Race Report: Tom King Half Marathon

The inspiration you seek is already within you. Be silent and listen. -- Rumi

Normally race recaps are easy for me. I come up with a list of excuses of why the day didn't turn out the way it should have and I post them in the most self-deprecating way possible and move on. This race report has been a little harder to come up with. (And I've also been impatiently waiting for Brightroom to hurry up and post their goddamn pictures). This time, there are no excuses... I put in 14 weeks of training, I surrounded myself with an incredible team: my awesome coach Tanya, my amazing running partner/pacer Steve, and my other friends and family who were all rooting for me.

Saturday morning was perfect. The weather was beautiful (not too hot like I had feared) and I felt good. Not great, but not nervous or anxious. I was ready.

My mantra before the race was simple... "hang on." I realized sometime on Friday that hey... this race shouldn't hurt that bad. It's not like I'm running 5k pace. I've trained for 8:15s to feel challenging, but not awful. I stood around and watched the 5k start and cheered for my coach and looked for other friends who were running. By the time the 5kers were making their way back around for their one mile mark and I saw my coach who barked at me... "WARM UP" while she ran herself to a Female Grandmasters award (hot damn!), I was starting to get a bit nervous. But, I still comforted myself with the the thought.. 8:15s shouldn't hurt that bad and that the race shouldn't be that hard.

Steve wore my watch, so I had no idea what our time/pace was at any point in the race. At the 2 mile marker, I asked him: "how are we doing?" to which he responded with... "how do you feel?" And I wanted to be like.. dude, I feel fucking awful. Who asks how we're doing when they feel good? NO ONE. But, instead of wasting energy on getting all angsty on him, I just told him the truth... "it feels a little fast." He told me that it was a little fast, but nothing to worry about.

He tried to lighten the mood, told me to relax, told me to take deep breaths, asked me if I wanted him to hold my long sleeve shirt. He was the perfect, cool, calm and easy going pacer. And as hard as it felt at times, his zen vibe somehow kept me "hanging on."

As we got closer to mile 9 (which I was dreading the whole race, because it was at mile 9 that we were planning on picking it up) I kept asking him... how are we doing? And his response every time was "perfect." I had no idea if he was bullshitting me or what. And that uncertainty kept me motivated.

By mile 11 and 12, I was hurting. Not anywhere specific, but my legs were not turning over as fast as I wanted them to. Those miles would turn out to be our slowest of the day.

As we approached the stadium, I caught a glimpse of the jumbo tron and I saw that it had a 1:4X on it. Just enough of a tease to not know whether or not I was going to make my goal, I still had a little less than a half a mile to go. Still a lot of time left to race. Too much time, possibly.

I kicked as hard as I could fucking kick and when I turned the corner and saw the clock for the first time, I couldn't believe it. It had a 1:44:xx on it and I knew, that with the chip time, I had a chance to actually come in sub 1:45. I ran harder and right before I crossed the finish line (like, literally, probably 3 feet from the finish line), I doubled over and dry heaved. I somehow made myself keep going to the finish line, where I immediately doubled over again and gagged and dry heaved. Lovely.

Official time: 1:44:40.

I FUCKING DID IT!

I'm still in disbelief. I mean, never in my wildest expectations (my secret goal was sub 1:47) would I have guessed I'd break 1:45. I was planning on training for that this fall!

But that time wouldn't have been possible without Steve or Tanya. Both are amazing people who selflessly put time and effort into helping me achieve (and overachieve!) my goal. I can't thank them enough!

I spent most of Saturday afternoon in a giddy daze. And the post race celebration was perfect! No shots of ex boyfriends or drunken race reports. Somehow, I was too excited and happy to really want to get wild and crazy (I know), but I did indulge in some tasty beverages and food with friends. The perfect ending to a perfect day. *insert unicorns and rainbows and puppies*

Tom King? Schooled.

Week 14- Finally

Ok, I KNOW... you're all STFU, Amy. This is already 3 posts this week... but... it's taper time. It's what we do.

