Mill Race Training Week 3 - Something is Better Than Nothing

This is not me but I ended up running in the evening all week

This was my down week. The way my training plan is structured I have two weeks where I'm building mileage and then a lower mileage recovery week... and a darn good thing it was a recovery week as I ended up having a difficult time finding the time or energy to run.

Sunday 6/11 - Rest. Got up at 4 am and spent the whole day at work.

Monday 6/12 - 3 miles. Got up at 4 am to go to work again. Crawled onto the couch as soon as I got home, then finally made it out in the evening to run 3 miles indoors on the hamster track.

Tuesday 6/13 - 7 miles. Run club in the evening. It was another 80+ degree day. Did a 1 mile warm up to the track. Workout was 5 x 1000 meter repeats where you run 800 meters at 10K (80-85% effort) pace, then sprint all out the last 200 meters, with about a 4:00 recovery jog in between which I translated into a lap around the track. I did three repeats, then had to cut my fourth one to 600 meters at 10K pace and a 200 meter sprint, then recovered enough to do my last one at 800m/200m. Cool down after that to get 7 miles total. The track was black asphalt and it was HOT. I had to walk a bit on my cool down until we got back on the Monon where it was shadier.

Wednesday 6/14. Zero miles. My alarm went off at 5:30 am as I had 10 miles on my schedule. However, alarm went off and I couldn't move. Gave up on running in the morning. Thought about running in the afternoon but it was blazing hot, then thought about doing it on the Monon in the evening but finally gave up on the idea because I was simply too tired. I decided I needed another rest day.

Thursday 6/15 - 7 miles. Got up at 6:30 am to make cupcakes. I'm making them for a friend's daughter's Open House. Got the first 4 dozen done, then had to take G to a pediatrician's appointment.

This was appointment week. Tuesday I took the cats to the vet for their yearly check up in the morning. Actually, it was one cat. Stella went. Styx, who lives outdoors, was nowhere to be found. Wednesday G had an orthodontist appointment in the morning. Then today, it was the pediatrician... and of course Styx decided to saunter back on the porch this morning... but I decided there was no way I was going to reschedule his appointment now as it was only a well cat check and he's not due for any shots until next year.

Went grocery shopping for fresh fruit for the cupcakes then baked the other 4 dozen until 5 pm when I had a conference call for a medical review panel. Call got done and it back to frosting and decorating all the cupcakes. Got done with all the cupcakes sometime after 8 pm.

My training schedule had called for 3 miles today but sometime mid-afternoon I had given up on the idea of running until all the cupcakes were done. Now that they were done, I was tired. The easy thing seemed to be to call it a day. But... OK... it's only 3 miles. Something is better than nothing.

I drove myself to the hamster track to run, partly because I didn't want to deal with the heat and partly because I didn't want to get stuck out on the road after dark. Clock on my car dash said 8:45pm as I pulled into the parking lot. The fitness center closes at 10 pm. Started running and I didn't feel too bad. Something is better than nothing, I told myself. Since I missed the 10 miler yesterday, maybe I should run 5. That should be doable before the fitness center closes. Then I thought, well what about 7? Seven miles was pushing it. I'd have to hurry my butt to do that. I wasn't wearing a watch and there are no clocks that I can see while I run but I just picked up the pace as I watched the sun set through the windows and tried to guess the time.

There was a men's basketball game going on on the court below the track. After 3 miles, I realized that they had 15:30 left in their game. Run, run run... try to get a mile in by 6:30. Did it. Continued on the same pace and got to mile 5 shortly after the buzzer rang. Then... I saw that they had reset the game clock for another 20:00. The guys had another period of play. The fitness center wouldn't close until they were done. I was golden!

Got all 7 miles in then checked the clock inside the weight room. 9:55 pm. Figured I must've run close to 9:00 pace. Immensely satisfied with myself!

