Back at It: Goals

Motivation
After a 2:06 half marathon with the double stroller, I don't really have any lingering doubts about my physical readiness to resume training. I've always thought I'd run another marathon to "get back in shape" after this second baby, and, with three of my teammates already signed up for fall marathons, doing another full was a tempting thought.

...but my head just isn't in "full mode" right now for a variety of reasons:

1. It feels like I "just" did a marathon. Even though I wasn't training all-out, I did train pretty well for Publix less than a year ago.
2. New baby = still getting used to everything... oh, and I'm not sleeping. 
3. New job + new baby = still figuring out our new schedules, and I'm not sure how training is going to go with all the new stuff in my life.
4. When I trained for Chicago, I was also preparing for the Sweet Adelines International contest, and that was SUPER stressful. This year, my chorus is, again, slated to compete at the international contest in October. Doing a marathon that will interfere with bringing my A game to that endeavor is a no-go. 

So, I've decided to try for a spring half instead. I've looked a ton of races, and decided that the one that fits our calendar (and my other requirements) best is the Berry Half in Rome, Georgia. 

• Race date between February and early May? March 7
• PR-friendly Comes well-recommended by friends, and the elevation map is agreeable
• within 7hr drive or 2hr flight within 2hr drive
• ability to stay within walking or mass transit distance of the start/finish and restaurants maaaaaaaaybe not, but the town is super small, which means I don't mind dealing with parking/driving around
• race temps between 25 and 50 degrees check
• $100 or less registration check

And the bonus criteria:

• cool theme/name/shirts Nope, but that's alright.
• around 1000 finishers Nope, only 400ish, but that's alright too. 
• kids race and/or 5K for my husband Kids race at 10:30 (2.5hr after half start)
• state I haven't raced in Nope, but that's also alright. The nearest states meeting this criteria are IN, WV, and AR... which all involve $$$ travel.

Goals
My current half PR is 1:47:02, set the day I found out I was pregnant. The idea of running any kind of distance in the low 8:XX/mi range still boogles my mind, but I figure setting a 1:45 tentative goal (but knowing I'll be totally pleased with whatever hard effort my body can execute at ~8mo postpartum) is a good plan.

According to Google, I should be able to do around a 47min 10K and a 22:30min 5K if I want a shot at 1:45. Those happen to be my respective PRs at those distances. I don't think I'm in PR shape right now, but it's worth going for it. Worst case, I figure out what I'm capable of right now and get a good twelve-ish weeks of training in the meantime. 


Plans
This was is the hard part. When I'm training, I'm running 5-6 days a week, with workouts on Tuesdays and Thursdays. These days, I'm running 3 days a week, with zero workouts, and some light xtraining in the form of Fit4Mom classes. 

I looked at the Women's Running plan, my past half plans, and some Hansons plans. All of them seemed like more work than I want to put in. lol. 40+ miles a week? 12x repeats? Tempo miles? 




I took a look at my schedule (both current and what it will be in January), and decided I could commit to:

• Mon rest day
• Tues 6-8mi of easy, tempo, or other speedwork-esque miles that can be done as part of 10KTuesday
• Wed easy mileage, up to 5
• Thurs track workouts
• Fri easy mileage, up to 5
• Sat long runs, whatever it takes
• Sun easy mileage, up to 8

That's a max weekly of ~45, which fits nicely with what I'd need for a half. 

In addition, I know that I want the following elements in my plan:

• tempo miles: I hate these, but I need them for mental stamina building
• more than just repeats for track workouts, but no more than 7mi total 
• flexibility for the easy run mileage
• ability to take a second rest day during the week

So, I haven't crafted/found the right plan yet, but I'm hoping to nail that down this weekend, because there's only 95 days until RACE DAY! 

Race Report: Big Peach Sizzler

Previous PR: 47:53 (5/6/17)
90% Goal: 50:00
50% Goal: 47:45
10% Goal: 47:00
Result: 48:11
Weather: 72 degrees, partly sunny, 93% humidity

Training: 
Nick Wills' Miler Method Basecamp
Not the most intense training, but a good mix of stimuli: hills, tempo, track, etc. 
Had a lot of longer runs that were faster than expected, but only a single 20min tempo run that I can remember really pushing myself on.

Pre-Race: 
My head hasn't been in this race for the past two weeks, thanks to a lot of personal stress. Last night, I had a bit of a tight spot in my calf that feeling a bit anxious. I was glad to have my family coming along too (husband and kiddo ran the 5K with a stroller). We arrived at the 5K start, and then I took the train up to the 10K start (it's a one-way race with the 5K race being the second half of the 10K course and starting 30min earlier).

pretty sweet bib number, eh?

It's been awhile since I've been at a running event solo, and I was happy to find a few familiar, friendly faces before the race. Did a short warm-up, and then headed to the start, lining up about midway between the 7:00 and 8:00 flags. I was happy to run into a few other ATC runners and chat with them before the gun went off. 



