So here I am, traveling for work relishing the past weekend of racing...
...where yours truly pulled a miracle out of my rear and posted a new half marathon PR at the 2014 Rock the Parkway Half Marathon in Kansas City. With everything going on with traveling for work, home, family, family medical emergencies, Ironman Texas training and no taper whatsoever and riding my bike to the race to get a bike ride outside for once, how did I pull this off?
Well, it wasn't a walk in the park. I wish I could say with all of my LA Marathon training and Ironman training that posting a new half marathon PR was cake, but it wasn't. Everything past mile 1 sucked and hurt. Going out I had a tailwind, but hills. Coming back was more downhill with a headwind, well, more like a breeze.
So I worked going out to build a comfortable pace cushion and used it up dealing with headwinds coming back. I would not recommend my training regimine at this point to anyone.
From jamming dinner in for me and the kids and family over to watch the kids the night before to getting all the bike and running gear together AND getting it to fit in my Camalbak, there wasn't really any rest involved with this race. That's life now these days.
I woke up earlier than I usually would to get food and enough time to ride to the race. I ate as standard as I could but packed a PB packet to scarf an hour before the race since it would be about 2.5 hours from when I ate to race start. It was just an akward expereince making this happen, but I did it to myself. Remember, the goal is Ironman Texas, it wasn't a Rock the Parkway PR unless conditions allowed it.
So there I was, after running a mile warmup and getting elbowed at the start line with people trying to wedge into the start chute, hoping I had enough nutrition and reminding myself to drink up on gatorade on the course. It was actually one of the warmest days in KC yet this year, topping out near 80. I knew running hard I would sweat like a pig and I needed electrolytes and fluids.
Off we went and I was trucking to keep 7:15 min/mile pace as long as I could. I ran the aid stations chugging as much gatorade as I could keep in the cup and only taking an extended break at mile 6 and 10ish. I knew I needed more fluids than was sloshing out of my cup running.
Luckily I found a tallish dude to draft from the headwind at miles 10 to 12. Thanks. Hopefully you didn't mind my clodding feet and out of breathe breathing.
Mile 12 started the downhill into the finish and I knew if I hauled butt, I could have a new PR. Mile 12 was 6:35, my best mile by 18 seconds. I was leaving it all out there. Thanks to that effort I have a new half PR by around 2 minutes at 1:35:53. Rock the Parkway has proven to be my A-game race for half marathon PR's. I don't know how I keep pulling it out... maybe I'm so excited to finally run a race outside in KC after a cold winter?
Who knows, I'll take it. Then I took a 5 mile run to finish my mileage for the day and THEN preceeded to ride my bike home taking what I thought was a direct trail to my house. Turns out I missed a turn, found a trail that worked and rode into a headwind all the way home. It's been a while since I have seen a 13 mph average over 20 miles on the bike. Barf.
At any rate, the race was successfull. The training day was successfull... but I took Sunday off as I felt ran over and sore. I missed having a peak week of training volume wise, but as I sit in my hotel room writing this, I'm eyeing my running gear and 60 degree weather for tonight's run on the traveling road.
There are no excused to not getting it done. Before the kids get up, after they go to bed, pack your workout gear, find a hotel with a treadmill... make it happen. ;)
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