Monday, April 7, 2014

Training Update-Nike Women's Half DC

Since my last post about my training (or lack-thereof) for the Nike DC Women's Half Marathon, I have to say I'm feeling much more confident about race day. I completed a 7-miler yesterday where I tried out some new things for race day. Some went well, others not so much. First, the bad of yesterday's run.


  • I tried Cliff Shot Gel, I do NOT like Cliff Shot Gel. I'm a texture person when it comes to food so it kinda threw me off. The texture didn't throw me off as much as the taste. I couldn't decide if it was trying to be sweet or salty. I'll just stick to shot blocks in the future.

  • I didn't bring back up fuel so I was feeling slightly sluggish the last mile. Rookie mistake! I'll make sure to have more than enough fuel on future runs
  • My orthotics starting rubbing the last 2 miles :(. I'll need to make sure I bandage up that area to help prevent rubbing and blisters on my next long runs.
And guess what, that's it for the bad! The good list (which is longer-woo hoo!) is as follows.

  • I've been doing exercises for my shin splints and I can tell they've been working because NO SHIN SPLINTS during or after my run!
  • I also tried those ribbon elastic hair ties. They stayed in my baby, fine hair like a charm. I didn't adjust my ponytail once. Ladies, you'll understand it's the little things.

    Source

  • I also listened to a new music app called FitRadio and I didn't hit next the entire run! That's big for me as I'll probably shuffle through half my iPod on a 30 min run. You can choose all different genres of music and it lists the BPM for each station.
  • My splits were all within 20 seconds of each other throughout my entire run, yay for good pacing!
Overall, I still don't think I'm quite ready for race day, but I'm feeling much more confident. Only 3 more weeks until I'll be taking on DC!

Lauren 

QOTD: What are your "must haves" for long runs?

4 comments:

  1. Wow, race day is almost here! I haven't tried those Clif gels yet and am almost afraid too. I do like the island boost though. It's more liquid and less gel like. The only must have for me on a long run is my Garmin so I can track it. I need to start worrying more about fuel and hydration which I hadn't in the past.

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    1. I know, I can't believe it! I had a suspicion that I wouldn't like the gels but tried it out anyways. I'll have to look into the island boost though.

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  2. Nice job!! It's definitely a smart idea to experiment with race fuel before race day. That is good you discovered you don't like Clif gels before NWH-DC lol! I can't believe the race is only a few weeks away... hopefully I'll see you there!

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    1. Thank you! I can't believe it either, it would be great to run into each other!

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