April Check in + Virtual Racing

It's been over a month since my last blog post, but I haven't felt like writing. What could I possibly say that hadn't been said before? This is a crappy time, the stress is ridiculous, and the unknown is even worse. I miss our normal lives, and I am fearful of how different our "normal" will become when we are able to reopen our country.

We are all feeling some pretty intense emotions right now.

But I've been thinking this week about a few things that I really did want to write about. The bad emotions can be greatly helped when we think of gratitude, and I've made it a point to repeat to myself the things I am grateful for.

1. My husband still has a job. He's working ridiculous hours, sometimes from 6am to 11pm holed away in his office, with time here and there to eat and interact. But he has a job, he's busy (job security?), and for that I am incredibly grateful. 

2. My daughter doesn't have to worry about the social stress from being on a 4000+ student high school campus, although she desperately misses her close friends.

3. We have a house big enough for us to all make our own space. We aren't on top of each other, and we can all find quiet places when we need them. I may never downsize.

4. I am still able to exercise (and I do have a lot to say about that, particularly since this is a running blog!)

5. We are able to find food in the grocery stores and make good meals and are cooking so much more than normal.

6. While our grocery bill is much higher, our other expenses are much lower. We don't need to buy gas and we haven't been ordering drinks at restaurants and those two things alone are saving us a lot of money!

7. My dogs are thrilled we are always around and have warm laps.

Now I want to talk about my running.

I'm supposed to run the Chicago Marathon in October, but I have to be honest...I don't expect there to be any major marathons for the rest of the year, so I am not counting on it. I am pretty sure I'll be deferring to 2021, but will make that decision when I'm forced to. For now, I have a hotel room booked and no plane tickets yet!

The lack of certainty surrounding my marathon has had no impact on the amount of running I'm doing. I am actually running more in an off season than I have ever run. I'm almost at marathon volume, but with far more easy miles. In a typical week, I am running 40+ miles with probably 90% of them at an easy zone 1 and 2 heartrate pace. The high volume of easy vs fast miles is keeping my body feeling absolutely great. I'm running really really well right now and it's weird.

At the beginning of March, I was under a great deal of stress (not even coronavirus related), and it affected my running negatively. My heartrate was constantly elevated. But I kept being consistent and still getting out there and running, keeping it easy. After a few weeks, and within the confines of this stay-at-home order, my running has improved dramatically. My heartrate has slowly come down while my pace has quickened. In a nutshell, it's been amazing. Being able to still get out there almost everyday and exercise has been vital to keeping my emotions in check. There are a million things we can't control, but we can certainly control getting in some exercise.

There is a local 5K race held every month that costs only $1, but because of the stay-at-home order, the race has gone virtual. Greg and I ran last month's together at more of a half marathon pace and got our results listed and it was fun! This month, the race director decided to add in a 10K, half marathon, and marathon distance in addition to the 5K, over a 4-day period. We could run any or all distances and submit our times. I started my week running as normal, with a hard interval run on Tuesday that went very well. I had planned to run the rest of my miles easy and then "race" a half marathon over the weekend to count for the virtual race. But in looking at the weather forecast, it seemed like Thursday would be the best time to run (the virtual dates were April 16-19). I ran for an hour Wednesday as normal, and then figured why not just race on Thursday, even though I wasn't at all rested, nor had I even fueled very well. I didn't even have a route in mind, just knew I'd run in the neighborhood. Didn't really matter, since I had no intentions of running faster than marathon pace (8:35).

So here we are on Thursday morning. I didn't even bother with a warm up and set out to run the first couple miles at a faster-than-normal-but-not-fast pace. Easy pace for me is around 9:30-10:15 and I ran that first mile in 8:55, so definitely a bit faster than it felt (good sign?). Mile 2 came in at 8:24 and I'm not lying when I say I absolutely thought I was running slower. It freaked me out a little, as it was early on and I didn't want to get caught up in that "but I felt so good in the beginning" mentality and then hate myself at Mile 10.

The miles just kept clicking off in the low 8's and I honestly felt just fine. It wasn't easy at all, but it felt very doable for 13 miles. I saw Greg at four miles in and he ran a few miles with me back towards our house so I could refuel. Greg acted as my water stop volunteer so I didn't need to lose too much time. He was done with his run, so now I had about six more miles to run to finish this out. I was on pace to run about a 1:50 half marathon, which technically would be my third fastest ever. This seemed completely unreal to me and like it must be some kind of fluke. But then again, I still had six miles to go.

