Columbus Half Marathon and Registering for Boston Marathon

Columbus Marathon Sunday, October 17th


Last Saturday afternoon my husband and I headed down to Columbus, picked up my 19 year old son Matt who attends The Ohio State University.  We went to the race expo, which was pretty lame.  Although after going to the Boston marathon race expo twice, I think any other race expo is going to be pretty weak.

We had our fill of some pasta, and settled into our hotel to watch the Buckeyes get killed by Wisconsin.

We all had pretty big goals for the next day.  My husband was trying to go for a sub-3 hour marathon for the second year in a row.  This year he had his sights on going 2:57.

My son and I were doing the half.  Matt had set his goal at 1:20.  With a pretty busy quarter and a sore ankle for the last two weeks, he wasn't sure how the day would go.  I have a half marathon pr of 1:53.?? that was set quite a few years ago.  I was hoping to go sub 1:50.  I had spent the last 8 weeks or so doing cross fit strength workouts, and cf endurance running workouts that call for lots of speed and not a ton of miles.  So I was totally unsure of what the day would bring.  I knew I was more comfortable running faster.  But I felt like the last three miles were going to be a question mark.

At the start I lined up with the 3:40 marathon pace group (a 1:50 half time) and vowed to stay with them until I felt like they were going to make me 'blow up' out there.  This worked for about 7 miles.  Our pace setter was well ahead of the 8:25 per mile pace necessary.  We were throwing out quite a few 8:10 or so miles.  Around 7-8 I felt like I needed to back off a little.  If I stayed at about 8:30 for the rest of the race, I knew I would meet my goal.

The day was beautiful.  Sunny, about 50 degrees.  This is a big race.  10,000 in the half marathon and 5,000 in the full marathon.  They all start together and then the half runners, just turn off at about 13 miles for the final stretch.  LOTS of crowd support, flat.  All in all, a great race.  I have run the marathon there the last two years.  I was always jealous of the people that got to turn off at 13, so this year it was nice to know I was the one.

With 5K left, I knew I was going to be very close to my 1:50 goal.  I felt pretty spent by then, but tried to push the pace as much as I could.  Crossing the line with a 1:50:30.   This is about a three minute pr for me, and so I am very happy with that.  Officially it is 8:27 miles.  But on my Garmin it is over 13.1 miles, of course, and so it had me at 8:25 miles.

My smokin' fast boys had an amazing day!!!

John ran a 2:57.32 marathon.  Finishing 98th out of the 5,000 runners and 9th in his AG.
Matt ran a 1:20:01 half finishing 58th out of the 10,000 runners and 2nd in his AG.

I am always amazed at how fast they can run.  All three of us are pretty well recovered.  I actually felt great,even the rest of the day.  Matt was more nauseous than he has ever been, but he has not run that distance much at all.  He is an Oly distance triathlete.  John had some trouble with stairs for  a few days, but is on the mend.

I have taken this week as a total rest week.  I am looking forward to getting out for a 5-6 mile run tomorrow morning, and then back into it next week.

My plans until January are 3 GOOD sessions on the bike trainer (interval training) with a specific workout planned for each day.  and 3 GOOD sessions of running per week (one distance, one speed)

I start coaching high school swimming in two weeks.  I will get in the pool sporadically during the season and it will be really hard trying to fit everything in...but I will!!

Boston Registration:

John and I have been planning on registering for months.  We have our hotel.  We had the 18th on the calender to remind us to register.  Starting at 9am, John spent hours at work on and off trying to register us.  The computer kept throwing him out.  About noon he finally got in.  He registered ME.  Thinking he would get in again soon.  He was never able to get in again.  He got CLOSED OUT!!  What the heck!

I am in, John is not!  and I am not happy about this.

When he told me that evening I was heartbroken.  The whole fun is that we are in it together.  I will be at Athlete's Village that morning without him :(

He seems to be fine with it.  He will find another marathon to train for, and be my support crew for Boston.  But I am still BUMMED!!

6 week update on Crossfit and other ramblings

It has been a while since my last post.  I am back at school, teaching algebra 1/geometry and honors algebra 2.  And my girls are both running cross country, which takes up many nights per week.

I will try to briefly catch up with everyone on how things are going.

