South Shore Half Marathon RR

My first official race of the year!  Here's the recap of the day:

Friend Scott M. and I headed to Milwaukee from the East side of town around 6:30.  Race start wasn't until 9, so we had plenty of time to get there, check in, get warmed up...and take care of the usual business.  I had my standard pre-race breakfast of an english muffin with PB and honey, some tea, and some sports drink.  I later had a banana on the ride to the race site.  Also tried something I recently read about, some chia seeds soaked overnight in water with some honey.  This supposedly helps keep you hydrated.  Didn't seem to hurt so I'll keep tinkering with it : )

Once there, we made sure all of our gear was ready to go.  I also met up with my brother and his girlfriend.  Both of them were running their first race.  13.1 is an aggressive start to running events, but they both finished!  Apparently my brother Tony passed out briefly around mile 11...if you read this, eat something next time!  Ha, but seriously, sounded like low blood sugar.

On to my plan for the race.  My coach Will wanted me to go out conservative for the first 3 miles and build into a solid pace.  Scott was planning to stick with me for as long as possible, so we agreed to start around 6:50-7:00 pace.  The first 3 miles were pretty much right where I wanted to be: 6:55, 6:48; 6:40.  I was feeling really good at this point so I started to build.  My overall goal pace was about 6:30, so I knew I needed to start hitting 6:20 on a consistent basis.  Working towards the turnaround, I was feeling really comfortable and hitting good splits, anywhere in the 6:30 to 6:00 range.

My favorite part of this race was it being the first time I was able to work with a group for an extended period of time.  For the first 40 minutes or so I was slowly gaining on a group of about 7 guys, led by Justin D., the Midwest Newton rep.  Around mile 7 I caught them and decided to stick with them for as long as possible.  Coming back towards the finish was super windy, so this made the final miles a bit easier.  After about 20 min with them I could feel the pace slowing so I decided to push.  Working on my own at this point was tough.  The wind was picking up and I was starting to feel tired.  Luckily, I timed my gels perfectly (20 and 50 mins in) so I was still mentally energized.  At mile 11, 2 guys caught me, so naturally I stuck with them.  With a little more than a mile to go I picked up my pace even more and caught one other guy, who had me worried, because he briefly stuck with me.  I did not want to sprint finish at this point but was prepared to.  He must not have felt as good as I did because I put about 1 min on him during the last half mile.

This is probably the best I have ever felt finishing a running event, so my official time of 1:24:26 had me stoked!  I know I can go faster at this distance with some more speed work.  My watch read 1:24:13, so apparently they didn't do a chip start as stated.  Oh well.  It doesn't change the fact that I had a great race (for me).  This was about a 10 min PR!  WHAT?!  It has been 2yrs since I've run an open 13.1, but I could not be happier with this result.  It was good enough for 5th in my age and 14th OA.  Scott also had a great time with a huge 4 min PR!  Congrats to him!

Lastly, I was really hoping to be rocking some Wattie gear for this race, but it should be here for Crazy Legs.  Still, I was able to rep some Powerbar and K-Swiss gear.  Here's to the 2013 season!

Winter Training in the Midwest and Looking Ahead

Today marks the first day of Spring! ...at least on the calendar.  Wisconsin, and much of the Midwest/Northeast is continuing to get mid-winter like conditions.  Last year at this time, we were seeing temps in the 70's and even 80's, and are now well below normal temps.  But if memory serves me correctly, April and May had some pretty awful weather.  Maybe this year will be different?

Recently, I had gotten close to the point of a mental breakdown (not really).  Extended periods of time spent running on treadmills and riding on trainers is not my cup of tea (I prefer green).  However, this extended cold weather has allowed me to focus my energy on some positives:

1.  I'm really starting to nail harder efforts on the trainer.  Really excited to see how this translates to my outdoor fitness.
2. As much as I dislike running on treadmills, the controlled environment is making it much easier to focus on specific zone work prescribed by my coach.
3. I love hot tubs even more now.
4. Last year at this time I was dealing with some nagging foot/lower leg injuries.  Since I'm forced inside because of the cold (mainly right after training sessions), I've been spending A LOT more time foam rolling and getting quality stretching in.  This is key to remaining injury free.

LOOKING AHEAD!

My first "real" race of the season is coming up in about 2.5 weeks.  Its a small 13.1 in Milwaukee called the South Shore half-marathon.  I haven't been putting in a ton of mileage to really perform to my potential for this distance.  My hope is that my overall fitness (and lots of hill running) will translate to some decent speed.  I'm in my 3rd week of picking back up with my coach Will Smith.  I have 100% percent faith that he will get me to the start in a good place physically and mentally.  This will also (hopefully) be my first race rocking some awesome Wattie Ink Team Elite gear and K-Swiss kicks.  Now I just need to pray to the weather Gods that I'm not running on ice!

Think warm thoughts : )