Friday 6/16 - Zero miles. Today was totally the opposite of Thursday. An incredibly unproductive run day. Got up at 4 am to go to work. Plan was to go to the fitness center as soon as I got back to Greenwood and get at least 3 miles in on the hamster track before they closed at 7 pm, then shower and go to my friend's daughter's Open House. Well... stayed an hour over at work then hit highway construction traffic on the way home and was so so incredibly sleepy that it was a miserably treacherous drive home. All I could do was crawl onto the couch as soon as I got home and napped until it was time to go to the Open House. Grabbed dinner at the Open House, then had to go shopping with J for some things she needed and that was pretty much the whole evening.

Saturday 6/17 - 3 miles. Got to "sleep in" until 6:30 am since I didn't have to be at work until 9 am. Actually got off an hour early too at 5 pm so I wasn't as trashed as Friday by the time I got home from work. It had rained in the afternoon so it was not only hot again, but now it was humid. I waited until almost 8 pm, then ran the paved trail around New Hope Church. I briefly entertained the thought of running more but after 3 I was DONE.

20 miles this week.

Mill Race Training Week 2 - I'm a Slow Learner

It was another hot week of training this week and it took another crash and burn experience to make me get up early for my long run.

Sunday 6/4 - Rest. There was a lot of other stuff going on today. J graduated  from high school. We got to the school at 12:45 pm to stand in line in 80+ degree heat until the doors opened at 1:15 pm for the 2 pm ceremony. The parking lot and line to get in looked like Black Friday except it was swelteringly hot. After the ceremony it took another HOUR to get out of the school parking lot. Family went out to dinner after that so this pretty much consumed the whole day.

Monday 6/5 - 7 miles. Ended up running indoors as it was another hot day and the miserable 12.5 mile run from last week was still somewhat fresh in my memory so I went to the fitness center. Ran a 2 mile warm up on the hamster track then hit the dreadmill to run 3 miles, averaging 8:33 a mile, then did a 2 mile cool down back on the hamster track. Felt good overall about this run.

Tuesday 6/6 - 3 miles. Ran in the evening on the county road after work. It was hot but tolerable. I was super proud of myself for getting a run in after work since, lately, when I have to work the 6 am shift all I've managed to do is make it home and to the couch before falling asleep.

Wednesday 6/7 - Rest. Another 6 am work day. Glad I got my run in yesterday so I could rest today!

Thursday 6/8 - 3 miles. Mid-morning run on the county road before going to work. I didn't have to leave for work until 1 pm. It's hard to believe that during some of my other training cycles I would run 19-20 miles in the morning before going in for this shift. Today I was proud of myself for getting 3 in.

Friday 6/9 - 7 miles. So... it was my day off and I slept in. Then, around 11:30 am I decided it was time to run. It was another 80+ degree day but it kinda sorta felt cooler than last week. Since my 7 indoors on Monday had gone well I decided to do a similar run on the county road. 2 mile warm up wasn't bad. Then a mile in 8:30. That mile finished on an uphill and I could feel myself working for it. Next mile in 8:51. There were some rollers and if that mile hadn't finished on a downhill I wouldn't have made sub-9:00. After that I was cooked. Started seeing black spots again and had to walk a bit. It was a miserable last 3 miles back to the house where I had to walk-jog-drag myself back. Arghhhh. Why didn't I run earlier in the day when it was cooler? I just don't learn, do I?

Saturday 6/10 - 14 miles. Well, after the misery on Friday I set my alarm for 5:30 am so I had time to wake up, eat a bowl of oatmeal, let it digest, then run while it was still relatively cool out. I still didn't make it out the door til 7:30 am but that is a whole heck of a lot better than 11 am. Plus, the temperatures were suppose to rise into the 90's today so if I was going to run long outdoors I pretty much HAD to do it in the morning.

This time I had a fuel belt with water and Gatorade chews, plus my phone. My friend John was running the San Diego 100 that had started on Friday morning. After running through the night he was in 13th place this morning with about 15 more miles to go. I knew he had a great shot at breaking 24:00 so I wanted to continue tracking him as he finished. I ran a nice easy pace. As John's race entered the 23 hour mark I found myself stopping every mile, then half mile, to check my phone to see if he had finished. I finally got the update that he had finished in 23:08 (the results are delayed so the official race clock was at 24:00 when I got the update), still in 13th place, when I got to mile 8 of my run. Finished my run uneventfully after that.

