlled track. Hmmm...Well my coach brought me the smallest pair of shoes that he has, which are still a size 9 in men (I wear a 7-7.5 in women), so that the fabric doesn't crush my toe. These shoes looked like clown shoes, but felt amazing on my feet so I didn't care. One of my clients has the same shoes, but much closer to my size, but still a size too big so it left room for my toe to be cranky on its own. She brought me those shoes on Saturday and they worked like a charm! I could walk normally, even run carefully and without too much of a problem. Motrin + slightly bigger shoes = happy running midget!
Sunday morning comes, and I've been able to do all of my workouts the past week so I had some tired legs. But I was still excited to run with Ali, then it dawned on me. I had been looking at this weekend as just another training run, and when we got to the start there were people everywhere seriously geared up and prepping for a race. Oh yeah, this was still going to be a race. Well Ali surprised me and I discovered that she makes the perfect long run training partner, but not always the best idea for a long race partner. She is FAST and she sees people in front of her as people that should be picked off continuously. I realize that's a good thing, but that's not what I was prepared for. During our runs of 10+ miles we normally chit chat, wander a few places, stop for traffic, and generally relax. The last time we ran 13 miles it took us about 2:30 or more. Our time for the Xenia half was 1:54:54, just a wee bit faster. I learned that I can in fact run in the shoes that my client gave me, and run fast at that. I can also run and drink at the same time now. But when I slow down to drink gatorade, I still drown a bit. If I pinch the cup so it's more like a funnel it works a lot better than leaving it open all the way. During one of the gatorade stops I slowed for a drink and Ali kept moving because she wanted to get the people in front of her. Ok, that's fine, I caught her really quick then she saw that we had 4 miles left in the race, ok that's fine. She took off like a bat out of hell and I had no chance. I grabbed another quick drink, nearly choked to death so I slowed way down, and by the time I could breath normally she was WAY in front of me. I decided to try to close the gap and realized that she wasn't going to make it easy for me. She was on a mission to pass as many people as possible between now and the 4 miles back to the finish line. Every time I started to make up ground, she started to speed up to get to the people in front of her. FINALLY there was a long gap between her an the people in front of her, I'm basically sprinting for 3.5 miles and yelled at her to not pass those people or else I would kill her. I was a little grumpy and very tired. I ended up catching her and just about lost my religion cursing. It was intense. She finally told me that during those 4 miles she had been running 8:20min/miles which meant that I was running under 8 minute miles to get to her, ugh, that explained why I wanted to kill something. Either way, we ended up negative splitting the race and came within a minute of my Half Marathon PR. So I went into my race thinking I was just going to enjoy it and do a nice low key training run, and I came out super tired and close to a PR. Ugh.
Now this week I have another long week of training and clients, plus it's my sisters Bridal Shower this weekend. I'm some how supposed to get a 60 mile ride and a 19 mile run in this weekend. Holy crap. I'm thinking the ride may be on Sunday morning and the run may be Monday afternoon or something. yeesh.
On a positive note, my toe is still very sore and hates me, but it was just fine during the run and now I know that my current fitness is increasing and I'm faster already this year than when I finished last year. I also have 4 more weeks until the Flying Pig, which means 6 weeks out from my first Half Ironman Distance of the year. Who knows what will happen between now and then. I foresee a lot of organizing of my life, a lot of protein being consumed, and my compression gear going into over drive.
A neat thing I saw on my friend's Facebook status: Control what you can and let God control the rest.
Well Wednesday I can barely walk in any remote sense of the word. Thursday I can walk a little bit better and attempt to run. Wearing shoes was not a thing, so I ran around the track in the grass with Ali for about 6 miles. So long as I was careful and barefoot, I could run. Well that's fine and dandy, but I have a half marathon that I can't go barefoot in and won't be in a nice little controlled track. Hmmm...Well my coach brought me the smallest pair of shoes that he has, which are still a size 9 in men (I wear a 7-7.5 in women), so that the fabric doesn't crush my toe. These shoes looked like clown shoes, but felt amazing on my feet so I didn't care. One of my clients has the same shoes, but much closer to my size, but still a size too big so it left room for my toe to be cranky on its own. She brought me those shoes on Saturday and they worked like a charm! I could walk normally, even run carefully and without too much of a problem. Motrin + slightly bigger shoes = happy running midget!
