Soul Buster Lite

Today was supposed to be the first of the Team Rogue Soul Busters. Last season was my first experience with the Soul Busters, and I only ran one because of an injury and because my race was 3 weeks earlier than everyone else's. I was really excited to run the planned SB, which was 3 miles warm up, 1 mile all out on a track, 20 mile cool down. After the pulled hamstring issue last Sunday, I knew that SB would not happen for me. There is no way I could go all out on a mile right now. The good news is plans changed for the whole team. A lot of people had a super hard run last week, so the SB became "lite" for today. It was an 8 mile descent, followed by an 8 mile ascent, then 4 miles at marathon goal pace on the track.

I met up 30 minutes early with Ken to get a 3 mile warm up. It takes me forever to warm up now with my hamstring issues so it was a nice thing to get that it. Then we started the descent. At first, there wasn't too much of a descent...it was all rollers. We did hit some nice downhills before the uphills. The uphills were rough. We ran on Pecos over to Mt. Bonnell all the way across 2222, then hit some nice hills in there...include Mountain Villa and Mountain Climber. It was like one massive uphill after the other. This part of the workout was the real soul buster for me. My legs were dead, my hamstring was tight, and I just didn't think I'd make it up the hills. I feel like I'm doing a better job recovering on the smaller uphills and flats, but I still don't feel very strong on the hills. It's either that or everyone I'm running with kicks butt on hills :) After the hills it was straight to the track. At this point I was a little worried about holding MGP for 4 miles. Originally it sounded easy by my legs were trashed.

According to mcmillan, my MGP is a 6:41 mile. I dropped that to 6:40 to make the math easy, so each lap on the track needed to be 100 seconds. No one in our group was shooting for that (some faster, some just a bit behind) so this was a good experience for me to lock in to a pace by myself, something I struggle with. I got so spoiled last season running with the 3:10 train there were times I didn't were a watch but I knew I could just lock in with them and be right on. My mile splits were pretty consistent. On the last 800m Steve told me to pick it up and try and gain ground on Larry and Ken. I knew there'd be know throwing down the hammer because if that happened I probably be sidelined with the hamstring. I did gain ground though, so that was good. Here are my splits:
6:37
6:40
6:37
6:13

All in all I'd say it was a successful day. I'm exhausted but pushed through it enough to hit my goals on the track.

pluses: good workout, time with family

minuses: sitting in a car driving to Houston

not so much of a recovery day

Friday is usually an off day or recovery day for me. My mileage was a little low for the week so I decided to go out and do 8 with Mike and Chris. Then I also had an afernoon invite to run with my friend who is recovering from a knee injury. We planned to have cupcakes afterwards, so I could say no. That put my mileage at 13 for the day. My legs felt tired and really heavy.

pluses: awesome weather, cupcakes

minuses: overtired

changing my blog

I'm changing my blog because I thought it was weird to have one that was titled kristenweber when that isn't my name anymore :) The new one is http://eyesontheprizekb.blogspot.com/

You'll notice it's quite similar..just a different name. That was my attempt at being kind of creative :)

11/19 gym time

Went back to Gold's today for the first time in awhile. I really wanted to run with the train this morning but I knew that wasn't the smartest thing. So I tried the whole "listening" to my body thing and decided to go spinning instead. My legs felt a lot better afterwards. I haven't been as sore as I thought I would be, but felt tightness in my quads and hips. After the spinning class most of that has gone away. I also did some core work and stretching which needs to become a more regular thing for me.

pluses: dinner and a massage with Laura!

