Thursday, June 28, 2018

Chicago 10k 2018 {race recap}

Time: 44:18 a new PR by 5:40!

1st AG (of 183)
7th Woman (of 955)
45th OA (of 1579)



I signed up for this race a month ago because a bunch of friends from run club were already signed up- yay for peer pressure! Additionally, it was practically in my backyard, so logistics were easier than easy. 



I had few expectations for this race since I am deep into Ironman Louisville training, but wanted to give a good effort regardless.  The days leading up to the race  (Monday - Saturday) I had run 24 miles (including a small speed sesh of 400’s) and cycled 87 miles (including 3 hour ride the day before the race). My legs were tired and heavy race morning. 

Race morning: I had oatmeal and then we walked 10 minutes to the start and waited for friends to arrive. It was a gorgeous morning, clear and 73 degrees with some humidity. 



I did some strides and dynamic stretches to warmup and lined up at the 7:00 min mile marker. My goal was to be around 7:00/mile- but didn’t know how my legs would be.

Soon we were off and I made sure to not go out too fast- and quickly settled into a comfortable 7:15ish pace. People were passing me but I just wanted to be consistent. 



A little over a mile, mile and a half  in, and I started passing folks who had gone out too fast at the start- that continued for the rest of the race. I felt really good for the most part. My legs were tired but cooperated to continue running low 7’s. I drank a few sips of water at each aid station. I felt kind of hot. 



At the turnaround I decided to push the pace slightly and start picking off more women (and men). I was excited that I would break my 5 year old PR of 50:00 officially. (I’ve broken that time - 8:00/Mile in every race I’ve PR’d in, so it was incredibly soft) clearly 10k is not a distance I seek out. 



I finished and felt great to finally stop running. A guy came over to me to say congratulations and that I helped push him to a faster time. Once I got my medal and stopped moving, I felt incredibly sweaty- like all of a sudden all the sweat just started. I took my flats off because I could feel blisters on a couple of my toes.  I usually wear them for speed work intervals, and was surprised to have  blisters. 




I cheered for friends as they finished and drank a ton of water. I was so thirsty!

I was quite happy with my time considering the 111 miles which were on my legs from the 6 days prior. I know I’m capable of something better had I been training specifically for the distance (duh)- for perspective, my half marathon PR is a few seconds per mile slower than what I did in this race. 



When we got home I fell asleep on the couch all snuggled up with CB. 


10k seems to be a great summer race distance- it was hot but I felt good. I wouldn’t have wanted to run any more at that effort. 

The race was well organized, and I loved the medal. Free race photos were also a plus. I’d definitely consider this race again. 




It was a fun day with friends. 

*technically my 3rd 10k, but only 2nd with time due to a course error in another 10k I did 5 years ago. 

Monday, June 25, 2018

Ironman Louisville Training 2018 {weeks 1-4}

Training Cycle total: 

Running : 110.78 miles, 15:48 hours
Cycling: 297.27 miles, 17:56 hours
Swimming: 0 miles, 0 hours

Yearly total: 
Running : 1111.07 miles, 158:08 hours
Cycling: 527. 27 miles, 36:12 hours
Swimming: 0 miles, 0 hours



Week 1

I went into this week feeling frustrated and flat. I also was sick and missed some workouts which I was apathetic about - usually I feel guilty to miss workouts.  I knew something needed to change so I started dissecting what was bothering me about my current plan from Be Iron Fit. I nailed my lack of excitement down to the running part of the plan- I didn’t like it- didn’t feel it was conducive to my usual training. 

Since Ironman training is still new to me, I didn’t want to deviate too much from an actual plan- but I needed something that would put the fun back into training. So I reworked my 18 week plan to include elements of the Hanson Marathon plan- mainly the speedwork. I was initially bothered that the Iron Fit plan didn’t have much speedwork/different speed workouts than I’m used to. I also didn’t want to go into post race starting in a worse place than I left off after Boston. Because, Goalz. 

I spent the week reworking everything and instantly felt more excited about everything. 

Week 2

Pretty much nailed all of my workouts- I gave myself some leeway with the running and cycling and felt like I was on the right track for this cycle. 

We saw Alt-J during this week. It was nice to see a live concert and enjoy a chilly spring night outside in Chicago. 


Week 3

Textbook. I felt great about training this week. 

Return of the Tuesday Uniform! I started doing 400’s again on tuesdays. I was excited and encouraged that I was able to bang the 400’s out at 6:18 pace (Boston training pace) and that it felt easy. Much better than when I had started Boston training in December! This definitely gave me a jolt of  excitement because I hadn’t done speedwork in months, and was enjoying full on sloth mode for the weeks since Boston and Copenhagen. 


Week 4!

Another week of feeling great about everything (broken record) . I’ve been running with Ze more and more and that makes me super happy. He’s a great running buddy! 

I ran the Chicago 10k on Sunday and felt much better than I expected based on the training load during the week. 

I also dropped my bike Mortadella, off at the spa for some much needed spa and me time in this season of Ironman training. It’s her first tuneup ever since I bought her in October 2015. I’ve got some outdoor rides planned and want to be a responsible cyclist and ensure Mortadella is healthy.  


Training Thoughts:

Swimming: I haven’t swam since my last IM in September 2016. I know I won’t get significantly better without intensive lessons and time in the water. I was comfortably within the cutoff last time- so I’ll swim 1-2x a week starting soon. I need to practice but to spend a ton of time on this to cut 10 min off my time isn’t worth it to me. 

Cycling: I’m focusing more on cycling since I was solidly sub mediocre at IM Wisconsin. I spent nearly 8 hours on the bike there! (Yeah it’s a beast of a course- but that result is embarrassing) I’ve been using Zwift which kicks my ass and motivates me to cycle harder than I would normally on the trainer. (Without Zwift I would screw around on my phone and not cycle with enough intensity) 

Running: I’m adding speedwork to my plan which is different than last time. (There’s a theme here) I did a lot of quantity, but not a lot of quality/intensity last time. By adding some intensity to my weekly mix, I know I’ll have a much more enjoyable experience at IMLou. I also know to be careful about adding too much running since it takes longer to recover. 

After 4 weeks of training I’m feeling empowered and excited to tackle my 2nd Ironman in October. Im confident that all the tweaks to my training will result in taking hours off of my last time of 14:39. (Mainly from cycling and running).

111 days to go!