Officially in the Third Trimester! EEEEK!

Christmas day marked 27 weeks into my pregnancy. A few days prior to that the app I've been using mentioned that I was officially in the THIRD trimester. CRAZY! Time is flying by and there's still quite a bit to do.

Weeks 26 and 27 have  been pretty good to me. The biggest issue is that I messed up my right foot a bit. I've got some serious tendonitis and possible bone bruising on the inside of the foot, right below the ankle. It's most likely from the added weight and old shoes. I quickly got a pair of new nimbus trainers and took a few days off like the head trainer at Trinity prescribed. I also got the pregnancy belt I've been meaning to get which is helping to support my lower back and belly while running.

The belt...stylin!

Unfortunately I came back a day or two too soon and the tendonitis is still giving me problems. So I'll be a little wiser this week and take a few more days off. I've added some body pump classes at the gym along with some cross training. I'm modifying weights and activities during the body bump classes to accommodate the pregnancy. I think Nugs is enjoying them. She gives me quite a few kicks on the way home from class. I'm still keeping up with core and myrtl exercises to help with all the loosening of muscles/ligaments/etc. 

I've now put on nearly 20 lbs since the beginning, still in the healthy/normal range. I've been sleeping a little better these last few weeks compared to 24-25. I'm still getting up to use the bathroom 1-2 times. I'll also get a little nudge from Jer if I'm sleeping on my back, but I can get to sleep pretty quick after that. 

Until next time, I'll leave you with some more bump photos!

26 Weeks + Dex

26 Weeks

27 Weeks

27 Weeks

25 Weeks with Nugs!

Nugs is officially 25 weeks old today! She is doing phenomenal, as far as we can tell. All of the tests we’ve done so far have declared her a healthy baby. She is still a kicking fiend. I think the dogs are starting to sense a change too. Dex, who only sleeps in our room once or twice a week, is now not only sleeping in our bed, but cuddled right up next to me.

I’m trying to enjoy the “honeymoon” trimester as much as I possibly can, especially since it’s almost over. I’ve been getting in roughly half an hour of cardio work a day, pretty much alternating days between running and ellipticaling. I’ll have to stop half way through and take a potty break of course. I’ve ordered a running belt so that should hopefully help alleviate a lot of the discomfort I’ve been having towards the ends of my runs. I’ve also been incorporating a little more strength work recently.

I’ve gained roughly 17 pounds since getting pregnant, which is right in the normal range being this far along. The only complaint is about once every two-three nights I’ll get up at 2:00am or 3:00am and have the hardest time falling back asleep. It’ll take a few hours. Other than that things have been going pretty smooth. 

I also made my first maternity clothes purchase! It was definitely time. Got some leggings, a belly band to keep my jeans up, and some larger tops (two of them overpriced maternity specific ones). I’m going to be honest, I HATE shopping, so when I say “it was time” it means it was actually time a few weeks ago.

Here’s the growing baby bump!

24 Weeks 

25 Weeks

25 Weeks

Making a Daum Family

The summer of 2014 will forever go down as the most memorable for me. It was filled with tons of fun with friends and family, travels, getting my dream job, and arguably the most significant event...getting pregnant!

Just a few short weeks after getting offered the head cross country coach position Jer and I found out we were expecting our first kiddo. Baby Daum is scheduled to arrive March 26, 2015!

I started feeling awful on my runs late in the summer. My body was working overtime. Trying to go 7:40 pace for an easy run seemed like a hard workout or even an all out race effort depending on the day. To add to my easy runs feeling absolutely miserable, I got struck with a bad case of morning sickness. Once I realized it was due to pregnancy I pulled back on the training. Feeling the worst I’ve ever felt on easy runs alone, along with the constant fear of miscarriage, I decided I’d wise up and take it easy; at least until I made it out of the first trimester and started feeling a little better.

