Part of me wishes I would have raced a half during my marathon training. I was in full on training mode, had good confidence going and 13.1 just didn’t seem like a very far distance. There weren’t any nearby that would have worked out timing wise though and I wasn’t willing to spend the time or money to travel to one. So it didn’t get done.Â
I’ve mentioned I’ve been wanting to train for a triathlon and on Sunday got the idea in my head to train for Muncie 70.3 in July. (Yes, I will do shorter distances before then!) So, I’ve made him change my plan again. I’m excited about swimming and biking. Naturally I am a better runner, I enjoy running more and really, running is just easier. You don’t have to get wet, you don’t have to deal with a bike. You just put your shoes on and go. I’m ready for a different kind of goal though. I’m not 100% committed yet, but almost there.
I swam & biked on Monday and on Tuesday, I swam & ran. My legs are crazy tired and sore like I did a strength workout with squats and lunges and I’m not sure why- (because I didn’t do a strength workout!) it started before the swimming and biking though so it must be from the 12 mile stroller run on Saturday, although I’ve never been sore like this from a stroller run. It was one of my first longer, fastish runs since the marathon though, so maybe that’s it. I might take an unplanned rest day today. I’m certainly not doing my prescribed speedwork of mile repeats. The pace is set at 6:11-6:18 and I know I don’t have that in my legs today. On Saturday, I’m running Rock the Relay as a two man team. It will be 13.1 miles each, in sets of 2.2 miles at a time. It’s going to be a crazy good workout, so I’m OK with skipping today and putting my effort into Saturday. Marshall, Cadence and I will probably just do an easy recovery stroller run this afternoon.
Title of this blog is half marathons scare me. I haven’t even talked about it much. But I’ll just say, they do, that’s why I haven’t raced one in literally 4-5 years. They scare me, because you have to run so fast the whole time. I’ve gotten used to the whole 26.2 thing where you are running comfortably for a good bit of the race. Glenn tells me, I’m just scared of being uncomfortable. When I imagined myself running sub 3:15 for a full marathon, I thought it would be uncomfortable the whole time. It wasn’t at all. In fact, the first 10K, though it was ran with a tale wind, was 7:05ish pace and it felt very comfortable. I supposed 6:45ish for the first 10K of a half should feel the same? I hope so!
The picture below is right before the last half marathon I had “raced” it is my second fastest official half marathon time. (I think 1:39?) Since then I have crossed the half marathon mark of full marathons faster than the time I ran that day probably 6 or 7 times. I remember having a rough race, it was in Bloomington, which is really hilly and I had been running in flat Indy, of course. It was also during my training for Boston 2009, and as I struggled through the hilly 13.1, I wondered how I would get through my second full marathon. I actually remember crying at some point in this race because I felt so terrible. What a girl. This was before my blogging days. No race recaps to be found. 🙂 I honestly can’t believe this was so long ago. It seems so far away, yet so recent.
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| Standing with Glenn and my Mom before the IU Half Marathon 2009 |