Denouement

Unicef half marathon today.  I wanted to beat Yiu Kit Ching's best half of the year, to get ranked #1 in hong kong (was #2 going into this race).  Her time was 1:21:30ish.  I felt pretty confident I could beat that time (as demonstrated by not knowing the exact time, and my flat pr is 1:20:53, so I thought I would go for that time, which is 3:50ish pace.  

My coach initially advised me to go out at 19:30/5k pace, which is slower than 3:50 pace (3:50 pace is 19:10 pace).  He wanted to see me negative split.  But I said no way to that plan, unless I felt that 19:30 was the right pace by feel in the race.  

It was 20-21C and sprinkly, and windy to start.  So the first k is flatish, then it goes rolly in 2, I think, then uphill for the third k, then downhill for the fourth k, then flatish for the 5th k.  I went out in about 3:46, tried to dial back while staying true to hm feel.  Talked with Chris who passed me in the 2nd k.  He was going to try to break 1:20, and I was going for 1:21, so I let him go ahead and he was 20 sec or so ahead by the time I crested the hill.  I tried to block wind when I could but was all alone at 3-5k.  18:56 at 5k, so 13 and change too fast. Then some guy came up on me and we worked together until 10k when he pulled away.  He was going a bit faster than I wanted, but I felt ok and I told myself working with him a bit fast was easier than being on my own slower.  Around 8k there is an up and downhill.  19:01 for the second 5k, so 37:52 for the first 10k, so 18 seconds ahead of schedule.  From 11-12k it is rolling/uphill, and I was in no mans land, but there were men ahead of me, and I tried to close the gap because it started to rain hard, right into our faces, so headwind and rain, not the pleasant light rain that we had the first 11k.  Thankfully that rain lightened up again after a few k.  I reeled in a couple of men, but never got too much of a shield, perhaps a few seconds here, a half minute when I caught Chris, then we ran side by side up the last big hill, and it was 15k after the crest and I pulled away. 19:02 for the 3rd 5k.  Downhill for a nice k and I made up some time but then there was still 5k to go.  Thankfully the 10k runners had joined us but were still behind us, so in the last 4k I got passed by just the top runners, and I had the number of k's to go.  So I switched my watch from average pace to total time, to see if I could break 1:20.  With 4k to go I had 15:15 til 1:20, so 3:45 pace with 15 sec to spare, with 3k to go miscalculated and thought I had somehow run at 4:00, but I must not have because with 2k to go I had 7:45ish, which still gave me 3:45 with 15 sec to spare, my 4th 5k was 18:43--awesome. With 1k to go I am on the disneyland promenade, and I feel like I am ready to poke someone's eye out, while they are playing this upbeat Disney music, then my kids are cheering me on with about 900m to go--perfect timing.  With 200m to go, you turn a corner and the MTR station is right there so you hear "The floors are wet and may be slippery.  Please be careful", and I say in my head, yeah, no kidding, the floors have been wet this whole time.  My kick is weak, I show 3:37 pace for the last 1.11k, but I break the tape. 1:19:44.  This is a big race and certified, watch said 13.22, so that's about right.  Need to work on those tangents! Big time PR.  I felt so good at the finish, like I could have kept going (though the race definitely got harder over time).  Ali got second place and a great time 1:22:5something, I think a PR, so we were both so happy at the finish.  

I joined the kids and cheered people on until we found Paul.  Adjusted for no elevation drop, this is his second best half ever, so he is excited and excited to do more to improve.  Then I changed into dry clothes and run a kids 3k fun run, and I feel like passing out during the "fun run" though I am going just 6:20ish pace.  

I won 75,000 Asia miles (enough for a plane ticket to Korea - June 2013, and 1.5 other similar flights), a gift basket from LeSportsac, a bracelet, and a watch from Seiko.  Cool.

Ran a slow 13k run, 4:55 ave pace.  lower inner quads on both sides (muscle near knee) are the most sore, everything else seems ok.

AM: 5 miles very easy on the tm.  

PM: Track workout at night.  I had horrible sleep last night and no time for nap today so came wasted and Coke-Zero tweaked.  So also needing to pee every 5-10 minutes in my warm up.  

