So... reading my last post I realized that I was kidding myself when I set that ridiculous goal. I might have had a shot had it been spring already, but I should've known that I couldn't keep up a good training schedule on the treadmill or in the cold. My training has been sporadic at best until 3 weeks ago. Since then, I've steadily run at least 4 times a week. Now I'm hoping for 1:40 in the Urban Wildland Half-Marathon in August.
On Saturday, Carena and I traveled to Milwaukee to run the Trailbreaker in Waukesha with a couple of friends, Jenny and Doug. None of us had been training too well, so it was a slow day for all of us. I ended up with a time of 1:55:56, which I'm actually quite happy with for it being this early in the year. Just knowing how unprepared I was makes me think after another 18 weeks of training I'll be in pretty good shape for the next big race.
The out and back course was a nice flat bike path, with a few gentle hills in the first and last mile. We arrived to the race late, so by the time we started, the gun had already gone off. Luckily it was chip timed, so it didn't really affect anything. I actually got started after Jenny and Doug (but before Carena, who started a few minutes after me), and I really didn't know where the course went. I saw them running in the distance, so I figured I'd try to catch up so I didn't get lost. I know it's a terrible idea to start too fast, but in order to catch up I had to do the first mile in 7:40. I won't lie, it took a lot out of me and I really didn't have anything left for a kick at the end, but I'm glad I did it. After I caught up to them, we ran together for about a mile before Doug took off. Jenny and I were pretty much at the same place physically, so we ran almost the whole race side by side. That is, until we hit mile 12 and she left me in the dust.
You can see that I maintained a pace between 8:40-9:10 for most of the race, which I'm actually pretty happy with. You can see that it looks like I walked at the end, but that's actually because I forgot to stop my watch after the finish line. I walked to drink my Gatorade, but other than that I kept moving.
A time of 1:40 is a 7:37 average pace, so I have a lot of work to do. One goal I have in training is to not miss a day between now and the race. I'm not sure if I'm going to have rest days or not; I'll have to see how my body responds, but either way I hope to run a minimum of 6 days a week until August.
My legs are still tired from the race, so I'm trying to decide whether to do any speed this week or just take it easy. I'm eager to jump in to training, but I'm wary of getting injured. I suppose I'll see how I feel after 10 minutes on the road.
All in all, the whole trip was a ton of fun. The race was a great kick in the rear, and I feel like I'm at a good starting point.
No comments:
Post a Comment