Track Tuesday

Yesterday was my last track workout before my goal race (Columbus Half marathon) this weekend. I always think I'm prepared for what will go down on the track but there are those days when I'm thrown off by what my coach tells me to do. This particular workout didn't have the pace goal listed on my schedule. TBA was there instead, which means Coach will give me my pace/splits at the track.

We start at a local gym, warm up a quarter mile in the parking lot and come in for drills (well, yesterday we came in since it was pouring rain). At that time coach goes around and talks to everyone to discuss their workouts. We all usually have different workouts based on what our training goal is at the time.

Here is convo between coach and I yesterday:

Coach - What's your workout today, Kim?
Me - 4x200, 1 mi, 4x200
Coach - Ok, aim for 50-52 on the 200s. For the mile, just pray.
Me -

I knew once I got to the track the mile was going to be an all out effort. I ran my 2 miles with the group, in the rain to the track. Got to the track, changed my shoes and hit all my 200s within range (actually a little fast). Then this conversation took place....

Coach - Kim, J and A are going for an 8 minute mile. I want you to start with them, in front of them. Guys, if she hits the 200 faster than you, let her go. Kim, all out.
Me - ok.

It was pouring, y'all! Pouring rain. The back light on my Garmin hasn't worked in a year. The track wasn't very well lit. The first lane of the track was basically one large puddle of water. Coach was calling out my splits as I came around to his side of the track. And somehow I was still ahead of my friends. 4 laps done.

7:44

and I finished my last 4 200s. We took a break in the dry for a minute to all talk, coach took a pic and we were on our way to cool down and get in a warm shower. With .25 left in the cool down I got into a bit of a fight with the sidewalk.

I have NO idea exactly how it happened. These falls while running seem to always happen so very fast! I felt sick immediately and took a few minutes to get up but I am grateful for all of my friends that I was running with. They stayed with me and made sure I was good. We walked back, I iced my elbow a little and showered. Once I got to work I decided to call the dr and have the elbow checked out just in case. It was still quite a bit swollen and throbbing 3 hours after the fall. Luckily there are no fractures, just a big ol' bruise. I'm still swollen and sore today but that won't stop me from kicking butt this weekend at my race!

I have to say that I think part of the reason I am not feeling worse post hard workout AND fall is because I took a nice dose of AdvoCare Nighttime Recovery at bedtime. This stuff makes a world of difference even after a hard workout with muscle soreness. So, I think it helped me to feel even less stiff upon waking up and getting out of bed this morning. If you are an athlete and haven't tried it - let me know! You will LOVE IT.

And the best part of all is that I kicked butt on the track. It's funny how sub 8 use to feel SO far away and now I'm hitting it more and it's not feeling as taxing. Hoping all my hard work pays off on Sunday!

The Mile.

We've all ran or walked a mile before. Some of us have many under our belts. I've certainly done my fair share of mile repeats on the track but it was not until last month that I actually Raced the mile. Imagine my surprise on Thursday when I received an actual race plan from my coach.

A mile race and I received a very detailed race plan. I studied it a lot over the course of the days leading up until my race. I knew exactly what I was capable of (yet still doubted myself) and knew I'd have no issues at least doing my very best.

My very good friend is the race director for the Hal Canfield memorial Mile fest that takes place on Labor Day Monday in September every year. It is a USATF certified course and very fast out/back mile in one of our favorite areas to run - Cherokee Blvd in Knoxville, TN.

I got up that morning, did exactly as my coach told me to. Walked around the house, did a quick jaunt down the road and came back in to have my breakfast. The fist wave of runners started at 8:00am. The race was broken up into several heats. My heat wouldn't take off until after 8:30am. I had plenty of time to get in my 2-3 mile warm up and use the bathroom one more time.

sidenote- Here is my AdvoCare pre-race fuel routine-
Spark and Catalyst as soon as my feet hit the floor.
O2gold 60 minutes before race time.

We lined up and I was completely intimidated because I was literally ON.THE.LINE.. first with the fast girls. I joked that all my fast friends stayed home. I knew I'd place if I managed to stick to my race plan just based on looking at who was in the heat with me.

My plan had me going into this race not as a mile but broken down by 200 meters at a time. When I initially went over my plan I knew that the goal was sub 8, which I have only ever done once in a workout and that was well over a year ago.  I had a friend run with me for about half a mile of this to give me a little boost, some pep talking. But I was running this for me.

I started fast and knew it so I slowed a little in order to be able to kick it up a notch in the last 200. Once I got near the finish line and could hear people cheering I heard my coaches voice and, "You can get sub 7:30 if you kick hard." Eh.. I did not have it in me but here is how I did finish....


7:39 

I was stoked, out of breath completely, but STOKED!! PR and sub 8 and FAST!! I finished 3rd in my age group and took home a sweet $30 gc to a local health/food shop where I racked up $30 worth of GU. 
Racing a mile is hard but I was happy to have done this race and really put myself out there. I gave everything I had that day and it showed how much my hard work has paid off. In June I was averaging around a 8:36-8:44/mi for repeats on the track. That's almost a minute faster in just a matter of months. 

  

She is back!

Whoa Mama!
Who has been away from this dusty ol' blog for far too long??
You guess it - this girl!

How many times in the last year have I even said that!? Too.darn.many.

One of my goals for the year was to blog regularly again and obviously I have failed.  But let's look at what has been going down in my town (or really my life!haha) during my blog hiatus.

-- That lil AdvoCare 10 day cleanse and 24 Day Challenge thing brought both me and my hubs great results. Like really really fabulous results. Neither of us has ever felt better. I'm down roughly 17 lbs since June and my man is down an amazing 40 pounds!!! I will post some  progress and updated pics soon.
And I love love love AdvoCare SO much that I'm working it a little on the side. That said, if you read here and wanna hear more - I would LOVE TO HELP YOU get back on track with your weight loss goals, gain more energy and feel more A.L.I.V.E and coach you up on how YOU can be the very best healthy version of you without some fad diet and weight loss quick fix.

-- Whew.  Football season, y'all. It's like a year long thing at my house but we are in full swing. And it has been fun. The team my hubby coaches for is doing well so far this season and my lil guy (who is not so little at 8 yrs old anymore) is waterboy this year. So.much.fun!! I have loved watching the team when I make a game and loved the excitement in my son's face to be out there with the boys.

-- My son (the 8 yr old mentioned above) spent a lot of this year (well June until recently) sick. First it was a parasite, then it was "we don't know," and it was test after test after test, meds after meds after meds, until our final follow up appointment with the GI dr a week ago to find out the poor dude has stress/anxiety related IBS. No bueno and no fun. at all. What caused this? The parasite was likely the start of it, but he also expressed to us some concerns with school and repeating 2nd grade. All is well now or at least on the upswing. The kids have been out of school for fall break so we shall see what happens next week.

RUNNING!!!
Y'all my 10th half marathon is a week away!!! I've ran some races and had some amazing PRs since I last posted. I cannot wait to share all that. And if all goes well the next two weekends (goal half marathon AND Ragnar Relay) I will be taking a short base building break before training for marathon number tres!


Stay tuned and hey - I am back!!