Run the Bluegrass Half Marathon

This was a race that was not originally on the calendar for 2016. After seeing the medal though, along with the additional bling that comes with running both RTB and KDF, I decided to sign up a few months ago. The weather was definitely chilly to start, but since the sun was shining - giving off a little bit of warmth - it wasn't too terribly bad. I had completed this same race 5 years ago but, since then, they've changed the course. I've been hearing for years now how hilly this race is, and was always curious as to just HOW hilly - since everyone's definition of "hilly" is subjective. And since I'm a total dunce when it comes to reading elevation maps, I couldn't tell you just from looking what to expect.

I did the San Francisco Marathon in 2011 - a race and city known for its hills. San Francisco, however, was a pancake compared to the hills of Lexington. After taking off 10 minutes late due to some traffic issues, it took a while for my toes and fingers to warm up - they were definitely numb for those first few miles. They were calling for some hell-wind later in the day but, luckily for the most part, it wasn't that bad while the race was going on. I planned on doing my 4:1 intervals throughout, and was able to hold to that plan for the first 4 miles or so. The hills started early on (within the first mile) and never let up going forward. I remember at one point thinking that, since this wasn't a planned race, I'd be okay with walking most of it if I chose/had to. The chilly air kept me running forward though and I was keeping an okay pace for the first 5-6 miles.

I had been fighting the urge to pee since the start of the race, and I had hoped it would go away with time and sweat. Unfortunately that wasn't the case and since all porta-pots along the way had a long line I kept trudging along waiting for the right time. At mile 6.5 I just couldn't stand it anymore and waiting in line behind 5 women for the one pot. Even though I wasn't making stellar time, I didn't want to tack on another 5-7 minutes waiting for a restroom, so my impatience got the better of me and I ran behind a tree off the beaten path to cop a squat instead. I was hoping my shy bladder wouldn't get the better of me, but after a little pep talk as well as some concentration on my music rather than who may be spotting me, relief was granted and I was on my way once more.

The strategy for the remainder of the race was anybody's guess. I ran a little, walked a little, and did what I could to get by. My quads and hamstrings were definitely feeling it by this point, but I was happy knowing that I was at least halfway through the race. The hills still weren't letting up and it truly was a rolling course. That is, until mile 9 which greeted us with a huge, steep uphill climb. By this point I had become more than okay with walking up the hills and that's exactly what I did. Rounding the corner I knew I had just a little more than a 5k to go. Again, I ran what I could and don't really remember keeping track of any time intervals on my watch at this point. I wanted it to be over with. About 11 miles in my gal Terri swooped past me with her son as they headed towards the finish line. Just past mile 12 I spotted a guy on bended knee to my left who was proposing to his girlfriend whom he had been running the race with. This view gave me a smile and a ton of us began to clap and cheer as she accepted his proposal. One last turn to the finish line and I was beat. I had to walk just a little bit more, then I could get up the strength to run it in. My goal had become a 2:30 finish and I crossed the line in 2:32 - which was definitely fine by me.

Typically, a week or two after my races I forget about the pain and start asking myself if I'd ever do it again. I stand firm in my decision that, because that bling was so nice and that race was so tough, I'll never do it again. I told Jenn that next years medal would have to be diamond encrusted in order for me to run the course a second time. Considering the hills, I'm pretty happy with my time. It wasn't the prettiest race (pretty meaning my personal race - the scenery was just GORGEOUS!), but I got it done and was able to add #29 to my list. Next up KDF mini in just a few weeks. The flat course will be a welcome site, and the fact that it was my first, and now will be my 30th half marathon, is somewhat sentimental. I'm looking forward to it!

Sluggish

So I've been little more than a slug since the Run the Bluegrass half a few weeks ago. I've been going to a chiropractor for some neck/shoulder discomfort I had been having, however, while I believe the adjustments are working I think the process of getting everything aligned is causing some neck tightness that is new, and the culprit of some nearly-daily headaches. This isn't good. I've been tired, unmotivated, sore, etc. for almost two weeks. I've missed yoga for the past week and a half and find myself muddling through my OTF workouts. I do believe that a big part of this is the ongoing battle to get my home closed and move into the new condo - a process that has been going on for 5 months now. And while I (apparently) had a definite close date of April 15th, that got pushed back (once again) to the 22nd. I've been saying for months now that I will not be able to full relax and just breathe until the keys are in hand and I'm all moved in. It's truly been one of the most long-lasting stressful events of my life.

Because I've been feeling so unsettled for the past few months, with half the house packed up and continuously waiting on word from realtors, brokers, loan processors, etc. I haven't even gotten into the pool to truly begin my half Ironman training for Muncie. The only upside to this is that it IS 12 weeks away and since I've been keeping up the running and biking at least I'm not really behind on getting prepared. I was even able to feel some relief when I realized recently that this is the week that I officially began IMLOU training last year (which Muncie was a part of) and that gives me no doubt in my mind that I'll be perfectly fine for the first of two half IM's in July.

