What to say…

I missed a blog entry 10 days ago, where I planned to write about my recent experiences swimming.  Last week I would have written about struggling with a couple of workouts and what I learned from it.  This week I wanted to write about my breakthrough brick.  So, what do I do, what should I blog about?  Maybe a bit of all three.

As I said, swimming is my least favorite workout.  If I miss a workout, odds are it is a swim.  And I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been swimming and thought to myself that I could drop the swim and just do duathlons and be much happier.  Two weeks ago was no exception.  But I got in the water and started my workout when something amazing happened.  I found the zone!  My body seemed to find the right position, my form was solid and I was flying with less effort.  It only lasted for 100 meters, but it was a glorious feeling.  Having found that, and wanting it again is enough to keep me coming back to the pool.  Who knows when it will happen again since it took 2+ years this time, but I suspect I am getting closer to finding that sweet spot with regularity.  And then, watch out USAT, I’ll be coming on strong!

Something happened last weekend, perhaps the change in the weather, I’m not sure.  All I know is that Friday evening I was exhausted from my swim, more so than usual.  Saturday, after my bike ride, I had a hard time with the run.  It was so hot and I knew I hadn’t had enough to drink on the bike.  Sunday’s run wasn’t pretty.  Scheduled for an 11 miler, I started noticing pain in my hamstring around mile 4.  I was going to quit but the pain went away before I finished the lap.  I figured I would take one lap at a time.  I was  upset that this was happening now, and not going to risk doing any damage with my race right around the corner.  Shortly into the next lap the pain resurfaced.  I turned around and headed for home.  Then I started getting a similar pain in my other leg, and then my lower back.  I realized it wasn’t my old injury coming back, but probably cramping from dehydration.  I hadn’t run that far yet was soaked with sweat and just hadn’t drunk that much to compensate, and probably was still behind from the day before.  I backed off the pace, tried to drink extra fluids, and headed home – three miles short of the day’s goal.  It was a great learning opportunity though, reminding me that I need to drink more as the temperature heats up.

Before my workouts this weekend I got an email from coach with an outline of what she thinks I can do at my next race.  Needless to say her goal is MUCH faster than mine.  I’d be tempted to dismiss it, except she was spot on for my last race.  To top it off I read her blog about when her coach believed in her more than she believed in herself.  I decided that Saturday I would really push myself to see what I was capable of doing.  NOTE:  I really need to start doing this more on my training rides every weekend.

Anyway, I took off at a fairly decent clip.  I tried not to think about how fast I was going or how much power I was generating, just go.  I tried to watch for wind signs so I’d know whether to expect a head/tail wind on the final leg, but it looked dead still.  The ride was fairly uneventful until about the last 8 miles, where I passed a rider going  up hill.  A bit later I looked back and he had managed to grab on to my rear wheel and was drafting off me.  He asked and I said I didn’t care, but made up my mind to drop him.  At that point I really started pushing.  I don’t think my pace ever dropped below 22 mph, even uphill, and my power hit the upper 200’s several times.  No matter what I did, he hung on.  I kept telling myself that this was a race and I needed to go.  Funny thing though, my legs were burning and I was breathing hard, but I never got too tired or worn out.  Next thing I knew it was time to get off my bike for a short run.  Normally I ease off a bit towards the end of the bike so I have some legs to run with, but with my chaser I never got the chance.  So I started running, and my legs felt no different than they do after any other ride.  It was a short run of a couple of miles, and while I couldn’t have run 10 miles that quickly, it was a quick pace given the workout I’d just completed.

What a mental boost that workout was.  Not only for the race coming up, but for future workouts where I now know I can push harder on the bike leg (which will only make me faster)!

I don’t know what will happen Sunday.  I’ve had a lot of good workouts and feel very comfortable with my training level.  I’ve got a time posted on the refrigerator door that I should easily beat.  The question is, can I hit coach’s goal time.  It’s party time if I beat either time, but if I am able to do as well as coach thinks, the part will be off the hook – probably two beers instead of one!

Thanks for reading!

Easy does it!

A week ago I was flying high.  I’d put in my best run ever, especially for a 13.1 distance.  I can’t remember my PR for the 10K as it was a while back, but I suspect that I ran faster last week then I did at the shorter distance.

Then I got a much needed week of recovery training.  I was pretty surprised at how sore my legs were.  It wasn’t until I got on my bike and spun them out that they started feeling normal again.  I also took the opportunity to eat some cheat food.  I felt guilty, thinking I would have gained a bunch of weight.  However, at last check I was right where I want to be.

I’ve got just three weeks until Galveston, where I really find out where I’m at.  Checking my schedule, I’ve got solid workouts planned for the next 10 days or so, and then we start to taper.  I really need the weather to cooperate and let me get outside on my bike.

So why am I telling myself “easy does it”?  With all the success I’ve had in training this year, and then the solid race last week, it is easy to get carried away.  I’ve got to be careful to not put too much pressure on myself, as historically that hasn’t served me well.  Each training session I’m going to focus on what I need to accomplish that session, and just that.  I don’t want to get too excited about the upcoming race.

One day at a time, one workout at a time.  If I do that the race will take care of itself.

Wow!

What do you do when you wake up at 4:30 and can’t go back to sleep?  Update your blog.  Note to self, if you want to sleep late, don’t fall asleep at 9 pm!