The morning sickness, or constant all day sickness as it ended up being, went away after 10 weeks. By this point the easy run pace went from 9:00min/mile pace down to 8:30’s and even low 8:00’s on the good days. Fast forward another 13 weeks and I am 23 weeks pregnant! I’m still feeling pretty exhausted in the afternoons and the past four weeks my lower abdomen has been painfully sore from the expanding ligaments. I was running in the mid 20’s for mileage, but it’s been a little lower recently. I’ve been good about getting in core and I’ll ride the bike with Jer on some of his afternoon runs, but I think the notion of me getting in 40-50 miles a week (roughly half the mileage I had been doing) like I originally thought I’d be able to do is out the window. I know a lot of women out there who can do it, but having gone through the first half of this pregnancy I wholeheartedly believe that everyone is going to be different along with every pregnancy being different. I just have to do what feels the best for my body, even if that changes on a daily basis. A few days ago I was able to get in 5.5miles at sub 8 pace, but then the next day I couldn’t take more than three steps at the start of the run because my lower abdomen ached so bad I literally couldn’t go any farther. Hopefully the next go around I’ll be able to get in a little more running as I do miss it a ton!!

There have been some positives with this pregnancy though, even if i can’t train like I hoped. At around 16 weeks I was able to feel Nugs (short for Nugget) kick for the first time. I can’t begin to describe how incredible of a feeling it is was. Nugs has only gotten stronger with each passing day and Jer was even able to feel a kick during week 17! Now at 23 weeks it’s like Nugs is trying to get out! The kicks are so strong and I feel multiple ones at the same time. It is absolutely the most amazing feeling in the world.

My apologies for the long winded post, but for those that have managed to get to this part of it I’ll tell you that we found out a few weeks ago we’re having a baby girl! We’re working on a name. So far we have Something Something Daum. I know, a ton of progress, but we’re trying! Jer is pretty excited about the gender. It’s actually pretty funny because for years Jer vowed he would NEVER have a girl, mainly because he only has brothers and said he would have no idea how to raise one. Maybe he changed his mind once he realized she will probably end up being daddy’s girl.

Jer has been the absolute best since day one of finding out we were expecting. I’m so very lucky. I think I’ve also beaten most of the stereotypes (so far) too. I already had super weird food cravings before, so that really hasn’t changed. I honestly think I’ve gotten less moody since getting pregnant....too tired to complain maybe? Or maybe it’s finally sinking in how fortunate I’ve been to have such a wonderful partner in my life. I do miss coffee a bunch, but hot chocolate and decaf have helped. I’m not going to lie, I do miss my margaritas and cucumber saketini’s too, but lime slushes and putting lime on half of my meals has been a surprisingly effective replacement. Oh, also Jimmy John’s! I used to get the Vito once every two weeks, but you’re supposed to heat up deli meat before eating it (listeria is a big concern for pregnant peeps), and when I did heat up the meat it tasted NOTHING like the sandwich I’m used to getting. Oh wellsies. Small prices to pay to say the least.

Anyways, that’s the update on our biggest life event to date. I’m going to attempt to do better about updating bimonthly on how Nugs and I are doing. Until then, happy running to those that can :)

Here are some progression photos of the bump thus far! 

~17 weeks

~18 weeks

~20 weeks

~22 weeks

~23 Weeks

Summer of 2014 and the Beginning of Something Wonderful

So again, Jer and I have been awful about keeping this blog updated on our running lives unfortunately. So I’ll do a quick recap on what we had going on this summer and the new and exciting adventure we’ve got going on.

So late spring/early summer our goal race was the San Diego Rock n’ Roll half. It was just a few days after our three year wedding anniversary and we thought it would be a fun mini getaway. I eventually got my training up into the 80’s with some decent workouts. Since winter didn’t go great, I wasn’t trying to set my sights on an unreasonable goal. We thought 1:20 would be a decent time to shoot for. Unfortunately, I didn’t do much research for San Diego weather and it’s allergens. I’ve been taking allergy meds and getting allergy shots for quite some time for my allergy induced asthma, and unfortunately the shots only work for San Antonio allergies. Needless to say, even with giving it my all from start to finish I could only manage a 1:21:11, a measly 6:11 pace per mile. Jer performed better than me, but still disappointing races to say the least. We sulked for a little bit and then decided to enjoy the rest of our time in San Diego.

