Week 7 Recap of My Quest for a Smaller Chest and Hot Marines: The Eugene Women's Half Edition

Howdy hey my cilley fwends!  How was your Week 7?

Mine was mixed.  I did only two of my scheduled four runs.  Feeling extremely tired, just can't seem to shake it.  Also, the feeling of a head/chest cold.  And as you know, I have a helluva lot of chest.  It really seemed to hit me on Wednesday.  I should've run.  But I didn't.

I did not skip my long run, although I did swap up with next week's long run which suggested doing a half marathon at the end of Week 8.  But Week 8, as you may have noticed, ends with Labor Day weekend.  Where there are no half marathons scheduled.  At least around here.  There was, however, the Eugene Women's Half this past weekend.  As I may have mentioned.

I had hoped to PR as my B goal.  My A goal was for a sub-three.  I didn't have a C goal.

I did not PR.  I should have.

Garmin Connect was down this morning so I only saw my splits briefly this morning.  They were all over the place.

I felt tired and wheezy all weekend.  Race day I was up too early then just started to get sleepy again right when I needed to be up and getting ready.  Still, I felt decent as I waited for the race to start.  The temp was nice and cool, the sky very cloudy.  In short, perfect race weather.  The gun went off and so did I.

To almost instant cramping in my left shin.  Mothafucka.  Did not see that coming.  Particularly since I was in the new Mizunos.  I was also very thirsty right from the go, so dehydration issues crossed my mind.  Managed to crank out a not-horrible time for the first mile, then a horrible time for the second mile.  Old ladies walking were faster than me.

Mile three it finally worked itself out -- and we'd hit the first water station.  I put up a 13:30ish overall mile time, which was a combo of walking and running.  When I was running, until the last couple of miles I was consistently around 12:20.  But I was feeling like I had a small cinder block sitting on my chest.  Wondering if I was running too fast when I was running -- was under a 12 minute mile pace occasionally, then I'd back off -- and still thirsty.  In retrospect, I should have stopped at a water station, drank at least 10 oz and refilled and had an extra Gu.

I alternated between mile times that were exactly where I wanted to be (13:30), a little slower than I wanted to be (around 14:20), and much slower than I wanted to be (over 15:00).  Did a decent overall average for miles three, four and five, then slowed way down in mile six and I don't know why.  Noticed today in looking at my splits from last week's 12 miler that I did the exact same thing there.  I don't think I took a Gu in that mile, I usually fuel during mile seven, so I'm not sure what happened.  I do remember feeling overwhelmingly exhausted, having trouble catching my breath yet combined with a feeling that I was breathing effortlessly -- like I was breathing too shallowly, too quickly.   But maybe I did fuel during mile six since I was so tired.  I can't remember.

Did a couple of goodish miles after that.  Think that I did the second four miles faster than the first four as I finished mile eight in 1:50.  That's pretty good for me lately.  I think that was around five minutes faster than the first four miles.  Got confused with my math at mile nine, thought I only had three miles to go and had visions of smashing three hours, then finally figured out that I still had FOUR miles to go.  Bummer.

Then I bonked after mile ten.  I had to have been on track to meet my A goal because I walked most of the last two miles yet still came in at 3:06:25.  Not a PR, but still eleven seconds faster than Rock 'n Roll in May.  Although Rock 'n Roll was a harder course.  Hmmm.

So.  It was odd to do this race on my own.  I could've really used a race buddy in the end, either to drag me along or to inspire me to drag them along.  It works either way sometimes.  I was feeling so lousy at the end that I did consciously let my PR slip away.  I should've easily done 3:03.  This was the first time I've crossed a finish line and they immediately asked me if I needed medical.  I should have lay down with some ice but was afraid I wouldn't get back up.

The shirt was nice this year, for the ladies it was deep hot pink with a V neck; for the men, candy apple red with a scoop neck.  I'll have to take a pic.  Ditto with the finisher's charm.  It is heavier and slightly bigger than last year's.  Neither look like race swag, but in a good way.

I did eat before the race and took a couple of electrolyte capsules, and thought I was drinking enough but I've been bad about water intake on a regular basis for a while now.  Bad CilleyGirl.  I took a puff beforehand, but I desperately wanted for my inhaler during the race.  I've got to figure out why the six mile slump.  I just looked back at my ten miler and seem to have the same slow down.  Yep, went back to another long run and same thing.  Hmm.  And I need to be just a few seconds faster per mile to beat the MCM cutoff.  Yesterday's race was at an average 14:14 min/mile.