Race Report: Sioux Falls Half Marathon 2019

The Sioux Falls Half Marathon was set to be our last big scary workout leading up to the Twin Cities Marathon, 18 miles with 13 at marathon pace. Gulp. Melissa and I planned to do 5 miles before the race, and she stayed the night to make the morning easier. Luckily she stayed over, because I woke up to her shaking my big toe as my alarm had been going off silently for 20 minutes. GAH!

We drove to the race start, and it was raining. We set off on our warm up and warm up it was. It was chilly!! I didn't pay attention to our pace because it was so pitch black out, but near the turn around point I realized we were running really slowly, like 11:10-11:20s. And Melissa mentioned she wasn't feeling very well and her HR was crazy high. She was trying to decide if she should run the race or not. Based on how she was feeling and some medical issues she had been dealing with, I strongly encouraged her to not start the race. I know how hard it is for her to run super easy, especially in a race scenario, and I was worried that she'd put herself in a bad position health wise. But I also REALLY wanted to run the race with her. She decided not to race, and we were treated with torrential downpours when we finally made it back to my car. Uff. I said goodbye to her and hustled into the Premier center to find a bathroom and drop by bag.

The race started and it was still raining but I was already soaked and dripping on people so it was NBD. Shortly after starting the race, I knew I needed to use a bathroom. Luckily I found one in mile 2. I think I was in and out within 47 seconds. What was Shalane's record? Coming up on the portapotty, I saw my good running friend Tom and had hoped to catch up with him later. I'm writing this report 2 months removed from the race, so the details are a bit spotty. I can't even remember what my race plan was going to be. I think my goal was to run around 2:05, but clearly my legs weren't having that.

1. 10:37
2. 11:32
3. 10:16

I was really bummed that Melissa wasn't out there with me, but I was super impressed as to everywhere that Kyle was on the race course. It's like he's finally gotten this race down. Every where I looked there he was ready to cheer me on. Wahoo. Miles 4 and 5 had decent downhills, so I think the effort was relative, just a faster pace because of the downhill portion.

I enjoyed running through the falls, got a little teary eyed running by my mom's "spot" but was thankful she wasn't out spectating me in the crummy weather. She had a habit of commenting on how NICE the weather was on years I was cooking my insides while running, so we clearly had two different views on the nice weather. I think she finally got the hang of if it's nice to spectate in, Jeri's probably have a rough day. :P

4. 9:37
5. 9:30








6. 9:54
7. 9:57





 

I continued to leap frog with my friend Tom, catching him around mile 6 I think. It was nice to have some company for a bit. I remember thinking (not when I was with Tom, just while running) that I had way more fun in 2018. Running and laughing with Melissa, and running super fast at that, was significantly more fun than running what felt like hard, but didn't show very fast as far as my watch was spitting out.



8. 9:46
9. 9:58

There is a long slow hill in mile 10 which....sucked as you can see, but I just kept powering up it. I like how this course mirrors the TCM course, so it's great prep for how your legs will handle the final hilly miles of Twin Cities.

 




And mile 11 is a nice downhill. The last two miles I ran as hard as I could, but couldn't seem to find another, faster gear. Even my finishing kick was just... meh. Even though I'm pretty sure I was giving it my all. I guess that's what racing on super tired legs looks like! Meh. Hah.

10. 9:59
11. 9:42



 

After I saw Kyle the final time, I really tried to crank up the pace to finish strong. My heart rate wasn't all that tired, but my legs were just ready to be DONE. 9:30s-9:40s doesn't look that slow but I think my effort was closer to sub 9.

 

12. 9:43
13. 9:35
.23 1:57 (8:32 pace)










I finished 13.23 miles in 2:12:07 for a pace of 10:00.

Marathon Training Begins

Week one of marathon training is done. check! I was talking to my running friend, Kristin, and she was asking if marathon training had started already. And I told her yes and that I was so excited about it. It quickly dawned on me that I wanted to start training for a marathon approximately 4 hours after Twin Cities was complete last fall. And then my body wasn't having it.

I am beyond excited to put in some hard work and see where my fitness can be in the next 4 months.

One of the runs that I look forward to the least was on the schedule on week one (I should fire my coach! jk, I am my own coach). I had 8 miles with 4 at tempo. Not only do I hate tempo runs, but they are so much harder in the summer heat and humidity. I adjusted my tempo pace slightly to accommodate for the heat, and set out thinking if absolutely necessary I could do a few minute recovery in between the first 2 and second 2 miles.

