Looking forward

Next Monday, the building for Chattanooga actually starts. There are 25 weeks to go, and a lot of bike miles to get in.

One of the things I'm adding for this training cycle is some personal training. Team Z has great injury prevention bootcamps, but I'd like to see if some more direct strength work could help me bike faster. So last week, I learned a few kettlebell motions and also learned that my hamstrings are feeble. Ouch!

I'm meeting with my nutritionist to stand on the fancy scale that does a muscle mass assessment in mid-April, and will schedule follow on appointments at the fancy-scale location over the summer so I can hopefully measure some muscle progress from this personal training endeavor.

2015 RNR Marathon Race Report

This season brought new distances, new speeds, new goals, and best of all new running buddies. The long runs gave me a chance to work on a lot of mental and physical goals, and I got to use that strength in the race.

Date	Distance	Location	Lessons Learned, Lessons Used
Nov 1	8	PRR	Run Clinic, use your butt
Nov 8	Hash	Arl	Hills, remember how far you’ve come
Nov 16	9	Columbia Island	Time for friends, time for work, neg split
Nov 22	10	Burke Lake	Run with self, neg split
Nov 29	Cheering	CZM	Giving back, pay it forward
Dec 6	11	Manassas	Pre-run to get it done
Dec 13	12	Accotink	Crankypants attitude adjustment, nutrition
Dec 20	6	Vacation run	Hills, run with self, get it done
Dec 27	10	Vacation run	Time for friends, enjoy the scenery
Jan 3	14	PRR	Hills, rain, neg split
Jan 11	6.5	EAC	Recovery doesn’t mean OFF
Jan 18	10	EAC	Cold rain, get it done
Jan 25	16	Bike Lane	New longest, nutrition, neg split
Jan 31	5		Hills, recovery, time for friends
Feb 8	18	EAC	New longest, neg split, finish strong
Feb 14	14	Fletchers	Get outside your comfort zone, finish strong, neg split
Feb 21	20	Ed’s	New longest, finish strong, nutrition, restraint, snow
Mar 1	6.5	Haines Pt	Run with self, icy Garmin, 10K PR
Mar 7	8	Treadmill	Run with self, get it done, pacing
Mar 14	26.2	DC	Time for work, run with self, crankypants attitude adjustment, rain, enjoy the scenery, hills, use your butt, soak up the energy, get it done, nutrition, be uncomfortable, new longest, neg split, finish strong, 13.1 PR, 10 mi PR, time for friends.

First marathon

4:24

50/152 in my age group (top third performance!!)

Racing Retrospective

Before I get to actually writing a report on how the marathon went, I have a flashback post on how far I've come.

I’ve been on TeamZ for a while now, and just had my 6th Winter “A” Race. Every one has felt like an accomplishment, a wonderful step forward. All of these steps have gotten me farther than I’d thought possible.

TL;DR: I raced my first marathon and finished in 4:24, which beat all of my goals for the race. Once upon a time, I ran a half in 3:16, which beat all of my goals for that race.

Here are some numbers:

Year	Race	Time	Pace	Goal
2010	Shamrock Half Marathon	3:16	15:00	Run Z2, maybe 16:00 pace?
2011	Shamrock Half Marathon	3:05	14:10	Improve from last year using new Z2 numbers
2012	DC Rock N Roll Half Marathon	2:57	13:32	Improve from Shamrock, even with hills
2013	Myrtle Beach Half	2:52	13:09	Beat LRP pace of 13:45
2014	Shamrock Half Marathon	2:35	11:50	Negative split it, average pace around 12:00
2015	RNR Full Marathon	4:24	10:05	Negative split it, average pace around 10:30

I was so excited in 2010 to see my running buddy in front of me as I came within a few miles of finishing. I was able to catch up enough that we finished together after training together and having so many new-longest runs together

2011 gave me my first experience of a running injury. Surprisingly, ignoring my angry Achilles didn’t actually make it get better, so coming back to run the RnR Half Marathon in 2012 felt a little like starting over from scratch, but this time with a hilly race at the end of the training! Val caught this photo of me towards the beginning — on my way to a 10K PR, followed by 6 miles of fade, but a healthy run and a Half marathon PR.

In 2012, we started using pace-based training as a companion to heart rate, so I gave that a try and was super excited to run most of the 2013 Myrtle Beach Half Marathon with paces in the 12’s! I still faded a lot towards the end and had unplanned walk breaks. In the winter of 2013, I started working with Rebecca and added nutrition to the things I was thinking about, in addition to training. When the 2014 Shamrock Half Marathon came around, I was under 200 lbs and super excited to race my most disciplined race yet. I wanted to run faster and smarter, and managed to do that — negative splitting the half marathon, and, wow, it is awesome to feel strong at the end, instead of feeling beat down. I really recommend it!

This year, I am getting ready to do my first Ironman, and step n+1 of that was to train for and run a stand-alone marathon. I picked RNR because it is hillier than Shamrock, and Chattanooga also has a hilly run. I trained well, and raced well and had an amazing result. I’ve awarded myself the prize of “best first marathon” because I maintained focus, negative split the race, and beat my goals. I have a lot more to say about this particular race, and the training leading up to it, but felt like a flashback post was needed, so that’s what you get.