Kansas Half Marathon Race Report

Saturday was an extremely busy day, so I never did get in my short run. Curtis and I went out to dinner at Noodles & Company so I could get my carbs for the race. I had the pesto pasta with chicken breast, which was perfect.  We got home and I got all my stuff ready for the race and was in bed by 10 PM.

4AM came very early Sunday morning. Even Suli was still asleep, and not begging for food yet. 😮 I jumped in the shower for 5 minutes to wake up, dressed, and ate my oatmeal with half of a banana and some peanut butter. We hit the road at 4:50 and picked up my friend, Caitlin, who was going to ride with us and run her first half. We left Manhattan for Lawrence by 5AM and thankfully were able to get a few more precious minutes of sleep in the car. We arrived in Lawrence in great time at 6:22 and went straight to packet pickup. Despite being bundled, it was quite cold and still pretty dark that early in the morning with a good strong Kansas wind.

We went back to sit in the heated car till it was time to line-up for the race. The start was scheduled for 7:30, so we had about an hour to kill. I ate the other half of my banana and tried to relax, but was far too jittery for that! We made a quick porta-potty run, with perfect timing, as the lines were just starting to form. We also noticed that the packet pickup line was now stretched out the door and across the street! I was glad we had gotten there when we had even though time moves so slowly before a race and there was still so much time left before we could line up.

Finally, 7:15 rolled around and we geared up and headed to the starting line from the car. This race had pace group leaders for finish times ranging from 1:30 to 3:05. I had never run with a pace group before, and didn’t intend to do it with this race, but it seemed a reasonable idea to line up near the 2:25 pace group. My previous half-marathon time from April 2010 was 2:25:28 and my half-marathon time from the end of my half-Ironman in August 2010 was 2:37:51. My goal for this race was to beat both of those times. I knew I could get close to 2:25, but with the few bad long runs I have had lately, I was not feeling very confident about that.

Starting with the pace group gave me the opportunity to warm-up and hold back at the start. I am fairly good about pacing myself, but the adrenaline of a big race (~1500 lined up for the half) always makes it difficult to hold back at the start. Caitlin and I quickly realized that the 2:25 group was just a little slower than we wanted and joined the 2:20 group. The two group leaders had paced several races together this spring and had quite a rapport. They were friendly and talkative, keeping the group on pace with morale high. It almost felt like cheating! 🙂

My strategy was to stick with the pace group till the turnaround point (~7.5 miles) and then begin to pick-up the pace. Hubby was waiting for us around mile 5 to cheer, photograph and let us hand off our outer layer of clothing. It had warmed up quite a bit, since the sun came out. Around mile 6 we started to break away from the pace group and had completely lost them by the turnaround. Caitlin and I both felt great at this point and discussed trying to catch the 2:15 pace group for a strong finish. We knew we had the biggest hill of the race leading to mile 10, so we decided to wait till that point to drop the hammer.  😉

Mile 10 came and we were still climbing. Finally, we hit the top of the hill and started to pick up the pace. I was surprised by how strong I still felt at this point. I was guesstimating that we were still about 3 minutes behind the pace group, so it was going to be tough to catch them. We were going to try anyways! The last 5K went by really fast and soon we saw DH again near the finish line where he was waiting to run us in if we needed the moral support. I managed to sprint to the finish line for a strong finish.

My official time was 2:16:50.7, which is a PR of 8:37.3 better than my previous time!

This was a really fun race that I will definitely consider doing again. The course was beautiful and wound through downtown Lawrence as well as the KU campus. The only criticism I have of the course was that a significant portion was on sidewalks that were really too narrow to handle the volume of runners. This portion overlapped with the turnaround point and people were unprepared for the lead runners looping around, so were not getting out of their way quickly enough. Other than that, I thought it was a great course, quite well-organized and well-worth doing.

Now, I’ve got the racing bug. I really want to break a 2 hour half-marathon. I think it’s definitely doable, I still had a little left to give at the end of this race. Over the next several months, I’m going to try and work on speed and see how much more time I can knock off.

 

Brew to Brew 2012

I’m back! I never intended to leave this blog forever, but thought I wouldn’t have much time for races or training while I’m in school. On the contrary, staying in shape and running most days of the week has helped to keep me balanced this semester. I did not make an effort to do much of anything in the fall semester and I ended it feeling quite distressed with how much fitness I had lost. I resolved to do better this spring and wrote a training schedule with no end goal in mind, other than general fitness. Pretty soon, I got sucked into the training to race mindset once again and signed up for a 44 mile relay race, “Brew to Brew,” a 10K and a half-marathon.

The “Brew to Brew” relay was last weekend, April 1, and it was a blast! We formed two teams with my classmates and two husbands, including mine. 🙂  There were twelve of us all together, forming one team of five and one team of seven.

Saturday afternoon, we drove to Kansas City, since the race start was going to be at Boulevard Brewery. We stayed at one of our classmate’s family’s house and had a wonderful pasta dinner together and reviewed all the race day logistics. Because the race was headed west from Kansas City to Lawrence, we wanted to make sure to be organized enough to get all six of the cars back to the finish so that we could head back to Manhattan (west of Lawrence) straight from the finish. It took some doing, but we managed to figure out a schedule that got everyone to the correct exchange points and end up with all of us at the finish together.

