So it's just under a week until my half marathon, and it's all that's on my mind. I'm nervous, but not in a stomach-wrenching bad way, just a "will I do it? will I make it? will I? can I? What if....???" kind of way. On loop in my head, haha. So, the parkrun I did this weekend was perfectly timed as a last wee confidence booster going into my last taper week. The aim - a 5km PB. My plan? Well, given that my PB was 31:27, I figured if I aimed for 10 min/mile pace, with a 'fast' finish, I'd make it. I've done a few speed sessions where I was running half mile intervals at 9:30 sort of pace, and although they'd killed me (as all good interval sessions should, haha) it helps me know what I'm actually capable of, when I put my mind to it.
I chose Perth parkrun for this weekend's PB attempt - it's pretty much flat, and I didn't fancy going back to Strathclyde Park just yet. Plus, it would be less 'social' than other parkruns since I don't often know many people there, and more 'runningy'. :-) I did a little bit of jogging as a half-hearted attempt at a warm-up, then stood around nervously waiting for the 3-2-1-Go! It never came, or at least not loud enough for those of us a wee bit back from the start line; suddenly the front of the field were away, and the rest of us followed suit, as I hit start on my watch. Off I went, carried along within the crowd, and I purposely didn't look at my watch as I focussed mostly on getting into a decent running pace that I felt okay with. Leaving the park, at around 500 metres, I glanced down - my average pace was around 9:20 min/mile, oooops. Toooooo fast. However, after a small downhill, and along to a short uphill, it seemed to settle at around 9:45 min/mile pace. I knew it was fast and probably unsustainable, but I figured I would see how things went, and just focussed on my breathing and putting one foot in front of the other. Just before 1 mile, I was still at around 9:45 min/mile pace and my mind was all over the place, when I suddenly heard: "Hi Sarah, can I distract you?" (how did she know?) "I don't know if you know me... I really like your blog." - Hahahaha!!!! Oh dear, I was only just managing breathing, conversation was beyond me. But I recognised Caroline, from the Mrs Pacepusher blog, who was explaining she was heading up for the Loch Ness marathon and they'd decided to give Perth parkrun a go for the first time. I apologised for not being able to talk much, and she said she'd see me at the end, and carried on her way.
The distraction was perfectly timed, as I spent most of the next mile obsessively worrying was it Caroline? I was about 99% sure it was, but I don't think I'd ever had a conversation with her before, so I couldn't be sure. What if I called her Caroline and I was wrong? Mortifying. (This is where my brain goes, don't worry.) Anyway, before I knew it the halfway turn had come and gone, and I was on the grass kilometre. Being slightly uneven underfoot, I tried to focus on that, and I worried I was going to slow right down, but a look at my watch showed I was still just under 10 min/mile pace. Incredible. By the end of the grass, with a mile to go to the finish, I was really struggling to keep the pace up. I dropped to around 10:15 min/mile pace, and although every kilometre I'd ran today had been slower than the one before, I tried not to worry - as long as I kept moving, I was sure a PB was on the cards. Just had to focus - and use the small downhill to build some speed up again for the uphill back into the park. I was in the last km now, and my pace was rising again. In the park, with around 500 metres to go, I slowed a tiny bit, as I sort of decided I needed to save for a fast last 200m or something (?), but I picked up again. I was sweating buckets, and exerting myself (my heart rate monitoring later showed that I was averaging a heart rate close to 200 the whole run!) - suddenly I felt a bit of tingling throughout my body and my brain went (seriously) "OMG, YOU'RE HAVING A HEART ATTACK". I don't think I was, haha. ;-) Regardless, I kept running. I figured if I wasn't having a heart attack, it would be difficult and embarrassing to have to explain why I just jogged in the last couple of hundred metres!! It passed, anyway, with the last 200 metres to go, and Caroline and Neal were standing by the finish shouting me in. :-) I didn't dare look at my watch, my eyes focussed on the finish, and I crossed the line, stopped my watch, and saw 30:07 (official time 30:09, due to me just missing hearing the start). My splits broke down as follows: 5:52 / 5:58 / 6:05 / 6:20 / 5:52 . Average pace, 9:42 mins/mile. W. T. F ? :-)
Happy with that. (Understatement.) A whopping 78 seconds off my PB from July, and a very timely confidence boost for the race this coming Sunday, and a fab indicator of what I'm achieving this year with a heavy mix of good training, fab support, and a growing sense of self-belief.
