Half Marathon Training….Relieved

March 25, 2020 / Anna @ Piper's Run / 1 Comment

I feel relieved! Ahhhhhhhhhhhh…………!

Last week, I posted about not being into half marathon training and now I’m feeling relieved. About an hour after I wrote that post and email arrived in my inbox. “Race postponed”. Instantly I felt relieved. Relieved that I didn’t have to keep training. Relieved that the last 4 weeks of horrible training wouldn’t matter. Relieved that I didn’t have to make the decision for myself to keep fighting with my lack of training. Relieved!

Now, just because my half marathon is cancelled doesn’t mean I’m not going to run. It definitely means I’m not going to bother trying to even FIND my training plan to follow anymore. I’m done with a structured training plan and just running and riding to take care of me – physically, mentally and emotionally.

I’ve been out twice running since receiving word that my race is cancelled. The first run was great and did it with our dog, Carmacks. It’s still good running weather for him, so we’ll take advantage of that while we can. The second run was just a struggle from start to end. My legs felt heavy and I was super angry at everything! After my run, I felt a lot better and wasn’t SO angry. Life is just too up in the air for my liking right now.

PR Run

My half marathon will now happy early November – which is kinda cool as I’ve never run a half marathon in November before! The fall is getting busy with normal races and now rescheduled races.

So, though I’m relieve that my half-ass training is over I’m still going to run and ride as much as I can, when I can, wherever I can. We just had a big dump of snow yesterday!!! After all the snow had melted we now look like a winter wonderland again. Not going to lie, I’m done with winter and snow. Bring on spring please and thank you!

How are you coping with everything?

Are you relieved or not at all that your race is cancelled/postponed?

PEI Half Marathon Recap ’18

October 29, 2018 / Anna @ Piper's Run / 17 Comments

Two weeks later and I’ve barely run the distance of a half marathon! I haven’t run very much since my 7th half marathon on Oct 14th and I’m totally okay with that. Sometimes you have to listen to your body and rest….and rest some more.

PEI Half Marathon Recap

This race weekend all started with a conversation with my husband, Saï. He asked me back in July if I wanted to run the PEI half marathon and I, of course said yes! (Thanks love).

Going into this race weekend, I really had no clue what my pace would be or how fast I could run for twenty-one point one kilometres. I sure felt physically great going into it; no injuries (knock on wood), limited back pain (thank you Chiropractor), fresh legs (lack of runs the last week of training) and we were child free (thank you grandparents!). Yup, my husband and I took a race weekend away without the kids.

IMG_20181013_192204_719

We spent Saturday driving over to PEI, about a 4.5 hour trip for us. Of course at the race kit pick up, we both ran into people we knew. You can’t drive 4.5 hours to a race and not – not run into someone you know. My friend Tracy was running her first full and she nailed it! After getting our kits, chatting with friends we tried to find some throw away clothing as it was going to be 2C (35F) at the start of the race. F….F…Freezing!

We grabbed dinner at the Gahan House in Charlottetown (so good) and made it back to the hotel which was right at the start/end of the race. With our flat runners ready, we hit the hay early but I didn’t sleep well. This seems to be my new normal the day before a race. Oh well, life goes on – maybe those sleepless nights with our babies prepared us for shit like this. Running races (long races) on no sleep. Thanks kids 😉

I woke before my alarm went off at 7:30 am – late eh!!!! The race started at 9 am and we literally could walk out the hotel doors to the start line in 30 seconds. With no need to rush out the door, we ate breakfast, got dressed and waited in our warm hotel room rather then freeze outside like some of the runners we could see from our window.

Around 8:40 we met up with a friend of ours, still waiting inside the hotel with many others. Eventually we all were drawn outside in the bitterly cold winds and stood at the start line listening to “Oh Canada”. So great to hear that at the start of our run. My husband went way ahead as his goal was much faster then mind.

I started off with the 2:20 pace bunny who was running a 10/1’s so I eventually lost her as I was running continuous. I was freezing cold but I kept my throw away sweater on until about 3 km in, gloves, long sleeved shirt, thick headband, shorts and my Tiux compression socks on. The first 7 km flew by and I felt great!!! I knew the hills at the end might be a challenge but I wasn’t focusing on that right now.

I caught up to the 2:15 pace bunny who was doing 10/1’s as well but I just kept running my continuous pace as it felt good. It’s how I trained so it’s how I wanted to run the race. At the 10 km mark I was at 1:04:xx and thought sweet…I could go for a 2:08 finish. The 2:15 pace bunny would be ahead of me and then behind me (10/1’s) off and on. Ideally, I was hoping for a 2:15 finish and felt that it was close to happening.

I remember running up Sherwood Road that lasted forever and I desperately needed a drink. I took out my Nuun and took a swig and felt like I drank and ice burg. It was SO COLD on my teeth I almost spit it out.