The race is started in waves with the first one at 6:00 AM and the last at 10:00 AM. The 6:00 AM folks were mostly solo runners doing the whole run as an ultra-marathon. The relay was broken into ten legs with some people running more than one leg. We had a nice early start at 6:30 AM, which was perfect since it was going to be a HOT day, so we were all up around 5:00 AM and in the car by 5:30 to get to the start before 6:00 AM. Somehow we all managed to meet up on time and get everyone to the right vehicles. We watched the 6:00 wave start, had some pictures taken, tasted some of the free Boulevard beer and sent our first two runners off at 6:30 AM. As soon as they were off, we hopped in the car and headed to the first exchange point. The first runner for our team was lightning fast and was one of the first from the wave to reach the exchange point. I was running the second and third leg, so I was waiting for her at the exchange to take over. The running surface for the first leg was quite nice – mostly crushed limestone/gravel, but we did have some strange parts where we were running up and down the embankments to various roads and bridges and we even ran up a spiral cement staircase to get to one bridge. There was also a short bit of “trail” running over rocks through a muddy dirt trail. I got through the 5.4 miles of leg 1 just fine and ran into the aid station.

The other team cheered me in as they were waiting for their first runner who had run leg 1 and leg 2. She was still behind me, but would get to the exchange soon. I grabbed some Gatorade from the aid table and started on leg 2. Leg 2 crossed some railroad tracks, and of course as I was running up to it, the gates came down and the bells started ringing to signal the oncoming train. I got an unexpected three minute break and then continued to finish my leg. Unfortunately, this leg was all on the shoulder of a boring, straight flat road with nothing to break it up. There were also several “fake-out” points that looked like they should have been an exchange point but you couldn’t tell until you got right to it that it was not. This wasn’t my favorite leg and I struggled with my mental state throughout. I just had a really hard time convincing myself that I should keep running. My mantra for this portion of the race was, “Tired is just a state of mind, keep going.” I repeated this over and over. Finally, the real exchange point came into view and I ran into, only to find it was the “B” exchange point and I was supposed to be running the “A” course so I had a little farther to go. I finally finished my second leg of 5.6 miles for a total of 11 miles, tagged our next runner, who would run legs 4 and 5, and got my break.

My day was not over yet though! I took over driving my car, while our next runners (legs 6 and 7) headed in a separate car to the next exchange point. I had to go pick up the gals that had driven the extra cars to the finish line to get them to their legs (8, 9 and 10). Fortunately, despite a little confusion, both girls parked relatively close to each other so I was able to pick them up without a hitch. We headed straight to the exchange point ending leg 7 and starting leg 8. Curtis, my hubby, was the leg 7 runner, so we were watching for him. I started to get a little nervous that we were in the wrong place because I had lost track of our timing while I was driving to Lawrence. While we were waiting, the other team caught up with us and assured us that we were in the right place and the runners were not too far off.

We finally saw Curtis coming up the hill into the exchange point and our next runner got ready to head off. She hit the road and we hung around with the other team to cheer in their runner and see of their next teammate. When we finally thought we saw her coming up the hill, we were unsure at first because her shirt appeared to be a different green than we expected. As it turns out, she was just soaking wet! This leg had the option of a stream crossing in a boat or the runners could run an extra mile to avoid the boat. Well, our runner, also an avid triathlete, had opted to swim across instead of waiting for the boat! 🙂

Once she got to the exchange point and rested a bit, we headed to the next exchange point. We would send off our leg 9 runners who were also both running leg 10. Our final runner had been sick with a bad cold for several weeks and by this time of day it was nearly 90 degrees and humid. We were a bit worried about her being able to finish because she had a terrible cough and no voice that day, so we decided to drive toward the exchange point between leg 9 and 10 in case she couldn’t finish. She called us partway into her run to let us know it just wasn’t going well at all, so Curtis took over the final leg for her. We hurried to the finish line and just barely made it in time to run Curtis into the finish line.

There was a “dinner” with gumbo and fresh fruit and bread after the race, along with beer from the two end point breweries – Boulevard and Free State. We sat and ate and then went to get ice cream before heading back home to Manhattan.  All in all it was a whirlwind of a day and a complete blast. I am already looking forward to next year!

One thing I will definitely want to remember for next year is to have matching shirts in a unique color because it was so helpful that we were all wearing matching lime green shirts at the exchange points. It just made it so much easier to see our exchange runner. Although this year was unseasonably warm, it does not make sense for runners to have multiple legs later in the day and it’s probably a lot better to have only one runner per leg or to break up the legs so they’re not consecutive. Also, we should definitely bring beer in the car for waiting at the exchange points after our legs. 🙂

Overall, things went pretty smoothly despite some creative car moving. I would like to be able to have an entire team use just one vehicle in the future if we can get a big van or something.

 

Goals for January: Week 1

Today is the last day of vacation for me before going back to work.  I went to the gym this afternoon and did a NROLW workout.  I haven’t mentioned it, but our gym is being completely renovated and is a disaster area right now, in fact all but two of the treadmills that I have seen are in pieces and stored in a squash court!  On the plus side, the weight room has been completely revamped and moved to a bigger space (the former basketball courts) and all the equipment has been replaced.  There are two new squat racks, all new dumbbells and tons of new machines.  I haven’t figured out where everything is yet, but there seems to be ample supply of everything, including several new cable machines.  I can’t wait till the renovations are completed, it’s really going to be fantastic!

