Thursday, May 19, 2016

Back to Blogging!

Hello everyone! Sorry for my disappearance from the blogosphere...I don't really have an excuse, but I'm back now. :) I have still been reading everyone's blogs, so I don't feel too out of the loop, but I realized that blogging is good for me, and there is no reason that I have let it slip.

Catching Up

In the time I've been off from the blog, I've run 2 half marathons and a 5k, and participated in a sprint triathlon (kind of...more about that in a minute). I ran the Monumental Half in November, and was shooting for sub 2. I came in at 2:02:42, which I was disappointed with; however, it was about a 5 minute PR (from 2:07:26), so I figured that I couldn't be too upset.


Finishing the Monumental Half

I continued running through the winter, and also did a lot of biking on the indoor trainer that I have. I signed up for a sprint triathlon in April, and felt like I was going to crush my previous times on the same course. Unfortunately, as we got closer to the race, it kept getting colder and colder. Typically, the start time is 10 am to try to get temps a little higher for the bike portion of the race, but this year there were issues with permits, and the start time got pushed back to 8 am. The temperature was predicted to be 25, and with the wind chill it was supposed to feel like 17 degrees--brr! Because of the cold conditions, the race directors decided that it would be unsafe to allow anyone to bike. Instead, they held the swim (300 m) at 8 am, then gave everyone time to dry off and change clothes before the run. The run (5k) started at 9 am. This was ok with me, since I knew they were trying to be safe, but it was kind of a bummer since I felt really well trained. I ended up doing well, with a swim time of 5:25, compared to 5:55 in 2015; and a 5k time of 26:30, compared with 28:30 in 2015 (although that was after biking, so those two are difficult to compare directly). 


This is the run from 2015 because I have no pictures from this year!

Another event that I've participated in since we last caught up was another half marathon: the Indy Mini. This is supposedly the largest half marathon in the nation, and since it's only an hour away from me, I thought I should participate. Again, my goal was sub 2, but this was just not my race. I didn't eat much the day before, and race day was almost 70 degrees, which is significantly warmer than it has been all Spring here. By mile 1.5, I was feeling worn out, which is not a great sign when you have almost 12 miles to go. My stomach started hurting at some point during the race, and my hip randomly started hurting (maybe due to the slope of the Indy 500 track that we ran on?) around mile 10. I ended up walking quite a bit, and just felt mentally defeated. My time was about 10 minutes slower than my previous slow time for the half...bleh!


Just after passing the yard of bricks with the pagoda in the background

On a positive note, I PRed a 5k just last night! The local running club holds a summer race series called the Farmers Market 5ks, which are low-key races held once a month. They are only $5 for non-members, and they are free if you have paid your dues to the club (I went ahead and joined since I plan on doing as many of these 5ks as I can). I thought I might be able to PR, but I wasn't sure...I was just going to go out fast and play it by ear. I ended up finishing in 25:22, which is a rather significant PR (previous was 26:11)--I couldn't stop smiling for hours afterwards! :) My next goal is to go sub-25!



Upcoming

Part of the reason that I wanted to come back to blogging, and be more consistent about it, is that I have some big goals for the fall. The most important thing is......I'm doing my first marathon! I got into the Chicago Marathon through the lottery, and I am so pumped to train for this race. I lived and worked in Chicago for a little over a year, and many of my friends still live there, so it almost feels like a local race for me. I know this is going to be a challenge, but I am excited about it, and I want to share my journey towards the marathon on this blog.

I have a few other events lined up besides the marathon (which maybe isn't a smart idea, but they were already there before I knew I had gotten into Chicago). I am doing a trail half in August--I have done a trail 5k, and I run some trails in our area during training runs, but this will be the longest I have ever run on trails. I think it will be good to force myself to do some running on trails (helps me to slow down and take it easy), and I have a few friends doing the race with me, so it should be a fun one. Additionally, I'm doing a Ragnar trail race in September. This is only 2 weeks before the marathon, but I figured it will be ok because it's 18 miles total over 3 runs, so it's about what's on the schedule for that weekend anyway. I might also try to do a sprint triathlon in June--we'll see how my bike training goes as I continue to increase my running.

I think you're all caught up now! :) I am going to really make an effort to be consistent with the blog at least until I'm done with the marathon.

Any big races on the schedule for this year?
Any recent PRs that you want brag about? Share here! :)

1 comment:

  1. Congrats on your PR!!!!

    And congrats on getting into Chicago! I'll see you there :)

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