Post half, I took a few days off and then I was able to get in some decent summer training in order to not embarrass myself for the few summer races I was able to participate in. 

Jer and I took two big vacations over the summer. The first, to Gunnison Colorado, with a great group of friends. The weather there was absolutely gorgeous and we even got to meet up with my old college coach who was coaching a summer group. We piled six people and three dogs into my Hyndaui Veracruz. Let’s just say it made for a very entertaining road trip!

A little over a week later we went to Hawaii for the first time ever to celebrate my Uncle Joe’s retirement from the Air Force. We had a good time visiting with relatives, however the running there was not super ideal when we were down in Waikiki.

On top of having a few great vacations, we also had some dear friends tie the knot! I got to be matron of honor in my MT's gorgeous wedding!

The other, was Jer's college roommate and our cross country teammate Brad Robinson. He lives out in California now, but they got married right here in San Antonio.

 

In late July our lives were quickly came to a dramatic change when we found out that the head cross country coach at Trinity resigned to take another job up north. I was soon offered the head position at my alma mater. Jer and I were over the moon with this once in a lifetime opportunity. Jer luckily accepted the position as a volunteer assistant coach for the team and I was able to hire a full-time assistant just in time for the season to start. I am so excited to start this wonderful journey, doing what I love, at the institution that I love!

3/23 to 4/5 (10 and 9 weeks to go)

My goal race for this spring/summer is the San Diego Rock and Roll Half Marathon on June 1st, which means today marks 8 weeks to go. I always struggle with hard training if I don't have a target that I'm training for, so this helps a great deal with that problem, but on the other hand there's not a whole lot of time left, which is frightening. Thankfully training has been coming along well, but it's hard to not wish you were in just a little bit better shape than you are, or had a couple weeks more to get there. Since I have yet to gain the ability to slow time down, here is what I've done the last two weeks.

Sunday 3/23: 12 miles (AM) and 6 miles (PM) at 7:40 and 7:30 pace

Monday 3/24: 5 miles (AM) at 8:00 pace. Ended up working late, so not a very good day of training. Normally I would soldier through with a second run at 9pm or later, but I just didn't have it in me today. LAZY LAZY LAZY.

Tuesday: 3/25: Workout in the AM: 22 min warmup, 8x1600 on the track with 400 up-tempo recoveries in 5:13, 5:10, 5:10, 5:07, 5:06, 5:06, 5:09, 5:02. Recoveries were all between 1:36 and 1:38. Overall time was 54:04 for 16k, or 5:26 per mile. I took advantage of my laziness yesterday (and therefore how rested I was today) to get a good effort in. 10 min cooldown.

Wednesday 3/26: 6.5 miles (AM) and 6.5 miles (PM) at 7:40 and 7:50 pace

Thursday 3/27: 5.5 miles (AM) and 9.5 miles (PM) at 7:40 pace for both.

Friday 3/28: 8 miles (AM) at 7:45 pace, PM workout: 2x(3/2/1 min fartlek w/ 2 min recovery) - total of 4 miles in 22:42 - then 1.5 miles easy home before 8x short hill sprints by the house. Relatively shallow hill but I got a good effort in, which was a happy end to a long day. Total 16.7 miles for the day.

Saturday 3/29: 8.2 miles (AM) and 5.6 miles (PM) at 7:45 pace for both. Getting ready to race the next day.

Weekly Total: 100.6 miles, only 15ish miles of quality, but given that it was a longer work week, I'm pretty happy with how things went. Race on Sunday also cut down the amount of quality I wanted to get in. Tuesday's workout was among my best ever, so that's something at least.