After getting back from the gym, I took Tara for an hour long walk.  I only intended to take her for a short walk, but she was being really good and there was no one else around, so I took advantage of the quiet and just kept going.  I really should have turned it into a run, but it was nice to just walk after the weight workout this morning.  I have really lost a tremendous amount of strength, so even going back to my starting weights is tough.  I’ve been quite sore the past few days.  I think my body will adjust fairly quickly, and regain recovery ability.  I’m hoping a yoga session tomorrow morning will help.  Even though I’m dreading the early wake up call to go back to work after a week and a half off, I’m planning to do 20-30 minutes of yoga before I leave the house.  It should loosen me up a bit, my quads and hamstrings are especially tight right now.  After work, I’ll take Tara for a short run as long as it is not raining.

My goals for this week and month are still in the development phase (read: I haven’t thought about them much till this moment), so I reserve the right to modify these a bit over the next couple of days.

Goals for January 3 – 9, 2011

1. Do at least two NROLW workouts and three if I can fit it in

2. Run three times of at least 3 miles each

3. Pack a bag to go to the gym after work on Tuesday and Thursday

4. Buy a new suit for my interview for veterinary school next weekend

5. Blog at least three times

6. Cook dinner Monday through Thursday

7. Research and preparation for my interview

I think that will do it for this week.  I completely forgot my interview is next weekend!! I’ll be traveling Saturday through Monday, and I’m sure I’ll be very nervous and stressed toward the end of the week, so apologies in advance if I disappear for a short bit.  I’m going to keep details of where I’m interviewing off the blog for now, but I’ll update when I hear final decisions on all the schools if I am accepted.

Goals for January

1. Rework my training plan through June planning around the Charlottesville Half-Marathon and Smith Mountain Lake Sprint Triathlon and register for both of these races if feasible (SML Sprint Tri may not work with exams for classes next semester)

2. Update personal paperwork and register for classes for the spring semester

3. Cook healthy dinners on at least 10 week nights

4. Do 30 minutes of yoga each week

5. Try one new recipe this month

I’m going to try something new with my goals so that I don’t forget about them and just throw them out the window.  My plan is to write them down and stick them in my planner ala Goals for the Week so that I see them every day.  Have a great week!

Happy New Year 2011!

I can’t believe I’ve let over two months go by without blogging a single word!  I must admit, I was a bit ambitious with my training plans for the end of the year.  Between working, taking classes and home life, I found it increasingly difficult to schedule workouts into my days as the end of the semester approached.  Taking three lab classes was probably not my brightest idea ever.  I had homework for each class every week and it took up a lot of the time I would normally spend training and blogging.  Such is life.

Now that classes are over and I’m planning to take a much lighter load in the spring semester, I will have a bit more leisure time to devote to training.  I am scrapping the posted training plan and rewriting it as I can not possibly run 11 miles tomorrow as planned and I didn’t start lifting again back in October as planned either.  While I’m a little disappointed that I wasn’t able to get back into the training game when I intended to, I am not beating myself up over it.  I made school my priority and I know that it was the right decision for me in the long run.  Speaking of school, I’m still in the middle of the application process for veterinary school and I’ve heard back from two schools – one I have an interview next weekend and the other I did not get in to.  I’m still waiting to hear on two others.  If I get good news, we’ll be moving some time this summer, so I can’t commit to any fall races.  Also, I have no idea what kind of time I’ll have if I am back in school full time next fall!

Despite having a very busy end of the year, I had a pretty eventful 2010.  I finished both my first half-marathon and then my first half-Ironman. 🙂  I also decided that I’m not ready to take on the challenge of training for a full Ironman any time soon, but that I will do it some day.  I didn’t accomplish the majority of the goals I set last January, but I’m ok with that.  I did accomplish the two most important to me – to finish the two half races.  I’m not big on resolutions, but I do usually set goals for the year.  I’m not quite ready to set goals for the whole year since so much is unknown about where I will be and what I’ll be doing, but I’ll try and set goals for the month or maybe even each week to keep me accountable and moving forward.

I do still want to do the Charlottesville Half-Marathon again and training started today.  I actually ran a few miles today and it is really nice to feel like an active person again!  The weather was perfect for running too.  I was spoiled with 50 degrees and overcast – just chilly enough to be completely comfortable for the entire run.  I also did a NROLW workout on Thursday and skied at the beginning of the week (Monday and Tuesday).  Prior to that I took a short run on Christmas Eve.  I’m going to kind of play by ear for the next week or so.  I’d like to get back into regular lifting workouts and work my running mileage up as quickly as is safe.  I felt pretty good today, so I don’t think it’ll take long to work up to doing 5-6 miles regularly as my base runs.

More coming tomorrow on my goals for this coming week and for the month of January.

Happy New Year!

Off to a (semi) Good Start

In the past, if I haven’t had time to do an entire planned workout, I’ve just let it go.  In my brain I know that every little bit counts and getting out and moving is the more important than exactly following my schedule.  But when it came down to it, I chose to stay in bed or watch another 15 minutes of TV or or read blogs for another 30 minutes than getting out and running for that 15 or 30 minutes.  No more.  Despite waking up much later than planned yesterday morning, I dragged myself out of bed and determined that I still had time for about 10 minutes of yoga.  I’m not sure how good it did physically, but I think it went a long way to getting me into a better place mentally.

