Cramming for Prairie Fire

I was never one to cram for tests, but I sure feel as if I’m cramming for this race!

My goals for the Prairie Fire half marathon have been ever fluid, to say the least.  In January it was a goal race, but after 5 weeks off with tendon issue #1, I decided I likely wouldn’t have any great races this spring and eased back into training.  Training went better than expected, progressed faster than expected (not necessarily smart!), and was uninterrupted for about 5 weeks, so I began thinking that I might just be able to run a solid half there after all, weather permitting.

Then tendon issue #2 occurred and I questioned whether I would even be able to run the race (I was already registered).  I immediately stopped running when my tendon bothered me just slightly, and didn’t start back again until it felt 100% because I was so paranoid following the previous injury.  This amounted to just 12 days off, which was much better than 5 weeks but still left me feeling soft and out of shape!

However, my first handful of runs back went better than I expected.  I was probably nicely tapered and rested, but I felt strong and like I might be able to race respectfully after all.  I went out for 12 miles on my third run back, because I figured that if I couldn’t finish that pain-free, then I had no business even trying to race a half.  The 12 miler turned into a 14 miler that I finished feeling strong with a 6:25 mile.  That was cram workout 1!

And that led me to today’s workout, cram workout 2:  an 8-mile tempo at half-ish pace.  Mondays are usually a cross-training only day for me, but my schedule hasn’t been “set” for a couple of weeks with the tendon issue popping up, and I figured it would be better to run it today than tomorrow in order to have more days between this workout and the race (normally I wouldn’t do a long tempo quite this close to a race, but I felt like I needed it mentally to have some idea about how to pace!).

I figured I would start at 6:40 pace and see what happened.  6:40 pace is a 1:27 half, so while off my PR of 1:24 it would still be one of my better times, as I have run far more halves in the 1:30s than in the 1:20s.

Lucky for me, Missy wanted to run this workout with me with me, and we decided to meet at a trail that is close to both of our homes.  At 5:15 a.m. we took off on a warm-up and psyched ourselves up.  Since I’d run a handful of miles recently faster than 6:40, including the 6:25 final mile in a 14-mile long run, I didn’t think that 6:40 would be too challenging, and for the first 2 miles it wasn’t (although they were a tad slow, with both at 6:42.X).  I knew it was a bad idea for Missy and I to run a hard run first after not running together for a couple of weeks, because we had a million things to talk about!  Initially talking was okay and although I felt residual fatigue in my legs I hoped I would loosen up and feel strong.

The course we ran is pretty much up gradual incline in miles 2, 3, and 4, then back down it on the way back.  When I’m in good shape I really like it, because once you turn around you speed up noticeably without even trying!  Well, I’m not in the best shape and my legs were feeling Friday’s long run plus Saturday’s double and strength work, and during mile 3 I started absolutely hating the course.  The incline was killing me!  I switched from trying to stay in the 6:40’s to just trying to hang on until we could turn around.  That looked like two 6:55.X’s in a row.

 I immediately felt better once we turned around, but I could still tell it wasn’t going to be my best day.  I’d initially hoped to run a huge negative split on the way back, with those miles in the low 6:30’s or high 6:20’s, but I could tell that wasn’t going to happen.  At that point I hoped I could hang on to 6:45ish and finish 8 miles at tempo, because I was sure having thoughts at stopping at mile 6.  But I was able to hang on for 8, fortunately!  My second half splits were 6:42, 6:44, 6:44, and 6:39.  Miles 5, 6, and 7 had declines that helped (running with Missy sure helped as well!), and the final mile I just gutted out and even sprinted in. I will note that Missy's Garmin splits we're faster than mine despite us running side by side the entire way, so I would like to claim hers for a little faster average! 😄

 

Splits rounded up

 

This felt like a heck of a lot more than 119 feet!!

Although it wasn’t quite what I’d hoped for, it gave me a baseline time for this course, as it is harder than my favorite fast tempo course (a half mile dirt loop at the YMCA).  And I think that 6:45ish is a reasonable pace goal for me at Prairie Fire at this point.  It’s a pancake flat course which is a really good thing right now!  I think I will start at 6:50, with the 1:30 pace group maybe, then drop to 6:45 after a few miles and hope to drop to 6:40 or under if I feel good as the race progresses.  If I can average 6:45 I’ll run a 1:28, but if I can run a little faster (6:42ish) I can run a 1:27.  Either would be fine, and if I stay at 6:50 and run a 1:29 that’s fine too.

 Heck, really at this point it’s all the same even if I run in the low 1:30s (which is a definite possibility!), because it’s not going to be a PR either way.  So my A goal is to finish strong and injury pain-free!  We will see what the weather does too – this race is super flat but Wichita is ALWAYS windy and often painfully so.  If it’s not 70 degrees it will be better than last year!  Last year I had a tough race there, as the wind was gusting up to 40 mph and I had an awful side cramp during miles 7-10.  I was racing for place, not time, due to the weather conditions, and really had to fight for 3^rd female (the eventual 4^th female and I passed each other back and forth several times, and I took 3^rd by less than 10 seconds while listening to her hometown crowd cheer for her to overtake me).  I ran just over 1:30 for it, which was really disappointing because I was nice and fit then, so it will be ironic if I can beat that this year but I am going to try!

Final stretch of Prairie Fire 2015 - this is what pain looks like!