PR Motivation

I set a new PR last weekend at the 500 Festival Miler Series 3 Miler - 38 seconds faster than last year!  It's a new course and no longer includes the loop with the hill on White River Parkway by the Zoo, but that can't account for all of it.  I'm definitely getting faster.  My watch shows I actually ran 3.21 miles at a 10:14 pace - I had to do a lot of weaving around walkers - but my official time was 3 miles in 32:45 at a10:45 pace.  I ran it in 33:23 last year, so that's an improvement of more than 12 seconds per mile.

I wasn't even planning to try for a PR.  I've been running a lot of miles lately to keep my 20 mile/week average, and the Friday night before the race I did a really hard incline/speed workout on the treadmill (thanks Brandi!), so I expected my legs to be tired, but I actually felt great.

I run a different strategy in a 3 miler or 5K than I do in a longer race.  I usually just go ahead and go as fast as I feel like running from the very beginning.  Not sprinting, but not holding back either.  I think in such a short race that if I try to hold back and pace myself, I will hold back too much and not have time to make it up, so I would rather go at the start, even if I slow down some at the end.  Most times I don't ever slow down, because once that VOICE starts trying to tell me I have to or I'll never make it, I'm usually already past halfway and I know it's lying.

Last weekend, though, I got a bit of an extra motivational push.  Just after halfway, I saw a guy two blocks ahead of me wearing a Duke shirt.  And this was only 2 days after Duke beat UNC in a very close game.  Sorry Dookie, your team might have beat mine, but you weren't going to beat me.  I kicked up my pace a little and passed the Duke fan, resisting the urge to trash talk in case he felt like pulling a Grayson Allen on me, and kept pushing all the way to the finish.  Dude never had a chance to catch back up.  I did look for him after the race to tell him how he motivated me, but I never saw him.

Ringing the PR Bell!

It's not just that race or dudes in Dook shirts.  I actually am running faster lately.  I didn't PR Sunday's Hook-Up 5K, but I came as close as I ever have when I wasn't being paced.  And tonight I ran my personal best at our Thursday Night Run Club: 10:45 pace including stoplights.  I don't know who swapped legs with me, but you can't have them back!  I'm sure I have a bad run coming up - they can't all be good - but lately I've felt really strong and I'm enjoying every run.

Side note on my outfit in the picture at the beginning: that is not what I wore in Saturday's race, although now I wish I had.  It's actually from last year's Race For Roofs, which was on the same day UNC played IU in the Sweet 16 (Hoo-Hoo-Hoosiers went down 101-86, in case you don't remember).  The Race for Roofs has been moved from March to July this year, but I'm sure the outfit will make an appearance again sometime during March Madness.

Coming Up: The Polar Bear is this weekend!  I'm running The Bear (5K + 5 Mile), and the weather looks to be just perfect, so it should be a lot of fun.

#CountdownToVegas Week 15: PR in the Rain

Saturday morning on the Monon

Short blog post today, because it's almost time for the season premiere of The Walking Dead.  I'm not enjoying the show as much as I used to, and I actually think Z Nation is a better show at this point.  But I'm curious enough to still watch at least the first few episodes this season, and see where it might be going.

I had a rather busy week with work and other obligations, plus one day I just plain forgot to pack my sports bra, so I didn't get quite as many miles in this week as I'd originally planned.  I only ran three days, which feels like slacking.  But they were good quality runs, so I've got that going for me.

Monday was reverse hill suicides with #TeamMoHills.  It was a really tough workout, but these ladies always make it fun.  Crazy that it was still in the 80s in mid-October!

3.17 PR

S'more on a Stick!

Thursday was the final Run(317) race of 2016.  It was in the 50s and raining, but I had a great race.  The course was crowded at the beginning, but once it opened up, I was feeling strong so I ran hard.  Not all out since the pavement was wet, but definitely pushing.  My mile splits were 10:38, 10:09, 10:38, and my final time was 33.22, nine seconds faster than my previous best at that distance.  I know some people prefer a straighter course, but for a 5K I like a course with a lot of turns.  Mentally it helps me, because I can break the race down to just running this block, just pushing to the next corner, etc.

The Run(317) races this year were all a lot of fun, even though the weather didn't always cooperate.  I'm looking forward to seeing what they have for us next year.  Now that Indianapolis has a second area code, though, will they have to offer two distances?  Either way, I really hope to see the S'more Mobile again!