I ended up speeding up a bit and my miles were just flying by in just over 8:00 pace, and I calculated I could actually come really close to my PR of 1:47:49. By the time I realized this, I couldn't speed up enough to actually break it, and besides, it wouldn't have been much fun to say you ran a PR and it technically not count. But I knew if I just kept running, I was on pace to run my second fastest and that became the plan with the last 5K to go.

I ended up running 1:48:26 for 13.11 miles and an 8:16 pace. I ran the first half in about 8:22 pace, so it was a nice negative split. And I was strangely not that tired after I was done. My average heartrate was only 149 and it was a Zone 3 run. For my January race, where I PRd on a net downhill (very gradual) course with a slight tailwind, my average heartrate was 158.

I just think this is so weird. I haven't been doing any specialized training. Just running a lot of easy miles, staying consistent, running long every weekend, and doing one hard workout per week. EASY MILES MAKE YOU FASTER!!

So now I still have all these miles I still want to run this weekend. I decided that this morning, I would run the virtual 10k BUT DEFINITELY NOT FAST. My 10k PR is a 7:52 average (48:54), not in the cards two days after a fast half marathon. I'm crazy but not that crazy. Once again, I thought marathon pace would be just fine.

I actually did warm up for this one, a nice 1.25 mile jog with the husband, who was going to run a fast 5K. I eased into an uncomfortable pace that didn't hurt my legs too badly (they were fatigued, but not sore). First mile was an 8:29, and the second mile wasn't much quicker so it seemed like this was the pace my body would go. Fine by me! My heartrate once again was very much in control, solid Zone 3. It ended up being a very good run overall, and I negative split it. My last mile was 7:49 and that really made me happy! My time overall was 51:15 and an 8:14 pace. It was also my second fastest 10K ever.

Two races, two days apart, second fastest in both. When I wasn't rested, wasn't fueled, and had run 44 miles the week before. I don't recommend an unconventional approach like that to racing, but it sure worked out well for me this week!

My body isn't used to that many fast miles in one week, so I'm taking the next couple runs very easy. I still plan to run long tomorrow, but all in Zones 1 and 2.

What does this mean for marathon training that is supposed to start in less than two months? Well, I'm going to continue running 40+ miles per week, continue with one hard workout each week, and start my training plan mid-June. Regardless of whether Chicago happens or not, I will still train for it and I will still run a marathon that day. It won't be a PR marathon (because if I did that I would run a BQ pace and it would piss me off to no end to BQ but not really BQ because it certainly won't count). I have never run a marathon distance by myself outside of a race. But I will do it. I'm running so well right now and want to keep this up.

I'm going to forget about the fact that summer is coming and Texas summers suck and I'm going to actually die running in the heat. I won't think about that right now.

Awesome Race Day!

It's been 5 1/2 years since I ran a road 10K, and the last one I did, in October 2012, I had no intention of racing to a PR (although that's what I did, barely....apparently I was in better shape than I thought). I've run 10K portions of workouts and longer races faster than my actual PR (53:12), so it was well overdue for me to race again to see where I stood with my fitness.

In November, I raced a 5 miler at 7:45 pace, so I knew that I had built up some middle distance speed in the last few years. I figured I could probably run in the 48-49 minute range, and at least break 8 min pace if race day conditions were good (that 5 miler was in 32 degree temps). I decided to sign up for a 10K after my marathon season was done, and picked the Cap 10K. It's the biggest 10K in Texas and on a certified course. Sometimes it's hard to navigate the people, but if you position yourself close up in the corral, it's possible to do a minimal amount of swerving around people. I would have preferred a smaller race, but 10Ks are hard to come by and I wanted to be sure it was on an accurate course (not short!), something you can't always guarantee in smaller races. So the Cap 10K on April 8 it would be.

Leading up to the race, my speed workouts were going pretty well. I was feeling like I had maintained pretty good fitness at the shorter distances and was eager to see how it would translate in a race. I had hoped that the Texas Independence Relay at the end of March would allow me to see where I was at, but the hot weather and difficulty of my leg assignments kicked my butt. I still think I ran pretty well, but all my legs were far off my expected 10K pace.

