I've been contemplating 2 main things when I've been awake.
1) How did I outperform my expectations in my race on Sunday?
2) Where/how am I going to make Trilogy and Rehoboth happen?
With #1, I am going over all the things I did right and all the things I did wrong leading up to race day. The fact is, I trained very smartly over the first 5 weeks and then I just completed the running workouts in the second 5 weeks. I added hills, strength training, and adhered to my don't-run-the-training-runs too fast advice. But then something went wonky one day with an intense strength training and hills workout and I ran a 20 miler 2 days later.
Then I was busted. My left shin was twingy and I started to feel aches in my right calf when I ran. So I scaled back on the hills and strength training and just focused on hitting my running workouts. The thing is, I'm not sure how much better or worse I would have run if I continued the hills and ST. On race day, I ran every single hill and had no issues. In fact, I felt considerably better on the uphills than I did on the flats. The downhills were what trashed my quads.
As for the ST, I will return to that now that I'm not worried about breaking myself again. I was noticing a small transformation in my arms and abs which has to translate to something good running-wise. On a related note, I know that a small amount of weight loss can have an effect on speed, so if I were to get serious, I would want to just eat smarter. Like 86 the Doritos Locos Tacos and baked goods for awhile. I have a tough time with being restrictive with my food because I've been down that path before and don't want to get all psycho-anorexic about it again. Went to the looney bin, got the t-shirt, been healthy for 15 years.
Anyway, I tried really hard to do the runs as they were on my schedule. I *might* have run some of the LSD a little too fast, but no where near the crazy stuff I was trying to pull with my last training cycle. In the end, I felt appropriately rested and relaxed on race day. Duuuuuuuuuuuuhhhh, stick the to the training schedule?? Who woulda thought....
The other big factor was the 3:45 pace group. Even though the splits were a little off kilter, I realized that it helps that I'm a follower. Just put some runners around me and tell me to keep up. They did all the thinking about the time and splits, I just poured water down my throat and looked for random strangers to high five.
I guess I just never thought 3:43 was in me. Which of course led me to obsess about getting down to 3:35--the BQ time for my age. I'm thinking, if there wasn't 3000 feet of elevation change (1534 worth of climb) and I shaved off a few tacos and cookies, could I hit it?? I know I can put in the training, it just comes down to having a great race day. I'm not going to obsess over it--I don't like the idea of putting it all out there only to fail, but I also think that since it is in the realm of possibility, I would be silly to not say that I wasn't thinking about it.
Okkkkkkkkkkkkkay, now onto #2.
Oh yeah, #2 was supposed to be that I found new smileys to insert into my posts with html. Yup, I reached the end of the internet....
Onwards to the (new) #3:
I told Adam this morning that I had been researching 2 races for the fall that were Loopfests. He didn't seemed fazed by this which I will take as a good sign. However, I have been talking about them for years now and never actually had the opportunity to make it happen. So I could just be the boy who cried wolf. But I think I can make at least one of the two. So now I just have to figure out the logistics if I am going to make it happen. The funny thing is that the running part is the least of my concern. The money part isn't even a big deal. It's that silly time off work thing which now has been dramatically reduced because of this stupid flu. Rawr!
Enough ramblings while drugged up on a cocktail of antibiotics and OTC pills.
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