Monday, April 25, 2011

My First 20 Miler

I wanted to share my experience with my first 20 mile training run that I completed this past weekend.

The day started at 6:10am... I had a schedule that I needed to keep so early morning was a necessity. I got up and had my usual oatmeal for breakfast and a cup of coffee. I was packed up and on the road by 7:30am to drive the 40 minutes to the park where I wanted to run. This park has a hike/bike trail loop that is a little more than 8 miles around. I love heading out there for my longer runs because it reduces the number of "loops" or "back and forths" I have to do to get my mileage in.

The goal was to run it easy and complete it with an average of 10:00 minutes per mile. I started out around a 9:50 pace and tried to slow it down, but I just kinda settled into that faster pace and decided to stick with it. I setup some milestones to keep myself sane for the 3 hours I knew I would be out there running. First milestone was mile 5, where I would consume my first energy gel! Normally I used the energy chews, but I decided to switch it up to the gel from now on. It worked really great and not too bad taste wise either.

Next milestone was only another 3ish miles where I would pass by my car and make sure my second water bottle was still sitting on my windshield... yes! it was still there, no one stole it!! :)

Ok, now I just have to get to mile 10 where I get to do two things, how exciting! Mile 10 is my turn around point where I'll retrace my route to finish the 20 miles, yes, halfway!! Second thing, energy gel number two was consumed, yum! And quite a surge of energy comes with that too.

Next stop, I'll pass by my car in another mile and a half and I can switch out my water bottle for a fresh one. This worked out really well since I was parked right next to the path I was running on. I swung into the parking lot, ditched the old and grabbed the new. It took only a couple seconds and I was basically still moving, woohoo! Now I just have to do the full loop back in the opposite direction and I'm done.

At this point I'm thinking about how I ONLY have 8.5 miles left and in another 2.5 miles I get another energy gel. Yes! Did I really just think to myself that I ONLY have 8.5 miles left? I can remember when I couldn't even run 8.5 miles! Ok, so at mile 15 I sucked down another energy gel, Mocha something, not bad and gave me a caffeine boost.

Alright, now we are talking only 5 miles to go!! This is nothing, less than a 10k! I was so excited I even picked up the pace a little more and averaged several of those later miles under 9:40! Amazing! By this time I'm pretty much counting down each mile and watching for the landmarks that I knew would be coming and showing that I'm getting close.

When I finally crossed the last bridge and had the final curves to finish the last mile I was so excited. I could not believe that I managed to finish this 20 mile run AND I did it with an average 9:45 pace! 15 seconds per mile faster than I had planned and expected to complete the run. Such an amazing run!

I did some stretching, had some food and re-hydrated before heading back home where I finally succeeded in a full ice bath (minus the ice!).

Tune in next week when I tackle a 24 mile run and MUST run it at a 10:00 min pace so I get the most out of the training run! :) 5 weeks to the Marathon!!

Friday, April 15, 2011

Intense smells while running... Yuck and yum!

Ok, so it's an odd title, I couldn't really think of something all that witty so that's what I've got.

I've noticed recently with indoor and outdoor running that there are some intense smells I have had to deal with, some good and some bad. The good ones are fine, love it and keeps me going... however the bad ones tend to outweigh the good ones and gets me extremely irritated. I decided to compile a list of the good, the bad and the ugly... ;o)

Indoor Treadmill Running - Good Smells
Nothing - I can't say that I've come across any pleasant smells while running inside on the treadmill.

Indoor Treadmill Running - Bad Smells
Middle-aged man with too much cologne... I'm sorry but a week ago I was trudging along on some speed work and all of a sudden this guy appears next to me and has what I can only assume is the worst smelling cologne ever. I actually think I might have enjoyed it had I not been inhaling it directly into my lungs for 32 minutes. Yes, I watched, it took him 32 minutes to complete his run, that was probably close to the worst 32 minutes I've experienced on a treadmill.
Chick cleaning the mirrors... I mean honestly, there are signs posted in the spinning studio that clearly says, do not spray products during class as the fumes can be inhaled by people while working out and it is not good for your health. HELLO! How is it appropriate to spray the mirrors and wipe them down, 3 feet away from someone who is running on the treadmill. A nasty smell that practically burns when you take a deep breath. I actually had to ask her to stop cleaning because I was inhaling that crap. Then the next week she did it again?! How stupid are people, really.

