Author: Courtney

I traveled to Castle Rock, Colorado with some great blog friends this past weekend to run another half. I was scared to death of the elevation/altitude, being an Iowa girl and all. One of the gals met me early and we went up to Estes to hike for a couple of days, so that was a great way to prepare! Running and hiking at 9,000-10,000 feet will prep those lungs!

We ran 3 miles on day 1 and although we could feel the elevation, we knew we’d be fine for the half at 6,000 feet. We then hiked another three miles that first day and then seven the next day (up to 10,000 feet). We were ready!

I had targeted a 10:00 pace for this race given the altitude which would have brought me in around 2:10:30. I pulled across the finish at 2:05:48 with a 9:36 average pace! I came in 92/260 (35.38%) overall, 41/160 (25.63%) of all women, and 8/43 (18.6%) in my division.

I am thrilled!!!!!

Where in the hell have I been, huh?

I’ve been in a funk for about 4 weeks. Four weeks ago yesterday, we were told that my favorite maternal aunt had 3-4 weeks to live with her liver cancer. Four days later, she was gone (I got up to see her and had a proper goodbye). Three weeks ago yesterday, we had her visitation and three weeks ago today, we buried her. Since that phone call four weeks ago, I pretty much have been depressed, eating everything tasty, and doing no exercise but running.

I’ve gotten soft and gained 3-4 pounds.

Today, I told myself it’s time to get back at taking care of myself. None of my training runs had slipped off the radar because running brings me peace, but the other body maintenance stuff disappeared from sight. Last night, I did ab work after running a 5.4 mile interval training run, and today, I ran a 5k, lifted weights, and did ab work.  I got back on point with my eating yesterday too.

It’s time.

Tonight, I’ll sign up for another half marathon.

I’m back.  🏃

Truth be told, I don’t think I’ll run another half marathon under 2 hours until the fall, at best, and maybe next spring.  I may never run a half marathon under 2 hours again in my life, being perfectly realistic.  With that being said, I wanted to post the official documentation here.

I was there.

I did it.

I did it under 2:00:00 when my original goal was 2:02:00.

My goal for this half was 2:02:00. About 5 miles into the race, I knew I’d make that easily and changed my goal to come in under 2:00:00.

I did it!

My official finish time was 1:58:53 with a pace of 9:04 per mile. I am beyond thrilled!

Here are some nifty stats:

66/387 for age division – 17.05%

559/3456 for all women – 16.17%

5 mile time – 45:16

10 mile time – 1:30:21 (second 5 miles were slightly faster than first 5)

Chip time – 1:58:53

Pace – 9:04

The first half of the race took me 59:24.6. The second half took me 59:28.4. So… another negative split by 3.8 seconds!!!!

I’m completely wasted right now and resting. This was the perfect race. Perfect  weather, just a slight breeze, great crowd support, great course! There were 3 decent hills which made it, overall, a  tougher course than my first half of the year… but they were still pretty manageable!

The way this race runs is truly from one dam in the suburbs to a dam downtown. Buses deliver you to the start line and you can just barely see our tallest building from the dam… and that’s where you’re running to! It’s truly awesome!

I started a FB group for those of us running a half marathon together in Colorado on July 23rd.  I love FB fitness groups – they really keep me motivated!  I posted every single training run, and usually the stats to go with them, to this group and I thought it would be fun to put them all here as a re-cap!

This training plan is RIDICULOUSLY wonderful!  I have followed lots of training plans in the past specifically created for the novice runner up to the intermediate runner and none of them have motivated me like this one does.  This plan is only 6 weeks long, requires 4 days a week of running versus 5 (but I usually do 5), and really focuses on speed training versus getting the mileage in.  Mileage only matters for the weekly 5K run and the weekly long run.  Besides those runs, you’re focusing on tempos, hill training, and interval training.  As long as you’re doing as the program asks, you will get faster!  I’ve run through this program twice now (and will start it again next week for the half in July) and I just keep getting faster.  It’s amazing!

We were on vacation this past weekend  and I carefully planned for my long run. My husband agreed to take the kids to do something while I got my 18k (11.18 mile) lakeside run in. I set my clothes out the night before so that I would not disturb anyone on my way out. I mapped my 12.0 mile course with mapmyrun a week before we left. I was set.

Best laid plans….

My little guy woke up early and I jokingly asked him, “Do you want to go on a long run with Mommy?”  He lit up and shouted, “yes! Yes I do!!”

Not in my plan.

So I loaded him, his toy trucks, and ” the good snacks” up and we hit the road. The route I’d planned was all on the road and there was no way I’d take my kid on them with me, so I quickly re-routed us to the bike trail that ran nowhere near the lake. Sigh.

I planned to go one direction for 3 miles and then turn around to run back quick and drop him off work my husband at the condo, but he was so happy and content that we just kept heading north! I wasn’t familiar at all with the trail system, having never been on it, and ended up taking the long/wrong way north. When we were headed back (turned around with 9.6k left to run, so almost half way), I noticed a much nicer section of the trail that I’d missed on the way up, and it was more direct, so we got back to the condo with 5.1k left to go. My husband met me on the deck, took my son, and I was off for the final stretch of my run… And I went straight for the lake!  It was a nice way to finish my 11.94 miles!

I finished with an average pace of 10:08 which is great considering the stroller, the unfamiliar trail, all the stops to hand over snacks, the seriously deep rain puddles, etc. I was actually shocked that that was my pace!

Bring on my second half of the year… I’m ready!

The first time I trained for a 20k (almost a half marathon at 12.4 miles), I thought to myself, “I am going to lose so much weight!”

Guess what?

I didn’t drop a pound.

I gained endurance and a lower resting heart rate, but my weight and body fat didn’t change. You see, when you’re running 20-30 miles a week, you’re hungry all.the.time. You certainly burn a ton of calories while training for a long distance run, but you also take in more because you are always hungry.

I now know this and don’t expect to lose any weight while training, and I’ve learned to expect a slight increase in my body fat percentage since I don’t have the time to commit to weight training. I don’t even get upset, I just shoot to stay at a certain weight every Wednesday (145 pounds or less) and below a certain body fat percentage (24%). Today and yesterday, I was 144.8 pounds with a body fat percentage of 23.1%. Sure, I’d love to consistently be in the 22.x% range for body fat, but 23.1% with minimal lifting is absolutely satisfactory to me.

My abs have suffered along with my body fat percentage, and this is all due to my eating. I do serious ab work 5-6 nights a week (I can’t remember the last time didn’t work my abs) and they’re rock hard under there, but you can’t see them as well as before. They still look fine and good by most people’s standards, but I know they’ve looked better.

My “nice weather months” (mid-March through mid-October) center around running. November through February are for cross training, strength, and other fun stuff.

That’s just my reality.