Austin 1/2 Marathon

I recently completed the Austin 1/2 Marathon on Sunday, February 19th. Originally, this race wasn't in my 2012 plans, however, when my sister mentioned that she'd like to come visit that weekend and run the race with me, I figured it would be a fun thing to do together.

After speaking with Coach James, the plan was to use this 1/2 as a gauge for fitness and see if I could hold MGP( marathon goal pace). He advised me to warm up for the first 4 miles and then use the last 9.1 to see if I could hold the goal pace ( since my goal for Boston is a 3:20:00, I would need to try to hit 7:38 miles).

Also, since that weekend, I was slated to do 20miles as my long run, it was suggested that I break the long run into 2 medium long runs: 10 easy miles on Saturday and then the 13.1 MGP run.

Saturday's weather was less than desirable (rainy and chilly). I went out when there was a break in the rain, but there was no avoiding it. I got caught in a torrential downpour at about mile 2.5 and was soaked from there on out. After the run, everything was water-logged, including the shoes I planned to wear on race day.

(Helpful tip: * Stuff wet running shoes with newspaper to soak up all excess water. It really does work! My shoes were dry and ready for the next morning's run.)

On the morning of the 1/2, Kristi, Scott & I made our way downtown around 5:45am. After arriving and hitting the port-o-potty line multiple times, we realized we were on the opposite end of where bag check was. We made our way against the flow of traffic, at least 6 blocks, dropped our bags and jogged quickly back to the starting line. I gave Scott a quick kiss goodbye, and as we parted ways (he was running the full marathon) I heard him shout, "don't run too fast"...he knows me all too well!

Kristi and I jumped into the corral together. We had just enough time to hug eachother good luck and the gun went off. Kristi was taking it easy as she hadn't been able to train like she wanted to.

I took off  and told her I'd wait for her at the finish line.  I had to do a bit of weaving in the beginning just to get around the people taking it easy.  I was feeling pretty warmed up by mile 1, so I just settled in and tried to stay on track with my MGP. Shortly into the race, I found myself in the 3:35 marathon pace group. I ran into a Tough Cookie friend who was running the full. We chatted for a bit and then I moved on, as it was a big congested. At the 5k mark, I was keeping a 7:33/mile pace, knowing this was a bit too quick, I slowed down a bit and tried to keep myself in check. I know all too well what happens if you blaze on out of the corrals too quickly ( these experiences will have to be saved for another blog ).

At the 5 mile marker, I was clocking the same 7:33/mile pace. I was feeling great, the weather was perfect, and I had plenty of energy. I decided to continue on at the same steady pace. At around mile 9, a few hills started to show up, but surprisingly enough (considering my lack of hill training), I was feeling great. My time was even a little under the 7:33 pace. Again, probably not the best tactic, as I was trying to hit MGP, but at this point, I just wanted to hurry up and finish up.

And then....it arrived. The giant hill at mile 12. I could see it looming in the distance as I crested a smaller hill around mile 11.5. I looked over at the dude next to me and just muttered, "oh man". He was like, "oh yeah, that hill killed me last year."  Well, I wasn't going to let it kill me. I kept a few positive thoughts in mind:

1.) I was almost done with the race, and 2.) my lululemon co-workers were stationed on this hill, ready to inspire and cheer us all up that bad boy of a hill. As I approached, I just kept swinging my arms. I felt like I was just shuffling up this hill, however, all of the cheers and shouts of encouragement made it pass by quickly and before I knew it, I was over and on my way to the finish.

I clocked a 1:37:10 for this 1/2 marathon. Not a PR obviously and I wasn't expecting it to be as I was trying to attain another goal: stick with MGP. Sadly, I was not able to achieve that either, but it did give me a confidence boost for Boston. I felt good coming through the finish line which gives me hope that my goal of 3:20 is within reach. (Another opportunity awaits for MGP during a 1/2 at the Zooma Women's 1/2 marathon in Bastrop on March 31st.)

I waited at the end of the race for my sister, who surprised herself with her lack of hill training as well and finished with a time of 2:03:12. We obviously had to get proof of this race! We hadn't done a race together since our high school cross country days.

We waited around for Scott, and he crossed the line in 4:06:58, carrying an American flag nonetheless. 

It was now time to celebrate. Off to Enchiladas Y Mas for some mexican food & beer! Adios calories burned!



Hills, Hills, Hills

Life has been hectic and I've been without internet for awhile, but I'm now back in action.