As I was running I realized that I often give myself an out on these kinds of runs--stretching at the turn around, recovery jog, retying a shoe, stopping for water, etc. The point of these runs is the continuous harder effort to allow the body to learn how to push out the heaviness that accumulates in the legs during these faster paces. I typically sell myself short when I give myself an easy way out. So I put my head down, and worked. And I survived, and felt like a bad ass for it.

Marathon Training Plan Tweaks

Today marks day one of marathon training for the Twin Cities Marathon, take 2! I'm again training myself, although I am realizing that how I coach myself is not how I coach other runners, and I could probably stand to have someone who can comfortably tell me no when I have a harebrained idea, but that's neither here nor there I guess.

I've created a training plan that is pretty similar to last year's, with some tweaks. Last year's plan started after the 4th of July. Last year I did Grandma's half marathon, took some time to recover, and then had some cranky knee flare up. Last year's was planned at 15 weeks, but ended up at 13 weeks. This year's will be 16 weeks.

I also have one additional 20 miler, as I have an extra couple of weeks of training. It's always so brutally hot training through the summer for a marathon that it's nice to have a bonus 20 miler for confidence if the others are just brutal. I did discover on my long run this weekend that I'll likely have to do 1 or 2 of them on my own. AHH!!! Fingers crossed I can line someone up for part of them at least.

My last tweak is some additional hill work. Last summer, I (or should I say Chris) did a good job of incorporating hilly routes into our Monday night runs. I felt so strong on the hills of TCM, that I want to do that again, but I'm also planning some hill specific repeats for some strength based workouts.

I'm really excited to dive into marathon training and do the WORK to get that marathon PR in 16 weeks!

Dallas Training Week 6+7

Monday Planned: GA+Speed 6 miles w/6x100
Monday Actual: GA+Speed 6 miles with 6x100 and a giant fall on my left side. Woof.

Tuesday Planned: Rest
Tuesday Actual: Rest

Wednesday Planned:  VO2 Max 9 miles, 2x1200, 2x1000, 2x800 @ 5k
Wednesday Actual: My hip was hurting badly enough that I opted to skip this workout to be on the safe side. 

Thursday Planned:  Recovery 3 miles 
Thursday Actual: GA 6 miles. I attempted to make up some miles. We kept them pretty easy since I had my LR the next day.

Friday Planned: Long run 10 Miles
Friday Actual: Long run 10 miles. Solo, boring, and I finished way too many miles on the bike trail in the scary dark.



Saturday Planned: Rest
Saturday Actual: Rest

Sunday Planned: Recovery 4 Miles
Sunday Actual: Epsom bath.



Total Mileage Planned: 32 miles
Total Mileage Actual: 22.4 miles

------------------

Monday Planned: Dress rehearsal 7 miles with 2 @ MP
Monday Actual: Zero miles. I had plans to run with Chris because he had a million miles to run and I just bailed. I had a 1000 reasons, the most prominent being the slick snow packed roads and the fact that I fell on dry land a week prior. Derp.

Tuesday Planned: Rest
Tuesday Actual: Rest.

Wednesday Planned:  Recovery 4 miles
Wednesday Actual: GA 5 miles. I went to the group run early to get in an extra mile. YAY me.

Thursday Planned:  Rest
Thursday Actual: Travel day. Rest. JK I sprinted my ass through the Chicago airport to attempt to make my connecting flight after my flight from Sioux Falls was delayed an hour. Needless to say I didn't make the flight nor did I get any spectacular running data from the sprint. Harumph.

We spent about 2 hours ice skating in the evening. I alternated between speed skating and working on some turns and fun tricks, and then teaching Dom's kiddos how to skate. If you want to feel like a skating all star, travel to Texas from the midwest and suddenly your mediocre skating skills are pretty fab by comparison! 

Friday Planned: Recovery 3 miles with 4x100 strides
Friday Actual: I slept in. I really had every intention of doing this run, and then I ran out of time and we had a full day ahead of us. I did spend some time foam rolling, as my glutes were super tight from the aforementioned airport sprint, and I spent 15 minutes in some Normatec boots at the expo.

Saturday Planned: Shake out 3 miles with 4x100 Strides
Saturday Actual: Shake out 2 miles with 4x100 Strides, with Dominique!



Sunday Planned: 13.1 miles of the Dallas Half Marathon!
Sunday Actual: 13.3 miles of the Dallas Half Marathon.

Total Mileage Planned: 30 miles
Total Mileage Actual:  20 miles

Dallas Training Week 4

Monday Planned: GA 8 Miles
Monday Actual: After a very full and long day of transporting my dad from home back to Sioux Falls back to home, and me back to Sioux Falls, after sitting in a waiting room during a 3+ hour eye surgery, I was more than ready for a run and Mexican food. 

Tuesday Planned: Rest
Tuesday Actual: Rest, more doctor appointment visits.

