Monday, March 10, 2014

The Accidental Half Marathon

Christ in a canoe, this has been a brutal winter. For some reason, I was completely delusional when plotting out my races, thinking that winter would buck up mid-February, and hang out in the 30s and maybe a couple days of 40s or 50s. Probably another storm or two, but just snow.

But no. As I write this, it's 19-feels-like-fucking-11. In fucking March.

I have run more this winter than I have...probably in my whole life. I strapped on my Yak Trax and trudged through inches of snow. I've had ice-cream headaches from fucking breathing, because the air is so cold. I trekked over ice patches in the sketchiest parts of Pittsburg while on a business trip. I've worn my ski sweater virtually non-stop since...I got back from Florida?

As a runner, you're attune pushing on, especially during times of mental exhaustion and despair. Hitting the wall in a race requires you to focus on your goal and the race at hand, and layering the determination on to power through. I have been at some of my darkest moments during mile 23 of a marathon, knowing that I only had 3.2 miles to go, but wondering how in the everliving fuck I was going to get through those 3.2 miles.

That is how I feel about this winter. As I glance at a 10-day forecast with temps almost never breaking 40, I feel like I'm at the bottom of a hill, mile 23 of a marathon. Where's the winter bitch-out-bus?

To try and keep myself motivated, I signed up for the New Bedford half marathon. When I signed up for it, it was January, and I was fresh off of crushing four races in a weekend. March 16th seemed like light years away. I mean, I ran the Quincy Half on March 17, 2012, and it was like 63 degrees. March 16th was SOooOOoOOoo far away when I signed up in January. I could focus on PR'ing in this race.

Welp, here we sit, with 11 days until the NB half. My peak run was on Sunday - 12 miles at a pace that was about 10 seconds faster than the 12 I ran before Florida. I felt...fine. I felt strong. I felt...really confused. I'm starting to taper again? I barely started training again. Where's the mental anguish about the miles? Where is the feeling of unpreparedness? Is this how other (fast/good) runners feel? Just perennially ready for a half marathon?

The weird thing is...I really could PR in this half. I ran 10 as a tempo run a couple weeks ago, and my pace was 8 seconds faster than my PR pace. Like I said, I ran my peak run faster than I did back in January. I literally have no idea how this has happened, but I am faster. Without actually trying to get faster. It's kind of like that time where I stopped obsessing about losing weight, and dropped 20ish pounds. (Oh, how I wish I could do that again, BTW.)

Can you haphazardly PR? I mean, I'm sure it happens to people. I'm just generally not one of those people. I usually have to set my sights on something, and pursue it with the tenacity of a pit bull. I'm so distracted by everything else going on (wedding planning, work, complaining about the weather - which, at this point, is a full time job) that I've been blindly following my (truncated) training plan without a

With 10 days to go, I guess all I can