Are workout PRs still PRs?

I'm not talking about comparing training times to racing times, but about comparing workouts to other workouts. We can all use a little more PR in our lives, so I say these can be celebrated in addition to race PRs (and these are easier to come by!)! Garmins aren’t perfect and will always have some margin of error, but comparing one workout on a Garmin to other workouts on a Garmin is close enough for a workout PR for me (as for race PRs, I won’t count them unless they are on certified courses).

Anyhow, the workout I had yesterday was only the second time I had run this sequence, so my chances of a workout PR were pretty good!  I often look at my past times and try to beat them when I’m repeating a workout, but I did not this time because my overall objective was different across the reps (even pacing this time).  The workout was 2 miles warm-up, 3-2-1 mile tempos on the road at 6:15 with 0.5 recoveries, 1 cool-down.

I felt okay going into this workout – not fresh but not exhausted.  It was of course a million degrees with a million percent humidity, but overall I’m a good heat runner so didn’t stress about that.  I ran my warm-up, got a drink of water from the bottle I set on my mailbox, and was off on my first tempo of 3 miles. My pace was pretty even right around 6:15 throughout the first mile and I came through it at 6:14.  I hoped I could maintain that for 5 more miles!  Mile 2 was 6:17, and mile 3 was 6:09 (I pushed a little more on it knowing I would get a recovery after) – for 18:41 for the 3 miles.

My heart rate and breathing were high at the end of the 3 miles, but dropped pretty quickly on the recovery jog.  A half mile was plenty of time, and I was as ready as I would ever be for the 2 mile.  Sometimes I have a hard time getting going again after a recovery jog, but this time wasn’t bad, although I did feel better as the rep went on and negative split with a 6:17 then 6:09 for a 12:26 2 mile.  Then off for another half mile recovery jog.

On paper, the 1 mile at the end of this workout seems like it will be easy – because 1 mile at tempo pace isn’t a big deal – but in reality it wasn’t because I had the cumulative fatigue of 5 tempo miles on my legs.  I felt confident I could run a 6:15 but hoped to make it a little faster, and did with a 6:09.  This meant that my average for all 6 of the hard miles was 6:12.

Last week I had a 6 mile tempo with a goal range of 6:15-6:25, and finished that in 6:24 average.  I can’t currently do 6 miles straight at 6:15 in a workout, but give me a couple of half mile recoveries and I can exceed it.  I know the latter will help me improve on the former.  I liked this workout mentally too, as it was easy to think about maintaining the same pace but running a mile shorter each time.  Also splitting the miles up made it less intimidating than 6 miles straight tempo, particularly since I ran this alone.

I had a feeling that I’d run quite a bit faster this time than the last time I ran this workout, so I looked back at my training log and found it – run back in March 2015 (I remember the weather being nice and cool!), on a course I consider a little faster than what I ran on this time.  My splits then were 19:17, 12:41, 6:13 – so I improved this round with my 18:41, 12:26, and 6:09.  That made me feel good about my recent training, and like I am progressing.  I’ve been getting caught up in kind of feeling like I’m maintaining but not getting faster.  I know I'm not out of shape by any means, but I wasn't sure if I was improving enough to try for a sub-3:00 marathon in October; however, this made me feel like I really am getting more fit. I need a confidence-boosting race to really feel good about things, and hopefully that will come sooner rather than later!

Splits

 

Olympic Trials

Who else loved watching the track and field Olympic Trials?!  I watched more television in the 6 days they were on than I have in the previous 6 months (well, perhaps not quite, as I watched an awful lot of TV while on the spin bike in February when I couldn’t run for 5 weeks!).

I of course enjoyed the distance events the most, although several women I was hoping would qualify did not (Sara Hall, Kellen Taylor, Jordan Hasay, Stephanie Bruce, to name a few).  I was ecstatic that Brenda Martinez qualified in the 1500 m. after getting tripped up in the 800 m. final (I was confident that she would have qualified in the 800 m. had she not been clipped on the final turn so really felt for her).  It was also fun to see a runner from Nixa, Missouri (15 minutes from where I live!) qualify in the 3000 m. steeplechase (Courtney Frerichs).  It was no surprise to see Molly Huddle victorious in the 5000 and 10,000, Emma Coburn win the steeple, or Jenny Simpson dominate the 1500 m.

My favorite men’s moment was Benard Legat winning the mens’ 5000 m. at age 41!  I can’t quite be a big Galen Rupp fan, and I’m not exactly sure why because I do think that he will do well in Rio, but I think it’s something to do with all of the Salazar doping possibilities and also because I thought he was just showing off by running the 5000 m. at the trials with already having Olympic spots in the marathon and 10,000.  Jon and I played a lot of "who's doping" while watching these, which is sad that it has become so common.

I also enjoyed seeing someone I raced against in 2015 in the 1500 m. final (Stephanie Brown).  Not that I was ever actually in the running with her in the race we both ran, but I saw her at the starting line and running away from me in the first mile, and also receiving her overall female award before I went up for my 3^rd overall female award.

When we were watching the womens’ 5000 m. finishers come in around 15:00, Jon told me, “You’re only 3.5 minutes off of the Olympic Trials, Sug!”  I laughed so hard…yes, “only” 1:10 per mile improvement on my best 5K time is needed!  That’s going to take more dope than anyone has available!