A friend recently got onto me for not being in the pool at all this year. My explanation was simple: I am a person who thrives in routine and structure. When everything is in its place, figuratively and literally, I excel and can get a regular routine going and stick with it. When it's not, I just can't. I don't feel settled at all right now since I don't know for sure whether I'll actually be closing in 7 days or not. Since the closing, the move, and the days afterwards will all be a complete cluster f#ck, I can't see myself putting on the calendar a 1500 meter swim. If it's on the calendar, I'll feel the need to do it and will get the guilties if it doesn't happen. If not, I'll feel better knowing that I'm saving it for another day - hopefully when life gets a little more calmed down.

So for now, I keep my fingers crossed in the hopes that this April 22nd date is a go and I can get back to normal living soon after. I'm taking the Monday and Tuesday after off to continue getting things in order in the condo (that is, if I DO move that weekend) because, again, if that place is in disarray my life feels like it's also in disarray. Holding my breath, seeing what happens over the next week. In the meantime, yoga tonight, massage tomorrow, bike ride Saturday and an OTF workout Sunday.

Rodes 10k and PJ 10-miler

The last two legs of the triple crown race were awesome. First, the Rodes 10k:

I met up with Ericka, Karen, Bill, Lisa, Erin and Justin at the start of the race. Gotta give props to Bill who let us park in his garage and hang out inside the office which is right at the start of the race. It was a little chilly that morning for just standing around, but since the weather was slightly overcast with a 50-55 degree temp it called for little more than shorts and a t-shirt which was the perfect pick for that day.

I had no specific time goals going into this race, as it's been for the past six months or so worth of races, but knew that I'd be doing the standard 4:1 intervals. I felt great going out, and took it slow and steady up that first hill at the end of Broadway. Rounding the corner onto Grinstead I had a downhill which was welcoming, as well as an upcoming, gradual climb - which should've been a walk break for me, but since it's hard to get that momentum back once I've started walking I opted to run up it instead. In all, I believe I ran the entire 3rd mile, which my Garmin clearly shows (9:24 pace).

Heading back up Lexington was fine, but I started to feel it a little around the 4-mile mark. I was still taking no more than my normal interval breaks, and with acquaintances along the course to keep me going, I puttered along and was happy to take that last right hand turn onto Broadway for the home stretch. It's amazing how long and drawn out that last mile or so can feel when you're headed straight to the finish with no other turns in sight. I could've walked some that last mile, as I was certainly tired enough and was fairly close to last year's PR, but I just slowed it down a bit and did what I could across the finish. Justin's poster board declaring, "Connie Haxby You Have Won a Lap Dance," certainly helped me cross over the last .1 mile and I had a good chuckle. Finishing time was 1:03:? - about 2-3 minutes slower than last year's time, but I will definitely take it.

The PJ 10-miler was a bit of a different story - at least at the beginning. It's amazing how I can wake up NOT feeling well about a race and have the run of my life and, alternately, wake up feeling great and then bonking soon in. I was afraid that today was going to be the latter as up until 3 miles into the race I just wasn't feeling it at all. Again, no goals other than to finish under 2 hours with the 4:1 intervals. My legs felt heavy, my shins were bugging me a bit, and I honestly thought I would be walking through the park and maybe even the subsequent 4 miles that came after. Luckily, I caught some kind of wind after we entered the park and I was able to maintain the intervals as well as I could. I say that because, once again, I wanted to take advantage of the downhills and continue a slow and steady pace up the hills. My fastest mile was 7, which is right out of the park, at around a 9:34 pace. For the remaining 3 miles I focused on those walk breaks every 4 minutes as I started to feel some small blisters creeping up. But feeling good about where I was and how I was feeling overall, I knew I could come close to last year's PR.

Rounding that last corner I had another poster from Justin: "Connie Haxby Magnificent Man Candy Awaits You." Again, a great chuckle and a nice way to get me through that past .2 to .3 miles to the finish. I came in about 5 minutes under the PR at 1:46:42. Well under the 2 hour goal - so I'll take it.

Next up, Run the Bluegrass half marathon in just 4 days. I did this one about 4-5 years ago before they changed the course. It is now hella-hilly from what I hear (someone counted 34 hills once) so I'm not exactly looking forward to the race, but I AM looking forward to that stellar medal!