Sunday 3/30: Race in the AM - Texas 10 mile series in Boerne. What would have been a relatively moderate effort was turned abruptly on its head when I saw Moses Luevano warming up prerace - knew at that point it was either give up completely or get ready to go to the well. Luckily I felt great during the race and was able to get away from Moses after 3-4 miles, but even then it wasn't a cakewalk, as he kept pressing throughout. Time was 52:57, which is not bad at all given my 10 mile PR is 52:37, but then again during my half PR I hit 10 miles in 51:51. Good step in the right direction regardless, and good to take advantage of a perfect weather day. No 2nd run due to laziness/helping some friends move. 

Monday 3/31: 7.3 miles (AM) and 7.3 miles (PM) at 7:30 pace and 7:10 pace.

Tuesday 4/1: 8.35 miles (AM) and 5.1 miles (PM) at 7:55 pace

Wednesday 4/2: 20 minute warmup, 8k tempo in 26:34 (5:20/mi pace), 600 jog, 1k in 2:58, 600 jog, then 4x400 in 71, 68, 67, 67 w/ 400 recovery in 1:55ish each. Goal was 3x1k at sub 3, but I just wasn't recovered enough from the race, plus the weather was total shit with high temps and humidity, so I altered the workout after the 1st 1k.12+ minute cooldown.

Thursday 4/3: 9.3 miles (AM) and 5.9 miles (PM) at 7:50 pace. Felt terrible.

Friday 4/4: 10.15 miles (AM) and 5.1 miles (PM) at 7:45 and 7:25 pace.

Saturday 4/5: 20 minute warmup, 4 miles, 3 miles, 2 miles , 1 mile with 1 mile moderate paced recovery. Workout went 5:23, 5:22, 5:20, 5:18 (21:25), 6:04, 5:23, 5:17, 5:21 (16:03), 6:06, 5:13, 5:18 (10:32), 5:50, 4:54 (total 1:10:55, 5:27 pace). 1 mile cooldown in 7:50. Very very happy with the last mile in sub 5, it's downhill but today it happened to be into the wind as well, so that was very gratifying. The 3m and 2m repeats were very tough though, still some work to be done getting my fitness to where I can hit low 5:20s for 10+ miles without stuggling mightily.

Weekly Total: 106 miles, 31+ miles of quality, including a solid race. Very happy with how this week turned out. Wednesday's workout was a bit of a struggle but I had half expected that given that I ended up going hard on Sunday. Today's (Saturday's) workout was genuinely great - I felt awesome running low/sub 5:20 pace on a moderately hilly course. 8 weeks to go until game time. Happy training everyone!

Jer Training 3/16 to 3/22

Now that I finally feel like I'm back in the swing of things,  I guess it's relevant to talk about what it is I'm actually training for. The major highlights look something like this:

- 4/12: Incarnate Word 5k (Track)

- 4/26: Rice 5k (Track)

- 6/1: San Diego Rock and Roll Half Marathon

I'll do a few other races in between, but those are the events that I'm really focused on this spring. Since I'm coming off a very good marathon, my endurance has been solid so far, so my goal in training has been to maintain that fitness while slowly getting back to at least some moderate level of speed. It's not something that comes naturally to me, but I'm working at it, and thankfully I have another month before the Rice 5k, when I really need to be in sub 15 minute 5k shape again. The bigger goal is to get under 68 minutes for the half, which will give me more confidence to shoot for another marathon PR in the fall or winter. Anyway, here it is:

Sunday 3/16: 11.5 miles (AM) and 4.6 miles (PM) at 7:45 pace and 7:20 pace

Monday 3/17: 12 miles (AM) and 4.6 miles (PM) at 7:40 pace and 7:20 pace

Tuesday 3/18: 5 miles at 7:55 pace (AM), PM Workout - 8 mile tempo on the track (technically 12.8k) in 42:39, or 5:21 per mile. 1600 splits were: 5:19, 5:21, 5:20, 5:20, 5:19, 5:20, 5:22, 5:17. Afterwards did 6x100m sprints up a shallow hill near the track. Total 12+ miles for the evening.

