Excited

I can honestly say that I do not remember the last time I was this excited for a race. My last big race was the Harrisburg Marathon back in November, which I dreaded more than I care to admit. The other races I did last year were either more casual races that I did not train specifically for or it was my first time at that distance so I was more nervous than excited.

The week leading up to a race is so important for how I do in that race. After the New York City Marathon got cancelled I didn't know whether I wanted to run a different marathon or not but I felt like I had to because so many people told me I should. From the minute I woke up on race day through mile 22ish I was miserable.

So today marks the first day of race week for the Nike Women's Half Marathon. I signed up for this race back in November a few days after finishing my first marathon. My goal for this race at the time was to break 2 hours. I had set my half marathon PR at the Baltimore Half Marathon in October, which was right in the middle of marathon training. I ran a 2:03:00 unexpectedly, giving me a taste of how close I was to running a sub-2 half.

When I signed up for the race I had no plan for how I was going to break two hours, I just knew I wanted to do it. I wanted to take a break from running while gearing up for finals and then focus on training once 2013 rolled around. I didn't plan to start working with a coach to train for this race, although I had been thinking about getting a coach for a little while.

Spotted in DC!

When the opportunity arose to work with Mike from Endurance Multisport in Lancaster, Pennsylvania I was elated. Being a swimmer for ten years conditioned me to listen very well to coaches. At the end of my swimming career I coached myself due to issues with my coach at the time and I loved having that freedom. I'm proud of what I accomplished without the help of a coach but I know in my heart I would have done even a little bit better if I had stayed with my coach.

Even after a few days of working with Mike I knew I was going to like having a coach again. Besides knowing so much more about how to train than I do, having a coach holds me accountable. I am conditioned to do what my coach tells me. So now after 15 weeks of training under Mike I am getting ready to see how we did.

I saw more progress than I ever imagined in both my speed and mentality towards running. Despite having my ups and downs during training, I learned so many invaluable things about myself as a runner and a person. Now it's time to take all this and channel it towards my race this weekend. I am excited to finally put all this hard work to the test.

Believe

After 5 weeks of being back in training I already feel I made more progress than I expected out of the entire 16 weeks I will be training for my upcoming half marathon. My goal going into training was to break two hours. With a current PR of 2:03 set back in October while training for my first marathon I believed that sub-2:00 was realistic as well as challenging. From the beginning I decided I wanted to shoot for as far under two hours as possible. I will be happy with a 1:59:59 if that is the best I can give come April 28 but I have always believed I could do a little better. I didn't have a time in mind, all I knew was that I wanted to train hard and smart and see what I could achieve.

When I started training back in the beginning of January I considered 6 miles a long run and was comfortably running around a 10 minute mile for most of my runs. I was excited about training but also scared. So much of what I was going to be doing would be new and I had hardly any control over my training. I knew when I decided to work with a coach that I was giving up the ability to decide how often/long/hard I wanted to run on a given day but I was okay with that. I knew that in order for this to work I would have to trust Mike 100%. My resolution for 2013 is to take more chances and even though I knew things might not work out how I wanted them to I decided it was worth taking that chance.

My biggest concern was running 6 days a week. I have always run 3-4 days a week and was worried that jumping to 6 would be too much. I quickly learned that I actually love running almost every day. Running has become a part of my daily routine and the days that I am not running I get anxious about getting out for my next run. I never imagined I would be that person. As training keeps ramping up I will eventually stop running so many days in favor of some pre-season triathlon training. While I am truly excited about putting more into my triathlon training this year I am going to really miss running six days a week. Who am I?!

This past week I ran 7 times for a total of 34 miles. This is both the greatest number of runs I have done in a week as well as the greatest number of miles. I have been training hard for five weeks and now am running comfortable 9:00-9:30 miles. What used to be somewhat challenging for me has become easy. On Friday I had a 75 minute run scheduled with the goal of keeping my pace under 9 minute miles. Despite how much I have improved in these past few weeks I was still nervous about this pace going into the run. I knew it wouldn't be easy but I was shocked by how feasible it was. I finished my run with 8.8 miles for an 8:30 pace. I then did a ridiculously easy two mile recovery run later that afternoon for a total of 10.8 miles for the day. This is the highest daily mileage I've hit since marathon training.

Later that day I was informed by Mike that I had a breakout run and I couldn't agree more. When I see other people doing 8-12 mile runs at this pace I think that is so fast. I'm still not even sure I believe that I can hold that pace. During my run on Friday when I looked at my watch and saw 8:3X I thought something was wrong with my watch. I didn't believe that I could really be holding that pace for so long. After some quick math I realized that if I were able to hold this pace for 13.1 miles I could run about a 1:52 half marathon. I don't want to jinx anything but I am now more motivated than ever. I know what I am doing is working and I know that if I keep training the way I have been, I will achieve big things. I just have to stop doubting myself and believe in my capabilities.