11 minute Shred!

I am one of those athletes that are super superstitious.  That means that I have before game day rituals that I try to follow for eating, resting, preparing.  With my life in the midst of crazy those rituals have gone out the door. With the 30k race, I was hoping to get back on track but I was as nuts as ever.  Questionable training, surfing instead of running, fun night on Friday, surfing on Saturday, and just hoping that Sunday was going to go well.

Sunday morning came and it was a little wet.  Running 18 miles in rain sounded horrible so I was a little nervous.  I knew that this race would be a good indicator of what my marathon would be like and tell me what I needed to do for the next 7 weeks leading up to it so I told myself to go out there and do my best.  My goal was to stick with the game plan of staying as close to a 9 minute mile for as long as possible.  I wasn't sure how long that would be since my long runs have been spotty but I also knew that I am much stronger than last year doe to cross fit so I was ready to go.

The gun went off and I took off running.  I head a sub 9 mile for the first few miles with hills and felt ok.  There was no rain and I felt good.  Once the hills were done I was ready for the straight run on Kalanianaole.  When I got on Kalanianaole I tried to psych myself up for the flat boring 4 miles, what I wasn't prepared for was the crazy ass wind that began blowing me all over the road.  I tried to draft as much as I could behind other runners but that didn't help either. I had to lean into the wind and run strong. It was taking goal concentration and a lot of energy to do so and I kept thinking that I just needed to get to Hawaii Kai turn around to get a chance to run with the wind.

After the turn around I didn't feel any push from the wind and my body started to get a little tired and my legs and feet sore.  I slowed down my pace because I was already well ahead of my time last year and wanted to play it safe and conservative.  Miles 13-16 wasn't pretty and my lack of long runs became very evident to me.  As I neared Diamond Head I told myself to suck it up and run hard.  Hills have always been my strength so I wanted to run it tough.  I was able to run tough but by the time I was at the top of the hill my calves were starting to seize up and I was a little afraid that I was going to cramp.  Since this never happens to me I have to think about this and make some changed to my race prep.

As I neared the Finish Line I could see that I had a chance to run a sub 2:50 and so I dug deep and pushed as hard as I could without putting my legs under stress and cramps.  I squeezed in at a 2:49.42.8 which was good enough for 6th place in my AG.  I was stoked!

After the race ran a few more miles so that I can mentally say I ran 20 miles in training.  I am one happy chick.

What an EPIC DAY! Brio 25k 10.2.2016

Today was the 3rd race of the Marathon Readiness Series, The Brio 25K in Kailua.  Over the last 5 years of racing I have run this race 3 times on 2 difference courses and each course has been tough with tons of hills.  Going into this race I was a little worried because I haven't been logging the kinds of miles that I have in years passed and my body hasn't been given time to recover from intense workouts.  My workout week went like this:

Monday:  Run 1 miles, 1 hour of RIPPED

Tuesday:  Run 8 miles, Xfit Lower Body/Cardio

Wednsday:  Surf, Run 2 miles, Xfit Core

Thursday:  Run 6 miles Xfit Upper Body

Friday:  Surf. Run 1 mile

Saturday:  Run 1 mile

Sunday:  Run 17 miles, Surf

Anyway, I was concerned about how all this working out would affect my race and for that reason I ended up skipping a surf sesh on Saturday and instead sat at the beach and watched waves.

Anyhow, I am much stronger than last year, my body is much leaner, and I am running faster with a better pace, but as a whole, my volume of running miles is much lower than last year and I am not sure how that is going to affect me over 26.2. I can't decide how I am going to train the next few weeks as the Marathon gets closer. I would love to keep up the cross training but I know I also need to run more long runs.  My new life as a single mom makes it hard to run on the weekends when I have the kids so I am going to figure something out.  

But back to the race.  I took the day off on Saturday and spent time chilling, relaxing, slowing down, and setting goals at Alii Beach where I always escape to when I need peace.  I was hoping that taking the day off from crazy would enable me to run a great race, but of course I also had my doubts. I ate what I needed to eat, drank what I needed to drink and tried to get a good night's sleep for the 3 am wake up call.  Everything went well and I made it to the race with lots of time to spare.  My game plan for the race was to run a 9 minute mile for as long as I could.  This has been my game plan all year and I have been able to follow it pretty well with no problems except for the Hickam Half Marathon when I had a rough day of surfing the day before.  

The race started and I took off at an 8:45 pace.  I felt comfortable at the pace but didn't want to push any harder because I knew that a lot of hills were to be had in the 2nd half of the race.  I cruised along and reminded myself to stay focused which is always a problem for me. I tend to get lost in my thoughts and forget that I am reaching.  I handled all of the rolling inclines and was happy to hit my 5k mark of 26 minutes and 10K mark of 52 minutes.  As I neared the huge hill by Kalaheo I told myself that I was doing good and would let myself run up the hill at a 10:30 pace.  I was able to run it faster than that and made up time on the down hill.  The next few miles were rough on me as they are rolling turning inclines which I don't do well on, however, the worst part of my race was the last 3 miles which were all flat.  Flat miles are always my slowest because I don't know how to push the pace on these.  My legs were a little tired by the end of the race and although I finished strong I know I can finish much stronger than I did.

When it was all over I ended up with a 3rd place finish in my age group which I was very proud of as it was my first placing in any of these series races.  Happy day!!

After the race I had a nice breakfast with friends and then went to surf Waikiki with Cathy.  Happily for me it ended up being the best ever surf sesh I have had to date. I caught a lot of waves and rode them in nice and long.  

It was a great day!