Notes
City of Lakes half marathon, 1:10:25, 8th
5:17, 5:15, 5:18, 5:17, 5:15, 5:15, 5:17, 5:27, 5:25, 5:29, 5:28, 5:25, 5:29
Well, definitely not what I was looking for out of this. Going in I thought I would be able to go sub-70 without any issue and obviously that didn't happen. Talking with Coach Ives we thought starting out at around 5:18-5:20 pace would be a good start, then either maintain or increase hte pace from there. Conditions were good, temps around 60 and a 6mph wind out of the north
Race started and we went up a couple hills in the 1st mile, but once we got through those I was able to settle in. We were running into the wind the first 4-ish miles, and I was running a little quicker than planned. Every time I saw a mile split I would tell myself, 'okay, lets run a 5:20 mile now' and every time I failed. It seemed like very time I tried to back the pace off I would back off way too much and find myself running above 5:25 pace. Once we started running south with the wind it was the same game, I kept trying to run a 5:20 mile and kept running too fast. The pace felt hard but felt manageable and like the correct effort level
The way the course it, you basically run two 6-7-ish mile loops. So just before mile 7 we crossed the start line again. Those 2 hills that were no problem at the start, I was now finding myself really slowing to get up them. I told myself that slowing on the hills was fine, as I would get back on pace once I got to the other side. The problem was, once I got over the hills that 6mph wind was straight in my face and I struggled to get the pace moving again. From there the race pretty much turned into a death march. There would be spurts where I felt like I would be getting the pace rolling again, but then I'd check my watch and see I was still running slow. Kept fighting with the hope that maybe once we turned south again with the wind I could finish with a couple fast miles, but just couldn't. Just ran as hard as I could to the finish. Somehow I only got passed by 1 guy in the last 6 miles
Nutrition wise, I took a regular Maurten gel about 10 mins before the race start. I was planning to take a Maurten caf gel at like 6 or 7, but when I was rolling along well I didn't want to deal with a gel at that point so didn't take it. Once the wheels started wobbling I took the caf gel at maybe 8.5 miles with the hope that the caffeine boost could help me, not sure if it really did. Generally I haven't taken any nutrition in past halves, just was planning today to practice for the marathon
Not too encouraging of a result this morning. I felt so good the first 7 miles, but obviously I should have run more conservatively. Once I started slowing, the pace felt slow on my legs but they just felt like they had no power to maintain a hard pace anymore. The last few nights of sleep my RHR has been hanging around 50, when usually its under 45, so that might be something that could have contributed to a poor effort today. Looking back at my first race last fall, I ran 53:34 at Capital Pursuit for 10 miles which was 5:21 pace. So I guess when comparing to that effort today was better running a similar pace for a half vs 10M. Kinda thought after all the racing I did in July I would have been a little stronger today but maybe just needed to break the rust off again. I've also not had really any of those 'easy' long runs where I get after it and run a semi-hard pace for a long period of time, so maybe that could also contribute to not being able to run strong for the full half marathon. Idk, trying to justify this poor performance but feel like I might be just making excuses
7 weeks to Indy, 12 to CIM. We'll see where things go from here. If I don't think I can break 2:20 at Indy then might opt to do the half there and get 5 more weeks of training before going for a full marathon