Days 5 & 6

At this point, it's pretty clear that I need to stop pretending that I'm participating in a running "streak," considering that I also missed yesterday's run. (For the record, I ran 1.5 miles tonight before hitting the gym. It was cold but DRY outside and I had to give my brand new "I cashed in all of my Amazon points, so it was free" Garmin 610 a workout!)

I CAN, however, tell you that I was significantly more sore after the Seattle Half (or as my friend quite accurately described it, the "racewhereyourunupallthegoddamnhills") than I was after my first marathon! Those hills really pounded my legs: my hips and my right adductor, in particular, are unhappy puppies and I've been tottering around the office like an 80 year old. I may have had on my compression tights under my work trousers on Monday.... Word on the street (ok, facebook) from the rest of my running club is that everyone else is pretty much the same as I am.

Seattle 2:15:50

In a strange way, feeling this sore actually makes me feel better about my race on Saturday. I have desperately wanted to get under 2:15 for nearly a year (although, I should note that I haven't wanted this desperately enough to actually do any specific half marathon training). In fact, I'd really like to go sub 2:10 sometime soon...ish. I think my sub 1:30 15K really shows that I'm getting close to having the speed and the endurance to crank out some serious half marathon PBs. The fact that I'm still sore today signals to me that I really, really pushed for that 2:15 and that I should own it and be proud of what I accomplished.

ANYWAY, I can think of three major problems standing between me and a fabulous half marathon time:

1. Lack of specific training - I'll be the first to admit that ever since I trained for the marathon, the half isn't such an intimidating distance anymore. I think that's super awesome. I love that I can kind of pull off a half decent half (ha!) on the spur of the moment. However, I know that I'd do a lot better if I actually did some consistent training to a plan. Thank goodness that I've been pretty good about going to track night and popping out a few longer runs here and there.
2. Mental toughness - I hate it, but I think I really underestimate what I'm capable of doing as a runner. Sure, I'm not going to go to the Olympics or even run a BQ, but I suspect I could already be punching out faster times if I could fully commit and stop my brain from telling me why I can't. I need to push through and I don't seem to be able to do it. It might be a confidence issue.



Columbia Gorge, 2:18:something

3. THESE CRAZY HILLY COURSES THAT I KEEP CHOOSING. But, SRSLY Joyce: if you wanted to PR, you probably weren't going to do it at Columbia Gorge or Seattle. You didn't pick them because they're PR courses, you picked them because you love running in this part of the country, they sport stunningly beautiful scenery, you wanted to support locally-organized races, and so you could run with your friends. In fact, you should be incredibly proud of your performance on both of those incredibly hard, hilly courses! You were only 25 seconds off your PR on a course that involved 4x as much climbing (yes, I went and checked)!!

So, I guess those are all things I need to work on for next year...because that 2:15 just needs to go away!