This morning, I managed to jump out of bed a bit earlier and go out for a run with Tara.  We were out for 33 minutes – 2 minutes walking warm-up and then jog for 28 minutes and walk for another 3 to cool down.  It should have been a 3 mile run, but it came in at just about 2.8 miles including the walking portions.  I’m really happy I got out there and ran even though it was still pitch black outside when we left.  Tara lit my path with her little headlamp that she wears.  I’m a little disappointed in the “reflective” leash and collar I bought for her.  They don’t seem to be very reflective at all.  They’re nice for a regular leash and collar, but I’m going to have to try something else.  I’m thinking of getting her a running vest for more visibility.  I wore a white shirt this morning with good reflective strips on the back, but I still need to make it to the running store or sporting goods store to get something more for me to wear.

I did not get to the gym yesterday to lift and I’ve realized that it is completely unrealistic to try on Mondays.  I think I mentioned that I have dog agility classes on Mondays and while yesterday I probably could have made it to the gym, I decided that it would make more sense to move my lifting day to Tuesdays since it is a light running day.  That way I can easily do my run in the morning and lift in the evening, or vice versa.  Also, starting next week my classes start at 6:35 PM (instead of 8:50 PM as they do now), so my Mondays are going to be quite busy.  I think I’ll be doing a lot of crock pot dinners over the next 6 week session!

I’m not sure what to do about lifting on Thursdays yet.  Class on Thursdays doesn’t start until 7:45 PM and I get home from work at about 4:30 PM.  Inspiration just struck-  I can do a morning lifting session on Thursdays and run in the afternoon with Tara before class.  That will work perfectly! I’ll update my training plan matrix later today with my updates.

Things are falling into place!

 

No Rest for the Weary

I want to be a faster runner.  I’ve never really thought that I could run fast, it just never crossed my mind.  My 8K results lit a fire in me, so to speak, and now I want to be faster, and more importantly, I am convinced that I can be.  I have no idea what my goal pace should be for any given distance.  I don’t know how much it is reasonable to expect to improve over X number of days, weeks, months or years.  And I don’t care.  I’m arbitrarily choosing the Charlottesville half-marathon as my first checkpoint.  I want to finish it in under two hours. Is that realistic considering my time last year was 2:25:28?  Maybe not.  I’m going to try anyways.  According to the Race Time Predictor, I should be able to run a 5K in 26:07, which is an 8:24 pace, and run a 10K in 54:21, which is an 8:45 pace.  My only 5K race (not attached to a triathlon) was 29:54, so I just need to shave 4 minutes….I know I can do it.  Not entirely sure when I’ll do it, but I know I can.

Training starts tomorrow.  I’ve posted my training plan on the “Training Plan -2011” page.  I’m going to focus on running again through this winter, just like last year.  This time, though, I am going to place my focus on running fast, rather than running far.  I’m starting with one day of speed work each week and add a second day of speed work in the last 12 weeks or so of training.  I’m going to try to do some interim races to track my progress, or at least do “home” races every few weeks.  I’m also adding two days of weight training back to my training.  Adding muscle can’t hurt and I know that I’ve lost a lot of strength since I stopped lifting in favor of HIM training.  Something new I’m going to try is doing yoga once a week too.  I’m hoping that placing an emphasis on stretching at least once a week will prevent any encounters with IT band issues or any other injuries that can crop up.  As you’ll see in my schedule, I’ll be running significantly more (miles and days) every week than I have in the past, so I want to make sure to stay healthy!  I’m hoping yoga helps in that.  I’m not planning on taking any yoga classes right now, just doing videos or on-demand at home.  I think it would be a bit ambitious for me to actually go somewhere to do yoga right now.  It will be much easier to fit into my schedule if I can do it right here.  My alarm is set to start tomorrow at 6AM, and I’ve already chosen a program from the on-demand menu.  I need to pick up some yoga DVDs to try.  I have one, but it has gone missing, and I’m afraid I may have let someone borrow it and will never see it again.

My planned training for this week is:

Monday – Yoga AM, NROLW Stage 1 A1 PM

Tuesday  – Run 3 miles

Wednesday – Run 5 x 400 m @ 5K pace

Thursday – Run 3 miles AM, NROLW Stage 1 A2 PM

Friday – Rest

Saturday – Run 3 miles

Sunday – Run 5 miles

Monday and Thursday may be tough to get everything done because I have dog agility training classes both evenings, but I’m going to do my best to do the lifting.  If I have to miss one of the days, I will do the second day on Saturday.

By the way, if you reading from an RSS reader, I did some work updating the look of my blog today.  I’m not 100% it is going to stay like this.  I’m not in love with the new layout/theme yet.  I did change the main title of my blog- “Triathlon Training Blog” was just too boring.  This is my journey of becoming stronger and faster and going longer.  It’s only taken me a year and a half to be a little more interesting, but better late than never!  Let me know what you think of the new look!

8K Race Report

After a very laid back training period, this morning was the 8K race in Arlington.  Curtis and I woke up at 5:15 AM to get ready.  I let the dog out, had an English muffin with peanut butter for breakfast, fed both the cat and dog, and got dressed to leave at 6:15 AM.  We arrived nice and early, found a parking spot on the street and went to pick up our race numbers, chips and t-shirts.  I must admit, I didn’t really prepare for this race mentally.  After doing mostly tris, it’s been hard for me to get into a race mindset before a running race.  I think the hustle and bustle of setting up transition, pumping bicycle tires and quietly rehearsing the day in my brain is much more preparative than just showing up on race morning, shoes and number on and ready to go.  I can’t quite explain exactly what it is, but there’s just something about the morning of a tri that fills me with anticipation and readiness that I don’t get out of running race morning.

