Today marks 4 weeks until my half marathon. My. First. Half. Marathon. I feel like I am already getting nervous along with the super excitement that I've had since I signed up in November. I have been officially training since December 1st. And I was running with the intent to sign up for a race since before that. And now I am only 28 small days away from achieving a goal I've had for several years. I don't know why it took me so long to get motivated to do it, but I'm glad I did. Making a training schedule that I taped to the mirror on my dresser has helped me stay focused on my goal and on each run and cross training workout. I am the type to procrastinate and sometimes make excuses for not working out. But seeing that training schedule and crossing off each day has helped. Making myself mark through workouts I didn't do has helped me also to not want to skip them. I hate physically showing that I skipped a workout. It has helped so much. I will have to post a picture of the schedule with all the mark and changes. Its a mess.
Yesterday I had a 12 mile run. The furthest I had run before all of this training was 10 miles, and that was 5 years ago. The week before I had an 11 mile run which went ok. Not bad but not the pace I wanted either. the 12 miles yesterday though was wonderful. I had a 10:02 pace. My goal for the half marathon is a 10 minute pace. I was thrilled to only be 1.1 miles from the half marathon distance and accomplished my goal time. Well two seconds off, but honestly if I'm two seconds off in my race I won't care then either. At my race the half marathon and the full will run together for the first 10 miles. So my goal is to find the pacer for the full that has the 4 hour 20 minute time and stick with them. That is 10 minute miles and a 2 hour 10 minute half marathon time. The last couple of weeks I have been focusing alot on my shorter runs to make them faster. I also just found out that there are two tall hills in the first 7 miles, so I have been making sure I add more hills into my runs and I push myself up them instead of just shuffling slowly like I had been doing. I have seen improvement already at the shorter distances, and judging by my 12 mile run, it is starting to pay off for longer runs also.
This coming Saturday I am doing a 13 mile run. I will probably add the .1 and try to see how fast I can do it. However fast I do that training run, I will definitely want to beat that time in the race. I am excited and nervous for it. After that run though I start my taper! I have never done a taper before so I am hoping it goes well. When first making my training schedule I asked "why do I even need to taper?" But it is very necessary to not run the long miles before you do a long race. Your legs need to recover from the long runs. But, decreasing mileage does not mean to slack off on the intensity. If your taper is 3 weeks long and you start just doing easy runs, you are going to start losing muscle and endurance. The last week before my race I will run a little easier, with the last run before my race being very easy to just keep loose. I would have to say above all, listen to your body! If you feel you are taking it too easy, then make sure you are still doing intense workouts. Don't up the mileage again by much though. Or if you feel overtired, make sure you take it a bit easier and get plenty of rest. I think rest is the hardest thing for me. My two year old keeps me busy all day, and when she goes to sleep I tend to stay up late getting things done or just having some me time. My goal is for the two weeks leading up to the race to get to bed early every single night. And the week before the race I will be setting an alarm to wake up early. My race is at 7:30 which is when I usually wake up. I don't want to be super tired on race day because I am not used to a 5am wake up call.
Anyways, this post was kind of random but I tried to give some tips about prepping for race day, coming from someone who has never done a long race before. Just what I've read and what I think will be good. If you have any additional tips for me please share!! And keep running! :)
Sunday, February 16, 2014
Thursday, February 6, 2014
Running Form (and pasta!)
I haven't felt like I had anything helpful or inspiring to post recently. After today's run though I would like to talk about running form. If you ran on a team you probably had some coaching on this. I've never been in a running club (hopefully one day I will) but I would hope they help their runners with things like this.
Today I did a 4 mile run on the treadmill. Its a great time to check your form for a few reasons:
1) Come on. Its a treadmill. You're bored and staring at the same thing (for me a wall). There's a TV but even when its on somehow I never look at it much.
2) You don't have to worry about where you are going.
3) You don't have to watch out for cars (I'm always running along the road and have to be on the lookout).
4) You can do precise adjustments of your pace to see how your form changes as you go faster (can be done outside too obviously).
My run was somewhat of a tempo run, which is basically where you start easy, then run hard (a little slower than race pace) then slow at the end. I ran my first mile easy in 10:20, my second mile medium 9:11, then my third mile fast at an 8:23 pace. My fourth mile was easy again in 10:23. Monday I did a 4 mile run with negative splits (each mile faster than the previous mile) so this was a little easier but still a good workout.
I really try to concentrate on my form when I'm on the treadmill. Starting with your hands, make sure you do not clench your fists tight. This just uses energy that your legs need. When I was in high school, our track coach would have us practice sometimes while carrying potato chips. We couldn't let them break. I swear even now when I run my hand looks as if I'm holding imaginary chips. It is a great way to learn to relax your hands some. Just don't have them all flopping around either!