My pace had slowed down and I was struggling a bit. Part of me wish I didn’t wear my fuel belt but part of me was thankful I had my Nuun when I wanted it. I knew the hills were going to be rough but I thought they wouldn’t get to me this time. They did. My friend, Sarah caught up to me but I just didn’t have anything left in the tank to keep up with her.

I did managed to pick up the pace for the last 2 km, where the course became flat again and into the finish line. That finish line! It’s so far away yet so close. I ended up finishing in 2:16:21 with an average 6:28/km! I cut off 9 minutes from my half marathon in May, so I was happy! I was still a good 10-11 minutes off my PB but that was never the focus on this race.

IMG_20181014_150435_628

My husband finished in 1:46:05 – his goal was 1:45. As I walked through the finish line/food area with my space blanket wrapped around me, I felt relieved that it was over and I finished another half marathon (injury free). I felt great!

IMG_20181014_153229_691

We celebrated with some good food (fish and chips for me and a veggie burger for him) and beers. We walked around Charlottetown for a bit, cheered in some amazing full marathoners finishing their races. We followed all that up by taking an afternoon nap.

Picture_20181029_160658313

We then snuck in a visit a visit with my Aunt and Uncle that evening and crashed hard that night. We stayed Sunday night in Charlottetown and headed back home to our girls on Monday (smart decision staying an extra day). Thanks PEI Marathon for a great race – we’ll be back again!

As I mentioned above, I haven’t done much running since this half but have been out twice and it felt great. Yoga is my friend and I’m back at indoor soccer as of last night – sure feeling it today (still hate sprinting and recovering, ha ha). We’ve been busy with both girls playing basketball, swim lessons, and biking (yes, are girls are loving biking still). Happy Fall!

How’s your fall running going?

What’s your favourite race moment from this fall?

Anyone else taking a semi-break from running post race?

I don’t blog daily anymore but you can follow me over on Instagram.

Half Marathon Update & Pacing VRM!

October 2, 2018 / Anna @ Piper's Run / 4 Comments

Though I haven’t been blogging about my half marathon training – I’m now 2 weeks out from my 7th half marathon in PEI!! Also, I literally had to go through my blog to figure out how many half marathon’s I’ve run to date.

Training

My training has been going really well. I’ve managed to log almost all my miles and surprisingly in September, most of those miles had me running at 5 or 6 am before my family was even up. September was the month of morning miles and I loved it! It’s starting to get a little colder and my early morning motivation is starting to dwindle.

October is off to a slow start with no running as of yet. I played three games of soccer over the weekend (we won the tournament and I scored a goal!!) so I took Monday off to rest. And rest I did. I was in bed last night at 8:49 pm – lights out! I’m coming down with a head cold which really sucks timing wise. I just feel lousy and have an 8 k run on tap for today. I’m really unsure if I’ll run at all today. Any tips on getting better quickly?

From runners to cleats!

Runner Soccer

Pacing!

On a more exciting note…….. I’m pacing the 1:10 – 10k at Valley Harvest Marathon again!!!!! I’m a wee bit excited as this is my favourite distance/time to pace! This will be my third time pacing this distance and race. I’ll be running with “True North Pacing”. They are the pacing group the came together recently to provide pacers for this race. Can’t wait!

Also – I’m looking forward to Thanksgiving dinner this weekend (Canadian Thanksgiving). After I pace my 10 k and help out a bit more I’ll be heading home to cook up a turkey and a roasted butternut squash for the vegan husband.

Anyone running Valley Harvest this weekend?

Favourite Thanksgiving dish?

Best advice to get rid of a head/throat cold? (Vit C, honey, garlic, sleep – what else).

Don’t forget, you can follow me over on Instagram – I post there almost daily.

Bluenose Half Marathon Recap 2018

May 21, 2018May 20, 2018 / Anna @ Piper's Run / 22 Comments

Woohoo…half marathon #6 completed!

We started off my traveling into the city Friday afternoon where I took in the expo sans kiddies and took zero photos, whoops! It was a in a new location which I hadn’t noticed in any of the emails so that threw me off a bit. It was a packed expo with so many great booths to visit. I ran into some runner friends which is always a bonus.

Saturday, I took the girls to the 2k youth run. Our youngest didn’t love it and really just wanted to walk and our oldest just wanted to run. We compromised with a run/walk combo since it was just me with them. They had a blast and their favourite part was getting the food after and acquiring multiple tattoo’s at the expo (again).

Weekly workouts:

I was really nervous about this half. Last week I did the following runs: Monday – rest day, Tuesday 6k, Wednesday 5k, Thursday and Friday rest days and Saturday 2k – well 1.74km with the girls. I was feeling under trained – which shouldn’t be a surprise if you’ve been following along for the last 10-12 weeks. It was what it was and I was running it whether I felt trained or under trained.