I was 3rd overall female (way) behind two pros in this one

Track Workout Tuesday

I was on the track this morning for the first time since December!  The workout I had didn’t have to be done on the track, but since I was out of town for work I didn’t know of a flat course without potential traffic stops that I could run on, and I don’t like running fast stuff on unfamiliar courses anyhow.  Plus, I couldn’t get this workout to transfer to my Garmin watch from Garmin Connect, and with it mixing kilometer distances for the repeats and mile distances for the recoveries, it would have been a trick to do it on the road even if I was at home!

The workout was:  2 miles warm-up, 2 x 2K in 7:40-7:45, 2 x 1K in 3:35-3:40, half mile recovery jogs between all repeats, and 0.75 mile cool-down (for 8 miles total).  One of my friends who lives in the Kansas City area directed me to the Park Hill High School track, which was about 3 miles from where I was staying Monday night, and we checked it out on Monday evening to make sure it was open to the public.



No fence climbing to access the track is always a sight for sore eyes

I arrived at the track early on Tuesday morning and ran my warm-up off track, did a few leg swings and plyos, and was off.  The first 2000 went like clock-work; every single lap was 1:32.X for 7:43 total.  This pace was brisk but I could tell it was sustainable for the 2000s.  The second 2000 wasn’t quite as even, and I don’t remember my laps exactly except that I had to run a 1:30 final lap to tie my time for the first rep, and I did that for another 7:43.

While I felt good about the 1:32 laps and like I could do 1-2 more 2000s at that pace, dropping to 1:26-1:28 lap pace for the 1000s sounded really hard!  When I read this workout on paper I knew that the 1000s would be much harder for me than the 2000s; my endurance is there but I don’t have raw speed and I haven’t been doing speed work.  I knew that hitting the top of my goal range would be the best I could hope for.  I’d also looked back at last time I ran 1000s on the track (which was in September 2015), and for that workout my goal range had been 3:40-3:45 which I liked a lot better than today’s range! Not to mention it was 78 degrees even at 5:30 a.m. today.

I tried starting off the 1000s with a 1:28 lap, but came through in 1:29.  I sustained this 1:29.X for 2:59 through the 800 and a 3:44 first 1000.  I didn’t have much left and I knew I couldn’t go any faster, but I told myself just one more repeat as close to goal pace as I could, and finished up the second 1000 in a similar fashion in 3:45.

I typically don’t run my best while traveling, but I don’t necessarily think I would have run this any faster at home this morning.  I think my coach was ambitious on those 1000 paces, and that this went pretty much as well as it could have!  I’ll need to do a few more of these faster workouts before getting ambitious about any 5Ks for sure!

Doing Painful Scary Things

Week in review for June 20-26, 2016:

I guess the theme of this week could be doing painful and/or somewhat scary workouts!  It almost always "hurts so good", though!

Mileage: 54

Monday – HIIT bootcamp with elliptical warm-up (45 minutes each).  Why don’t jumping lunges ever get any easier??  We will give the painful and scary of this day to them and excessive burpees, although my triceps were what ended up sore for 3 days.

Tuesday – 12.26 miles total with a workout and double.  My morning run was 9.16 miles with 8 x 0.25 hill repeats in the middle.  Holy hill this was hard!  Relatively speaking, 2 miles total of quality is a short workout, but on repeat 1 I was already gasping for air.  The hill I used had around 100 feet of elevation gain in 0.25 mile, but it’s not evenly distributed – I would guesstimate it’s about 250 m with intense uphill, then 100 m with gentler uphill, followed by 50 m with barely there incline.  In the end, I summed this workout up as “Hill repeats:  All the work of track repeats with none of the fast splits to show for it.” 

My average pace for the whole 9.1 was 7:33, and my paces on the 0.25 uphills were between 7:22-7:42.  This was my second time running this workout on the same hill, so I compared my average splits from today with the workout I did there in November, and was pleasantly surprised that my splits from today’s workouts averaged 2.3 seconds per quarter mile repeat faster (that's over 9 seconds per mile pace)!  I don’t think I am in as good of shape now as I was then, but hopefully this means I am progressing!  Never would 7:30ish pace make me breathe so hard as running up this hill.  Luckily I had forgotten how painful this workout was so I wasn't scared of it beforehand - hopefully I don't have it again until I forget how intensely and differently hill repeats hurt.

My second run was 3.12 miles in 7:28 average in 92 degrees.  2-a-days were terrifying to me for a long time, then they were painful, and now I seem to have hit my stride with them - fingers crossed!

Wednesday - Today wasn't painful or scary, just normal (some would consider 4:50 a.m. alarms both painful and scary, though, so we will go with that!)!  10.12 base pace miles (7:31 average) with Missy.  I am so thankful to have Missy to run with!  Running friends are the best, and who else would get up at 4-something to hang out?

Thursday - 11.6 miles with 8.5 in the morning and 3.1 in the evening.  The scary of this was running 11.6 miles 2 days before a race, which I'm not sure is something I've ever done before and feels like a horrible idea.  I ran with Missy in the morning and she was really tired, so my miles with her were slower and my average was 7:55.  I was only supposed to run 8 miles, but I forgot that I also had 6 x 20 second strides (with 40 second jog recoveries) until I was at about 7.9, so ended up running a little farther to get those in.  It's easy for me to forget those - especially if I am running and talking with Missy - because it's not a workout that my whole run is based around, and is tacked on at the end of easy miles.