So, starting early and running with water, I ran 14 in less time than it took to run 12.5 last week, mainly because I didn't have to walk. It reached 80 degrees by the time I was done. I will probably have to start my longer runs closer to 6 am as the summer progresses. It was a nice feeling to know the run was done though and I had completed all my scheduled runs for the week.

34 miles this week.

Mill Race Training Week 1 - I Can't Count, Heat Training, and Abby Brinkman 5K

First off, I guess I can't count. I thought I had 18 weeks until the Mill Race Marathon on September 23rd. Turns out it's 17 weeks. Somehow when I was marking off the weeks on my calendar I counted the last couple days of May as Week 1, then turned the page and counted the first couple days of June as Week 2 when it was all the same week. Oh well...

Sunday May 28th - Rest

Monday May 29th - 3 miles. Easy road miles by my house. It was hot but tolerable for the distance.

Tuesday May 30th - 6 miles. Run Club workout. Did a 1 mile warm up, then 1:00 hard, 2:00 recovery, 2:00 hard, 2:00 recovery, 3:00 hard, 2:00 recovery, 4:00 hard, 2:00 recovery, 5:00 hard, 2:00 recovery, then back down again. Cooled down to make 6 miles. It was another hot night but the miles went by faster broken up in intervals. I hit around 7:30 pace for the 1-3 minute intervals and around 8:30 pace for the 4-5 minute intervals. Averaged 9:30 pace for the whole thing, which included the warm up, cool down, and stopping for the light at 75th Street on the way back (which just KILLS your momentum... or at least mine!)

Wednesday May 31st - 12.5 miles. Couple of bad decisions today. First off, I should have run earlier in the day... but I had to help my husband drop a car off for repairs in the morning and then baby sit the air conditioning people at our house until hubs got back from running errands, so I didn't get out the door until after 10 am.

I had a fuel belt strapped around my waist with two bottles of water and some Gatorade chews when I left the house. However, I REALLY hate carrying stuff with me when I run. So, mistake number two... as I walked down my driveway it was shady with a little breeze going and I decided I really didn't need to bring all this stuff with me. It was only 13 miles. I run 10 all the time without water. I left the fuel belt at the end of the driveway.

I could have run loops that came by my house so I could have water if needed, however I always risk not going back out and finishing my run when I do this so I decided I was going an out and back route instead. Another bad choice. I was doing OK until mile 9 when I completely overheated. It was well over 80 degrees and I was running a stretch with no shade when I started seeing all kinds of black dots in my visual field and had to walk about a tenth of a mile to clear my head. Once I started walking, it was all over... 4 miles is a freaking long way when your pace slows to a crawl. I ended up walking a couple more stretches and was half a mile short of my intended 13 when I finally made it back to my driveway well past 12:30 pm. Ugh. Definitely got my heat training in today.
Then I had to go to work.

Thursday June 1st - Rest. If you can call it that. Got home from work at 3:30 am. Slept til 6:30 am, then got up to go to the Honor's Day activities for my kids' last day of school. G's started at 7:40 am and J's at 8:30 am. The high school program didn't get over until 11 am. The high school kids got out early so I had to go back and pick G up from the middle school at 2:45 pm. Then I tried to lay down a little bit before leaving for work again at 4 pm.

Friday June 2nd - 3 miles. Got home from work at 4 am. Slept for a couple hours, then picked G up in Carmel at 2 pm. Got my miles in on the road by my house in the early evening. Hot again.
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Saturday June 3rd - 6 miles. Worked on more speed at the Abby Brinkman 5K this morning. I haven't really done much racing or speed work lately so I didn't have any huge expectations for this race but I wanted to get some speed in. Started off with a 2 mile warm up and decided it was a beautiful morning... not terribly hot yet and the People Trail was mostly shaded. Race started at 8 am.

