Saturday, May 21, 2016

5/21

5 muddy trail miles this morning; consequently, my splits were all over the place (10:35, 13:09, 10:12, 11:18, 9:00). Legs felt pretty heavy; this was definitely my hardest run of the week, thanks to accumulated fatigue, and I'm looking forward to some rest! Pushed myself pretty darn hard the last mile since I was hungry and tired, but when I got home my kids and DH were just setting out on a bike ride, so I turned around and biked another 3.7 with them. Good cool-down, I guess? 30.3 for the week; 80.4 for the month. Headed to kids' piano recital, then hitting the road.

Friday, May 20, 2016

5/20

5 easy on the TM. A little stiff at the beginning, but worked out pretty quickly.

Thursday, May 19, 2016

5/19

SRD yesterday; yoga and walking with kids. Also lots of general craziness--it was NOT restful.

10.3 this morning--first 9.3 were a trails link-up that I LOVED but took much longer than I'd anticipated--I'd run 2 of the trails before but the third was so twisty that I seriously got dizzy and nauseated (it was nuts. Just imagine that you run for two feet and then turn sideways to get between two trees, and then immediately turn around and run for four feet in the opposite direction before immediately turning around and running for three feet before doubling back again--repeat for 2 miles. I was blown away by how many miles of trail they fit into such a small space, but they maximized every inch!). Loved the trail overall but I may wait to do it again when I'm not pregnant. 
smile emoticon Anyway, it was muddy enough that I had to walk a few times (started to lose my shoe so I figured I needed to slow down), which added to the darn steep mud-covered hills meant that my average pace was 11:38/mile and I was like, oh crap, running out of time to get my kids from their playdate--so I took a shortcut home through lots of brambles, ran as fast as I could, picked up my kids, then ended up running the last mile up and down my street while I bribed my kids with Popsicles to hang out on the front lawn waiting for me (at least that mile was a little faster--9:13 and my legs were SO heavy!). I really wanted to get to 10--obsessive much? I have a lot to learn about trails timing as compared to road timing--I just always forget how much slower it is on the trails!
Anyway, it was a good kicked-my-butt run and I saw a blue heron, two coyotes, and a deer, so I felt like a semi-legit trail runner. wink emoticon

Tuesday, May 17, 2016

5/17; 21 weeks

Long long day! Started my run about 9 and I was already dragging, but managed to get 5 miles on the TM. Mostly easy pace + 1 minute at MP every 10 minutes just to increase turnover (and remind myself that the easy pace really WAS easy, hah!).
Definitely feeling more pregnant/heavy/tired/achy.

Monday, May 16, 2016

5/16

5 on TM; so many interruptions that I had to finish the last .5 after picking kids up from school. Not a fun run.

Saturday, May 14, 2016

5/14

5 this morning--had to wear tights, SS, LS, and jacket. Stupid Indiana. Windy and real-feel of 31 + some sprinkling rain. Sad to say, I took my oldest two along on bikes and was not sufficiently sympathetic to their complaining 3 miles in when they decided they didn't want to move anymore--not very fun for anyone involved. Took a shortcut (carrying their bikes) to get them home at mile 4 and then ran a much faster last mile. 10:16 overall; 25 for the week, 50.1 for the month.

Thursday, May 12, 2016

5/12

8 on the TM; progression run. Started out at easy pace and finished up at MP. This was a really good confidence-booster, despite the blahness of running on the TM. After M/T runs I was worried that I was going to have a hard time recovering from the Mini in time to not lose fitness (and believe me, once it goes during pregnancy I can't get it back!), so this run was SO good! Comfortably hard. Overall 10:42/mile; stopped twice to help out my little guys, which helped bring my HR down.

Started at 5.2/5.3/5.4. Every 15 minutes I ran a one-minute interval at 6, and bumped up my base pace (so the last 15-minute set was at 5.7/5.8/5.9). Gradually bumped up continuously over the last 5 minutes to end at 6.1. 

