Thursday, January 19, 2012
What's next?
I've gone from being a non-runner (okay, non-active at all) to having completed two half marathons in the past year. I need to figure out what my next goal is going to be so I don't slip back into a sedentary lifestyle. I definitely want to do the 100 pushup challenge, but I'm thinking of finding a sprint distance triathlon to do and start training for that. A sprint distance is a half mile swim, 12 mile bike ride, and a 5K run. I think the swimming would be the hardest part for me because I'm just not a good swimmer. Although my husband wasn't either and then he did the Alcatraz Shark Swim, so I'm sure I could prepare for it. My friend Dani did a sprint tri awhile back and gave me the website she used to find it. They have one at the end of April I'm thinking maybe I'll sign up for once more info is available about it. And after I research training plans to make sure I give myself enough time.
Monday, January 16, 2012
Second half marathon - done!
Way back in May when I was just barely starting to train for the Disneyland Half Marathon I went ahead and registered for the Rock and Roll Half Marathon. I think there was a coupon code for discounted registration. I don't know why else I would have done it since I still wasn't 100% sold on running at that point I don't think. But after actually starting to enjoy running and how I loved running the Disneyland Half, I was glad I had signed up. The husband actually signed up, too, so we could run together. It was his first half marathon.
The race was yesterday. I was excited about it but nervous because I really didn't feel like I'd been training enough leading up to it. I'd done all the long runs, but I had really slacked on the shorter runs during the week. Like REALLY slacked. I had the mindset that since I'd already done one half, surely I could easily do another. I wasn't entirely wrong, but I probably could have trained a little harder.
My previous half marathon time was 2:45. I really wanted to come in on this one at 2:30. The husband and I had been averaging an 11:30 pace on long runs which would just about put us there (we'd need to do 11:27 the whole time to get a 2:30 finish). We started off really strong, varying between 10:00 and 10:30 but maintaining close to a 10:30 pace. I felt great! I fell into the pace easily, my breathing was good, it was a GREAT morning for a run--not too cold, mostly overcast, wide open streets so runners weren't all smashed together. We had driven the route the day before so I knew where the turns were and how far we had on each straightaway and all that.
I felt great until about halfway through the race when my left calf muscle started to cramp. The right one soon followed. I thought maybe I could run through it and just kept going. Nope, it wasn't going away. There was a Gu stop at 7.7 miles, so I walked through that and then decided to stop for a second and stretch my calves. That helped initially but not long after the cramping was back. I stopped again at some point between miles 9 and 10 to stretch it some more. The whole time I was thinking, "I ran every step of my last half while suffering from strep throat and now I'm having to walk and full on stop because of a stupid cramp?!" I wasn't happy about it, but it HURT. The last three miles of the race were all literally downhill. It had been a gradual incline leading up to that which might have been part of the problem. I hate gradual inclines--I'd much rather power up a noticeable hill than go 1-2 miles where the elevation is just slightly increasing the whole way. Anyway, I tried to enjoy the downhill and let gravity do it's thing and help speed me along. We were still under our pace target at this point, with about 2 minutes cushion built in, so I was feeling pretty confident that we'd finish in 2:30. Then I started getting charlie horse cramps in my calves. I almost full on fell at one point from one of them. It was not cool. So, more walking. My awesome, sweet, wonderful husband stayed with me the whole time, too. I told him to go on ahead because I wanted to make sure he finished in the time we wanted to, I really didn't want to slow him down. Do you know what he said? He told me he'd carry me if he had to. I love him so much.
Right after the marker for Mile 12 there was a bridge. The husband said let's at least run across the bridge and see how it goes from there. I made it most of the way across before I had to walk again because the pain in my legs was AWFUL. By that point we had less than a mile to go. I walked a little and then forced myself to keep running the rest of the way. I knew with all the walking we were going to be cutting it close to hitting our 2:30 goal. I tried to reassure myself by saying that no matter what, at that point I was going to finish with a PR because I would finish before 2:45. It helped a little, but I really wanted my husband to hit his goal. I knew once Sun Devil Stadium came into view that we were in the home stretch. I knew I could make it at that point, and even though it hurt like, well, I can't really say because I think my mom reads this and she would not approve of the word I'm thinking of, and I wanted to walk I kept going. My dumb Nike run tracking app somehow was ahead on the mileage, so it said I was done when I still had something like 0.2 miles left to go. Not cool, man. Not cool. It was a glorious sight when the finish line came into view. We past my BFF's husband waiting in the crowd and gave him a high five. We were cutting it super close to hitting 2:30. Under normal circumstances, I would have sprinted for the finish but as I was struggling to move at that point, I knew that wasn't going to happen. When I stopped my Nike app, it said my time was 2:31. So close!! At that point I was just glad to be done and not have to run anymore. My calf muscles were screaming.
