Practice Makes Perfect - Inaugural Life Time Treadmill Marathon

Another two weeks have flown by and I have been training just as hard as usual. Starting with last week, my mileage has started to drop. But, first things first – the Last Vegas Half Marathon – didn’t go as planned.  I finished in 7^th place overall, which isn’t terrible, but my time was less than exceptional. I think this was largely due to not tapering all that much for the race and therefore going into the race with tired legs. My finishing time was 1:14:56. I don’t want to be a Debbie Downer, so enough said.

My training since the race has been great! On the Thursday after the race I ran 26.2 miles on a treadmill! Yes, I did. It was a fantastic day outside for Minnesota in December, but I wanted to make sure to get in some heat training and be able to have the fluids (Hammer’s Perpeteum) I plan on using during the Trials on hand because these are both important aspects of what I will have to deal with during the actual race.

 I managed to make it an impressive 14 miles on the treadmill before I lifted the towel that I had covering the mileage display. Hiding the time and mileage counter helps the run not feel as long. However, as anyone would suspect, the last few miles turned into a mental grind. I kept trying to make deals with myself about when I would stop the run, as I couldn’t help but look at the mileage just about every mile. Coach Dennis had only told me to go 24 miles, so as the proverbial hamster in my head started to get tired, I tried to convince myself that it was OK to just run 24 miles. But, in the end I was able to defeat my own weakness by reminding myself how much I want to be an Olympian, and to do that I have to give 100%. So 26.2 miles and three hours after I first set foot on the treadmill at Life Time Fitness, I stepped off the treadmill, full of hope and proud of my accomplishment.

In the last week I have also put in some good workouts that I know will really count when it comes to the marathon in January. Repeat 1,000’s on Tuesday and a real ringer of a workout today – 1 hour at marathon pace followed by 30 minutes of alternating 1-minute-hard / 1-minute-easy. BAM! Because this workout was so long and similar to an actual race I prepared for the workout just as I anticipate doing for the marathon.

                Schedule:

                5:00am: Alarm 1 goes off – time to eat breakfast, then back to sleep

                7:30am: Alarm 2 goes off – time to get out of bed, make some coffee and get ready to rumble

                8:45am: Meet Dennis and the guys at Highland Park Life Time Fitness

             9:15am: Warm-ups are finished, Dennis has given us instructions about the out and back course    that we will using and where he will set up our water bottle stations.

                9:16am: WE ARE OFF! Clipping off the miles at a little under 5:40 pace

              9:35am: Making first 180 degree U-turn. We are practicing this because there are U-turns in the marathon course. So we want to make sure our legs know what it feels like to decelerate, make a 180 degree turn and get back up to speed. If you have ever done the common drill of “suicides” at like basketball practice, you will know how much energy it takes to stop your moving body, turn and get back up to speed as quickly as possible. A lot! But with practice this process should go much more smoothly and not be as much of a shock to our legs during the race.

               9:54: Bottle stations #2 – have you ever tried drinking while running at quick pace? Not the easiest thing to do and I end up feeling that I must resemble a very thirsty dog – sucking on my bottle, spit flying, while also trying to gasp for air. Not a very pretty sight.

           10:16am: First hour complete, managing to run over 10 ½ miles during that time, but I still have another hard half an hour to go.

              10:46am: The workout is finally complete and I am gingerly running my cool down back to the gym because I have managed to get a blood blister on my left foot. I wore socks that were a little too thick because I had thought that my feet would be cold otherwise. However, it was a very beautiful 35 degree day and the thick sock turned out to just be a mistake. Lesson learned.

By 11:30 I have made it home after I stop and get myself a well deserved drink from Starbucks and I am full of relief. I had gone into the workout with a bit of trepidation, but now it is all over and I can relax.

Next week I am off to Hawaii for a family vacation! I have never been to Hawaii and I am extremely excited.  So next time I write I hope that it will be from the one of the beautiful white sandy beaches of Maui. For now, Aloha and Merry Christmas!

Happy training,

Meghan

Manchester Road Race - 75 Years of World-Class Racing!

               It has been a busy last week and a half. Thanksgiving Day was wonderful in a number of ways. To start out, I competed in the famed Manchester Road Race on Thanksgiving morning. It was a very exciting race due to the fact that they were celebrating their 75^th anniversary, which called for a lot of fanfare complete with a pre-race flyover by a plane that was used in the Berlin Airlift. The race was a huge celebration of the history of road racing.  The first woman to ever compete in a professional road race was there to run, 50 years after the first time she ran the race! She even wore the same garment that she wore 50 years ago – a blue dress. Yes ladies, a dress! It was really awesome to see all the history surrounding the Thanksgiving Day race, and on top of that it was a great success for me. The course is 4.7 miles long with a huge 1 mile hill in the second mile. The race went out, and in my head I was thinking “man, I am in 6^th place and this pace doesn’t feel comfortable.” The mile clock loomed and I looked over to see 4:58. A little yellow light bulb lit up in my head “well, that is why the pace didn’t feel good. Now I will just settle in and use as little energy as possible to get up this huge hill and then I will let the legs fly!” Up the hill we went. I held on to the back of the pack and worked up the hill, towards the end passing the majority of the girls in the pack.  Once at the top we made a hard left turn and started down the hill we had just climbed. I moved to second place, dueling it out with one other girl for a short distance, but once I finally got in front I never saw her or any of the other girls again. I was looking ahead for SallyKipyego who went out really hard and stayed there the entire race. I could see her a ways ahead, but for the time being I was running with a group of two guys. As the race progressed I was still feeling pretty good, but the guys I was running right behind were starting to slow down. I didn’t want to have to cut my stride and slow down to go around the two men…so I did the next best thing, gave them each a love tap right at their center of gravity, a.k.a. their hips, and they moved to the side and I went right between them. The next mile went by uneventfully, I caught another man who obviously took exception to being caught by a woman because every time I made it to his shoulder he would put in a quick sprint and be 5 meters ahead of me again. I largely tried to ignore him and just continue to run hard, trying to see if I could make up any time on Sally. Finally 800 meters to go, and the guy next to me was brought sharply back to my attention because – and I have to admire his competitive spirit – he began to dry heave….once, twice, three times. I swerved far to the right so as to avoid any type of substantive eruption and began to surge for the finish. Soon the finish line loomed, I crossed it still in 2^nd in a time of 25:02. Another success!

                After the race I quickly cooled down and jumped straight into my host family Bill andCarol Oneill's car. Carol whisked me away to catch my flight that was scheduled to take off only 2 hours and 10min after I finished the race. I flew to Tennessee where my husband and I spent a few quality days with my family celebrating Thanksgiving. I have a lot to be thankful for, I have a truly blessed life and consider myself very lucky. Thank you to my family, friends, and all of you who have joined me on this journey. And, the many people and organizations that make my life as a professional runner possible - Team USA Minnesota, Road Runners Club of America, Life Time Fitness, Twin Cities in Motion, Ron Wayne at Mizuno, and many more.   

                Now, as I am writing this blog I am sitting in Las Vegas, getting ready for the Rockand Roll Las Vegas Half marathon – The Strip at Night! The race starts at 5:30pm, so the strip will be fully lit up. It should make for a fun race. Can you imagine it?!  I am using the race to test my fitness and see where I am in my preparation for the OT Marathon. I will keep you all posted and let you know how it goes, stay tuned!