Race to Robie Creek: I Fought the Hill (Or The Heat?)…
Still mulling over Robie Creek? Maybe it was a great day, maybe you walked more than intended. What I am hearing is more of the latter; the warm day forced many to their Plan B. After training for months, it is disappointing for a strong influence on your race to be so outside of your control. One Bettie’s report captures the emotion I heard from so many. My Robie Race Report AKA “I fought the hill and the hill won! ” Or maybe it should be called “I fought the heat and the heat won!” And what is the point of being half Egyptian if I can’t run in the heat, anyway?!?! I started the day with high expectations. I was hoping to beat my time from last year (which was 2:09 something) or maybe even do as well as 2:05. I felt like I had trained well. I had trained harder and more for this Robie than any other Robie: more mileage, more speedwork, more hill repeats, more time on the course, more weights, more core work, more cross training. I think my fitness level is in a better place than last year, so I didn’t think I’d have an issue beating my time. Plus, on my long runs, I actually *ran* to the summit. It was a slow run, but I was “running.” And that’s something I had never done before. So I hoped to be able to do that in the race too. I covered my watch hoping I’d be able to go off of effort and not be distracted or discouraged by pace as it slowed towards the summit, as I had in previous years. I felt okay the first couple of miles. On the first hill I told myself I would not pass anybody. That would my way of keeping my pace in check. However there were some people that stopped to walk and others that were just running at a slower pace than I felt I wanted to be running so I did pass some people. When I got to the 3 mile marker I saw it and thought something along these lines: “Oh s@#$!. Only 3 miles and I feel like I am running out of gas already. I must have run the first 5k too fast. I effed up. I am totally screwed. I want to quit. I am never going to make it to the top. I am not even at the dirt yet and I am hot. And I feel sick. This sucks.” Totally self defeating thoughts. Not exactly what you want at mile three of a half marathon. Or any race really. I thought when I looked at my splits for the first 3 miles I was going to see that I had run them ridiculously fast or something. When I saw the splits I don’t think I had run them too fast. I think it was just the heat that got me. The heat got me last year too. I got too hot too fast. After that point I started walking through each water station. I’d grab two cups of water and drink one and pour the other one over my head. Once I got to the dirt I felt a little better. I like the dirt better than the pavement. And by a little, I mean just a little. I was still pretty miserable and feeling sick. I saw Ashley pretty early on in the dirt passed her and told her good job. It made me so happy to see another Bettie! I was pretty sure she’d be passing me...
Read MoreNew Years Run- Race Report
Incredible performances today, in the first run of the year. Would you believe that we had at least one PR, in spite of the icy roads and frigid temps? Pictures here are Candace and Samantha. I missed Shalini when my hands froze solid and the camera no longer worked. Brrrrr! Nice job to all three...
Read MoreYMCA Christmas Run
Candace rocking the Run Happy ugly seater shirt- love it! Shalini Ramachandran Gretchen drives her arms to finish fast Team smiles at the finish line 6 miles with 2 uphill. This race is kind of a doozie, but it is fu not be out among the festivities! Great job to Candace, Emily, Claire, Shalini & Gretchen for their awesome races! We had a lot of fun chatting after the race and comparing notes on The Hill. Thursdays are our hill work days and have served us well. Cheers ladies! Enjoy your holidays and we’ll see you on Jan 3 for our resolution...
Read MoreDR. BETTIE: Run Naked and Tune In to Your Internal GPS
Welcome to Dr. Bettie’s Corner, your local expert in nutrition, fitness, and health! This is a bimonthly forum where we attempt to address Woman-focused topics of interest. We welcome your suggestions & questions! Please contact us with yours. Run Naked and Tune In to Your Internal GPS Earlier this fall I promised myself (and Coach G for accountability) that I would run the Turkey Day 5k “naked.” Don’t worry, no need to keep the kids inside (I left my streaking days behind in college) — I’m not talking about taking my clothes off, I’m talking about running sans GPS watch. Scary, right? How would I pace myself without technology? How would I do without knowing anything about my time? I’d heard some positive things about running without a GPS watch and was curious about trying it, but my type A personality is quite attached to glancing at my watch every so often while training and racing so I was not sure how I would do without it. As a frequent contributor to Runner’s World and similar running publications, coach Jenny Hadfield suggests that runners practice running without GPS devices so that we can tune into our own bodies and run at the pace our bodies are ready to run on any given day rather than becoming hyper focused on the number on the watch. While GPS watches are a valuable training tool, when overused they can prevent us from finding our internal GPS. Hadfield created three “effort-based” zones that we can try to visualize when running: Yellow Zone (Easy): You should be able to have a conversation and talk in full sentences. Orange Zone (Moderate): You should still be able to talk, but only in one or two word responses. Red Zone (Hard): You do not feel like talking when running in this zone. You need all of the oxygen you can get and do not want to use any of it for speaking. This is the anaerobic zone. Coach Hadfield recommends that when racing a 5k experienced runners warm up in the yellow zone and split the race evenly between the orange and red zone. So with that in mind, I put painters tape over my Bia GPS sports watch and prepared to give running naked a try. I pressed start on my watch, peeked under the tape to make sure it was running, put the tape down again and crossed over the start mat. I tried to find someone who seemed like he or she was running about my pace to pace myself off of, but that proved to be a difficult strategy. This might work in a longer race like a half or full marathon, but in a crowded turkey day 5k, it was just not possible. I was surrounded by all types of runners. Fast runners, slow runners, families running together, a runner in jeans, and runners in costume. I tried to just run in a straight line as best I could and find some sort of groove without doing too much weaving in and out of other people. The urge to peek underneath the tape was strongest during the first half mile or so. I kept looking down at my watch only to see blue painters tape with the message “Run Happy!” written on top. But how far had I gone? What was my average pace? My inquiring mind wanted to know! After glancing down at my wrist at least 27 times in the first 3 minutes of the race, my brain finally got the message that it was not going to get any...
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