By the time we got home from the race (after all the post-race stuff and going to lunch), the official times had been posted. Mine was 2:30:55 and the husband's was 2:30:56. He's a little butt hurt that his was somehow one second more, but we're both rounding down the time to be 2:30. So not only did I get a new PR and shatter my old one my 15 minutes (18 minutes if I go by my official race time from Disney, which included two bathroom stops), I did it with cramped up legs.
I still have no idea what caused the leg cramps, and I haven't had a chance to research it really to see what it could have been from. My form wasn't any different, I wasn't wearing new shoes (I wasn't wearing new anything!). I don't know. It's especially weird because in all the runs I have ever done, I have never had an issue with cramps of any kind. I'm hoping my next half goes off without any hitches--no sickness, no pain, no cramps. It would be nice to just have a normal run!!
The race was yesterday. I was excited about it but nervous because I really didn't feel like I'd been training enough leading up to it. I'd done all the long runs, but I had really slacked on the shorter runs during the week. Like REALLY slacked. I had the mindset that since I'd already done one half, surely I could easily do another. I wasn't entirely wrong, but I probably could have trained a little harder.
My previous half marathon time was 2:45. I really wanted to come in on this one at 2:30. The husband and I had been averaging an 11:30 pace on long runs which would just about put us there (we'd need to do 11:27 the whole time to get a 2:30 finish). We started off really strong, varying between 10:00 and 10:30 but maintaining close to a 10:30 pace. I felt great! I fell into the pace easily, my breathing was good, it was a GREAT morning for a run--not too cold, mostly overcast, wide open streets so runners weren't all smashed together. We had driven the route the day before so I knew where the turns were and how far we had on each straightaway and all that.
I felt great until about halfway through the race when my left calf muscle started to cramp. The right one soon followed. I thought maybe I could run through it and just kept going. Nope, it wasn't going away. There was a Gu stop at 7.7 miles, so I walked through that and then decided to stop for a second and stretch my calves. That helped initially but not long after the cramping was back. I stopped again at some point between miles 9 and 10 to stretch it some more. The whole time I was thinking, "I ran every step of my last half while suffering from strep throat and now I'm having to walk and full on stop because of a stupid cramp?!" I wasn't happy about it, but it HURT. The last three miles of the race were all literally downhill. It had been a gradual incline leading up to that which might have been part of the problem. I hate gradual inclines--I'd much rather power up a noticeable hill than go 1-2 miles where the elevation is just slightly increasing the whole way. Anyway, I tried to enjoy the downhill and let gravity do it's thing and help speed me along. We were still under our pace target at this point, with about 2 minutes cushion built in, so I was feeling pretty confident that we'd finish in 2:30. Then I started getting charlie horse cramps in my calves. I almost full on fell at one point from one of them. It was not cool. So, more walking. My awesome, sweet, wonderful husband stayed with me the whole time, too. I told him to go on ahead because I wanted to make sure he finished in the time we wanted to, I really didn't want to slow him down. Do you know what he said? He told me he'd carry me if he had to. I love him so much.
Right after the marker for Mile 12 there was a bridge. The husband said let's at least run across the bridge and see how it goes from there. I made it most of the way across before I had to walk again because the pain in my legs was AWFUL. By that point we had less than a mile to go. I walked a little and then forced myself to keep running the rest of the way. I knew with all the walking we were going to be cutting it close to hitting our 2:30 goal. I tried to reassure myself by saying that no matter what, at that point I was going to finish with a PR because I would finish before 2:45. It helped a little, but I really wanted my husband to hit his goal. I knew once Sun Devil Stadium came into view that we were in the home stretch. I knew I could make it at that point, and even though it hurt like, well, I can't really say because I think my mom reads this and she would not approve of the word I'm thinking of, and I wanted to walk I kept going. My dumb Nike run tracking app somehow was ahead on the mileage, so it said I was done when I still had something like 0.2 miles left to go. Not cool, man. Not cool. It was a glorious sight when the finish line came into view. We past my BFF's husband waiting in the crowd and gave him a high five. We were cutting it super close to hitting 2:30. Under normal circumstances, I would have sprinted for the finish but as I was struggling to move at that point, I knew that wasn't going to happen. When I stopped my Nike app, it said my time was 2:31. So close!! At that point I was just glad to be done and not have to run anymore. My calf muscles were screaming.
By the time we got home from the race (after all the post-race stuff and going to lunch), the official times had been posted. Mine was 2:30:55 and the husband's was 2:30:56. He's a little butt hurt that his was somehow one second more, but we're both rounding down the time to be 2:30. So not only did I get a new PR and shatter my old one my 15 minutes (18 minutes if I go by my official race time from Disney, which included two bathroom stops), I did it with cramped up legs.
I still have no idea what caused the leg cramps, and I haven't had a chance to research it really to see what it could have been from. My form wasn't any different, I wasn't wearing new shoes (I wasn't wearing new anything!). I don't know. It's especially weird because in all the runs I have ever done, I have never had an issue with cramps of any kind. I'm hoping my next half goes off without any hitches--no sickness, no pain, no cramps. It would be nice to just have a normal run!!
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