Well, OUR race started at 8 am. The Girls on the Run/Trailblazers race started on the same course at 8:05 am. There were 94 people in our race. There were over 400 people for Girls on the Run/Trailblazers... and all of us were on the out and back course on the People Trail. My goal was to get as far as I could before I ran smack dab into 400 people, which happened right after the 2 mile mark. It got a bit hairy and I almost mowed down two little boys who couldn't follow directions and stay on their side of the trail. That being said, my splits...

Mile 1 - 7:41. Felt pretty good.
Mile 2 - 8:16. Eewww.
Mile 3 - 8:32. Bleck... pretty much sucking wind and dodging kids.

Official finish time - 24:48.
Ended up 2nd in the women's race and 1st in the 40-49 age group.

1 mile cool down after that.

30.5 miles this week.

Looking back, I think I'm the poster child of inconsistency. Last week I ran 12 miles, 11 the week before that, then 9 the week before that. Not the greatest lead up to marathon training but Week 1 is done.

A New Day

I'm not much of a morning person but on days like today I understand why some people love mornings.

I'm the only one up. The house is still asleep. It's quiet. The air is still cool outside. All the hours ahead hold such promise.

So today is Day 1. Actually, it's really Day 2 but yesterday, Day 1, was a rest day. I'm starting a new run training plan. The Mill Race Marathon is 18 weeks away. I decided I needed a more structured plan this time around so I'm going with the plan I had come up with for Napa. Today is a 3 mile run. It's funny how skewed your mind gets when you start running longer distances. Without a plan telling me it's "OK" to "just" run 3 miles, most days I'm telling myself it's not even worth going out the door unless I'm running 5-6 miles... then lots of days I end up not running at all.

That's been my last 2 weeks. It's been a combination of end-of-the-school year graduation/open house madness along with work, heat, and not feeling all that great that have sidelined my runs.

Mainly so I can keep track, the last two weeks...

Sunday 5/14 - Zero miles. Mother's Day. We had friends from South Bend come and spend Saturday night with us. I got home around 1 am from work so I didn't get to see them until morning. We then went out to brunch. The wait was so long and then it took awhile to get our food. I made it back home just in time to go to work again. Same 2pm - 11pm shift for the third day in a row. I was beat.

Monday 5/15 - 6 miles. It was over 85 degrees when I started an easy run on the Monon in the evening. Then I had stomach issues due to downing a left over jalapeño sausage cheese breakfast skillet before the run (BAD idea!). Ended up having to walk a bit. Not a great run.

Tuesday 5/16 - 5 miles. Run Club. Again it was over 80 degrees by the time we started running. The actual workout was a track workout but I had been running around all day like a chicken with my head cut off trying to get stuff done for J's Open House on Saturday and was halfway around the 465 loop when I realized I'd left the house without my Garmin. Ugh. Ended up running, more like trying to keep up, with some of the fast kids. They were racing on Saturday so they took off for an "easy" run. We got to the mile mark and I looked over at Trena and asked how fast we were going. "8:00." I let them go after that as I wanted to finish the run still standing and I was already overheating. No watch but I'm sure I averaged sub-9:00. Did NOT feel good after the run though.

Wednesday 5/17 -  Zero miles. Worked all day.

Thursday 5/18 - Zero miles. Took G to the orthodontist in the morning then spent all day prepping Open House stuff.

Friday 5/19 - Zero miles. Worked from 7 am to 7 pm. Got home and started making cupcakes for the Open House at 8:30 pm. Baked 145 cupcakes in 4 different flavors - red velvet chocolate chip with cream cheese icing, lemon blueberry with lemon cream cheese icing and fresh blueberries, strawberry shortcake with strawberry filling and whipped strawberry cream topping with fresh strawberries, and double chocolate with chocolate buttercream icing and shaved chocolate. After the cupcakes were done baking I had to finish J's trifold of photos. Trying to get all her photos to fit on a trifold at 3 am was like working a giant puzzle with no sleep. I finally went to bed at 5:30 am.

