05.09.14
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Half Marathon Amnesia?

I’ve heard mothers say that you forget how sucky pregnancy and childbirth is after the baby is born and that’s why you continue to have children. I think half marathons must be the same because seriously all I have been thinking about since running the Country Music is what my next one will be. In fact, I have started keeping a list of the ones I want to run.

I have to keep a list because it’s too hard to remember all the half marathons I want to run.

What is wrong with me?

I’ve stated time and again that I don’t like running distances over eight miles or so. It makes my knees hurt. But I love the sense of accomplishment. My brain keeps telling me, “It’s just 13 miles. You’ve done it before!” Like it’s so easy.

really?

I’ve written tentative years down on my list of halfs, and I currently have five written down for 2015 alone. Sometimes I do not understand myself.

05.05.14
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Week of 4/28/14 – 5/4/14: I suck at trail running

Ah, the blissful week after completing a half marathon where you don’t have to run unless you want to and don’t have to hit specific paces or mileage!

week of 4/28/14 to 5/4/14

Friday

I didn’t get to my first post-half run until Friday. I was going to run with the East Nasty group on Wednesday, but then we ended up getting concert tickets to see Local Natives at the Ryman, so I did that instead. And then Thursday was Arcade Fire at Bridgestone, so I didn’t make it out to the pavement until after work on Friday.

It was a bit of a stiff run, since it had been almost a week, but I just did whatever I wanted and it felt glorious. Sometimes I sprinted. Sometimes I walked. Once I decided to do impromptu hill repeats (who does that?), but after I ran up once, I decided nah and kept going down the street.

Saturday

I was second shooting a wedding Saturday afternoon, so I went out for three miles beforehand (because I hate my legs and wanted them to be as sore as possible by the end of the night). Just down the main road and back, although my turn around point was right around Sonic, and I wished I had brought some money for a slush or a shake because it was really hot outside and I hadn’t brought water. Because of this, I ended up walking a couple times on my third mile to cool down, even though I hadn’t initially planned to. (Thanks for telling me it was cloudy and in the 60s, weather.com.)

Sunday

I had an itch to go running on Sunday, as well, but by the time I had gotten out of bed, it was nearing 90 degrees. So I decided this meant I needed to go somewhere shady and that meant trail running!

You’ll remember the last time I tried this, it did not go so well, but I chose a different trail in the same park. This trail was much easier to actually run on and wasn’t covered in leaves so I could actually tell where the trail went. I did the first mile in 11:30, my normal running pace. I decided I should probably slow down, since I had limited water with me and parts of the trail were out in open sun, so I was getting hot fast. So my next mile was done in 12:54, which is still okay with me on the trails, since I was occasionally having to climb over trees and do some fancy footwork around tree roots and rocks.

percy priest lake at long hunter state park

The first mile is right by the lake. It was taking everything I had towards the end not to jump in.

I turned around after half an hour (about 2.4 miles in). Soon after I turned around, I came upon a small incline with some tree roots, and thought to myself, “This looks tricky. Be careful.” And then I freaking fell! It was one of those slow motion things where I could feel myself trip and then helplessly feel myself falling without being able to do anything. I skinned up my right knee, which seemed to take the brunt of the fall, and got a couple tiny cuts on my left hand.

Needless to say, I was much slower after that. My right leg felt pretty bruised and just generally sore from the jolt of the fall. My final 2.8 miles were done around a 13:20 average. Still better than my last trail run!

I do enjoy trail running (I saw a deer at one point!), I just don’t know if my klutzy self and it can get along. At least I did not get lost this time and end up in the woods after dark.

05.01.14
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Review of my Country Music Half training!

We all remember how badly my Disney half training went, right? I resolved to train properly for my second half!

My training plan was mostly based on the training plan provided by the East Nasty group, with a few things moved around to work with my schedule and some added goal pace runs towards the end.

The plan called for approximately 318 miles of running, and I am happy to say that I ran 297 of them. Those that I didn’t were for good reasons, like needing extra recovery days to insure that I didn’t get injured, and not just because I was lazy. (Well, perhaps with the exception of the 15k progressive run that I cut short by 7 miles because it was hot and the gym was closed. That’s not really a good reason, but it was two weeks before the race and wouldn’t have increased my fitness on race day anyhow.)

