Ocala Half Recap

Yesterday was run #11 the Ocala Half Marathon.  Since this was in my town I was looking forward to it. I could sleep in my own bed, not get at 3am and it was a beautiful course although there are lots of hills.

Went to packet pickup Saturday and was very disappointed.  They call it an expo, and I knew it would be small because it was last year but this year there was only 1 vendor who had very limited inventory. So I went and shopped at Sports Authority instead :-)

On my way out of the mall I did see them setting up the finish line - woohoo!

Got everything laid out that night and went to bed early and then didn't sleep most of the night :-(

Got to the mall and found someone I knew from the Run Space Coast FB group and we hung out until the start, trying to stay warm. It was in the 30s too cold for this FL girl. But once the sun came up and we were moving it was a great temp.

After a slight delay starting the people running the marathon, the half marathoners took off a few minutes later. I had decided to do 1:1 intervals for the first half and 30:30 for the second. I took off and was cruising along at my desired pace.

Then about 1.5 miles in a woman caught up to me and said "I've been trying to catch up to you. I am going to run with you." Um, ok. I like to run alone but also can't be rude. We were going the same pace so we ran and she talked. She waa very nice and it did help to make the first half go quickly.

The scenery was beautiful, we ran in some roads I haven't been on before so it was nice seeing the farms, horses and cows. The hills were challenging but so far so good.

At about 9 miles in I realized that not only could I get a PR but I could beat my stretch goal of finishing in 3:15. Woohoo!

That's when the hills started to get tough and with about 2.5 miles left I slowed down and lost my new friend.  But I was still on track to meet 3:15. In the last 0.25 mile my calves kept trying to cramp up on me but then I saw mom & Becky at the finish line and I slowly ran across the finish line in 3:13:42 YAY!!!!!!

I definitely enjoyed this race and would do it again, but I am thinking next year I may have to do the Clearwater half because the beach trumps horse farms any time lol!

And I do have pics but I am writing this on my phone and can't add them...

Galloway Style

When I first started running 8 or so years ago I started training for a 15k. During that training I discovered I get exercise induced migraines.

Fast forward about 6 years and I finally discovered the Galloway method.

It's a run/walk method and allows me to Run long distances without migraines because there are built in rest periods. According to all I have read I should be doing 30 sec running and 30 sec walking. Being stubborn I started out doing 4 min running with 1 min walking. I found out in my first 10k that interval didn't work for me. I then switched to 2:1 and that seemed to work ok.

After coming back from an injury I started out with 1:1 and my body responded well but I started to wonder if 30:30 would work any better.

Then came Space Coast and Jeff Galloway BQ'd using 20:40 second intervals.

That did it for me, time to try 30:30. I have done several runs doing 1:1 for the first half and 30:30 for the second. This has been long and short runs. For all but 1 run my second half has been faster. On my long run it was the fastest long training run I have had and I felt great at the end.

I am not sure I am ready to fully switch to 30:30, but they will now be part of every run.

Any other Galloway'ers out there? Or do you feel like it's "cheating" if you walk at all?

Welcome 2014

A new year, a new start. I am going to work towards being more consistent with blogging. As is typical for this time of year I will restart the blog with some of my goals for 2014.

Goal #1
Blog at least twice per month. More would be better but I want to start small and build from there. To meet this goal I will set a calendar reminder to blog every other week. I can also write posts from my computer, tablet or smartphone so I have no reason not to do it.

Goal #2
Lose the weight I gained this year. I gained 10 lbs over the year and my plan is to lose it by the end of March. I will do this by focusing on eating more veggies and fruits and paying more attention to portion size. I will fill half my ate with veggies and fruits then 1/4 with whole grains and 1/4 lean protein.

Goal #3
Increase my speed and stamina for running. This year I want to focus on running and strength training. That means I am not currently planning on doing any triathlons this year. I enjoyed the one I did, but not the training so much. And since I drove running that is what I want to focus on this year. I also know that strength training will help with my running and weight loss. Since I struggle with being consistent with strength training I want to be able to focus on it.

So that it for now. These three are my focus for now, and I will code throughout the year as needed.

I got off to a good start this morning g. I ran a virtual 5k and my pace was 13:00 which is pretty fast for me at this point.

Here's to a great 2014!