I was in.
Knowing what was ahead of me gave me inspiration to train during the winter. I am very much a fair weather work out type of gal. After my second half ironman, I backed off training. I did a couple half marathons and that was about it. A guy I was dating challenged me to be a faster runner, more or less saying if I tried I could do it. I'd been running for 5 years, I knew this was not possible. To prove him wrong, I tried. Funny thing happened - when I went out for my "I'm going to run my fastest and I will show you there is no change" run, I was indeed faster. That got me thinking. Maybe, just maybe, I could improve my running. So that became my focus. If it was nice weather on a weekend, I'd join a friend or two for a 30ish mile bike ride, but my focus was on my run. I started running sub 9-min. miles consistently on my morning 4 mile run, even getting down to 8:30 for a good number of them.The year before, I'd done the Swamp Rabbit Trail run at the end of an injury, so I walked the last 2 miles after pacing a friend to get her PR (personal record). I didn't want to walk, but I didn't want to get more injured, so I did what my PT told me to do. Everyone I know who did that race got their PR. So, my goal was to PR in that race. My previous record was 2:03, I think, on a 13.7 mile course (that's a completely different story ending in a decision to never do the Greer Earth Day run again). I wanted to break 2 hours.
In January I signed up for the Greenville News 5k. In general, I'm not a fan of 5ks, but everyone seemed to want to do it, so why not. One of my problems with 5ks is it takes me about 2 miles to warm up which leaves only 1 mile until it's done. I decided to run from home to the start, giving me a 1.5mile warm up. For giggles, I figured I'd go hard and see what happens. I started where I usually start, in the middle, and found myself doing a LOT of weaving. I was able to break free probably half mile into it. As I past the water stop (no time for that!) I saw that I was doing a 7:45 pace or something insane like that. I ran into a guy from our run group who refused to let me beat him, which was fine. It made me run harder to try to keep up. In the end, my chip time was 24:15, gun time 24:58 - that's a 7:50 chip time pace! I'd never run that fast for one mile EVER- and here I did it for 3.1!!! Well, I couldn't stop there. So I signed up for the Reedy River 10k and finished in 50:46 chip time, 8:06 pace! Again, faster than I'd ever done 4 miles never mind 6. I was on a roll! This was going to be my year for PRs. I had a good feeling that I could, at the minimum, do a 9 min/mile for the half... that would bring me in at 1:58, hitting my sub-2hr goal. Well, the gods were shining on me when it came to race day.. doing a 1 mile run, 1 min. walk, I finished in 1:47:58 chip time - 8:10 pace. HOT DAMN! The beginning of my season was worth a few cartwheels (but I'd probably get injured, so I just did them in my head).
I was very excited about the progress I'd made on my run, but knew it was now time to start buckling down for the swim and the bike too. I'd been swimming a few times - in the indoor pool because I hate the cold and would rather swim in 85deg water inside than 78 outside. It was also time to start migrating my runs to Sundays and rides to Saturdays which meant I'd be saying goodbye to my Saturday morning run group for the next 6 months. That's right, we were 6 months away from the biggest event I've ever trained for- it was time to buckle down. Sharon and I signed up for the Knoxville Rev3 half ironman, and that became our new focus.
Knowing what was ahead of me gave me inspiration to train during the winter. I am very much a fair weather work out type of gal. After my second half ironman, I backed off training. I did a couple half marathons and that was about it. A guy I was dating challenged me to be a faster runner, more or less saying if I tried I could do it. I'd been running for 5 years, I knew this was not possible. To prove him wrong, I tried. Funny thing happened - when I went out for my "I'm going to run my fastest and I will show you there is no change" run, I was indeed faster. That got me thinking. Maybe, just maybe, I could improve my running. So that became my focus. If it was nice weather on a weekend, I'd join a friend or two for a 30ish mile bike ride, but my focus was on my run. I started running sub 9-min. miles consistently on my morning 4 mile run, even getting down to 8:30 for a good number of them.The year before, I'd done the Swamp Rabbit Trail run at the end of an injury, so I walked the last 2 miles after pacing a friend to get her PR (personal record). I didn't want to walk, but I didn't want to get more injured, so I did what my PT told me to do. Everyone I know who did that race got their PR. So, my goal was to PR in that race. My previous record was 2:03, I think, on a 13.7 mile course (that's a completely different story ending in a decision to never do the Greer Earth Day run again). I wanted to break 2 hours.
In January I signed up for the Greenville News 5k. In general, I'm not a fan of 5ks, but everyone seemed to want to do it, so why not. One of my problems with 5ks is it takes me about 2 miles to warm up which leaves only 1 mile until it's done. I decided to run from home to the start, giving me a 1.5mile warm up. For giggles, I figured I'd go hard and see what happens. I started where I usually start, in the middle, and found myself doing a LOT of weaving. I was able to break free probably half mile into it. As I past the water stop (no time for that!) I saw that I was doing a 7:45 pace or something insane like that. I ran into a guy from our run group who refused to let me beat him, which was fine. It made me run harder to try to keep up. In the end, my chip time was 24:15, gun time 24:58 - that's a 7:50 chip time pace! I'd never run that fast for one mile EVER- and here I did it for 3.1!!! Well, I couldn't stop there. So I signed up for the Reedy River 10k and finished in 50:46 chip time, 8:06 pace! Again, faster than I'd ever done 4 miles never mind 6. I was on a roll! This was going to be my year for PRs. I had a good feeling that I could, at the minimum, do a 9 min/mile for the half... that would bring me in at 1:58, hitting my sub-2hr goal. Well, the gods were shining on me when it came to race day.. doing a 1 mile run, 1 min. walk, I finished in 1:47:58 chip time - 8:10 pace. HOT DAMN! The beginning of my season was worth a few cartwheels (but I'd probably get injured, so I just did them in my head).
I was very excited about the progress I'd made on my run, but knew it was now time to start buckling down for the swim and the bike too. I'd been swimming a few times - in the indoor pool because I hate the cold and would rather swim in 85deg water inside than 78 outside. It was also time to start migrating my runs to Sundays and rides to Saturdays which meant I'd be saying goodbye to my Saturday morning run group for the next 6 months. That's right, we were 6 months away from the biggest event I've ever trained for- it was time to buckle down. Sharon and I signed up for the Knoxville Rev3 half ironman, and that became our new focus.
No comments:
Post a Comment