Well, the training is done, so, I thought it fitting to go ahead and post this final week. AHHHHHH!

I have a confession to make... Tuesday I was all "OMG, I can't do this," I even started to tear up during my cool down when Steve asked me how the intervals felt. (AWFUL, they felt freaking awful!) But... I turned the corner. I've got this. And now, now, I'm just ready to do it. (!!!!)

I'm skipping my absolutefavoritefreaking yoga class tonight. Instead, I'm going to go get a manicure or do something equally lame that won't make my hamstrings cranky.

Yay running! (ummm.. yeah, expect yet another post tomorrow as I countdown every day till Saturday. Dead horse? Where?)

Jams of the week (these are more like tunes I've been dancing around to at home this week. But they are on my running playlist, so they count).

"Shake it Out": Florence and the Machine (not to be confused with Mariah Carey's "Shake it Off" which is also on my playlist and which I also LOVE).
And it's hard to dance with a devil on your back, so shake him off

"Raw (How you like it)": Common (mmmmm... Common).
"You Hollywood?" Nah, bitch*, I'm Chicago/ So I cracked his head with a motherf-cking bottle. (Somehow this line comes off a little more extreme in writing than it does in the song. It's funny in the song, though. I swear).

*Ummm.. he doesn't say bitch.

Lucky 13

Not going to lie. This week was tough and I was tired. And I started to let Mister Self Doubt creep around. He started lurking after the 10k the previous week (the 10k that is ridiculously hilly and should have no bearing on my confidence for this week's goal race) and he chased me for a bit during my intervals on Wednesday and made me run too fast, which made me feel awful during my intervals for the first time in weeks. And Saturday, he popped his head in when I had a hard time getting to 8:15 and staying there during my long run.

But, I'm optimistic and independent and have made the decision to kick his sorry ass to the curb. He should go bother someone else for awhile... someone who hasn't put in the effort. Because you know what? I am physically capable of breaking 1:49:54 on Saturday. I've spent the last 13 weeks getting to this point. Saturday's race isn't something to be nervous about. I'm ready.  

So, instead of being a brooding, grumpy, ball o' stress this week... I'm going to chillax. And I'm going to have faith in myself, my training and my team.

Thanks for listening to my pep talk to myself. GO TEAM!



12th Week.

Does anyone really give a shit about these weekly recaps anymore? I mean, if I were reading my blog, I would totally skip over the graphic. Numbers? Blargh. At this point, I'm posting it more as an archive so that when my Coach ditches me I'll have something to go back and look at to try and base further training off of.

You already know about the race. What you don't know is how I celebrated AFTER the race, by getting DRUNK. You see... for these 12 weeks, I've been dilgently putting in my training for next week's big race. But equally important (and too often neglected by others) is the training for the celebration that will take place post race. Just like in a race, you don't want to crash and burn in your celebration. So, Saturday early evening I met my coach Tanya and Cheryl for some "celebration training." Lots of beers later, I had a friend come out to meet me at the bar and when he realized that he was wayyyy too far to catch up he suggested we rent a movie, to which I suggested we stop so I can get a bottle of wine. We stopped at the liquor store and I picked up a $20 rioja. (WTF? I'm the only drunk person who suddenly becomes a wine snob. I should have bought a $5 gallon of yellowtail shiraz at this point). And approximately 3 minutes after I downed a glass of that wine I was passed out on the couch until it was time for me to go home. CRASH AND BURN.

Lesson learned... Stay at the bar. And probably take a nap before you go out for the night. I'll be good to go next week. Afterall, I have quite the celebration PR to live up to... the last time I PRed a half marathon.

In other RUNNING related news.... I discovered that I LOVE mile repeats. Or at least I did last week. I like the fact that I've got a mile to settle in. When I do 800s, I always start off too slow and then spend the last 200 meters running for my life. With 1600s... I have time to set the cruise control and chillax.

Another week down.

Week 11.

So, yeah... are you bored of this shit yet or what?

Well, here I am. In the heart of my training. Physically, I know that when I toe the line on March 10, I'll be prepared. But, what about mentally?