Workouts (just a sampling of a typical week):
My goals are 4 runs / 4 crossfit WOD strength workouts/ 1 bike per week.  I consider this my off season, although I am running the Columbus HALF marathon on October 16th.  This has broken down into a typical week like last week:

MondayAM: 5 rounds for time of 20 pushups/20meter Farmers Carry of 25lb dumbells/15 squats holding 25lb dumbells/20m Farmer Carry back to start  Total time 11:43

Monday PM: Run wu one mile then 3 by 3 minutes intervals with 3 minute recovery then cool down- total 2.5 miles

Tuesday AM: 5 rounds for time of 8 pullups/ 16 dips/10 overhead squats with 15lb dumbells/10 toes to bar total time 19:43

Wednesday AM: 5K for time on the treadmill in 24:50

Thursday: Run Warmup then 4min/5min/6min/5min/4min hard run with 2 minutes easy run between  total of 4 miles

FridayAM: 3 rounds for time of 400meter run/ 21 Kettlebell Swings/12 pullups

SaturdayAM: 12 mile run (not too happy with my pace because I am having problems with a sore hamstring that has lasted FOREVER)  pace was 9:37 after the last two weeks I ran 12 miles and 13 miles with my pace at about 9:10

Sunday: 5 rounds of 30 secON/30secOFF of pushups/situps/lunges

Was planning on biking on Wednesday afternoon, but didn't!  So 4 strength workouts/4 running workouts

I am getting more comfortable with running faster on this program.  I can run around 9:00 pace comfortably for long runs and it feels about the same as what I would feel at 9:30 pace.  I am also feeling some of my strength coming back.  After doing p90x and other programs I could push out 25 pushups no problem.  After NOT doing any strength work for months, 10 pushups were hard.  I can now easily get 20 out without pausing.

My 9 mile race on September 11th I did 8:25 pace.  On October 16th for my half marathon my B goal is to PR by going sub-1:53 and my A goal is sub-1:50 which means I need to go near 8:20 pace.  One of the keys is to get my hamstring feeling healed!  I am trying to do lots of stretching and some icing, and using my trigger point ball to massage the area!

Nutrition:
I continue to eat as close to Vegan as possible.  I seem to allow some dairy pretty frequently.  Creamer in my coffee, and cheese here and there, especially when eating out.  I am not too picky on bread and so there are egg and dairy in many of them.

I do NOT miss meat at all, and I have NO wish to eat meat.  My new favorite food blog is Fat Free Vegan with lots of good recipes.  I made yellow split pea soup with sweet potatos and kale last night, along with the asparagus chickpea casserole.  Thanks to Michelle for suggesting it.

I continue to work on losing this last 10-15 pounds to no avail.  I know why.  I can't get the evil thing out of my diet-->SUGAR!!!

FAMILY:
My most prized possession. 

Matt is back to Ohio State.  He went to Age Group Nationals and competed in the under 19 division in Alabama a few weeks ago.  He had a pr with a 2:07 for an OLY tri and came in 6th.  He continues to be a leader of the Ohio State Triathlon Club, serving as their running coach as only a sophomore.   He is very involved with them, as he keeps up his work in Honors Engineering. 
I totally!!!!! miss having him home to ride with me and help me with my bike.  Which is one of the reasons I haven't ridden much since he went back to school.  I will see him when we go down to run Columbus.  He is also running the half marathon 'with' me (but far ahead of me).

Lizzie is having a successful Cross Country season having run a 21:52 5K  last weekend.  She is in the process of applying to WestPoint for and it is looking like she should receive an appointment there.  I will miss her terribly wherever she ends up next year, as she leaved high school and makes her way in this world.  She is an amazing person!!!

Megan, my little one, is running cross country for the first time.  She is involved in so many athletics, she will have to make decisions soon.  It has been a pleasure watching her and her group of 3 friends do workouts and begin to understand how to run!  She is only in 6th grade, and becoming a wonderful young woman.

John, my awesome husband, is going to be running the Columbus full marathon.  He has been training SUPER hard for this one.  He never seems to take an 'off season'.  He is going for a second year of sub-3 hour Columbus marathon.  Last year was a 2:59!!  It all comes from hard work for him.

For all of you out in the blog world, I have been reading all your blogs and loving them.  Just not posting too many comments!  You are all so inspiring!!