I am thoroughly enjoying running in the heat and sunshine but my cardiovascular system does not. I am still struggling to run fast (hence my not-so-great performance at the half marathon this past Sunday). Even on easy runs my heart rate can get into the 160s/170s, which is not ideal. I guess the plus side is that when I get back to Alaska I will (hopefully) be able to cruise at paces that seemed much harder here!
Last week I was able to meet up with my “coach” Nichole. She technically doesn’t coach me anymore, but I still call her my coach since we’ve worked together so much in the past and she was the one who put this sub-3 hour marathon goal in my head in the first place.
We did a workout “together” as in we were both out running the same loop, but we had different paces we were running. I attempted a 5 x 1 mile workout at tempo pace but failed miserably and hit paces closer to marathon pace (6:50 instead of 6:30) due to my heart rate and breathing getting out of control. I chalked it up for the effort and knew that it wasn’t an accurate reflection of my fitness.
Then going into Sunday’s City of Lakes Half Marathon, I wasn’t quite sure what I would be able to do come race day. (Usually I am pretty good at predicting what I can run in a race.) I really hoped I would be able to run faster than I did at the Skinny Raven Half Marathon in Anchorage three weeks prior. I saw the weather was going to be cooler race morning, which I was happy about, but I am also in the thick of marathon training. Plus, I had had a cold the entire week before, and I was still feeling it in the back of my throat.
I did my usual 30 minute pre-half marathon warm-up for this race and felt as ready as I was going to feel. As soon as the gun went off, I settled into a more conservative pace than usual coming through the first mile in 6:49. (My first mile at the Skinny Raven Half Marathon was 6:28. Oops! Although honestly there is a lot of downhill during the first mile.) I purposely tried to reign in the pace early on so that my legs could still feel okay at the end. There was a 1:30 pace group, so I latched onto them and ran with them for a while. I thought I could start to pull away from them about half way if I was still feeling good. Well, instead of running a 6:50 pace like they were supposed to, they were running more like a 6:40 pace. I still hung with them but knowing that was as fast as I should push the pace based off how I was feeling that day.
Mile 1 – 6:49
Mile 2 – 6:39
Mile 3 – 6:39
Mile 4 – 6:44
Mile 5 – 6:42
Mile 6 – 6:47
The course is two loops around two different lakes, so it was really scenic, but also a little mentally tough knowing I had to run the same route twice. I grabbed some Gatorade at an aid station about half way through and then started to lose contact with the pace group. I felt a surge of energy and tried to catch back up with the group, but it just wasn’t happening.
Mile 7 – 6:54
Mile 8 – 6:55
Mile 9 – 6:50
Mile 10 – 6:59
Mile 11 – 6:55
Mile 12 – 6:56
Mile 13 – 7:01
As you can see my pace dropped off during the second half, but I actually stayed pretty consistent during the last half as well and didn’t totally hit the wall. There was a nice little downhill into the finish chute, and I ran across the finish knowing I had done the best I could given the conditions.
My watch stats:
Distance – 13.14 miles
Time – 1:29:51
Average pace – 6:50
Official results:
Distance – 13.1 miles
Time – 1:29:41
Average pace – 6:51
24th place for the women (640 total women)
5th in my age group (91 finishers in the 35-39 age bracket)
I’m going to continue to train as hard as I can going into the New York City Marathon. It is going to be a short build-up to the race (much shorter than I would prefer), but the cards fell together so nicely for NYC, I couldn’t say no.
We head back to Alaska Friday night, arriving in Anchorage in the wee hours of the morning on Saturday. While I am going to miss the warmth of this weather (and everything else about Minnesota), I will hopefully be able to train more effectively!