Saturday 5/20 - Zero miles. Got up at 8:30 am to finish icing all the cupcakes. I made other food too. Luckily it was a joint Open House, with the party itself being held at my daughter's friend's house (since mine was TRASHED by now). Got everything hauled over there and set up just in time for the Open House to start at 4 pm. I sat down and almost fell asleep as the guests started coming in. It was immensely satisfying though to see that everyone loved the cupcakes.

11 miles this week.

Sunday 5/21 - Zero miles. I needed today to rest.

Monday 5/22 - 6 miles. Nice easy uneventful run on the Monon.

Tuesday 5/23 - 6 miles. Good run on the hamster track. Missed Run Club in the evening as J graduated from the Vincennes University Early College program in the evening. Her actual high school graduation will be next weekend.

Wednesday 5/24 - Zero miles. The day got away from me then G had a choir concert in the evening. We went out to dinner after that and didn't get home until almost 10:30 pm.

Thursday 5/25 - Zero miles. Up at 4 am to go to work. I had intentions of running after that but never made it off my couch.

Friday 5/26 - Zero miles. Up at 4 am again to go to work. Woke up feeling crappy. My throat had been a little sore all week. Now my head was stuffy and I couldn't stop coughing, which in turn made my chest hurt... rummaged through my medicine cabinet and came up with the following cocktail - 1 guaifenesin/dextramethophan combo pill for the chest congestion and cough, 2 pseudophed pills for my sinus congestion, 3 chlorphenamine pills for my runny nose and sneezing, 4 ibuprofen pills for my body aches, sore throat, and I felt a wee bit feverish, a snort of Afrin up each nostril, and 2 zinc tablets just because I found those too. That and two cups of coffee and I thought I was ready for the day... until I went to see my first patient and discovered I didn't have much of a voice either. It came out really hoarse and squeaky.

Felt better, thankfully, by the time I got off work. Then it took me 2 hours to get home due to highway construction. Ran in, changed, then took off for Carmel again to go to my niece's graduation Open House by 6 pm. Hung out in Carmel after that to bring G home and got home a little after 9 pm. My husband's aunt was at our house by then as she was staying here for my mother-in-law's surprise birthday party in the morning. I was up long enough to set out some clean sheets and towels before I passed out.

Saturday 5/27 - Zero miles. Up at 6 am so we could be ready and out the door by 7 am for my mother-in-law's surprise birthday party at 8 am in Columbus. It's her 80th Birthday and we did a surprise birthday breakfast.

By the time hubs and I got home in the afternoon I could hardly stay awake... but I had to drive to Carmel to pick G up from dance. Did that then finally got to lay down for a bit, and then the day was pretty much over.

12 total miles this week.

Now it's a new week. A new day. A new beginning. Let's see what the day brings!

Training Log 5/7/17 - 5/13/17 - Commitably Committed

After my "perfect Saturday" of racing and running around all day I woke up Sunday with a low grade compartment syndrome in both lower legs. Sigh...

Compartment syndrome occurs when your muscles swell but are restricted my the membrane that surrounds your muscles, the muscle fascia. The higher pressure blood from your arteries gets pumped into the muscle but the lower pressure blood in your veins can't get out of the muscle because of all the pressure from the swelling. If this happens quickly, as in acute compartment syndrome, you can actually lose circulation in the affected body part as well as damage the nerves so you need an emergency fasciotomy where, basically, you get your leg surgically fileted open to cut the muscle fascia and release the pressure. It's not pretty when it happens. I saw it happen to Kim Betz, the 1987 NCAA Women's Cross County Champion, when I was at IU. It happened to her after a meet in 1988 and I don't think she was ever the same after that. Luckily, I didn't have the acute kind. With a low grade (sometimes called chronic) compartment syndrome your muscles swell and they feel firm and painful but you still have circulation and sensation. I get it in my lower legs every now and then. When it happens it's very painful when I move my foot and do activities like push off my foot, plus it feels like I'm walking around with 20 lb weights strapped on to each leg. I tend to feel it most in my soleus which is the muscle that's underneath and below my gastrocnemius (i.e. the calf muscle). When it happens all I can do is ice and rest the area until it goes away. Getting an elective surgery to open up that muscle fascia is on option but it doesn't always help. I had a friend who had that surgery. He had a long painful recovery so I will stick to ice and rest.

