Feature Friday: Goals For My Race!

Happy Friday from Sunny, warm Las Vegas! How was your week? Anyone else traveling to Vegas this weekend or running another race somewhere else?!? I can honestly say that I’m missing the snow 0%. ; )

Anyways, let’s chat about my goals for the race on Sunday. I’m running the 5k on Saturday to just shake out my legs and hope to keep it at a controlled 10:xx pace (expending as little energy as possible). I’ve always had the goal that if I break 1:42 for the half, then I will miraculously be ready to get a BQ in the marathon. I’ve since come to the realization that it may not happen right away and that I’ll also probably need more like a sub 1:40 time to qualify for Boston, so with that my goal is still to get as close to 1:42 as I can (my original goal). I’m not 100% positive that I’ll be able to run a sub 1:42, BUT I will absolutely give it my best shot and I also want to definitely PR my half (plus have fun ; ) …). I also want to mentally stay in the race the ENTIRE time (which can be hard! especially when things get difficult). I want to PUSH when things get hard and not give in to the pain. I would also really like to negative-split.

Flashback to the Marathon last year!

SO with that in mind….here’s my goals laid out with some nice bulletpoints:

• “A goal” - Half PR

• “Also A goal” - HAVE FUN

• “B goal” - STAY MENTALLY IN IT

• “C goal”- Negative Split

• “D goal”- Get that Sub 1:42

Flashback to my medal collection last year!

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What are you up to this weekend?

A, B, C, D goals- how many do you like to make?

Ever ran the #StripAtNight?

Las Vegas HALF Marathon RUNdown Week 14: 10/15-10/21

Happy Wednesday! I’m really beginning to love Wednesdays since I’ve switched to having them as my rest days. Sometimes it’s really refreshing to just do a simple switch like this. I’m looking forward to sleeping in a bit, cooking a full breakfast (eggs/ avocado toast/sausage), meditating, reading (I took a book out at the library and when I tried to renew it, I saw that someone has it on their wait list sooo…looks like I’ll be finishing it by tomorrow night!- definitely the biggest drawback to library books, but it does also get me to read more which is pretty great), and hopefully some yoga.

Last week I had a GREAT week of training, exploring, racing, and just in general. I’m finally starting to feel fitter, faster, and gaining more confidence in my goals (after a few weeks of feeling “meh”, I’m really glad that I stuck it out through them). I hit my highest mileage week since I switched to the half (46.28 miles) and have just one more week of higher mileage to go before I begin tapering?!? I know I keep saying it, but time has gone by way too fast!

Monday, 10/15: Speedwork on the treadmill. 1 mile easy to warm-up/ 2 mi @ Half Marathon goal pace (7:45), 2 min rest, 1 mile @ 10k (7:22), 2 min rest, 1 mile @ 10k (7:16), 2 min rest, 1/2 mile @ 5k (7:10), 2 min rest, 1/2 mile @ 5k (7:02), 2 min rest, 1 mi cool down. 7.54 miles total. I definitely still have some work to do on the 5k times, but otherwise felt really strong throughout and pretty pumped to have gotten it done on the treadmill (which sometimes feels harder than outside (except that it was 9* out so yeah…indoors it was!)) - also on a Monday which is HARD. 60 minute coreBarre class at lunch

Tuesday, 10/16: 5.05 miles easy @ 10:16 715’ up

Wednesday, 10/17: 7.56 miles —>7 miles easy progression miles (splits: 10:39, 10:27, 9:39, 9:30) with 4 x :30 surges 413’ up (originally planned to do 5-6, but ran out of time!). I forgot how to use my watch (eye roll) and didn’t hit it for one of my splits, so I’ve got just the four - oh well! It was also still very dark when I finished, so no photos today!

Thursday, 10/18: 4 miles easy @ 9:43 36’ up / taught skating for an hour/ 4 miles easy @ 9:57 77’ up. 30 minutes of strength. I slept in this morning because I was feeling a bit worn-out, so I had to fit my 8 miles in around running errands/ teaching skating/ strength after packing up the car… it isn’t always ideal, but we still make it work!

Friday, 10/19: REST DAY —> travel day to Lake Powell!

Saturday, 10/20: RACE DAY! 1 mile warm-up @ 11:26 (included some running drills on the grass), 13.1 miles with first 1-6 miles easy @ 8:48, miles 7-13.1 working towards Half Marathon Goal Pace avg @ 7:58. Splits: 9:16, 9:03, 8:40, 8:27, 8:58 (singletrack trail), 8:26, 7:25, 7:58, 8:02, 8:23, 8:25, 8:01, 7:32

Sunday, 10/21: 4.03 miles easy at 11:22 113’ up at Capitol Reef National Park! My legs felt a bit sluggish so I just went out without music while the sun was just beginning to rise and enjoyed the quietness of the park. I stopped to take some photos (kept my watch going) and relish in the opportunity to experience a National Park by foot! How lucky are we (runners) to see places by our feet when many others cannot? It was really nice to not care at all about the time on my watch and just be present in the moment.

Total Mileage: 46.28 miles

Total Elevation: 2, 298’ up

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Ever ran in a National Park?

Ever used a race as a workout?

Ever read How Bad Do You want it?

Library books- yay or nay?

Rock 'n Roll Las Vegas Day 4/POST RACE!

Running at night is great, but also really terrible for your sleep cycle. I was so elated from my run, but also exhausted= so I hardly got any actual sleep the night after my race. Oh well, the runner's high was strong. We went out to breakfast at New York New York at Tom's Urban and got the BEST iced coffee I've ever had. You MUST go there if you're ever in Vegas. Afterwards, we decided that we would walk the strip to go to Cesar's Palace to show my Grandmother (who had never been to Vegas), but too many stairs for me= I needed to rest and ice outside of Cesar's (with a mimosa of course) and we never made it there. It was perfect weather outside and much needed to just rest in the sunshine for a bit. 

