Thursday, March 1, 2012

B&A Goals Post


So my second race of 2012 is coming up this weekend!!! And I must say that I'm pretty excited about it! All races = good races!! 


I will be making my way up to Maryland to race in the B&A trail Half Marathon


Now it's not actually a real trail race, it is just ran on a trail much like the Mt. Vernon trail - a asphalted bike and running path. And the best part about the course ... there are hills at mile 2 and 7 with the rest of the course being mostly flat!!! Last time I checked, flat = fast!

Now when I registered for this race back in January I wasn't doing any speed work and really was just running to stay in shape during the off season. After I registered I started to add tempo runs back into my schedule although I never did make it to a track workout. I don't know what it is about track workouts, but there is something about being at the track at 5:45 in the morning when it's pitch dark out that doesn't appeal to me. I promise myself that I will soon be going as it is getting lighter out in the mornings.
 
Anyhow, with my lack of speed work, I still feel pretty good going into this race but I don't want to put too much pressure on myself and set myself up for PR failure. I have learned in the past that if you just go with the follow and listen to your body instead of looking at your Garmin the entire race good things happen. During the San Jose RnR half I became Garmin obsessed during the race and bonked at mile 10 leaving me to struggle my way to the finish line the last three miles and leave the course PR-less.


My last half marathon, The VA Freedom Half, I PRed at a 1:44:55 with a dead Garmin which resulted in  running with a pace group which was fun. I'm not going to say it was effortless, but it sure did take the pressure off.


Now, I would like to try to PR at this race. Anything under my current PR I would be happy with :) Since it's a smaller race of about 1000 runners, I'm not sure if they will have pace groups? If not, I guess I will just run and turn the sound off on my Garmin and see were the cards fall....

Happy Thurs All :)

5 comments:

  1. If you want the Garmin data post-race, just set the screen to something meaningless (I like "sunrise time"). I did this for a 5k and really liked it.

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  2. I agree with Victoria! I set my watch to view something random at Baltimore and then flipped over to check my time twice, once at mile 7 and once at mile 10. I promised myself I'd only look twice during the race and it was so helpful :)

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  3. Also, I hope you don't mind waiting around for me for like half an hour after you're done on Sunday! Eep!

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    1. Of course I don't mind! I will be there cheering you to the finish line

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  4. Good luck this weekend! I agree with what everyone else has said - set your watch so it doesn't show time or pace so that you'll have the info later but won't be influenced by it during the race.

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