Running Down the Dream: Septemberness

September 2017 in review!

Total mileage for the month: 271.0 (in comparison: January - 261, February - 212, March - 203, April - 219, May - 249, June - 205, July - 275, August - 301). Having a cut-back week reduced my total mileage by about 20, running 3 races within 8 days reduced it a bit, and September being a 30 day month reduced it by about 10, but I expect to be back over 300 in October!

August 28-Sep. 3: 62.5
Sep. 4-10: 63.7
Sep. 11-17: 71.5 - after 10 consecutive weeks in the 60s, I made it to the 70s, wahoo!
Sep. 18-24: - 71.3 - the 70s, wahoo the sequel!
Sep. 25-Oct. 1: - 51.6 - what is this tapering thing?

Mother-daughter photo on Albani's Sep. 18 birthday

Races:

Sep. 2: Stars and Stripes 5K as a GMP/GHMP gauge in 19:26 for 1st overall person
Sep. 4: Run for a Child 10K in gross weather in 38:18 for 1st overall female
Sep. 10: Plaza 10K in 37:30 for a 10K road PR on a rolling course in warm, humid conditions, for 1st in age group 35-39 and 8th overall female
Sep. 30: Indianapolis Women's Half Marathon in 1:20:50 for a half PR, 5th overall, and 2nd in age group 35-39; I was elated to lower my half PR under conditions that were not nearly as conducive to a fast time as when I ran my previous PR of 1:21:26.
Favorite race: The Indy Women's half, because I love the half distance. I really liked the Plaza 10K too, but the 10K is too short/fast for me to love as much!

Workouts:

Sep. 13: 2 x 4 mile tempo with 1 mile easy between (2 miles warm up and 2 miles cool down), with a goal pace range of 6:00-6:10. My splits were: 6:02, 6:06, 6:00, 5:59 (recovery), 6:06, 6:03, 6:07, 6:08 - so averages of 6:02 for the first tempo, 6:06 for the second tempo, and 6:04 for all of the tempo miles in combination. Going into this one I suspected I would feel my September 10 race/long run combo on my legs, but I thought that could also be good for me because I need to learn to keep pace on tired legs. I felt good enough on the first 4 mile tempo and got into a groove; I think it would have been easier for me to have run 8 miles straight at tempo instead of running this workout, because getting re-started after my recovery mile was pretty challenging. I started my second tempo around 6:20 pace so ended up having to fight a bit for my mile 1 split, then mile 2 felt great, then I again fought to keep miles 3-4 under 6:10. I was glad I won that fight, but it wasn't an easy one! Ideally I would have liked to run the second repeat faster than the first, but it was hard to gauge what exactly I had to give, plus I ran solo, which always makes any given pace a bit harder. I walked away plenty happy considering my fatigue going into this one. I didn't expect this to be a PR workout coming so soon off the Plaza 10K, but since this was my first time running this workout it was anyway, hah.
Sep. 19: 8 x 0.25 mile hill repeats (jog back down for recoveries, 2.3 warm up, 2.X cool down for 9.1 total). This was an interesting workout, because it was extremely foggy and I could barely see 10 feet in front of me. Basically it was all about lying to myself about how close I was to to top of the hill! I ended up averaging 1:47.6, beating my previous best average of 1:49.1 (described on April 18 here) -- and comparatively in November 2016 I averaged 1:54, so although 1:47 seems quite slow for a quarter mile, it is nowhere near as slow as 1:54 and I am progressing on this hill. I also had one split that was 1:43, which was my first time running under 7:00 pace for a repeat on this beast. You know you've picked a good repeat hill when your pace running up it at cardiac arrest is pretty much the same pace you hit practically falling down it at no effort on your recovery jogs. This workout was done solo.
Sep. 23: 20 mile long run with pick-ups, see description in long runs below.
Sep. 26: 12 x 400 m with 2:00 recoveries between reps, and 3:00 recoveries between sets of 4 reps (2.1 warm up, 1.7 cool down for 10 total, because I jogged 400 m x 9 in the time between reps and 600 m x 2 between sets, all of which ended up being slightly less than the full 2-3 minutes, but I do not do well with stopping so I just forfeited the additional 10-15 seconds of rest and started when I got to the line). I would typically choose a 12 mile tempo run over 12 fast 400s, and my goal split range was 1:20-1:22, which is the fastest I've ever had, so I was pretty intimidated by this workout. But I nailed it! My splits were 82, 81, 81, 81, 80, 81, 81, 81, 81, 81, 82, 80. Once I found pace at 81, I stayed there almost like clockwork, and these felt fast and hard, but also very good and do-able! I was really excited to hit this one, because in my mind I am still running 400s at 88. This was my best 400 m workout as an adult, and although I ran faster in high school back when I actually had speed, I don't know if I ever did 12 reps (typically I did 8 then). Back in March I ran 8 x 400 m with 4 in 1:22 and 4 in 1:21, so doing 12 faster showed progress. It goes to show that speed really does come with mileage, and the hill repeats the previous week probably helped too. Daniel was kind enough to run this with me and to run in the outside of lane 1, and having him there was probably instrumental to my success with this workout.
Doubles on Sep. 12, 14, 19, and 20. I didn't have any during the weeks before my important races (Plaza 10K and Indy Half), which felt odd but made sense.
Strides on Sep. 7, 21, 28, and pre-race on Sep. 2, 4, 10, and 30.
Bootcamp (full body strength workouts) on Sep. 11, 18, and 25, plus enough additional strength work here and there to get to a minimum of 90 minutes total per week (except for the week of Sep. 4-10 when I only did 30 minutes total all week due to running 3 races in 8 days).
Favorite workout: I can hardly believe this, but because I'm counting the 20 miler as my favorite long run, I am choosing the 12 x 400 m workout. I felt confident throughout and hit my splits. I like the 2 x 4 mile tempo workout better on paper, but that day I was fatigued and did not feel as confident about maintaining pace, plus it was hot and humid for the tempo workout and "only" 68* with a 62* dew point for the track workout.