I loved all my speed workouts. Yes, they were hard, but I felt so accomplished when I was done with them! Even when I was the last one getting done on the track. And clearly my speed work paid off, since I PRed in the 5k during this training as well, even when I wasn’t planning to.

I’m glad that I did one run that was at or longer than race distance. It showed me that I was capable of beating what was (at the time) my goal time!

Speaking of goals, when I created this training plan last fall/winter, I created it with a 2:30 goal in mind. Which is why goal pace was around 11:30 min/mi. Then after the terrible training for the Disney race, I decided I didn’t have a time goal at all; I just wanted to finish. Around the time of the Hot Chocolate 15k, I had changed that to say 2:45 was my goal time for this half. But then I bettered that in training. So I ultimately ended up with my top goal being what my training plan was designed for: 2 hours and 30 minutes.

One thing I definitely will do in future training plans is to run a lot of miles at goal pace as the race gets closer. I think this probably helped more than anything. Most of my runs, including my easy runs, were being run at goal pace in the last 3-4 weeks before the race. This made goal pace feel like my new easy pace and made it a breeze to run at on race day! It also helped to run shorter and faster races in training. I do like racing and the faster paces made my half pace seem even easier.

Honestly, I can’t think of anything I could have done differently, which makes this training a huge success! Which should be obvious, since I beat my goal time by 2-3 minutes!

04.29.14
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Race Report: Country Music Half Marathon – April 26, 2014

My second half marathon is in the books!

country music half marathon finisher

My time goals were as follows:
A Goal: Run 2:30:59 or better.
B Goal: Run 2:38:59 or better.
C Goal: Run 2:45:59 or better.
D Goal: Just finish with a PR. Any PR.

If you recall, I managed to run the 13.1 distance in my 14 mile training run in 2:42:47, so I knew at least my C Goal was achievable. (My half PR from the Disney half was 3:07:43. Totally beatable.) My times based on my performance in my 15k, 5k, and 5 mile races that I’ve ran over the past few months predicted 2:33:41, 2:25:27, and 2:23:54, respectively. I’d been training for an 11:30 min/mi pace, which would put me at 2:30:39 with even splits. I’d been getting faster. The speed work had been paying off. My goal pace was starting to feel “easy”. So everything was there to say that I could achieve my A goal. I just had to put the pieces together.

The plan was to run the first 4 miles (the uphills) easy, keep a steady pace through the flatter miles, and fly on the downhills (miles 8-12), only walking at water stations and a little extra at the 4.6 mile and 9.2 mile stations to eat my gels. (I haven’t mastered running AND eating AND drinking all at the same time. I feel like elite runners must have more hands than me.)

I also wanted to keep the first few miles easy because it was impossible to warm up before starting. We had to be in our corrals at 7am, but Amanda and I were waaaay back in corral 35 (out of 40). There’s 1-2 minutes between corrals, so you do the math. Any warmup I would have done wouldn’t have done me any good after an hour of waiting. So I was starting back with the 3 hour finisher folks (plus I wanted to hang out with Amanda since we had to chill for so long) hoping that I wouldn’t go out too fast.

Race Day

My alarm went off at 4:45 am. I got ready and was out the door by 5:30. Traffic was a little slow around downtown, but not too bad, and I managed to get in a good parking space at LP Field around 6am. From there, I met up with Amanda at her office to use the restroom (I try to avoid port-a-potties if at all possible) and apply sunscreen. Then we stopped by gear check and were in our corral at 7am. And then we waited…and waited…and took some selfies…

before the country music half marathon

After an hour of waiting, we were happy to be almost to the start line!

Finally, we were at the start, just after 8am. Even though I was back with a slower crowd (the 2:30 pace group was up in corral 30), they still started off faster than I wanted to, around a 10 min/mi pace. I forced myself to slow after the first half mile or so and completed the first mile just under goal pace in 11:20.

