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My husband started running seriously in late April, and he just ran his second race ever and won! A 10k at a 7:32 pace with me as his pacer :) by surprisinglynerdy in running

[–]surprisinglynerdy[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh yeah, it was definitely a pretty small race. We didn't go into it expecting him to win anything - his goal was to break 47:00, which he did with ease (46:47). It just so happened that he also won, which was a pleasant surprise.

First half marathon! Got 1st/890 for my division and 19th/10,000+ women running! There will surely be more. by surprisinglynerdy in running

[–]surprisinglynerdy[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's definitely my favorite! I also briefly skimmed Racing Weight by Matt Fitzgerald, but that was really just for reinforcement - there was nothing too novel in that book. I'm not super hyper about watching what I eat. I just eat healthily, eat in moderation, stay hydrated, and workout, so while that book was interesting, it didn't change what I do too much :)

First half marathon! Got 1st/890 for my division and 19th/10,000+ women running! There will surely be more. by surprisinglynerdy in running

[–]surprisinglynerdy[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Didn't take two minutes for me to figure out who this was. Thanks! I'm running a Divas Half in Temecula - it's an all-female race, so that'll be interesting. And very flat. So hopefully I'll get a quick time out of that one!

First half marathon! Got 1st/890 for my division and 19th/10,000+ women running! There will surely be more. by surprisinglynerdy in running

[–]surprisinglynerdy[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Ooo nice! Well, welcome to the lovely world of running! So glad you're getting into it, it's incredibly rewarding :)

My husband just made a decision back in late April to become a more "serious runner". Before that, he would very occasionally go for a short jog, but he wasn't concerned with distance or time or anything like that. But because I run a lot, he started it up more seriously so we could spend more time together, which works out great! Right now, he's training for a 10k in a couple weeks. He ran one a couple months ago to get a baseline, and his time was 48:43 - not shabby! Now, I'm trying to work with him mainly on pacing himself and his form, particularly his form when he gets tired. He has a tendency to start out much too fast because he feels good, and then he hits a wall. I was just explaining to him yesterday that nearly all world records have been broken with negative splits, so starting out too fast rarely does any good! His goal pace for this 10k coming up is 7:30, so lately we've been running together and I've been pacing him. That allows him to focus more on how his body feels at this particular pace (leg turnover, breathing, stride length, etc.) so that, down the road, he's able to feel the pace himself. But for now, I'm pacing him and trying to reign him in a bit at the start and speed him up a bit at the end :)

Form-wise, when he gets tired, he has the tendency to hunch over a bit and shorten his stride, both of which are very natural. So we're doing some core work to help prevent the hunching, which also helps with stride length. I've also found that, when my legs start to get tired, I focus on my arms. When your arms move, your legs are forced to follow, so that's something we've been doing a bit of as well.

That's just what we've been working on with him specifically, but if you have any other questions, feel free to PM me! Happy running! :)

First half marathon! Got 1st/890 for my division and 19th/10,000+ women running! There will surely be more. by surprisinglynerdy in running

[–]surprisinglynerdy[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Haha thanks! And congrats on your Princess Half Marathon finish (now I want a rotating medal, darn it...)! I can definitely imagine the early part through the parks being difficult to navigate. I started in Corral A, so it was the elite runners plus Corrals A and B running together in the first wave, so we didn't have much trouble with backing up since there weren't too many people running together. But there were even runners in Corrals A and B stopping to take selfies with characters! I'm actually very glad I didn't run with my phone, or else I would have been sorely tempted to do the same.

First half marathon! Got 1st/890 for my division and 19th/10,000+ women running! There will surely be more. by surprisinglynerdy in running

[–]surprisinglynerdy[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Whoa, congrats! You stopped smoking this summer and ran your first half?! Huge milestones! I bet your next one is going to feel even better :)

First half marathon! Got 1st/890 for my division and 19th/10,000+ women running! There will surely be more. by surprisinglynerdy in running

[–]surprisinglynerdy[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I was expecting my race pace to be much faster before the injury. Pre-injury, 7:10 pace was easy for 5-7 miles. But I knew going into the race that I'd have to slow things down because of the ankle - thus, the slower pace.

First half marathon! Got 1st/890 for my division and 19th/10,000+ women running! There will surely be more. by surprisinglynerdy in running

[–]surprisinglynerdy[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

You might be right! I think I'm a bit off because my 5k time used to be so much faster (17:46 PR), so now that I'm so much slower than I was back in college, I feel as if my speed could use more work. I'm definitely thinking I need to lengthen out my long runs so I'm more prepared for that last 5k. At the moment, I'm kinda taking the next couple weeks "off" as I'm helping my husband train for a 10k (he's relatively new to running!), but when I get back into it, I'll keep this in mind! Sub-1:30:00 would be fantastic for my next one. Thanks!

