Purdue half (2016)

Race report:
I knew going into this one that my main constraints were going to be lack of training, ongoing healing from delivery, and lack of sleep, and sadly there wasn't much I could do about any of them! Thursday night I got about 2 hours of sleep, so I went to bed as early as I could on Friday and was asleep by 9. I woke up around midnight absolutely soaked in sweat and freezing cold (one of those lousy hormonal post-delivery things that hits me every 3rd or 4th night), so I changed all my clothes, rolled up in a dry blanket, and tried to sleep a little more, then at 1 am Matthew's swing totally gave up the ghost. Fed him at 1, 3, and 5 with about 80 minutes of sleep in between each feeding, then got up at 6:45 and got ready. Drove down to the parking lot and fed him in the car again up until the last possible minute in hopes that he wouldn't go crazy before I was done!

I found my friend who was running her first half--we run different paces but were thinking we'd hang together for the first few miles and see how it went pace-wise. We lined up with the 10/mm pacer since she told me she normally ran about 9:30-9:40/mile and wanted a 2:10 finish, so I figure we would shoot for around 9:55 average for the first couple of miles and see how that felt. . Started off out of the stadium parking lot and first mile along Cherry was 9:38--I felt kind of bad because I kept telling her to slow down on this mile--that adrenaline is hard to combat! We walked through the water stop in the second mile (10:07), but she was already struggling with the pace and asked me multiple times to just go ahead. I felt pretty bad leaving her but I also didn't want her to feel pressure to go faster and I knew I couldn't slow much and still make it back before Matthew got crazy hungry.

Third mile was 9:41--nothing really interesting about this. Walked through the water stop again hoping my friend would catch up but when I couldn't see her I figured she was too far back and I needed to just run my own race. 4th mile we got the first decent downhill on Salisbury (9:26) and then the fifth mile was almost all downhill across the bridge to Lafayette (9:06) and skipped the water stop. I was taking Honey Stinger chews every 2.5 so I grabbed my second one here. This mile also made me realize that I couldn't go much faster than the 9:30 pace, since I started to really feel it in my pelvis (that's been getting steadily better since delivery but I sure didn't want to push it!), so I took it back a notch and felt much better.

6th mile was 9:39. This is where we started to hit the hills again in Lafayette that I was dreading, so I reminded myself to just keep a consistent effort and not worry about pace. Ran under one of the church clock towers just as it started chiming, which was really nice coupled with all the steeples and scenic downtown/fall leaves. Walked through the next water stop and slowed a bit with the hills to keep effort the same for mile 7 at 9:59. Mile 8 back over the bridge was 9:36 and then mile 9 with the first of the hills I was REALLY dreading was 9:53...that's the seemingly eternal gradual uphill to Chauncey. It really wouldn't be that bad except all the short steep rollers preceding it in Lafayette wear you out and it's at that crappy point in the race where you've come a long way but haven't hit the double digits yet, so it still feels like a long way left! Then we ran forever through campus, which is a different route than I remembered, so I kept wondering when the heck we were going to turn (and also trying to not think about the fact that I could just turn NOW and be back at the parking lot within 5 minutes!).

Finally turned and ran past the new Co-Rec for mile 10 at 9:37, then down the Engineering Mall and tried to mentally gear up for miles 11 (9:56) and 12 (10:14), which were the second set of hills I was dreading--the two back to back hills on Stadium (mile marker 11 was just before the top of the first hill) and then immediate right turn to McCormick and more uphill. I seriously felt like I could have been walking faster on this part than I was running at the 11-mile marker--this was also the first place where I noticed a headwind during the whole race (of course!). I told myself it would turn into a tailwind during the last mile, but I know my HR was awful at this point and I felt pretty nauseated and awful. Once we cleared the hills I felt much better and was able to enjoy the last mile (9:34) and passed SO MANY PEOPLE, which is always nice to do that late in the race! I was consistently passing about three times as many people as were passing me for most of the race, but in the last mile I passed 34 people and was only passed once, which was nice. Downhill to the finish and last .14 was 1:03. Passed Neil and kids as I ran into the finish chute, then met up with them and waited a good 30 minutes for the kids' fun run (which gave me the opportunity to sit down suddenly before passing out, wish that there were more Porta-Potties, and very classily feed Matthew on a curb underneath a giant blanket). Walked the half-mile to the car, which really helped with post-race stiffness, then home to my shower and some Tylenol with codeine for my grumpy body that was like "are you kidding, just had a baby, let's lie around and eat cupcakes instead of this craziness."

