Running, races & paces

I wrote this post Jan 31st and it took almost two weeks to finally add pictures and post it...

It’s been a whole month since I was supposed to write this post. I’ve been deep in the Ironman training hole and blogging has slipped far down my list of things to do when I’m in survival mode trying to make it day to day. Luckily running has played a bigger role in my training than it did leading up to Louisville since this time (knock on wood) I’ve been injury free. Pains and little niggles here and there, but no injuries. So let’s back it up a bit.

After training in Arizona, I was home for less than 18 hours which included sleeping and work before I was off again. This trip was to Kiawah for a girls weekend half marathon. I had zero intentions of “racing” the race as my running was still slowly coming back after recovering from IMKY and I had just smashed myself all week playing bikes in AZ. Instead this would be a fun weekend with friends and I’d find some random person to pace. I somehow ended up pacing 4 girls until maybe mile 8 or 9 doing a slow cut down on pace. At that point the group split apart because one girl decided she wasn’t afraid of blowing up anymore (her first race) and wanted to go faster. Another girl was starting to feel sick (and threw up at the finish line). And I had no idea who to stick with. I spent a mile going faster to stick with one person then slowing way down to see if the sick girl wanted me to keep pushing her (a very polite no) so then I sped way up to catch up with the girl I decided I would push to the end. Got some entertaining/nasty comments as I want sprinting past people trying to catch up. Of course this was after many comments about wearing a sleeveless shirt in 30s weather. The last mile I pushed my friend hard and it was even a bit of a challenge for me but it felt good to push hard. Naturally my legs felt like shit afterwards and for the next day even though it wasn’t a full out effort. My legs really don’t like hard running or even lots of miles for that matter. It was a fun weekend though and certainly a nice change of pace running a race for only fun and not time.

That was December. After that I was consistently doing long runs and my weekly miles crept up a little week by week. Now let’s jump to January. I asked Katie if I could do a 5K and she said only if my goal was to PR. After some “unless I’m in a recovery block and blah blah blah there’s no way I’ll PR” bitching, she put me in my place. The Greenville News 5K happened to be the last 5K I did a whole year ago and held me PR. I was very very doubtful despite my best efforts to this positive. However, I told myself I’d give it my all. I knew what pace I wanted to start at and I asked a friend to pace me. Half a mile in I saw I wasn’t making the pace I wanted and forgot how much uphill there was. He asked me how I was doing. “Like shit but it’s fine.” I pushed every single step of that race even when I was convinced there was no way I was going to PR mid race. I didn’t care, I would fight for every second I could. My friend would run at the pace I was supposed to go and every mile wait for me to catch up and let me know I was behind XX seconds. Thank you I KNOW! At the last straight shot to the finish he told me now is the time to empty the tank. “TANK IS EMPTY NOTHING LEFT!” But I did my best to pick it up anyway and finished strong with him. 7 seconds. My mile times were very different from last year’s race but it earned me 7 seconds. The different was I started out hard and hung on even when I thought I couldn’t. A 7 second PR might not seem huge but given it was in the middle of Ironman training, it means more. I should have been happier but I was too exhausted and my quads felt like someone took a hammer to them so my happiness was suppressed. Next day was a long run. Sigh.

I’ve noticed changes in my running purely from consistency. Some things I expected, others more a surprise. My easy pace has stayed the same mostly because I’m too tired to run faster. However, at that pace my heartrate has dropped very noticeably which is awesome. My paces at other heartrates have dropped as well and running at 150+bpm feels exhausting. There was a time when all my runs were over that HR and that was my “easy” effort. The most interesting changes I’ve noticed is the way I feel after a long run. Sure, I still feel exhausted and want to lay on the floor for rest of the day. But each week the pains in my legs seem to be a little less and less. My body is slowly adapting to the beating of a longer run. And maybe it’s bad that I have any pains at all after a long run or maybe it’s normal. I don’t know. All I know is this is the body I was dealt and this is how it handles running and I’m happy for the progress it’s slowly making.

I have less than 5 3 weeks until my Ironman. 5 3 weeks to not breakdown physically or mentally, both which are questionable often. I still don’t know what to expect from the marathon this time around but right now I’ll keep chugging away at the training and leave those thoughts for later.