Wednesday 3/19: 9 miles (AM) and 4.85 miles (PM) at 7:45 and 7:15 pace

Thursday 3/20: 7.3 miles (AM) and 6.1 miles (PM) at 7:45 and 7:30 pace

Friday 3/21: 6 miles at 7:35 pace in the AM, PM Workout - 10x alternating 1ks (fast/medium continuous) at 3:06.1, (3:37), 3:04.9, (3:36), 3:05.8, (3:40), 3:05.5, (3:40), 3:07.0, (3:38) for a total of 10k in 33:42, or 5:25 pace. Afterwards did 4x200 with the first 100m at 5k pace, then into an all out sprint the 2nd 100m. Those were 33, 33, 33, 32 with the first 100s being 18s and the 2nd being 14 high. I should note it was a windy night on the track, which slowed the 1ks down a bit but gave massive assistance to the 200s, which I cleverly did with the wind. 

Saturday 3/22: 10 miles (AM) and 6 miles (PM) at 7:25 and 7:30 pace

Weekly Total: 110 miles, roughly 15 miles of quality

I've been sticking with a pattern of hard, easy, easy for the past couple weeks and it seems to be working out well. Both of these workouts were extremely solid, maybe not quite as fast as I would've been this time last year, but I also didn't peak for a January marathon last year. I'm feeling much more confident that I'm on track to run fast in the mid April to early June time frame. And more importantly I'm having fun doing the workouts and mileage, which was something of a struggle a couple weeks ago. Happy training everyone.

Double training post (3/2/2014 to 3/15/2014)

Sunday 3/2: Workout - 2 mile warmup, 10 mile tempo in 54:51 (Splits: 5:34, 5:34, 5:36, 5:26, 5:33, 5:29, 5:30, 5:35, 5:23, 5:07), 1.5 mile cooldown. 4.6 miles at 7:30 pace in the evening.

Monday 3/3: 8.6 miles (PM) at 7:20 pace

Tuesday 3/4: 6.2 miles (AM) and 6.05 miles (PM) at 7:30 and 7:50 pace

Wednesday 3/5: Workout - 20 minute warmup, 4 mile tempo in 21:28 (5:23, 5:21, 5:23, 5:20), 5 min jog, then 2x(5x400 w/ 100 rec), 400 btw sets in 74.3, (30), 70.3, (30), 71.3, (29), 71.8, (30), 71.8 (1:58) 71.8, (29), 71.3, (29), 71.8, (30), 72.2, (29), 71.6. And yes, that is the format from Once a Runner, and yes I only did 10 instead of 60. Sue me.

Thursday 3/6: 8.6 miles (AM) and 6 miles (PM) at 7:25 and 7:20 pace

Friday 3/7: 8 miles (AM) and 5.3 miles (PM) at 7:25 and 7:45 pace

Saturday 3/8: Race - Bayou City Classic 10k in Houston. Got 2nd to Sammy Kiplagat in 32:22. The race was very odd - I got 4th last year (top 3 get some money) with a 31:30, but this year I was at or near the front from the gun. In terms of decisions, I knew I had no chance against Sammy, so the best strategy was to push the pace and ensure I got away from everyone else. It went just about according to plan, as by 5ish miles (when Sammy finally passed me) I had a good 45 seconds on everyone else. 5 mile double at 8 minute pace in the evening.

Weekly Total: 94 miles total, 24-25 miles of quality. Nearly a great week of training, but through a combo of working late a couple days and just plain old laziness I missed a couple runs, so it was just a very good week of training. The quality was all there, which is the important thing.