Chip times still haven't been posted; Garmin time for 13.14 was 2:07:26 (9:42/mile).

Random thoughts:

1) Kids' fun run was AWESOME. I loved loved loved this part. Look at the hand-holding! The intensity!! (Jules was feverish and Isaac kept her company.)

2) Neil went to the store after dropping me off, bought cider, and then added his signature spice blend to it and brought me a thermos of hot spiced cider. That was pretty much the best post-race drink ever...I always get SO freezing cold after a race and that was the perfect antidote! Three cheers for him!

3) My current PR is on this course from last year. I hate this course in terms of runnability--there are so many hills--pretty much the entire time you are going up or down, and the big downhill is in the first part of the race, so the last half really is rough. It's beautiful and you run past lots of gorgeous trees (fall is the perfect time for this!) but I wonder what kind of PR I would be able to set at the Mini?

3) I'm really glad I ran so much through my pregnancy. It got pretty hard at the end there with nerve pain in my leg, and I can tell that I'm not 100% healed, nor do I have the fitness that I would have liked to have, but all in all, I don't feel like I crashed and burned during the race the way I was worried I might. :-)

8/13

This is the farthest I've run in the last ten months (since that half-marathon I ran in my first trimester).  And it was hot--yuck!  The weather really cooled off so it was kind of a shock having it comparatively hot (plus let's be honest, I'm not one who loves running in the evening).

Neil and I ran together which was great--we haven't been able to do that since December.  It was really nice to spend some time on the trails with him, even if it wasn't the best performance run ever--it was hot enough that we stopped twice for water and then probably every mile or mile and a half we walked for a minute to just try to keep our core temperatures down (Neil was pretty bushed by the end of the run since he has been sick and hasn't exercised much since Luke was born, but he was a trooper and stuck it out!)  We also ran a LOT of hills--4 miles on the roads and 2 miles through the woods. 

6 miles, not sure on pace--probably around 9ish?

6/15

Afternoon run today, after a nap because I was such a zombie.  The kids went to a friend's house and I went running (Neil was working at home, hence why I got a nap and he stayed with Luke while I ran) to try to make myself into some semblance of humanity by the time the children got home.  please, endorphins, help resurrect the mother they're used to.

Really tired.  I ran at the same pace  & route as Monday but I could tell that I'd had several nights of 3 hours of sleep pulling at me.

STATS:  4 miles; 9:15/mile

endurance test

4.6 miles in 88-degree heat over crappy hills.  Interesting how much of a difference temperature and beating sun make, since I ran the same route that was so great last week (except I ran all those glorious hills in reverse at the end, which was not fun).  Running very slow (10ish/mile going by kitchen clock).  I have GOT to get up earlier to go running--I didn't want to leave this morning until I'd fed Luke, but then he projectile vomited all over me and went back to sleep so apparently it was pointless anyway.  Or the treadmill could be fixed and that would be lovely--Neil has been working on it hoping to not have to buy the $350 part, but he's having difficulty diagnosing the problem without a circuit diagram.

STATS:  4.6 miles; 10ish/mile

outside again

Treadmill is still broken (Neil is pretty sure Isaac blew the fuse but we're having trouble finding the right fuse) so I ran outside today.  It was a horrible day (all four kids are feverish and coughing) and I spent an hour and a half trying to nurse Luke so that I could leave.  Like I said--it was not a good day.  Neil practically had to push me out the door before it was too dark to go.

I ran a route that I haven't run since last October--my favorite route through the woods surrounding the bog.  There were mosquitoes and the trail was flooded out and my shoes got absolutely filthy and a white-tailed deer scared the bejeebers out of me and it was so worth it.  I felt like I was flying running down the hills in the woods, leaping over roots, dodging trees, and almost falling on my face half a dozen times (in fact, I started running so fast that I got the beginnings of a side ache, which hasn't happened in forever!).  It was completely glorious.  I'm betting that I'm going to feel this tomorrow because there were some decent hills, and I haven't run hills in forever. 

