Running Down the Dream: December 2021

The quick stats:

Miles run: 4168.2
Races run: 14
Race overall female podiums: 14
Race overall female wins: 7 (1 overall person win)
PRs:

50k, with 3:34:41 in my debut
20k, with 1:19:41, though that's slower than my PR marathon pace
Yearly mileage, with 4168.2
Monthly mileage, with 428.2
Weekly mileage, with 106.0

Records:

4th fastest overall female 50k time in North America in 2021
Missouri state road racing record for overall female 50k
Frisco 50k female course record
Oklahoma state road racing record for female masters and female age 40-44 half marathon
Missouri state road racing record for marathon female age 41
Missouri state road racing record for 20k female age 40
Milwaukee Lakefront Marathon masters record (2021 was the 40th year for the race)
Hospital Hill Half Marathon course record (2021 was the first year for a new course though, so I got this by nature of winning the race, not by really running a record)

Injuries: 0

Smiles in my first 50k

The overall impression:

2021 was a good year! While I didn't have any break-through times, I consistently ran well throughout the year in races and workouts. I really found my stride with masters running and enjoyed the new opportunities it brought. I can almost say I'm undefeated in the masters division, with the one exception being the 10,000 m at USATF masters track nationals (so, I am undefeated on the road!). Most importantly, I had zero injuries, issues, or significant illnesses!

I had a lot of fun chasing records, some of which I didn't even know I was chasing (I didn't know about the 50k North American list, the Oklahoma masters half record, or the Milwaukee Marathon masters record until after those races - nor Hospital Hill, but that really doesn't count). I also had a lot of fun doing races that I've avoided in the past. Most races I ran this year are races I wouldn't have run in 2017-2020 because they aren't fast courses or generally in good weather. I didn't have any good weather + fast course combinations this year, which may also be why I didn't have any break-through race times - or at least that sounds like a good rationale. I had a few great weather + mediocre course situations (Frisco, Tobacco Road, Bass Pro), two of which went well and the third which I was a tad overcooked for.

I think my best performance of the year was the Tobacco Road Marathon; though not a PR, I ran a 2:48 on gravel in a race with around 900 ft of elevation gain and I paced pretty brilliantly, including the fastest final mile of any marathon I've ever run (6:07, as the first 2.5 and last 2.5 miles were on the road). I think if I'd been on a flat paved course that day I'd have seen a PR, but as it was I was happier with this race than any of the other 2:4Xs I've run in the past few years. It was liberating to feel like I ran a really good marathon instead of feeling like my time just wasn't good enough (re: 2:45). I was also pleased with my 50k debut, though the final 4 miles weren't what I wanted and I know I can do better! The Milwaukee Marathon, while a poorly paced race, was also one that I'm proud of in retrospect because my performance in the weather conditions we had was pretty solid - just significantly slower than I'd have run in 40 degrees. The only race I was purely disappointed in this year was the masters national 10,000 m, but I walked away knowing that I should never again run a track race in 90 degrees! #themoreyouknow

My other big running-related highlights for the year were being selected to join the rabbitELITE team and Team UCAN. Nike is also supporting me with some great shoes for marathon training through 2024. I've applied for several elite teams and programs over the years, and it's been exciting to find some good fits and to represent brands that I love! I wrote a recent article for rabbit chatter here.

I am heavily involved with my local running group, Miles from Mentor. We have group runs every day, and I coach many of the regulars so I coordinate our workouts as much as possible given our varied race schedules and goals. One of my athletes took her marathon PR from a high 2:57 to a mid-2:52 and ran two marathons off of one cycle for the first time this year. Another ran a 4 minute PR at Chicago in the terrible heat (she was ready for about a 15 minute PR). Another improved his half PR from 1:19 to 1:15 - to think, I recruited him to join our group because he was about my same pace before I started coaching him, hah! Another of my athletes broke my 8k course record at Frisco and had a speedy half debut. I have one running Houston in January 2022, ready for her first sub-3.

I really enjoy coaching, and seeing my friends succeed was more exciting than anything I did this year. When I retire from my full-time gig I'd love to do more official coaching, but currently I'm a volunteer, though I love when I get treats like brunch or UCAN from my athletes!

I have big goals for 2022, but the most important is to maintain my zero injury streak so I can continue doing what I love every day! Admittedly I did the math on what it would take to exceed 5000 miles for the year (average of 96.2/week), and it wouldn't be smart for me to do that yet, but maybe in a couple of years...

