My run was both good and bad today. The plan was to run 6 miles with 4 of the miles to be at least marathon pace or faster.
My husband left right after I did and was going to walk three miles. I wanted to beat him home, this would give me the incentive to run the miles faster. First warm up mile was9:06. Next mile was 8:52 about 10 second slower than I wanted. Mile number three was 8:39 right where I wanted to be but this mile has a big down hill so really it should have been faster. At the turn around I now have to run up the hill I just ran down. This mile came in at 9:02 which I count as a marathon pace mile because it was the same effort as marathon pace.
At this point I am looking for my husband. This should be close to where I could pass him depending on when he left the house. I run .5 miles and I don't see him. I am starting to get worried that he will beat me home. I speed up. I still don't see him. I speed up. I ask the crossing guard if he had see him. He said that he had not. I speed up. I run a little further and I see him. I speed up. When I get close enough I notice that he is coming toward me. WHAT!?!?! He got caught up in some work and had just left the house 20 minutes earlier and had only walked a mile. So I had won the race but it didn't feel like a victory at all. I ran the fifth mile in 8:21. I wonder how fast it would have been if I had not talked to the crossing guard. I ran the final mile in 8:31.
This run was good in that I met my goal but bad because it felt like I was running A LOT faster than I really was especally that 5th mile.
Ok little side story. The top of my left foot by my big toe has been numb since Tuesday. It felt like my shoe was too tight but it felt that way even when I was barefoot (which I am most of the day). Yesterday I notice a bite at the base of my big toe. It was small but very pussy (I know just what you wanted to read at lunch time) I got some rubbing alchohol and a needle, drained the bite really good and now I can feel my foot again! I wonder how much of my foot would have gone numb if I had not found the bite.
Spanish Fork Half (13.1 Miles) 01:59:06, Place in age division: 6
Easy Miles
Threshold Miles
Marathon Pace Miles
Track speed mileage
Hill mileage
Total
13.10
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
13.10
Went to this race with the idea that it would be easy and fun. While it was still fun it was not easy. After Hobble Creek two weeks ago I had really bad stomach issues that lasted for more than 24 hours. In trying to avoid that happening again I didn't eat any thing solid after 5:00 on Friday. On Saturday morning I had 1/4 cup almonds for breakfast and nothing else.
Lined up with Kimmy and Smooth but when the gun went off Smooth was gone never to be seen again!
Mile 1 - 8:34 faster than what we wanted but it felt good so we went with it.
Mile 2 - 8:48 Still to fast but still feeling good
Mile 3 - 8:52 About where we want to be (with water stop)
Mile 4 - 9:19 Big hill but still feeling good
Mile 5 - 8:58 Still feeling great Kimmy offers me a gu gel thing but my stomach is feeling weird and I am afraid to eat it.
Mile 6 - 9:22 Really big hill I can see Smooth in the distance and "we might be able to catch her"
Mile 7 - 9:20 Still hilly but about out of the big hills
Mile 8 - 8:50 Still feeling good joking about the girl with a GIANT wedgy in front of us
Mile 9 - 8:50 I start to feel light headed but the rest of me feels great
Mile 10 - 8:52 I know I should have eaten something by now. I just try to stay with Kim. I remember telling my body that there is 5 pound of fat on my Butt if it is hungry it should eat that. At 10.5 my body answers back by making it all go dark and I almost pass out. Good thing Kim was there to catch me! I tell Kim to go on. I walk and eat two gels.
Mile 11 - 9:35 Running but just barely I feel dead.
Mile 12 - 9:10 I am getting passed a lot just trying to hold on
Mile 13 - 9:43 I want to cry...My legs are great but I just can't run any faster
Finish 1:59:06
Made the goal of coming in under 2 hours but was really disappointed in my last three miles. I need to get this food thing down. You would think after so many races I would be able to do it right but for some reason this year had been really hard on my stomach and I can't find the answer.
10 miles at race pace. I must still think race pace is half marathon
pace I couldn't seem to find 8:44 I guess it is better to run these too
fast rather than too slow. I even ran my big hill mile at marathon
pace. It was because a guy passed me with vibrums (sp) on and I caught up
to ask him about them. He said he really liked them. I may have to
get a pair just for fun. I looked them up on the web and there are some
pretty cool colors!
splits 8:31, 8:32, 8:07, 8:36 (big hill), 8:40, 8:29, 8:37, 8:40, 8:52, 9:57
(walked .25 uphill to my house)
Ok best birthday gifts I received - 999 pennies, a bottle of 409 where the
label had been altered to say 45 in 09, I also got "After
Eight" mints, because nine comes after eight. My husband gave me
an electric massager for my back. It has electrodes that you put on the
muscle...it is hard to explain any way it is hospital grade. I used it
last night it is amazing!