My second run was scary due to a heat index of 103!  However, now that I've had 4 solid second runs in a row, I am going to say that I am in a groove with them.  I think my coach also structures them better than I did when I tried them here and there on my own, so that makes a big difference!  My average pace was 7:19.  Jon ran this one "with" me (e.g., we both ran the YMCA loop while Albani was on the Kids Zone inflatables...on days like these she always tells me I need to run farther so she has longer to play...I believe this began due to her staying in for 2 hours a couple of times when I did long runs when Jon was out of town).

What was I thinking when I agreed to summer 2-a-days?!

Friday - A day off -- now that is truly scary, bahahaha!  Of course I had to do a little to keep the workout streak going (almost to 30 months or 2.5 years now!), but I kept it very minimal with 15 minutes easy on the elliptical.

Saturday - 14 miles total, split into 3.4 (7:45), 3.1 (6:18), 7.5 (7:38) - but I kept the gaps between these miles pretty short, definitely under 5 minute a pop. By definition, 5Ks are uber painful (the struggle is real). However, this one wasn't painful, even though it was in the middle of a long run and at 88 degrees "feels like" temperature (so the painful and scary for this workout goes to the summer weather and 8:00 a.m. race start). The secret to making it not painful was running the first mile at half marathon pace, bahaha! But I walked away with an overall win (men and women), a solid progressive tempo run, and my long run mileage, which were the objectives, so all was good. Details here. 

My mini-me doing scary things, also at the Duck Fest

Sunday - 6 mile shake out (7:40).  The beginning of a shake out run the day after a long run or race is always scary (plus I was up until 11:00 p.m. on Saturday night, which was also scary for me)!  On these 6 mile runs, I always feel better on mile 6 than on mile 1 though! 

My final painful and scary for the week goes to the amount of laundry generated from 9-10 workouts a week!  For most workouts, I'm only wearing a sports bra, shorts, and socks (occasionally a visor), so what is truly scary is how bad this would be in the winter! 

It was impossible to get a good angle; 4 days of workout clothing on the drying rack

"Run a 5K in the middle of your long run," they said. "It will be fun," they said.

It actually was fun!  And if you know me you know I never say that about 5Ks...they are usually too short and painful!

I ran the Sertoma Duck Waddle 5K today as a last-minute race.  My parents were coming to the Duck Fest for the car show from Kansas.  I noticed the race on the festival schedule, and that the overall winners won gift cards.  I told Jon about it, but then decided that I didn't want to run it because I didn't want to modify my 54 mile training week.  He proceeded to talk me into running it to try to win (not for time), so I said I would ask my coach, who I expected to say no.  Well, he said to go for it, but also to keep my schedule as planned this week (which was what I said I would plan to do when I emailed him about this race).  So it was decided and I ran this race coming off 11.6 miles and a double on Thursday, and during a 14 mile long run.  I did skip bootcamp yesterday so my legs wouldn't be 100% shot!

When I signed up for the race, I thought it started at 7:00 a.m. (I think I just made that up or assumed it, since it is June in Missouri after all).  Yesterday I looked at the website and saw that it actually started at 8:00 a.m.  My main fear was that I was going to finish this race and then run 8ish more miles when it was really hot, so I kind of started dreading it. 

I decided I would run more miles before the race when it was less hot, but due to last minute who's riding with who debates, I only had time for 3.5 miles before the race (we were taking 2 vehicles so my family didn't have to wait around while I did my miles after the race, and initially I was going to drive there alone so they could also leave the house later, but then Albani decided she wanted to ride there with me, etc.).  Those 3.5 were at 7:45 pace and felt okay, but I was absolutely drenched in sweat and kind of wishing that I had started my long run at 5:00 a.m. and not worried about this race!  I hate racing in a sports bra without a shirt (although I train that way all of the time, it's different on deserted farm roads), but it was so hot I stopped caring.

The race started, and one woman took off around 6:10 pace, followed by one man.  I figured I'd better cover her, and I knew I could run the thing at 6:10 pace although I didn't really want to!  She faded by the half mile, and then I was running side by side with the overall male.  I could pretty much tell at this point that I wasn't going to have competition in this race.  I decided that I would just run with the overall male until the final half mile or so, and then push to try to win overall overall.  A lot of this was just me being lazy, and I kept thinking about how I had to run 7.5 more base pace miles after the race!

Running with the first male felt awfully easy, and when my Garmin beeped a 6:28 first mile, I realized that was why it felt so easy (that's about half pace for me).  I decided I would go ahead and speed up a bit, because although I didn't want to kill myself I did still want to be under 20, and he was fading a bit.  So from then on it was just me and the lead cyclist.  At the turn around I got a look at everyone behind me, and with how slowly I'd started I knew my win was pretty much locked in.

Although in the end the course was accurate (Garmin had 3.12), the course mile markers were off, with the 1 mile mark at the 1.2 point on my Garmin and the 2 mile mark around 1.9 on my Garmin.  My second Garmin split was 6:18 with some uphill, and I felt far too good for mile 2 of a 5K, but that was sure nice!  I pushed for a little faster last mile, running it in 6:12, and also kicked it in on the final 0.12 (5:21 pace) once I saw my family cheering.  I stopped my Garmin at 19:35 after I crossed, my finishing pictures show 19:33-19:34, and my official time was 19:37, so who really knows what exactly my time was (there was no chip mat at the start, and we started and finished in different places, which is always a recipe for screwy times, so I am honestly surprised it was this close).

