Tucson 5000 Recap

This past weekend I raced the Tucson 5000. Going into this one, I wasn’t totally sure how it’d play out. I only started adding back in some speed work about a month ago.  I took a break from anything too structured after the Phoenix Marathon, and getting back into faster workouts has felt amazing (correction: getting back into speed work HURTS, then once your body adjusts it still hurts, but the workouts leave you with such a runners high).  The past week I’d been struggling with some hip issues. I truly think it’s muscular in nature, but nonetheless it’s been affecting my running.  Each run this week has felt a bit better than the day before, so I wasn’t too too concerned.

I got to the race bright and early, around 5:30 (which is early for a Sunday!!).  The race didn’t start until 7am, but I had to pick up my race bib, and leave myself plenty of time to warm up.  I ended up running about 2 miles pre-race, and felt ready to go.  I seeded myself somewhat toward the front, since I didn’t want to do too much weaving once the race started. The course is a flat rectangle, perfect for PR attempts. A few minutes before the race started, people were still warming up in the starting shoot, and I could tell they were out to race.

For the first half mile of the race, I couldn’t get my iPod to work.  Panic mode set in, and I braced myself for a hard effort workout with no music. Doable for sure, just not my first choice.  Thankfully I finally pushed the right button, and the Body Attack remix of Ghost started playing. I found my stride and felt good.  I ran mile 1 in 6:44 and felt strong.

There was one water station along the course.  They had said it would be around the halfway mark, but it was pretty much at mile 1.  I kept running.  My hip felt okay, and I had hit a good stride and didn’t want to mess it up.

I hit mile 2 in 6:38, still feeling good, and actually feeling like the race was going by really fast.  I am a distance junkie and very rarely run races shorter than half marathons (for no reason other than I truly just love the longer distances).  This was flying by.

Between miles 2-3 I picked it up a bit, still feeling strong, but starting to feel the struggle. I passed a lot of people during this mile, and it felt more like a competition than any other races I’ve run. At one point, I was approaching a group of 3 who were running together. One of the guys looked behind at me, and they all spread out to take up the entire width of the course. Out of frustration at that point, I picked it up and dodged my way around them, running around a 6:20 pace. I ran mile 3 in 6:33, my fastest mile of the race. Mentally, once I reached that “under 1 mile left” point, I knew it was time to hit the gas. Every race, I have some sort of a “go to” phrase that I tell myself that helps keep me going.  This time it was “hang onto it.” It seemed to work. It’s not how you start the race that matters, it’s how you finish, and I wanted to finish with a good kick. I finished with a chip time of 20:34 with a pace of 6:37. 

After the race I ran another mile and a half-ish to cool down. I placed 3^rd in my age group, and had some time to kill before the awards, so naturally I used the time to run. I would absolutely run this race again. 

....because I want to run forever

I am as stubborn as they come, so besides being injured (which thankfully right now I'm not), tapering for a marathon and recovering after a marathon are challenging, especially when I’m feeling good.  It’s one week post-marathon, and I did take 4 days off of running (close to what I planned), and have felt good on the days I’ve ran and cross trained. Every person is different in how quickly they take to recover from a marathon, but THIS article talks a lot about the science-y reasons behind what running a marathon does to your body, and why we need to be taking it easy after a race and protecting these bodies we train so hard.

It’s obvious to me like 10 seconds after starting to run post-race, whether or not my legs are ready to run.  There’s this specific type of soreness and tiredness that only ever happens after a full marathon, and if I start running too soon, those muscles tense up and fatigue quickly.  I ran 3 days this week, and each day my legs felt better.  Today they felt totally completely normal, and it was a huge struggle not to pick up the pace.  I haven’t worn my Garmin, and won’t wear it for at least another week or so, but man it’s tempting.  As long as all systems still feel good, I’m looking forward to adding a bit more mileage next week J

 I personally want to be like this yoga instructor into my old age (except with running instead of yoga), and the only way to do that is to run and recover smart...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u76yQEdflVM&sns=fb

Random closing thoughts…

Does anyone else think it’s fun that it’s National Cereal Day?  Kroger generic for Life cereal is my favorite, and I personally think it serves as a better snack. Side note: I never actually eat cereal for breakfast, but it’s a favorite for a snack.

