That's What Friends Are For

Every now and then someone approaches me about something I've written on my blog. It is always a surprise, because typing into the void of cyberspace, I really don't expect anyone to read this (but thanks to the awesome people who do!)
So when a friend suggested we motivate each other by going for a run together, my first thought was, "wow, you read my blog?!" and my second thought was, "Fantastic! My whining on my keyboard has turned into a productive solution!"
It's friends like that who really keep me going when times are down. The ones who say, "yeah, I know where you're at. I'm there too. Let's join forces to get ourselves out of this and into a better place."
So now we've joined forces to kick our unmotivation in the pants and get out there and train. And you know what? I'm feeling better about running. I'm getting just a bit more excited about it.
And it shows! I kicked ass so much in my 30-minute tempo run on Tuesday that a couple people commented, showed up for hills on Wednesday (recently, just showing up is considered a Good Day) and today did a fun and easy 5k with two great gals.
Because sometimes you need a kick in the pants to find motivation. Other times you need a friend to take hold of your hand and lead you to a better place.
I don't know what next week will bring, or any of the weeks after that. But I'm grateful for where I'm at now.

Smiling and happy after our 16k jaunt: John, Steff, and Me (at that time, not intentionally wearing a shirt with her name on it!)

Countdown to the Day After

I have come to the conclusion that I am rather unfit. Today's 16k (okay, maaaybbbee it was 15.75k) felt tough for a lot of the run. We kept a steady pace of around 6.15min/km but from the get-go I was counting down until the next walk break.
But the conversations were lively and the route was scenic. I attempted to do the last 1.5k around race pace to see how it felt. Not as good/easy as I would have liked.
Hmmm. Maybe I should focus less on lying on the couch eating chocolate and more on getting my running shoes laced up to actually go for a run. There is, after all, only 7 weeks until race day!
I can't remember the last time I was so unmotivated for a half marathon. Have I ever been unmotivated for a half marathon? Right now, I'm more motivated to get to October 13th, when the race is finito and no more training is required.

No Longer a Distance Runner

You know you're no longer a distance runner when 14k feels like a reaaaalllyyyy looooooonnnnggg sllllooooogggg.

Ugh.

To Marathon or Not to Marathon

Change is in the air. Or maybe it is in my heart.

Regardless, something has happened since I moved back to Calgary. In Brisbane, I had a large contingency of great running friends and looked forward (sort of) to waking up at 4.45am to meet my friends and work hard at a run. The excitement of signing up for races together and cheering each other on was amazing. And who can forget those Long Slow Runs on the weekend, where we would nestle in with our cozy pace group and talk incessantly for 2+ hours, only to follow-it up with breakfast, tea, and even more talk!

To everyone I ever ran with in Brisbane: you put the smile on my face at 5.30am.

Now I'm in Calgary, and the running scene is...different. No longer in the morning, the sessions are now in the evening, on our own, or "late" Sunday morning (really, 8.30am is considered late to start a 2-3 hour run, isn't it?!). And runs in the evening are...not my thing. There is the dilemma of should I squeeze in some food after work before running and run on a heavy stomach, or wait until late in the evening when I get home? And then there is the fact that there are so many other fun things to do in the evening, that running has been starting to feel like an obligation more than a higlight.

It is no secret that I have been planning to run a marathon for my 30th birthday next year. The debate has previously been between Chicago or New York (assuming I squeeze in to one of them!). But when visiting my parents at my dad's log cabin, I made a mistake of passing by a kennel and looking at the puppies. You see, after running my first marathon next year, my thoughts were drifting towards "retirement" from serious running so I can focus my energies on a dog. But now I'm thinking, why wait? If I'm struggling for motivation to train for a half marathon, what will suddenly rev me up for the full marathon training?

I mean, there is something to be said for both options. There are two ways I can think about this decision. Like this:

Or like this...

86

I had signed up for a 10k race with good ole MEC. It was a last minute decision. I needed to get a few extra k's under my feet but I didn't want to exhaust myself with a race. The idea, I decided, was to practise.
I had two goals in mind:
1. To discover what it feels like (at this point) to run at my goal race pace for 10k
2. To work on my running cadence and form.

When the gun went off, I enjoyed the lack of self-inflicted pressure to perform well. I hung towards the back of the crowd.
It was interesting to be taking it easy. I passed some people at the 2nd km that were already gasping. I'm not sure how they were going to manage the next 8k!

As far as goal 1 goes, I wasn't expecting much. In half marathons I can usually keep on target race pace until 12k or so, and then I start slowing down. So just to go 10k, I didn't think I'd hit that point of fatigue. And I didn't.
But I got a good feel for what a 5min40sec pace feels like, and with the exception of the 8k mark, every other km was within 5sec of that goal time. I felt slightly fatigued at the end but nothing unmanageable. Still, I have a long way to go before I could maintain that pace for twice the distance.
It was also of interest to note how many people I passed on the second half of the course. Ah yes, those runners just like me who deceive themselves into believing "I can hold this pace for 10k easy!" and then don't. Poor suckers. How well I know your frustrations!

