Notes
Today was a pretty good race. My time was 3.5 minutes faster than Palm Springs, which was 11 weeks ago. It is about 1.5 minutes off PR, but I was 30-ish pounds lighter for that race. I loved this course-beautiful run mostly along the ocean. No long boring stretches at all. There were 3 hills in the last 1/2 that completely broke me-the last of which I was well over 9 min/mile.
Training
my training has been good. I've been dropping some weight and doing a lot more harder runs. My overall mileage, though, isn't as high as I would have liked.
Taper
Much better than Palm Springs-I ran 2 more miles and did a very hard 2 mile tempo run on Monday. I also biked easy a few times, including yesterday for 15 minutes.
Pre Race
I didn't do much of a warm up. I'm not sure that really mattered. I like the format of point-to-point with shuttles to the start, rather than visa-versa, but I should have brought water with me. I couldn't take the pre race gel and started the race thirsty.
Race
I really let myself get carried away with pacing early. I was close to 7 min miles for a while. I did feel amazingly good during that stretch, though. Hip pain was mostly kept at bay until the later stages, and that wasn't anywhere near as bad as previous 1/2s. I took in more water than I've ever done-probably 5 stops, but I did not take any gels, which I think was a mistake. I should be taking one at around 8 miles, I think. My heart race was 7 beats higher (170 avg) than Palm Springs, which was great. I knew PS was too low-I had other limiting factors, which I guess I've improved upon.
Post Race
My legs are shot. I had a hard time even doing a warm down (so I didn't). I'll be taking a few days off from running and tri season officially begins tomorrow. Looking forward to getting some long rides and more swimming in. Though I may do the Brentwood 10k Memorial Day weekend-my first non tri 10k in FIVE years!
splits based on garmin's 13.15 calculation
1)7:19@176
7:00@164
7:06@169
5k=22:38/7:14 (official time)
7:20@171
7:02@168
6)7:16@170
6 miles=43:03=7:10 (garmin time)
7:25@170
7:26@172
7:17@172
10)7:28@172
10 miles=1:12:39=7:16 (garmin time)
7:33@171
7:37@172
7:21@174
.1=6:49@179