Half Marathon recap

Despite being laid up with a cold for a few days I decided to go ahead and "race" the Sammamih Lake half marathon as planned. Training had been going well and after my 10 miler in San Diego I wanted to see what I could do. Short version - the lead pack (1 other woman, me, and a bunch of guys) ran the wrong way! Yep, we followed the lead cyclist straight instead of turning right at the very beginning of the race. It SUCKED to run 3 minutes off course so early on. And all of my hopes for a top 3 finish and PR were gone. I spent the entire race trying to keep a positive attitude with mantras such as "you are lucky to be out here, you are healthy, your husband is supportive and home with the boys etc." All were true but it was still frustrating. So, I stopped my watch at 13.1 to log MY time (1:24) but the official race clock said 1:26 something (and 6th place:-( Can't imagine how frustrating this would be in an A race!

So last week's workouts (from memory) are below. Definitely set myself back with the race and extended my cold another week. So super easy / light training week.

March 7th:
Half Marathon 1:24

Sunday March 8th
Easy trainer ride for 1 hour

Monday
Easy run to yoga (cold was back)

Tuesday
Gym

Wednesday
easy run to yoga
easy run to Lauren's with the boys

Thursday
Can't remember!

Friday:
Easy run (5 miles)
10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 KB swings, goblet squats

Saturday March 15th
Run / Yoga

Sunday March 16th
1:05 on the trainer

always easier to post when you are feeling strong!

I was actually lured back to my blog to keep myself accountable for logging my training - and because I was feeling so darn strong in my workouts that I was jazzed to get back to racing. Well, pretty much the day after hitting "post" I woke up feeling a bit "off." This off feeling quickly progressed to a full on cold and general fatigue. I was able to keep moving but had to take it down a HUGE notch. As I sit here this afternoon I am feeling much better but not 100% going into this half marathon this weekend. Assuming I am feeling better tomorrow (been getting stronger every day) I am going to see what I can do. I may not be able to hit the 1:23 I am after but I do not want to get sucked into the mindset of only racing when my training is going perfectly! I won't do anything to risk my health (not worth losing another week) but I do hope to toe the line on Saturday morning. Since Bowen was born 15 months ago, I have raced numerous times covering every distance from 5K to half-marathon. But, even my half-marathon and recent 10 miler were last minute race decisions. So, this week I have been trying to lay off the legs a bit and give myself an opportunity to race "fresh."

Thursday
5.5 mile run
55 minute yoga

Wednesday
5 mile run
strength circuit - 21,15,9 (overhead presses 45#, 55#, 65#, bent over barbell rows (same weight), pull-ups, GH sit-ups, pull-ups (4-5 each round) and 50 KB swings

Tuesday
60 mile trainer ride with 40 min half-ironman effort
60 minutes yoga

Monday
?? can't remember!

Sunday
early run (5 miles) then had to work all day at the Seattle Bike show

Saturday

5 mile run
Crossfit Games workout 14.1 - AMRAP 10 minutes (30 DU, 15 55# clean and press)
I managed 173 reps which was pretty poor. But, I felt like I was HUGELY limited by skill..with a bit of practice my fitness would allow me to do much more work. The fact that I had to do clean and press rather than snatch slowed me down tremendously. As did my poor double under. As Sam said, "the other people there had probably snatched and practiced double-unders at some point in the last 2.5 year." Point taken.