In the meanwhile... I went a little crazy on committing myself to future races.

I decided I wanted to qualify for Boston again. I know. It's a sickness. I picked the Mill Race Marathon as my qualifying attempt. It's on Saturday September 23rd, the weekend after the Boston 2018 qualifying window closes. I am going to try and qualify for Boston 2019. I will be 50 on race day in 2019 so I get another 5 minutes. If the current qualifying standards don't change my qualifying time will be 4:00. I'm convinced I can run that. In fact, I am still going for sub-3:50.

Then I signed up for the Monumental Marathon on Saturday November 4th. This is for redemption. I had such a bad race there in 2013 I want to do it again to run it better. Plus this will be my back up marathon in case Mill Race blows up.

Carmel Marathon on Saturday March 31st offered a crazy race special for a couple days last week where the entry fee was $31. Carmel hadn'r really been on my radar but I pulled the trigger anyway and signed up for it too, mainly because it's a local race and I know a bunch of people that are running it. FOMO I suppose.

The 500 Festival Mini-Marathon, which I think might be called the Indy Mini these days, also had a sign up special right after this year's race where it was $60 to sign up for next year. I still want a PR on that course so I signed up for that too. Might as well commit myself while the prices are low :)

Mainly for future reference for myself, this is what the races cost...

2017 Mill Race Marathon $60
2017 Monumental Marathon $80
2018 Carmel Marathon $31
2018 Indy Mini Marathon $60

As far as my running week...

Sunday 5/7 - Zero miles. It stayed dry and sunny so I worked in my yard all day.

Monday 5/8 - Zero miles. Really really sore from yardwork, plus my legs still hurt but it was still dry and sunny so more yard work!

Tuesday 5/9 - Zero miles. It's suppose to rain again so I did some MORE yardwork before going to work.

Wednesday 5/10 - 3 miles. Finally woke up able to push off my foot without too much pain so I did some easy miles on the Monon in the evening. Good stretch and PT exercises afterwards and I felt back to normal after my shower.

Thursday 5/11 - 6 miles. Nice easy miles on the Monon.

Friday 5/12 - Zero miles. Too much stuff to do at home before going to work in the afternoon.

Saturday 5/13 - Zero miles. Again, tons of house cleaning and grocery shopping to do before going to work in the afternoon. Got absolutely killed at work.

9 total miles this week.

Training Log 4/30/17 - 5/6/17 - 500 Festival Mini Marathon

Quite honestly, the week ended up being a bit anti-climatic. Once I decided I wasn't going for a sub-1:50 race, I was pretty confident. I would run sub-2:00 and even thought 1:55 would be easily obtainable so I was able to relax.

I ended up resting and eating. I've been exhausted lately and really tired on my runs. I started tracking my food again and realized I wasn't eating enough carbs to fuel my runs. So, this being race week, I ate EVERYTHING and it felt pretty darn good!

Sunday 4/30 - Zero miles. Worked all day and was pretty much a starving sleepy train wreck by the time I got home. I was so hungry my stomach hurt too much to eat. I finally just passed out.

Monday 5/1 - Zero miles. Today was suppose to be my day off, rest day. Hubs had other plans and I ended up driving almost to Cincinnati with him so he could pick up a car. Again, starving tired train wreck by the time we got back home. Got back just in time to drive G to Carmel. I was planning to run while she was in class but couldn't. Absolutely too tired and it was pouring rain. Ended up watching "The Barkley Marathons" on Netflix instead.

Tuesday 5/2 - 6 miles. Ran on the county road and the miles flew by. Really enjoyed my run. Then it started pouring rain again and I went to work in the evening.

Wednesday 5/3 - 4 miles. Easy run on the hamster track. It was pouring rain again.

Thursday 5/4 - Rest. Like rest rest rest all day! I had to work the night shift tonight and I knew that two nights before your race, so THIS night, was the important sleep night. Since I was going to be up all night I laid around all day as much as possible. Of course it was pouring rain again so it was pretty easy to do.

