Pacing/Negative Splits

I have been really working on negative splitting my long runs lately.

On the 4th of July we had a "timed run" instead of our usual mileage run. We were running along the West Side Highway and the goal was to do 60 minutes out and 60 minutes back. I had been going out a lot more than usual that week because my sister was in town so I was really hoping to just do 10 minute miles. Lauren said she was going to do the same thing, so we decided to stick together. We started out with two other (fast) girls though, and I had to hold back from the group at about mile 3. They were doing 9 minute miles and I just didn't feel up to it. So I ran alone most of the time. When we got down to the Financial District (almost the bottom tip of Manhattan) the girls had all passed me on the way back. Pttt. Disheartening. But oh well.

Then, when I had about 4 miles to go I see Lauren just about 100 feet in front of me. What?! No way! She was WAY ahead of me. She pulled off of the trail to get water and I passed her, assuming we would catch up before we hit the park. Nope. She was no where in sight even as I was waiting at stop lights to go across town.

I actually finished with a 1:55! (A whole 5 minutes faster on the way back!) I was pretty impressed with this because I had walked for water breaks 4 times on the way back and didn't stop my watch. I felt great and had a lot of energy.

So, when I had set out to do a 10:00 pace I actually finished with a 9:23 pace. Nice.

So this weekend I set out to do a 9:30 pace. I really do think that I am going to benefit from going nice and easy on these long runs. I think I just need to get the long miles in and worry about time on Tuesday night speed workouts.

Once again, the group broke away from me. But you know what? I actually finished in front of them. I had a ton of energy at the end of my run. I could have done 5 more miles on pace, no problem. I did my 12 miles in 1:48 (a 9:00 pace flat). I was impressed with myself. :)

I guess I needed to listen to my coaches all along about long SLOW distance and negative splitting. But, in my defense, if you want to get a 9:00 pace, would you REALLY want to start your workout doing a few miles at a 10:00 pace? It doesn't seem like it would make sense, right? Besides, I am just stubborn. I am one of those people who needs to figure these things out for myself.

I have a 4-mile race this weekend. I am going to concentrate on getting a ton of sleep this week and trying to NOT let my mental state get the best of me on race day.

A "Back" Week

This week I had a nice little 10 mile run. Last time, when I ran our 10 miles I was hating it the whole way. But this week it actually felt pretty good (until around mile 9 when I was just "done").

It is MUCH easier to run with Bill now that I am pacing a bit faster. Before I think it was always a struggle between us, because he always wanted to go faster, and was slowing down to be with me, and I was always going faster than I felt comfortable with. I think I have realized that a lot of running is mind games for me. Perhaps I should have been training faster awhile ago. But then again, perhaps I've done this the right way and I am just reaping benefits.

At any rate, one thing I DO know is that I need to slow down in the beginning miles. So for the next week, I am going to concentrate on negative splitting my runs.

I KNOW I need to do this, because every time I have run this way I am AMAZED with my time. Every time I run like I am used to running (fast at first, then slowly trickling off in the last miles) I feel tired.

When Bill and I got to mile 9 and he asked me how I felt, I could only say "Eh." I explained to him; I wasn't feeling awful, but I felt tired. Not tired like sleepy, but tired like physically tired. I told him I could keep pace for the last mile (which I did) but that if this was the marathon, and I still had 2 miles to go, I would be walking them. He pushed me up the last hill, telling me to keep my form (which I did) and that if I kept my pace (which I did) I would be happy with our result.

We ended with a 1:33:18 for 10.2 miles, which calculates out to a 9:08 pace. Now, I KNOW, with my past results I should have been ecstatic about this. But I told Bill, "You know, I think if we would have started out slower, we could have ended up with a faster pace." He agreed.

So the next few weeks I am going to experiment with negative splits and see what happens. Who knows, maybe I am some weirdo who DOES have to push the pace at the beginning. I doubt this, but I guess I'll find out in the next few weeks. I am chalking it up to a big experiment. Isn't that what training is for anyway? :)

It's Official!

I got my marathon "confirmation ticket" in the mail yesterday for Chicago.

It is kind of funny because it is not really a "ticket" per se, but a program like you would get for going to a play. And there are sooo many rules! I was trying to read the book last night, but I couldn't concentrate on it because there was just so much information.