Wednesday Planned:  Recovery 3 miles
Wednesday Actual: 3 easy recovery miles into some intense wind. Uff da. I kept it nice and easy since I was nervous about the next day's Speedwork. 



Thursday Planned:  VO2 max 10 miles with 2 sets of 2x1200 and 1x800.
Thursday Actual: I ran 2 laps around the track, was blown into lane 3 and said eff it and went home. not my finest moment.

Friday Planned: Recovery 4 Miles
Friday Actual: Coffee run with Kristin! 4 miles.

Saturday Planned: 13 miles with last 3 at LT
Saturday Actual: 13.1 miles in what feels like 5 degrees, freezing wind. I convinced myself to do the whole thing by saying I didn't have to do the speedier portion. It was a struggle to do this run solo.

Sunday Planned: Rest
Sunday Actual: Rest. I had actually hoped to do some recovery miles to make up for Thursday's skipped-ish run, but it just didn't happen. I did some grocery shopping, meal prep, and a giant nap mid-day.


Total Mileage Planned: 38 miles
Total Mileage Actual: 29 miles

Dallas Marathon: An Update

Well, as soon as I made my Dallas Marathon plan public information, my body got wind of what I had up my sleeve and promptly shut down.

At the time of writing this post, I have been sick for 7 full days, which is longer than I've ever been sick, continuously in my entire life, to my best recollection. Every day I'd go to sleep after hydrating like crazy, taking medicine, drinking all the tea, going to bed early, skipping runs, and expect to wake up and *finally* feel like myself. And every day I'd wake up and think, "Shit, how am I still sick?!?!"

With each day that passed, I felt my marathon training slip a little further and further out of the realm of possibility. I gave myself until Thursday in hopes that I could salvage one speed workout feeling 100%. But guess what! Nope. I woke up. Still sick. Although a million times better than I was feeling.

I'm bummed because I really did want to take one more crack at 26.2 miles this year. But it'll have to wait until next fall. On the bright side, if my body was going to decide that it didn't want to run another marathon, I'm thankful it was the immune system portion and not the muscular-skeletal portion. One is a much quicker turn around overall. Unfortunately in a six week training cycle with a three week taper, being sick for 1+ weeks really does a number on things.

I am excited to run the half marathon in Dallas. Despite the significant hills that the elevation map is showing me, I think I can wrap my brain around one more crack at a hard effort 13.1 miles this year. I have a really strong endurance base from the marathon, and since I don't have to taper as extremely for a half, I have a couple of extra weeks of training to fine tune some speed. Plus since it's a vacation to see a friend, I'll have more time to relax and enjoy myself without being worried about OMG ANOTHER MARATHON.

So I'm bummed, but I'll survive. And I'll be more than amped up to start tackling crazy long-long runs again once this summer rolls around.

And this means that maybe Dominique and I can run together (hopefully I can stick with her better than I did in 2012, woof!).

Dallas Training Week 2

Monday Planned: GA 8 miles
Monday Actual: GA 8 miles. Some hills, finally felt back to normal and the run was amazing. Phew!

Tuesday Planned: Rest
Tuesday Actual: Rest 


Wednesday Planned:  VO2 Max 8 miles 5x600m @ 5k
Wednesday Actual: VO2 Max 8 miles 5x600m @ 5k. Kristin joined me for the workout, which was great. We saw a car get hit and drug by a train, which was crazy, and then proceeded to run the most consistent repeats of my entire life time. We dressed as bananas for the cool down run, obviously. It was Halloween after all.

Thursday Planned:  Recovery 4 miles
Thursday Actual: Super easy recovery run. I wanted to keep it extra easy so Friday's long run wouldn't feel so hard ~14 hours later.

Friday Planned: Long run 16 miles
Friday Actual: UGH. 0 miles. Thursday night I was super cranky and wanted to go to bed at 8:30 p.m. I woke up 2 hours later and was so congested I couldn't breathe, my head was pounding and my nose would randomly start pouring out snot. I went back to bed thinking I'd feel better later in the day, but I only felt worse.

Saturday Planned: Rest
Saturday Actual: I had hoped to move the long run to Saturday. Luckily for me, I had to work and just didn't feel well enough to go for the run after a full day of work.

Sunday Planned: Recovery 4 miles
Sunday Actual: Again, I had hoped that I'd be able to get in my long run. I even had company for the first and second loops lined up. After 90 minutes of work, and clammy sweats, I cancelled on my buddies, opting for another rest day. I feel like since I put my hope to run another marathon out into the world, my body is PISSED. Fingers crossed next week is a strong, healthy one!


Total Mileage Planned: 40 miles
Total Mileage Actual: 20.1 miles