Garmin love

Haakan got me a Garmin 205 for my birthday and I seriously think I'm in love with it.  I'm totally geeked out about how much info that snazzy little thing stores.  Though I do wonder how accurate it is because my pace seems to jump around a lot according to it.  I did my nice 3.5 miles today, trying to follow my new "run slower to run faster" plan, but I can't say I felt a whole lot different running slower than I did running faster.  But I guess I've got to give it some time, right?

I'm very much looking forward to the Pittsburgh Half Marathon this weekend, and really really REALLY hoping that the weather cooperates.  It's supposed to rain all week, so I'm just hoping that it finishes up before Sunday, since running in the rain isn't really something I want to do, and I'm sure Haakan doesn't want to do 26.2 in the rain, either.  It's pretty exciting, though, that they've painted the feet on the road on the route now, and put down the mile markers, too.  I love driving around and seeing "hey, here's the half marathon marker!"  Gives me a little thrill somehow.  And I'd be lying if I didn't admit that there was some tiny part of me that wishes I was doing the full marathon instead of the half, but it just wasn't a good idea given how hard Phoenix was.  I wonder when I'll be able to run it, since next year probably isn't in the cards, but hopefully at some point I'll get to run the Pittsburgh Marathon, since it comes so close to my house and all.  And in other fabulous news, my sister is able to watch the kiddos so that we don't have to investigate any other options, which would likely prove to be a logistical nightmare, and instead can do what's easiest for everyone.  Well, everyone except my sister, of course, but I'm eternally grateful that she's able to watch the boys.  And maybe they'll get to see Haakan run past, too.

Long time, no post

So, it's been a long time since I posted anything, and in the meantime I've completed a full marathon (I'll get the report for that from the other laptop), another half marathon, and a 10K today.  Come to think of it, all three of those races were HARD, like way harder than they should have been.  And I think I've begun to figure out why.  I think I've been running my training runs much too fast, and I think this is something that I need to rememdy as soon as possible.  I've just been pushing too much, and when it comes time to run a race, there's nothing left to push.  So here's what Runner's World tells me I should be doing in order to run a 2 hour half marathon (which will not be happening next weekend, unless I run through a wormhole or something like that).

10:34  easy run training pace

8:50  tempo run training pace

7:58  maximum oxygen training pace

7:23  speed form training pace

10:34-11:54  long run training pace

4:04/800  Yasso 800s training pace

So just looking at that list, I see right away that my easy pace is too fast, my tempo pace is too slow.  So I really need to start being more aware of what I'm doing when I go out and run.  I think I could run MUCH farther if I pull back my easy pace.  And I need to reel it in by at least 40 seconds, since I've been averaging under a 10 minute mile for the easy stuff.  I just wish I'd figured this all out earlier, I might have had a shot at a sub 2 hour half marathon next weekend.  Now I'm just hoping to maintain a steady 10 minute mile and set a PR.  Oh well, live and learn, right?  Good thing I'm young, I've got plenty of years of races ahead of me.

Today's 10K, the Burgh's Pizza and Wings 10K, was miserable.  Like beyond awful.  My last half marathon was pretty pathetic, but I still beat my previous time by a good 2 minutes +.  This was my slowest 10K ever, a good 10 minutes slower than my fastest.  I think the biggest problem was that I got really dehydrated.  It was hot, there wasn't a ton of water on the course, and I was too stupid to think to bring my own.  So, lesson learned, when running in the heat, port own water.  I'll also not make the mistake again of wearing glasses and a headwrap, because every time I had to fix the damn thing, I had to stop and take my glasses off.  So, lesson learned, which may redeem the day.  At any rate, I got in a run, and I was 12th in my age group (12th out of 20, but shhhh! don't tell anyone).