It has been a month since I last blogged! I can’t believe June flew by so quickly! Well I will update from my first half marathon.
I have learnt so much during this experience! It’s amazing to me how each training schedule and race tends to take on a life and lesson of its own and 13.1 Chicago had a lot to teach me.
Lesson # 1; carb loading is not always necessary 3 days before a race a spaghetti supper the night before will suffice. I was happily eating carbs to my heart’s content only to gain a gazillion pounds and have a terrible time getting back into my “regular” eating habits. Although I do believe the carb loading carried me through this race I don’t think I need to load as much as I did.
Lesson # 2; a training schedule needs to be flexible but not compromised. I lost two significant long runs due to being flexible to other life needs and boy did I pay for that. I rocked the first 6 miles! I was on target for a 2 hour half marathon and I was feeling GREAT then mile 7 came on and I started to falter. By mile 10 I crashed and had to walk/run the last 3.1 miles which leads me to lesson #3.
Lesson #3: Do not do anything on race day that you have not worked out the kinks for during training runs. Somehow I had convinced myself ON RACE DAY that I did not need my sports beans during the race. Somehow I thought I would do just fine on Gatorade and water. Hmmmmmmm ….. I have read tons of articles that tell you to just stick with what you know…. But I didn’t and it sucked. Additionally the race directors did not see a need to have ANY water available OFF the race course. I normally start my runs with Gatorade and water and my beans I couldn’t take the beans or Gatorade because I had no water. So already I started my race under nourished and dehydrated. It was only a matter of time before I crashed.
Lesson #4: I am happiest with a race that I have run the whole way. Even though I finished in 2:30, which was my goal time, I was not happy with my overall performance. Maybe I’m a little bit of an overachiever. Maybe. But I find that I am happiest with my runs, racing or training, when I actually run the entire way. Lately I have been struggling with that and I’m trying to figure out how to work it out. If I follow my HRM then I would only run ½ of my runs. Totally not cool, I’m actually thinking that sometimes tools can give too much info. Maybe it’s time to get a stopwatch to time my splits and listen to my body.
Lesson #5: reverse tapering is not always a good thing. I tried this out and am just returning to training this week. I am suffering because of it. I need to work out some recovery runs/plans something…. I am not the same woman when I am not running. I think not running consistently for the past 2 weeks has done more harm then good. Even if I only run a mile or two at a very slow easy pace I think it’s better to get out there and be consistent. I have been cross training on my bike and that’s okay but defiantly not the same.
Overall if I had to give a pass/fail grade on this race I’d have to pass. I finished in my goal time. I finished alive. And Dude…. I ran a half marathon how many Athena’s can say that? Ya…. I’m a bad ass…..
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