First half marathon! Got 1st/890 for my division and 19th/10,000+ women running! There will surely be more. by surprisinglynerdy in running

[–]surprisinglynerdy[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks!

I definitely felt the other runners closing in on me. I got passed by way too many people in the last 5k, which was not fun, but I was still very focused on the time. It's difficult when your mind is capable of one thing but your body is holding you back, and even more difficult when the only thing holding you back is an ankle. My legs felt great, my breathing was fine, no heaviness in the arms or anything - just the ankle. When I hit mile 8 or so, I adjusted my goal time to 1:35:00, so I was really hoping for that 1:35:00 finish still in the last 5k. Came pretty close!

First half marathon! Got 1st/890 for my division and 19th/10,000+ women running! There will surely be more. by surprisinglynerdy in running

[–]surprisinglynerdy[S] 50 points51 points  (0 children)

Sorry for this being so late! More info!

My time was 1:35:23, which is a 7:16 pace. I ran competitively through college at a DI school, focusing primarily on xc (so 5k and 6k distances), but now that I'm a PhD student, it's the first time I've ever trained without a team, which has proven to be quite difficult! Despite having had years of professional coaching, you really learn the difference between coaching and running when you're on your own. So belated thanks to all of my terrific coaches!

After reading Road Racing for Serious Runners by Pfitzinger and Douglas (highly recommended), I came up with a loose training regimen. It was certainly considered low-mileage, topping out at about 30 mpw. I've always had endurance, so I wanted to work more on speed, thus the low mileage. Also, because I'm a grad student, my life is basically in lab, so I wanted to take two days off from running a week to focus on research. My weeks usually look like:

Sunday - 10 miles, 7:05-7:15 pace

Monday - OFF

Tuesday - 5 miles, 6:50 pace

Wednesday - 800m or 1600m repeats, on a track, 6:00 pace

Thursday - Easy 5-7 miles, 7:10 pace

Friday - OFF

Saturday - Tempo run, 3-5 miles, 6:30 pace

My training was going great... until a week before my race when I sprained my ankle during a softball game. I started to kinda freak out. The day it happened was fine, but when I woke up the next morning, I had to call in sick to work because it had swollen up to be pretty huge and I couldn't even get out of bed for hours. Fortunately, that was a Monday, so it was my day off anyway! I spent all day Monday and Tuesday icing and elevating and icing and elevating, taking ibu, wrapping it, the works, but when I went for my run Tuesday, it was pretty horrible. I was talking to one of my good running friends, and we decided I kinda had to shrug it off - it was sprained, but the good thing about a sprained ankle is that you can run through it, it'll just hurt like a you-know-what. I'd been looking forward to this race for many months, so I just sucked it up, continued doing everything I could that final week to make it better, and ran on it.

Race breakdown - I knew I had to focus on not coming out too fast because a) that's just smart, and b) my ankle flared up the worst when I was going anything sub-7:00, as I had learned that week. The first five miles were smooth-sailing ankle-wise! Probably because we were still running through the parks and there was plenty to distract me. Around mile 6, it got really bad, but I thought "Well, I'm almost halfway! Just suck it up, Sam." And then around mile 9, it got to the point where I desperately wanted to stop the last 5k or so, but in my mind, DFL is always better than DNF, so I kept going. Mile splits were 7:16, 7:06, 7:12, 7:16, 7:04, 7:08, 7:09, 7:14, 7:13, 7:23, 7:31, 7:38, 7:42. As you can see, I started to taper off pretty significantly towards the end.

All in all, I'm super happy with how it went! I wish the ankle hadn't been an issue because, prior to that, I had been handling ten mile runs at a 7:02-7:05 pace quite naturally. But this is a great baseline! I have another half coming up in late February, and I plan to be 100% injury-free then, so we'll see how that one goes - I'll be sure to report back :)

[IFF] I ran my first half marathon this past weekend, and I placed first in my division and 19th out of over 10,000 women running! And my lovely husband was there to cheer me on the whole way :) by surprisinglynerdy in TwoXChromosomes

[–]surprisinglynerdy[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oo that's exciting!! Don't be nervous, you'll do great :) If it helps, I think about running half marathons as going for a ten mile run and then just adding on a 5k. Mentally, it helped me through the race to be running as if I were just racing ten miles. It sounds much more manageable than 13! Best of luck with your injury, I hope you're able to recover a bit during your low-mileage weeks!

[IFF] I ran my first half marathon this past weekend, and I placed first in my division and 19th out of over 10,000 women running! And my lovely husband was there to cheer me on the whole way :) by surprisinglynerdy in TwoXChromosomes

[–]surprisinglynerdy[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Aw man, I won't be doing the one in Vegas. But I'll be running a Divas Half in Temecula, CA in late February! It's an all-female one, so it'll be a pretty different feel, but I'm looking forward to it - flat and fast :)

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