{"id":416,"date":"2018-10-21T18:45:23","date_gmt":"2018-10-21T22:45:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.salticid.com\/marathon\/?p=416"},"modified":"2018-10-25T18:21:52","modified_gmt":"2018-10-25T22:21:52","slug":"first-taper-week-ending-with-a-half-marathon-pr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.salticid.com\/marathon\/2018\/10\/first-taper-week-ending-with-a-half-marathon-pr\/","title":{"rendered":"First taper week, ending with a half-marathon PR!?!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Week 14<\/strong> (10\/15-21): total ~26 miles (5\/7.9\/13.1) – posting 10\/24\/2018<\/em>
\nAvg resting HR: 57
\nWeight: 113
\nCityStrides coverage of Northampton<\/a>: 75%
\nLong run: Happy Valley Half Marathon. 13.1 miles; avg HR 164; time 2:26:56; average pace 11:13<\/p>\n

It’s a taper with some speedwork thrown in—13.1 miles instead of 5 and 8–and wow, I cut four seconds off my previous half-marathon record of 1:27:00 in 2011! Temperature makes all the difference (I don’t remember the Binghamton Bridge Run<\/a> that well, but it was mid-May so it probably was above the 40s), but I’m almost a decade older so I am super-happy. Plus I stopped to take pictures!<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The nice people at 50\/50 Fitness<\/a> offered a free yoga class on Saturday, right before the bib pickup. I don\u2019t do yoga very often but feel some benefit when I do, so it was fun to head out to Hadley on a sunny fall day and check out their facility. There were a big bunch of us but not too many for the room, and it was a good class. I decided to buy a shirt because they were a beautiful blue, and a nice weight for a long-sleeved technical shirt. The swag bag was mostly coupons, but the two cool things were the KT tape I mentioned in my last post<\/a> and an actual hardcover book—The Spartan Way<\/em> by Joe De Sena. (Reading it now—not great self-help, but I’m getting something out of it and then I’ll send it off to another home.) It was great to have my bib ahead of time, so I could pin it on in the warmth of home and not have to get up quite so early!<\/p>\n

Race morning was cold and windy morning but the potential rain held off. I rode my bike to Look Park, a little worried my feet would get too cold, but it\u2019s only 3 miles and it was OK. I arrived just a little before the start, with just enough time to find the donuts and coffee. The setup was different from last year and at first I only saw bananas and water—I wouldn\u2019t quite<\/em> have had a meltdown if there had been no donuts (they didn\u2019t mention them in the publicity), but it would have been a big disappointment. I thanked the person behind the table and she said \u201cIt wouldn\u2019t be a fall race in New England without cider donuts!\u201d So true, and they were delicious.<\/p>\n

One of the great things about riding a bike instead of driving is having gear so much closer; I was able to stuff my jacket and scarf in my bike bag and switch out my gloves just a few minutes before the start. We shivered for a bit and then the announcer led us through some warm-ups (great idea while we’re forced to wait anyway!) and we were off.<\/p>\n

Like the marathon on a smaller scale, I planned on thinking of it as a ten-mile training run followed by a 5K, so I went out fairly easy. But I was feeling good and decided the training run could include a little speedwork\/fartlek, so when I was bunched up with someone I\u2019d up the pace a bit and get ahead to a clear spot. After two miles I felt well warmed up. I switched places multiple times with a big guy who was alternating running and walking; when I passed him on a hill I said \u201cI\u2019m sure we\u2019ll see each other again\u201d—but he never passed me again. The route is close to what I did in 2015 for 16 miles, but I’d only run some of it since; I knew there was a big hill on Audubon Road and I passed a bunch of people there. A woman in green with a very steady pace had pulled a decent way ahead of me and I figured I\u2019d be trailing her the whole race, but I passed her (she may have passed me back). Pretty much the whole way I saw clumps of people ahead of me, rather than trailing far enough back to see only a few runners ahead. It made me think about how the marathon itself will probably be actually crowded the whole way! I don’t normally enjoy that much, but it will be a novelty.<\/p>\n

This was the first time I\u2019d taken dates in a race for fuel instead of relying on the sports drink at the tables. I’m planning on bringing them for marathon day along with gels. It was a little more stressful than I thought it would be to fish them out of my pack and chew while swilling water from a cup, but they taste so much better! I also use to run with empty hands, relying on the belt pack, but now I’ve gotten used to carrying the phone in one hand and a bandana in the other, so adding in gloves and headband once I warmed up worked out well.<\/p>\n

My pace was holding steady around 11:20 – 11:30 and I was still feeling good. Not much crowd support, but the occasional family waving. Around mile 7 I recognized a fellow student from my current UMass class was cheering us on, which was fun. The skies cleared and we got some sun. The leaves were beautiful. At mile 10 I upped the effort to 60%, then 70% at mile 11 and 75% at 11.5 (I really love having RunKeeper along to know where I am and how I’m doing). The last few miles were downhill, tremendously helpful physically and psychologically, and I passed a number of people without getting passed back. At 12 I told myself 80% effort but I was feeling so good that I really pushed harder than that–it felt like I was flying. I laid it on at the finish and was delighted to see 2:27 on the clock!<\/p>\n

Post-race I got super-chilly again; the beer felt good but it was cold standing in line for a taco. I watched part of the ceremony, hopped on my bike, and was home before 1pm.<\/p>\n

One more week with only 19 miles, and then the marathon!!! Hard to believe it’s almost here!<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Great fall scenery near the start<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Beautiful tree<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
I loved the colors of this house!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
What is this bear\/mouse thing?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Leeds Village Apartments<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The medal<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
<\/div>\n

Bonus photos from my pre-dawn 8 miles in the Meadows (that hole of light in the first one is a puddle reflecting the sky):
\n\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Week 14 (10\/15-21): total ~26 miles (5\/7.9\/13.1) – posting 10\/24\/2018 Avg resting HR: 57 Weight: 113 CityStrides coverage of Northampton: 75% Long run: Happy Valley Half Marathon. 13.1 miles; avg HR 164; time 2:26:56; average pace 11:13 It’s a taper with some speedwork thrown in—13.1 miles instead of 5 and 8–and wow, I cut four […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.salticid.com\/marathon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.salticid.com\/marathon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.salticid.com\/marathon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.salticid.com\/marathon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.salticid.com\/marathon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=416"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.salticid.com\/marathon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":435,"href":"https:\/\/www.salticid.com\/marathon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416\/revisions\/435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.salticid.com\/marathon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.salticid.com\/marathon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.salticid.com\/marathon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}