Almost Race Time
Sep. 22nd, 2011 12:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
seventheThe Akron Marathon (Relay) is only 2 days away! I am starting to get excited/nervous about it -- last week I was ready to just have it over and done with, but now, I'm preoccupied with how I am going to do and whether the 200 miles of training I've put in are going to show up or not.
Jeff and I both got free shirts from Bridgestone, though - Bridgestone's a sponsor of this race, and because we're employees, we get Bridgestone running shirts. I will, of course, be running in my J-Squad shirt, but I will never say no to a free tech shirt. They're really nice. (That means that for this one race, I'll have gotten 3 shirts: the official Akron one, the Bridgestone one, and our Team J-Squad one. Sweet!)
I can't decide how confident I am about the race. I did my half marathon (13.1 miles) at a 10:00/mile, so I should be faster than that for a leg that's only 7.9 miles, plus I have trained a lot since then. However, the training has been a lot of long slow miles, and when I do faster tempo runs, I feel like I'm going to die - and they're only 4 miles long. So I have absolutely no idea how to predict my performance. My 'goals' are, in order:
It may sound dumb to have this many goals, but I am pretty sensitive to "how I am doing" when I'm running. If I feel like I'm doing well, I get motivated to go harder. If I feel like I'm going poorly, I get upset, and that interferes with my breathing and makes me run worse. So, I try to have levels of goals that include things I am pretty sure I can do, so that I don't get too upset. Running is just as much about the mental as it is about the physical, you know.
I've been trying to go to bed early-ish this week, and tonight and tomorrow I'll be in bed very early. #loser Then again, I have to be up at balls-o-clock on Saturday. #yuck
Anyway, wish me luck! Soon you'll all be free from my talk about training, ha ha ha.
Jeff and I both got free shirts from Bridgestone, though - Bridgestone's a sponsor of this race, and because we're employees, we get Bridgestone running shirts. I will, of course, be running in my J-Squad shirt, but I will never say no to a free tech shirt. They're really nice. (That means that for this one race, I'll have gotten 3 shirts: the official Akron one, the Bridgestone one, and our Team J-Squad one. Sweet!)
I can't decide how confident I am about the race. I did my half marathon (13.1 miles) at a 10:00/mile, so I should be faster than that for a leg that's only 7.9 miles, plus I have trained a lot since then. However, the training has been a lot of long slow miles, and when I do faster tempo runs, I feel like I'm going to die - and they're only 4 miles long. So I have absolutely no idea how to predict my performance. My 'goals' are, in order:
- Beat last year's time of 81 minutes
- 75 minutes (~9:30/mile)
- 73 minutes (minus one minute per mile from last year)
- 71 minutes (~9:00/mile)
It may sound dumb to have this many goals, but I am pretty sensitive to "how I am doing" when I'm running. If I feel like I'm doing well, I get motivated to go harder. If I feel like I'm going poorly, I get upset, and that interferes with my breathing and makes me run worse. So, I try to have levels of goals that include things I am pretty sure I can do, so that I don't get too upset. Running is just as much about the mental as it is about the physical, you know.
I've been trying to go to bed early-ish this week, and tonight and tomorrow I'll be in bed very early. #loser Then again, I have to be up at balls-o-clock on Saturday. #yuck
Anyway, wish me luck! Soon you'll all be free from my talk about training, ha ha ha.