From the rabbit elite website

You can read my race reaps for 2021 here:

2/6/21 - Cabin Fever Reliever 20K
3/13/21 - Running of the Squirrels 5K
3/27/21 - T-Town Half Marathon
4/17/21 - Clinton Historic Half Marathon
4/24/21 - Frisco Railroad Run 50K
5/15/21 - Tobacco Road Marathon
6/5/21 - Hospital Hill Half Marathon
7/3/21 - 3.1 on the 3rd
7/24/21 - USATF Masters Outdoor National Championship 10,000 m
8/28/21 - Rock the Parkway Half Marathon
9/13/21 - Plaza 10K
10/3/21 - Milwaukee Lakefront Marathon
10/17/21 - Garmin Kansas City Half Marathon
11/7/21 - Bass Pro Marathon

You can read my 2021 monthly recaps here:

You can read my past yearly recaps here:

December 2021 in review!

Total mileage for the month: 380.9

Nov. 29-Dec. 5: 80.7
Dec. 6-12: 85.1
Dec. 13-19: 77.2
Dec. 20-26: 88.0
Dec. 27-Jan. 2: 92.9

Races:

None this month - a little racing break.

Ibbetson card

Major family Christmas

Workouts:

Dec. 3: 10 x 0:15 hill sprints towards the end of an 8 mile easy run.
Dec. 7: 8 x 0.25 hill repeats during an 11 mile run. Hills are tough for me, and the hill we often do these on climbs nearly 100 ft in a quarter mile. I've run it enough to know that anything under 7:00 pace for these repeats is good for me, and 6 of these 8 reps were sub-7:00. I then looked back at other workouts I've done on this hill from 2019-2021 ~~because I clearly have too much time on my hands,~~ and surprisingly to me, this was the second fastest I've run these in the past 3 years, with the fastest being in 2019 not long before I ran 3 PRs. From the first climb, my legs were screaming, my heart was nearly in cardiac arrest, and my whole body was spent, but none of that is unusual for this workout, hah! I always wonder how this workout feels to my training buddies who annihilate me on it.
Dec. 10: 8 x 1:00 on/1:00 off towards the end of an 8 mile run, for a light stimulus. Garmin recorded my paces from 5:37-6:23, reminding me that it's not the most accurate for a 1:00 sample, but it was a good effort-based little pick-me-up.
Dec. 15: 4 x (600 m, 400 m, 200 m) with 400 m recoveries on hills, in an 11 miler. We ran a hilly area with multiple different hills during this workout, and most of the hard efforts were uphill but a couple were flat, a couple were downhill, and some were mixed. Paces were pretty meaningless since a steep uphill is not equivalent to a downhill, but ranged from 4:54-7:16. One of my flat 400s was 1:20, which is really good for me. Recovering uphill was also an interesting experience! I originally wrote this workout to do on the track, hence the meters, but decided it would be more effective on the road with hills involved.
Dec. 18: 10 x 1:00 pick ups to 10kish effort, at the beginning of each mile starting at 4 in a 14 mile run. My paces were all over on these because we were on a hilly route, but averaged about 5:45. This run was very blustery, with a powerful north wind.
Dec. 21: 2 miles at MP, jog to hill, 2 x (2 x 0.25 uphill, 2 x 0.25 downhill). My Garmin said I did 6:14 / 6:09 for the first 2 miles, but it felt more like 6:25 so either I felt really good or my watch was off (4 other people were also running and everyone's watches read differently - somewhere between 6:00-6:35, which is a really big range!). My uphill rep paces were 6:23, 6:27, 6:38, 6:38 and the downhills were 5:05, 5:29, 5:18, 5:22 - but I was ending in slightly different places so I'm also not sure how accurate my watch was here. In the end, it was a solid workout and efforts were where they should have been, so maybe it was a lesson to not worry too much about what my Garmin says when I'm running at the correct effort level - I know marathon effort and the hill reps were just "hard".
Dec. 23: 6 x 0:45 hill reps during a 9 mile run.
Dec. 28: Track ladder of 1600 m, 1200 m, 1000 m, 800 m, 600 m, 400 m, 200 m, with 400 m recoveries between everything. The goal of the workout was to start at 6:00 for the 1600 m and run each rep a shade faster - such as lap goals of 1:30, 1:29, 1:28, 1:27, 1:26, 1:25 per segment - but in reality I was very stuck at 1:30! The 1600 in 6:00 with every lap at 1:30 felt great; the 400 in 1:30 felt terrible, hah. I did manage to hit 0:39 for the 200, which is good for me, but I could not get my legs turning over on any other rep. I'm not sure if I overestimated my fitness when planning this one, or I had an off day (or both), but I also haven't done a track workout since July and my legs let me know they preferred 6:00 to 5:XX! It was unseasonably warm at about 52 degrees, which was amazing, but with that came a 20+ mph south wind (headwind for the homestretch 100 m), which surely didn't help this workout.
Dec. 31: 16 miles with 2.5 easy, 2 hilly tempo (6:17, 6:18), 7.5 easy, 2 hilly tempo (6:21, 6:19), 2 easy. This was easily my favorite workout of the month, and perhaps the best spot I've started a training cycle in as far as tempo/long run work. A few of my running buddies did the same workout, but we have slightly different tempo paces, so we all did our own efforts then reconvened for the easy miles. It was a great way to finish off the year!
Strides: Dec. 6, 14, 20, 25, 27, 30.
Doubles: Dec. 2, 6, 8, 11, 13, 14, 20, 21, 23, 27, 28, 29, 30.