You see, this speed thing, this goal thing, this having faith in my abilities thing is all new to me. I can't tell you how many times I've lined up at a race, with a goal in mind, only to be in the middle of the race and the thoughts drift from "I can do this!" to "ohhhh.. it's okay. I don't have to do this today, there's always another race."

All my speedwork is conveniently done on the race course. And I've started spending time trying to visualize and simulate race day. Everytime my foot crosses the little orange spray painted "6" on the side of the pavement, I try to psych myself up. Knowing that that's likely to be a scary point of the race for me. Right in the middle. At the point of no return, no excuses. The point where I usually find myself trying to come up with some excuse to slow down and be more comfortable. I try to think about getting to that moment on race day and pushing through it. Telling myself that I can do it, I've trained to do it.

I've never trained this well for a race before. Any race. And I just hope that the preparation and the true confidence gained from that will keep my thoughts from sabotaging my legs on race day.

9 Weeks (no 1/2)

I'm not ashamed to admit that I actually read 9 1/2 Weeks last year. Interesting, but not as interesting as one would hope. sigh.

Anyway... running last week, was good. Although, I was pretty freaking tired at the beginning of the week. But by thursday, I was feeling better.

I had to do a little switcheroo with my runs since I went to NYC last weekend. I ran my long run before work on Thursday (oh my god, is it blasphemous to say that I don't miss the 20 mile long runs?). And I saved my 1600m repeats for the hotel treadmill. And let me just say... running on a treadmill is the WORST. Good god.

I'm still desperately flirting with the 40mpw marker. This week it's happening though, dag nambit! It's an easy week, and even though I've taken two off days already (oops). I'm getting over the 40 mpw hump.

4 1/2 weeks to go, people... I've already started to put on my cocky britches and think about what might be next...

(Not to be confused with THESE cocky britches. $105? Sheesh. Even I'm not that hardcore).

8 Weeks in.

So, yeah... nothing to see here. Everything is unicorns and rainbows (except for that long run on Saturday, good god the wind!). I had a girls night last Friday night with some of my favorite runners (wassup, Coach?) and while I'd like to blame the beer that night for my poor performance on my long run the next morning... I know I can't, because the week before, the night before my long run I had like 1-2 MORE beers than I had last week. Weird. Whatev. I got it done and that's all that matters.

In other news... I'm going to NYC tomorrow to celebrate my birthday with a trip to the empire state building, some art stalking at the Met, a walk along the high line, meandering through neighborhoods, a yoga class or two, and of course... no trip to NYC is complete without a reflexology massage!

Also... to make this post even more random..  I'm going to throw out my birthday resolutions... (last year I said that I would make my bed every single day and I did! Woo hoo!)... this year, I'm going to diligently keep a daily gratitude journal and buy fresh flowers for my house every week.

How were your runs last week... do you run better when you've drunk MORE beers the night before?

Week 7 Review

Listen, I know. I thought this was going to be wayyyy more interesting for you, too. I mean... when I decided to try and actually TRAIN for speed instead of distance I thought there was gonna be DRAMA FOR DAYS for you people (bitching, whining, self-doubt, tears, giving up, etc)... and instead you're stuck with these weekly recaps of just how effing awesome it turns out that I am. SNOOZEFEST.

If it makes you feel any better... we're still only like half-way through this shit and there's plenty of time for me to royally fuck this up.

That's the spirit!

Anyway... so, last week was another awesome week. Yay! A few things to note... For whatever reason I just cannot force myself to slow down for a cool down after a tempo run. (I know! THE HORROR! Seriously, I just made myself kinda want to vomit after typing that).

Also... I had one of the worst work weeks I've ever had (anxiety attacks? check! crying at work? check!) but... I think it set me up for some good runs. I vented the hell out of some runs this week. My running partners were bored all week long with my rants (lucky Steve got it for 10 miles!). All that anguish (and the 5 beers on Friday night with friends) helped fuel a kick ass long run on Saturday!