Saturday was beautifully hot and sunshine for hours for the youth run and 5k that afternoon. Come Sunday morning, it was pouring rain and temps were expected to be 12c. It ended up being a little warmer at 15c but still lots of rain. I didn’t know what to wear so put on my shorts, tank/long sleeve shirt and Tiux socks. I brought my running jacket and long pants just in case. I ended up changing from my shorts to long pants in the car and wore my tank, long sleeved shirt AND my running jacket – a little warm for all that but it was good for the first 8k of my run.

My friend Sarah was running her first half marathon (and did awesome), so we drove in together and hung out in the dry car before making our way over to the Scotiabank Centre in our poncho’s that kept us dry. After a few bathroom breaks and running into friends (my friend Tracey was running and did awesome as well). We went up to the start area around 8:08 am for a 8:20 start as we didn’t want to stand in the rain for a long time.

As the gun went off we moved forward only to be halted by the crowd in front. I always laugh at this because it happens at every race. Have you experienced that before? We cross the start mat and beeped our Garmins to start. It was crowded but that’s expected. Sarah and I ran together for the first 10 minutes and then she moved onto a 10/1’s while I did continuous. We would catch up to each other over the first 3-4k and then she eventually move forward but I could pick her out in the distance up ahead because of her hat and socks.

Around the 5k mark my Garmin beeped so I went to look at it and rolled my right ankle. No joke! Frig! I just kept moving forward and tried not to think about it and managed to run off the pain for the time being. We ran through Point Pleasant Park which was beautiful and relaxing by the water. The first BIG hill of 300 meters (0.3km) was approaching and my thought was to just push it as far as I could. I managed to run the whole thing which gave me a little confidence boost for a later HILL I would be climbing.

We ran the streets of Halifax and I was feeling really good. I was a little worried about my pace which was 6:38/km roughly from 1-11km. It just felt good and then it didn’t. It started to go downhill around 12k and I went through every thought of:

just keep one foot in front of the other
run and be happy
you can do this
I hate this
I never want to run a half again
just walk for a few seconds
I hate this
suck it up and just run

From km 12 – 18 roughly, I hated it. It was hill after hill, and I’m not just talking about little hills. These were BIG hills you had to climb forever!!! For the most part I feel I did a good job on the hills except the biggest hill and that killed me. Each time I though we were making our way to the finish area, the route would take us in an opposite direction.

When I ran this half in 2006, the route was completely different. This year they used the same route as previous years (not 2006 route) but reversed the direction. This is the main reason why I wanted to run it. I’ve learned that for the Bluenose Half Marathon it really doesn’t matter what direction you are running in because you are just going to hit hill after hill. You need to be ready for lots of hills.

I gave up a lot…like a lot. I had no drive, no energy, no interest in running – which you kinda need while running a half marathon. I really wasn’t loving it but I kept moving forward be it running or lots of walking.

Elevation Chart!!!

Around 18k it started to pour and the wind picked up. My face was tucked under my Nuun visor but the wind was strong and blew the rain up in my face. Nothing on me was dry….I just kept running – one foot in front of the other. “You are done soon. You are almost there”. I chatting with other runners as they approach me or I approach them. I thanking volunteers and police officers who were blocking traffic in the rain! I tried to enjoy the moment even though I was struggling. I had many, many thoughts on this run.

The funny thing is, I was expecting to finish around 2 hours 30 minutes and finished under it but was so hung up on how much I had to walk and that I had no desire to run. With the rain pouring down and feeling like a kid playing outside, I managed to turn my sour-puss attitude around and enjoy the last 3k in the rain.

I thanked one of the last police officers and he said “your welcome and enjoy the remainder of the race”…I smiled and said “I will” because it was a fast downhill and then uphill to the finish. As I cruised down Cogswell Street and onto Brunswick Street to finish – close to the finish line I saw my friend Kerri who called out my name (she’s involved in the youth event) and it made me smile and just enjoy the finish shoot. I turned off my Garmin and volunteers were there giving high-fives. It took everything in me to raise my arms for three high fives – ha! I was done!

I met up with Sarah as she finished just ahead of me. We hit up the food station and then got a massage!!! I’ve never gotten a massage at a race. I was soaked from the rain and sweat, salty as heck and I stunk – I just ran a half marathon – you can’t not stink after running that long. the massage was worth it.

I finished in 2:25:44 (chip time).

That’s it! Half marathon #6 done with no races scheduled for the rest of the year! I was thinking about running a race in June but have decided I need to regroup, slow down and not race for a while….I think 😉 I want to pace a few fall races as I really enjoyed that. Oh, and my ankle is okay. Slightly swollen and sore but nothing a few days of ice and rest can’t fix.

Congrats to all those who ran the Bluenose Marathon (5k, 10k, 15k, half, full and youth run) – what a great weekend for runners in Nova Scotia!

How was your (long) weekend?

Anyone race this weekend? How’d it go?

When was the last time you rain a race in the rain?

I’m linking up with Holly and Wendy for the Weekly Wrap today.

397df-weeklywrapnew