Post-long run Christmas brunch time

Christmas Lights Run #1

Christmas Lights Run #2

Long Runs:

Dec. 4: 16 miles (7:23) that felt great with a great group!
Dec. 5: 13.2 miles (7:54) that also felt great with a great group!
Dec. 11: 15.5 miles (8:06) in crazy wind, followed by breakfast with my running group at Rebecca's. We talked so long afterwards that Colin and I ended up running our double from Rebecca's house (granted, it was pretty quick turn-around because I had a massage at 1:30 that I knew I wouldn't want to run after). My running buddies are the best!
Dec. 12: 12.1 miles (7:48) on hills with my crew.
Dec. 18: 14.2 miles (7:45), with 10 x 1:00 picks up, described above.
Dec. 19: 11 miles (7:32), which was probably the fastest paced second day long run I've done - speedy people dragged me along I suppose.
Dec. 24: 16.1 miles (7:35), in Wichita with a running buddy - I love that I have people to run with even when away from home!
Dec. 25: 12.3 miles (7:53) in Cherryvale, KS solo - I don't know that anyone in Cherryvale runs, hah!
Dec. 31: 16 miles (7:17) with an embedded split tempo workout, described above.
As demonstrated above, back-to-back long runs are back! The week of Nov. 29-Dec. 5 marked the first in a 16 week block of building to my second 50k, which I hope to finish stronger than my first. About 3 weeks after my 50k, I'll be running a marathon, so I'll be doing marathon-specific work this block as well. That went really well last time, so I'm optimistic!

We call this #dyingdecember

Christmas Eve Eve group run

Running Highlights:

Read my rabbit article here!
USATF announced the 2024 Olympic Trials Qualifying Standards for the marathon, with a women's time of 2:37:00 and qualifying window running from 1/1/22 until 60 days before the 2024 Trials (likely around 1/1/24). I was expecting the standard to be in the 2:30s and thought I'd made peace with not chasing it, but the news hit me harder than expected, I guess because of how my 2019 panned out. I know I'd have made the 2020 Trials had it been less windy in Indy or had I been able to run CIM 2019, but the drop from 2:45 to 2:37 feels completely insurmountable for me. I'm generally a positive person and a tiny part of me wants to say, "I'm going for it!" but realistically it's not in my wheelhouse - and I'm also not willing to be disappointed with every marathon I run that is not 2:37 or a big step towards it. I love marathoning and working to get the best out of myself, so the only things the standard changed for me was which races I went to (e.g., those with sanctioned fast courses, thick fields, and the likelihood of good weather) and the pace I latched onto (on several occasions 6:15-6:20 to try for the standard instead of 6:20-6:25 that I felt more confident about). I'll run just as many marathons whether or not I'm chasing the standard - actually maybe more if I'm not because time performances don't matter in the same way! - but it was a really fun goal that I'm mourning the loss of. I understand why USATF did it; the 2020 field was huge and no one who can't run sub-2:37 coming in has a chance to make the team, and that's the sole reason for the race...but if (if!) a secondary purpose is to grow the sport and inspire women's distance running, then a more achievable mark such as 2:42-2:43 would be ideal for people like me.
I did two Christmas lights run with my running group, plus a brunch. We love to run and eat!

I'm settling with saying I would have qualified in 4
of these cycles had my timing been different.
Interesting that it's bounced around so much!

Life Highlights:

I got dressed up for a Saturday night out at The Arc's Christmas Extravaganza on December 5. We joked a lot about Saturday nights in sweatpants (my favorite type!), but it was fun to put on cocktail attire and wear makeup for once.
Christmas, of course! We spent two days at my parents' house and two days at my in-laws, which was perfect!