This is what I did tonight…
Yep, put on weird clothes, undies over my shorts and ran a 5k! It was fun and I saw A LOT of butt (good and bad).
My time was 30 minutes even, not bad, but I definitely started out too fast and so I was a bit slower than my normal 5k time. It’s all good though!
I’ve mentioned before that my goal this year is to run a half marathon in 2:10. So far, my closest is 2:19 (which was actually 2:16 minutes of running, I had a 3 minute potty stop.) I feel that this goal is very attainable for me, especially with my splits from the Illinois Half in April (before mile 11 at least…)
Not that I had the most even splits, but I felt good and they were all under 10 minutes (mile 7 had an aid station) until mile 10. I should have stopped to use the bathroom but I didn’t, so I had to mix in a good load of walking to stop myself from pooping my shorts. Most importantly, up until then I was feeling good, I had a groove, and I felt strong.
Let’s experiment, if we knock down miles 10, 11, 12, and 13 to an even 10 minutes, we get 2:10:11. If we take away the the extra .22, I’m under 2:10.
I’ve got 2 more half marathons this year. Rock n Roll Chicago, August 14th and Chicago Half Marathon, September 11th. Yep, 4 weeks later. I was aiming for RnR to be my A race, my 2:10. As of right now, I don’t think it will be and I’m not planning on it being my A race. One, because I haven’t been doing the training I should be for it and two, I don’t want to completely kill my legs only to have to quickly recover for another. Plus I know that RnR will have more turns than the Chicago Half which is basically an out and back on Lake Shore Drive.
I finally got my hands on a copy of Run Less Run Faster. I’ve liked the look and sound and structure of the program since I’ve been seeing it around the blog world for a bit. It also suits my schedule. I mapped out my training for the next 4 weeks, I’ll see how it goes and then I’ll reassess if needed and map out training through Chicago Half. I do think the paces it gives for long runs and long tempos are incredibly slow for me, nearing 11 minute miles. (Based off my 5k time trial that I did the morning after I got back from Paris. Even though my 5k PR is roughly 30 seconds faster.) I might need to modify and change my paces if I am continuously running faster than the pace suggested.
I’ve only done one official training run for RLRF (8 weeks into the half training schedule…) and it wasn’t as bad as I thought! I am tired and sore but I was able to run the repeats at the pace provided (yay treadmill). I’ve got a 5 mile mid tempo and a 10 mile long run left for this week (which might be knocked down to 8 miles, we’ll see) and I feel confident.
New goals:
RnR Chicago: 2:15:xx
Chicago Half: 2:09:59
