Carlene, Jacquie and Kens Excellent Half-Marathon Adventure Web Site!
June 7/02 Carlene: Confidence builder
June 2, 2002 Taper
May 13 Off sick with stomach stuff
May 14 Easy run, 5K
May 15 Club run, 5K
May 16 Bike 30K
May 17 LSD run, 7.5K (cut short, knee pain)
May 18 Garden hand pull dandelions for 2 hours
May 19 Bike 7.5K Nearly passed out. Stopped and
turned around.
Run 17.5K, Crosstrain 218 minutesMay 20 Off
May 21 Run 4.8K
May 22 Club run, 5K
May 23 Off Drive to Toronto
May 24 Walk 2+ hours SHOPPING!
May 25 Walk 1+ hour in Toronto
May 26 RNR 1/2 Marathon
Run 30.9 K, Crosstrain 180+ minutesRecovery
May 27 Off Drive to Ottawa
May 28 Bike 20K
May 29 Off
May 30 Run (3.2K) Bike (18.65K) brick
May 31 Easy run, 4.25K
June 1 Bike 40K
June 2 Off baptism to attend
Run 7.4K, Crosstrain 208 minutes*********************************************
Well, a month had passed since my Personal Best 1/2 marathon in Kentucky. In that time I had some ups and downs in my training. One problem was some knee pain that left me feeling like something was under my kneecap. That was not fun and resulted in cutting some runs short. I also had problems with one of my bike workouts when just 12 minutes into a very windy ride I started feeling poorly. I stopped to blow my nose. Then I felt dizzy and started out sitting by the side of the road with my bike, then laying on the ground. After a few minutes, when I was feeling better, I made the tough decision to bag the workout and head home. This involved walking up a killer hill that I really didn't feel safe riding up. I am still unsure what was wrong with me that day but I didn't want to be an idiot and start off a big story with "First I nearly passed out, then when I felt better I
pressed on and something really bad happened to me." Instead I just get to say I cut my workout short and became a bit more of a couch potato :)Another thing that hindered my training during the past few weeks was the weather. We had a lot of cold rainy days and even some wet snow. This was not ideal training weather particularly for cycling (which I refuse to do in real downpours). However, I did some stuff and generally started to feel better about my training, particularly after a nice speedy run on May 21st.
Heading into the Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon I have to say I had low expectations. I did not expect to better my time of 2:05:55 set at the Kentucky Derby Mini just a month before. Instead I was hoping to run 2:10-2:15 which would require a decent effort but shouldn't require killing myself. I lined up with the other penguins and started a bit farther back in the pack then I probably should have.
This made the first few km's a bit uncomfortable trying to pass people and find some space. I ran briefly with Daniel and he quickly advised me to remove a layer of clothes to prevent overheating. Once I had done that he sent me along my way. I saw Julia Kim ahead and tried to catch her. Let me tell you now, it didn't happen. I watched her neon orange singlet stay basically the same distance ahead of me for the entire race. That was a bit frustrating :( However, it also helped me gauge how I was doing and know that I wasn't slowing down too much. Around 15K I picked up another runner who was running her first 1/2 marathon. We stayed together till the Penguin Aid station when she stopped for a walking break.
I have to tell you this race has a few major highlights for me. The first was starting with so many people I knew. Next was having two friends from my running club in Ottawa out on the course on their bikes. Having them wave and cheer (early in the race) and then ride beside me and encourage me to get moving
near the end when I was tired and cranky, well, that really helped. Having Julia to try and catch was a good motivator :) Finally, being treated like a HUGE CELEBRITY at both the Penguin Aid station and the finish area. Well, words cannot describe the huge boost I received from everyone there. I felt like I floated through the aid station and most of that final finish sprint (though that sprint did feel hard).This race was a big confidence builder for me as part of me wondered if I could run a good 1/2 marathon time by myself, without the expert pacing of Bill Kramer. When I ran KD mini with Bill it was a huge milestone for me because I ran harder and longer than I have ever done before. I also think KD Mini was ideally paced and I am so pleased with our negative splits. My time of 2:05:55 was over 4 minutes faster than my previous 1/2 marathon time. Rock 'n' Roll half, though slightly faster, was run at a lower heart rate and on a much flatter, easier course. My time was 2:05:23. I am delighted with both races. I hope this
is the start of an awesome racing year for me. The greedy PR part of my brain is wondering if I could eke out another improvement by training for a fall half marathon. However, I'm not going to commit to anything right now. I am going to savour this awesome spring.A full week has passed since the race. My recovery is going well and I am feeling wonderful. I am also wishing that PWC5 wasn't 14 whole months away. I don't want to wait that long to do this all again.
Flipper hugs and thanks for reading all these journals!
CarlenePS For those who are interested my splits were:
1 Mile = 10:29
10K = 58:41 (9:27 pace)
16K = 1:34:59 (9:33 overall pace, pace for last 6K = 9:44 miles)
20K = 1:59:18 (9:36 overall pace, pace for last 4K = 9:47 miles)
21.1K = 2:05:23 (9:34 pace, pace for last 1.1K = 8:53 miles)So... I ran slight positive splits. However, I'm not going to complain :)
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