Same Time, Same Channel

Threshold Run. Average pace: 9:15.

Weather at 6:00 am: 39°F, humidity 30%, wind 11 SSW, waning crescent moon.

I felt remarkably good today considering my long run last Saturday. I did walk about a mile yesterday afternoon. I guess that was my recovery. I will do easier runs the rest of this week to taper for the race on Saturday.

I was supposed to do 2 miles easy, 6 miles at marathon/half-marathon pace, 2 miles easy today. I wasn't sure what pace to target for the 6 miles, and I knew that the fist mile or two would be harder because they would be up hill, so I decided to shoot for about 9:30 for the first of the threshold miles and then speed up from there. My splits were: 10:36, 10:13, 9:23, 9:04, 9:13, 8:41, 8:14, 8:11, 9:25, 9:30. I had to consciously make myself slow down for the last two miles.

Does anyone have any advice for how I should pace myself in the half-marathon on Saturday? I figure I should do a couple of miles slow and easy, maybe with some strides, before the race starts to get warmed up, rather than using the first two miles of the race as a warm up. But then should I try to run the whole race at a steady pace, or should I divide it into sections and try to run negative splits, or what? Any suggestions are welcome.

Easy run. Average pace: 10:02.

Weather: 46°F, 23% humidity, wind 7 W.

We are really having marvelously warm weather this week. I didn't even wear gloves on my run this morning. It's the first time I haven't worn gloves for at least part of the run in a very long time.

I've got 10 miles on the schedule tomorrow, but I've got to be home in time to drive my son and a string bass to school at about 6:30 or 6:40. If I don't get up early enough and because I'm kind of tapering, I might knock it down to 8 miles. I'll just have to see what time I'm able to pull myself out of bed tomorrow. I should try to go to bed early tonight. That will be a challenge.

I was thinking this morning how much better shape I'm in now than when I ran a half marathon last August. When I ran that half marathon that was the furthest I had ever run. It was really a struggle. The only reason I got the time that I did was because I was running with a friend and she refused to leave my side the last couple of miles even though I kept telling her to go on ahead. She made me keep going.

Fartlek Run, easy w/2 min @ 10K pace every 5 minutes. Average pace: 9:10.

Weather: 40°F, 37% humidity, minimal wind.

I decided that sleep would do me more good than miles would this morning, so I didn't get up early enough to do 10 miles, which is what the planned workout was. I still got up pretty early because I had to be done in time to drive thing 1 and a string bass to school, but not freakishly early.

My paces on the 2 min fast parts were 8:20, 8:06, 8:20, 7:57, 8:15, 7:53, 7:48, 8:00, 7:49, 8:03, 7:52, 8:07. I was shooting for around 8:00, so I was fairly close, give or take a little bit.

I'm feeling pretty good for the race on Saturday. Today was my last hard workout. I'm supposed to rest tomorrow and then do 4 miles easy on Friday. I'm really looking forward to this race.

In other news, I still have just a little bit of pain in my right hand since my fall last week. It's not debilitating, but it just doesn't seem to be going completely away.

Rest day. I still had to get up early so that I could take Thing 2 to seminary at 6:00, but when I got home I went back to bed until 7:30. Ah, the bliss. In imitation of Bonnie's posting from yesterday, and because I don't have a run to write about this morning, I'm going to make a list.

Things I love about running in Colorado (at least my part of Colorado):

1. Lots of trails, both paved and dirt.
2. Ample, well-maintaned sidewalks with working street lights.
3. Three words: hills, hills, and hills.
4. Lots of other runners.
5. Early sunrise (at least compared to more western parts of the time zone).
6. Dry weather.
7. High altitude.

Easy run. Average pace: 9:58.

Weather: 44°F, 49% humidity, minimal wind.

I had a nice, pleasant, easy run this morning. I felt strong and prepared for tomorrow's race. But I've been crazy busy since then, trying to help Thing 3 get his homework done, which he should have done before now but didn't manage to do, giving Thing 1 a ride to school because he overslept, getting Thing 4 to the school bus in the nick of time, and going to the grocery store to get milk because we were out. I still need to get myself showered/dressed and finish packing. Also, I want to run a few errands before leaving for Moab. Dang this is a busy morning. It will be nice to get on the road to Moab in a little while and be able to relax.

Official results are in.

Clock time - 1:52:03

Chip time - 1:49:34 (it took me a long time to get to the start line)

Overall place - 719/3284

Gender place - 228/1920

Division place - 43/342

Pace: 8:33

I am wasted right now. Driving for 6 hours the day before the race, and then driving for 3.5 hours shortly after the race is not a very good idea.

I drove by myself to Moab on Friday and went to the race expo. I met up with Lori, which was really great. We had a nice talk while I ate dinner. She had already eaten but was kind enough to come sit with me so I wouldn't be total dork sitting there all by myself.

My husband and three youngest kids drove separately from me and left after school was out. They got there about 10:30 Friday night.

My legs were feeling kind of yucky from the drive to Moab and then I didn't sleep well because of being in an unfamiliar bed and anxiety about the race. I woke up with a headache. But things went fairly well once I got to the race. I rode the bus up to the start, and it was cold, but really not too bad. I've been to much colder races. They had hot chocolate, which I enjoyed. I think I burnt my tongue a little. You were supposed to take your sweats off and load your sweat bag on to a truck a half hour before the start of the race. I tossed my sweat bag on the truck about 40 minutes before the race and then ran the opposite direction from the start line for a 2 mile warmup. It much preferred spending that time running and getting warm rather than standing around in my shorts at the start line being cold. And then I felt like luck was on my side (I thought of felix felicis, or however it's spelled, from Harry Potter) when I stopped my warm up run 15 minutes before the start and was actually able to get to a port-a-potty before the race started. It got really hot once the race started. It was a very warm day. I was wearing a singlet and shorts and I was dripping sweat by the time I was done.

I tried to run around 9:30 pace or just under for the first two miles, on Bonnie's advice, but I was worried about making up that time later on if I wanted to do an 8:15 average pace in order to get the 1:48 that Bonnie predicted. I guess I took 1:48 on as a challenge. After the first 2 miles I tried to speed up and keep increasing my speed in small increments for the rest of the race. I didn't quite get the 1:48 that I wanted, but I was close. My splits, according to my Garmin, were: 9:24, 9:17, 8:57, 8:21, 8:21, 8:03, 8:08, 7:57, 8:00, 8:03, 8:08, 7:50, 7:44, and 7:48 for the last bit. Of course, my Garmin says I ran 13.18, not 13.1, so the average pace from the Garmin is a little different than the official results say. The Garmin says my average pace was 8:18, while the official results say 8:33.

People were passing me the first few miles, but then I started passing people for the rest of the race. I tried to really pore it on the last couple of miles and it nearly killed me. I really had to dig down deep to keep the pace up at the end. When I got to where I could see the finish line and people were lining the sides of the course, I was wondering how in the world I was going to get to that finish line. I was so glad when I finally did.

If I had worn my fuel belt and had drunk my own water/gatorade while running, instead of walking through 3 or 4 of the aid stations, like I did, I might have gotten that 1:48. Oh well.

I talked to a guy from the blog named Mark before the race. I was wearing a FRB singlet and so he stopped and talked to me. I'm not sure what his blog name is, so Mark, if you see this, please comment.