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Switching gears: The glass is HALF full…
Entry posted by NCAthlete ·
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Well, today I made the decision to drop down to the half marathon at Rehoboth, which will make it my 3rd consecutive 13.1 there. That isn’t a bad thing because I have the BEST time there, but it’s just sad to give up the idea of running 26.2. There are several different reasons why I know that decision was the right one.
While running is a great part of training for climbing Mt. Denali (20,310′ – I gotta remind myself of that from time to time), and I will still be getting runs in, I’m taking it as a sign that I need to focus more on that training and becoming stronger. We have SEVEN months before we will be leaving for the beast. Seven months will go by VERY fast and I don’t want it to sneak up on me. However, I don’t think this is the type of thing that could or should sneak up on anyone. Seven months is still plenty of time to get to where I need to be. I’m getting there, but progress is slow. I don’t enjoy carrying a heavy pack on my back, or the impact it has on my body, so I’m not motivated to do it often. I know I don’t need to do it all the time, but it needs to be much more frequent than it has been. Colorado is already throwing winter weather at us, and I think there is going to be lots of snow to work with this season, so I’ll even be pulling a sled soon as well.
That’s Candice, one of our team leaders. She’s a badass.
If I ran the full in December, I could wreck myself to the point of not being able to properly train for Denali, or even not at all! We can’t have that. I’ve been running a long time and have been through my share of minor, yet set-back injuries, and I’d like to think I have learned something from them by now. I’m embracing cross-training a lot more but still need to ramp that back up again, without pissing off my back again. I have all the resources in the world to make that happen – no excuses.
By only running the half, that’ll leave more time for Rehoboth FUN! Most of my running favorites will be there, and some that I’ll finally get the chance to meet! I likely won’t be running next year, so I’m not sure when I will be back again. ALTHOUGH, this has turned into an amazing, yearly tradition for me and I don’t really have any of those. I could always fly across the country to be a spectator. Hmmmmm…
How can one NOT want to be a part of that EVERY year?!
I do think I still have a goal for this race. Course PR?
- 2016: 2:05:14 – This year and the previous were my running “down years” as you can clearly tell from this finish time. The course is flat as can be and the weather was spectacular. I preceded to get REALLY drunk after finishing this and missed out on the nightly festivities. I’ll never make that mistake again!
- 2017: 1:47:10 / 8:10 pace – I ran this time after only ramping my training up in September! I really think that even though I’ve had this set-back, I can beat this.
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2018: ? – My half marathon PR is 1:42:08, that’s a 7:47 pace. I think I’ve only ran a couple 7 minute miles since being here in CO and I think it was during the 2017 race, NOT in CO. I don’t think I’ll be able to distance PR, but I do think a course PR is definitely possible. I did exponentially sandbag myself in 2017 (read here), so nothing is impossible!
- This will be my 19th half marathon (not counting heavy halves) and 12 years since I ran my first one!
Instead of posting my “Week #” training, it will probably just be general weekly recaps – I like those.
Thanks for reading,
Chris
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