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Sunday, October 25, 2015

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

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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.

24 comments:

  1. Love the 6:49 mile! That is a goal of mine--to someday hit a 6:xx mile in the middle of a run! It will have to wait until after marathon training! Congrats on an awesome workout! I predict that you will surpass your PR goal. Seriously, throw in some adrenaline...whew!

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    1. YEAH race day adrenaline! That will either make me kick it in a little faster OR have to stop and poop!

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  2. Great job on the pace run! I think you are going to rock this race! Stay positive!

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  3. Ummmm....you are freaking awesome! Seriously--wow! I really think you are going to have the best race of your damn life :) Hey, how does your knee feel these days? Is the pain gone now? With such faster speeds I was wondering how you are managing that. Happy Sunday!!

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    1. Very good question! My knee/it band has been feeling great DURING my runs. IT band aches while driving sometimes... so typical. :( IT band is sore after a big run like this which is irritating, but as long as I stretch it goes away by the next morning. I am still trying to fix the problem but realize I have to live my life an RUN because it has been such a bother for so long, that I am sick of tired and waiting for it to be perfect. I don't know if it will ever be perfect??

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    2. Yes, I totally agree! I think you are doing amazing. Do you think the pain is less now than before (after you run not during)? I remember you were doing some research on the mind/body pain connection so I was just curious if you came to a point where you just ignored the post run soreness and accepted it. I was interested to hear what you found out in your research (I'm a science nerd...)

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    3. So I haven't read that book because every time I started the book, my knee started to hurt!!! lol. Just reading about my knee hurting makes it hurt! Yes I do think it hurts less than it used to. I don't know why. But it is not perfect, that is for sure. However, it doesn't hold me back from the runs I want to do, but obviously I don't run EVERY day. I do want to lift lower body and will try that again after my race. That is the one thing I missed that used to always bug the hell out of my IT band.

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    4. I hope you can also get back into lifting lower body after your race! I was only cleared to start doing squats about a month ago and it feels so nice to get back to it!!

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  4. Damn! Great job!!! I think my only suggestion would be to try a pace run on the treadmill at some point during training just in case we have a warm day. You mentioned wearing gloves during your long run at 9am which is something that would have killed me yesterday since it was 81 degrees by the time I started my run around 6:45am. I really, really doubt in December it will be 81 degrees in the morning, but you never know. I think we are supposed to have a warm winter. I know the weather prediction for later this week has us back up to a high of 88. I know during summer you frequently went running mid-morning though so the temps probably won't bother you at all! I seriously don't know how you do it during summer!

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    1. Thank you for that tip! I haaaate the treadmill but I think it will be smart to go to the gym in pants and a long sleeve and run on the treadmill several times before the race! I know I run in the heat during the summer BUT I get used to it. I will be used to the cool weather of PA come Dec. and not used to the heat anymore. I am totally going to wear my hydration pack during the race and if I need to cool off maybe pour water over myself at the water stops!

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  5. Wine!!! score. Great run at a great pace. I love eating pasta and bread after a run, it doesn't seem too filling then. Have a great day
    bakingrunner.blogspot.com

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  6. I look back on my old posts and instagram all the time! Especially lately I have been comparing my training runs this year to those of last year. Congrats on that awesome run- what a great confidence booster!

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    1. It is so nice to have a record of what we have done. :)

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  7. Great job on your run! You're so speedy, I'm sure you will kill your goal!

    You seem very worried about a hot day, so I am going to echo Kristina's suggestion that you do some indoor running to get yourself acclimated to the possible heat. I know you hate the treadmill...but do you really hate it more than you would hate a super warm race day after months of cold weather training?

    I do my tempo runs by effort instead of pace, and I always find that I run better - and faster! - when I'm not trying to force myself to hit certain paces. Looking at my Garmin all the time is just a really inefficient way for me to run and race. I know you're worried about hitting your race pace but I would recommend trying this. I will say that almost every time I do this, I run a little bit better/faster than I guessed I was running, so I bet the same would be true for you. Our bodies know effort, not pace, and there are a million things (temperature, hydration, fueling, outside stresses) that affect whether we can hit certain paces on a given day, so I found for me personally it's more effective to practice being able to sustain a certain effort level. What I do is bring my Garmin but I do not look at it at all during the run. Then I can always go back later and look at my splits and if I didn't hit my paces then that's okay, I just know I need to push slightly harder next time. You still have time, it's not the end of the world if you don't hit your goal pace every time you try!

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    1. I will definitely hit up the treadmill. It is not going to be fun, but yes I would much rather be prepared, so I can suck it up and go to Planet Fitness.

      I understand what you are saying about going by effort instead of pace, I just think if I don't have a range that I want to hit, I will get lazy and slow down! I guess what I am trying to do is train myself to run at the pace that will give me a PR. Luckily on my last two pace runs I WAS feeling it and was able to do it, but I realize two weeks from now it might be time for another pace run and it won't go well.

      You know when I do speed work I go by effort only! I started it that way because I running in the morning and it is dark, so I can't really look down at my Garmin. Can you believe I don't know how to turn the light on on my Garmin??? So anyway for speed work I definitely go by effort. Especially because some mornings I feel great and some mornings I am half asleep.

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    2. Oh, I also have a range that I want to hit on my tempo runs - what I was trying to say is that I worry about whether I'm hitting that range after the run, not during. More often than not I do hit the range and often surpass it, but I find it works better for me to focus on just running while I'm running and paying attention to how I feel instead of what the numbers on my watch say. After the run I can analyze the crap out of my splits, and if I didn't hit my paces or the splits were all over the place, I know what adjustments I need to make for next time. Again, this is just what works for me personally, but I feel like my running and racing have improved a lot since I switched to doing 90% of my running this way.

      Haha I am just more amazed that you do speed work in the morning!! I always forget about the light on my Garmin too

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    3. I'm glad that works well for you and thank you so much for sharing how you approach temp runs with me! No one else really shared about that. I'm also debating on how far I should work up to with my pace runs. I have 3 more on the schedule all spread out with 2 weeks in between them. Looks like I have something to google today...

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  8. Yay, nice job!!! That recovery pasta looks amazing.

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  9. Those are some impressive numbers you are putting up. I have no doubt that you are going to surpass your expectations. You are there mentally and physically, which are both equally important. Hopefully you celebrated by drinking some of that wine. ;)

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    1. Thank you so much Kristen. I certainly did drink that wine... 3/4 of the bottle! Run big, drink big. :)

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  10. I'd rather not carry too because it chaffes me!

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