Date: December 2, 2011
Location: Downtown Memphis, TN
Weather: 40-50's - mostly sunny, windy
Conditions: Been splitting long runs into 2days. ?? longest run in training. VERY minimal on speed work.
Report: Started out trying to maintain a 9:20-9:30 for the first 3 like Brian (trainer at BPC) had said. Had to slow myself down some @ start. First porta-potty break around mi. 3 Kicked it up some after but settled in around 9ish. From here til 13 I tried to keep it fairly steady but not push too hard. You can tell from the stats that from 16 on I got tired & started slacking. From 21 on was the worst. Started taking walk breaks every 1/2 mi or so. Knees weren't hurting, nothing hurt - just got tired. Legs were so heavy. I tried to think about & work on mechanics more but at that point all I could focus on was trying not to walk. Kept counting steps to make sure I kept cadence like normal. Man, you would've been proud of my knees!! The left one flared up 7-8 in but went away after a few miles. They both did a little on/off for the last 8 or so but not bad at all - didn't have to walk b/c of them. Tried to stop & stretch every 4 or 5 mi. Even now I can tell they've gotten better due to not being as sore afterward. Was very happy with this! Also had no calf pain on either leg at all during the race - just soreness afterward like usual. New pain during this race on inside of both ankles. The pain goes right around the ankle bone... Never had this before. Started in around 18-20 and stayed pretty constant til the end. Was probably a 4 on a 1-10 pain scale, but completely new. Feel like my nutrition was off yesterday. I hit the porta-potty to pee 3 freakn times (about mi 3, 10, 20). Have only gone once if any in all the other races. I was so thirsty halfway in that I would take 2 drinks every few water stops instead of just 1. Could tell around mi. 15/16 that it was too much - felt sluggish. Got bad side stitch not long after. Took gu every 3 for first half then every 2 or 3 the 2nd half and electrolyte tabs every hour.Mentally I was a little freaked going in. I was telling myself to enjoy it & relax at the beginning but thinking of the road ahead kinda bummed me out - I just kept remembering Nashville and how it seemed forever and a day long, and how tough things got towards the end. Knew that was going to happen again and I started dreading it early.
Recovery: In comparison to the way I felt during the Nashville full in April, I felt about 75% better yesterday. Even afterward through today I feel WAY better. just sore calves now along with the new ankle pain but drastically better in comparison, so I know there's been improvement.
Not sure how I get get a more consistent pace per mile split - I was all over the place with pace yesterday. Wish I could've averaged each within 10 sec of each other. I guess shooting for 4 was a little naive considering it's just my 2nd but I shaved 25 min. off, had knee pain drastically reduced, and felt WAY better overall before and after so I consider that progress a success! Thanks very much to BPC Performance for helping me get here!!
