rock 'n roll

(a bit long-winded. grab a snack and hunker down. allow me to distract you from work for a few hours.)

week in review (8/31 - 9/06):
total miles: 62.25
time spent running: ~ 8 hours 48 minutes
avg hr: 155.00
avg pace: 8:41/mile (avg temp: 75.40*)
off days: 1 (scheduled)

blah blah blah, we all know my running has been pretty blah lately. this week was a smidge better, 'cause i told myself to buck up and get it done. no whining allowed. i knew i had a half marathon on sunday, so all week i pondered and worried about my game plan for the race. (many thanks to aron for trying to reassure me that no matter what, it'd be a good race) i didn't actually decide on my "plan" until mile 4 of the race...

to taper or not to taper...

since the past few weeks of running have been less than stellar, i decided to not taper and log some much-needed miles. plus, this isn't my goal race, and running hard on tired legs is good for training purposes. i did kind of skip my mid-week quality run but other than that, no tapering business.

mon - 15 miles easy ("made up" for skipping sunday's long run)
tue - 8 miles easy (shins became a bit tender later on tuesday)
wed - 8 miles easy
thur - 2.1 miles easy am, 10 miles w/ 3 threshold pm (first double in a long time, hence the slow and easy 20 minute am run)
fri - 6.05 miles easy
sat - rest day/traveling/lay out on the beach (yes, i still hear my college coaches yelling at me for laying out in the sun before a race and letting it drain my energy... i did it anyway)
sun - virginia beach rock 'n roll half marathon, aka 13.1 miles threshold

my shins felt a little better friday and a bit more after taking saturday off, but they were sore enough to play a role in my race-plan indecisiveness (along with a number of other things). once j & i landed in norfolk saturday morning, we met up with friends and (slowly) made our way over to the expo. my former running buddy kt is all about being punctual while her sister and i are, well, not. we picked up our packets (somehow i was in corral 1) and perused the expo a little. the fortune cookie i got from pf chang's booth said "slow and steady wins the race", which of course led me to think i should run easy. after the expo we went to the beach for some sun & fun and later headed over to another friends' house for carbo-loading. i told kt and john (both in corral 5) i'd run with them, but they said no way you shouldn't run with us you could win (riiiight). there went my excuse of "oh i'm just running for fun with friends".

after eating a ton of spaghetti and mint chocolate chip ice cream, we headed back home to get ready for the morning. i laid out my clothes and realized my two-week old garmin was mia. insert minor breakdown here. j was very nonchalant about it while i was stressing out. i knew i could go without it since i've never raced with it before anyway, but i just *knew* i had packed it and that the airport security people stole it. j was like "they never searched our bags and even if they did, they wouldn't know it was anything more than a regular watch. i'm sure you left it back in kentucky." after a few minutes of freaking out, i knew i'd be ok for the race, but i was mad at myself for losing it, especially since i just bought it.

mad at my stupid self, i tried to go to bed. the friend we were staying with has dogs, of which i am apparently allergic too. lil' wheezy made a reappearance and i couldn't fall asleep. i'm always afraid i'll stop breathing in the middle of the night and won't wake back up. guess where my inhalers were? about 9 hours away. good place for them, i know...

so, lost garmin, asthma troubles, sore shins, lack of motivation over the past few weeks... i was all kinds of concerned about my race "plan". sunday morning came and we headed over to the race. good thing we really studied up on the road closures. after a few detours, we parked and made our way over to the starting area. on the way to the port-a-potties i magically ran into jess of run girl run! we had texted earlier in the morning about trying to meet up, but you know how easy it is to find someone you've never met amongst 30,000 runners. we happened to walk right up to each other, pretty cool. (or maybe she was just way more alert than i was.) i also met her bf and awesome half-marathoning mom. :) we grabbed a quick picture and chatted a little, but then i really needed to reserve a spot in a port-a-potty line.

totally stolen from jess' race report

the race was set up with corrals (like 27 of them) and each was released every 45-90 seconds. corral 1 was the first to start along with the elites, no pressure. i exited the plastic hut, scurried over to the starting line, and had maybe one minute in the corral before the race started. i have this last-minute thing down pat (i've never warmed up before, why start now). when i entered the corral i headed straight for the back end of it. let's be real, the rest of these people are running like 1:20's and i most certainly am not. with no race plan in mind (still), the gun went off and so it began.

a pr is, of course, always desired, but i knew it probably wasn't likely. disney was run on fresh legs at the peak of a training cycle, this was on untapered legs in the middle of a cycle. i knew i'd be perfectly happy with a hard effort, and a hard effort it was. i started out strong, running similar splits to disney, but i knew by mile 3 that it would not be a pr day. my body just felt tired. i relaxed a little and aimed for a slower but still-threshold-ish pace. some miles were better than others. i tried to find someone to pace off of but i kept picking inconsistent people. i found "captain america" (older man running in us flag shorts) and ran behind him for a few miles before pulling ahead of him somewhere in mile 9. my brain campaigned a few times to pull the pace back more and run easy, but i managed to fight it off and press on. in mile 7 i thought, alright only 5 miles to go. then i got to mile 8 and thought darn it, still 5 miles to go. i hate mid-run math, it never goes well for me.

not sure why i felt compelled to make this pose everytime i ran by j & friends.
major dork.

i took gu roctane around miles 3 and 8, and alternated between cytomax and water at each water stop. unlike disney, i did not make the last 5k feel like a 5k. i continued holding my pace but picked it up for a sprint finish, passing a chick in us flag shorts and a bunch of guys who weren't putting up a fight. the finish is my favorite part, although really, who doesn't love the sight of the finish line? overall, i ran hard and pushed myself, and i'm pleased with my "threshold pace" effort.

virginia beach rock 'n roll half-marathon: 13.1 miles, 1:36:29 (avg pace 7:22)

running a race is a great mood-booster. whether or not you pr, the atmosphere is so uplifting and it's hard to not enjoy yourself. i think this race was just what the doctor ordered. i have a better idea of my goal(s) for nyc and a rejuvenated spirit towards the remainder this training cycle. of course, as soon as i mentioned my possible nyc plan to j, i followed it up with "but hopefully at the half-way mark or so i can pick up the pace a little" ... will i ever learn? ;-)

my legs have been a little stiff but nothing is sore. i'm sure a post-race dip in the chilly ocean helped with the staving off the soreness, and the plane ride contributed to the stiffness. oh yeah, and my garmin was waiting for me in kentucky upon my return. i do remember trying to squeeze a few last minute items into my bag and must not have re-packed my garmin. at least it's not lost-lost.

unfortunately, there is also negative news associated with this year's virginia beach rock 'n roll half marathon. a gentleman passed away somewhere around the 12 mile marker. no details have been released yet, but such news can never be taken lightly. be safe out there, fellow runners.