Training for Boston is rolling along pretty smoothly. According to my coaches at Rogue, I have now entered into the strength building phase of marathon training. Which can only mean one thing....hills, hills, and more hills. I unfortunately have not been keeping up with the hill work as I should be. I can't even remember the last time I did a hill workout aside from just running the many hills (at a leisurely pace) that Austin has to offer. So going into Tuesday's workout, I was feeling pretty nervous, however, knowing that I'd be out there with my spring group made it a little bit more bearable. Little did I know, I was in for a "treat" as Coach James told me when I arrived to practice.

Since I'm training in Cedar Park( this Rogue location recently opened up 6 months ago) & it's a group for Boston & Vancouver,  the spring session is rather small.  When I say small, I mean small....3 people total. I was a little shocked and disappointed when I first showed up to train with the Rogues in North Austin. Coming from NYC, where the training groups were large, and competitive, this frustrated me. However, on a positive note,  the coaching is pretty intimate and this past Tuesday, it got even more intimate....one on one coaching! Coach James informed me that I'd be doing my first hill workout with one of their other coaches, Aussie Scott. Normally, I'd be psyched to have some one on one coaching, however, Scott is no slow poke. This guy recently won the 3M 1/2 marathon and plans to hold a 5:15 pace for the upcoming Austin marathon this Sunday.  He planned to go easy on Tuesday, so he was going to be out there to provide some company for me and keep me on track for the workout.  I was definitely excited to have the company, however, Scott's "easy" pace was probably still faster than my hard pace!

I warmed up  2 miles out to the hills to meet Scott and we began the workout. The route was laid out on a side street that had 3 parallel roads with medium sized hills in which we'd run up & down the first street, jog to the next, run up & down that street, jog to the next, run up & down the last, and then jog back to where we started. Our plan was to do 3x6 hill repeats for a total of 18 hill repeats. The workout had me going at 10k pace effort up & down the hill. Of course, in true Katie fashion, I started the workout too fast & by the 3rd set of hills, I was really starting to feel it. Scott kept giving me pointers... "swing those arms when it gets tough"..."quick turnover"...."stay with me"..."finish ahead of me"....and that really helped keep me on track. I finished the workout feeling exhausted, but it was a good exhausted. We ended up only doing 5 repeats since I'll be doing the Austin 1/2 this Sunday. Nonetheless, first hill workout of the season was in the books. I jogged back to Rogue feeling & refueled with a little tropical Nuun. Already looking forward to the next hill workout!

Up next......The Austin 1/2 Marathon on Sunday, February 19th!

Birth of a Blog: The first post.

I am finally making a goal of 2012 a reality. I had wanted to start my blog on January 1st, but due to the fact that I was away in Big Bend National Park and didn't have any internet access, this goal was postponed.  Only a month late, I am finally getting my thoughts out there. (Keep in mind that I am a newbie at blogging and this may be choppy and unorganized until I figure out what I am actually doing :)  )
 Originally, I had wanted to start a blog as a means to discuss my upcoming training for IMWI ( I signed up with my boyfriend after waiting in line for over 2 hours on Monday, Sept. 12). However, the more I thought about it, I really wanted to get the word out sooner about what we were doing.
A little background info:
   In conjunction with IMWI, I had decided awhile back that I really wanted to do some fundraising for a charity to make this event even more meaningful. When I trained for my very first marathon back in 2007/2008, I signed up with Team in Training and realized that racing for a cause really helps keep one motivated. I never had a personal connection to the cause, but I was lucky to meet so many inspiring people along the way. After moving here to Austin, I decided I wanted to put my efforts toward a cause that was close and personal to my heart, the Multiple Sclerosis Society.  My mother has suffered from MS, since late 2001, when she was diagnosed at age 40.  My parents live in Wisconsin still and I chose the Wisconsin Chapter in hopes of her possibly receiving some direct benefit from our fundraising efforts.   Scott(my boyfriend) and I launched our fundraising website in November with a lofty goal of $15,000.  To date: we have raised $1,202.41.
To visit our website and make a donation, click here:  http://main.nationalmssociety.org/site/TR/DiYFundraisingEvents/WIGDIYEvents?px=4555832&pg=personal&fr_id=18226
We are accepting donations all the way up through the day of the event.  Once my official IM training begins, I will be blogging on a regular basis about fundraising, training, and MS. In the meantime, there will be posts involving my training for the Boston marathon which takes place on April 16th, 2012! I will also be randomly blogging about things that inspire me such as music, food, fashion, art, and any other interesting thoughts that may be blogworthy.