Austin Half Marathon

I have posted anything here in quite a while, but I thought I would do a quick race report for the Austin Half Marathon.

After CIM this past December and dealing with injuries I'm still training with Team Rogue, but I'm giving myself a break from marathons and doing a few half marathons this Spring. I'm also focusing on my nutrition and strengthening to hopefully help some of the injury problems I've had and help me get to the weight I want to be at.

I raced the half marathon today. I was hoping to break 2 hours or at least PR. I didn't quite PR (24 seconds off), but my PR was from 3M last year (2:01:22). The Austin half course is just so much harder especially after you turn away from the marathon course and head down Enfield/15th. I still gave it everything I had today and took some good pointers away from this that should help me in Nashville. The first was just learning what it feels like to truly race a half marathon. Every half marathon I've run in the past has been during marathon training where I wasn't supposed to run it all out. The second thing I learned is I need to work on being efficient in the water stops. I've never really tried folding the cup to drink the water. I normally just slow down enough to drink the water, but I realized how much time and energy that cost me today (and a little at CIM). So, now I have my baseline and 10 weeks to work on getting faster for the Nashville Half.

The best part of today for me was watching my mom run her first marathon. Daniel and I drove out along the course right after I finished the half. I was really worried because her training had lacked a bit, and she had been injured the last month. We saw her at miles 16 and 22, and she looked pretty strong both places. She pulled it out and ran a 5:33.

Perfect Hill Run

After a hot summer it sure is nice when the first "cold" front comes through. It wasn't really cold, but it was pretty pleasant. I started out the run with Dee and Priscilla, but I didn't stay with them because I knew we would end up spreading out during the hill workout anyway. At the beginning of the run my legs felt a little stiff despite rolling at home before leaving for the workout (probably due to being stupid and wearing shoes with a small 1" wedge at work). Fortunately they loosened up pretty quickly on the warm up.

The workout was five ~.8 mile loops that include some nice gentle downhill, steep downhill, and then steep uphill. Before starting Killer told me not to stop between each of the loops unless I really needed water. When we ran this a couple weeks ago I think I stopped after every loop but the first (it was also much warmer outside that time). So, I made my goal to stop after the 3rd and last loops. I did just that and still managed to keep my paces pretty close to the same:

Loop 1: 9:55 pace
Loop 2: 10:11 pace
Loop 3: 10:12 pace
Loop 4: 9:57 pace
Loop 5: 10:06 pace

Afterwards I was going to run back with Dee and Priscilla, but Cecillia was heading back and didn't seem completely sure of the route so I decided to run with her.

Busy Day

So last night Daniel and I went over to my mom's house for dinner because my step-grandmother was in town from Houston. My mom mentioned that she was going to run Sunday morning at 7:00. I normally I try to let myself sleep a little later on Sunday since the run is pretty short, but I thought it would be good to run when it's still cool outside and also get to run with my mom.

This morning when my alarm went off I really didn't want to get up, but I couldn't really back out at that point so I got up. Daniel was going to run too, but he chose to stay in bed. I met my mom and her running group out at the Brushy Creek Trail. They were running 8 miles, and I was only joining them for 4 miles. It was relatively cool outside, and it was nice getting to run with my mom. Unfortunately I think I may have been pulling them a little faster than they wanted to go so I tried to slow down some. I have a tendency to run my recovery and easy runs too fast so that was probably good for me.

The best thing about getting the run over with earlier is that left me lots of time to get things done. I got my grocery shopping over with in the morning before it got too busy. I got some of my normal chores at home done, and I worked more on organizing the home office. Daniel and I even got a small home project mostly done. We installed some knobs on our kitchen cabinets! We still have the drawers left to do, but that won't take too long.

Mount Bonnell Take Two

Last night I was pretty worried that we were going to end up getting some storms this morning or that it would start out okay and then storm part way through the run. Fortunately when I got up this morning I read the post on Rogue's site and saw that the rain chances had gone down to 30% for Austin. I felt much better, and the weather turned out to be great here.