The start was scheduled for 8:00 AM, and we had quite a bit of time to kill before then, so we headed back to the car to sit in the heat since it was a bit chilly in the low 50s this morning.  Around 7:30, we headed back to the race start to use the porta-potty, meet up with our friends who were doing the race, C, J and D, and do a quick warm-up.  I also had to finagle a method of attaching the timing chip to my shoe.  Please understand, the timing chip was shaped like a small card with four holes punched out.  It was perfect for attaching to shoelaces, if you were actually wearing shoelaces.  I was not.  I had my elastic speed laces in my shoes that had taken many runs to get adjusted exactly right.  I don’t even know how many times it took me to try and find a way to attach that stupid timing chip without driving me crazy from it bouncing against my ankle or messing up my perfectly adjusted laces.  I couldn’t even use safety pins because the holes were to far into the center of the chip for them to fit through!  Finally, though I did get it attached and adjusted so that it didn’t drive me crazy.

At 8:00AM, we all lined up together, despite the fact that I knew that was a mistake for me!  I do not like being lined up quite so close to the front of the pack and everyone else was aiming for faster paces than me (D’s goal was 7min/miles, Curtis was aiming for 8 something, J for 8:30, C for under 9 and me for 9:30).  I just hate that initial rush when everyone surges past me at the beginning of a race.  I’ve made that mistake before and gone out way too fast only to regret the move later.  I’m also not used to all the chatting going on before running races.  I much prefer the quiet or silent reflection of tris for mental prep before the race.  Plus, I couldn’t hear any of the pre-race announcements, so I had no idea what was going on.  Then, all of a sudden, everyone started moving forward (I think I might have heard someone yell, Go!), so I started my watch and took off.

As all my friends pulled ahead of me, I didn’t try to keep up as I knew they were all shooting for faster times than I was.  When I reached the first mile marker, I couldn’t believe my eyes when I looked at my watch and saw 8:35.  What?!  I was either going out way too fast or the course was marked poorly.  When I reached the second mile marker in 17 something, I realized that it must have been the former.  By this time it was too late to make any changes and I had to just keep pushing.  My heart rate was consistently in the 180s, but I was ok with that for such a short race (relatively).  Soon after the 2 mile marker, I started seeing our friends run by on the way back to the finish- first D, then Curtis, J and I wasn’t too far behind C.  Unfortunately, the turnaround also marked a change from a gently sloping downhill to a gently sloping uphill.  While it wasn’t too bad and no worse than anything I train on, I had gone out much harder than normal and those hills really felt like work.  Mile three came and went and I knew I had slowed down significantly.  I tried to pick it up when I hit the 4 mile marker, but I just didn’t have a whole lot left to give.  When I finally rounded the last corner to the straightaway to the finish, Curtis and D were there to cheer me in and I managed to “sprint” to the finish line, passing a few people in the process.  My chip time was 46:49.9, which is about a 9:25 min/mile pace.

I should be ecstatic about my results.  Though I’ve never raced this distance before, it’s definitely a PR for pace at any distance (including 5K!) and ahead of my goal pace at 9:30.  Unfortunately, I’ve just had a bad attitude about this race and kind of disappointed that I haven’t managed to increase my speed more over the last year.  I hated being the slowest of our group today and felt really terrible afterward.  I don’t think I’ve ever had a race before when I haven’t felt good about finishing, today was the first and it was and is a horrible feeling.  I wish I could just be happy about it.

Sorry for the downer post, just trying to be honest here.

Pondering Goals

For the past couple of years, I have had very specific goals for my race season.  Last year it was to finish my first Olympic distance race, which I did at Nation’s Triathlon.  This year it was to finish my first half-Ironman distance race, which I did at Timberman 70.3.  I have no idea what my goal for next season should be.

I’ve tossed around the idea of doing a marathon, but I’m not sure that’s really what I want to do.  I feel that it is the next logical step in my fitness journey, but do I really want to commit to the training for it?  By the end of this training season, I was so burnt out from the volume of training for Timberman that I couldn’t even think about doing another HIM any time soon.  I think the time commitment to marathon training would be comparable and I’m not sure I can commit to that.

My other thought is to continue racing tris at the Sprint and Olympic distance next year, aiming for PRs at all the races I’ve done in the past and add a couple of new races.  This is the “easier” route.  Training for these requires no more than 1-2 hours per day and I know I would aim for that with any workouts anyhow.

The one thing that I know I will not be doing is a full Ironman.  I am definitely not ready to devote my time to training for an event of that distance.  I will complete a full Ironman at some point in my life, but it is not going to be next year.  The funny thing is, I no longer question whether I can do an Ironman distance event.  I KNOW that I can with the proper training.  I think it was during the Timberman run that my perspective of what I can do completely changed and I realized that my body was capable of anything I could throw at it as long as I put in the time and effort to train for it.  My self-motivation is my only limiter.