Sunday 3/9: 8 miles (AM) and 5.4 miles (PM) at 7:55 and 7:15 pace

Monday 3/10: 11.4 miles (AM) and 4.7 miles (PM) at 7:20 pace for both

Tuesday 3/11: 8.6 miles (AM) and 6 miles (PM) at 7:30 and 7:10 pace (plus 4x 20 second pickups in the PM)

Wednesday 3/12: Workout - 2 mile warmup, 14 miles of 5 minutes on, 5 minutes off fartlek averaging 5:37 pace overall. Really this was supposed to be a long tempo, but it was windy out and (little secret) I find it easier to not stress about pace in bad conditions if I'm doing a fartlek format. 4 miles in the evening at 7:40 pace.

Thursday 3/13: 6.5 miles (AM) and 6 miles (PM) at 8:00 pace and 7:45 pace

Friday 3/14: 7.5 miles (AM) and 7.7 miles (PM) at 7:30 pace and 7:20 pace

Saturday 3/15: 7.3 miles (AM) at 7:20 pace and track workout in the PM - 10x400, 10x200 all with 200 recovery. Splits were 71, 69, 69, 70, 70, 69, 70, 69, 70, 70, 34, 33, 33, 34, 34, 33, 33, 33, 33, 31 (recoveries avg 55). Total 10k in 35:55. Trying to get back in shorter distance shape bit by bit and this was a good step in the right direction. Still have a ways to go though - those 200s were freaking hard.

Weekly Total: 109 miles, 20ish miles of quality. Great mix this week, a solid long workout on Wednesday and a good starter track workout on Saturday. I'm hoping to PR at 5k in the next couple months, which means getting comfortable at 70-71s. I would not call today's workout "comfortable" by any stretch, but baby steps right?

Training 2/23 to 3/1

TWO WEEKS IN A ROW!? WHAT????

Sunday 2/23: Raced the Cowtown Marathon in 2:35 to get a share of the money for breaking the existing course record of 2:36. Felt good, ran 5:47 pace through 20 miles then slowed down a bit for the last 10k.

Monday 2/24: 4 miles (Lunch) at 8:05 pace. Felt terrible, super sore in the achilles from the race

Tuesday 2/25: 6.8 miles (AM) and 4 miles (PM) at 7:50 to 7:56 pace

Wednesday 2/26: 9.5 miles (AM) and 4 miles (PM) at 7:30 to 7:50 pace

Thursday 2/27: 8.5 miles (AM) and 5.5 miles (PM) at 6:45 (did a workout with Emily - 6 miles at 6:20ish
pace) to 7:20 pace

Friday 2/28: WORKOUT (finally!): 10.2 miles (AM) with 3.2 miles @ 5:21 pace, 4 minute jog, 7x30 second sprint, 1:30 recovery around McAllister Park (total of 5.7 miles @ 6:04 pace). Felt good, very different running fast after a long time not working on that. The tempo felt just a little bit out of control but not bad all things considered.

Saturday 3/1: 8.2 miles (AM) and 5.5 miles (PM) at 7:15 to 7:30 pace.

Weekly Total: 93 miles total, roughly 30 miles of quality? Debatable whether the last few miles of the marathon really count, but since I'm making up this definition, I'm counting it. I had planned on doing my first real workout back on Thursday, but I still felt absolutely terrible by then. Cowtown is a tough, tough course, and it beat me up good. That being said Friday's workout felt great, so I'm happy to be back to training seriously. Also, small preview, I did a 10 mile tempo this morning in 54:51, so not at all a bad workout. Although sadly now only slightly below marathon pace.

Happy training everyone! And Texans enjoy at least one more week of winter weather!

Training: 2/16 to 2/22

Confession: I can absolutely see how my training would be less than useful, if not wildly uninteresting. I'm still too slow to be looked up to as an elite runner (the type whose training logs I have absolutely devoured in my day), but also probably too serious/intense in training to be a useful example for the average joe. I love it when people ask me for running advice, and I always do my best to help them out, but the last thing I would say is "oh just check out my log and copy that, you'll do great."

