{weeks 9 & 10} It's race week!

Just a quick update...and dealing with 3 non-running related injuries. Or in other words, I've unintentionally tapered for 4 weeks for a half-marathon on Sunday, May 1st. In this break, I finally got smart and last week stopped ALL exercise/activity (even my glute exercises!) for a week--not just running. 

I've started back running this week with low miles (no ankle pain!) and on Sunday I will run not race the OC 1/2 Marathon. Ten or so years ago I used to run one 1/2 marathon a year without training for it. I wasn't a runner and it was a challenge to myself. 

After this race, my goal is to get as strong and healthy as I can so when I start serious marathon training in August I'll be good go!

{week 6} Five for Friday

In the spirit of posting at least SOMETHING, I bring you the Friday Five. 

ONE. I will be racing my first true 1/2 marathon (running 1/2 the LA Marathon does not count) of 2016 toeing the line for the OC 1/2 Marathon in exactly ONE month from today. It's also been a year since I raced 13.1 miles. Not nervous yet. 

TWO. I just registered to enter the lottery for the St. George Marathon (October 1, 2016). I will find out if I am lucky enough to race on May 18. The race is capped at 7800 runners. Crossing my fingers! If I do make the cut, I will have to start my training plan on May 30 (Advanced Marathoning by Pete Pfitzinger).

THREE. I am racing the Carlsbad 5000 this Sunday with some of my fellow Oiselle Volée teammates. I <3 racing 5ks. This is my third since coming back from injury. I plan to beat my most recent time of 24:39 and hope to PR (or come close to my previous fitness) with a time less than 22:44. I'm racing for BEER! Pizza Port is the sponsor and they have crafted two custom beers just for the race. AND each race entry gets TWO FREE beers. 

 FOUR. I missed a step walking down the stairs at home a couple days ago and I bruised or sprained or something to right inner heel. I skipped my planned easy run today and may skip my long run tomorrow. It bums me to miss runs but at least I know I've been working my training plan and getting fitter. I am able to do things (run tempo!) I wasn't able to do so well before last year's injury and I've regained most of my running endurance (although I have not yet run more than 15 miles). 

FIVE. NUUN has finally updated their athletes page. There are a lot of badass nuun athletes out there. I'm on there too. You can see my profile HERE. I use nuun everyday to #stayhydrated. I also use plus for nuun for hard workouts (speed, tempo or long). It has a bit of carbs to give some much need energy. Use it in combination with either nuun active or nuun energy. I find it gives me a needed boost. 

That's all for this week. Looking forward to some fast racing on Sunday! (By the way, I just realized I missed my blogoversary on March 19! I've been blogging (as Perpetually Rungry) for a year! Happy Miles!)

{week 4} Learning to master 'comfortably hard'

Post-tempo run happy high; I rocked it! 

Before starting this morning's run, I turned to Dana and Dani and said:

For the tempo part of the run you're supposed to run 'comfortably hard' which means you run hard enough that you FEEL like stopping but you don't NEED to stop. It's not an all out effort, it's not a race...it's just hard. The purpose is to learn to comfortably run at faster paces.

And then I added:

 Of course, it sounds like I know what I'm talking about. But I really don't. I suck at tempo runs.

In the past, I've worried too much about hitting the right paces and staying in my pace range. I would set pace alarms on my watch. I think I would run too hard and burn myself out. Run hilly routes and not run by feel. I would psych myself out, thinking I couldn't run tempo pace. I run faster paces in races and yet somehow thought that I wouldn't be able to hit tempo.

To prepare for today's run, I googled 'tips for tempo runs'. All the articles and blog posts I read talked about running 'comfortably hard' and to run by feel. The one tidbit that resonated with me is to not look at my Garmin (or, actually, to not use it--yeah not ready to do that) and really truly go by feel.

And that's what I did. I totally rocked the tempo run. The goal for today was a 40 minute tempo run at 8:10 to 8:27/mile. My average pace was 8:14/mile and I ran 4.8 miles. (I did look at my watch, but only after running a mile or so and I had the display set to avg interval pace, not current pace). I'm nowhere near mastering tempo runs, but it sure feels great to run one that went according to plan!

Overall, training for the OC 1/2 Marathon is going well. This week marks our first recovery week in the plan. Totally needed it because last week I ran a total of 49.4 miles, my highest since Sept 2015 and coming back from injury. 

43 days until my first half-marathon in a year! *knock on wood* I'm feeling strong!