April 9th marked my second half marathon, and most likely my last for awhile.
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| o baby, o baby |
I would actually say I enjoyed my first half. I felt a huge sense of satisfaction during training and excitement in the build up leading to the race. I didn't have much else going on; Runkle was battling Splintzilla and I had nothing else to ride so my physical activity outside running was limited to 20 minutes of circling the indoor at a walk.
I was happy I finished my last half, and was content to leave it at that.
This time I had time goals for my half marathon and I'll be honest, that kind of strict goal just doesn't work when you work full time and are a full time horse mom. My legs were constantly tired and I was so fed up with running, winter and cold, dark mornings that I didn't really
care anymore when the race started coming up. I didn't have that bubbly excitement I did for the first race.
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| Splits. Not the gymnastics kind. |
Taper is where I made my largest mistake. I did not rest enough. That's the kind of mistake you don't realize you've made until it's
way too late; I'm talking first three quarters of a mile of my race. My legs were screaming more than they had for any other run in my life.
I got blisters when I
never get blisters, and let's just say the chafing made riding a little more uncomfortable for a while. It just sucked.
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| Mile 8.5: Don't let the smile fool you - I was in PAIN |
So moral of the story: don't try and train and compete a baby horse and run a half marathon at the same time. Because in doing one well, you'll probably fuck the other one up.
The plus side is while I didn't achieve my official goal PR I did run 3 minutes faster than my first race so I'm going to call it a win. I'm the most fit I've ever been in my life which is no weak consolation prize. I need to try and remind my self that's why I was doing this in the first place. And they still had soft pretzels at the end!!!! I love soft pretzels. A lot. I apparently will run over thirteen miles for them.
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| Soft pretzel, u my favorite. |
I don't know when my next race will be but I think this little nine month experiment was more than a success and I'm very proud of myself!
Awesome! My goal for running tends to be "keep putting one foot in front of the other at something not a walk for the majority of the time". It seems to work. Speed goals tend to come easier when you drop the mileage and ramp up the strength training, too. That's even harder when you're balancing a ton of crap. Bleh. Damn you 24 hours! Why can't you be longer! *shakes fist angrily at sky*
ReplyDeleteThis year my goal is to run 400 miles cumulative for the year (with a bonus reach goal of 500 cumulative miles). I've already run 100, and I took most of February off. I think I can do this. Sigh, but I love running. That makes it easier.
Nice job! And look how much faster you got as you went along! My splits are always the opposite, start out strong, then die. Possibly literally.
ReplyDeleteI signed up for number 7 in the fall. I'm already full of regrets.
I'm jealous of the pretzels. They don't have those in CA.
ReplyDeleteWay to go!
ReplyDeletebad. ass. :D
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