I didn’t get any good pictures at the Health and Fitness Expo last night. There wasn’t anything that was particularly interesting.
When I got home and opened the goody bags, Cooper took one look at Sarah’s race shirt, in neon yellow, and decided he wanted to race tonight! So, I’ll be headed back to the Expo today to sign him up. Thank goodness they allow late registrations!
I’m even more excited today than I was yesterday. I can’t wait for tomorrow to get here!
I’m so excited! Race day is almost here. This morning, I did my last run prior to the race. Of course, I’m counting Friday night as part of the race, too. What’s that? You don’t know about Friday night? Well, that’s probably because I haven’t written about it.
Friday night at 7:00 PM is the Richmond Times Dispatch Kids Run. Sarah is going to race, and I’ll be right along side her making sure she stays on pace and doesn’t wear herself out too quickly. The race is one mile, around the Richmond Sports Backers stadium and parking lot. She’s run a mile before, in the Jog-n-Walk program at school. She, Christi, and Cooper get up every Thursday morning (today’s the last one) and go do laps at the school. Sarah regularly does 8 laps, which equals a mile. She’s also done a training run with me. She ran that one in about 12 minutes, but had to walk quite a bit. I let her set the pace that day, and I think I’ll try to make her go a little slower to start the race on Friday, because she wore herself out pretty quickly when we ran together. She was very excited, and I know that will only be amplified on race day! I’m still expecting her to finish somewhere around 12 minutes, but hopefully she’ll be able to run it all–I know she was a little disappointed she didn’t run the whole way when we ran together. Good luck Sarah!
Of course, I’m extra excited about Saturday. My goal is to finish all 13.1 miles in less than 2 hours. I’ve already achieved this goal at home, so I’m secretly hoping to finish MUCH faster! Wait, I guess that’s not a secret anymore, is it?
This morning I ran 2 miles (tapering, remember?) in 17″47′. This was a very easy 8″47′ per mile pace, if I multiply that pace over 13 miles (which is optimistic), I’ll be at about 1:55 on Saturday. Since 9″00′ was my goal pace, I think I’ll be in good shape for 2 hour goal. Plus, the pace this morning was very easy. I was never out of breath, and, like all my shorter runs, I really wanted to go further.
The only thing about Saturday that doesn’t excite me is the weather. Right now, they are calling for rain on Saturday morning. I hopeweather.com is wrong. I can run in just about any weather without complaining, but rain is the one I like the least. Plus, I don’t want to get my iPod wet. So, if it’s raining, my iPod won’t be going with me to track my run. Maybe I’ll stick it in a zip lock bag in my pocket, that way I can still use it. I’ve got to figure something out, because over 13 miles, music is usually key to maintaining my pace.
Do you want to know how I’m doing as I run the race? You can sign up for e-mail or text alerts on the race website. Or, leave a comment at der5er.com (or send me an e-mail) and I’ll sign you up. They’ll send an e-mail when I reach the 10k mark (6 miles, just a little under half way) telling you how fast I’m running and then at the finish, with my final time.
This evening, when I leave work, I’ll head over to the Arthur Ashe Athletic Center to pick up Sarah and my race packets! The Health and Fitness Expo is also there. You have to walk through most of it to get your race packect, but that’s ok, because I would have wanted to see everything anyway. I’ve got Christi’s camera with me, and if I see anything neat, I’ll be sure to post the pictures here!
Half Marathon Course Map
I’m not really looking forward to the next phase in my training. The taper. The taper is when I should taper off my training and not run as far, or as fast, or as often. This is what I’ll be doing for the last two weeks before the half-marathon. The goal of the taper is to rest up and give your muscles some recovery time before race day. The secondary goal of the taper is to keep you free from injury before the race!
I actually like running longer distances, tempo runs, and interval runs. Today, for instance, I got up and ran 10 miles at what I consider to be my race pace, about 9 minutes per mile. It was actually very nice, except for the wind blowing off the lake. Not that the wind was cold, that was actually refreshing, it’s that the wind was blowing so hard, I think it actually slowed me down a bit.
The longer distances are the times when I can usually just shut off my mind and run. No thinking required. It’s truly a moment of Zen for me. I pushed myself today, running at the 9 minute pace, but that was the only thing I thought about. I didn’t think about the project that didn’t go so well the night before at work, I didn’t think about the leaves I (still) need to clean up in the yard, and I didn’t think about how tired I was. I think that’s the beauty of the long runs for me. I get tired, but I don’t notice it until I stop running. This happens on shorter runs, too, but it’s amplified on the long runs. Doing long runs of 10 to 15 miles these last few weeks has actually led me to consider doing a full marathon next year.
The only fun I can have Monday through Friday (unless I work nights), when I have less time to run, is to do what are called tempo runs or to run intervals. Tempo runs are usually shorter distances that are run a little faster than your body naturally wants to. They are important, because they train your muscles to run faster for longer periods of time. I like tempo runs, but intervals are more fun for me. I’ll go out and run 3 minutes as fast as I can, then spend two minutes at a slower pace, whatever is comfortable, repeating the cycle for however long I have to run that day. I record some of my fastest times doing intervals, but I usually can’t go further than 4 miles. Of course, 4 miles is perfect during the week when I have less than an hour to run before work.
I’m still looking forward to the half-marathon, just not this taper thing. I wish I could keep doing long runs, tempo runs, and intervals right up to race day!
Monday morning, I set out to run and it was about 35 degrees outside. I’ve never run when it was that cold. I layered up with long pants, long sleeve tech shirt, sweat shirt and a stocking cap. I didn’t find any gloves the first time I looked, so I went out with bare hands. Big, I mean BIG, mistake. I made it about a half mile and made the decision to run on home. This was way too cold for running.
Tuesday morning, I decided to give it another try. It was, again, about 35 degrees, and I layered the same. This time, however, I found a pair of gloves! They were thin cotton stretchy gloves that I didn’t think would do much. Boy was I wrong.
Where Monday I had felt the cold on my face and my knuckles chill me all the way down to my toes, Tuesday was different. I no longer felt the cold on my knuckles, so this made the cold on my face seem not so bad. It was really amazing. Then, of course, about a mile into my run I started getting really warm and took the gloves and hat off. The rest of my 4 miles that day were a breeze.
I’m not sure why the gloves made me so much more comfortable, but they did. The sweatshirt was a little too warm by the time I finished running, so on Wednesday I just used an additional cotton t-shirt over my tech shirt. This allowed the tech shirt to wick away moisture and the t-shirt to hold some heat in. It’s a system that works perfectly for now. I probably won’t run too much in the cold weather once the half-marathon is over, but it’s nice to know I can. After the half-marathon, I’ll be supplementing my running workouts with exercises I can do on the floor of the living room quietly, without waking anyone at 5:00 in the morning!