The big thing that stuck with me though was the "no ipod" rule. I am wondering how strict they really are on this. They had the same rule at the Flying Pig, but I saw plenty of people with ipods (myself included). The wording in the rules for Chicago seem stricter though. I figure that my skirt has an ipod pocket, so I can just stash it in there and then use it or not.

I was also very glad to hear that they DO have vanilla gels at the 17.5 mile. I, of course, will have my own stash, but it's just nice to know anyway.

I can't believe that it is less than a month away!

Tonight we do my least favorite thing: a negative split run. 30 minutes out and turn around to come back in less time. I stink at these, but I guess that just means I need to practice them :)

Sweaty Girl

It has been sooooo humid lately!

I went for my negative split run last night (and actually for real did a negative split...in fact, I had two minutes left over) and when I came back I was so sweaty. I actually had a film of sweat all over me, and I was only out for 40 minutes! (I don't really sweat very much ever. I could run 9 miles usually and not sweat). It was gross.

But even grosser (is that a word?) is that I had a softball game afterwards. I basically just keep my running clothes on and pull my t-shirt over. Well, I change my shoes of course too. But I was being finicky about my pigtails and decided to redo them. I could have wrung them out. Nasty. I do not like all of this sweat. It was even worse on the field.

I am so done with this humidity. It is really throwing my times off. I just have to keep telling myself that I am running slower because of all this heat and humidity. Apparantly other people are feeling it too, because Coach Joe F sent out an email telling us not to get discouraged if we felt slow, because the heat and humidity are so bad that they are bound to slow us down.

By the way, I just looked at the humidity for yesterday...it got up to 93%. Gross.

Catch-up

So I DID have to work late last night. But as I was feeling sorry for myself, looking out the window I noticed it was lightning. So I'm thinking the run was called off yesterday. So, now I will be playing catch-up like I always do.

I don't know why, but it stresses me out when I can't stay on schedule...even when I make up my runs. I feel like I am a hamster on a wheel and get all stressed about it.
Maybe this is because I take the little calendar/schedule they give us at the running group and write down my actual work out on it after I complete one. So when I have blank days it stresses me out, even though we have planned rest days IN the schedule.

I think it is just a personality thing. I am very very very much of a Type A personality. (By the way, I am NOT exaggerating...I scored a 327 on the Jenkins Activity Survey Anyway, I really just have to get a grip on the fact that I will not be able to follow the calendar to the t, because my life is super busy.

That being said, I am going to try and make up my run tonight before my softball game. Maybe not as strenuous as the schedule suggested because last time I did that, I ended up with a sore butt! (Which I contributed to running and then squatting through 4 innings while I played catcher). Last night called for a negative split: 30 minutes out and 10-20% more effort on the way back. I stink at negative splits so I WILL have to try this tonight...but maybe with 20 minutes out instead.

Hyde Park Hills!

We did it! By we I mean my husband and our motley crew of five friends who decided to brave the heat and humidity to run the course last night.

It is funny running with a group that is not a running group because we all just kind of stood at the start looking at each other for awhile until someone was like "uh, so are we going to like, do this?"

And I think that Bill's natural ability with running actually helped me out! My pacing is usually like I blow it all on the first mile and take a steady decline through the rest of the miles. Coach Joe and the Roncker's group HAVE helped me a bit with this by training me with negative splits, but I just can't help it sometimes.

So the first mile I look at my watch 7:16. I YELL to Bill who is injured by-the-way and who is also in front of me by about 30 yards "SLOW DOWN!! 7:13! ONE MILE! SLOW DOWN!" Then we run together. I am thinking 'Great. The rest will be 11 minute miles for me now.' Nope. Mile 2: 10:20. Mile 3: 9:36 (mind you, we had to stop for traffic for at least a minute and a half to not get run over AND this is the one with the big hill). Mile 4 plus whatever the remainder is if you go all the way to Edwards: 10:39. Pretty good.

And all of our friends who do NOT run were AWESOME!!! They finished the entire course doing about a 10 minute mile pace.

I was so happy. Now I am ready.

Afterwards we made shirts for the race. They are wifebeaters and say "LANDORKS" on them in puffy paint. (We work at Landor, and a lot of us are running since our company is one of the founding sponsors). Oh yeah. And they also have bedazzles.

UPDATED 6/6/07: Photo of our lovely shirts