Welcome to race-day eve! It’s just like Christmas Eve, except instead of staying up late eating cookies and waiting for Santa, you eat sweet potatoes for lunch and go to bed early.
Just to make this race-day eve even more fun, I woke up
in the middle of the night Thursday with the early signs of a cold. Perfect timing!
I spent yesterday mainlining hot peppermint tea and zinc lozenges to fight the
cold off.
(And 100% cacao (sugar free) chocolate, which is awesome,
cold or no cold.)
Seems to have worked, and after several naps yesterday
evening, I slept through the night and woke up mostly better this morning.
So assuming that I can continue to chug tea and knock
this virus away for good, it’s just under 24 hours to race time for the
Annapolis Half Marathon, and I feel alright about how everything is going. I
even managed to nail my pre-race pace workout on Wednesday - 2 miles easy, 3 miles at goal race pace, 1 mile easy.
Cheating? Maybe, but I have a history of overdoing my
race week pace workouts, leaving me with some residual fatigue come race day.
So for Myrtle Beach in February, I did it on the treadmill to force myself to
stay on pace and not go one bit faster. That race went well, so this time
around, I’m sticking with what works.
As evident from the above photo, in theory, my goal time
for this race was an 8:00/mile pace, or 1:45. However, I had a couple of
not-so-speedy 8k racess and tempo runs, and am not confident about holding that
pace for 13.1 miles right now. Maybe with another month of training, but I don’t
have another month of training, so I’m going to shoot for what seems reasonable
right now. With that, the plan:
A goal: Under 1:50. Holding an 8:23 average seems doable,
and not like something that would leave me crawling miles 9-13. If I go closer
to 1:45 than 1:50 - great. If I go 1:49:59.99999 – great.
B goal: PR (1:53:30). I went a 1:52 flat in the second
half of the Myrtle Beach Marathon, so I should at least be able to PR.
C goal: Under 2 hours. I mean, I did a 13 mile training
run in under 2 hours two weeks ago, so over 2 hours would be a pretty sad day.
Who’s ready to race! Yee-haw!
I was mainlining Emergen-C, Magnesium and Progenex Cocoon ahead of my comp two weeks ago to keep a cold at bay. Take care of yourself and have a blast!
ReplyDeleteI really hope you achieve your goal and feel better. I like cocoa but I need to add a lot of splenda to make it something I would eat. (Poor blogging technique..I'll die of cancer now).
ReplyDeleteOne reason I like the treadmill is because you like you said it keeps you honest of pace. You cannot push it or go slower. I'm glad it worked for you.
You'll do great this weekend! I've been using the treadmill more as of recently to log tempo miles. I haven't been wearing my watch, and I feel like my pace has been all over the place, so the 'mill makes me honest. Also, I'm pretty sure chocolate heals everything. ;)
ReplyDeleteConfession: I do all my speedwork on the treadmill. I just can't seem to hold a steady pace without it.
ReplyDeleteHope the cold is knocked out and you knock 'em dead at Annapolis tomorrow!
Hope you're feeling better, and good luck!! I recently tried some 100% chocolate... gotta say it's gonna take some time before i can handle the bitterness :)
ReplyDeleteI love that chocolate! Good to know we have exactly the same tastes. I still have to hide it from myself sometimes though - it's just too good. I think the one I have is slightly different because the pattern isn't quite the same, but it's so great that it's vegan by default (or the UK one is, anyway) and tastes so much better than any other vegan 'chocolate' alternatives.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure you'll achieve your goal, based on your training paces and the extra drive of race day. Hope you're feeling better by the time you're at the start line - all the best!
Hope you kicked the cold! Best of luck tomorrow!
ReplyDeleteI loathe the dreadmill and would rather run outside, even when it's 0 degrees. My coach disagrees and wants me on the 'mill occasionally. Bah! :) And, 100 percent cacao… the.best.ever.
Good luck! I can't wait to hear about it! I hope you feel better beforehand, but I know you'll kick ass either way. :)
ReplyDeleteGood luck - it's probably over by this point, but I hope that it went well, cold and all!
ReplyDeleteI'm behind on the twitter so since it's sunday I'll assume you nailed your a-goal! I love peppermint tea, not just when I'm sick. It's so freaking good.
ReplyDeleteI miss your blog. That's all.
ReplyDeleteOh, and how was the Annapolis half?! :)
Erm, slower than the 2nd half of the last marathon I did. So it goes when you try to race with bronchitis.
DeleteYou probably wouldn't want to read what I'd blog about right now - I'm fat and out of shape.
Thanks for sharing. www.triathlonshopping.blogspot.com
ReplyDelete