Outdoor Running - Good Smells
Fresh cut grass!!! Ahh, this is a lovely smell that makes me think of spring and my childhood, I love it.
BBQ grill - Yes, just this week someone was cooking BBQ on their grill outside, I got to run past their house 3 times and it smelled SO good. I would have loved to have crashed into their backyard and grabbed something to go :)

Outdoor Running - Bad Smells
Burning Leaves - This used to be a favorite smell of mine until I inhaled a huge breath directly into my lungs and it burned so bad. I'm forever torn now on this smell. If I'm not running I still enjoy it, but if I'm running I hate it.
Laundry - I experienced this several times during the winter. I'm guessing it was someones dryer, but really, the smell of soap is not pleasant while running.
Car/Lawn Mower/Anything Exhaust - Need I say more? YUCK!

Those are the ones I can recall at the moment and found to be the worst of the worst and the best of the best. I'm sure there are more out there, what have you experienced, good or bad, inside or out?!

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Half Marathon PR... or was it 13.4 miles instead??

Saturday was a great day, until I crossed the finish line and read the time on my Garmin... 1:51:47, really? WTF happened? I was on pace, I should have been at 1:49:xx. I was SO frustrated I didn't even bother waiting for official chip times, I headed the 5 blocks to my car without looking back.

Weather forecasting showed possible snow/rain mix for the race as I was checking things out on Friday. I was a little bummed, plus some wind in there and high 30s. Not exactly the ideal forecast I was initially expecting. Saturday morning comes around, pretty much clear skies, no precipitation and at least 39 when the race started. Perfect! This is going to be an awesome race now, I can just feel it!!

I started out strong and kept an eye on my Garmin, the goal was to stay around 8:25 pace for the first 8 miles or so, then try to increase a bit here and there so I could get my first sub 1:50 Half and an awesome PR. For those first 8 miles I was never over an 8:25 pace, ever. And, most often I was below that, ranging from 8:20 to 8:25 and anywhere in between.

The race was an out-and-back, with the turn around point being somewhere near the 6.4 mile marker. My Garmin was pretty much dead-on with the mile markers for the first few miles. I was trying to "run the tangents" as much as possible to ensure I was running as close to the 13.1 as possible. I noticed at mile 7 though, that my Garmin was all of a sudden off... instead of being 7.0 it was showing 7.33... hmm I thought, that was weird. But whatever, I shook it off, no big deal. I'm sure it will even itself out as the race continues.

I hit the 10 mile mark and there were a couple of volunteers cheering and encouraging saying "only 5k to go, you got it". So I was like, hell yes I got this, I cranked it up and busted out close to an 8 min mile for that first mile of the 5k... that was a mistake as I got closer to mile 12, where I started to run out of steam. Those volunteers got me so pumped up, I launched full speed ahead instead of increasing slowly as my coach had recommended. So mile 10 was about an 8:00, I think mile 11 was maybe 8:15, then I really slowed down at mile 12, close to 8:20 again like when I first started. My last mile I was able to kick it up a notch again and blast through the finish line. I was SO excited because I just KNEW that my time was awesome, I KNEW I had managed the required 8:23 per mile to hit 1:49:49.

And then, I stopped my Garmin, tapped to the full time and was heart-broken to see it say 1:51:49. HOW DID THIS HAPPEN? I wanted to scream and cry at the same time. I busted my ass on this race, how the hell did I NOT make my goal??? Then I looked at the total distance, 13.47.... What?! 13.47?? that's not anywhere close to 13.1... WTF?! Who set up this route? Who screwed me out of my PR? I was SO UPSET.

So here I am heading to my car, defeated... thinking in my head, my Garmin said I averaged 8:19 per mile, but according to the race it will be more like 8:31, slower than my initial starting goal of 8:30. I continued to my car, re-hydrated, stretched and sat down to send a text to my coach. I was practically in tears as I was composing the message to tell him that I had failed my sub 1:50 goal. I just couldn't believe what had happened.

Later that evening when the official results were posted online, the race officials acknowledged that the distance of the half marathon was actually 13.4 instead of 13.1 and apologized for the mix-up on the location of the turn-around point. They showed our proper pacing on the results, mine being 8:21, however our times are still that of the full distance. So while my pace reflects my goal, the end time does not. There is nothing to be done about this now of course, I'm pleased on how I ran but still extremely disappointed that my race time does not reflect it.

I wonder how often these kinds of things happen? In all of my racing over the last 2.5 years this is a first for me.