Jam of the week: Uhhh.. I didn't run alone once this week... so, no Jams. Just lots of angry yelling and fist shaking about work.

 

Week 6 Review

 

So, my jammed packed weekend of speedwork and a long run didn't kill me! I actually kinda killed it...

Overall, it was a great week. I started the week feeling kinda lazy and bored and ended the week on a high note of feeling fast, strong, and confident. 

I'm about 8 weeks to my goal race date and while I realize that 14 weeks sounds like a LONG ASS time to train for a half marathon PR (I mean, are you bored with these weekly reviews yet, or what?), I think it's just what I need. I've spent the last 6 weeks slowly base building and getting used to speedwork and staying healthy. And now we're getting into the meat of the training and I'm used to the schedule, I'm used to the speedwork, I'm getting better at nailing my times and best of all... I'm LOVING it.

Also, a little note on the schedule... My off day was supposed to be Friday, which is why my coach instructed me to GET DRUNK. How awesome is that? I opted to sleep in on Wednesday instead... but I did end up having a couple of beers on Friday night anyway...

Jam of the week: Thank You by Estelle

Ummm. Oops.

So, my coach sends me my workouts for the upcoming week every Sunday. It's awesome. It keeps me excited to find out what I'm going to be doing, as opposed to having my entire life planned out in advance for 16 weeks or whatever.

And usually, because I'm a bit of a control freak, I tweak the days around a bit to fit my schedule a little better. And luckily Coach is totally fine with that... but she's always telling me to make sure that I don't do two speedwork days in a row. Easy.

So, this week... somehow, it's Thursday and the 3 runs left on my schedule are a long run and two speed workouts. CRIKEY.

Excuses include... just being an overall dumbass and running an easy-ish run on Monday (even though I took Sunday off... WTF?), also it was POURING rain yesterday morning when I woke up and the idea of doing speedwork in the afternoon on my own seemed like the absolute worst ever.

So, the plan is this... to do my Race Pace run tomorrow... that shouldn't exhaust me too much. And then Saturday morning I'll do my long run and Sunday I'll do my intervals*. On paper it looks pretty bad... in theory it sounds pretty dumb... but in practice I think it will be okay.

And in a strange, sickening, and  frightening way... I'm kinda/sorta/littlebit looking forward to it all.

WHO AM I?

And the lesson learned here is... don't put your shit off for later in the week cause you might get all jammed up for the weekend.

*Now before you all (all 2 of you) start yelling at me in the comments about this... clearly... If I feel AWFUL I'll cut the intervals or run slower or hurl myself onto the pavement and start crying or whatever. But, I'm anticipating feeling just peachy for them. And I will be rocking the compression socks all weekend long, baby. 

Week 5 Review

YAY! I finally hit my intervals! Also, I raced on Saturday (race report to come) and took two rest days. Oops.

Overall, it was a good week, it was nice to get back to some speedwork and I was thrilled to finally hit my intervals and feel GOOD during and after them! Yay! Speedwork doesn't have to feel like one of Dante's circles of hell!

I'm finally in the groove. I'm feeling good, I'm used to the schedule, and I can feel my fitness level start to inch it's way back up (errr.. or up for the first time ever).

All good in the 'hood. Yo.

Week 4 Review

Damnnnnn. 4 weeks, already??

Here's what it looked like:

Week 4: The EASY Week.

So, last week was an easy week. No speedwork, just lots of easy, slow, easy miles. I have to say... this is another one of Coach's brilliant ideas! Sure, it was an easy week, there were no intervals or tempo runs, BUT, instead of cutting back on my mileage (which I totally would have done if I were planning my own shit), I cut back on my pace... ran easy and ran MORE miles. It's genius, really. Why didn't I ever think of that?

Anyway, by the end of the week, not only was I feeling rested and sane, I was itching to get back out there and do some faster running.

A month in the books and I'm still loving it!

Week 3 Review

Happy Holidays!

Whoa. 3 weeks down. Unbelievable.

