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ilanaramaFrom my legs, that is. Tomorrow morning I'm driving to Moab, Utah, and on Sunday morning I'll be lining up at the start of my first race since...the last time I was in Moab, in March. Yikes.
I almost didn't sign up for The Other Half this year, as you, O Constant Reader, know. But in the last few weeks I have gone from "just finish it, and enjoy it" to "okay, maybe I can run it at MP as a workout" to "RACE THAT PUPPY!!!1!one!" I mean, I know I'm not going to PR; I'm definitely not in PR shape. But I am going to run it as fast as I can.
The past three weeks I have averaged 41mpw, and I'll match that this week after the half. My easy pace has floated down to the 9 minute range, and I even ran a "hard end of easy" run at 8:42, which is the sort of run I was doing just before I was injured. I have run a tiny amount of speedwork - a threshold run of 2x1.5 miles at 8 minute pace (which gratifyingly did not hit my LT heartrate, so I am pretty sure I can run faster than that for a half) and 6x half miles with 2 minute jog recoveries, which averaged 7:25 pace. Now, last spring before I was injured I did a similar workout in 7 minute pace, so clearly I'm not in that kind of shape yet, but it's really encouraging to see that I seem to be getting back more quickly than I had hoped.
It's really hard to talk about goals for this one, though. Race-day magic nearly always surprises me, with paces better than I ever run in training; I guess I need the adrenaline of actually being in a race to run my best. Moab's lower, so I get the altitude advantage, but on the other hand this is a rather hilly race. I know I said I was looking for 1:52-1:58, but I think I can do better. So I'm going to say: stretch goal is sub-1:41:44 (my slowest time on this course, from 2009), A goal is sub-1:44:18 (my slowest half since getting serious about running), B goal is sub-1:46, C goal is sub-1:50. And of course, overriding goal is don't hurt myself.
I almost didn't sign up for The Other Half this year, as you, O Constant Reader, know. But in the last few weeks I have gone from "just finish it, and enjoy it" to "okay, maybe I can run it at MP as a workout" to "RACE THAT PUPPY!!!1!one!" I mean, I know I'm not going to PR; I'm definitely not in PR shape. But I am going to run it as fast as I can.
The past three weeks I have averaged 41mpw, and I'll match that this week after the half. My easy pace has floated down to the 9 minute range, and I even ran a "hard end of easy" run at 8:42, which is the sort of run I was doing just before I was injured. I have run a tiny amount of speedwork - a threshold run of 2x1.5 miles at 8 minute pace (which gratifyingly did not hit my LT heartrate, so I am pretty sure I can run faster than that for a half) and 6x half miles with 2 minute jog recoveries, which averaged 7:25 pace. Now, last spring before I was injured I did a similar workout in 7 minute pace, so clearly I'm not in that kind of shape yet, but it's really encouraging to see that I seem to be getting back more quickly than I had hoped.
It's really hard to talk about goals for this one, though. Race-day magic nearly always surprises me, with paces better than I ever run in training; I guess I need the adrenaline of actually being in a race to run my best. Moab's lower, so I get the altitude advantage, but on the other hand this is a rather hilly race. I know I said I was looking for 1:52-1:58, but I think I can do better. So I'm going to say: stretch goal is sub-1:41:44 (my slowest time on this course, from 2009), A goal is sub-1:44:18 (my slowest half since getting serious about running), B goal is sub-1:46, C goal is sub-1:50. And of course, overriding goal is don't hurt myself.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-10-19 02:08 am (UTC)