As we got closer to race day, I started weather obsessing. Shockingly enough, the weather was going to be spectacular for April in Texas. The weather for the Cap 10K is usually warm and humid, but not this time! Still a bit of humidity, but a starting temp of 42 degrees was ideal! I couldn't have been happier. If there was ever a time I could bust out a good PR, it was going to be at this race.

The husband was also shooting for a new PR. He ran a 45:49 last time he raced the Cap 10K, and it was still his current PR. He was hoping to break 45 minutes today, and I had a lot of faith that he'd actually break 44 minutes. He's been training so well lately for his marathon, and his speed is pretty impressive. With the good weather, I figured he'd be so close to 7 min pace, if not actually break it.

I went back and forth of what I thought I was capable of, and finally settled on an A goal of breaking 49 minutes. On a less hilly course, perhaps I could be a bit faster, but there is over 300 feet of elevation gain in this 10K. It mostly all comes in the first half of the race, and there's a lot of downhill to take advantage of, so it's most definitely a PR course if you know how to approach the hills. But it's also possible for them to take a toll. It remained to be seen!

We positioned ourselves about 15-20 seconds back from the start. With 22,000 runners I was so glad we had the first corral. This race is just so packed, and many people position themselves wrong in the corrals so it's not uncommon to encounter walkers within a quarter mile or so (yes, seriously, even in the first corral). I wasn't taking any chances. It also meant I was going out at my race pace...no warm up mile... and I had to hold that pace. Balls to the wall with nothing to lose, right??

The first mile was actually pretty uneventful. I went out at a comfortably hard pace, but not too crazy considering the first mile is a gradual uphill with over 100 feet of elevation gain (ouch!). It doesn't feel horrible and you're running towards the Capitol, but it's still not so easy. I hit the first mile in 8:06. Not too bad. Still needed to speed up.

As soon as we got to a downhill at the beginning of mile 2, I sped up. I wanted to take advantage of every downhill I could and not worry about whether it was wrecking my legs. Miles 2 and 3 are a constant rolling hill section, and you don't really get any relief until the second half of the race. Mile 2 came in at 7:53, and with the biggest hills during mile 3, that one came in at 8:02. I was a little disappointed that I was over 8 minutes on mile 3, so I knew that I needed to have no more fear for the second half of the race. I was really looking forward to all the elevation loss coming up, that's for sure!

At the halfway point, I was at 24:59. If I wanted to break 49 minutes I would need to run a full minute faster during the second half. At this point I had run the tangents well and didn't have any extra distance added on, but this course will bite you in the butt on that in the second half. It's notorious for forcing extra steps and I really have no idea why if you run tangents well, but it is what it is. I knew that I would have at least an extra 30 seconds of running beyond what my watch says was a 10K distance, and I needed to pace myself like I was running longer than a 10K. This is pretty much how any race goes, I know that, and neither the husband nor I have been able to hit the 10K distance even close to perfectly in this race. So....first half in 24:59 and an 8:02 pace, with the second half needing to be closer to 7:30 pace.

I saw my teammate Drew right after the halfway point, and I'm glad I saw him during a downhill because I bet I looked much better than if he'd seen me on an uphill! A quick wave to Drew and now a new focus on finishing this thing out. I was steadily speeding up and hoping it wasn't going to make me blow up. But like I kept thinking...I had nothing to lose and everything to gain by being fearless.

Mile 4 came in at 7:42 and again my watch beeped right at the mile marker. I was hoping I could get even faster in those last 2 miles, but mile 6 would be unforgiving. It's pretty flat and feels harder than it is. So mile 5 needed to be totally awesome. I felt okay. It was most certainly hard, but I still thought I could keep running this pace for another 17 minutes. I was getting warm so I took my gloves off and rolled down my arm sleeves...I was surprised I was actually feeling warm! My watch beeped before the Mile 5 marker (just like I thought it would!) with a 7:37 mile, and I passed the mile marker at about 39:40. I need to run the last 1.2 miles in about 9 minutes...I definitely thought I could do this!

