A High and a Low - Half-Marathon Personal Best and First Injury This Year

Date: 1/26/14

Current Weight: 184 lbs. 

Long Run This Past Weekend: 13.4 miles 

Total Distance Logged Last Week: 27 miles

This week I was feeling great about my half-marathon this weekend. I was able to do several "Dress Rehearsal" workouts where I was able to feel out the pace that I would be comfortable at over 13.1 miles. The Securian Winter Run is kind of a big deal for me because it marks the 1-year anniversary of my first half-marathon. At the time it was the longest distance I'd ever run and a big accomplishment. I was a bit nervous about doing a shorter race, because I haven't done a lot of speed work over the past few weeks. I have been doing many LSD (long slow distance) workouts, and only doing pacework 1-2x/week max. This speedwork was on the treadmill and was nothing to brag about pace wise. The snow makes outdoor speed training difficult, as the traction is so poor. One thing I did know I had improved dramatically since my last half-marathon on 11/30 was my endurance. There is nothing intimidating about half-marathon distance anymore, and therefore 13.1 miles is just a game of pacing and effort for me.

The day before the run, we had the warmest day of the week. Friday brought a warm-up, then snow, then a big temperature drop overnight....but what is a January half-marathon without bitterly cold temps, ice and snow? The morning of the race it was 2 degrees with NW winds at 17 mph and a windchill around -15.

I was prepared with all of my favorite winter running gear. Here is what I wore to fight the cold:
- Koppen Long Sleeve Thermal Top
- Brooks Utopia Running Jacket
- Full facemask
- Asics Thermopolis Thermal Running Tights w/ C9 Boxer Briefs underneath
- 2 sets of gloves - one smaller cotton set with a larger windproof glove overtop
- Altra "The One" Zero Drop running shoes

After 5 minutes of running, the cold was a non issue, and I actually finished the race very warm and sweaty.

The run was fantastic once the course took us out of downtown St. Paul. The sun came out, and I warmed up quickly once we were on Shepard Rd. There were a few 1-2 mile stretches where the ice was very bad along the course, which we were warned about ahead of time. Luckily, there was enough snow on the shoulder that runners could get a little traction. There were three cars that had gotten into single car accidents along the course, including two that got hung-up on lightpoles... This course is a lot of fun, and pretty challenging. After leaving downtown St. Paul, the course follows Shepard rd for about 6 miles before the turn around. Shepard rd has great rolling hills that are quite long. Luckily, for every hill you need to go up, you get to go back down. On my way out I listened to my body pace wise and monitored my perceived exertion and breathing to decide if I was OK pace wise. I was surprised that I felt like I was being easy on myself at a good 5-10 seconds below an 8 minute mile pace. At the turnaround, I felt fresh and I was able to execute a great negative split, speeding up significantly for the second half of the race. My official finishing time was 1 hour and 42 minutes, making it my personal best half marathon by 7 minutes. Overall, I was happy with the outcome of the race. I'll include splits from my GPS below:

2 mi - 7:56/mi
4 mi - 7:40/mi
6 mi - 7:53/mi
8 mi - 7:43/mi
10 mi - 7:33/mi
12 mi - 7:26/mi
13 mi - 7:28/mi
Overall: 7:42/mi

Over the past few weeks I've had a bit of a nagging hip injury. I've had this before, and it is likely a small chronic muscle tear or tendonitis of my hip flexors. After the race yesterday, It flared up the worst it has in almost a year. This likely happened due to the hilly course and my form being less than perfect towards the end of the race. Downhills are something I need to work on, as I tend to overstride, which places excess pressure on the hip flexors. When going downhill, hip flexors deal with tremendous eccentric forces. These can be minimized by keeping a quick stride turnover with your feet landing underneath your body, rather than in front of you. This will be a form focus of mine in the coming months. In the meantime, I need to take it easy to allow my hip flexor to heal. I will be keeping mileage low this week and will be cross training on the elliptical and/or bike. My hope is that I am feeling 100% again by the weekend so I am ready for another good long run.

I also registered for another upcoming event this week - the Zumbo Midnight 50-miler in Theilman, MN on 4/12/14. Tony will be running this with me. I am super excited for this event! I'll be talking more about that and our training plan in the next blog post.