Chewing gum while running: yes or no? I ALWAYS chew gum when I run, and I keep the same piece for an entire marathon.  I’m told that’s kind of weird.  Gum-chewers feel free to chime in!!

Phoenix Marathon and back to blogging

I was planning on starting to blog again, and figured I’d wait until post-race to start. That way I don’t feel like I need to “catch up” over the past couple of months and write a post that takes a week to read!! :)….it’s a good starting point.  

Saturday was the Phoenix Marathon, and it was a painful one for me.  Somehow I pulled off a PR and finished in 3:31:46, a 3 min 14 second BQ, and honestly even though the course itself wasn't an overly challenging course, it was my toughest race yet. 

The morning started off a bit complicated.  Since most of the roads right around my hotel were closed off for the race, I opted to take the shuttle provided by the hotel.  We were shuttled to the finish line area, where all runners board buses to their start lines.  The half marathon and full marathon buses were located in different spots, and our driver (who was already running late) dropped everyone off right near the finish line and the half marathon buses. We all got off, in the dark, not sure exactly where we were, but had 15 minutes to find our buses (the last buses to the start left at 5 am and it was now 4:45). Most of the people on the shuttle were running the half, except for myself and about 7 other people.  Slightly panicked, we started heading to where all the people were, only to realize that was the half marathon busing area and we were told the buses for the full were almost a mile away, across the street.  No one wanted to be running yet, but we BOOKED it, because what a NIGHTMARE it would be to miss the last bus.  More stimulation than I wanted pre-race, but at least we made it :)

The day was windy, much more windy than I would have liked, and it picked up as the morning went on, but I crossed the start line and the finish line, so I’m calling it a success :)  This was a really really really hard race for me! (did I say that already??)  Most of the wind was a headwind, and it definitely made an impact.  At the half, I was right on pace to break the 3:30 I trained for (I averaged a  pace of 7:57)….exactly where I wanted to be, but the effort level to maintain that pace was harder than it normally is.   I knew all week that it was going to be windy, but I kept my fingers crossed that the “incoming weather” would change.  No such luck…except that it did not rain!! 

My quads started hurting (really just tightness) around mile 10, which freaked me out because that should not happen until MUCH later.  A lot of that I think is because I had been so paranoid all week about fixing my irritated IT band/hamstring, that I neglected to stretch and roll my quads enough.  I tried telling myself that they would loosen up later on in the race, but who are we kidding?? When does that ever happen??  I did forget about them for awhile though, and they weren’t as bad as I was afraid they would be.

After about mile 22, I had to pull back the pace a lot-the extra wasted energy started taking it’s toll, and I held pace until I absolutely couldn’t any longer.  I knew that a 3:30 was not going to happen, but I still knew I could PR, and the feet kept moving. My entire body was done, and I don’t think I’ve ever had to motivate myself so much to keep going.  When I crossed the finish line, all I could remember was one of the notes on our envelope that our bib came in saying that if you pause your Garmin at the finish, make sure to not block your bib number…so I held my arms up pretty much to my face level to stop it.  I’m surprised I remembered it, to be honest.  I then almost left the finish area without my medal…which would have been terrible!!! I was just about out of the finish chute when one of the volunteers asked me if I got mine, which I hadn’t, so he gave me one.  My brain was done, and my legs were done.

Once I got back to the hotel and showered, my legs loosened up a lot and I felt a lot better.

 The medal this year is pretty cool, and starting next year they are doing this cool “earn the bird” series where you can collect one each year, and I want all of them! Next year I’ll probably run the half, since it will be well into Boston training.

The race shirts were cool as well-a racing tank that I will actually wear!! I only have a few race shirts that I ever wear, so it was cool to get one like this!!

Post-marathon I know it's important to get something into your body, but  I just can’t stomach real food for awhile, so the muscle milk they gave out at the expo did the trick.  I took the extras home with me.

Now that the race is over, I generally take 4-5 days off from any running, even once my legs feel recovered.  The muscle breakdown during a marathon takes time to heal and return to full strength, and after completing multiple training cycles injury-free, I want to keep that streak going!  THIS article has some good tips for post-race recovery. It’s a little bit different for everyone, so find what works best for you!! 

Anybody else race this weekend?

How long do you wait to run again after a race?