I AM GOING TO PR!

I'm claiming it, here and now!  When I run the Indy Mini in May I am going to beat my PR of 1:58:59.  I don't care if that means running it in 1:58:58...whatever the numbers, I plan to PR. 

The Mini and I have unfinished business since I fell during training this spring and had to downgrade to the 5K.  I had to come back from that fall slowly, doing a run-walk thing instead of just a run thing.  The marathon I was supposed to run on Nov. 6 was downgraded to a half.  A miserable, painful, depressing, 2:47:45 half.  It really wasn't depressing because of the time, but instead because of how awful I felt.  I was in pain nearly the whole time, and the mental aspect never kicked in for me.  I was down on myself the entire time.

Well, I've got big plans involving a sports doctor and a whole lot of ambition and I am going to nail a PR this spring! 

I'm Baaaaack - an Indy Mini Race Recap

Hello all!  I hope you haven't left me during my long absence.  And now I don't even know where to begin...

Almost exactly 2 months ago I fell down and I've had a hard time getting back up.  My knee has re-gained all of it's skin, but it still hurts like you wouldn't believe and feels a little twisty and out of place.  Leading up to my half marathon I never ran any longer than 3 miles, and most of my runs were more like 1.5 - 2 miles.  I knew there was no way I could run a half and that I would have to downgrade to the 5K.  Frankly, I was depressed about it.  I know it wasn't a lifelong goal like Boston (and I can't imagine living with me if it had been that big of a race) but I had been training and training and was having the moment robbed from me by a stupid crack in the sidewalk and I was angry!

I didn't want this blog to become a place where I wallowed in self-pity (and have it live on forever in the world of the internets) so I've been away.  Mostly taking piddly little training runs and then finishing off a lot of these:

Don't mind the Liquid Plumr.  I wasn't that down about the sitch.

So anyway, I spent the whole week leading up to the race toying with the idea of running the half anyway.  I mean, I had paid for the half, my shirt said I ran the half, and if I had to I could run or walk that far.  You know, if I was being chased or something.  The night before the race I laid out my gear for the morning:

We woke up race day and took the requisite pre-race picture (both of us still thinking maybe we could do the half, and knowing we would be crippled for a good long while if we did):

Yes we look haggard...it is early, don't judge.

We literally walked out the front door of our hotel room into the corral for the 5K.  The starting corrals are lined up for blocks and blocks, but somehow we picked the perfect hotel for our corral.  Go us!  Usually we have to walk a mile in the freezing cold.

Anyway, the 5K starts in the half marathon A-D corrals.  Corrals E-Z are already lined up behind you and the half marathoners who want to get into A-D stand off to the side and shoot you ridiculous 5Kers dirty looks.  As a person who downgraded to the 5K you can feel the energy, nerves, excitement, etc of all the people behind you who are about to do something they've trained and looked forward to and maybe even feared for months.  Personally, I understood the glares from the people on the sidelines waiting to get into my corral.  Last year I was in Corral D, and I wanted the 5K to get out of my way already, because it was COLD on the sidelines and at least in the corral I would have body heat surrounding me.  All of that energy surrounding the half made me still want to get out and run it while standing in the 5K start line.  Glutton for punishment?  This girl right here.

In the end, we did run the 5K.  It was so congested that we walked for almost the first half mile.  When it finally cleared a little you had to spend the next half mile or more dodging people, weaving in and out, because no one actually lined up according to their pace.  In the end, Dave and I finished together in 33:07, the first time we've ever run a whole race together from start to finish.  It was a nice thing, running together.  But next year we are totally running the half!!

We got done in time to head back to the finish line of the half (score some Dippin' Dots) and watch the quickies finish the race.  I even saw some people I knew from our running group at home and one guy I went to college with (random) and cheered them on as they ran down the final .1 mile.  It was exciting and fun to cheer for people.  You could see who had some left in the tank and who was totally crippled by their effort.  One chick actually had blood gushing down her legs (we think from chafing, we hope from chafing).

We cleaned up and went to do our traditional post race gorging of ourselves.  Dave wanted PF Chang's and so for the first time in my life I tried tofu (the sacrifices we make for love):

No, just no.  Nononononono.

I had to wash the taste out of my mouth with something:

While we were walking around the mall eating our cookies we saw a Proactiv vending machine.  The things you can buy out of vending machines these days astounds me.