Six miles on the elliptical first three miles at 11% resistance at a very fast pace...then I remembered this should be a recovery day so I can have a great 20 miler on Saturday. Last three miles at 6% resistance and much slower pace finished in 42:20
Well this run was so much better than the last 20 and the half marathon last week! I can tell that my diet and not lifting really gave me the energy I needed. Not that it was easy but it felt a lot better.
We ran into Teena and had a nice chat with her at 10.5 and at 19.5. At 19.5 we stopped and sat in the wet grass. We also saw Dean a runner on our Wasatch Back team.
6 hill repeats today. I got really mad when I was doing them. I ran out
one mile with a hand held water bottle that I won at the Lake to Lake
relay. I put the water bottle at the bottom of the hill and start to
run. As I do this the crossing guard at the bottom of the hill watches
me go up and down twice and take a drink out of the bottle each time I
come down. The third time I come down I can't find my bottle...I look
up just in time to see two boys on the other side of the street walking
away with it. I whistled got their attention and asked them to bring
it back. They said they were sorry, I really was not upset with
them I was more upset with the crossing guard who watched them take it
and then helped them across the street and said nothing. I was not
going to drink out of the bottle any more since I was not sure what the
boys had done with it. I still had three repeats and a mile cool down
with out any water. I felt like Tantalus, I had a ton of water but couldn't drink any of it. Anyway thank you for listening to me rant I am
better now.
Splits: warm up mile 9:25
1 - up: 2:26 - down: 2:03
2 - up: 2:25 - down: 2:06
3- up: 2:35 - down: 2:14 (this includes looking for bottle and chaseing down boys)
4 - up: 2:36 - down: 2:16
5 - up: 2:42 - down:2:12
6 - up: 2:43 - down:
for some reason I don't have that last down repeat on my garmin...not sure why I think it was because I changed it back to a mile lap too soon.
I wanted to run this run as close to marathon pace as I could. The
course I ran is really hilly I am running either up or down the whole run with
the first three being gradual downhill, which makes the last three up
hill...and it does not feel so gradual.
At the one mile mark I saw to ladies running ahead of me. Their pace
was slow enough that I thought I could catch them fairly quickly. I
needed to make a potty stop before I could pass them though. After the
potty stop I could only see them when they ran under a street light. I
think they were about a half mile out. As I ran I could tell I was
getting close but not as fast as I thought I should have been. I finally
caught them a little after the 3 mile mark. This is why the splits for
those miles are faster than they should have been
When I got home I compared my splits to Cougars pace chart. The terrain
was not quite the same (my big hill was at mile 7 rather than 8 and miles 9
through 12 are steeper than at St George) I think this helped me feel like I
can hold a faster pace when my legs are tired.
Splits: Mine followed by Cougars pace chart
9:009:05
9:26 (potty stop) 8:54
8:148:33
8:158:23
8:428:44
8:318:44
9:28 (potty stop and hill) 8:44
9:22 9:47
8:279:21
9:189:05
8:509:26
9:299:00
Walked the last .82If I had known I
was that close I would have walked .18 further to make it an even 13.
My run today was scheduled as 6 easy miles but because I blew off the 30 minute tempo run yesterday I thought I would do it today. It felt pretty good. I am still nervous about St. George though. I have never held marathon pace longer than 13 miles. I am not sure what is going to happen after that.
6 miles on the elliptical 8% resistance in 40:12 I tried to keep my strides at 180 for this work out. It was very hard to do when I went backward. Legs felt really good after this workout!
Lifted for back and abs
Yoga - Back bends today I was worried but my back feels great! Best it has in a long time!
This run felt really good I think my form is coming together, my legs and back feel great and mentally I think I am prepared. The problem with this is I have always had the superstitious notion that a bad practice leads to a great performance. Every year at this time something has gone wrong with my final run, but I have done well in the actual race. So what does this mean...what should I read into this.
Splits: 8:59, 9:51(really long potty stop I know TMI), 8:45, 9:11, 9:01, 8:56, 8:59, 8:46,
Last mile I walked up the hill to my house.
Now off to watch my son race CC and see the BYU game.
.5 warm up @ 9:13 1% incline 4X400 @ 8.0 (7:30) speed did the last one at 8.8 (6:53) just to see if I could run one lap under 7 minute miles. .5 cool down. Felt really good to go Fast...I hope I can go FAR this weekend.