I focussed on keeping as steady a pace as I could, and at the same time I periodically counted my cadence, to see how fast my feet were hitting the pavement.
I've been told that ideally a person's cadence is 180 foot strikes per minute. There is no way I could count every footstep (and it is in fact especially hard when I am near other runners and get confused as to who's foot is hitting the ground when), so I did what most people do and divided in half to count every step on one foot. So my goal number ended up being 90. I really worked on keeping my cadence fast. But this also typically means my speed picks up, so it was a joint effort of fast cadence/easy pace.
Most times I got 86. There were a few 84s and I even went down as slow as 80 when I wasn't paying attention. But no matter how "fast" I told my feet to go, I seemed stuck at 86.
Oh well. At least it's not too far off!

Yikes

The small little 1:50 pace group that started out with three people (one myself, one my sis, and one a gal slower than me) has suddenly grown to Really Good athletes! Yikes!!! What have I gotten myself into?

Tuesday was okay. We did hill training. Which everyone knows involves doing laps. After a couple of years of weekly hill training for 1 hour on the daunting Mt Coot-tha, this was rather tame by comparison! The hill took me approximately 1min30sec to get to the top. Note I don't say "bottom to top", because we didn't actually start on the bottom.
And instead of doing 1 hour of constant repeats, we did 3 repeats! Well, the half marathon group did 3 repeats, while the marathon group did 4 repeats. Since I've been missing a few runs, I decided to do a bonus run up the hill with the marathon group. I forgot how exhausting hill repeats are!!! If you think of it, 1.5min x 4 = 6min. So I was only doing about 6minutes of intense cardio. But my legs were shaking and my lungs were burning. I rarely got passed on the way up but was consistently passed on the way down. Most of the people in my group were taking the hill slow and steady. Me? I've been trained that hill repeats mean sprint up the hill and recover on the way down, so up I sprinted, and down I staggered. Repeatedly

Wednesday was a big Challenge. This was when all these super fast athletes decided to join my group for a 4k tempo run. My best 4k tempo run pace this year is around 5.08. Yet the tempo pace I was supposed to lead was 4.45-4.57min. Hmmm. I whispered to my sis that I was planning to go a bit slower, since I couldn't hold the faster pace. She gave me an "Are You Crazy?" look and told me aloud, "of coooooourse you can run that fast. Just give it a try!"
Ha! If only I weren't in the habit of listening to my older, sometimes wiser sister.
I planned to keep around the 5.00 pace mark. And then the 2-hour pace group set off before me and they were so fast. My competitive nature got the best of me and I decided to show them fast! (Yes, you can see where this all starts to spiral downhill...)
The first km I ran a blistering 4.51min/km. As a reference point, when I did 1k repeats last year with a long rest break in between, 4.45-4.50 was my average on each km.
The second km I ran at 4.56min/km. Slower, but still on target!
I maintained this another half km or so. And then in dismay I saw the pace on my watch creeping up: 5.01...5.03...5.04...
I gasped to Heather and the nearest runner to keep that pace, since I knew I was fading. They strongly encouraged me "no way, you're doing great!" and then blistered on ahead. The next three runners responded in a similar way when I told them to follow my sis and the other guy if they wanted to maintain the correct pace. "No thanks, we like your pace! It's too hot to go faster!" And off they sprinted as I dropped farther, and farther back.
The two hour pacer breezed by me with less than 500m to go. He encouraged me to stick with him, but I just couldn't. I had eaten way too much dinner, my legs were sore from the hills the day before and - let's all be honest here - I had [once again] started off way too fast!
But on the bright side, I set a kick-ass pace for over half the distance, I kept to my own personal tempo pace goal of sub-5.15min average (At the finish my gps watch told me I'd averaged 5.11min/km. Woohoo!). And I got to remind myself - once again - why running negative splits is so much better than starting out too fast and burning up halfway through. Will I ever learn?

You Can't Avoid the Politics

Ahh, politics! What would we complain about if not for them? Besides the weather, I mean.

I go away for one weekend and my running group goes into a huge upheaval. There are whispers and speculations and uncertainties. I know you're thinking it is all because I - huge running advocate that I am - betrayed my sport to run my first triathlon instead, but that was surprisingly not the reason for such chaos.

I won't get into the juicy gossip on this forum, but let's just say that as of now our half marathon clinic has merged with the full marathon clinic and our former coach is no longer with us.

So along with our new coach, we had an awkward clinic about nutrition (which turned into a sales pitch for a specific supplement) and then split off into pace groups for the first time. 

And then the even More Unexpected happened: I volunteered to lead a pace group.

Yet not just any pace group! I volunteered to lead the 1hour 50minute pace group. I realize those of you who have seen me run may have burst out laughing at my ambition. But to be fair, in the pace group tonight was myself, my sister, and one other girl, who happens to be slower than myself. And the way the training program is set up, I'm slightly too fast for the 2hour pace group (I know, right?!) and slightly too slow for the 1.50 pace group. I spoke with my new coach and explained my dilemma over offering to pace the faster 1.50 group and she cared not a wit, telling me to go for it and do my best.

So this is me, about to go for it and do my best! With over 40 members signed up for the half marathon clinic surely there are others who will slink into my group and outrun me. But for right now, I'm enjoying the strange but awesome feeling of being one of the fastest runners in the clinic.