Mile two ended on that hill on Demonbreun that I’ve run twice before, so I was ready for it. I slowed a little on it, but Jonathan and his friend Andrew (whose wife was also running the half) were waiting at the top to cheer me on. At the 5k point, my watch said it had been a little over 35 minutes: right on target.

country music half marathon

Passing by Jonathan and Andrew after the second mile

The next three miles I ran a little fast: 10:59, 10:48. and 10:36. Miles four and five were down Belmont Blvd and a bunch of people were out cheering us on. I gave so many people high fives as I ran by! I think the crowds were probably what excited me and my adrenaline rush made me go faster than planned. I ate my first gel just after mile four, and didn’t stop while I was eating it until I got to the water station to wash it down. I also appreciated the people with water hoses spraying everyone because it was starting to warm up! I hit the 10k mark a little ahead of schedule.

Mile seven was down 12 South and the entire mile was a steady incline. And it was in the sun with no shade. So back to goal pace, finishing the mile in 11:26.

The next three miles had a lot of downhills so I sped up again: mile eight in 11:09, mile nine in 10:55, and mile ten in 10:50. I passed Jonathan and Andrew again right before mile nine and then ate my second gel.

country music half marathon

Passing by Jonathan and Andrew again!

Somewhere just after I started the final 5k (just after mile ten), I realized how exhausted I was. I also knew what goes down will probably go back up. I kept going but had slowed back to goal pace, completing mile eleven in 11:30 exactly.

running the country music half marathon

My only official photo? This was around mile 10-11.

There had been a water station just at the start of the twelfth mile, which I had stopped at for a cup. I kind of wished I had gotten two, as it had heated up above 70 degrees at this point. I knew the heat was getting to me and I was feeling a little dehydrated. I ended up walking a little extra past Bicentennial Park. Then I came upon another, unexpected, water station. Yay! I grabbed another cup and downed it before finishing off the mile. It was my slowest, obviously, coming in at 12:18.

I knew at this point there was only a mile left, but all I could see was the long incline ahead of me. So I walked a little briefly at the start of the thirteenth mile as well. With a half mile to go, I took off. I was feeling sluggish, but I knew there wasn’t much left. I passed all the crowds lining path to the finish line. Once the finish was in sight, my body found all sorts of untapped energy and I SURGED to finish. I don’t think I’ve ever ran that fast in my life. My data says I hit a 6:05 min/mi pace at one point for 10 seconds! In fact, my whole last half mile was the fastest I did the entire race, averaging 9:38 min/mi. While it was fun to finish that strong, it made me think that I probably could have finished the race without the extra walking and maybe finished faster.

country music half marathon finisher

This was taken within 5-10 minutes after I finished. So happy to be done!

Not that I can complain. My official time was 2:27:43. Yes, I achieved my A Goal by over three minutes! And it was exactly a 40 minute PR. Down to the second. I shaved 40 minutes off my half marathon time in only three months (okay, 6 of those minutes don’t really count because I was taking photos with Disney characters, but still)! That’s what actual good training will do.

After I crossed the finish line, I got my medal, some water, and some chocolate milk. Jonathan and Andrew found me and we waited for Amanda to finish. She crossed the finish line in a little over three hours and officially became a half marathoner!

after the country music half marathon

Amanda and I proudly displaying our medals!

Race Review

Big races like this can be kind of hit or miss. I didn’t have any issues with anything, other than the $5 charge for runner tracking, which seems a bit nickel-and-dime to me for an already pricey race.

I seem to only have one official photo, which is weird. I saw several photographers out on the course and Amanda has a ton of photos, but I don’t even have one at the finish line. I guess I was running too fast for their photographers to catch me? (Haha!)

