We're all out there chasing our better selves (FredtheDuck chases on)

DopeyBadger said:
:( Hopefully things turn around.
Click to expand...
Thanks Billy and Sarah. So far, the place we planned to go for dinner is closed due to technical difficulties, second choice had an hour and a half wait (not doable with a toddler). We landed at a last resort place where they ended up having to comp a meal because it came out underdone not once, but twice.
 
FredtheDuck said:
Thanks Billy and Sarah. So far, the place we planned to go for dinner is closed due to technical difficulties, second choice had an hour and a half wait (not doable with a toddler). We landed at a last resort place where they ended up having to comp a meal because it came out underdone not once, but twice.
Click to expand...

Ugh. That's not a good way to spend an evening.
 


FredtheDuck said:
It wasn’t the best. But I got pizza and beer after the race and am now sitting at Nats Park watching the Nats beat the Dodgers, so life isn’t all bad :)

I finished my half in 2:25 and some change. A little off my goal but a massive PR.
Click to expand...

That's a pretty fantastic way to finish a race where you weren't feeling the best about it going in. Bask in that PR! Just think what you'll be able to do on a race without all the stress in the lead-up. ;)
 


Huge congrats to @FredtheDuck for a massive PR on a rain-soaked, miserable course! You’ve almost beaten my time now!

I unfortunately did not compete, since I had a small injury (tight IT band) and then was sick and traveling for work. I’m ready to get started on training for my next race this fall, though!
 
RACE RECAP: St. Michael's Running Festival
May 19, 2018​
The TL;DR is that I PR'd this race, but I didn't meet the projected time based on my training plan, and I wasn't in the +/- 5 minutes of that projected time that I had set as a goal.

The week leading up to the race was a little crazy. It was my last week at my old job. I got in my taper runs but had to be really flexible. Billy gave me instructions about timing the last runs, so I had to be careful with that. The plan was that I would go in to work on Friday morning for my last day there, leave around midday, come home and grab my husband and daughter, and we'd head out to St. Michael's, which is on Maryland's eastern shore. Travel time should have been around an hour and forty, but I figured since it was a Friday, we'd be closer to hours. We'd get in, go to dinner at a pizza place that got rave reviews, grab my bib at the expo, and then head to our hotel.

But then the weather. The weather decided that it wanted to be the theme for this race. So naturally, it rained hard much of the week. Especially that Friday. Which totally snarled traffic. It took north of four hours to get there. We reached what should have been the halfway point (the Bay Bridge, for any locals), and seriously debated just turning around. I knew the race conditions weren't going to be great, and DH was injured and wasn't racing. So was it worth it to me to push through? Or should I just turn my family around and find a place for my kid to eat dinner, especially since I was starting to get concerned that we weren't going to make the expo in time. Ultimately, we decided to push through since we'd already paid for the race and the hotel, but it was a real close call.

Luckily, traffic eased up and we got to St. Michael's around 7:30. I got my bib and race shirt, and my husband bought my daughter a cowbell (note to self: toddlers and cowbells are loud combos). We headed towards the pizza place, which was to be the only saving grace of this entire evening's ordeal (remember, I love pizza, and they had a great craft beer list), only to find that it was closed due to a "technical difficulty." What? St. Michael's is a small town. There isn't a lot of game in town when it comes to food. The Italian restaurant had a 90 minute wait, not doable with a kid. Mexican place? Not kid friendly... "not enough room for the highchair because there are so many people at the bar tonight." We finally found a place called Awful Arthur's and it lived up to it's name. But whatever, my kid was fed. Off to the hotel.

Race day: The hotel was about a mile from the start, so my husband very kindly dropped me there. I was there about 30 minutes before the start of the race, but since I was in wave 4 and they released the waves 7 minutes apart, I actually had about an hour to wait around. Before the first wave, they announced two things: The port-a-potty at mile 6 had been removed due to standing water, and that miles 8-12 had a lot of standing water, so runners had to be really cautious). Lovely. Looking forward to it. (/sarcasm)

I ended up being in the front of my corral when they brought us up, which ended up being a good thing because I didn't have a ton of weaving to do. The pacer I had wanted to keep an eye on was in corral 3, which was frustrating, so I was kind of on my own. I got off to a fine start, around 10:36/mile, which was around where Coach and I had talked about. It misted, then it rained, then it misted again. The course was pretty. Course support was good. But there were a TON of out-and-backs. I didn't mind the first two because they were in pretty areas, but after that they got really old, really fast. Lots of water stations, and I made it a point to get water at each one since I wasn't carrying my own water (I was carrying tailwind). Naturally, around mile six, right where I knew they had had to remove a port-a-potty, I needed one. So the mental debate about where the next one would be occupied my mind the next couple of miles. Around here I started to pass people from the coral in front of me, which was also a nice mental boost. Chomp chomp. Finally found it at mile 8, and, yay! No line. But I knew coming out that the worst of the race was still ahead of me with the standing water.