Friday 5/5 - Zero miles. Got home from work and slept until noon. Continued to lay around all day the went to the Expo to pick up my race packet. Found out from friends before leaving to drive downtown that some of the roads around my house were flooded and closed so I formulated a drive plan for Saturday morning too. Ran thru Goodwill after the Expo to pick up a throw away jacket for the morning.

Saturday 5/6 - 13.1 miles. Race day! I'm glad I blog so I have something to look back on from year to year about what I did and what time I left the house, etc. as I can never decide what time is a good time to leave the house on race morning. I looked back and saw that I usually get to my favorite parking garage downtown by 6 am. Working backwards I decided to get up at 4:30 am so I could eat and leave in plenty of time to get downtown by then.

Oatmeal and coffee for breakfast, then a banana and bottle of water for the car. My wave didn't start til 7:33 am but I left the house at 5:30 am so I wanted something to eat closer to race time. It was cold. My car said it was 39 degrees.

Got parked, ate, and waited for Margo to get there so we could meet up. Then it started raining. Ugh. This could be awful. We huddled under the entrance of the Eiteljorg museum waiting until it was time to get in the corral.

Me and Margo at the start

Thanks Margo for remembering to take a picture!

Race finally started. It was still spitting rain.

Mile 1 - 8:35. My original plan was to run easy and go out at about 8:45 pace. Well, I felt like I was running very easy but faster than I planned but I just went with it. After the first mile I had warmed up enough to throw my jacket.

Mile 2 - 8:37. Still spitting rain but it was a fine mist. Not enough to really even get you wet. Skies were overcast and the temperature was perfect (40's). This was PR weather. I was a bit annoyed that I wasn't in PR shape to take advantage of it but decided to enjoy what the day brought.

Mile 3 - 8:32
Mile 4 - 8:29
Mile 5 - 8:43

Still running very easy. I hadn't stopped at all for any water or Gatorade but wanted to sip some Gatorade as I knew I'd need the fuel. Problem was, I couldn't find it. Everyone seemed to be offering water but I couldn't find the Gatorade. I looked at the aid stations at both mile 4 and 5. I had a GU with me so I finally took that before I entered the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and took some water there.

Mile 6 - 8:33. Turned the corner to get onto the track itself and Meb Keflezighi was standing there high fiving everyone. Of course I had to give him a high five too.

Mile 7 - 8:45
Mile 8 - 8:41
Mile 9 - 8:39
Mile 10 - 8:27

Ran around the track without a problem. I cannot tell you how many years I've started suffering on the track! 2012 I had to start walking on the track because it was so hot and I was seeing more black in my vision than anything else. This year the track miles went by without incident and the sun started peeking out. Many runners around me welcomed the sun but I didn't want sun yet; it was perfect the way it was!

Plan was to run conservatively for 10 miles then see what I had left.

Mile 11 - 8:26. This mile felt great. I looked down at my watch at one point, saw that I was on 8:17 pace, and thought I might end up with a decent time after all. I ran the whole race with my watch on lap time mode so I only saw the pace for the mile that I was in. I knew though that I hadn't run anything close to the 8:23 pace I needed for sub-1:50 but I also knew I was under 8:45 pace and 8:45 pace gets you 1:55 so I'd fall somewhere in between 1:50 and 1:55. I saw the overall gun time at mile 11 and realized I could run 10 minute miles from here on in and still make 1:55. For all the years 1:55 had been my goal it was a weirdly satisfying feeling.

Mile 12 - 8:35. Ewww... this mile felt a little harder. First time all race I felt like I was working...

Mile 13 - 9:05. Turned the corner onto New York Street. This is the street we finish on and it's less than a mile to the finish. You turn the corner and run across a bridge over the White River then it's through the IUPUI campus to the finish. I turned the corner and my legs turned to concrete. There was absolutely no finishing speed left. Had to put one foot in front of the other to get myself to the finish line. Well, if my legs were going to bonk (cause my cardio was still in great shape), I guess I'm thankful I made it over 12 miles before it happened. I knew this was a possibility since I hadn't run over 13 miles all year.