This was our second time for this training program to do Mount Bonnell. The first time I was dealing with a few different pains and didn't really have a very good run. (I walked large parts of the hill last time.) Today's run was so much better.

I ran most of the run with Dee and Priscilla which is always entertaining. At the beginning of the run I was feeling pretty low energy so listening to Priscilla's story from the night before was a nice distraction. In the first couple miles I realized that I really needed to make a pit stop, but it was so dark out still that I didn't want to end up running by myself after stopping. Fortunately Dee said they could wait for me at the water stop under Mopac so I picked up my pace a little so they wouldn't have to wait as long.

I felt pretty low in energy all the way to 35th Street, and I started wondering how I was going to make it up Mount Bonnell without walking. Fortunately I somehow managed to find the energy. Perhaps it was watching Dee climb seemingly effortlessly, or maybe I just wanted to prove to myself that I could still do it. As I was going up I kept thinking about using my arms and my quads to get me up the hill. I made it to the top and saw coaches Killer and Steve. That was a nice surprise. I sure do love seeing coaches at the water stops. We talked for a few minutes and then went down the other side of Mount Bonnell which I don't think I've done in a couple years. For some reason coming back up doesn't feel as long as it is going down. Part way up the hill I ended up getting up in front of Dee and Priscilla just a bit, and Steve drove past me at one point yelling to "Drop them". I thought that was more funny than anything. All I really cared about was getting up the hill (preferably without walking) and still having someone to run with for most of the run. Once again we made it up to the top and saw Killer there.

The rest of the run was pretty easy in comparison. After Mount Bonnell, Scenic is nothing. We were supposed to pick up the pace to around MGP after Scenic, and I started picking up my pace. I think I was going a little faster than my MGP but not much. Then Dee and Priscilla managed to drop me for a little while, but we all regrouped briefly at the last water stop under Mopac. Dee and Priscilla decided to finish the run a little easier, but I kept going at a faster pace.

It really was a great run. We finished up talking with Steve some and with a soak in Barton Springs. Next up: Soul Buster #1

4 Mile "Tempo" Run

So, this run was supposed to be a tempo run. For some reason I don't remember tempo runs being this hard, but I also don't remember shooting for a sub-9:00 minute pace. I guess it was still pretty hot out also. Overall I'm pretty happy that I came close to hitting my times because it sounds like very few actually did. Dee, Priscilla, and I did our 2 mile warm-up together and then started on the 4 mile loop. I don't think I was really warmed up after 2 miles because I actually managed to get faster as I went despite the last mile including a gradual climb up Greenlawn.

Goal: Run 4 miles at 8:52-9:02

Mile 1: 9:11
Mile 2: 9:02
Mile 3: 9:00
Mile 4: 8:52

I guess I did some nice progressive pace splits. :)

4 Mile "Easy" Run

I'm trying to get caught back up on my blog. I seem to have very little time during the week to post here. So, I was supposed to do a 4 mile easy run. I ended up having to work later than planned and stop by the grocery store on my way home so my time for running was very limited. To save time I just did a little loop in my neighborhood. I also ended up running harder than I probably should have just so I could get it done and have some time to spend with Daniel. I suppose I should do a better job of planning for the easy runs like I do for the others.

Hills and good company

Tonight we did "rollers" near Anderson High School. With the exception of the ones on Adirondack I'm not sure I would really call them rollers. I still had a very nice run. A couple of the hills were tough, but I was enjoying running with Mary tonight. We both got to complain about our stresses and talk about our training and other random things.

On the first out and back we decided near the turn around point that we needed to make a pit stop. I remembered Lori mentioning the the Holiday Inn had an easily accessible restroom. We went in the front lobby and walked right past the front desk attendant to the restrooms, and then afterwards we decided to find a way out that wasn't past the same attendant. We ended up going down a long hallway that led to a door to get out that fortunately did not set off an alarm and led to the outside rather than some courtyard.

I was feeling really good tonight and probably could have pushed little harder. Mary told me to go on ahead a couple times, but I was enjoying the company.