Running Down the Dream: May 2022

Tuesday, May 31, 2022

MAYbe (May 2022 Recap)

May 2022 in review!

Total mileage for the month: 340.6

May 2-8: 81.5
May 9-15: 80.5
May 16-22: 75.5
May 23-29: 75.7
May 30-June 4: 75.0

#marvelousmay

Races:

May 21: Bill Snyder Highway Half in 1:30:40 for 1st masters female, 5th OAF, and a wonderful mini-racecation. The situation was that I could run my hardest and get 1st masters/5th OAF or I could run 1:30 and get 1st masters/5th OAF and potentially help a friend, and I chose the latter.
It was hilarious if you were there

Workouts:

May 3: Track work of 600 m (2:04), 500 m (1:44), 400 m (1:21), 300 m (1:01), 200 m (0:37), 100 m (0:17) with 300 m jog recoveries. This was a huge departure from recent workouts and seemed like it was good for me! I probably didn't have the strength back I would have needed to do a threshold workout or anything much longer at this point post-Boston. I usually struggle with speed work but I enjoyed this one. Four of my running buddies did the same workout, and we staggered our starts so we would all finish the rep at about the same time (e.g., starting in descending projected time order).
May 6: 16.1 miles with 9 x 0:45 pick ups to ~5:45 in the second half. I love putting little pick ups in long runs; it seems to help me biomechanically but isn't tiring.
May 10: 4 x 1 mile at threshold effort with 1:30 recoveries in 5:59, 5:59, 6:07, 6:12, with my annual reminder that it's very difficult to negative split anything in 72 degrees and 90% humidity! I kind of expected I'd run them all in 6:10-6:15, so I was still happy with this workout despite the regression. I gave myself 4-6 reps because I wasn't sure how I'd feel, with this being my first real workout post-Boston and not feeling full strength yet, and I was ready to stop at 4 but I think I'd have done 5-6 had it been 50 degrees. I'll get more used to it soon (though I'll definitely still complain about it!) but the first couple of warm humid workouts are really a shock to the system!
May 13: 3 mile fartlek of 3:00 on/1:30 off/2:00 on/1:00 off/1:00 on/0:30 off within a 9 mile run. I just ran the ons hard and didn't look at my paces - I ran a hilly route and it was warm and humid, and I am learning that I sometimes feel better about workouts when I don't know exactly what I did.
May 16: 2 x 1 mile at threshold + 2 x 0.5 faster in 5:56, 5:57, 2:54, 2:52 with 1:30 recovery jogs. I had great weather for this one so I looked at my splits afterward. My confidence is still wrecked from Boston but this one gave me a smidge of hope.
I also did 4-6 x 0:20 strides, 4-6 x 150 m, and light unstructured pick ups several times this month, but didn't note those here.
Doubles: May 2, 3, 5, 10, 12, 16, 17, 26.
Favorite workout: Probably May 16 because it was relatively short, felt smooth, and went well.

#marvelousmay post-workout

Long Runs:

May 6: 16.1 miles (7:31) for #fifteenonfriday plus one!
May 14: 14 miles (7:57) with a great group on farm roads. I gave myself 12-15 for the day and amazingly stopped at 14 instead of the farthest option (I blame the humidity). Ironically I'd also given myself 12-15 on May 6.
May 21: 18.2 miles, including the Bill Snyder Half Marathon. I didn't realize I ran this far until I uploaded my runs when I got home that evening.
May 28: 17.3 miles (7:44) that felt really good with the group.
Favorite long run: None of them were particularly noteworthy, but I'll go with May 28 because the weather was super nice for May 28 and I felt like I could run all day.

"I don't know how to be marvelous" -
Sean on #marvelousmay

Running Highlights:

Planning my races for the rest of 2022 has been fun!
Mini-racecation to Manhattan with a couple of running buddies, plus my parents met us there.

Miles from Mentor bonfire (occurred on 4/30 but
didn't make it in my April post!)

I found myself on the Hospital
Hill Instagram ad

Life Highlights:

I got to spend Mother's Day weekend with both my mom and mother-in-law in southeast Kansas. We also did Ibbetson family photos, which required coordinating a lot of people.
Albani graduated from 8th grade, meaning I have a high schooler.
I wrapped up another semester of adjunct teaching at MSU, and have a little break before rolling into summer teaching.
We took a mini-family vacation to Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas over Memorial Day weekend.

Family photos

Last day of junior high

Crater of Diamonds State Park

Ka-do-ha Indian Village

Wet sifting

Books:

Cold Wind (Alaska Wild #2) by Paige Shelton
Dark Roads by Chevy Stevens
Best Friends Forever by Jennifer Weiner
Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls
Book Lover by Emily Henry
Under the Tulip Tree by Michelle Shocklee

Theme for the month:

Resetting
Lol

Pink!

Friday, May 27, 2022

Bill Snyder Highway Half

Have you ever run 12 miles into gale force winds? Because I now have!

Only a slight exaggeration. 😉

Miles from Mentor colors work well at K-State

This may be my shortest race recap in history - it's been a busy time and I don't have much to report on this one. Based on the women on the starting line and my non-peak state, I knew that winning masters was likely going to be the best I could come away with, and after mile 1 I felt my choices were to run all out and get 5th OAF and win masters, or to take it easier and potentially help a friend break 1:30, while still getting 5th OAF and winning masters. I chose the latter, also based on the 25 mph headwind and my residual fatigue from my sickly Boston.