Anthem 5k

Race season officially began this morning with the Anthem 5k. Well...technically I guess race season never really ended since I did complete the three races of the Polar Bear Grand Prix in Dec/Jan/Feb, but now is when the SERIOUS racing begins. I guess however serious you can be when your race pace average is about a 10:30 pace but...whatever. I'm pretty proud of my second-best finishing time today. It was a great, sunny yet cold day to get out with 6k of my closest friends for the 3.1 miles this morning. I had no expectations going in, and even remember thinking on the course, "they can't all be PR's," and I'm okay with that. I did what has become known as my standard 4:1 intervals, and felt great throughout. Apparently I was hauling butt at one point during the last mile as I looked down to see a 8:10 pace. Whoa! I never run that fast. But... each consecutive mile did end up being faster than the last so there's that. Something about these last few years has me seeing a lot of negative splits - and that's a good thing. Of course, I'm still keeping up with the OTF workouts and started back to Yoga yesterday. I really have a love/hate relationship with yoga. I hate it while I'm doing it (I find it kind of boring, mundane, and with it being hot yoga, I feel sick and/or faint at times), but I love the way I feel afterwards. Since I've felt my body getting more and more tight, I felt the yoga was necessary as I really need a good stretching of this poor old bod from the last decade of giving it a beating.

My training for the Half Ironman races I have coming up will begin soon. I was going to originally do a 20 week training program, but seeing as I have one more whole month of unlimited sessions at OTF, and the weather isn't going to start getting consistently warm until April, I decided on a 12 week plan instead. Besides, I now know what to expect, and feel that a 12 week training for a half IM is doable considering I was training for the full during this time last year - the Muncie half being just a "bonus," along the way. Plus...I've been super stressed out about this whole home buying/selling business and it has me feeling really displaced. Not only because the majority of my stuff has been boxed up for the last 2 months, but also because I don't feel I can properly plan for anything until I know where I'm going to be settling - and maybe even settled altogether. At this point, my buyer has a few more things to submit to get the final loan approval (after already submitting paperwork after paperwork - I found out this morning that she originally wasn't going to agree to continue the process due to frustration, which I totally get, but after mulling it over it looks like she's going to get some additional things together on Monday to submit. Hopefully that's it and we'll be hearing some good news). I'm trying not to stress about it - doing a lot of meditation and telling myself, "there's no need to get all stressed out, there's nothing you can do about it." It helps some, but not enough always. So... in the meantime I'm going to channel my own frustration and anxiety into running, training, etc. I have a 7 mile training run with Karen and Ericka tomorrow in preparation for the Run the Bluegrass and KDF Mini coming up. So at least if (worse case scenario) something DOES fall through with the house, I'll be in excellent shape. Looking for that bright side. :)

Shin Splits? Seriously?!

So somehow, despite having ran a 10k earlier this month and a half marathon a week ago without any problems whatsoever, I've ended up with shin splits. The only thing I can figure is the epic workouts at OTF this past week (during what was called "Hell Week") did me in. This has been a problem for me before during OTF workouts, and I've narrowed it down to the pounding I put myself through during the "Push Pace" and "All Out" efforts. Normally, no matter what type of running I do, whether it be a training run or race itself, I go at a pretty steady and (what some could consider) slow pace. When I amp it up for these bursts of high intensity however, I think my body isn't used to it, which is putting too much strain on certain areas. Regardless, I met up with some Landshark's this morning to do a run, but by 1.5 miles into the planned 4-miler, the bottom half of my legs were toast. My shins were hurting, my calves were tight, and I could muster little more than a shuffle on the way out, while walking most of the way back in. Fortunately, the two gals I was "running," with (Jen and Jenn, oddly enough) were okay with the slower pace and frequent walk breaks so that somehow made it better.

I'm trying not to be too concerned about this, but whenever I've felt this discomfort before after OTF I've switched it up to the bike to keep from feeling that impact. However, the bike is what I did during yesterday's session and I STILL managed this outcome. At this point I'm just hoping that it doesn't hamper anything going forward, and with a planned rest day tomorrow I'll at least get a little bit of a break before hitting it again Monday. My biggest worry is that I will have to either cut back on the amount or effort I put into my OTF workouts, which I really don't want to do at all since I have really come to love my sessions. I feel like it's such a great workout and calorie burn that to not give it the full effort would be cheating myself out of the potential workout.

You'd think after 10 years of running I would have had this all figured out by now and that my body would have been used to what I've put it through. Unfortunately, I guess today's run just goes to show you can never be too prepared and that anything can happen despite your fitness level.

Final stats: 4.08 brutal miles in 55:48, a 13:42 pace :(

Urban Bourbon Half Marathon

Went out with decent hopes today of getting a PR on this course. Didn’t have a great finishing time two years ago, had a decent finish last year, and considering all of my PR’s in 2014 I felt good about completing today’s 13.1, my 28th Half-Marathon in 10 years.