So this week something interesting happened... I woke up at my parents house on Saturday morning and started to get ready for a run through the neighborhood with my mom. I got dressed and put my running shoes on and the first step I took with my left foot after putting my shoes on, I felt a pain. A severe, scary pain. It started at the top of my left butt cheek (almost lower back territory) and then the sharp pain radiated down the entire length of my left leg.

Uhhhh.. WTF?

It wouldn't happen with every step, but it did happen occasionally... Enough to make me consider bailing on the run entirely, but I figured I might as well TRY and see what happens. So we ran 3 miles and only had to stop once, when I felt the pain again. By mid-morning the pain was gone.

On Sunday, I decided it would be smart to skip the intervals and just run nice and easy. And... it worked. No issues! Yay!

My number one priority in this whole PR attempt isn't to actually PR, it's to train smart and not get injured. Most people that I know who have had injuries from running, got them from speedwork. Which is why I'm taking an unbelieveably long amount of time to train for a Half Marathon. This way I can hopefully ease my body into this whole running faster thing.

In other news from the week... My long run was spectacular! It flew by and I loved it!

Full Disclosure: I was originally going to take Sunday off instead of Wednesday, but I woke up with a bit of a hangover on Wednesday morning and rearranged my schedule.

 I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas! Mine was awesome! Lots of good family time and food and... I got to introduce my family to my new boyfriend...

Meet Jimmy. I was originally set up with his cousin, Bulleit Rye.

But, once you add some ginger ale, I can't tell a damn difference between the two.



Week 2 Review

Well, week two is in the books. Here's how it shook out...

Total miles for the week: 34.3

Good week. But damn, it's an adjustment. I didn't realize just how EASY I had been running before and how used to that I was. The effort required for some of these workouts is not something I'm used to. But, I feel like this coming week is going to get me over the hump.

High of the week: Saturday's Tempo Run. I loved it! My legs felt good after the day off on Friday and I loved the feeling of getting progressively faster and then just running at a tough, but manageable pace for a couple of miles.

Low of the week: Doing my track intervals too fast AGAIN. And feeling like DEATH. Definitely going to work on hitting my splits. No need to be running too damn fast with 3 months till race day!

I have to say... I wake up looking forward to each of the workouts... on easy days, I look forward to just a nice, easy run and on speed days I look forward to seeing what the hell my body is going to do that day. Somedays, it just doesn't come (Monday) and other days I feel like a million bucks (Saturday).



Week 1 Training Review

So, week one is over. Here's what the week looked like.

Planned. And what I actually did.
Monday: Warm up 1 mile, 2.5 miles at 9:00 pace, 1 mile cool down.
Warm up 1 mile. 2.5 miles at about 8:45ish pace, and then 1 mile cool down(which was actually fastest mile of the day, oops).
Tuesday: 5 miles easy.
5 miles easy.
Wednesday: Warm up 1 mile, 5x400s at 2:00 each. 400 recoverys in between and a 1 mile cool down.
Yeah, you all know how this one went.
Thursday: 3 miles easy.
3 miles easy.
Friday: OFF
Saturday: 3 miles progressive to half marathon pace.
Ran a race instead! More to come, but ran some extra warm up and cool down miles, instead.
Sunday: 8 miles easy.
All I could muster was 7.5. Arg!

So, yeah, I can definitely tell that the faster runs are a lot more tiring than just running my easy miles everyday. I slept better this week than I have in awhile.

My coach suggested that I run a 5k to see where I'm at so that she could build the training plan from my current level of fitness, so that's where Saturday came from. I'll have a full race report on that coming up.

So far so good. The newness hasn't worn off yet and I'm still strangely excited about this whole thing.

In my first week, I've also already said... "thank god I have a coach" at least 3 times.
1. When I got my weekly training plan emailed to me... yay! I dont have to think!
2. When I got reprimanded for running too fast on Wednesday. Yay! Someone to actually enforce the training plan!
3. Sunday, when I would have TOTALLY bailed on my run, but knowing that my coach was going to be looking at my log, I KNEW I had to get out there and get it done... even if it was at 6pm. Ugh.

Week one down... only a bajillion more to go!