STATS:  3.99 miles, approx. 9:15/mile (going off the kitchen clock and my memory--not sure how accurate this is, since I felt like I was running really slow at some points, but crazy fast at others). 

10/26

Bad combination:

1) Running 10 minutes after eating dinner (it was literally the only time all day)
2) Running uphill into...
3)...post-tornado watch winds.

Seriously.  What was I thinking?!  I honestly think I could have gone faster at some points walking than running into the teeth of that wind.  At least the maple woods were breathtakingly beautiful. 

STATS:  4 miles, barely under 10/mile by my kitchen clock when I left/got home

8/24

We're watching our friends' kids on Saturday while the wife does a triathalon, so we did our long run tonight (not ideal, but that's just how it worked out).

We ran mostly the same course that we ran on Saturday, but we were both definitely more tired with more aches and pains--it was a pretty grueling day for both of us today, especially since it's one of the two days a week that Neil goes to the lab at 6:30 am so he can get in lots of quiet worktime before anybody else gets there.  And it was a pretty hectic day here too (doctors' visits in both morning and afternoon, fun fun).

When we first started running I felt terrible.  At the first quarter-mile, I honestly didn't know if I'd be able to finish.  Around a mile and a half, I was focusing on not throwing up (partially because the bog at 8 pm REEKS).  So we detoured for water, and walked for a minute around the drinking fountain, and then I felt a lot better.  We ran steadily for another couple of miles, then down through the glacial ravine and back up again, and when we reached the top of that hill--which honestly, I have never in my life come across a steeper hill on a trail; it's like a total scramble (Happy Hollow to the Indian Trails trailhead, if you're local)--when we got to the top of that, Neil wanted to walk for a minute.  Which is the first time that's ever happened since we've been running together, so that tells you something about how tired we both were.  At this point we were about five miles in.

So we walked for a minute, and then we started running back home again.  We passed a lot of people with grocery sacks in their hands (like seriously a million) and I made some comment about root-beer floats that practically killed Neil for the rest of the run...I think he was dreaming of fizzy happiness for the next three miles.  Poor guy.  I kept saying, "Just remember!  Carbonation is bad for distance running!"  and he would say things like, "But I'm not going to drink it...just eat it."  Then he asked if we could make samosas when we got home.  I guess having Chicago restaurants as our main topic of conversation was kind of a tricky choice...

We detoured for water again, then we started running back through the woods for the final leg, and oh my goodness--it was practically pitch black.  Neil suggested we turn around, but I get really fixated on running a mapped course rather than freestyling...so we just kept going, albeit quite a bit more slowly  I could barely see the ground under my feet, and we kept warning each other about roots and dead branches and exciting things like that.  So that made the end of the run quite exciting, and when we were out of the woods, I was totally in my zone.  Too bad we only had a mile left, right?  By the time we were back in our neighborhood I seriously felt like I could have run forever.  I kept picking up the pace and by the time we hit our driveway, I was running faster than I had the rest of the night.  Go figure.  It only takes 8 miles for me to start feeling good.  Plus it probably helped that it was MUCH cooler by that point.

STATS:  8+ miles, very hilly, trail run, not sure on time (somewhere around 85 minutes with  2 drink and stretching breaks, 1 walking break,  and woods-trail slowdowns)

8/21

Best run EVER this morning.  We ran a new route that we haven't done before, and we talked about parenting and goals and creating a more purposeful family the entire time.  At one point when we'd run about four miles, Neil said, "I can't believe we've gone so far--the time has flown by!" and that was pretty much how it was the entire time.  It was great--this is one of the main reasons why I like training, since it's just awesome to have my husband all to myself and do something that energizes us so much (hurray, endorphins!) and talk the entire time and work things out and feel so positive afterwards, both mentally and physically.

Of course, all the talking means we're not running super hard, since we were still talking comfortably, but it was worth it.  And we ran a pretty challenging course today--we parked near the beginning of the bog loop trail, so we ran up the hills to the bog, through the woods, which has some pretty steep hills, up the mogul-type hills by the golf course where the bog has made the sidewalk swell (in moguls), and then we ran downhill for a mile through a glacial ravine, and then back UP that glacial ravine trail, which is steep enough that it's quite difficult to do just on a bike.  There's a bit at the very end where I always feel like my nose is going to bang into my knees.  And then back again over the whole course.