Otherwise, it was a well-organized race. We quickly got through the expo without any hiccups. The corrals were clearly marked and went out fairly quickly. Water stations seemed well-stocked and were plentiful. The volunteers were all fantastic. And I love the medals!

medal from the country music half marathon

Fleet Feet in Green Hills did free engraving the day after the race, so I took mine in to have it engraved. Nice bonus!

engraved medal from the country music half marathon

Race Analysis

Here’s my official time with my 5k, 10k, and 10 mile splits:
country music half marathon finish time

Everyone complains about how hilly this course is, but I had no problems on the hills. Maybe it’s because I trained on worse ones, and I ran that Demonbreun hill twice in training? They didn’t phase me at all; I honestly don’t even remember thinking about them. I just kept running. Here’s a breakdown of my average pace on inclines, flats, and descents:
average pace by elevation

I wore my footpod and my cadence hovered right at 90 (180 for both feet) the entire race. Perfection! You can see that the only times it went below 90 are water stations and my two brief walk breaks towards the end. Look at it shoot up for my finish!

cadence for country music half

My outfit was perfect. I bought a warm sweatshirt from Goodwill the day before which I stripped off right before the start of the race and threw in a donation pile. My Brooks mesh shirt kept me super cool in the sun and dried fast, even after I ran through sprinklers and water hoses. I chose to run in my Pearl Izumi N2s, which are the shoes I do all my long runs in (and also the ones I ran in at Disney). I got one blister on my left foot, but I don’t think any of my other shoes would have faired better. I’ve determined I need to size up a half size in all my running shoes this year.

My watch read that I ran 13.15 miles, so I did well on my tangents and weaving! Even though I still felt that I did quite a bit of weaving since there were a lot of walkers on the course. By mile 10 or 11, it was rare to see anyone running.

Overall, I am pretty happy with my performance. Except for that one slow mile. I wish I would have sucked it up a little more and kept going. In more optimal weather, I probably would have. But I can’t be disappointed with my time at all!

So will I do another half? Probably. But not this year. I’m eyeing a few different ones in 2015, including the Tom King Half early next March. We will see how my 5k/10k training goes this summer, and then I will probably start making decisions on when I want to start training for distance again.

Shoes: Pearl Izumi Road N2
Pre-race food: 4-5 watermelon Gu Chomps
Mid-race food: 2 strawberry Huma gels

04.28.14
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Week of 4/21/14 – 4/27/14: Country Music Half Training, Final Week

The week started out with some not-so-awesome taper-induced soreness. Seriously, my legs felt like lead. Google tells me this is normal and just due to my muscles healing themselves so they will be fresh on race day, but it still worried me.

week of 4/21/14 to 4/27/14

Tuesday

I went out with the Mt. Juliet Flyers Club for an easy three miles. What’s funny to me is that whenever I go for an “easy” run now, I automatically get into half marathon pace and find it nearly impossible to run slower than that anymore. I guess that’s good? So really this was a three mile goal half marathon pace run, since I averaged 11:15 min/mi for the three miles. No walk breaks, but I felt good and the pace felt easy.

I used this run to test out my gear carrying technique for race day. I figured I would want to carry two gels, my car key, and my phone. I went back and forth on the phone and considered checking it in my gear bag, but then I thought that I was going to be stuck in that corral for up to an hour and I might want to take pictures or text people (or play Candy Crush). So I stuck it in my back pocket.

I will be running in a pair of Oiselle shorts (shocker, I know) that have three pockets. I was honestly quite unaware of one of these pockets until I went to load up everything. I had put my phone in my zipped back pocket and my gels and key in the inside pocket, when I came upon a zipped side pocket as well. Even better! I moved the gels to that pocket, where they will be much easier to get to. I had no issues with the placement of any of the items or any issues with the shorts doing weird things due to extra weight. I do worry about sweat getting to my phone after 13 miles, though, so I may stick it in a baggie before putting it in my pocket (it was dry after three, but I’d rather be safe).

Thursday

Packet pickup and expo day! I met Amanda downtown to pick up all our goodies and to browse around the expo for awhile. I knew Skechers was going to be there, and I wanted to try on some GoRun 3s before ordering them. I ended up buying them because they were $10 off at the expo. I also tried some Nuun (a sugar-free caffeinated Gatorade-type drink) while I was there, but I wasn’t blown away like I expected to be after reading a ton of good things about it. I’ll just stick to water for now.

Later I went out for a final two mile easy run.

Saturday

Race day! Stay tuned for my race report, but it went well. Goals were achieved!