Wahoooo!!!! Brilliant race. So much time off your 5k best, and soooo close to sub 30, and look at the average pace, sub 10min/mile race for the first time. Just amazing transformation from the start of the year.
ReplyDeleteI think we can now confidently say that a 2:30 half is well within your reach. I actually think that you might well go quite a bit faster than that, if you find yourself ticking along at 11 min/miles next weekend, don't panic, don't stress, just go with it. Trust in your training, trust in what your newly tuned up body is capable of.
Between now and the weekend if you find a few waves of nerves welling up read them as a sign of excitement and your mind/body just getting prepared to put in a race that you know you'll be chuffed to bits with. You've done all the hard work already, the half marathon really is just the cherry on top, it's your time to show off just how far you've come.
There really is no "IF", you've aced the body and mind transformation this year, your absolutely deserve enjoying this week, pre race prep, the race, crossing the finishing line, that silly grin you'll have when you know you've put everything into a race and earned every single minute that you've slashed from your half PB.
There are still some serious stuff you need to do this week. On the mental side work on responding positively to nerves as this well up. Smile be excited by the nerves, accept them for what they are. If there is any anxiety look to the root cause and address it right away. Find time to relax and be playful.
When out running you are tapering now, so no additional training stimulus. Running this week should be able relaxing and enjoying your time outside. The training stimulus this week should be focussed on tuning the the mind and body for race pace - running at around 11 to 11:30 min/miles will help tune your muscle tension to needs of the day. This pace will be equivalent to a 34 to 36 min 5k, might seem crazy relative to where you've come from fitness wise, but just enjoy it, trust in your fitness, relax and enjoy this pace - this is your half marathon pace now - you've earned it. You need to tune it this pace like a radio to your favourite radio station.
Have fun this week ;-)
Thanks for this - I'm feeling oddly very confident, haha, which I hope doesn't come back to bite me on race day!! x
DeleteYou've every right to be feeling "oddly very confident" as you've put in all the hard work to make this so, nurture this feeling, excited nerves are so much fun to ride than anxious nerves. I'm sure excited nerves have a positive effect on race performance.
DeleteThe biggest issue with having lots of confidence will be holding yourself back in the first quarter of the race, with adrenaline pumping and everyone around you heading off at silly speeds it's very easy to get carried away and find yourself doing min/mile+ faster than is sustainable, but only really realising this mistake come the half way point. If you find yourself going out too fast, spot it as soon as possible and get back on pace right away, a mile going too fast will do far less damage than 6 miles going too fast.
Your know all this though, even if you have been conscious of it you've been practising your pacing in all your races, you've been getting stronger and more skilled at running races throughout this year. This weekend is your time to go show how all this time spent training and racing comes together, there really isn't any need to over think it, or stress, much of what it takes to be a runner has now become instinctive, just get yourself to the start line in one piece and let race just flow.
Oh, it'll be busy so might be worth getting your head around jostling over the first few miles so that the lack skills, consideration and fitness of others doesn't frustrate you. If something disturbs your flow just put it behind you and enjoy the rest of the race. You are so much fitter now you could even take a wrong turn and add an extra mile and still be in shot of a half marathon PB, crazy as that seems, it's true.
Be confident, be resilient and most of all have lots of fun this weekend ;-)
Glad I distracted you for that long! We can certainly vouch for how hard you were working at the end. Good luck on Sunday, I'm sure you'll smash it!
ReplyDeleteHaha, I was a bit of a wreck... :-) Thanks. x x
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