Tuesday, May 10, 2016

20 weeks; 5/10

Still really struggling with fatigue; slept 10 hrs last night but just not feeling it in my legs today. Tried a little interval stuff but had to take it down mid-run.

4 miles; 43:49

Monday, May 9, 2016

5/9

3 easy on the TM today--well, easy pace, but did NOT feel easy! I've been dragging all day today; I think the post-race fatigue hit. In other news, checked in with my OB today and I was down 5.5 lbs from my last appt 5 weeks ago, which I think is attributable to water loss--I have been guzzling water all weekend but still feeling constantly thirsty!

Saturday, May 7, 2016

One America Freedom Festival 500 Mini-Marathon 5/7


First of all, this is one of the least flattering photos I have ever posted of myself, and it's requiring quite a lot of mental self-talk to do it. I don't look pregnant--I just look bulgy. But I achieved something pretty awesome today, whether bulgy or not.

13.24 miles in 2:08:27, 9:42 mile (Garmin, turned off after crossing finish line)
13.1 miles in 2:08:22, 9:47 mile (official)

5k pace: 9:55
Brickyard: 9:53
11m:  9:52
Finish: 9:47

Regardless, I beat my goal of sub-10 miles at 20 weeks pregnant, which makes me pretty darn proud!!! And I got faster as the race progressed, which is always great!

This was an interesting race in that I decided less than two weeks out I was going to run it. I didn't think that I would be in a position to still run this much at this point in my pregnancy, since in past pregnancies I've been maxing out at 12 mpw at this point, so to still be running 30+ mpw is pretty darn exciting, especially being able to do long runs! In general I have felt much better this pregnancy than with previous ones; I don't know if that's because of the extra time between babies (SO nice not to immediately be pregnant 6 weeks after weaning a baby) or what. I don't think I was in substantially better shape given the 8 weeks I had to take off for the stress fracture, but I think mentally I was much more used to distance running since I'd run 2 half and 2 full marathons since my last pregnancy.

Anyway. I got up at 4:20 AM after a very fitful night's sleep, but anticipating this (see, I'm getting wiser the more I race!) I had been really careful about sleep, nutrition, and hydration all week (given the forecasted highs were like 30 degrees over the bizarrely cold temps we've had for the last two weeks). I got ready, ate my PBJ in the car on the way to meet my new friends (only one of whom I knew in passing before today!), and arrived at our carpool at 5:10 AM. We had a nice ride down to Indy, part of which I passed in being wildly jealous of their group of 15 runners who all work together for a big biotech company in our area--makes talk at lunch much more interesting! Got the car parked, found a bathroom, and then headed to the start line. I really wish I'd been able to somehow get an aerial shot because I LOVED seeing the 30,000 runners lining up...it was just amazing!