And it was. Apparently my husband and daughter were right around there trying to cheer me on, but it sounds like I was ahead of them by a couple of minutes so they missed me at the (yet another) turnaround they were trying to catch me at. Shortly after, we hit the standing water. And there was a lot of it. I was already soaked top to bottom because it had rained for a lot of the race, but nothing kills your moral like running through ankle deep water 9 miles into a race and then knowing that you have to go through ANOTHER turnaround and run through it again. Ugh. At that point, my shoes were getting really heavy from the water and my hips were starting to hurt because of it. I started to feel comfortable just pushing through, regardless of my time. "Keep running. Don't let your discomfort/dismay ruin the race." I saw my husband and kiddo around mile 12 and that was a nice little jolt to get me to the finish line. I crossed in 2:25:13. Billy and I had adjusted my race expectations based on the weather, so a 2:25 finish was in line with those adjustments. And it was a PR. But my training plan had me finishing in 2:18:12, so 2:25:13 was not within my +/- 5 minute goal.

So what happened and what would I change? I think my failure to meet my goal was all mental. Billy's training plan gave me the tools to do what I needed to do. I had the fitness. Even with missed runs and adjustments. I felt fine after the race. Sore and creaky, but I had gas left in the tank. I think my mental toughness just "gave out." I NEVER felt the fire to dominate in this race, and when it got both warm and rainy and I started running through standing water, I let myself just think "you know what, this is good enough, I'm going to run what feels comfortable and... whatever." And so I didn't push myself mentally enough to get more uncomfortable than I already was, and when I started fading into 11+ minute miles in the last 5 miles, I didn't tell myself that I could and should do better. I told myself it was fine. On the bright side, it's nice to know that high-10s/low-11s is now "comfortable" even in crummy conditions. I think that says something about my overall fitness. I have Coach to thank for that and myself to blame for not doing more with it.

All-in-all, I'm kinda meh about this race. The conditions were not good, but neither was my mental game. I could have done better, but I didn't want to in those moments. So I need to focus on mental toughness.

I'll talk about how that's going to translate to my upcoming cycle in a future post.​
 
