Half Marathon Training: Race Pace Workout... NAILED IT!

I am someone that has to know I can hit the pace I want to hit in my race, so in the plan I wrote myself, I included a race pace run every two weeks. The run will be counted as my long run and my speed training for that week. Two weeks ago, I did 10 miles with 7 at race pace. The plan for this week's run was 12 miles with 9 at race pace.

Preparation for this run began on Friday by RESTING my ass! I know some runners don't rest a lot during training, but I do really well (physically) by resting before challenging runs. I also ate a McDonald's apple pie and drank a vanilla milkshake right before bed for good measure.

On Saturday, I slept until 9:30 and then procrastinated all morning. I finished off the iced coffee...



...charged all my electronics, and downloaded the "good" podcasts...

...ate my old standard- Frosted Shredded Wheat...

... and went to the bathroom 50 times!!!

Eventually, I could procrastinate no more. Donned in orange shoes, orange shorts, orange shirt, and black gloves (too bad I don't own orange gloves!) I hit my neighborhood to run a billion loop dee doops.

I was a little nervous during my warm up miles. I didn't feel like I was going fast at all. Duh, they're warm up miles, right? It's just that I remembered during my last race pace run, my warm up felt faster. When my Garmin beeped at 2 miles I finally looked down. I had run at a 7:56 pace. Okay, that's okay. I was just trying to get my muscles warm.

Then I kicked it into gear. My plan was to average anywhere between a 7:10-7:20 pace for the next 9 miles. I started out obsessively looking down at my Garmin but that didn't work. I'd speed up and hit a sub seven, so I'd have to slow down. Then I'd slow down too much and hit a 7:30. That was no good either. So what I tried to do was get into a rhythm and instead of looking at my current pace, I looked a what my average pace was. As long as it remained between 7:10-7:20, there was no reason to worry.

Around mile 2 I started to get anxious and apprehensive. I hate setting myself up to HIT something... to ATTAIN something in the run. All the pressure was on. I told people about what I was doing. What if I wasn't able to do it? My heart fluttered for another 2 miles. 9 miles seemed like a lot. What was I doing? Was it even necessary? Luckily my podcast was good, so that enabled my mind to wander once in awhile and just get into the zone.

At mile 5 my worries ceased, and with only 4 miles left, I knew I could do it. When my Garmin beeped six miles, I started to feel really confident and didn't worry if I was running a little bit faster than my goal pace. I was warmed up, in a groove, and I felt GREAT. With less than 3 miles to go, I knew I was going to attain my goal, so I tried to enjoy that feeling for the last 20(ish) minutes of my run.

Of course I had to pick it up a bit on the last mile. I did something crazy that I never do... I listened to MUSIC! I put on Lollipop by Mika (it's me and Paul's "song") and rocked it out to the upbeat music!

My average pace for the 9 miles was 7:10! VICTORY!

My cool down mile was a little rough. That's what I get for speeding up on the last mile! It clocked in at a 7:49, which made sense because I was all warmed up (and then some!) by that point. Then I walked around the block and went inside and stretched for 20 minutes.

Splits: 8:01, 7:49, 7:16, 7:13, 7:25, 7:07, 7:12, 7:05, 7:09, 7:11, 6:49, 7:49


Full disclosure: I generally make an image black and white when my skin looks horrible!

Recovery was spent laughing at Paul's parent's house, celebrating his mom's birthday. I ate a ton of pasta and garlic bread. It was wonderful. They sent me home with wine. How do I get wine and it's not even my birthday!?


Mmmm... carbs...

Guys, I am feeling very confident for this half in December. As long as I can maintain my speed and not get injured before then, I should be good to go. Oh, and it can't be super hot in Florida. Okay, Florida? Did you hear me? It was warm today... I actually got a little bit of a headache because I didn't take any water with me. On my next race pace run, I will definitely be wearing my hydration pack. In retrospect, 12 miles was a little long to go without water. That is pretty pathetic that I didn't think of that beforehand!

I wish the race was in 2 weeks! I feel ready, guys! I know not many people care about all these details except me. But it is nice to have a record of my run so I can refer to it in the future if I need to. Like right now, I am wondering how my first race pace run went compared to this one. Luckily, I can check out that post and read all the gory details!

Do you ever refer back to old blog posts to learn about your runs?
Tell me how you set up your race pace runs. I have a couple more to do.