The good news is, we weren't crippled by running a 5K (smart decision? yes.) and we were able to have a great weekend playing mini golf, shopping for new furniture, and eating yummy chocolate at The Melting Pot.  But we will be back to avenge the Indy Mini next year!

Five Things For Friday

Five things I learned from People Magazine today:

1. Constantine Maroulis is apparently still news-worthy?  Who knew?
2. Jennifer Hudson looks A-MAZ-ING!
3. Chris Brown...too much Chris Brown.  Seriously.
4. Brangelina believe in time-outs for discipline.  And they really just live an ordinary life.  I would not have guessed ordinary really.
5. There is a Scream 4.  Which is probably the most shocking thing I learned today.  Apparently I haven't had a very educational day...

And now that I've shared all that nonsense, here's what I really wanted to learn (but not from People Magazine).  Should I give running a try tomorrow?  And how far should I go after a full 2 week layoff?  I'm torn about how much to push.  And still a little in pain.  I don't want to re-hurt myself, but at this point I'm terrified of losing fitness.  My race is only 42 days away.  42 DAYS!  I can't afford to take more time off and I certainly can't afford to lose fitness.  I've already lost time to increase my long run distance to where I want to be pre-race.

I am FREAKING OUT!

By The Numbers

Last night I did a 15 minute tempo* run on the treadmill.  1.53 miles, overall pace 9:49.  I'm still a far cry from the 8:59 goal race pace I set, but I still have almost 4 months to get there so no worries.  And yet, it got me thinking about the numbers.

In May 2009 I ran my first half marathon in a respectable 1:58:59.  I had set 3 goals for myself:

1. Finish.  Period.
2. Finish faster than 2:30
3. Finish faster than 2:00 (in a dream world)

Somehow all the stars aligned that day and it was one of those perfect runs.  I met my dream world goal and felt on top of the world.

Fast forward to May 2010 when I ran my second half marathon.  I was fighting an injury and trained far less than the year before.  I finished in 2:29:something.  Which might have been okay if it was a respectable performance, but instead I had to hobble/walk/run the last 5 miles.

Being the numbers person that I am, I got to thinking.  How many miles was I running while training for my stellar first half...how many was I running while training for my dreary second half?  Where should that put my numbers for this year's third half, where I would love to PR?  Let's take a look, shall we?

	2009	2010
January	59.7	6.1
February	48.3	21.5
March	67.0	17.0
April	77.1	52.5
May	33.1	35.1
June	34.5	0.0
July	26.0	0.0
August	31.7	16.9
September	28.5	33.3
October	20.2	22.7
November	8.6	16.4
December	1.0	33.0

Clearly I had a far better mileage base going into the race in 2009 than I did in 2010.  I know there was an injury that slowed me down in November and December and into January.  Then I had to build back up from there.  The thing is, I had knee and hip trouble in '09 as well but I didn't let it slow me down.  Was I running smarter in 2010...or wimpier?  Hard to know the answer.  What I do know is that to have a race that rivals 2009, I'm going to have to put in more impressive mileage than I did in 2010. 

So far in January I have put in 17.5 miles.  I still have about 2 weeks to go, including a long run tomorrow that should get me about 6 miles.  Projecting that out, I can expect at least a 45 mile month.  Looking at the numbers, that may not be good enough.  One thing I am certain of is that it's time to get the mileage up.

*I use the term tempo very loosely.

Mini 2010

The hubby and I ran the Mini this year. His first, my second. Now we've only been training hard and doing long runs for about 6 weeks. Me because of a knee injury, him because of a fear of the cold and a foolish belief that he is invincible.

I started the day in Corral D, he was in about P or so. Our gun time was 14 minutes apart, but our chip time was just 4 seconds apart. 4 seconds!! Can you tell we trained together?

Dave was quite pleased with his performance since he ran the whole thing and didn't die.

I was quite disappointed with my performance since my knee blew out (again. see reference to injury above) around mile 8. After that I did a walk/run/hobble combo for the next 5.1 miles. It hurt and I finished a full 30 minutes slower than last year. And my pride still hurts today.

Apparently I forgot to pull out the camera this weekend. Maybe because it was so, so cold. I have no pics of the event to share :(