Long Runs:

Sep. 4: 14.3 miles via 3.1 warm-up, Run for a Child 10K, and 5 miles cool-down. I nearly died of starvation on this cool-down.
Sep. 10: 16 miles via 3.2 warm-up, the Plaza 10K, and 6.6 miles cool-down. This is what you end up with when you run shorter races during marathon training! I learned from my mistake on Labor Day and took half a gel between the race and the cool-down. I took the other half right before starting my warm-up to practice running hard with it on my stomach, and I'm sure the carbs and caffeine didn't hurt, despite being unnecessary for a 10K.
Sep. 17: 17.2 miles (6:52) done on Sunday so I could run 15 miles of it with Jessi instead of all of it solo. Although it generally works best with my non-running life to do my long runs on Saturdays, there is something to be said for sleeping in and running short on Saturday after a tiring work week! I felt fantastic on this run and it was the best relaxed long run I've ever done. After running the final 5 miles in 6:3X while talking non-stop, I started thinking that maybe, just maybe, I can actually race 26.2 at 6:17 at peak on an absolute perfect day; but at the least it was great to feel that I could have gone on to run a sub-3:00 marathon (which requires 6:51.9 average pace) on our rolling farm roads (517 ft of gain) on a relaxed training run in 70 degree weather.
Sep. 23: 20 miles (6:49) - my first 20 of this cycle! This was mostly a relaxed run, but I had 5 x 1:00 pick-ups to 6:00-6:10 pace at the beginning of each mile during the final 5 miles (so 5:00 total of hard running). I ran 6 solo, then picked up Jessi and ran 14 with her. I was hoping to average sub-7:00 for this run, so I was pretty pumped with where I ended up, especially since it was 68*, the dew point was also 68* (i.e., 100% humidity), and our course had 560 ft elevation gain. My long runs have been big confidence boosters because I am doing them at least 20 seconds/mile faster than I was before BMO Mesa-Phoenix, and my goal marathon pace for CIM is 10 second faster than I ran at Phoenix, so the math there seems promising. This was also what might be my last fasted long run, because once I start going over 20 or doing more intensity during my long runs, I will eat my marathon day breakfast and use at least one gel of the same type I will use during the race. I drank 16 oz of water with nuun during this run, while on the run (i.e., grab a bottle, drink it while running an out and back, then drop it with no watch stopping, like I will in the race). This run replaced the week before as the best relaxed long run I've ever done (minus the 6:00 pace pick-ups; those were not relaxed but the other 2:11 of this 2:16 run was), and I felt the same way about it as I did the week before. A year ago I could not have run 20 miles at this pace or even close, on this course and while talking and without being rested (this was my October 2016 marathon pace), so I really appreciate the progress.
Sep. 30: 18.2 miles, with 3 warm-up, the Indy Women's Half, and 2 cool-down. I didn't really feel like I ran 18 miles total, so that was also good!
Favorite long run: Although I loved them all, the clear choice is the 20 miler, because it was 20 miles that went awesomely! Plus I took the long runs that included races out of this vote, which really narrowed the options, haha!
I had midweek 11-13 mile runs every Wednesday except for Sep. 27. The Sep. 13 one was a workout, as described above, but the others were base runs.

Highlights/thoughts/randomness:

This was definitely a month of racing! The only one I got to run rested was the Indy Women's Half, but so goes focused marathon training, and CIM is of course the big goal! My "encouraging" husband reminded me that I was actually not completely rested since I ran 20 miles one week before the race, but I don't think it really hurt me (yes, he said this prior to the race!). It was amazing how light a 50 mile week felt prior to the race; mileage in the 60s-70s is officially my new normal.
Just keep running...no days off in September again (my last day off was June 19).
We watched the Breaking2 documentary, which was a great reminder to challenge your limits! I have it saved and protected on my DVR.

Non-running life events:

Jon and I celebrated on wedding anniversary on Sep. 17!
Albani turned 10 on Sep. 18!
As of Sep. 13, I have been at my current job for 7 years, also meaning I have lived in Missouri for over 7 years. Time flies!