And my shoes were great--my feet didn't hurt at all, and because I was so wrapped up in talking with Neil, I didn't notice the heaviness one bit.  It was seriously a fantastic way to start out the weekend--I LOVE running with my husband.  Love, love, love it.  It's nice to look forward to the long runs so fervently.  :-)

STATS:  8.12 miles, around 9:50ish a mile (definitely under 80 minutes, but we weren't really worrying about time), very hilly

8/17

Today was supposed to be a tempo run, but I ended up running late enough in the day that I had no energy for tempo-ing (about 2:30 pm, after I'd been mowing the lawn).  So I just ran for the specified time while my sister Elise biked along beside me (my mom was home while the kids were napping).

My shoes felt really heavy (probably because of the lawn-mowing and late-in-the-dayness), and I was pretty fixated on that the whole time.  And I definitely need to recalibrate my iPod sensor for the new pouch, because most of the run it was telling me I was running a 9:50 mile, and that I had run much less than I'd actually run.  So that was really depressing and non-motivating, because I felt like I was already running pretty fast.

When I got home, I mapped it out and I'd actually run about 4.06 miles, which gave me an 8:36 mile.  Not great, but not bad either.

STATS:  4.06 miles, 8:36/mile

8/14

I did my three-miler today (switched the long run).  As I said yesterday, we were planning to go to the beach today, but the forecast was for rain, so we ended up going last night.  It was utterly perfect, but today when I was running I could feel the fatigue from yesterday.

Since we are at my parents' house, I was running trails that I ran in high school.  Which was kind of cool.  I'm not sure that my iPod mapped me correctly; it was right on for time, but when I was comparing it to mapmyrun later, it seemed like it may have been off, but I couldn't tell for sure because I was running through the woods.  Oh well. 

STATS:  3 miles, 8:36/mile

8/11

Hills course on the treadmill today (it was thundering this morning); I ran the 5K course with what I think of as "death hills."  Ergh.  I started out at 7.3 mph, then realized after awhile that wasn't going to work the whole time over the hills and dropped down to 7 mph. 

STATS:  3 miles, hills course, 8:34/mile

8/7

Three years ago today, I was in labor with Juliet.  Today I ran six miles (hot, long, and boring); I almost think I'd prefer labor if I'd asked for the epidural earlier.

Neil and I were up laaaate last night canning and freezing (yesterday I processed 30 lbs of beans and a case of dilly beans, then Neil and I canned salsa last night when the kids were in bed).  So we didn't really want to get up at 6 am this morning to run, nor did we want to switch off running earlier in the morning, since it was Juliet's birthday and we were doing all the presents and hoopla there.

So I left about 10:30 to start running, and it may have actually been 77 degrees, but man, it felt so hot! When I ran through the woods it was pure bliss to be in the shade.  By the end, I had cold chills, which is never a good sign in the heat...

I finally got my Nike + calibrated and the sensor taped underneath my laces--I ran a mile this morning and it actually measured it as a mile (8:23).  Then I ran another five miles, and it kept turning off on me when I accidentally bumped it or something.  I can see now why everyone straps it to their arm; holding it in your hand or tucking it in your clothes seems to not work with the sensitive sensor.

So I'm not exactly sure how long my 6 miles took me, since I had to restart the workout 4 times, but the first mile was 8:23 and the last mile was 9:09, so if I just average that, it comes out to 8:40/mile.  Not too bad. Now I have to go mow the lawn, since I'm already sweaty.  Need more water!!

STATS:  6 miles, hills, 8:40/mile

8/6

It actually felt a little like fall today!  Sixty degrees--bliss.

My running partner turned back early today, since they wanted to leave for Nauvoo by seven AM.  So I ran the last couple of miles by myself.  I saw tons of wildlife today--everything from a killdeer that flew along in front of me for half a mile to a coyote trotting silently across the trail.  It was a beautiful morning.

STATS:  3 miles; under 27 minutes but not quite sure...