It's always a good day when I beat all of the men and women!  I finished feeling like I'd run a solid tempo, but not an all-out race, which was good since I had 7.5 more miles to go.  I drank a 20 oz. bottle of water, wiped the sweat off my face, and headed back out.  I finished the 7.5 at 7:38 average pace and SO very sweaty!  I was glad to keep this in the 7:30s for sure.

My family picked up my awards while I was still running. I won a cute little trophy, a gift card to Academy Sports, and a gift certificate for pet-sitting (probably the most unique prize I've received!), so it was worth running this.  I also feel like I may just try for a sub-19 5K when I'm a little rested, when I have competition, when I'm not running a long run, and when it's not 88 degrees "feels like" temperature -- but, that will be painful and scary!

The moral of this story:  5Ks are not at all painful or scary when you run the first mile at half marathon pace.

Following the lead cyclist in

Finishing it up

Done

Pretty pumped about this pet sitting gift certificate!

Quite fitting for the Duck Fest

Garmin splits

Working Smarter, Not Harder

I once read that it's better to go into a race under-trained than over-trained, and the Type A in me balked.  Who are these people going into goal races under-trained?!?  However, one of the top lessons I have learned in the past year of running is that sometimes with training, less is more.

When I decided to chase a sub-3:00 marathon in 2015, I knew I needed to go all in so I decided to work with a coach for the first time post-collegiately.  I went into it thinking that his schedule, which I started in July 2015, would be harder than what I was doing up to that point.  I was prepared for tons of hard and long workouts, and to be tired all of the time.  I expected push push push.

When I received my first month's schedule, I was surprised.  It was easier than what I would have put together myself.  The majority of my runs were at base pace, and then each week I had one workout, one long run/workout, and usually one day that included 6 x 20 second strides at the end of my run. During a couple weeks, I only had one workout total if the weekend run was intense (e.g., a 10 mile tempo within a 17 mile long run), with everything else being base miles. Putting my own schedule together, I would usually run two workouts plus a long run each week, so I started worrying that this wasn't enough!  I started questioning other runners about their number of workouts, and worrying that I was going to get slower.

I decided I would stick to the schedule, although I got antsy and asked about adding more workouts (the answer was no).  I mostly followed things to a T, although I added a tempo run here and some fast finish miles there (but this was the exception, not the norm).  For 5.5 solid months, I followed the schedule.  I peaked conservatively at 50 mpw, but I had a lot of weeks in the high-40s (peaking at 50 was my request, as I feared injury).

The one workout I had during the week was generally challenging, and often I would see the time goals on the pace-based workouts and think to myself that there was no way I could run that fast.  Once when I had a track workout that included 200s at 38-39 seconds at the end, I told my coach that there was no way I could run that fast (I have no raw speed!)...then the next day I sent him an email with the subject "It's nice to be wrong sometimes", after running them in 38s.

After a few months on the schedule, crazy things started happening.  I started running faster than I ever had before, at age 34 and on fewer workouts!  This was happening in both training and in racing.  I had a hard time giving up control of my schedule and also had a hard time not second-guessing my coach, until I ran a 1:24:33 half marathon on a challenging course, shattering my PR of 1:27:08.  I went on to run a 3:06 marathon on a training run without a taper, and to shatter my 10K PR with a 38:05, a time I never thought I'd see.  I didn't have the best day or good weather for my marathon, and while I didn't get my sub-3:00 I set a 2-minute PR with a 3:01.  I then followed that up with my second fastest ever half marathon, 6 days after my marathon in a race that I was not even going to "race."

Missing my sub-3:00 threw a wrench in my plan and cast some doubt for me, so I decided for my spring marathon I would follow the training schedule that my fast friend had shared with me.  It included two workouts a week plus a long run, and more mileage.  Hindsight is 20/20, but I sure wish I would have worked with my coach again for my February marathon instead of trying this schedule!  It worked for her but was not for me.  I ended up injured and unable to run my marathon, with about 7 weeks total off running.  I guess that's what they mean about it being better to get to your race a little under-trained!  I missed my goal race being over-trained.

Going through all of that, I can now say that I trust my coach and his schedule, and will follow it during this marathon build-up without second-guessing.  He taught me that training smarter will get me farther than throwing down all of the time.  I learned that I should feel good for my runs and not run down all of the time - and that I can, even running higher mileage and hard workouts!  He thinks I can stay healthy and run more mileage this time, and so far so good. 

The body is a funny thing, and recovery is just as important as training - but how easy is it to forget that!?  I see a lot of runners over-training - by running hard every run - and I hope they learn this lesson sooner rather than later!  I'm stubborn and would have probably never believed it until I saw it work for me, so I get it.  It's still hard to see other runners running more or longer hard workouts than me, but I remind myself that I am not them and I am working smarter for me, and toward my long-term goals!

5Ks: The Struggle is Real!

The older I get, the worse I seem to get at 5Ks.  I haven’t trained specifically for a 5K since college (or since high school because I was injured more than not during college running), but even so I would expect that I could eek out a decent 5K while I am PRing at other distances.  I’ve raced a lot of 5Ks over the years because they are common and convenient, but in 2015 I could not run one that was comparable to my other race performances to save my life.

