Limbo

I find myself in an odd runner's limbo.

As races are opening registration for 2015 I am finding it hard to decide on what my next move is. I am not sure if I want to keep training to run at the Marathon distance level or scale back to the old comfy 6-8-10 Half marathon routine.

I know I should wait until I the 3 marathons I have on tap have been run but I sort of feel the need to begin looking beyond that to a the winter goal for the 2015-16 winter season.

I would LOVE to go back and run BCS again but not sure what distance. I would also like to add the Kingwood Marathon to my list of accomplishments. And now that the lottery has been removed from the Chevron Houston Marathon decisions about it have to be made pretty much on race day 2015.

As always I am also struggling with finding new races to run. We all have our handful of go to's but I really am looking for races that have me running where I haven't run before.

So far 2015 looks like this:

Jan 17 Advocate 5k (part of the Louisiana Marathon weekend)
Jan 18 Louisiana Marathon
Feb  1 Usa Fit Marathon
Feb  7 Katy 5k
Feb 28 The Woodlands Half   (although I may defer to 2016 due to having to get to LR before the Expo closes)
March 1 Little Rock Marathon
March 14 Bayou City Classic 10k
March 28 The San Felipe Shootout

In April I am looking to take a break and am hoping to volunteer for the Green 6.2 and then maybe do the 25k out at Brazos Bend again.

May - August become all about the 5k and 10k, with maybe a trail run of a bit longer distance. These are the months in Houston that are hot and humid and if you can make it through them without giving up you can come out on the other side in mid-December feeling like a champ.

UGHH what is a runner to do?

Sugarland FLS 30k

WOO HOOO!! The marathon training train runs on as I run the Sugarland Finish Line Sports 30k.

Sugarland City hall

The race docs say to be there by 5:30 or risk not being able to get parked before the start. So naturally I got there at 5 am. Yep that was me, wondering around taking random pictures of the start and finish areas. By 5:30 I was back in my car and set a timer for 6 and fell back to sleep. Normally race morning has me keyed up that just plain relaxing wouldn't happen. When I woke I went out for a quick 1/2 mile warm up.

December is unseasonably warm this year. It was 58 with 93% humidity at start time, which itself was a good 30 minutes before sun up. Things only got worse as the morning went on.

I think I did pretty good for this being the first time I have "raced" at this longer distance. I stuck more or less to my plan. Hydration-wise I brought 1 bottle of ready to drink Tailwind, 1 bottle of Tailwind in concentrated form (2 scoops in a 8 oz bottle) so that I could mix on the course as I go, and 1 bottle of just plain water. The plain water I have found is a must when taking Gu's. And yes I know the theory of using the Tailwind is that you don't necessarily need the Gu's but that is not the case for me. I don't need to Gu nearly as often as I previously did. I use to need them every 4 miles but now I use them every 6. I was able to stick to that for this race. 

In total I went thru 4 bottles (32 oz.) of Tailwind (5 if you count me absentmindedly chugging the last 2 oz of premix when I was cleaning out my FuelBelt), not sure how much water but I would bet a good 12 ounces, 2 Gu's and one honey packet.

Now as far as my race plan went, I didn't really have one, only to try and finish under 4 hours. The first mile was a little fast. The second mile I settled down keep pace behind a guy walking the course. By the time the sun came up I was a good 2-2 1/2 miles in when I began noticing GU packets. Just random full GU packets on the ground. This became a theme that got me thru what was coming ahead. I think I managed to pick up every other one I came across.  The 3rd mile as it came into the loops I had to remind myself to keep things settled, it is really easy for me to get hyped up and over-exert. By mile 4 I was were I wanted to be, nicely settled in easy going pace 13 m/m while running 3:1.  The looped part of the course is marked miles 4-16. 2 miles up and 2 miles back for 3 loops. 3 not so dramatic loops. So the first loop I spent time looking for GU's, I picked up 2 more and left 2 more. 

The second loop I spent looking for the Gu's I left the first loop, both stomped on and squirted across the road in perfect run over ketchup packet fashion. When I came around to my potty break somewhere between miles 6 and 7 the pace announcers had me at a 12:47 pace, perfect. I took my break and then started moving a bit quicker to catch up with my walker. I finally caught him around mile 9 and passed him at the water stop at mile 10 with another loop and a half to go. 

Finisher shirt and medal

The 3rd loop, well... the 3rd loop I spent reading road and business signs. The race is held in First Colony so really I spent the time dropping the "y" off of colony and seeing what the business would be named then. The two best I came up with were "First Colon Eye Care" and "First Colon Self Storage." Stupid and childish but the name of the game was keeping the mind busy at this point. 

The hardest part of the race however, had to be once you finish the loops. You still have 2 1/2 miles to go to the finish but it feels like the finish should be right there. As I made my way to the finish the air temp began to heat up which made for miserable running. I spent the final mile or so running 1:1 but maintained a 12m/m pace.

I came across the finish line just as the clock ticked 4:00:01. That meant I made my 4 hours goal. My chip time came in at 3:58:53. I could not have been happier. 

Up next:

21 miles of course. Longest run before taper is this coming Saturday. Can't wait!

Holidays

It's been awhile...a long while.

When last I was with you I was gearing up for the Wild Hare 25k. I can report that it went horribly. That's right, it was BAD. I am not sure what happened but I finally hit a road block (ok a trail block) and had my first DNF. I am really still not sure how I feel about it. In fact up until now I have pretty much blocked it out of my mind. The race itself was good. The trails were fantastic! The course was nice and the weather was not so bad. It was a little muddy but nothing too terrible. The Tejas Trail group put on a well organized race, good support, not a thing I could complain about. It just wasn't my day. After the first lap I fell apart and just plainly dropped myself from the race. 

How do you come back from that? I did what came naturally...I signed up for the Katy YMCA's Turkey Dash. Why not, I mean I had to get back at it. The inconsistency in my training had finally caught up to me. Running on Thanksgiving is/has always been a hard thing for me to do. Every year I'm the one who makes dinner. In fact this is the only holiday that I normally am in the kitchen from breakfast until dessert. I normally spend the entire day running a cooking marathon. Well this year, I tried to turn that marathon into a sprint and got bitten on the ass for it BUT... I PR'd my 10k time. LOL! Turkey dinner be damned. The Y's race is the 2nd biggest turkey day 10k in the Houston area. This year it was around 6000 people for all events.

 

I ran into a runner friend right before the start and we hit the parking lot for a lap to warm up a bit. And by warm up I mean it was 45 degrees out, chilly for Houston. I needed a 30 minute tempo run so I kept my intervals to average about 12m/m for the first few miles. When I came up to the 5k flag I decided to go to 3 1/2 then, 4 and then before I knew it, I was 5 miles in and feeling really fierce. My 3 minute interval times had dropped to 9:45-10 m/m and I couldn't believe how good I felt. My last interval time before the finish was at 8:34. Not too freaking shabby for this 12m/m runner. I crossed the finish line with a 1:36 PR. It was a good day, it was the run I needed to get back on track. 

 Sometimes you have to hit bottom before you can see how good the good things are.

I ran my furthest training run yet this past weekend, 19 miles. No issues. 6 weeks to GEAUX! 

Coming up:

FLS Sugarland 30k 12/14.

KatyFit Cookie run 21 miles 12/20.

And then one last long run just to see how far I can go before I start tapering.