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 :)
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.
ReplyDeleteI 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 :)
ReplyDeleteAlso, I hope you don't mind waiting around for me for like half an hour after you're done on Sunday! Eep!
ReplyDeleteOf course I don't mind! I will be there cheering you to the finish line
DeleteGood 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.
ReplyDelete