Afterwards, we headed over to Krispy Kreme and my mom got a new tattoo!! 13.1 on her foot- it looks super cute (I'll need to get you a photo)! Then we proceeded to go to the M & M Factory Store (my gram's favorite) and I loaded up on chocolate. 

We made it back to the hotel to pack up our things and get ready for Cirque Du Soleil Michael Jackson's ONE/ dinner at the House of Blues at Mandalay Bay. Dinner was OK- it took much too long to get our food (mine was cold) and we were crunched for time to get to the show 15 minutes before it started. The show was also OK- we had high expectations from seeing the Beatles' LOVE show last year (definitely GO SEE IT). They also continued to have technical difficulties throughout the show, which was a bummer. 

We gambled for a bit afterwards, then headed to our hotel to get a few hours of sleep before our 3:30AM wake up calls (we had 6AM flights home)!

I'm still loving re-living this trip and probably will be for quite some time! 

Ever been to Vegas? Favorite thing to do there? 

Las Vegas Rock 'n Roll Marathon Review & What I Did During The Day b4 The Race!

HAPPY HAPPY TURKEY DAY! I hope you will be celebrating with lots of tasty food, family/friends, and a GREAT RUN! I'm doing the 5k Turkey Trot this morning and then skiing and a small dinner with friends! I am thankful for all my family and friends near and far, as well as thankful for my legs that are strong enough to endear long runs and let me travel to beautiful places!

Make sure to head over to Race Recaps for the full recap of the Las Vegas Rock 'n Roll Marathon!

I wanted to share with you a few things that I did during the day before the 4:30pm start because it definitely is difficult to fill your day if you want to save your legs for race time. 

Things I typically will save until the day of the race:

• Race playlists- I actually LOVE doing this a few hours before the race. It gets me excited for the race and does not require anything physical. 
• Eat small meals throughout the day (up until 1 hour before the race start)- I stick with plain bagels with butter/ granola oat bars/ Honey Stinger chews/ Bananas/ Pop Tarts. Anything that I have previously eaten before a training run I eat the hours before race. 
• Legs up the wall at least twice- I do this constantly when traveling for a race. It's amazing how refreshed you feel afterwards. 
• Read a chapter of an inspiring book- I saved a chapter in Matt Fitzgerald's How Bad Do You Want it to read before my race and I honestly thought about it/ channeled it my entire race. 
• Lay by the pool (but don't get too much sun)
• Foam Roll
• Do a fun hairstyle- Having a late race start means more time to do a fun braid or hairstyle that you wouldn't normally do for those 3AM wake-ups. 

Things I don't do before a race:

• Eat insane amounts of food. Just don't. do. it.
• Walk a lot
• Get extra sleep the night before (I DO get extra sleep the week leading up to a race, but not the night before a race- I feel sluggish if I get too much sleep). Stick with your normal sleep times to prevent a "sleep hangover"
• Not do anything at all. It's good to still have things to do to keep your mind off of the race/ build up anticipation
• Sight-see- save it for after the race!

Don't forget to go check out my RACE REVIEW !

Rock 'n Roll Las Vegas Day 2/5k!

After Cher, we didn't end up getting back to the hotel until AFTER 11pm! Wayyy past my bedtime, so I took a melatonin (my savour during traveling/racing weekends to make sure I still get a decent nights sleep) and woke up around 7:30. We decided to rent a car for the day to go check out the scenery and save our legs/feet for the 5k!

We went to Panera first, where I like to stock-up on bagels (at a place that I know) and began the carbo-loading. I normally take in extra carbs/proteins/less veggies 1.5 days before the start of the race and load up on electrolytes/ Gatorade/ water the entire WEEK before a race. After we were full of deliciousness, we drove to see the Hoover Dam (my Gram had NEVER seen it before!). The weather on Saturday was perfect- 70 degrees with hardly a cloud in the sky. 

After Hoover Dam, we stopped by Ethel M. Chocolates to pick up some treats to take home (splurged on a coin chocolate they were handing out) and checked out their Cactus Botanical Garden. 

We stopped by Chipotle to get a later lunch (I love their chicken burrito bowls before races) and headed back to the hotel to relax for a bit before leaving for the 5k at 4pm (it starts at 6:30). 

Note: If you plan on running the 5k, either plan to take an Uber or stay at a hotel at the beginning of the Monorail. We stayed at the Excalibur and got on at the first stop for the Monorail and every stop the monorail made after ours, NO ONE else could get on because it was so full. Definitely a bonus to stay on the end of the strip. We arrived at the start line with a little over 40 minutes left (perfect timing) and I headed to my corral #7 when there was 30 minutes prior to the 6pm start. 

The 5k had A LOT of congestion and the hassle getting there really put a damper on the race, but once you got out a 1/2 mile it was MUCH better. I took it really easy (~10:00+ per mile) for the first 2 miles of the race then alternated every 0.10 with 8:10-8:15 strides and ~10:00+ easy pace. I finished with a 9:40 overall pace and it felt pretty good to pass a lot of runners when I was doing my strides! It was also a great way to get used to the race atmosphere and practice holding back my pace. We also stayed for a few of the Goo Goo Dolls songs- they were pretty good (but not as good as I expected for a live performance...). 

Overall 5k recommendation: Do it if you want a safe place to do a shake-out-run. Don't do it if you aren't ready to deal with the crowds and hassle of traveling to and from the race venue.

Also CONGRATS to my Gram for doing her first 5k!! She totally ROCKED it! Super proud : )