Put in perspective:  my fastest 5K of 2015 was the second 5K of a 10K.  This was the only time I broke 19:00, with an 18:51 second 5K (although technically I did finish one 5K in 18:42, it was a bit short and my average pace on my Garmin was 6:09 so it shouldn't have been sub-19).  Most of my certified 5Ks were 19:0X, and a few slower than that (I did manage to keep them all under 20:00, though - even during two races in which I took wrong turns as the leader to make them 3.25ish mile 5Ks!).  I could never get those few extra seconds to go sub-19! To make my 5K races even more pathetic, the final 5K of my 1:24 PR half marathon was 19:10!!!  So following running 10 miles at 6:30ish pace, I can run a 5K just a few seconds slower than my all-out 5K.  Following running 3.1 miles of a 10K in 19:14, I can run another 3.1 miles faster than my all-out 5K.  What the heck!? I tried running longer and faster warm ups before my 5Ks but still no luck. 

I had some workouts that I thought meant for a promising or even PR 5K (my current PR is 18:18 run in 2010), including my best mile repeat workout of all time which was 4 x 1 mile all between 5:49-5:51, but I could never put together a nice 5K race.  My last of 2015 was on New Year’s Eve, and my time in it was the best I did for a certified straight 5K: 19:03.  The irony in that one was that it was also by far the most challenging course I ran, with 212 feet of elevation gain.

I’ve only run one 5K thus far in 2016, and if I had known what the course was like beforehand I probably would have never gone (more details here)!  The first half mile was all straight uphill, and there wasn’t really a flat stretch in the whole thing (several rollers after the first up, then a steep up and steep down before the turn around...the main redemption being that that last half mile was all downhill since it was out and back).  Once I saw the first hill and ran the course for my warm-up, I was ready to turn around and go home, and I told Jon that I wouldn’t be able to get under 20:00, especially considering that I was 6 days off racing the Prairie Fire Half and had done no speed work.  The reason we went to this one was because it had nice prize money for the top 3 women and the times hadn’t been under 20:00 for #2 and #3 in most past years (our local Olympic Trials qualifier was always #1), so I decided I wouldn’t worry about my time and just try to place.  I didn’t look at my watch during the race because I knew my pace would be super erratic with the elevation changes, and I ended up running 19:16, which I was shocked and amazed with on that course and with how my spring training had been.

I am going to run another 5K this Saturday, and I’m not as terrified about this one as I usually get of them, because I’m expecting to run slower than 10K pace!  In fact, it’s slated as a tempo workout for me, and will fall at the end of a 53+ mile week and after a Thursday workout and double run, so I won’t exactly be rested.  My tempo pace has been 6:18-6:30 per my coach, and I am going to aim for 6:20ish so I can keep it under 20:00 (and also go for the win).  It’s a huge relief to not even think about aiming for under 19:00, and I haven’t done much running under tempo pace in 2016 (I think only a couple of reps this speed workout, the 19:16 5K I raced in May, and 6 x 20 second strides which I do once a week usually), so my speed is definitely not there even if I wanted to try!

Why are 5Ks so hard and scary?   Give me a half marathon any day!

Not a Track Workout Tuesday

I ran speed work on the road today, and I just couldn't think of a catchy title akin to "Track Tuesday," so there you have it!

The workout I ran is one of my all-time favorite workouts, partially because I think it benefits me in race distances from the 5K up to the marathon.  It hits on speed, stamina, mental toughness, and a whole slew of different race paces.  It includes repeats of 2 mile, 1.5 mile, 1 mile, and 0.5 mile, with recovery jogs half the distance of the previous repeat (so 1, 0.75, and 0.5).  It's 10 miles total with warm-up and cool-down, and 5 miles of quality work.

I was solo for this workout, and I ran around my neighborhood loop which is 0.8.  Whenever I run speed work or tempos from home I run this loop so my splits will be comparable.  It's not flat, but for the area it has relatively minimal elevation changes (e.g., it is my best option by far!).  Essentially it has one short side of noticeable uphill, one short side of noticeable downhill, one long side of slight incline and one long side of slight decline.  I've run it enough to know how my average pace will fluctuate over the course, and I also know how much I can gain on the downhill portion!  I think I can run about as fast on it as I would on a pancake flat course, because I can gain on the downhill/decline sections to make up for the uphill/incline sections - plus I am sure it's good for me because no races around here are flat!

My goal for today was to start at 6:15 pace and work down 5 seconds each repeat, making my goal times 12:30, 9:15, 6:05, and 3:00.  I had previously done this workout faster than that, but I didn't think I was quite there at present.  This workout is a good mental one since you are speeding up each repeat, but you are also running a shorter distance!  My actual times ended up being 12:24 (6:15, 6:09), 9:11 (6:11, 3:00), 5:59, and 2:54.  I was quite happy with this, and although I haven't looked thoroughly through my training log, I am 95% sure that this is the second fastest I've ever done this workout - and I've been running this one for a good 7+ years so that's quite exciting for me!  I felt strong throughout, but I had to push pretty hard to go sub-6:00 on the mile!

I am working on focusing on good form, including keeping my arm swings straight, driving my knees forward, moving forward and not vertically, and fast light feet.  I really have to focus on it, so it makes running a little less enjoyable because I can't lose myself in my thoughts, but it will get easier with practice I assume.  If it's going to benefit me as much as I'm told it will, it is worth it!  Focusing so much on my form and my pace today was a little stressful, and the form changes are definitely easier on easy runs!  Tomorrow I will practice some more, and I end today pleased with this week's workout.

Splits

Cutest Lowes purchase yet!

Under (Peer) Pressure: Workout Wednesday

I wanted to run a workout that would benefit me in my upcoming 10K race this morning, so I asked my training partner Missy if she would do any of the following workouts with me.  Keep in mind that she is a triathlete and training for an August Ironman, an October 70.3, and likely a November marathon. She can exercise forever!