Official finish time - 1:53:31
Female 45-49 age group - 45th out of 1026
All females 689 of 10,186
Overall 2908 of 19,067

My goal used to be to finish in the top 25% overall. This year I made the top 16% so I guess I'm moving up in the world!

Looking  at my 5K splits I'd have to say this is one of the most consistent times I've ever ran.

To top off my day, as I was walking out of Military Park a man flagged me down. At first I was confused and thought maybe I had dropped something, but then he started thanking me. He said he started to really struggle in the race but then decided to lock in on me and not let me out of his sight for the rest of the race so I was the one that got him to the finish line. I'm not sure when this happened as I wasn't aware of anyone running with me, but I guess if he was behind me I never would've seen him, but hey, it made my day! All I saw was that his name was "Chuck" on his bib. So Chuck, whoever you are, you made my day!

I was home by 11 am. After that it was grocery shopping and picking G up from dance. J had her senior prom that night and informed me when I got home from the race that she wanted friends over post-prom to spend the night so I spent the rest of the day picking up the house, then lots of prom pictures with the kids before they left. As soon as the kids left, the rest of us went out for dinner too. Back home that evening I marveled at the fact that I could do all this. Years ago, like in my 20's and 30's, I'd run this race and be laid up for the rest of the day. Some years it was days before I could move normally. It's amazing what happens with some consistent training. Not to say my training has at all been really consistent lately, but it's been WAY consistent since I started blogging compared to what I used to do.

After 9 days of rain, the sun came out and stayed out. These are the kids before they left for prom.

It was the perfect Saturday.

23 miles run this week.

Training Log 4/23/17 - 4/29/17 - Mini Decisions

This was the week I'd decide on what kind of shape I was in for the half marathon on May 6th. I needed to be realistic and once I figured it out, I was fine with it.

Sunday 4/23 - Rest

Monday 4/24 - 5 miles. Easy on the county road. I considered doing 10 but after one loop I decided I didn't need 10 today since I was planning to do 10 on Thursday.

Tuesday 4/24 - Rest. Worked the night shift Monday night so I slept all day, then went back for another night shift.

Wednesday 4/25 - 4 miles. Good run on the hamster track. I tried not to sleep in too long this morning after my night shift so I could get my sleep right again but didn't have the energy to leave the house until 7 pm. Once I started running, it was one of those runs where I felt like I could run all night but I cut it short as I knew I'd be running hard the next morning.

Thursday 4/26 - 10 miles. Met Margo at 9 am to do our last hard run before the Mini Marathon and to find out what kind of shape we were really in. Plan was 2 mile warm up, 3 miles at race pace, 1 mile recovery, 3 more miles at race pace, then 1 mile cool down. So, first interval went fine. Ran 8:30, 8:30, and 8:25. It was all manageable but I was asking myself if I could really do this for 13 miles, plus the pace needed to be a hair faster (8:23 for sub-1:50). After the first set Margo decided she wasn't doing the second one so I was on my own. Ran 8:35, then 8:38. I had to really work for that 8:38 and that settled it. I decided I wasn't in shape to go for a sub-1:50 half marathon next weekend. We are both definitely in sub-2:00 shape but not sub-1:50 shape. I ended up doing a 2 mile cool down and was at peace with the fact that I wasn't going to go sub-1:50.

Friday 4/27 - 5 miles. I'm really proud of myself that I even ran on Friday night. After working the night shift on Monday and Tuesday night I turned around and got up at 4 am to work the early morning shift. I got home around 4:30pm and planted myself prone on the couch. There was a thunderstorm out so if I was going to run I'd have to go to the hamster track, which closed at 7 pm on Friday nights. I finally peeled myself off the couch to get there in time to get my miles in.

Saturday 4/28. Zero miles. Up at 4 am again for an early morning shift and this time I couldn't get up off the couch once I got home. Again it was thunder storming out. The fitness center closes at 5 pm on Saturdays so I would have had to drive further to the Y to run on the dreadmill and I just couldn't move.

24 miles this week. Considering my schedule, it was a good week.