Emily's training blog

Today was a crazy day with the kids! I was so glad to get out the door tonight to be by myself and pound my stresses away.  My running was derailed last week by a nasty flu bug that hit our house.  I did run, but missed blogging. 

Tonight was perfect weather.  I could feel just a touch of fall in the air.  I wasn't able to run this morning, so I went when Teren got home from work.  I warmed up 10 minutes and then ran 10 sets of 3 minutes hard, two minutes easy.  It was an out and back route down 4800 S to the river trail, out to Bulion, and back. I hit the 5 mile mark in just under 33 minutes.  I ran 35:00 out, and 34:57 back, so I stayed pretty consistent.  It was beginning to get dark after I hit the turn around.  That always makes me a little nervous, so maybe that was a motivator to run a little faster.  It was nice to run and forget the fact that my supposedly potty-trained three-year-old pooped his pants twice in the middle of Wal-mart. Ah, motherhood! 

I went running when Teren finished his run.  It was a cool 50 degrees this morning.  It felt so good!  This is definitely my favorite time of year.  Of course, between 7 and 8 in the morning there is a lot of traffic since everyone is going to school or work.  I never realized how many schools were on my running routes.    I ran down to 1300W, over to 7000S (construction is done, thank goodness.)  up to 2700W, back to 5400 S and home.  Total time: 50:47.

I had intentions of doing a morning run to pad my weekly mileage, and then a workout in the evening.  It did not work out the way I planned.  So, I just ended up with a short morning run.  I ran my usual SLCC loop.  It's definitely apparent that school has started.  There were lots of cars around the community college. 

I ran the track workout that I meant to do last night.  400's are pretty short,but I'm trying to do some turnover work to improve my speed in preparation for a fairly big 5k women's race in September.  I warmed up 3 miles through the neighborhood and ended up at Taylorsville track.  I did 4 200's as part of my warm-up.  My workout was 12 400s with 90 seconds recovery around 80 seconds.  All of them were between 1:18 and 1:20.  The last 4 I cut my rest to 1 minute. 

I actually thought this workout would be a little easier than it was.  I guess I need to train my speed back a little.   My long term goal is a marathon, so I guess running 5:20 pace isn't that important.  I think I'm just remembering the college days, when sub-5:20 pace was easy.  I guess it's time to face the fact that I'm not 21 anymore.

I wanted a longer cool down, but I needed to get home so Teren could leave for work.  Cooldown was a mile and a half.

I took Cole down to the river trail to run.  I haven't pushed him in the jogging stroller since before Lily was born.  It was a good day to do it since I have a race tomorrow and I wanted to make sure I went easy today.   We just ran 3 miles out and turned around and came back.  I really enjoyed the time with my little boy.  He's old enough that he actually talked to me durning the run.  I'm glad that we had the time to spend together.  It reminded me to enjoy running, and not get so focused that all I am doing is preparing for races.  We had fun and blasted lots of stormtroopers along the way.

I drove up to Lewiston with the family to spend the night at Teren's sister's husband's parents house the night before the race.  It was nice to be close to Logan when the race was at 7 in the morning.  However, the kids didn't really like the change of environment,and took turns waking up every hour through the night.  I only slept 2 hours consistently, and maybe two more hours very sporadically. 

So, after a rough night, we woke up at 4 to eat and head out to the finish line to get on a bus up the canyon.  Teren and I watched an amazing lightning storm, but luckily, the storm stayed away from the race.

I warmed up two miles in the canyon, and spent a few minutes on the start line catching up with Michelle L.  I knew she would be a tough competitor since she is marathon training.  Stephanie Talley and Mary Anne Schauerhamer were also at the start, so I knew the race would be competitive.  I was nervous to run after a terrible night's sleep and a 50 mpw training schedule.

My plan was to work hard down the canyon, since I know I can run downhills strong,and then hope I didn't blow up.  We had a nice pack of women through the first few miles, and I was very nervous when at the first mile I already felt like I was working hard.  The "downhill" course was more rolly than straight down.  After 3-4 miles Stephanie, Michelle, and I broke off and took turns surging through the canyon.  (I'm sure Michelle has a more detailed race report.) 

Every time I thought I was going to get gapped, I seemed to pull back into the race, and I maintained decent contact with Stephanie until 6 miles, and Michelle until 8-9.  At 8 miles I decided to try a gu, since I will have to use them in a marathon.  Not a good idea!   My already sensitive stomach rebelled, and I really struggled the last few miles of the race.  Miles 10-12 were pretty much a death march.  I was well off of Stephanie.  Michelle was in reach if I really pushed, but all I could think of was finishing and finding a bathroom.  I worked the last 1.1, which thankfully was downhill, to finish 1:19:30 to Michelle's 1:19:02, and Stephanie's 1:17:58.  I was pretty pleased, since I just had the tentative goal of breaking 1:20.  I felt like this was my best race to date, and I am definitely encouraged.

A couple of things I learned from this race: 

1.  Sometimes you have miles where you feel good, and others where you feel terrible.  I imagine this happens even more in a marathon.

2.  Keeping contact with competitors helps you run faster! (duh!)

3.  You can' t always control conditions before a race, so it's important to concentrate on the things you can control.

4.  I need to practice with gu and fluids before I try that in a race again.

I didn't cool down since I spent a long time after the race in the bathroom.  My problems have continued through the day.  At least I know I ran hard!