Last edited:
FredtheDuck said:
RACE RECAP: St. Michael's Running Festival
May 19, 2018​
The TL;DR is that I PR'd this race, but I didn't meet the projected time based on my training plan, and I wasn't in the +/- 5 minutes of that projected time that I had set as a goal.
The week leading up to the race was a little crazy. It was my last week at my old job. I got in my taper runs but had to be really flexible. Billy gave me instructions about timing the last runs, so I had to be careful with that. The plan was that I would go in to work on Friday morning for my last day there, leave around midday, come home and grab my husband and daughter, and we'd head out to St. Michael's, which is on Maryland's eastern shore. Travel time should have been around an hour and forty, but I figured since it was a Friday, we'd be closer to hours. We'd get in, go to dinner at a pizza place that got rave reviews, grab my bib at the expo, and then head to our hotel.
But then the weather. The weather decided that it wanted to be the theme for this race. So naturally, it rained hard much of the week. Especially that Friday. Which totally snarled traffic. It took north of four hours to get there. We reached what should have been the halfway point (the Bay Bridge, for any locals), and seriously debated just turning around. I knew the race conditions weren't going to be great, and DH was injured and wasn't racing. So was it worth it to me to push through? Or should I just turn my family around and find a place for my kid to eat dinner, especially since I was starting to get concerned that we weren't going to make the expo in time. Ultimately, we decided to push through since we'd already paid for the race and the hotel, but it was a real close call.
Luckily, traffic eased up and we got to St. Michael's around 7:30. I got my bib and race shirt, and my husband bought my daughter a cowbell (note to self: toddlers and cowbells are loud combos). We headed towards the pizza place, which was to be the only saving grace of this entire evening's ordeal (remember, I love pizza, and they had a great craft beer list), only to find that it was closed due to a "technical difficulty." What? St. Michael's is a small town. There isn't a lot of game in town when it comes to food. The Italian restaurant had a 90 minute wait, not doable with a kid. Mexican place? Not kid friendly... "not enough room for the highchair because there are so many people at the bar tonight." We finally found a place called Awful Arthur's and it lived up to it's name. But whatever, my kid was fed. Off to the hotel.
Race day: The hotel was about a mile from the start, so my husband very kindly dropped me there. I was there about 30 minutes before the start of the race, but since I was in wave 4 and they released the waves 7 minutes apart, I actually had about an hour to wait around. Before the first wave, they announced two things: The port-a-potty at mile 6 had been removed due to standing water, and that miles 8-12 had a lot of standing water, so runners had to be really cautious). Lovely. Looking forward to it. (/sarcasm)
I ended up being in the front of my corral when they brought us up, which ended up being a good thing because I didn't have a ton of weaving to do. The pacer I had wanted to keep an eye on was in corral 3, which was frustrating, so I was kind of on my own. I got off to a fine start, around 10:36/mile, which was around where Coach and I had talked about. It misted, then it rained, then it misted again. The course was pretty. Course support was good. But there were a TON of out-and-backs. I didn't mind the first two because they were in pretty areas, but after that they got really old, really fast. Lots of water stations, and I made it a point to get water at each one since I wasn't carrying my own water (I was carrying tailwind). Naturally, around mile six, right where I knew they had had to remove a port-a-potty, I needed one. So the mental debate about where the next one would be occupied my mind the next couple of miles. Around here I started to pass people from the coral in front of me, which was also a nice mental boost. Chomp chomp. Finally found it at mile 8, and, yay! No line. But I knew coming out that the worst of the race was still ahead of me with the standing water.
And it was. Apparently my husband and daughter were right around there trying to cheer me on, but it sounds like I was ahead of them by a couple of minutes so they missed me at the (yet another) turnaround they were trying to catch me at. Shortly after, we hit the standing water. And there was a lot of it. I was already soaked top to bottom because it had rained for a lot of the race, but nothing kills your moral like running through ankle deep water 9 miles into a race and then knowing that you have to go through ANOTHER turnaround and run through it again. Ugh. At that point, my shoes were getting really heavy from the water and my hips were starting to hurt because of it. I started to feel comfortable just pushing through, regardless of my time. "Keep running. Don't let your discomfort/dismay ruin the race." I saw my husband and kiddo around mile 12 and that was a nice little jolt to get me to the finish line. I crossed in 2:25:13. Billy and I had adjusted my race expectations based on the weather, so a 2:25 finish was in line with those adjustments. And it was a PR. But my training plan had me finishing in 2:18:12, so 2:25:13 was not within my +/- 5 minute goal.
So what happened and what would I change? I think my failure to meet my goal was all mental. Billy's training plan gave me the tools to do what I needed to do. I had the fitness. Even with missed runs and adjustments. I felt fine after the race. Sore and creaky, but I had gas left in the tank. I think my mental toughness just "gave out." I NEVER felt the fire to dominate in this race, and when it got both warm and rainy and I started running through standing water, I let myself just think "you know what, this is good enough, I'm going to run what feels comfortable and... whatever." And so I didn't push myself mentally enough to get more uncomfortable than I already was, and when I started fading into 11+ minute miles in the last 5 miles, I didn't tell myself that I could and should do better. I told myself it was fine. On the bright side, it's nice to know that high-10s/low-11s is now "comfortable" even in crummy conditions. I think that says something about my overall fitness. I have Coach to thank for that and myself to blame for not doing more with it.
All-in-all, I'm kinda meh about this race. The conditions were not good, but neither was my mental game. I could have done better, but I didn't want to in those moments. So I need to focus on mental toughness. I'll talk about how that's going to translate to my upcoming cycle in a future post.​
Click to expand...

Honestly, given all the circumstances around this race, I'd say you handled it quite well. And actually to be so close to our adjusted numbers given the conditions says quite a bit when you were running more comfortably than racing. I'd say brighter race days are ahead (well hopefully not like scorching sun bright...).
 
DopeyBadger said:
Honestly, given all the circumstances around this race, I'd say you handled it quite well. And actually to be so close to our adjusted numbers given the conditions says quite a bit when you were running more comfortably than racing. I'd say brighter race days are ahead (well hopefully not like scorching sun bright...).
Click to expand...

Thanks, Coach. That's nice to hear : ). I just have to decide how to approach getting that mental toughness for longer races (which, for me, is anything longer than a 5k). Part of the reason I set tougher goals on shorter races for this upcoming cycle... I felt like I needed to step away from trying and failing to force my way into a "race mentality" for longer runs and focus on building the muscle for shorter distances that I know I can be OK with being uncomfortable for.