Splits:
1: 9:39--this was actually a really hard mile for me. I loved the energy at the start and seeing Meb Keflegzi waving from the cherrypicker overhead--that was AWESOME!!--but I felt SO hot already and I was really worried about how much warmer it was going to get during the day. I kept trying to slow down and when I saw my first split I was so kind of mad, because I was trying to get 10-minute splits for the first 5K and then reassess.
2: 10:01--slowed down and felt less worried mentally, although I was freaking out a little because I felt like I was sweating more than I had ever sweated on any run ever. Then I realized that my sunglasses were trapping heat, my lenses were fogging over, and I had sweat rolling down over my eyes--I put my sunglasses up on my head and the problem was solved. Took a honey stinger and some chia water at the end of this mile.
3: 10:00--still feeling pretty darn hot, so I walked through the water stop and made sure I got every last drop.
4: 9:44--felt like I was settling into the pace a little more and starting to really enjoy the running experience rather than freaking out that I was going to bonk at the 5K. :-) Another honey stinger and more chia water.
5: 9:43--is this where we turned into the town of Speedway? I really enjoyed this section--there was so much to look at and so many people out cheering! I LOVED all the crowds! This is also the point where someone running next to me tapped me on the arm and said, "Hi!" and I stared in running-brain-addled confusion for a few seconds before realizing it was Deb, one of my online running-forum buddies who I've never actually met IRL! 
6: 9:39--the Speedway miles were easily my favorite of the entire race. It was SO nice to talk with Deb and not worry about pacing or general running worries or anything--and especially nice because the Speedway had been the part I was most concerned about since it's SO huge and I thought it might get me really mentally down. Snuck a honey stinger/chia stuff at this point (no gels on the track, but they didn't say anything about non-littering-stingers, so I hope that was okay!)
7:10:07--felt like we were running into the wind a bit at this point but it actually felt really nice to cool down so I didn't mind!
8: 9:43--more nice chatting miles with Deb--seriously this part went so fast!
9: 9:52--Deb split off to go to the bathroom and while I really debated waiting with her, I ended up going ahead. Immediately I felt very lonely and kept checking behind me hoping she was catching up! I took a looong time walking through the next water stop hoping to give her some extra time. :-) Another honey stinger. 
10: 9:32--for some reason this mile felt awesome and was one of my favorites despite not being particularly attractive course-wise. Maybe it was the water spray thing, maybe it was the knowledge that there was only a 5K to go...
11: 9:43--started having some weird hip niggles here. Fortunately they went away after about 30 seconds; I think it may have been from the camber so I switched to the other side of the road and that seemed to help. Ate the Clif gel that volunteers were handing out about 10.5 and had some chia water to wash it down. 
12: 9:42--started passing people lying on the side of the road being worked on by med staff and reminded myself to still keep my pace in check so I didn't end up there too. 
13: 9:08--let the pace go and enjoyed every step to the finish line! 
last .24: 1:56

Picked up my food and found Deb again just as we had made our way through all the food stuff and were heading over to the meeting area. Walked over to I and found Ted and Mark  (more running board buddies) standing there; it was really nice to chat with both of them! I was sorry to miss Rod and Sandy, also from our running board, who hadn't finished yet, but I had to start the looong trek back to the car (we were parked on Market off the circle) and then had a very interesting experience changing my clothes at the Hilton which involved listening to a woman frantically trying to find a bathroom, breaking into the men's bathroom to find a guy randomly asleep on the toilet and then urinating all over the floor--in surprise, I suppose? (I could hear this all from the men's bathroom next to me and it was making me INSANELY curious to know why someone was screaming and why the security guys were telling someone to leave or they would call the police (the guy passed out on the toilet)). Fortunately my friend was outside so she filled me in on the details. :-)

I have to say that this race was WAY more fun than I thought it would be! I ran it at what felt like an easy pace the entire time--I never felt like I was pushing too hard and I still had something in the tank to pick it up the last mile. I felt like I ran a smart race with the pregnancy and kept it within good limits while also meeting my goal (under 10/mile avg pace). Definitely more enjoyable than the half I did a month ago and just a really great day.


Wednesday, May 4, 2016

Tuesday, May 3, 2016

19 weeks; 5/3

4 miles on TM today. First mile easy, then picked up the base pace by .3 and threw in some intervals every 3 minutes to shake things up. Intervals about 30 seconds/mile slower than last race pace (since I have NO idea what to anticipate for race pace Sat). First run where I used my support band; I've had a lot of ligament pain in my stomach about 5 hrs after my last 3 runs so it's time to start using that thing again. Ultrasound tomorrow so I'm excited to find out whether we tie it at 3 girls & 3 boys or have 4 boys in a row!

Monday, May 2, 2016

5/2

5 easy on the TM and 20 minutes yoga. Had planned to do this outside with the jogging stroller, but it was 48 and drizzly, so not ideal conditions for my little guy. TM was probably a better choice for my leg anyway pre-race. SRD yesterday but I spent 7 hours at church for this big program we had yesterday, so it was pretty darn exhausting and not much of a rest day!