But at the same time I think if we're going to have this blog, it shouldn't just be for the big sporadic updates. So I'm going to try to give a really quick summary of what I did each week in case anyone finds it remotely useful in their own athletic lives.

A note first: the things that I consider important in training are 1.) hard workouts, and 2.) total mileage. Somewhere in there are a whole bunch of other really important things like sleep, hydration, hours worked, etc. but since I don't measure those with any regularity they will be ignored. But I digress.

Sun 2/16: 7.5 miles (AM) and 4.6 miles (PM) easy - 7:30 to 8:00 pace

Mon 2/17: 8.2 miles (AM) and 5.0 miles (PM) easy - 7:25 to 7:40 pace

Tue 2/18: Warmup, 7x 3 min fast / 3 min medium fartlek (41 min total). Covered 7.32 miles at 5:30 pace average, no idea on the actual pace of individual fast/slow parts.

Wed 2/19: 4.6 miles (AM) and 5.9 miles (PM) easy - 7:30 to 7:40 pace

Thu 2/20: 8 miles easy (AM) and 4.3 miles with 8x12 seconds hill sprints (PM)

Fri 2/21: 6 miles (AM) and 4.6 miles (PM) easy - 7:20 to 7:40 pace

Sat 2/22: 4.6 miles (AM) and 3.1 miles (PM) easy with 3x20 second strides in PM

Week Total: 81 miles, ~8 miles of quality work

BONUS:
Sun 2/23: Ran the Cowtown Marathon in 2:35 (5:55/mile). First 20 miles in 1:55:40 (5:47 pace) then a little slower into the finish to get under the 2:36 existing course record.

Next up is getting back into serious training - so far I've just banked on residual fitness from my Houston buildup. Looking forward to keeping this thing updated with all of the good and the bad...

A Not So Smart Idea

So I'm doing something a little strange tomorrow: running another marathon. Now there are plenty of tough, battle-hardened individuals out there that can race marathons at near their full potential with no more than a week or two of recovery, but I am not one of them. I can barely run the first week post-race, and I remain physically and motivationally deficient for at least another two weeks. But when I heard that beautiful Fort Worth was offering up a decent chunk of change for everyone and anyone who can break the existing course record of 2:36, I thought "what the hell."

Game time! Ft Worth Edition

2:36 is 12 minutes slower than I ran at Houston 5 weeks ago. 27 seconds/mile. Piece of cake right? Honestly I really don't know. Certainly it's a more difficult course. And I don't know what will happen to my legs around mile 20, because guess what? The last time I did a run over 20 miles was...that other race. But I'm excited to get out there and run hard with the other 100 guys and gals who also had the same idea (that money is going to get split a loooooot of different ways). Here's hoping I can hold it together long enough to be one of them!

Lucky Marathon #9

Three weeks ago I ran the Houston Marathon and lowered my PR from 2:27 to 2:24. I guess since I haven't exactly been good about updating our blog, that deserves a little backstory.

I can start with all the changes I didn’t make. The easy narrative in this type of situation would be I got focused, trained harder than ever before, cleaned up my diet, etc - but unfortunately that isn’t even close to true. Am I still known to toast a good workout with a glass (or 6) of beer? Yep. Do fried chicken and mexican food still feature prominently in my diet? Definitely. Oh and the training I’ve done is more or less an exact replica of what I’ve done for previous marathons.

This isn’t to gloat or seem overconfident. My build up races were spotty at best. I prepared conscientiously and even tapered(!) for a 10 mile race in mid October - a race in which I ran 52:37 last year at the end of a 130 mile week - but this year I turned in an awesome 54:30. Thanks taper, really stellar work there.