Sunday morning comes, and I've been able to do all of my workouts the past week so I had some tired legs. But I was still excited to run with Ali, then it dawned on me. I had been looking at this weekend as just another training run, and when we got to the start there were people everywhere seriously geared up and prepping for a race. Oh yeah, this was still going to be a race. Well Ali surprised me and I discovered that she makes the perfect long run training partner, but not always the best idea for a long race partner. She is FAST and she sees people in front of her as people that should be picked off continuously. I realize that's a good thing, but that's not what I was prepared for. During our runs of 10+ miles we normally chit chat, wander a few places, stop for traffic, and generally relax. The last time we ran 13 miles it took us about 2:30 or more. Our time for the Xenia half was 1:54:54, just a wee bit faster. I learned that I can in fact run in the shoes that my client gave me, and run fast at that. I can also run and drink at the same time now. But when I slow down to drink gatorade, I still drown a bit. If I pinch the cup so it's more like a funnel it works a lot better than leaving it open all the way. During one of the gatorade stops I slowed for a drink and Ali kept moving because she wanted to get the people in front of her. Ok, that's fine, I caught her really quick then she saw that we had 4 miles left in the race, ok that's fine. She took off like a bat out of hell and I had no chance. I grabbed another quick drink, nearly choked to death so I slowed way down, and by the time I could breath normally she was WAY in front of me. I decided to try to close the gap and realized that she wasn't going to make it easy for me. She was on a mission to pass as many people as possible between now and the 4 miles back to the finish line. Every time I started to make up ground, she started to speed up to get to the people in front of her. FINALLY there was a long gap between her an the people in front of her, I'm basically sprinting for 3.5 miles and yelled at her to not pass those people or else I would kill her. I was a little grumpy and very tired. I ended up catching her and just about lost my religion cursing. It was intense. She finally told me that during those 4 miles she had been running 8:20min/miles which meant that I was running under 8 minute miles to get to her, ugh, that explained why I wanted to kill something. Either way, we ended up negative splitting the race and came within a minute of my Half Marathon PR. So I went into my race thinking I was just going to enjoy it and do a nice low key training run, and I came out super tired and close to a PR. Ugh.
Now this week I have another long week of training and clients, plus it's my sisters Bridal Shower this weekend. I'm some how supposed to get a 60 mile ride and a 19 mile run in this weekend. Holy crap. I'm thinking the ride may be on Sunday morning and the run may be Monday afternoon or something. yeesh.
On a positive note, my toe is still very sore and hates me, but it was just fine during the run and now I know that my current fitness is increasing and I'm faster already this year than when I finished last year. I also have 4 more weeks until the Flying Pig, which means 6 weeks out from my first Half Ironman Distance of the year. Who knows what will happen between now and then. I foresee a lot of organizing of my life, a lot of protein being consumed, and my compression gear going into over drive.
A neat thing I saw on my friend's Facebook status: Control what you can and let God control the rest.
Sunday, March 31, 2013
Impromptu Half Marathon
So my coach sent me my training plan early this morning and at first it didn't look too bad. I decided to go through and count up the time for each session, to make sure I have enough actual time in my schedule, and this could be entertaining. I have at least an hour and a half workout every single day this week. Then my coach added a fun twist to this week. I'm supposed to run 17 miles this weekend, but funny thing, there is a half marathon in Xenia this weekend. My coach is encouraging me to run the race, then add my extra 4 miles to the half marathon. The really awesome part about this? The people running the half marathon course added a thing onto the FAQ section saying that anyone could run more miles than their race distance, just keep your bib number on and cross the finish line so that the aid station people know you're part of the course, and the race officials know where everyone went.
So quick run through for this week:
Tomorrow: 15 mile run
Tuesday: 1 hour lifting, 90 minute bike
Wednesday: 1 hour swim, 90 minute run (hill work)
Thursday: 1 hour lift, 90 minute run
Friday: 2 hour swim, 90 minute bike
Saturday: 3.5 hour bike
Sunday: Half Marathon + 4 :)
The really awesome part? Saturday and Sunday I should have suffer buddies the whole time! Thursday and Wednesday could be interesting because they are hard runs with hill work and speed work, but it'll all be a-okay.
I'm kind of excited about the fact that I can see a half marathon on the training schedule and 1) consider it a training run, and 2) know that I will actually be ready for that run. I won't be going for a PR, but I do like the fact that I can just go, "oh, ok, half marathon..no problem"
Yay! Time for sleepy time. On a really fun positive note, I am down to one job! This is great because I get to go from 70 hours per week to about 45 hours. This means that I get two days off each week so I can get stuff done around the house, and I actually get to sleep!!!
Yeah sleep!!!!!
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