A)       3 x 2 mile repeats with 1 mile recoveries

B)      Repeats of 2 miles, 1.5 miles, 1 mile, 0.5 mile with recoveries of half the distance of the previous repeat

C)      5 mile tempo run, 1 mile recovery, 1 mile throw down

Her reply?  “I don’t think I want to do any of that!  I may die!”  I know full and well that she is in great shape and COULD do any of these right with me, but she is scared of faster work like I am scared of double digit tempos.

So I went on from there to tell her how it will help increase her VO2 max, which would help with her longer races because she wouldn’t have to run at as high of a percentage of VO2 max at a given pace.  I then continued to coerce her into running the 5 mile tempo with me, because I knew she would pick it above the other workouts -  with the disclaimer that she could drop back a little if needed and also still get in the 15 miles total that she wanted (I was only doing 10ish total, and could not be coerced into doing a 15 mile tempo with her so soon after racing a half).  I really wanted to have her with me on this workout, and I knew she would rock it!

Then she acquiesced!  I told her 6:30ish pace for the tempo miles, and we were both off to bed for 4:XX a.m. alarms.

We met bright and early, each starting in different locations and running to each other on the warm up.  We met when she was at nearly 3 miles in and I wasn’t even to a mile yet, as she was running more mileage total than me.  We wrapped up the warm-up to give me a little over 2 miles warm-up (2.1 to be exact), and we were off on the tempo miles!

I felt good and went out in the 6:20s instead of the 6:30s.  After passing mile 1 in 6:24, the pace was set.  I have a thing where I cannot let my first mile be my fastest (and prefer that it is my slowest)!  My splits ended up being 6:24, 6:22, 6:23, 6:23, and 6:15 for the tempo miles (average 6:21).  I was pretty happy with my consistency and strong finish!  I wasn’t aiming to pick up the 5^th mile since I still had the throw down mile remaining, and in fact I told Missy that I WASN’T going to, but I think I just do it naturally once my brain says, "last mile!"

Then we were off on a 1-mile recovery jog, but based on logistics of where it would be best to start our cool-down, we ended up cutting it to a 0.7 recovery.  Missy didn’t do the throw-down mile with me, but I pushed with all I had for a 6:05.  I would have liked to be sub-6:00, but for a rolling road course this was what it was!  Overall I was pleased with the workout. I then walked while Missy caught up and I ran what ended up being a 1.7 mile cool down for 10.5 miles total for the morning.

Missy ran 15 miles total like a complete stud, and told me that she was glad we did the workout we did.  I push her out of her comfort zone on the shorter faster stuff, and she pushes me on the longer stuff, so we are a good pair!  Now I live in fear of an upcoming 12+ mile tempo that's I've committed to!

Scout Strong Challenge Half Marathon Race Report

I was pretty proud of myself in this race, because:

1. I stacked it with a work trip to Kansas City that I needed to do in May. 
2. I went into it with the goals of trying to win, and not running at my max if I didn't have to in order to win - and as it played out I did not race all-out (smart with it being my third race in three weekends, but something that's hard for me to actually do).
3. I won!
4. I didn't quit in the insane wind. Seriously!

I figured I would start at marathon pace (6:50ish) and see where that put me. It actually put me in first female from the gate, which surprised me. But around mile 1.5 a woman who I'd talked to at the start, Abby, pulled up next to me. I was hoping that I would get to run with her, because the field was pretty thin out front and she had been really nice and about my same pace.  We chatted and decided to work together.

Although initially, 6:50 pace had been really conservative (it's marathon goal pace after all), as the race went on and we encountered the crazy wind, I began to think that 6:55 might be all I had. When we turned out of the wind finally at mile 6, suddenly Abby and I were running 6:20-6:35 at the same effort. When we turned into the wind again, we complained and I said, "well, back to 6:55!" I felt good at that point though, and thought I could crank it down some when I needed to.  

I enjoyed running with Abby and we both said we would like to finish it up around 6:30 pace (at least when we were not running into the wind!). I wanted to push the final miles, and around 9.5 on an incline I started pulling ahead. At 10 I knew I'd better push to keep my splits down and to go for the win, so I did. I felt good, although the final mile felt really long running on the speedway and into the wind!

I finished in 1:29:07 with some left in the tank and overall pleased with my effort. On another day, our times would have been more solid, but today everyone had to deal with the conditions (there were just 5 men ahead of Abby and I). I took home $350 for the win, which was super nice! I remember when breaking 1:30 was a major goal of mine, and now it's a non-goal race on a crappy weather day when I don't worry about my pace kind of time - so I can't help but be happy about that too!

I ran a 1.6 mile warm up and 3.6 mile cool down, ending up with 18.4 miles for the day. This wasn't exactly the plan, but nice to know that I felt great with the distance too!

Race results, including a video of my finish (that's kind of fun!).



Top 2 women - we even coordinate!

 

We started and finished on Kansas Speedway

Awards

Bling

Not gonna lie, I love winning cash!

Speedwork Tuesday: Dusting off the Cobwebs

Today’s workout was a play-it-by ear sort of run.  My “training schedule” (I use the term loosely, because it’s less structured than what I usually have, but mainly about getting in some miles until I start a more official plan in June) had “Workout TBD” on it.  The forecast had potential morning thunderstorms, and I was coming off a weekend of a Saturday 5K and Sunday long run, so I just decided I would see how the weather was and how I felt when I woke up, then go from there.  I hoped to get some quality work in since I have a June 10K planned, and I also didn’t want to push it back to tomorrow since I have a half marathon race on May 14, so if it didn’t happen today it wouldn’t happen this week.