Long Run

Saturday was my long run - 16 miles.  I had listed on our What's Next page that I was running the Hendricks County Fall Colors 10K, but I never actually did sign up for it.  Normally I don't list an event I'm not registered for, but I kept intending to do this one.  Every time I brought the website up, though, something stopped me.  So I decided to do my long run with BGR's All About That Base group, and I'm so glad I did.  I ran with Re'Nita for the first 8 miles, Broad Ripple to Carmel.  I was enjoying chatting with her and didn't even feel like we'd gone all that far.  She had a longer run on her schedule than I did, so I turned around at 8 and headed back while she kept going.  It was a gorgeous fall day - perfect weather for a long run.  Average pace was 13:01.  Interestingly mile 8 was my fastest, at 11:41.

Total miles for the week: 28.4

Total training miles to date:  396.05

Winner x 2

Hopefully Laura blogs soon, but while we wait I'm going to brag on her.  She ran two races Saturday: a 10K road race in the morning and a 5 mile trail race that night.  She was 1st in her age group and 5th female overall in BOTH RACES!  Way to go Laura!

Up Next

Two Halloween events this week:  the Athletic Annex Candy Caper on Friday night (not a race, just a fun run), and the Brew HaHa Saturday morning.  Despite Siri's advice, however, I have some good costumes for both races.  Stay tuned to Instagram....

#CountdownToVegas Week 11: Hookers Don't Wear Muppet Socks

Or do they?  The ones I've seen on 10th Street don't, but I'm certainly no expert.  But I think someone thought I was one today.  I'm not exactly sure what happened.  In the 24 years I've lived in Indy, I've done a lot of walking and running around by myself, and today is the first time I've ever been scared.

I went downtown this morning for the AUSA Indy Ten Miler.  I got there around 6:15 and parked on White River Parkway, and I was walking across the New York Street bridge when this car stopped on the bridge just ahead of me.  I couldn't see anyone in the car besides the driver, but that didn't mean there wasn't someone else in the car, so I got all the way over to the edge of the sidewalk, too far from the car for someone to reach me.  There had been another runner - a male - crossing the bridge earlier as I parked, but he was no longer in sight and there was no other traffic at all.

My May Runstreak & A Run(317) PR

May Runstreak

Run(317) Ambassadors on the Circle

I woke up Sunday, May 1st and decided to try a runstreak for the month of May.  A runstreak, for those of you who don't know, is running at least one mile every day for the length of the streak.  I follow other runners online who've done runstreaks of various lengths, but I've never attempted one.  Every time I think about it, I'm daunted by the idea of all the laundry that would go with it.

Normally I run three or four days a week, depending on what else I have going on.  But I was coming off a bad few weeks, and I decided to challenge myself to get out and run every day in May.  But not just run, I also wanted to make each day's run different in some way - different route, place, type of run, etc.  And I wanted to document each run in a different and interesting way.

2015 Race for Roofs 5K = A New PR!

Springtime in Indiana

The 2015 Englewood Race for Roofs was another cold one, but at least the sun was out.  22 with a wind chill of 16 at 9am.  Might be time to think about moving this race back to June?  It didn't seem like there were as many people there as in the past, which is too bad because it really is a great local race.

You know you want one

Proceeds from the race go into a housing scholarship fund which benefits neighbors who need short term help with the cost of housing, so that's already awesome.  Then add in some great SWAG, including really yummy homemade granola bars, and a long-sleeved tech shirt.  If you are so jealous that you want a shirt now too, they did have some extras which they are selling for $15.  Send me an email if you want one (tphazel (at) anderson.edu) and I will get you in touch with the person handling those sales.

My 1st AG Win!

 My training plan for the Carmel Marathon had me running for 4 hours on Saturday, so I considered running the 5K easy and then going on with my long run.  I also considered running hard and doing my long run on Sunday.  But with rain in the Sunday forecast, I decided to fit it all in Sunday.  I felt really good so I ended up running the race pretty fast for me.  I would never go out that fast for the first 3 miles of a long race, so I hope I didn't mess up my training.  But it paid off, as I ended up with a new 5K PR!  My previous PR was 34:04.  I beat that by 17 seconds, finishing in 33:47 AND winning my age group!  First Place Female 40-54.  I know I said in my blog post last week that I was going for the AG win, but I was actually kidding.  I didn't really expect to win.  Maybe the cold worked in my favor & kept the faster old ladies at home.  