Coach modified the workout since Ali is t + 2.5 days from a hm and t - 5 days to a marathon, so she was doing HM pace (93 per lap), and I was doing the first two laps with her, then surge for the last two (5:50 total goal, so 2:45 second 800 in the mile).  So 93,92,83.82.  Something like that.  The first two laps sometimes felt like jogging, sometimes felt hard when facing the wind (windy AGAIN).  Full lap recovery, so about 3 minutes rest:

#	Time	Breakdown	Rest
1	5:51	3:06 2:45	2:39
2	5:49		3:26
3	5:48		2:44
4	5:46		3:08
5	5:47	3:03, 2:44	3:00
6	5:46	3:02, 2:44	3:37
7	5:35	3:00, 2:35

 On the last one, coach said I needed to bust a move but to not cheat (by making the first two laps faster), so I did a bit of both.  I cheated just a bit (both laps were 90) then the third lap was 80 and the last lap was 75.  I felt so good being able to do this being tired.  Both my legs were tired and I was just underrested.  Ali just did the first 5 and another girl Sarah jumped in on the 4th one and she had two more when I had finished, so I paced her on another mile after my #7 above, so it was a 6:07 mile I counted as threshold.

10.6k at 5:02 ave pace. Then rushed to the doctors and was still 8 minutes late. Walking around for a couple of hours finding the stores to collect free gear from race prizes.  

Got my husband his first ever lightweight trainers, which he will use for speed workouts and his marathon, hopefully, and socks for stockings.  Got my son who is 12 yo basketball shoes.  How privileged is he to have shoes that are specialized for a sport (he also has rugby shoes).  Things can sure change in a generation.  When I was his age, I was just learning I had a talent for running and I had to beg my parents to get me new shoes and they did, a pair of tennis shoes -generic LA gear type with pink and white laces from Payless Shoes.  My kids have it so good, but they'll never understand.  I don't want to make them understand, because the only way to truly make them understand is to have them EXPERIENCE what I did.  Embarrassing events like not participating in a class pizza party because you couldn't contribute the $2, etc.  I am glad for the experiences I have had but do not want to hand them down.  It is a conundrum.

Core workout in the pm. 

AM: ran my long run today because didn't feel like doing my 30 x 2 min on/1min off alone and Roberto said he would join me for this workout on Saturday.  Hallelujah!

So I wanted to do this run at a decent pace, but didn't want to go faster than 4:20.  I had a book club meeting at my house with an Austrian Coffee hour theme (Mormon - so sinfully bad Viennesse hot chocolate and cakes, sweet breads, cookies and strawberries). And I had to clean my house and pretend it is always that clean.  Why do we always do that?  I know why I do here, because everyone with helpers do have clean houses all the time because they have LIVE-IN MAIDS!!!  Not that I am upset about that, I will be getting one next year, but it puts those of us without help into an awkward situation when we host.  

Anyway, that meant I wanted my run to be done quickly so I could get home and do a solid two hours of cleaning-cross-training before people arrived.  Did 28k and 5k paces were 4:48, 4:33, 4:43, 4:21, 4:20, 4:34.  Felt good.  Quite rainy in the middle, drizzly for the rest.

PM: 7.1k super easy, 5:07/k pace 

12.5k at 4:55/k pace, core workout in the PM

Met Roberto for a long fartlek.  It was 25-30 x 2 min on/1min off, so since that is 50-60 of hard running I assumed it should be goal HM pace, or 3:40-3:45.  We averaged 3:39/k pace for the fast bits.  Roberto has been injured and thus is in perfect shape for me (half in shape), so it is risky for him to do hard work, but 3:45 pace is not that fast so it was less risky of a workout for him, and we did it on the outside lane of a track, so it was a softer surface.  The first 10 went by so slowly but it got better after that.  I had the runs, presumably from eating rich leftover foods from my Viennesse book club (we were discussing Freud).  Roberto timed my first bathroom break after #7 as 1:19 and my second after #13 as 1:14.  At that rate I should have had two more bathroom breaks but thankfully that was my last one.  I told him I have had bathroom breaks as short as 20 seconds long in the Salem Utah farm country but he said they were not on an IAAF accredited track so those PRs do not count.

I am very close to 100 miles for the week but I will NOT go out and run a mile or whatever I need to get there.  (Or should I?).