One thing I forgot to add that I'll also say in my testimonial, but it merits mention: I never once was afraid that I wasn't going to finish this race. Not before, not during. Not only that, but I was confident enough in my fitness to be miffed that I was in wave 4 instead of 3. That's totally a testimonial to the plans you've written for me and the experience I've gained using them. It was SO nice to go into the race confident that I'd finish, with the only question being "how well" I could do.
 
Refocused and Ready Again​

Today was the official start of my fourth training plan (3 @ EA... check!). I thought I'd give a little glimpse into what I'm working towards and why, as well as how my plan is structured this time. Like my last three, this one was custom-designed by Coach DB (thank you!).

So where did we leave off? Oh yes. The half marathon. I felt very "meh" about the race coming out of it. Not because I felt unprepared or not good. But because I really didn't feel like I pushed myself hard enough. I settled. And I had to really spend some time thinking about why. Ultimately, I think it comes down to a failure to want to push myself that hard for that long. Especially since it's not like I'm in contention for a AG or anything. The bar to improve upon my last time was pretty low and I was really confident that my training would allow me to do that easily. So when the going got tough, I went "meh, ok." Not "GET IT, GIRL!!!".

So I got to thinking about times when I push myself and times that I don't when it comes to running. And I had to admit to myself that right now, I'm more comfortable "pushing" myself in shorter distances. I seem to just be OK with settling at longer ones. OK. So admitting that was hard. I'm supposed to want more from myself. But knowing that right now, I don't have that drive/toolset, how could I find something interesting to work towards in my next cycle? And I kept going back to my MCM10k race last year. I worked hard that entire race. I thought about strategy. I got uncomfortable. I forced myself to work hard. And I got what I consider to be a really good result (1:02:22). I was and still am really proud of that race. But... what if... dare I say it? What if I could sub-1? No. Not me. That'd require cutting almost 30 second off my mile time. No way. Too ambitious. But... what if I could? I'm more fit now than I was then. And I have more experience with speed work. No. No way. I'm setting myself up for disappointment. But... what if?

So I wrote to coach. And I told him that I was thinking that I wanted to focus on shorter distances this cycle. I have a 5k coming up. I told Coach that I was content to do it as a training run or to race it. If I race it, I want to strive for sub-30. I got close-ish last year with Candy Cane City (30:46) and that was a race that I had respiratory issues in. Is my fitness better? Coach thinks maybe, and that the timing is far enough from my last HM and my next A race that the timing works for me to race it. So I will.

So goal 1 of training cycle 4: Sub-30 5k. First attempt: Suds and Soles, June 23. Advantages: Early in the cycle, not a lot of fatigue built up. Did some good speed work in cycle 3. I did a 32:04 there last year, in my very first training cycle. Disadvantages: Early evening race, potential for really hot weather, really early in this cycle (so not a lot of super recent speed work). Ways to mitigate disadvantages: Unless it is unsafe (read: thunderstorms), run outside. No treadmill-for-comfort ahead of this one (caveat: I have a business trip this week and will be on the hotel treadmill, but it's not a speed workout). Speed work at the track.

Then what? A half marathon! But wait, you say. Didn't you just spend a paragraph complaining about half marathons and mental thoughness? Why yes, yes I did. But here's the deal: I'm not racing this HM. I'm doing it as a supported training run. I do want to keep my distance chops up. I think a solid HM performance will be important to me again in the future. So I'm not giving up. But more than that, my husband wants to do another HM. He missed St. Michael's due to injury, and he wants to give it another go. He's decided he wants to do the Parks Half Marathon (same one we did last year) again. I'm fine with it. It's local. Premiums are good. Course is the same as last year. Has the potential to be hot (it's in early September). He's going to race it. I'm going to long run it. In another "I'll take it!" sign of progress, I remembered in a panic that Parks has a strict course time limit. When I raced it last year I was TERRIFIED of being swept. I had to make sure that if I was going to do this as a training run, I wasn't going to get swept. Fun fact: I'm doing this at M Tempo, which is 10:58/mi. I should finish it 2:23:36 OR SLOWER. Still has the potential to be a PR, even as a training run : ). And I'll finish well ahead of the sweep line. DH will race it. He's way faster so I won't see him finish, but I'm super excited to see how he does!

So that's goal 2 of training cycle 4: Run another HM. Focus on the mental game (distractions when uncomfortable, etc.). Advantages: I've done this race before (same course as last year). I'm not actually racing it. Disadvantages: Potential to be hot. Large stretches of isolation (no crowd support to speak of at this race and I won't have a running partner since @MoanasPapa is racing it). Mitigation: I'm not racing this, so the mental baggage is a little less heavy.