Next is your arms. Do not swing across in front of your body. It doesn't help with the forward motion you are doing, so again its wasted energy. I catch myself doing this every once in a while and need to correct it. Something I am not very good at is actually using my arms. Don't just let them swing with the momentum from your movement. If you physically pump your arms back and forth, it helps your legs to move. When I actually remember to do it, I feel like it almost give my legs a little relief. I really need to work on doing it more, it will help especially during my long runs.
My back is another area I'm not perfect with my form. I don't slouch like you would when in a chair, but rather my hips seem to go forward, arching my back. I have to correct this all the time so my back is straight. It changes how my running feels alot.
Today's run was a great time for checking form. I ran slow and could check it, then with the next two progressively faster miles I could see if I was still keeping my form at that pace. The last easy mile when I was super tired is when my form started getting a little sketchy. I'm glad it was my focus today and I realized I probably get worse form all the time when I'm tired. Good to know for my future runs.
I hope this was helpful to some of you in improving your running form. With good form you will waste less energy and can focus it where it needs to be and help your speed! Who doesn't want that?
As a bonus, here is the pasta I made tonight. Runners love pasta!
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I usually do this with spaghetti, but this is whole grain rotini with olive oil, lemon juice, garlic salt, parsley, and bread crumbs on it. Sorry I don't have measurements. But lightly coat with olive oil, add lemon juice to taste (I actually like tasting it a little so I add what I would guess is about a tsp), then a light sprinkling of garlic salt and parsley, then lightly coated in bread crumbs. I always put some on, stir it, and if it doesn't seem like enough add a little more. It is healthy and delicious!! My two year old Kylie ate all of hers and a little more. I made enough so that I will have leftovers for lunch tomorrow. Super yummy!
Today I did a 4 mile run on the treadmill. Its a great time to check your form for a few reasons:
1) Come on. Its a treadmill. You're bored and staring at the same thing (for me a wall). There's a TV but even when its on somehow I never look at it much.
2) You don't have to worry about where you are going.
3) You don't have to watch out for cars (I'm always running along the road and have to be on the lookout).
4) You can do precise adjustments of your pace to see how your form changes as you go faster (can be done outside too obviously).
My run was somewhat of a tempo run, which is basically where you start easy, then run hard (a little slower than race pace) then slow at the end. I ran my first mile easy in 10:20, my second mile medium 9:11, then my third mile fast at an 8:23 pace. My fourth mile was easy again in 10:23. Monday I did a 4 mile run with negative splits (each mile faster than the previous mile) so this was a little easier but still a good workout.
I really try to concentrate on my form when I'm on the treadmill. Starting with your hands, make sure you do not clench your fists tight. This just uses energy that your legs need. When I was in high school, our track coach would have us practice sometimes while carrying potato chips. We couldn't let them break. I swear even now when I run my hand looks as if I'm holding imaginary chips. It is a great way to learn to relax your hands some. Just don't have them all flopping around either!
Next is your arms. Do not swing across in front of your body. It doesn't help with the forward motion you are doing, so again its wasted energy. I catch myself doing this every once in a while and need to correct it. Something I am not very good at is actually using my arms. Don't just let them swing with the momentum from your movement. If you physically pump your arms back and forth, it helps your legs to move. When I actually remember to do it, I feel like it almost give my legs a little relief. I really need to work on doing it more, it will help especially during my long runs.
My back is another area I'm not perfect with my form. I don't slouch like you would when in a chair, but rather my hips seem to go forward, arching my back. I have to correct this all the time so my back is straight. It changes how my running feels alot.
Today's run was a great time for checking form. I ran slow and could check it, then with the next two progressively faster miles I could see if I was still keeping my form at that pace. The last easy mile when I was super tired is when my form started getting a little sketchy. I'm glad it was my focus today and I realized I probably get worse form all the time when I'm tired. Good to know for my future runs.
I hope this was helpful to some of you in improving your running form. With good form you will waste less energy and can focus it where it needs to be and help your speed! Who doesn't want that?
As a bonus, here is the pasta I made tonight. Runners love pasta!
I usually do this with spaghetti, but this is whole grain rotini with olive oil, lemon juice, garlic salt, parsley, and bread crumbs on it. Sorry I don't have measurements. But lightly coat with olive oil, add lemon juice to taste (I actually like tasting it a little so I add what I would guess is about a tsp), then a light sprinkling of garlic salt and parsley, then lightly coated in bread crumbs. I always put some on, stir it, and if it doesn't seem like enough add a little more. It is healthy and delicious!! My two year old Kylie ate all of hers and a little more. I made enough so that I will have leftovers for lunch tomorrow. Super yummy!
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