The weather was great at the start – 64 degrees and overcast with a small chance of rain. Unfortunately, I didn’t account for the humidity and instead of a tank top chose a t-shirt which made the race fairly warm just a few miles in. Luckily, it wasn’t long before a small sprinkle came along and cooled me off, so all was well on the course.

I started off with a 6:1 interval – something I haven’t done in a long time, and moved it down to a 4:1 just two miles in. The additional 2 minutes of running were a little much for me and the 4:1 was much more manageable. I felt great throughout most of the race, and was surprised to find myself running up the hills in the park rather than taking the walk breaks I had allowed for. Walking just takes that much longer, and as long as I kept at a slow and steady shuffle, I didn’t wear myself out much more than I would had I walked it.

Nine miles in I began to get more and more tired. This seems to be around the mile marker that I hit my wall in this distance race, but knowing that I’ve completed it so many times before, I trudged along and kept a slower, but still steady, pace. That is until about 10.5 miles in when I began to feel some tummy rumbles coming on. I seriously considered walking the last few miles, feeling that if I did much more than that I would be in some major GI trouble. I decided to do a new interval of running two blocks, walking one, which I kept up until mile 12. Considering the “finishing with a walk,” option came into my mind again, but left once more when I took that final turn back down Main Street with only 8 more blocks to go. At this point I was running just one block rather than two, anticipating the finish line just ahead.

As I crossed the line I heard the announcer call my name and felt so good to finally be done with this race. My official finishing time was 2:31:31 and, initially, I was kind of bummed about this time. However, after going over the finishing times of my prior half-marathon’s I’ve found that this is actually faster than my average of the past 10 years – good news. I guess I had been doing so well these past few years that I just anticipated that this would be at least a sub 2:25 race for me. But… I guess you can’t ALWAYS have a great race and I’m certainly not upset that I got out and completed more than what the majority of the City of Louisville did this morning.

Next order of business: Look into training plans for next year’s KDF mini as well as the Half Ironman races.

Looking Ahead

It’s been over a month since I’ve posted anything – mostly due to being super busy at work, taking a week’s long vacation (much needed) to Destin with the family, and honestly just not having much to report. I volunteered for Ironman Louisville when it went off on October 11th, and initially was concerned that this would cause some sad and guilty feelings for me, but for the most part it was a positive and fun time. In fact, it wasn’t until Jen and I got to the finish line to cheer people in and hearing the words “You Are An Ironman,” time and time again that it kind of sank in that this could’ve been me. Still, my decision to pull out two months before the race was a good one, and I am looking forward to some other upcoming races.

My 28th half marathon takes off tomorrow morning with the Urban Bourbon 13.1 miler. Although I haven’t done much long distance running since I stopped training for IMLOU, I have kept up my Orange Theory workouts 5-6 days per week, and did complete a 10k without any problems just a few weeks ago, so there is no concern there. I also signed up for the Polar Bear Grand Prix again this year to keep me motivated throughout the winter, and am planning to complete the Shelbyville Tri Series again – something I haven’t done in years. The Triple Crown is also paid and accounted for, as well as the Derby Half Marathon. And….. I went ahead and pulled the trigger on my second and third half Ironman races – Muncie and Ohio.

I feel like I have some unfinished business in Muncie for a few reasons. One being that my head was in such a stressed out place at the time, consumed with thoughts of IMLOU and my lack of confidence in completing the event. I felt this mind-f*ck seriously hampered part of my race and I want to see what I can do when I don’t have an enormous amount of stress hanging over me. Two, because I hurt my knee 6 miles into the run, I want to be able to redeem that leg of the race on faster, stronger, and more prepared stems this year. The race in Ohio is just a bit of a bonus since it was advertised as having a flat bike course and rolling hills run. This I can do, and being that it’s just 6 weeks past Muncie I’ll already be trained so I thought, “why not.”

I’m not yet sure what other fun races I will add to the calendar for next year. I definitely want to get in another couple of half marathon’s, and am hoping to find a decent team for the Bourbon Chase – I really missed doing it this year, and since I was in Destin it wasn’t even an option.

The depression I struggled with during my IMLOU training has all but subsided and I’m now thinking that it was mostly brought on by me psyching myself out about the race. I was always so down and negative on myself about my abilities, dreading training rides, and comparing myself to others that it started messing with my mind a whole lot more than I should have allowed it. That’s not to say there wasn’t some internal chemical stuff going on with my brain that also contributed, but I definitely see how my thinking didn’t help the situation much.

I still have people asking me if I’ll do an Ironman and I really don’t know. If I do, I’ve already decided it won’t be before 2017 and, even then, only if I’m a lot more physically and mentally prepared going into it. Either way, I do plan on enjoying the half Ironman races I have planned as well as my old reliable half-marathons that I LOVE!