running right now, & race goals

Of all of the topics requested . . .  this isn’t on the list.  But since it’s January and therefore exercise is on everyone’s mind, I feel maybe someone would be interested.

And I have to write something.  Because 5 day blogging streak!

I am running the Miami Half Marathon on January 24th.  I ran the race last year and had a great experience.  Miami was graced with unseasonably cool weather, which was fantastic but seems unlikely to happen two years in a row (especially with El Niño going strong this year!).

I have run probably a dozen (maybe more?) half marathons in my life, beginning in 2005.  And 4 marathons.  But I have only run a few races since A&C came into existence.  This will be post-A&C half marathon #4, to be exact.  All of my times post-baby have been significantly slower than my ‘peak’ pre-baby.

(For the running nerds, my half PR was 1:46:56 in November of 2007 — an 8:10/mi pace.  My post-baby PR was 1:55:something at Miami last year — 8:47/mi average.  I tried to link to a race report from the November 2007 race but apparently I was too busy shedding blood/sweat/tears in the NICU as a resident and running 8 zillion miles to write one.)

I attribute this mostly to much (much) less time prioritized towards training.  I used to run ~40 miles/week quite regularly, and I definitely have not hit that total (or even close) since A was born.  I think my peak mileage for this race will be close to 30, maybe 27 or 28.  Most weeks are in the low to mid-20s, looking like this:

Monday – rest
Tuesday – tempo (5-6 mi)
Wednesday – 30 min barre3 online workout at home
Thursday – intervals (5-6 mi)
Friday – easy (5-6 mi)
Saturday – barre3 or Flybarre live class (usually just barre3 – easier!)
Sunday – long run (last week 11 mi, but that was the longest thus far)

I have really liked using the RunCoach app.  Also, one major (MAJOR!) side benefit of fewer miles is that I have not gotten injured, which used to be a recurrent and somewhat devastating theme in my running life.

Last year, Cameron was 11 months old.  He had recently quit breastfeeding, and I still felt sort of . . . postpartum.  I was eating paleo.  This year, I quit paleo (twice) and I have no ‘babies’ anymore, just toddlers & preschoolers.  Training has gone better in some ways, but it’s also been a terribly warm winter and nearly every run has been 75 degrees and above with 80%+ humidity (yes even at 5:30am).  Today was the first crisp run in a while — it was a breezy rainy 63F and felt like absolute HEAVEN.

I don’t really have a goal for this year’s race!  I’d looooooove to have another post-baby PR (i.e., beat the 1:55 time from last year) but I am not encouraged by my long run splits.   I think I have a bit of a shot if the weather is cool like last year, but not if it’s pushing 80F.  We will just have to see what race day brings — at least the event is held at 6 am.

Whatever happens, I have really enjoyed the training, especially the weekday speed sessions.  I have made this commitment before (and failed), but after this I am going to train for a fast 5K.  I just have more fun running when there is a race goal on the horizon, so . . . why not?  In theory I should still be able to run fairly well at the ripe old age of 35 . . . for a few more years, anyway.

—————————–

In other news, Cameron started school today.  (Two days/week, 9 – 12:30).  Apparently he did really well!  I was sad I was not there but I didn’t plan far enough in advance.