Sarah (purple) and me (green & black rabbit) - she
came close to her PR even in that wind!

I was definitely trying to draft

Towards the end

Running 1:30:40 was harder than I expected, but having a significant headwind on a point-to-point course probably accounts for that! I love this race but even if I'd have run all-out I think I'd have come away with my slowest time on it (I was expecting 1:25ish without the wind).

Finish in the stadium

My main reason for doing this race was a to take a little racecation, and I greatly enjoyed it with my friends Sarah and Sean - also kind of a going away party for Sean before he moves to St. Louis. My parents ending up meeting us in Manhattan, and there were a lot of memories and laughs for the weekend.

Awards with Coach Bill Snyder

Post-race with teammates

I raced in my rabbit gear but put on the
MfM singlet for post-race pics

I want to get back to where I'm confident I can compete when I'm on a starting line, instead of resigning to being unable to keep up with the other women who show up, but this wasn't the day for that.

Results are here - I'm listed at 2nd masters but the OAF was also first masters so I got to move up.

K-State Insect Zoo

K-State Botanical Gardens

Manhattan Running Co.

Sunday, May 1, 2022

That was April

April 2022 in review!

Total mileage for the month: 259.7

March 28-April 3: 80.0
April 4-10: 81.1
April 11-17: 45.5
April 18-24: 33.6
April 25-May 1: 71.7

I brought everyone rabbit ez tees back from Boston
but forgot to bring mine for the post-run photo!

Races:

April 18: Boston Marathon in 3:13:01. When my choices were DNS, DNF, or a sickly struggle to finish almost a half hour slower than planned, I chose the latter and even though I'm sad about it I don't regret it.

The Boston singlet that didn't pass
uniform checks

Workouts:

April 3: 6 miles pacing Amy's MP workout (7:35-7:40) then 4 x 1 MP/1 easy. My MP miles were 6:42, 6:38, 6:04, 5:58 (average 6:20) - which appears to be total crap pacing and kind of was. But! The first two miles were more uphill and the second two more downhill, though it all rolled. I've run the course we were on enough to know I'm usually ~10 seconds slow on the miles the first two reps were on and ~10 seconds fast on the miles the last two were on - so 6:30 and 6:10 would have been more normal. I think residual fatigued from the 50k made the uphill harder than usual, or maybe I just needed some time to get going. The first two felt awful and the last two felt great, so who knows! Better to start slower and finish faster than the opposite. Colin and I ran this together, showing me that one scenario when I can actually keep up with him on workouts is when he has run a 50k 8 days prior. I am better than average at recovering from long races!
April 6: Wave tempo of 10 x 4:00 at 6:25-6:30 / 2:00 at sub-6:00 continuously. The time-based workout ended up being 9.72 miles at 6:10 pace total, with 4.3 warm up and 2.4 cool down for 16.5 total. My paces were: 6:20, 5:54, 6:25, 5:42, 6:27, 5:41, 6:17, 5:47, 6:24, 5:57, 6:15, 6:09, 6:24, 5:48, 6:32, 5:51, 6:30, 5:55, 6:24, 5:46. I planned the workout as 8-10 sets, so me choosing to do 10 shows that I was feeling really good! It was a weird workout because it started out fine for the first 2 rotations, then at 3-4 I was questioning if I was going to be able to hold pace for even 8 (and decided if I fell off I'd stop at 6), then once I got to about 6 I felt fantastic. I really felt stronger as the workout went on and finished feeling like I could do a few more rotations. I definitely could have finished a half marathon at 6:10 pace this day - or of course faster with even pacing.
April 9: Light fartlek of 4 x 2:00, 1:30, 1:00 on with equal offs in an 11 mile run. I ran the ons moderate, which ended up averaging around MP, because I needed to do something besides slogging but not a hard workout.
April 11: 4 miles at MP in the middle of a 12.2 mile run, in rain and wind on hills in 6:27, 6:33, 6:33, 6:15. My plan was to start at 6:30 and work down, but the first 2.5 miles of it felt terrible and I told Colin I was just staying at 6:30! The last 1.5 felt better but still a lot harder than it should have, which is pretty much always what happens to me a week out from marathon day, so now it's just expected and not discouraging...though in hindsight this was the start of me getting sick!
April 14: While sick I attempted to run 3 miles turned 3 x 1 mile turned 1 single mile at MP instead of the scheduled workout, but could only manage a 6:40 and it killed me...which did not inspire confidence for Boston.
Doubles: April 2, 5, 6, 10, 29.

I'm in the lovely rabbit Boston long
sleeve & Amy is in her Boston outfit

Long Runs:

April 3: 14.2 miles (7:18) with a workout, described above.
April 6: 16.5 miles with a workout, my main long run between the Prairie Spirit 50k and Boston Marathon. I couldn't decide whether to run 16 or 17 for this one so I split the difference!
April 11: 12.2 miles (7:14) via 4 easy, 4 MP, 4.2 easy, a.k.a., The Last Long Run Workout That Always Feels Much Harder Than It Should, which felt even harder than usual.
April 18: Boston Marathon (27.5 total for the day)!
April 29: 14.2 miles (7:48), which was the first run post-Boston that I felt nearly normal on! I did 8 x 0:30 pick ups to sub-6, one about every mile, starting at mile 6, to put some pop back in my legs.