And so what about that sub-1 10k? Why that? Because I think I can force myself to be uncomfortable for 6 miles. And because I think that I would have to work really hard for that sub-1. And because I can put the two of those together and make a honest-to-goodness run at this goal (rather than giving myself the out of "hey, 13.1 is a lot, good on you for even finishing"). I've done this race before and I think I can do it better now. I hope I can, at least. Advantages: Hopefully cooler weather. Familiar course. Comfortable challenging myself for the shorter distance. Far enough out that I have time to get some real speed work in. Disadvantages: Corral system is awful at MCM and there's real potential to lose a lot of time in mile 1 or have to do a lot of weaving. Nasty hill at the end.

So that's goal 3 of training cycle 4, and it's actually my A-race and A-goal. Interestingly, my training plan has me finishing in 1:02:20 and I'm irritated about it and determined to prove it wrong. Call that an advantage, too.

Because I always do, I'll share the mechanics of my training plan: While I had trouble with the 5-day a week schedule in my last cycle, my circumstances have changed dramatically. I work from home now. Honestly, running is going to be more important than ever to make up for a more "compact" office space. But more importantly, I'm not in my car two and a half hours a day. I have time that I didn't before. And I'll capitalize on it. So I'm sticking with 5. We have 21 weeks between now and race day, and Billy has written up a plan that makes good use of mini-cycles to keep me engaged and working hard. I think they'll be a lot of confidence boosting along the way. I hope so, anyways. @DopeyBadger, feel free to chime in with anything notable/process-illuminating that might provide some context to people following along, if you want. I'm sure I'm missing a lot.

Because my last half marathon was technically an underperformance (or at least, not an outperformance), my paces aren't changing. But we're adding some new ones in. So here's the full set of pacing:
- WU/CD: 13:50
- EA: 13:02
- EB: 12:11
- LR: 11:47
- HM Tempo: 10:33
- HMS: 10:22
- SPEED: 9:39
- M Tempo: 10:58
- Daniels T: 10:04
- Daniels R: 8:53 (gulp)
- Daniels I: 9:15

I have workouts at R pace as early as next week. So. You know. Wish me luck. Here we go!
 
I absolutely believe that you can both sub-30 and sub-1 on the 5k and 10k distances, respectively. My half time wasn't that much faster than your current PR when I pulled off mine.

I too find it easier to push hard on the shorter races, although my next goal race is a half - I think it's because I worry about running out of steam on the half and so I end up too conservative. But hammer out a couple of those R pace workouts and I think you'd be surprised how it starts to come together.
 
I think you've pretty much nailed it. A series of three phases consisting of mile pace, then 3k pace, then threshold pacing. Also, a couple of Hybrid LRs. The hope is to build some serious speed off all of that endurance we've worked on from plan 1 to 3. And absolutely no reason you can't crush that 1:02 on the plan. Remember the 10k is WAY more endurance than speed focused. And training slightly too slow won't necessarily hold you back. But as we move into mile/3k pacing it becomes ultra critical you stay around those tight tight pace windows. Because a few seconds too much on these paces is much more costly than on the slower more endurance based pacing.
 
Also, totally get the apprehension about pacing on longer distance runs. It can be way more costly to miss the mark in a HM or M when it comes to pacing. It's really trying to find that ultimate balance. And as the distance continues to increase it only becomes more and more a game of wits to try and hit the right consistent pace.
 
FredtheDuck said:
One thing I forgot to add that I'll also say in my testimonial, but it merits mention: I never once was afraid that I wasn't going to finish this race. Not before, not during. Not only that, but I was confident enough in my fitness to be miffed that I was in wave 4 instead of 3. That's totally a testimonial to the plans you've written for me and the experience I've gained using them. It was SO nice to go into the race confident that I'd finish, with the only question being "how well" I could do.
Click to expand...

Isn't that the best feeling?!? Believe it or not, if you keep up the training, one of these days you could line up for a marathon feeling the same way!

As for mental toughness, I think you're doing fine so far. Don't forget to give yourself a little credit for how far you've come. The fact that you started the race knowing you'd get soaked says a lot. We've all missed goals. I just try to learn what I can from whatever mistakes I made, and then move on. Amazing things are still in front of you! Good luck in your next cycle!
 
It’s really hard to stay mentally strong in tough conditions. Even though you may have been able to do better, I think you did a pretty good job in pretty terrible conditions. Be proud of yourself, and take the lessons you learned from this race into your next plan (which it already sounds like you’re doing)!

I love all your goals for this training cycle and I’m looking forward to seeing you crush them! I think the sub-30 5K and sub-1hr 10K are both fairly reasonable and I'm excited to see you hit those goals!
 
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