8/4

Today I tried to calibrate my Nike + foot pod.  I say "try" because it told me I'd run 1.25 miles when I'd really run 1.5. 

So I tried it all over again, using the instructions' suggestion to calibrate using a workout I'd already completed.  I ran another 1.5 miles and guess what?  This time I'd only run 1.12 miles, according to the sensor.  The cool female voice berated me for running a 12:30 mile.

I got online and typed in "can't calibrate Nike +" and I got about a billion hits.  Apparently these things are very temperamental.  Among my mistakes:

• taping the sensor to my shoe rather than shelling out $70 for a pair of Nike+ shoes
• running on a treadmill
• aligning the sensor vertically rather than horizontally
• running hills
  
  So looks like I'll be trying this all over again, which means I have to go to a track.  And decide if I want to buy new shoes (mine are about 3 years old, so they're getting a little battered, but I love them), or jimmy the sensor in my laces somehow.   
  
  STATS:  3 miles, 8:30/mile or 12:30, take your pick, Steve Jobs. 

7/31

There's something just wrong about getting up at 6 am on a Saturday to go run in the drizzle, but up we got.
My running buddy came over at 6:15 to watch our kids (we're trading back and forth; I'm going over there tonight) so that Neil and I could go together.

This was our first long run; we ran 3 miles down to campus and 3 miles back.  It was beautifully cool for a change, and thanks to the sprinkling rain, it felt like practically zero humidity.  We ran all the hills we could find, including the big one by campus.  The elevation change is 135 feet; the elevation change on the first half-marathon hill looks to be about 150 feet, so I'm hoping that if we just keep running this hill every week that the half-marathon hill won't be so bad. 

Actually, that hill was much easier than I expected.  I'm hoping this is a good sign--I didn't ever feel like I needed to stop and walk, and I didn't have any cramps or twinges in my legs.  The callus on my left foot started to bother me at the end of the run, so I'm wondering if I should go see if there's something I can do about that...

We went pretty slow this morning, since we were both tired (and did I mention a bunch of hills?).  I'm going to calibrate my Nike sensor this week so that I can actually start telling how fast we're going, instead of checking watches every so often.

STATS:  6 miles, a little under an hour but I'm honestly not sure

7/28

Another training run today, but again, with Neil--nice to be with him, although both of us were groggy enough that we didn't really talk much.  We cut across a field near our house, looped the bog, then ran through the woods trails.  It was hot and muggy and the trail was littered with all kinds of branches from the most recent storm, so our pace wasn't as quick as it would have been on a level track, but I wanted to run more hills, so the woods were good for that.

I'm wondering if I should bump up the "recommended" mileage to my normal mileage--I feel like I'm backtracking by only running 3 miles where I'm used to doing 5.  Then again, I'm adding in another 2 runs a week--one speedwork and one long run, so I guess it all works out.  I've also been going to bed pretty late with my family here, so I've been tired enough that the short runs are very welcome. 

STATS:  3 miles, hilly trail runs, 26 minutes for 8:40/mile

need another blog

Do I really need yet ANOTHER blog?

Probably not, but I want someplace to record my running info so I don't bore everyone on my regular blogs.

I signed up this morning for two more races:  the Indy half-marathon on October 16th and a 10K on Sept. 18th. 

I have about two weeks before I need to start hard-core training for the half-marathon.  My running buddy has been out of town for three weeks, so I haven't been doing my regular 5-mile runs outside.  Instead, I've been working on speedwork and hills on the treadmill inside.  Boring and I hate the treadmill and I hate running at home with the kids running around (always makes me feel guilty) but hopefully I'll be faster and stronger when I get back outside!

Today I'm doing an easy run:  4 miles with alternating hill intervals (level 4 and level 0) every two minutes at 7 mph (roughly 8:34 per mile).

My half-marathon goal time is 1:55, which works out to about 8:46 per mile.  If I can run 8-minute miles on the flat parts and 8:30 miles on the hills during training, I will be in great shape for my goal pace.  Right now I can run about two and half miles at 8 minutes per mile before I need to slow it down to 8:30 miles; the hills courses I've just run at 8:34 throughout.  I can tell I definitely need to do more hills, because it is not very fun at all. 

Stats for today:  4 miles (treadmill), hills course level 1, 8:34 per mile.