I somehow gave a little extra distance to the course during mile 6 (of course I did...ugh)....and oh my gosh mile 6 can totally suck! But I was almost done and just needed to suck it up. Making the turn from Cesar Chavez Ave to South 1st Street is one of the best moments of the race. There is less than a half mile to go and you can see the finish festival. I knew Greg would already be done and waiting for me and I wanted him to be proud of my finish. My watch beeped that I ran mile 6 in 7:35 and I was so thrilled with that! I was steadily improving my pace during the race and was about to finish strong. One more turn onto Riverside Drive and the finish line was in sight. I just gave it all I had at this point. That last 1/4 mile was at 6:45 pace! I don't think I've ever even seen that pace during a 5K race, much less a 10K.

Pain cave at the finish sprint. Photo cred: Nancy K

I finished the race in 48:54....barely making my goal. An official pace of 7:52 per mile. SO DAMN HAPPY.

MY HUSBAND WAS A TOTAL ROCKSTAR!!! He not only made his goal of breaking 45 minutes, but he made MY goal for him of breaking 44 minutes! He ran 43:33! He's pretty incredible and I'm so proud of him.

Free vodka is always appreciated

After the race, we found some awesome friends and spent some time hanging out. We were both pretty tired, but really pleased with our races.

Looking back at my splits and analyzing how I felt, I have to say that I don't think I could have run this race any better. I was in Zone 4 for over 42 minutes of the race, with a couple minutes in Zone 5, so I was in control and running at threshold just like I wanted to be. My average heartrate was 159 and it never went over 168. I almost negative split every mile and am okay with mile 3 being slower since it was the hilliest mile. My second half was 1:05 faster than the first half and I clocked my fastest 5K on this watch (23:29). Based on my January marathon time, I think this is right where I should be in my fitness. It gives me confidence going into the rest of the year and future 2018 marathon training.

Stats for me: 28/1232 F40-44, 225/10349 women, 1145/18752 overall
Stats for husband: 33/969 M40-44, 313/8403 males, 348/18752 overall (only 35 women beat him!)

On Monday morning, guess what was found on the Statesman's Instagram feed? A picture of me!! How cool is that??

And that husband of mine? He's well on his way to being able to BQ in his July marathon!

You Just Never Know

One of the perks of being on Team Luke's is that you they will offer free race entries throughout the year. When they offered an entry to run the IBM Uptown Classic on October 7, I jumped at the chance. Greg has run it the last two years and really enjoyed it, so I was looking forward to checking it out. To run as a member of Team Luke's (the main sponsor) was an added benefit. Unfortunately Greg needed to lead worship at church that morning, so the family could not go with me.

My plan was not to "race" this event, but rather use it as a good training run. I wasn't going to run slow, but around a 9-minute pace would make me happy. The previous day I ran 8 miles with our training group and felt so good during that run that I picked up the pace more than I normally would have. I was pretty tired and definitely underfueled when I went to bed Saturday night. I didn't think the race would be anything to write home about.

I'm not going to lie...getting out of bed Sunday morning was difficult. I felt a bit dehydrated, was hungry and fatigued. But I made a commitment to Team Luke's to run this race, and I needed to represent them well. I couldn't go around complaining about not wanting to be there, although I really could've crawled right back into bed. Greg offered to take a picture of me before I left, but since it wasn't going to be any kind of magical race for me, I declined.

It was a bit difficult to actually get to the race itself. The crew had prematurely blocked off Duval and Burnett Roads, so I couldn't even get to the parking lot I planned to use. Several other cars were clearly confused as well, and I ended following some of them around a barricade to get to the parking garage near the start. It was a little frustrating as I hate starting race morning with irritating setbacks. Luckily I had set out from my house so early that I had plenty of time to kill. After finally parking and getting my stuff together, I headed over to the start area and the vendors. I debated on taking my jacket with me and then just tying it around my waist during the race since the windchill was in the 40s. But I left it in the car...big mistake! I was FREEZING out in the windy cold. It was by far our coldest morning in several months and the wind was brutal. I didn't even think about bringing gloves, so I was starting to feel totally unprepared. Luckily Luke's had given us long sleeve technical shirts, so I was wearing that one rather than the team tank top. After milling around for several minutes and chatting with a friend I had run into, I decided to go back to my car and stay warm until closer to the start.

As I sat in the car, I had serious thoughts of just not running. I really don't understand what my problem was. I had kind of a frustrating week as I was pretty exhausted. You can read about it in my previous blog post. So I wasn't really in a good mental place to run. But again, I remembered that I had made a commitment and part of it was to run to the best of my ability for Luke's Locker. I had to live up to that commitment.