Yesterday was my first race of 2012.  Based on the title of this entry, you can safely assume that I had a good race.  The short version is that I took 6th in my age group, recorded a 1:38 (for a half marathon) beating my previous best by 4 minutes.  I was hoping to break 1:42, and thought there was an outside chance of breaking 1:40.  My finish time was even on the radar, at least not mine.

The rest of this might be a bit boring, but I do want to record my thoughts.

The Plan
Wanting to break 1:42, I knew I would need to average about 7:45 pace.  Honestly I didn’t think I could do that, and really figured that when I had done it before it had been a fluke.  That said I needed a plan.  I figured I would start with the pace group running 8:00 (with a pace group) for about 4 miles, drop to 7:45 for 4 miles, and then to 7:30 until the end.  This would have gotten me my goal time and I would have been very happy.

Talking to coach the day before the race, she didn’t like this plan.  She thought it was too conservative, that I was fully capable of going under 1:40.  She wanted me to start out on my own, but if I was going to start with the pace group I shouldn’t stay any longer than 1-2 miles.  Staying any longer would force me to run much faster to make up for lost time.  “Listen to your body” she said.  “Try not to focus on your Garmin”, and we even considered going without it.  By now I should know better than to not believe her.  I think she knows my body better than I do!  So my plan changed slightly to still start with the pace group, but to listen to my body.

Race morning
We started off late leaving the house.  Then while pumping gas I decided it was colder than I’d thought and wanted to go back home to get an undershirt.  We got to our rendezvous point with Team RWB and took a group photo.  By the time I found my pace leader it was time to start lining up for the start.  I didn’t get a chance to warm up!  In all the excitement I also forgot to take my pre-start gel.  Really not the start I’d hoped for!

There were around 3000 people doing the half marathon.  With how the corrals were set up I found myself fairly close to the starting line.  The full marathon people got a 5 minute head start.  I’m not sure why they did that, as it didn’t help us any.

The Race
There wasn’t a starting gun (or even a starting line), just a guy on a megaphone saying GO, and we were off. I’d expected us to start off with slower times fighting through the crowds of people.  Since we were close to the front we quickly found space to run, and at a quicker pace than I’d expected.  At about 1/2 mile I felt the pace leader drop back to the 8:00 pace.  I did a quick body check and decided I was fine with the pace I was running and left the group.

I really tried to not look at my Garmin too much.  When I thought I might be pushing the tempo a bit too much I would check.  Several times I found my pace around 7:10 and would back off.  I have to wonder what would have happened if I hadn’t of known.  Could I have kept that pace up and not blown up?

There wasn’t much going on in the race.  I’d picked some good up temp music to keep me motivated.  There were lots of spectators lining the course cheering us on.  And the course was very flat.  It did seem to me that there were a bunch of false flats, and I kept waiting for the other side, but it never materialized.

The real problem was the wind, which was brutal.  I told myself early on that this was good training for Galveston, which will likely be windy, but that didn’t make it any easier.  I tried to find big people to draft off of as much as possible.  Unfortunately most of those people are further back in the pack, and often times it was just me with no one around.

I’m glad I took the extra shirt as it was cold at the start.  I did warm up within a couple of miles, but never got hot, nor wished I didn’t have the shirt.  While I wished I’d also grabbed my gloves and arm warmers before the start, I was fine without them during.

I tried to calculate my pace several times during the race.  Most of the time I missed the mile markers.  When I didn’t miss them, my calculations were all over the place.  I kept thinking my math had to be wrong, and it probably was, I was working pretty hard and couldn’t focus on the math.

At some point I realized I’d forgotten my pre-race gel.  I’m not sure why I didn’t take one immediately as I had plenty.  I did some quick math, adjusting my nutrition schedule, and stuck to it.  Fortunately it was never a problem.

At about the halfway point I thought I was averaging about 7:40 pace, again, I’m not sure about the math.  I figured I would just hold this until mile 10, and then pick it up until the end.  The next few miles went by very slowly.  I started thinking that mile 10 was too soon, and it became mile 11, then mile 12.

Mile 12 was key for me.  Team RWB had the water station there and I knew my shirt would get me some good support there, hopefully enough for a final kick to the end.  Unfortunately mile 12 was manned by a bunch of young kids and there wasn’t a RWB shirt in sight.  I think I got one shout out at the very end, nothing like what I’d hoped for.

That last mile was SO long.  I had no kick left in me.  I was telling myself to just hold on.  More math told me that if I could just hold an 8:00 pace I would break 1:40.  It felt like I was running in slow motion.  I didn’t feel any of the usual emotion coming in towards the finish line, just pain and realization that I just couldn’t pick it up any more.

I crossed the finish line, and apologies to the runners behind me leaned over with my hands on my knees trying to recover.  I mumbled something to the volunteer who asked if I was ok, got my medal and headed out of the finish area. 

In closing
My watch read 1:38 and change!  I honestly didn’t believe coach when she told me I could do that.  I started out faster than ever before, and while there were times when I worried that I’d started out too fast, I was able to hold on through the end.

I have to say this was a great race for me to start the season.  Yes the time was great, but it is much more than that.  I pushed myself harder than I thought I could, and when things got tough I just kept going.  There were times, especially into the wind, that I walking entered my mind.  Instead I reminded myself that if I want to be fast it is going to be hard.

Yesterday is now over and it is time to move on.  Tomorrow starts my training for the Galveston HIM, and if you thought my goals for this race were crazy, stay tuned!