Race: I had it in my head that this course was downhill and flat, with a couple small hills. As soon as we turned onto Peachtree (~1/4mi in), I was met with a giant hill. WTF. 

"Alright, just get to the top, and then it's downhill from there."

Nooooope. Mile after mile, I found myself climbing hill after hill. The course was definitely "Atlanta flat", but inclines that are NBD on an easy run seem like mountains when you're racing.

Those 50' climbs were so discouraging.

I had a hard time gauging what a good pace would be. Were there more hills? Should I be saving some energy? What pace could I reasonably keep for the last five miles? I had no idea.

Mile 1: 7:27 This felt fast, but manageable. If only the sun would go away... 

Mile 2: 7:38 I found myself pretty alone in the field except another woman, and we kind of held onto each other for a mile and a half, using each other as pacers, almost. Just keep going. Just keep going. 

Mile 3: 7:26 I remember thinking how great it would be to see my teammate (who was waiting at the 5K mark), and that I was actually doing pretty well. If I held this pace, I would hit mid 46-- a HUGE improvement. 

5K: 23:12 (PR = 22:48) I remember feeling awesome about this split. I still felt like I could have been carrying on a conversation the whole time up to this point, and it made me happy to think that, had this been a 5K, I could've been done much sooner without having to save so much for the next 5K.

Mile 4: 7:30 This is where it got hard. I kept thinking "alright, the flat/downhill part has to be around here SOMEWHERE, right?", but it never came. There was just one hill after another. I was singing in my head at this point, reminding myself of my teammate's words "make it count" and "give it your all", and just trying to start counting down the miles. That was harder now, because my watch GPS was off (and ahead) from the course. I was clicking up a solid tenth of a mile too early, and that was demoralizing. 

Mile 5: 8:02.Here's where the breakdown happened. I hated running in the sunlight. My entire body was feeling warm, and I found myself desperately wishing I wasn't wearing a shirt. Was I overheating? Was this heat stroke? Did I need to slow down? ...or was this just what running this fast for this long was supposed to feel like? I had another teammate waiting for me "around mile 5" that kept me going, but i was already wanting to slow down by time I saw her. As soon as I turned the corner, there was another hill. Out of her sightline, i let myself walk. "Just 100 paces", I told myself, "and then you're running again". I probably only needed 50, but the temptation to use the full allotment was too great. By the time I started running, I'd put myself out of contention for a PR. There was no way I could make up that much time.

Mile 6: 7:23/mi avg This stretch just didn't end. I kept frantically looking for the 5K's 3mi marker, and then, after that, the joint finish line. Telling myself "it's just one lap on the track" didn't help. The heat, humidity, hills, and, maybe more than anything, sunlight, got to me. 

Last 0.22mi
grey= pace, green= elevation
see how much that little bit of incline broke my heart and slowed my pace?

I struggled in across the line, so very thankful to be done.



Reflections:
I'm disappointed that I took that walk break. Without it, I'm sure I would have PRed. Especially now, looking back at my mile splits, I can't help but say, "seriously, did you actually NEED to walk? You were doing GREAT."

I knew it during my tempo training run, and I definitely thought a lot about it on today's run: I need more tempo runs in my life. I can perform really well in track workouts, but my level of execution for tempo mileage is lagging really far behind. While I might be able to eek out something good for a 5K, the middle and longer distance runs are still tough for me. I'd much rather "make it hurt" for a short duration than "make it uncomfortable" for a longer one. 

There have been very few times in this training cycle where I've really pushed myself very far out of my comfort zone. That's exactly why today shook out the way it did. Just following a training plan isn't enough, I need to find the right one for me that will train my weaknesses and preserve my strengths, and then I need to execute it. That's still something I'm learning.

While I still believe a lack of tempo runs is what did me in today, I can't forget that I've had some serious life stress outside of my running reality. As much as I'd like to believe it doesn't affect my runs, I'm sure it did.

Another thing I probably need to consider is doing some running after sunrise. 4:30 and 5am runs are great... until you're racing in full sunlight. I struggled a little at Peachtree, and definitely today, due to weather conditions being so different than what I train in. Perhaps a single afternoon run is something I should add in for my next cycle?

It's been a long time since I've actually raced- just about a year, in fact, since the West End Mile. I've realized just how few people actually try to "race" races in my extended running friends group. A lot of us run races, and train for "PRs", but it's rare to find someone who seeks to push themselves outside of their comfort zone. I'm still learning how to do this myself, but I'm always intrigued by how many different things different people get out of running. Whatever you want running for in your life, there's a way to make that happen.  





What's Next:
Taking a week off from anything real, and then looking for a fast fall 5K while training up for an actual half marathon attempt on Thanksgiving (not mentally ready to say I'm racing it, but maybe I can make it more of tempo run than I've ever been able to do at that distance). Definitely need to find a way to incorporate more hill repeats and tempo runs into my "easy mileage" as I look for my next training plan too.