At about 7:40 I headed back over to the start (scheduled for 8:00). I chatted briefly with Gray from Luke's. He asked how I was feeling, and I said I was going to run to the best of my ability for that morning. He liked that, so that made me smile. As I found a good place behind the start line, I ran into another friend, Eddie, who is in Round Rock Fit, and that lifted my spirits a lot as well. It's a weird thing for me to be at a race totally alone, having driven there alone, with no plans to meet up with anything, no plans to run with anyone, and no one waiting at the finish line, so to see friendly faces is always a good thing. Eddie was going to run a much faster race than me, otherwise I probably would have tried to stick with him. I think I told him I would be happy with 2-3 minutes over my 53:33 PR.

The race start was uneventful. I got into a good rhythm right from the start, and even got to run with another Round Rock Fit friend for about a mile. I didn't overdo the pace, but I wasn't running particularly slow, either. As I entered Mile 2, I picked it up to a more difficult pace, but one I thought I could probably hold for a few miles. I knew I could always back off if it got to difficult. It was about this time I realized I had never used my inhaler that morning, but with the cold air I thought it would be okay. The heat and humidity is what tends to irritate my asthma. I was enjoying the course a lot. There were several turns and I wasn't being so good about cutting them close, but I didn't really care all that much.

During Mile 3 I still felt okay, but I honestly thought this wasn't going to be close to a PR day, not that I ever had any real thoughts of trying to PR at all. As I went through the 5K check point, I glanced at my watch and it said 27:44. I had already added on a little bit of extra distance because of my sloppy turns, so I'd definitely be running longer than a 10k. A quick calculation told me that I'd have to run less than 26 minutes to get close to my PR and I just didn't see that my pace could possibly pick up that much.

I stuck to my usual routine of not looking at current pace while I run, but rather just trying to run on feel. I would glance at average pace and was genuinely surprised that it kept dropping pretty significantly as I headed into Miles 4 and 5. When it dropped under my PR pace, I had a brief thought that maybe I really could PR this race. I knew it had to go quite a bit below PR pace, however, because of all the extra distance I had added, and that I'd have to keep increasing my speed. The brief thought faded very quickly when reality set in. It wasn't going to happen and I wasn't going to push myself to make it happen. That's not what this race was about.

I continued to run at a difficult pace, but one I felt I could maintain, never looking to see how fast it was. I was really surprised, however, at how great I felt. The course was awesome, with no crazy hills and what seemed like a lot of downhill. It really was a PR course, if you could cut the corners well or let the elevation work to your benefit. I figured with just a bit over a mile to run I had nothing to lose and wanted to finish strong.

When I had about a half mile to go I actually felt like maybe a 53 minute race was possible. I didn't think I'd have to slow down and I was running very well, right around 8 minute even pace. At the final turn, when I could see the 6 mile marker, I looked at my watch and saw a 51. With 2/10ths of a mile to run, I was going to easily break my PR. To say I was shocked is an understatement. I flew to the finish line, hitting a pace in the low 6 minute range for part of it. And I was certainly smiling.

As I crossed the finish line and stopped my watch, I couldn't believe it said 53:13, a full 20 seconds under my PR.

And I felt awesome. Nothing like my PR pace last November, when I could hardly breathe and thought I was going to throw up afterwards. No, I felt incredible after this race. I had a lot left in me and certainly didn't run as fast as I could have if I had set out to run a personal best during that race.

But I had done it anyway....even with adding a 10th of a mile!

I saw Eddie right away after the race and got a huge hug from him and I'm so glad. To have no one greeting me afterwards would have totally sucked, especially considering I had run so well.

My splits for the race were almost perfect: 9:15, 8:42, 8:33, 8:21, 8:04, 8:09, 2:06 (7:00 pace) for the final 0.3 mile. A 27:44 first 5K, 25:28 second 5K. Official time of 53:12, which made me 25th out of 149 in my age group. I honestly think this was the very best I have ever run.

So I run 8 miles the day before, don't fuel or rehydrate properly, I go to the race alone, it's cold and windy, I feel unprepared, I run alone for the majority of the race, I didn't use my inhaler...and I run better than I think I ever have. Just goes to show that when you have zero expectations, magical things can happen.