minuses: staff mtg

11/16 Race Report

So I figured I should write this today while many of the details are still fresh. Once we got to SA yesterday things just seemed to fall in to place...I got to eat at my favorite Italian restuarant without a wait which was a huge suprise. I called for reservations but they were booked, and when we got there they had 1 table left! Woo hoo. So once some things started to fall in to place, I started to feel more confident. I got a decent nights sleep (slept well until 3am which was better than expected). Steve picked up my mom and I this morning at the hotel and Brian and his mom, Robin, were following behind. I was a bit late to my corral, but right when I walked in the corral I saw Ron, Larry, and Angie. What a relief! I knew I'd have a better shot at staying controlled early if I went out with Larry and Ron who were dead set on 3:15 pace. The race started fine. My legs were a little stiff but I think it was due to the short shorts and cold weather :) I started out the first 5k right on 3:15 pace. It took about that long for my legs to feel like they were working again. We started to get a little quicker...and in the next three miles dropped the pace about 3 seconds a mile...no big deail. At mile 10 I wanted to still be at 3:15 pace...but we were a little closer to 3:12:30. Ron had to stop for a bathroom break so I started to pull away a little bit. I felt really controlled and started focusing on the 3:12:30 paceband. I figured if I stayed right on that until 16-18, then I'd have a good shot at meeting my goal (3:10) by the end of the race. So far on the course I'd seen Brian, Robin, Tim, my Mom, Steve, Foho, Dee, Roger, Julia, John, Laura...so lots of support. It was great. I was smiling the whole way! Around 16 miles I realized I was actually under 3:12:30 pace but I still felt good. At 18 miles I had a bit of a dip in the run, just was feeling a little tired. I was debating if I should try to go for the 3:10...I had yet to look at my 3:10 pace band because I didn't want to chase that too early. I finally looked down and realized I was 60 seconds off of 3:10 pace. I decided I'd go for it and at that time I threw off the 3:12:30 band...it was kind of a mental way of telling myself there was NO looking back. At mile 19 I was only 45 seconds slow for 3:10 pace so I knew this was a good sign. I saw Steve here and told him where I was at and he told me to keep going and I'd run them down. With some renewed confident, I took that to heart and started pushing a bit more. I'm not really sure how this happened, but by mile 22 I was alread 1 minute AHEAD of 3:10 pace. I never saw the pace group so I was kind of confused on how this happened, but I figured I'd take it :) Then I just had to bring it home. Brian, Robin, and Tim were all riding with me on the course on their bikes. I started getting a bad side stitch at 24 and kept thinking about how I needed the Train. Right about then Brian rode up on my left, Tim on my right, and Robin right behind me. It was like I had my own escort and it was a HUGE help. At mile 25 I took my watch off and gave it to Tim and just told him to get me there. I kept looking down at it like every 30 seconds which was not helping time go by quickly. So they rode me in to the chute and I crossed the line with clock time of 3:09:32. I was hoping this meant I broke 3:09 but either way I knew I nailed my A goal. I was so happy! Later I found out my actual finish time was 3:08:47 and I placed 2nd in my age group and 16th overall for the women. Not bad :) Some random pace breakdowns from the website are below:
first 5k: 7:26
from 5k to 6.1 miles: 7:23
from 6.1 to 10m: 7:12
from 10m to 13.1m: 7:15
from 13.1m to 17:m 7:02 THIS MADE THE DIFFERENCE!
from 17m to 20m: 7:15
from 20m to 24m: 7:10
last 2.2 miles: 6:48

BOOM!

Looking back I learned A LOT from this race. First of all, I learned that marathons are more fun when you train :) Something I missed out on my last few go arounds. The next thing I learned is that I am good at closing on a race. Steve told me if I went out at 3:10 pace there wasn't any way I'd meet my goal but I HAD to run negative. That is something I was really bad at in college so I was a little bit nervous and I really didn't beleive him that I could make up 5 minutes in the last part of the race. I'm glad I trusted his plan...cause he was right! I also learned that running with friends makes a huge difference. I have a lot more confidence than before because I really doubted the 3:10 goal. My previous PR was in Austin 2007 at a 3:29:52 and the last marathon I ran was around a 3:42 in Boston. I also learned some things I could do to help me out more next time around. First of all...I HAVE to add weight training and core to my regime. My back has been bothering me a lot lately and today wasn't much different. I didn't notice it during the race, but it's not feeling too good now. That and I need to be more consistent with my long runs early in the training period.

So while today was a HUGE success, I look at it as a new beginning. It is a learning experience and something that I will grow from. I am happy now but am already contemplating the next goal that lies ahead.

pluses: race high, no more distractions before wedding

minuses: moving tomorrow and still have a paper due :(

11/13 easy 7

Great run today. We took off from Rogue and went down to the lake. Angie and I ran out for 25 minutes and then turned around and headed back. It went by really fast...which was a great sign. Angie and I talked about the race for most of the run, and then just like that we were done. I'm feeling good. Confident, focused, and good :)

pluses: ruth has an extra pair of shorts for me!!!

minuses: meetings all day

11/12 25 min easy

The main point of the run today was to wear my racing shorts for the first time. I'm not going to lie, they're definitely not my favorite shorts...but oh well. My favorite shorts are old mesh-like cross country shorts that I got from Trinity. I'd like to wear them this weekend...but I'm not sure the maroon would go too well with the rogue top. My legs felt fine today and I tried to ingore any phantom pain I may have in my back :) I am really ready to get this marathon checked off of my list. I want to run well, and fast...but more than that I want to start the new training cycle and improve on the things I know I lacked this last time around. I know I'll need to be consistent with weights, core, yoga, etc...all things that I completely let go about 2 months ago. Life is hectic...but in the next two weeks, hopefully some of the craziness will die down.

pluses: no Bible study tonight so i have time to pack up my room

minuses: shorts suck