After storms overnight, the weather was fine (just humid), and after a non-running day yesterday I felt good enough to give speed work a go.  I decided I would do 2 x 1 mile repeats to start, then evaluate how I felt and either stop there or add another 1 mile repeat or 1-2 half mile repeats.

I warmed up for 2 miles, then started repeat #1 on a course I’ve done mile repeats on multiple times in the past, but not for nearly a year.  I looked back at my training log from last spring recently, because I feel like my fitness is pretty similar at present to what it was then (by some miracle), and I remembered seeing that my best mile repeats on the course were three of them in 6:08-6:09, so I made that pace my goal.  The mile stretch of road I used for these has an uphill start and rolling hills, but the final 0.15 is down a nice decline so I enjoy that!  Plus, it’s a good strength builder for races with elevation changes (i.e., every race in the Ozarks).  It’s not as fast as the track or the YMCA loop I often run speed work on, but I’ve run it enough to know what it translates to on the track, and that is minus 10-15 seconds.

I finished my first repeat in 6:05, which was actually a 3-second course PR!  I went out a little fast considering the uphill start, so hoped that wouldn’t hurt me during the rest of the workout, but I felt pretty decent.  I ran a mile recovery, which is longer than optimal but I wanted to run the exact same course again, so had to run back to the start.  My second repeat was 6:08, and I was disappointed that it wasn’t faster than #1, but it was good enough to tie my old course PR.  At that point I decided I would not do a third mile repeat due to being in the midst of three race weekends in a row, but would do a half mile repeat.  So I jogged a half mile recovery then ran a half mile in 2:59.  Then I did the same again, with the second half mile in 2:58.

So all in all, 2 x 1 mile then 2 x 0.5 mile.  With my 10K race on June 4, I want to get a few solid workouts in between now and then, and this was a nice start.  I have some work to do, but I am excited to do it!

Don’t Judge a Book by Its Cover or a Half by Its First 5 Miles: Prairie Fire Spring Half Marathon

I went into this race kind of feeling like it was doomed!  It was one thing after another all spring, and when I ended up with food poisoning after eating Indian food out the Thursday before the Sunday event, I was about to throw in the towel.  However, my husband was also entered in the half, my daughter was entered in the kids’ mile, we were planning to visit my parents for the weekend, and I needed to finish the race for my Prairie Fire Back to Back entry (spring half plus fall full), so I gave it a try – and I’m glad I did!
 

I decided I would start around 6:50 pace and see what happened.  I hoped I could at least run a 1:29 (a.k.a. goal marathon pace), but I wasn’t so sure!  I figured at least if I died after starting at 6:50 pace I would fade a lot less hard than if I tried starting at 6:30 pace!  I eyeballed my competition at the start, and as I went out conservatively, after the initial sprinters died off, there were 5 women in front of me.  One took off very quickly, then 4 were running together.  They probably went through mile 1 about 10 seconds faster than me, and it took all I had not to chase them, but all considering I knew it wouldn’t be smart at that point.
 

I pretty much ran alone for the first 4 miles, although I could see the female pack and the moves that were being made in it.  I passed one of the women and moved up into 5^th overall around the 5K point.  I didn’t feel bad, but I didn’t feel good, and I questioned my ability to maintain the 6:45-6:50 pace I’d started at for all 13.1.  Around 4 miles, a man pulled up with me, and I told myself to sit on him.  It was crazy windy and he was tall, so I thought he would make a good wind block.  I had to push a little too hard to hang with him, which also worried me.  When I passed my parents and daughter at mile 5, I was to the point of talking myself out of dropping out.  I just didn’t feel comfortable or strong, but I when I have mental arguments about dropping out versus continuing, continuing always wins.  I told myself that if I had to slow, I would slow; a slow time would not be the end of the world.
 

I continued pacing off of the man who had passed me, and shortly after mile 5 (with my slowest split of the race) we turned out of the wind.  I instantly felt better, but was still pressing a bit to stay with the male.  I knew if I let him go I’d be running alone so talked myself into hanging on it.  Little by little, during mile 6 I started to hit my stride. I exchanged a few words with the male I was running with, and I found out he was hoping for a 1:27:59 or better to qualify for New York. By the time my watch beeped for 6 I was actually feeling good – and ready to chase!

Stride for stride with the man I ran with for several miles

I could see one woman ahead of me, so set my sights on her.  My pace buddy and I switched roles – now I was pushing ahead and he was hanging on.  We were out of the wind for awhile and I felt strong.  I got a little too excited for mile 7, coming through in 6:25, but I was in pursuit and felt newly confident that I could maintain 6:45-6:50 pace or better to the end.
 

I was gaining on the woman in front of me (4^th overall), but ever so slightly.  However, we were both gaining on the woman ahead of her (in 3^rd overall position at that point), and by mile 9 I could see 3^rd.  The wind continued to be insane and to affect our splits, so my mile 9-11 splits don't necessarily reflect me feeling great, but at that point I was trying to chase down the women I could see and not looking at my watch at all.  At mile 10, a spectator told me, “Those ladies in front of you are tired!  Go get ‘em!”  I gave him an enthusiastic thumbs up and knew I was going to give it my all to do that.
 