A Tale of Two Races

Last Saturday I had two St. Patrick's Day race events: running the Lucky Clover 4 Miler in the morning, and volunteering at the Shamrock 5K Beer Run/Walk in the afternoon.  Weather was perfect with temps in the 50's.   There had been rain earlier, but it stopped around 8:30 that morning.  There was still a cloud cover and a slight breeze as well.  Perfect running conditions.

Indianapolis Monumental Half Marathon Recap

photo by Kathy Helmond

While we wait for Laura to tell us about her marathon yesterday, I'll recap last week's Indianapolis Monumental Half Marathon.  This is one of the biggest races in Indianapolis every year.  It also has a full marathon, a 5K, and a kid's one mile fun run.  There are several official cheer zones set up along the course, and many businesses and neighborhoods along the course hold their own cheer parties as well.

My Monumental History

2012

In 2012 I ran the 5K.  At that time, I had been running for almost 5 months.  I had not yet run an entire 5K without walking some, but I was hopeful that would be the race I finally did it.  Race day was really cold, with wintry precipitation expected.  I had not run in the cold weather yet, and did not really know how to layer properly, nor how to breathe.  I made it halfway before I had to walk - I just really had such a hard time catching my breath in the cold air.  Shortly after I finished, it began to sleet, which later changed to snow for the people running the longer races.

I was not planning to run this year's Monumental.  I had such bad memories of the 2012 race that I didn't want to repeat it, even though I know how to layer and breathe in the cold now.  Although most of the ladies in my fall training program were training for one of the Monumental races, I said after the Hendricks County Half Marathon in September that I was just going to take it easy until mid-November, when it would be time to start training again.

Ketchup Post

Catching up on a few things I haven't had a chance to blog in the past couple weeks....

5K PR Watch

I made another attempt to achieve a new 5K PR at the 2nd Merrell Summer Series 5K on 8/28.  It was in the 80's and very humid that evening. I think they tried to help us ignore the heat by using race bibs leftover from the Polar Bear Run, but they didn't really help.I carried water with me since there were no water stops in the 1st race, but I still struggled through the heat and slowed down rather than sped up.  I'm okay with that, though. A lot of the reading I've been doing lately has said to run by feel, not by pace or speed.  So when it's hot and the run takes more effort, it's okay to slow down.  I'm still working hard and getting the benefits of that conditioning. As always, I had a lot of fun running with my friends from the Indy Women's Fall Training group.  And got a bonus t-shirt! Carmel Road Racing Group was giving away old race shirts to people who had preregistered.  Everyone knows how much I love Christmas, so I'm sure it's no surprise I picked this 5Ks of Christmas shirt.

 

I Am A Spartan

One of my friends told me about the Spartan Workout Tour, a free group workout designed to teach you how to train for a Spartan Race.  I've never done a Spartan Race - they look pretty hard core - but the workout was free and included a free t-shirt. So how could I say no?

5K PR Watch

Photo by CCRG

If you've been following our blog for a while, you know that one of my goals for this year is to run a 5K in under 30 minutes.  My current PR is 34:38, earned during this year's Race for the Cure, While 4:38 might not seem like a lot of time to shave off the run, I'm going to have to go from an average pace of 11:10/mile to less than 10:00/mile.  And I don't like speed work.

My first attempt to better my PR was last Thursday, at the 1st Merrell Summer Series 5K in Carmel.  This was a fun race, starting and ending at the Monon Center and running along the trails and roads nearby.  It was a very pretty course running along some waterways and by lots of wildflowers.  Some of my Indiana friends thought it was hilly, but my North Carolina friends would say it had a couple of slight inclines.

Photo by Carmel Road Racing Group

Our Ladies Training group ran this race as part of our weekly training runs, and we met beforehand to warm up together before lining up with all the other runners.  It was a gun start with a chip finish, so that probably added a few seconds to my time, but I can't blame the gun start for keeping me from a new PR.  I finished in 35:49, an average pace of 11:34.

I can't feel bad about that, though.  I ran really hard, pushing myself more than I normally do, and I still felt good at the end.  I really enjoyed the run, too.  The weather was gorgeous, and it was warm but not hot, and it was fun to cheer my friends on and be cheered on by them in return.  I am really looking forward to the next race, on August 28.  Hopefully as the weather cools off I will be able to find a little more speed.