BCHM Training: Week 11

This is it! There's less than a week until the Buffalo Creek Half Marathon this Saturday. Despite a bad run today, I feel ready. I've been visualizing a positive race experience daily and, physically, have a great cycle of training runs to rely on. Overall I feel pretty confident and positive. A few notes...

Since this is my taper week, I've been reading articles on how to taper for a half marathon. Not surprisingly, the advice varies. Some articles suggest taking the two days before the race off, while this article advocates easy runs with pace intervals the two days before the race. I will probably go middle of the road and run Thursday and take Friday off.
I've also been reading about recovering from a half marathon. All the advice is basically, "It varies by person." I plan on taking three full days off running then adding some easy runs at the end of the week.
I've also started planning for my next running goals. This race has been my goal since the same race a year ago. I'm going to make my next goals two years out and come up with training and racing plans to meet those goals. Very fun stuff!
I'll do a few more posts this week with some last-minute thoughts about this race that are a bit too long to include here then will post my recap next weekend.
Off topic: I need to quit watching scary movies. They're like an addiction--I know they're bad for me but I can't stop watching them. Last weekend was The Conjuring. Last night was Sinister (with Ethan Hawke). I actually begged my husband to turn it off because I was getting too stressed watching it...but he didn't. And then today I was still thinking about it while drying my hair, so I didn't hear my husband walk up the steps. He tripped and fell into the bathroom, and all I saw out of the corner of my eye was someone lunging toward me. I let out a bloodcurdling scream. My poor cats, dog, and neighbors!
Total weekly mileage was 27.

On to the recap! (PS: I failed on the photo-taking front this week.)

Monday
35 minutes Iron Strength
60 minutes Yin Yoga, spine series

Tuesday
Medium pace run: 5 miles, 55:26, 11:04 pace
This was slightly faster than the medium pace of 11:15-11:30 that I was supposed to do. But I felt really great.

Wednesday
Pace run: 4 miles, 43:33 pace, 10:52 pace
Again a little faster than I wanted to go, but again I felt great.

Thursday:
Recovery run: 3.01 miles, 35:30; 11:48 pace
Note: I skipped my second strength training workout of the weekend. I just didn't feel like it and thought it wouldn't kill me to skip it. I think this is a sign that I'm getting bored with the Iron Strength workout and need to find a new one.

Friday
Essential Yoga video from Runner's World

Saturday
Pace run: 3 miles, 32:42; 10:53 pace
Interesting that this pace was nearly identical with my Wednesday pace run. I think my body is really going to want to run at this pace in the first few miles on race day. I'm going to try to keep closer to 11:00. If I want to run faster later in the race, I'll speed up then.

My only outfit picture of the week! I'm wearing a new Lululemon Run for Gold Half-Zip I got with a gift card. While it's a half-zip and covers my arms and neck, the material is extremely lightweight plus has mesh (on the underside of the arm and in the back), so it was perfect for a sweaty run on a very cool morning. It was cool in the mid-40s and sunny and just gorgeous.

Lululemon Mauvelous Run for Gold Half-Zip, Med Grey Bangbuster &
Heathered Coal Speed Tights
Athleta Black Extra Long Chi Tank

Sunday
Long run: 12 miles, 2:29, 12:26 average
I guess I was due to have a bad long run since I haven't had any trouble with previous long runs. Up until mile 7 I was fine, running between 11:30 and 12:30 miles. But I was uncomfortable because I hadn't worn a hat and the sun in the cloudless sky was relentless--I hate having the sun in my eyes and face. At around mile 8 I started slowing, and at 9 miles came tummy cramps and a bad stitch. I had been taking walk breaks at every 2 miles or so to mimic walking through water stations, but at mile 9 through 10 I took many walk breaks until the pain subsided. Even then, I was feeling really awful at mile 10 and ran the slowest mile I've ever run: 13:34! But the good part is that I was able to rally. Mile 11 was 13:10 and mile 12 was 12:33. I didn't finish at goal pace, but I was able to pick up the pace. The run sucked, but I'm glad I was able to suck it up and continue and even pick up the pace. I feel like I salvaged some good from it. I did take a Clif shot with the max amount of caffeine shortly after mile 8. I might take one with less caffeine that far into the race, just in case it was the caffeine that made my tummy hurt. Also, I wore my race-day outfit, and it's so cute! I was so beat up after my run that I didn't even have the energy to take a picture, so you'll get to see the outfit in my race recap.

After I stretched a lot, did a little bit of recovery yoga, ate, and showered, I felt much better so we headed up to the Laurel Highlands. The leaves are in full bloom there, and everything is gorgeous. We decided to try what we thought might be a shorter way to the trail we planned to hike, but the GPS on my phone took us somewhere else. So we ended up hiking on the Roaring Run Trail just because it was there. It was pretty, but was pretty much long gradual hill climbs on a very rocky trail, so it wasn't an ideal post-long-run hike. Plus, I slipped on a stone crossing the stream and landed in the stream and had to hike the rest of the way in wet, sloshy socks and shoes. Oh well--we still enjoyed being outside and hiking in the fall leaves. And I'm also grateful that I'm not totally wiped out after long runs and can still enjoy the day.