ohhhh beautiful part of the state and the course goes right along the lakefront. Looks like just about perfect weather for race time tomorrow too. Best of luck! Enjoy it, even when your body disagrees and thinks it sucks - enjoy it! And when you hit a wall, especially mentally it - enjoy it! It will pass!
The pain is temporary! Haha, thanks for advice. Definitely hoping to have some fun in addition to hitting some (ambitious) goals.
yahoooo! Congrats! Time to start saving up for Boston and learning all the little details of getting ready and prepping and corrals and all that!
That's the tentative plan! Hopefully I can take a few lessons from today and pay them forward to Boston. Felt amazing for the first half, which I blew through in 1:18:50. Fell apart a little bit in the last 6-7, with miles 24 and 25 being particularly agonizing. Definitely did not get enough water out on the course (I really suck at drinking from those cups without just walking through aid stations, which I was doing by the end because I was so dehydrated), and dealt with some heavy legs and blisters starting around 20. Still, pretty happy with this as my debut. Not quite the time I hoped for, but I think I'll figure out the pacing a little better in the future.
You may, just may be a bit too hard on yourself lol. Your back half was basically a 1:24 which would be impressive as fuck as the first 13 miles but the last 13 miles? Jesus Christ lol. Happy recovering and enjoy!
I don’t think I’ve ever really followed a Hal Higdon training plan before but see his name come up a lot. Very interesting to see he has plans for marathons 2-4-6-8 weeks apart and tomorrow is officially 8 weeks until San Francisco so I’m gonna follow that plan and see how it goes. My training between Iowa and Illinois was more sporadic than I would have liked so it’ll be nice to use a plan and follow it.
Funny, I’ve used nothing but Balegas for about a year now and it’s always blister city for me. And I don’t think it’s my shoes as I’ve always worn the same model and size and the first year or so I ran I had no blister issues. I now have to wrap my feet in some sort of Dr. Sholl’s tape hoping that helps from blisters AND helps save my toenails but I may have started the tape too late to help lol
I don’t want to make it sound like I dislike Balega, they are the best socks I’ve ever worn and will not give up on them. I assume my blister issue has nothing to do with the sock or have at least told myself that lol. One of these days I’ll go back to Fleet Feet and get their opinion. The closest one is about 75 minutes away so it’s not super far I guess I’m just worried what they could tell me and/or worry I’d have to test out a bunch of different shoes to see if one works better when I feel like the ones I’ve always used are still good and the right size. Will have to try the Gold Bond powder and see what that toes. I may also try trail toes and other stuff but I don’t get how you can have goop on your feet and get socks on! I can barely get my socks on after putting the wraps around my big toes
Sorry, missed this post for some reason! I actually was wearing a pair of Balegas on Saturday, of a type of sock that has been my go-to for long runs throughout training. I've generally gravitated more to Belaga over the years compared to brands like Darn Tough (which get holes much faster than I would have expected given their name) and Smart Wool (which I love at the beginning, but always tend to have problems with them shrinking a lot over time). I guess Saturday was just warm/sweaty enough and just enough above my normal pace/intensity/distance to give me problems.
Just finished my 8th Rock n Roll San Diego race. 7 half’s and 1 full. 1:44 so about 6 minutes slower than when I ran the same race in October. It’s about what I expected heading into the race but disappointed because I felt like I was starting out strong. No injuries though which is always a good thing.
Thinking about doing Rock n Roll Clearwater half in October. I did the RnR Nashville full last year. They do really nice events imo
Interesting, I’ve heard some horrible things lately about Rock N Roll races. Specifically the one that was in Charleston(?) South Carolina that was recently cancelled for good but that also had city issues I think? also not sure how much these company events are the same people or if they hire local people so not sure if ALL Rock N Roll events should get the same side eye from me or not Edit: Rock N Roll New Orleans also has had issues but that seemed more like last minute route changes for the worst and not sure how much that’s the company or the city but maybe they were late with communicating changes
I can’t remember what year specifically but in like 16-18 another company came in and bought up the rights to the name. Before that it was based out of San Diego and had tons of success. Once the new company came in they were essentially buying up races and kinda ruining what was once a great race weekend for cities. So a lot of the newer races are hot and cold. I’ve mostly done San Diego and did the full in Las Vegas.
yeah that sounds familiar! I was looking into a few Rock N Roll races for some of the states but started to shy away based on some (limited) reviews I could find online.
San Diego is fun but weather can be crummy for it. Vegas on November was fun but now it’s in February. either way I’d plan to do touristy things the day after the race.
Just did my first run in over two months since my half. Desperately needed that time off. But turns out I maybe needed running more. Two of he hardest miles I’ve done in a very long time mentally, but damn if it didn’t feel right. Cloudmonsters took a minute of time off each mile for this route, too. Super comfy.
There was something I just read that really spoke to me that some runner said. “There are days where I don’t feel like running, but never once have I regretted going for a run afterwards. It’s always made me happier after.” I try to remember that on sluggish days because, at least for me, it’s very true.
I started using trail toes in addition the Dr. Scholl’s moleskin tape and while I’m not sure my big toes are getting any better (running 5 days a week isn’t going to help of course lol) they certainly don’t seem to be getting any worse so I think I may have found a solution that works for me. just kinda sucks no longer being able to just throw on my socks and shoes and head out the door. An extra 5-10 minutes preparation needed but whatever, just happy to be able to run and not seem to be making my feet/toes worse.