Around mile 11, the woman running in 4^th overtook the woman running in 3^rd.  I knew I would do the same if I could keep pushing, but the new 3^rd place wasn’t letting up so I knew she would be a lot harder to get.  
 

Many times during the race, I reflected back on my race in 2015 at this event, and after mile 6 on how much better I was feeling.  Last year I felt good for the first 6 miles and ran with a lead female pack of four, then had a horrid side cramp from about miles 7-9 that cost me a good 30+ seconds per mile.  After that, I was able to get back closer to pace but still not where I wanted to be, and I jockeyed for 3^rd female position through the last few miles.  In the end, I managed to get 3^rd and finish in the money, but barely; and partially because I thought I was coming up on mile 12 when I was really coming up on mile 11 (amazing what those mental tricks will do!).
 

Back to 2016!  I pulled up on the now 4^th place female a bit before mile 12.  I thought I would sit on her for a bit and then pass at the mile 12 sign.  Once I pulled up on her, I felt like I had to slow up too much to do that, so I told her “nice work” and moved up.  She couldn’t go with me at all, so I felt solid in my new position.  Gauging the distance from myself to the 3^rd woman at that point, I knew I would only catch her if she had a disastrous final mile – and since that is always possible, especially in a long race – I kept pushing.  She did not have a disastrous end, so I maintained my 4^th position.  The final stretch before turning towards the finish felt very long!  I ended up with a 6:33 final mile, and once I could see the finishing clock I realized that I needed to kick to get in the 1:27’s, so my final 0.12 was 5:51 for a 1:27:52 and 4^th overall female.

Splits - I was pretty proud of my Garmin being really close on the certified course

Last year at this event, I had a poor race and ended up with a 1:30:15 – so this being my second time on the course made it a course PR.  Really, I couldn’t be happier with how it went based on my inconsistent training this spring and food poisoning (I was certainly in better shape in 2015!)! I ran smart and negative split, gave it my all, and finished strong.  Although 3:19 slower than my half PR, this was certainly my best half that I went into under-trained.  I’ve run more halves in the 1:30s than in the 1:20s, so all in all I will call it a victory!  Plus, I am injury pain-free – wahooooo!  
 

The race “placed” the top 4 overall, so I was the first called up at the awards ceremony in 4^th female.  The top female ran a 1:18, and I couldn’t do near that fully trained, but second ran 1:26:01 and I feel confident I could have bettered that if I had trained all spring instead of been sidelined for 7 weeks.  But, this was a good confidence-booster about where I’m at now, and gives me something to build on towards the fall!

Awards ceremony

My husband exceeded his goal of 1:47 with a 1:45 with really smart pacing, and my daughter ran a PR mile of 10:56 in the Sparky Kids Mile!  Some day I am going to make a meme about "Mom runs a half marathon..." with what happens the rest of the day vs. "Dad run a half marathon...".  Any guesses how that would look??

Family swag

My swag

After my race, preparing for Albani's race

My little PR miler pre-race!

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!

It's April! - Week in Review

I'm getting back in the swing of things!

Weekly mileage:  61.2 (9 AlterG) - this is a huge week for me!

Monday 3/28 - 4.1 mile shake out (7:35).  My legs felt crappy until mile 4; I blame 10 hours in the car over the weekend!  Also did HIIT bootcamp after the run.

Tuesday 3/29 - 2 warm-up, 5 miles tempo (6:29), 1 mile recovery, 2 x 1 mile speed work in 6:10 and 6:12 with 0.5 recovery, 2.5 cool-down for 13 miles total.  Details here.

Wednesday 3/30 - 8 recovery miles with Missy a.m. (7:51); 4 recovery miles with Jon (his tempo) p.m. (7:53).  Every Wednesday is windy lately!

Thursday 3/31 - 9 miles on the AlterG treadmill at 80% body weight (5:56 pace).  I was told that for every 10% body weight you take off, you can run 0.6 mph faster.  So 10 mph on the AlterG = 8.8 mph (6:49 pace).  I swear it feels even easier than that!  But it is a treadmill and they always feel easier than outside and aren't really "real". I have 3 more passes left so there will be 3 more AlterG Thursdays for more mileage with less impact.

Friday 4/1 - HIIT bootcamp and elliptical (no running).

Saturday 4/2 - 1.5 warm-up, paced the 1:40 group at the Big Party Half Marathon, 1 easy, 1 MGP (6:51), 0.5 easy for 17.1 total.  I finished in 1:39:16 (7:33 pace for 13.14 per my Garmin), so wasn't the best pacer, but I also think the course was a tad short (it was not certified). Typically Garmin error is about 0.01 per mile on certified courses (making a certified half read about 13.24 on Garmin) so I was aiming to keep all of my splits 7:33-7:34 on my Garmin.  I was also planning to look at the course miles for splits to ensure I was right on, but the course miles were way off (as in, my first mile per the course markers was around 8:00 then my second was around 6:30!).  Pacing was fun and this was a perfect long run for me, but I also learned that I am too competitive to enjoy pacing 100%!  No one ran with me the entire race, but I had a man with me from about miles 4-10 and a woman from about 9-12, so I hope I helped them towards their goals!  The event was also for a great cause and fun to be part of.

Sunday 4/3 - 6 miles shake out (7:59), with 6 X 20 sec strides. I could feel Saturday's 17 miles plus 3 hours of hard work - but my arm was not sore from carrying the pacing sign (not to mention fighting the wind with it), which was a pleasant surprise!

Big Party Half Marathon pace sign & medal