I will be thinking about my goals for next year a lot over the next few weeks/months.  I’m going to try and come up with a plan that is still challenging, despite not increasing my distances across the board.  Maybe I’ll do a bunch of Sprint/Oly tris AND a marathon.  Maybe I’ll do just tris.  Maybe I’ll do nothing and go a different route entirely.  Sorry for the ramblings…just trying to sort through my thoughts.  What are your plans for next year?

In other news, I was terrible about running last week.  In fact, the only time I ran was when I last posted, for shame!  I had big plans to do a local 5K on Saturday, but after a busy week including tons of studying for two midterms, I just didn’t have it in me.  And when we found out that the entry fee was $40, Curtis and I decided we’d rather take that $80 and do something else another time.  I did manage to convince myself to run yesterday, and took the dog for about 6 miles.  Considering the overall lack of running lately, I felt pretty good for the whole run.  Neither my lungs nor my legs were a limiter even if I was going very slowly.  I did have a bit of a fight with myself about whether to keep going at several points along the route.  Somehow I managed to convince myself to just keep moving my legs, one step at a time.  This week I am supposed to taper for the 8K on Sunday.  I’m not sure how much of a taper it will be if I actually put in more days than I have been.  Here’s the schedule:

Monday – Off

Tuesday – 3 mile run

Wednesday – 3 mile run

Thursday – 4x400m with 400m walk/jog recovery

Friday – Rest

Saturday – 1-3 mile run easy

Sunday – Race Day!

New Plan

I’m going to pull a fast one on you and do a workout switch for this week (and the next few weeks).  Curtis signed us up to run an 8K on October 16 with some friends in Arlington, so I decided I should actually do some training for it.  I found Hal Higdon’s Intermediate 8k training plan and thought it would be a good option, or at least the last four weeks of it.  I think my base running fitness is sufficient to make up for the first 4 weeks of the 8 week plan and I can just start at week 5.

So tonight, I ran 4 miles with dog, Curtis and my father-in-law who is in town in tow.  We set a pretty quick pace for me, and ran my typical 4 mile loop around town.  We didn’t start till after 7PM, so it was already dark out and as I’ve mentioned I haven’t got any reflective gear yet.  I came up with a great solution though!  I attached a small LED flashlight to Tara’s collar so that it hung down and pointed at the ground.  It worked perfectly to light the pathway! And it didn’t seem to bother her one bit!  We were a bit worried that it would be too bright and she wouldn’t be able to see and that it would be uncomfortable, but I think since it pointed straight at the ground it wasn’t in her eyes at all and her running stride seemed to keep it pretty steady so it didn’t seem to bother her either.  I will feel much safer with this solution on the dark, unlit paths around here and add a little reflective gear and we will be good to go for the paths through the woods or near the roads.

By the way, 4 miles isn’t exactly on the plan for today, but it was a happy medium since it’s already Tuesday.  The plan has rest days on Friday, but I know that realistically I need my rest days to be Mondays, so my schedule will look something like this:

M: Rest

T: Easy 3 mile run

W: Moderate 5-6 mile run

R: Intervals or Tempo run

F: 3-4 mile run

S: Cross training

S: Long run
I would like to get in some weight training.  I still haven’t committed to starting NROLW again and I would really like to get back into it.  I originally wanted to lift 3 days a week, but I think that it is unreasonable right now to go from 0 gym days to 3+ gym days a week.  I need to gradually ease myself into it.  So, I’m going to start with doing what I can during the next four weeks then try to ease myself into the lifting program with two days a week of good heavy lifting.

Ironman 70.3 Timberman Race Report

I did it!! I finished my first 70.3 Ironman.  🙂  I’m just a little behind in posting my race report…

Curtis and I left for New Hampshire on Friday morning before the race around 8:20AM.  I had for some reason convinced myself it was only an 8 hour drive, but really it would have been about 10 hours without traffic and ended up being about 11 hours total.  Traffic around NYC was pretty terrible, but other than that things weren’t too bad.  We arrived and checked into the hotel, but not without checking out the competition on the way in.   We were surrounded by triathletes and fancy bikes.  After my ogling, we unpacked the car and headed up to our room, which turned out to be quite nice – we had a nice big room with a king-sized bed.  We took some time to settle in a bit and then went to find dinner at Uno’s, where I had a delicious chicken and pasta dish (carb loading!).  After dinner we went back to the hotel and thought about going down to the hot tub, but we were both exhausted after the long day in the car and decided to go to bed and we would try to relax a bit in the hot tub on Saturday.

Saturday ended up being a surprisingly long and busy day.  We slept in until almost 9AM, and when we finally got up, we ran downstairs to take part in the continental breakfast that ended at 10AM.  I grabbed a bagel and some peanut butter and a banana plus an extra bagel and peanut butter for eating before the race.  I felt like a huge slacker when all the triathletes around were dressed in their workout clothes looking like they had just gotten back from a ride or a run.  I had planned to do a very short swim and/or run but nothing major, and I was going to try and fit it in after driving the bike course, which was my number one priority for the day, besides the mandatory meetings, check-in and bike check-in.  So after breakfast and a few errands to the grocery store and Wal-Mart, we headed up toward Ellacoya state park and found the bike course.  We didn’t start from the very beginning because the Sprint tri was that morning and we didn’t want to get stuck in the traffic.  I’d say we started about 2-3 miles in.  We did go off course a little in two places, but for the most part we got it right.  It started with hills and ended with hills.  The middle was slightly less hilly, but it wasn’t flat either- it was more of a gentle sloping.  I was not feeling prepared, especially after we started seeing all the triathletes out riding the course.  Were they crazy??  I wasn’t even considering trying to ride the course the day before!  After becoming sufficiently nervous about my preparation for the climbs, we finally finished driving the 56 miles.

