Sheri - Back from the Brink

With my half marathon coming up this Sunday, I’m taking some time to review my training and finalize my race goals.  After tonight’s easy 3 mile run, I will have completed 54 training runs for a total of 365 miles over the course of 18 weeks on the FIRST half marathon plan.  I’ve managed to remain injury free, but I did have to deal with a stubborn cold that I picked up a couple of weeks ago that turned a 12 mile planned long run into a difficult, cough plagued 4.5 mile wheeze-fest (but it felt better to sweat than to lie around on the couch).  Luckily I’m feeling fine now, and my lingering cough no longer wakes me up at night.

My two major take-aways from this training cycle are:

• I detest track workouts, but running fast is the only way to get faster.  I uniformly dreaded the days of my speed work, and always dawdled before getting ready to go out.  I also came back feeling completely used up and slightly abused.  And the running round and round!  Kill me N O W.  I spent the entire time asking myself WHY AM I DOING THIS?  Can’t I QUIT NOW? 

• I love love love long runs, with 12-14 miles as my favorite distance.  This time last year, 12 miles was the furthest I had ever run, and 10 miles was still major undertaking.  But now I refer to it as ‘only a 10 mile run’ and look forward to longer efforts.  Longer runs give me a chance to really break away from normal everyday routine, and really feel the movement through space and see my neighborhood.  Maggie really likes going long and slow too.  We know where all the squirrels hang out at, and she is ready in case one wants to cross our path.

I also managed to be fairly consistent with cross training, nearly always completing a rowing session as well as a stationary bike session each week.  I think I see some results in my upper body from the rowing (and it helped my core too), and I know that my quads have benefited from the cycling.  I can highly recommend the stationary rowing for a good full body workout, especially if you don’t cheat the movement and really lean back to hit your core.  I also felt a good burn in my glutes which I didn’t expect.

For Sunday’s race, my official MacMillan predicted pace is 9:41/mile, which would be just under 2:07 for the half.  This would take a perfect effort on my part, with no porta-potty trips along the way.   My more realistic goal is to finish in less than 2:10.  I will have to be careful not to eat anything too bulky the night before, get up early Sunday morning to coffee up and hope for movement before 8 am.  Sometimes I am not very reliable in this department, so I am just hoping for the best.

Worst case, I’ll just enjoy a fabulous race course by the ocean, and enjoy what is shaping up to be a perfect day weather-wise.  My new favorite quote is from Dan Browne, which is in this month’s Runner’s World:

‘Before a race, I focus on my goal and the hard training I’ve done.  For me, races are a celebration of my training.’

So I am going to celebrate my ass off.