But somewhere around mid-December I started to get in a groove. 4 weeks out I did a moderately hilly 20 mile tempo at 5:37 pace (which was my previous PR pace). Then came 8x(2k fast, 1k medium), hitting ~5:15 pace for the fast ones, 5:45 pace on the slow ones, for a total of 14+ miles at 5:23 pace. I could only smile as I sailed a minute under my time from that 10 miler and then kept going another 4+ miles.

The workout that gave me the most confidence though was 20 days before the race: 4x4 miles at just below marathon pace, with 1 mile “float” recoveries between at roughly 5:55 pace. I averaged 5:26-5:27 for the fast parts, and 5:31 pace for the entire 19 miles (2:24 pace). At that point I started to think that maybe 2:24 could be doable, but I tried to stick with my previous goal of 2:25-2:26 and not get ahead of myself.

Even with this attempt at conservativism, by race day I was beyond nervous. I didn’t help much at the time, but with hindsight I can see now that the weeks leading up to the race could not have gone any better. I got tons of sleep, drank plenty of water, and with the exception of the last 24 hours, didn’t let the nerves get to me. Lots of people at work getting sick? Nope, somehow doesn’t affect me. Ok maybe my legs didn’t feel great, but they never do during the taper.

Let’s revisit that whole 2:25 goal - on race morning I heard that the elite women were planning on going out at 1:12, which didn’t exactly match my original plan of negative splitting my way to 2:25 (more like 1:12 high or 1:13 at halfway). I figured it would be better to hang onto a pack of pros and their pacers than to do my own thing in no man’s land. I mean 5:30 I’ve been preparing for 5:33-5:35 pace, so what’s another 3 seconds? 5:30 pace won’t be so bad.

Early on, hanging by a thread

Except right from the gun we were hitting more like 5:25. I was a little frightened (ok, maybe terrified), but I stayed hanging off the back of their pack. Thankfully after 5 miles in 27:10 and 10k in 33:50ish, they started slowing down. To my goal pace? Nope, after going too fast for me for 6+ miles, they now went decidedly too slow (almost like the world doesn’t revolve around my exact pace goal? Weird). At that point I decided I was in too deep and should just go for it, for better or worse. I pushed forward and, after a couple mid 5:30s, brought the pace back down to high 5:26-5:29. I hit the halfway mark in 1:11:37, and I knew I was officially committed.

Making new friends

At this point the best possible thing happened to me: I caught another guy who was trying to run 2:24, no slower, no faster. JACKPOT! We worked together for 6 magical miles, splitting mostly high 5:20s along the way, until my inner moron again showed himself. My split at mile 18 was slower (5:37). And what does a moron do when confronted with exactly ONE (1!) slow split? Why crank the pace down to 10:44 for the next 2 miles of course. I hit 20 miles in 1:49:14. It made me very happy to see that split under 1:50.

I know it doesn't look like it, but I am actually feeling quite good

I hung tough through the next 5 miles, mostly in the mid 5:30s, but by the start of mile 26 I was cratering hard. 2:23 went out the window during that mile - a time that 2 days prior I would have told you was not even in question, but when you’re that close it’s hard not to get greedy. I got over that thought pretty quickly, and as I was coming down the homestretch I felt myself smiling despite the immense amount of discomfort I was in (definitely located that wall during 26). I felt (and still feel) a great sense of accomplishment. I did exactly what I set out to do, and I felt as though everything had gone exactly as I hoped. 

Last 50 meters 

If I could chalk this success up to one (or two) things I would say these:

1. A sudden and previously undiscovered ability to blow off a bad workout, and

2. The old ball and chain, Emily Daum.

I had a few stinker workouts in there, even mixed among the great ones towards the end, but for whatever reason I didn’t waste much thought on the bad ones. And as for #2, which may be related to #1, I let Em dictate a lot more of my decision making in training and racing. During training she helped me make good calls that kept me injury free and motivated, and during the taper she forced me to focus on rest to an extent that I haven’t previously. The result was the best feeling race of my life. Happy training everyone.