It was closing in on 1:00PM quickly and I wanted to get to the Gunstock Mountain Resort and Timberman festival to register and attend meetings.  There was a 2:00PM first-timers meeting and 3:00PM mandatory race meeting, so we figured I could register and get to both meetings before heading back to the hotel to get my bike and head over to transition.  I picked up my numbers, timing chip and goody bag, signed my life away and grabbed some food just in time for the first-timers meeting to start.  I was surprised by the number of people who were doing their first 70.3 and even more surprised by the several people who raised their hands to say that this was their first triathlon at all!  Wow!  That’s ambitious!  There were some helpful tips, including the mechanics of a bottle hand-off at an aid station on a bike and how to use the wetsuit strippers.  🙂  Afterward was the mandatory pre-race meeting for everyone where they went over the rules and other logistical details.  Not too different from any other triathlon.

I picked up a Fuel Belt bento box for my bike at the festival, and then we hurried back to the hotel to grab my bike and drop it at transition.  Unfortunately, we got stuck in horrendous traffic due to a nearby concert, and it ended up taking a lot longer than planned.  We finally got to Ellacoya state park, I racked my bike and covered my saddle with a plastic bag to cover for the impending rain and we took a quick run (~15 minutes) as my only workout of the day.  We ran a tiny portion of the run loop (although we didn’t know it at the time) before quickly changing in the car and going to get dinner.  Luckily, we managed to find an alternate route away from the park and avoided the traffic on the way out.

Curtis had found some reviews on yelp for a great little Italian place called Ciao Pasta, so we headed there.  They make their own fresh pasta and you can “create your own meal” by choosing a pasta (one of theirs or another), a sauce and any extra protein or veggies.  I had a fresh cracked pepper fettuccine with a pomodoro sauce and grilled chicken, plus tons of fresh warm bread.  It was a delicious meal, especially considering I tried to choose one of the more “bland” options.  I was a little worried that too much cheese or tomato might upset my stomach, but luckily I had no issues.  It turned out to be the perfect pre-race meal- not too heavy, but enough carbs and protein to prepare me for the next day.

Once back at the hotel, I gathered all my gear together and laid it out for the early morning.  We went to bed right at 9:00PM, but I didn’t fall asleep for quite awhile afterward.  I really didn’t sleep very well at all  and I think I woke up several times throughout the night.

3:15AM, the alarm blaring in my ear signaled the start of the single longest day of my life.  I dragged myself out of bed, brushed my teeth, got dressed and filled my water bottles.  I grabbed the last few items that I hadn’t packed yet and we left for the race site.  It was surprising to see that most of the cars were still in the hotel parking lot and we seemed to be the first ones to be out and about.  On the way to Ellacoya, I ate my bagel and peanut butter that I had grabbed from the hotel on the previous morning.  Soon, we arrived at the park, and as it turned out, we were one of the first cars into the parking lot and got a prime spot very close to transition and right next to the finish chute.  It was right around 4AM, and we hung out in the car till transition opened at 5AM.  We found some hot water at the local firefighters’ stand, so I had my green tea that I had brought from home while we were waiting.

Finally, transition opened.  I stopped to get body-marked on the way – 2212 on my left arm, left hand, left quad and my age on my left calf.  I think the mark on my quad was still a bit visible three days later, despite scrubbing but all the others were gone by the end of the race.  Weird.  I’m really glad I brought a bright pink beach towel to use as my transition mat, it turned out being really easy to find amidst the sea of bicycles.  After I had everything arranged exactly as I wanted it, I pumped my front tire.  Then I went around and pumped my rear tire.  Both looked pretty good, but I managed to convince myself that the rear tire needed just a few more pumps of air.  As I removed the bike, I heard the valve break. Doh!  I didn’t really want to frustrate myself by changing the tire on race morning and it seemed to be holding air so I decided to leave it for the time being.  A half hour later, I would check the tire and if it didn’t have air in it or seemed to be leaking, I would change it.

I took all my nervous energy back to the car and tried to sit and relax with Curtis for a bit.  The time went by pretty fast, and soon enough it was time to check my tire again and use the bathroom for about the 4th time of the morning.  I ran into transition and found both tires still full of air and ready to go.  I decided I’d leave well enough alone and ran back to join Curtis in the Porta-potty line.  We wandered around to check out the swim exit and before we knew it they were clearing transition and calling for people to head to the swim start.  We joined the throngs to watch the pros (including Chrissie Wellington!!) start at 7:00AM.

Pro men went off first, followed by Pro women, then another hour before my swim wave would start at 8:05.  I got my wetsuit on around 7:15 and joined the line to the corral around 7:45.  It was an in-water start, but only about 2 feet deep and we waded in as soon as the previous wave left at 8:00AM.  I got my watch ready and my goggles on as the announcer gave us warnings every 30 seconds.  Finally, we were off!

