Last week of November

So my husband went on vacation and I fell off the running bus. I skipped my long run the week he was gone and settled for a few short runs during the week and the Bridgeland Turkey Trot this past Saturday and I still managed 20.1 miles for the week. ??? The turkey trot was uneventful except for the 40 degree weather the wind chill bringing it down to 36 and the constant drizzle/mist that persisted until I was done. Oh and I ran the entire 10k. After a 1.5 mile warm up I challenged myself to see if I could go the distance. Now I didn't break any speed records or anything but since I had only managed to run my first 5k without intervals in May. I walked away from this race quite happy with  myself. The race was a double loop course and since there were only about 230 runners it wasn't crowded. There were water stops about every mile that were staffed with really kind volunteers. There was no swag or medal but there was shit brown cotton shirts for all the finishers. I finished in 1:19:47. like I said slow but it was long run day so that was ok. In fact that pace was 15 seconds per mile faster than my LSD pace. so it's a win. So far with one week to go I have racked up a whopping 73 miles for the month. I guess that 100 mile mark is going to alluded me for at least another month.

It's November

I am a little behind on my recap, for October I managed 98.37 of the 100 miles I set for my goal. Not to fuckin shabby! Now on to November.

Training has continued as planned so far. I have changed things up a bit by adding another run day to the schedule and taking out my extra rest day. So far so good. I made the change because in March I am running the Seabrook Marathon's Pelican Challenge which is back to back Halfs. The training intent is to learn how to run on already tired legs. As of today I am 47.12 miles into the month.

Over the Veteran's day weekend I ran the Clear Lake City Half. Here's how that went. Left the hotel at 5, picked up my chip, went for a warm up run and BANG hit the start! New course meant this race was out and back instead of looped which I used to my advantage. I took off easy letting my body naturally increase it's pace. As I neared the water stop between miles  4 and 5 the lead runners were already coming back so I started cheering them on as I headed towards the turn around. My pace increased, the distraction kept me moving without thinking about what my feet were doing. I even ran into one of the moms in the MRTT group, there were 3 of us out there but I had never meet either of them so it was good to have a "friendly" on the course; only after the pics of the race were posted did I find out who the other mother was and I wish I had know it was her when I past her since it looked like she was struggling and maybe a little extra "woop woop" could have helped her, next time. By the time I got to the turn around I was running well under the 12m/m I had planned so I decided to slow down and try to conserve my energy before I completely bonked. I kept up with the cheering until I past the last person on their way to the turn around and focused on passing the runners ahead of me. I started picking rabbits, running to them, passing and picking another one, giving them a little "You're doing great" or "Great Job" I even stopped to chat with one runner about the LaPorte half next weekend. Man I want to run it, next year. Anyways I finally "ran" the half marathon that was in my head my first time out. I stuck to my 9:1 intervals, kept to my nutrition plan (which I am now adjusting) and when I hit the 13th mile I was able to pick up my feet even more and cross the finish in... 2:36:44... 4:42 under my time from the Houston Half and just under what my goal was for the entire season. It was a good day for me in Clear Lake.  And now the real work begins. New goal setting for one. WTF do I work towards now? I don't want to go out and kill it next month at the BCS Half but I kind of feel like I have to now. I am thinking I may set my goal for an even 2:35 or maybe not.

Medals for the Clear Lake City Half, Macho Man for running CL and AHCHM, CL in center and the "I Rocked 39.3" guitar for finishing CL, AHCHM and the Sugar & Spice Half

Up next the Turkey Trot @ Bridgeland followed by the BCS Half Marathon. I am thinking about adding the 12k of Christmas to my December calendar if I can get a discount on it.