Sunday, April 1, 2012

Oleksak Lumber Half Marathon–Westfield, MA

 

Today was my THIRD half marathon! I can’t believe than in 10 months I’ve run three half marathons! Awesome!

My unofficial time was 2:40. This amounts to my absolute slowest half marathon time thus far. However, I find the I was much more bummed after the Empire State Half in October than I am by this slow time. Reasons include – being a mere 12 seconds off my goal time at Empire, and knowing that I was absolutely not prepared for the hills on today’s race.

I’ve barely run outside this cycle. While that has helped with my ever nagging “high-mileage ITB tightness” (that’s a diagnosis I made up, fyi), I think I did myself a disservice by only TM training, less a few long runs. I really did get in no hills. Even my 5 mile race last weekend was virtually flat.

But, I find myself meeting this bump in the road with resolve. I know now what I need to work on for Lake Placid. hills hills hills. So I’m back on the running outside train. I will not give up lifting though. There were some serious hills in the beginning of this race, and if it had been a shorter distance I’m pretty sure I would’ve killed it. I felt strong on them!

 

There is a bigger, underlying issue here. My mental game was miserable today. I didn’t go into this race with any time goals, but I also felt really unprepared. I didn’t feel particularly challenged this training training cycle (treadmill?), and I really was kind of unconvinced about my ability to do this today. It just didn’t feel right. 

Just a few miles in, the mental degradation started. Tons of self doubt. I just couldn’t shake it. By mile 7 I really, really wanted to be done running. I mean, 7 miles in and I’m ready to throw in the towel? I’m kind of disappointed in myself, not for my time, but for my attitude.

In all honesty, the mental part of running is really the part I don’t have a good handle on yet. I know that’s always the real challenge, but I’m not sure if I’ve made strides in that department anywhere like I have in the physical department. I need to spend a bit more time reflecting on this, and figuring out a better strategy. Any suggestions are appreciated!!

Overall, I’m leaving this race experience feeling resolved (and full, hello post race food catered by olive garden? this race is da bomb). I’m ready for a light week, and then to jump back in to getting ready for Lake Placid!