I started the swim running into the water and got a few dolphin dives in.  I had lined up in the middle, but at the back so it was difficult to find clear water for dolphin dives.  I did stop a few times right at the beginning because my goggles were being uncooperative, but luckily I fixed them quickly and they gave me no trouble for the next 1.2 miles.  I was surprised at how mentally strong I felt in the water.  If anything suffered during training, it was my swimming and I was expecting my mindset to reflect that.  I guess I have had enough open water experience to relax and do what I know.  I was pretty sure I was dead-smack in the middle of my wave for the most part.  When I reached the first turn buoy, I started seeing white caps from the previous wave.  Shortly after, a few yellow caps started swimming over me (literally!).  Also around this time, the water got pretty choppy.  I wasn’t expecting it to be quite as churning as it was, there were moments when I actually thought I might be sick from the motion!  The next turn came quickly and then it was just the homestretch left.  I did peak at my watch at both turn buoys, so I had an idea of how long I’d been in the water (15 minutes and 24ish minutes) and knew I was on track.  My private goal for the swim was to finish in under 45 minutes, and I crossed the timing mats at 40:06!!

I had my wetsuit stripped and ran into transition to retrieve my bike and I was on my way.  About 3 miles in, I started to get paranoid about my tire.  I actually convinced myself that it was flat, so I pulled over and checked it.  It was completely full.  Silly me!  I was pretty quick and only 2 or 3 people passed me while I was stopped and I quickly passed one of them again.  I was still a bit paranoid about the tire for the rest of the ride, but I planned to ditch one water bottle at the first stop for Gatorade and alternate water and Gatorade for the whole ride.  The roads out of the park were not bad, but pretty soon the hills started.  I think I saw Chrissie Wellington leading the women before the first aid stop.  Around mile 10 was the biggest hill of the race, Marsh Hill and it was steep and it was long.  I just took it in my granny gears. We did see two pro women wipe out coming down the other side, so I knew it would be a fast and probably technical bit of riding. Soon, but not soon enough, I reached Route 106, which was the bulk of the course.  It was a long, straight and gradually sloping road that made for somewhat boring riding.  I got a kick out of the aid stations with some very over-the-top volunteers all dressed up in crazy outfits.  We even got to see Santa and his Elves at the North Pole!  Pretty soon we were climbing again.  This time, my bike got stuck in the big ring so I had to take it really slow and easy in order to not destroy my legs.  It was hard work!  Coming back down Marsh Hill was a blast, I’m not sure what my top speed was, but it was definitely fast.  Finally, the park was in sight and I realized that I was going to finish much faster than my expected time of 4 hours.  I saw Curtis cheering on the bike in chute, dismounted and ran into transition.  I finished the bike in 3:32:55.

After ditching my bike and changing shoes, I decided I would step into the porta-potty at the end of transition.  The volunteers standing there tried to convince me to continue on to the run and stop on the run course, but I knew it would be in my best interest to stop then.  My transition time turned out to be only 4:08, so I’m glad I made the decision to go then.  Curtis was there to cheer me on as I started my run.  It was two loops, so I would get to see him again at least once before I finished.  I ate one package of Clif shot blocks as soon as I started the run, and I had another package that I decided I would take at the beginning of the second loop.

I knew the run was going to be the hardest part of the day.  The biggest issue I had been having during my bricks in training was that my back hurt when I ran after biking for the 50+ mile distances.  The one difference in the race from my typical bricks was that I put on my fuel belt.  I’m really glad I did because it ended up having a stabilizing effect on my back and completely eliminated any pain in my back.  It did not, however, do anything for the pain in my feet and legs.  I had not accounted for the amount of swelling in my feet after more than 4 hours of constant exercise and my shoes felt tight on my feet from the moment I started the run.  They went numb quickly despite my best efforts at wiggling my toes to keep the blood flowing.  My right knee gave me trouble throughout the bike and didn’t get any better on the run.  I just kept repeating to myself, “It can’t hurt any more than it already does.”  So I kept running, it was just four 5Ks.  I could do four 5Ks.

The run course was pretty challenging with one pretty significant hill.  It was no worse than training runs at home, though.  The first loop was pretty crowded, but by the time I started my second loop, many of the rest of the athletes had finished and I spent a lot of time alone.  It was a treat to get to each aid station, with all the very enthusiastic volunteers.  The turnaround point for the first loop was decked out in patriot decorations and bubbles and there was a stereo blaring “Yankee Doodle” when I passed through on the first loop.  I was still running when I reached the teaser end of the first loop, which shared part of the route with the finish chute.  I kept running the whole second loop.  In fact, I am very proud to say that with the exception of walking through the aid stations when I got something to drink, I ran the entire 13.1 miles!  When I reached mile 12, I realized that if I picked up the pace and got in a strong 10 minute mile I would be able to finish in under 7 hours.  I summoned all the energy and strength I had left and picked up the pace.  When I could finally see the finish chute, I knew I had to push just a little harder, so I ran as hard as I could at that moment (which wasn’t very hard!).  I passed two men who were walking in the chute and ran across the finish line!

I cannot even express the overwhelming feeling of that moment- never before have I felt such a desire to cry and jump for joy at the same time, but be so mentally and physically exhausted that I was incapable of either.  I got my finisher’s medal and a hat and a blanket and hobbled out of the chute.  I did it!

My total time was 6:58:39.

1.2 mile Swim: 40:06

Transition 1: 3:39

56 mile Bike: 3:32:55

Transition 2: 4:08

13.1 mile Run: 2:37:51