The 50K has come and gone. I've had time to process the race and what to focus on moving forwards. Lots of good, but some disappointment too. First let's start with a bunch of good!
I'm so proud of my athlete Katie Smith! She did her first 50K! She had moments of wanting to quit (don't we all at some point during a 50K?) but never gave up and stayed tough till the end. She almost set her 30K PB on her way through, and smashed her 40K PB, and finished 7th! I'm so very, very proud of her!
Dave had an awesome race, sticking to his race plan and moving his way up to 5th. I think he started in 9th or 10th or something? He kept smiling all the way and had a very successful race. I'm so happy that he enjoyed his 50K, and placed in the money! And with the news that he was accepted to race at Milrose we're glad he didn't race super hard so he can recover for an awesome mile race. He's already done some speed work and is in good form to have an awesome competition February 11th!
My race plan for the 50K was to go out and gradually pick it up. I was successful at that until about 35K when I stopped accelerating and slowed up a bit. But nothing horrible by any means. Along the way I broke my 30K, 40K, marathon, and 50K PB. In fact I set my 30K PB twice... The first 30K and the 30K from 10-40K was faster, so that's fun. Couple those with having set my 1500, mile, 3,000, 5,000 and 10,000 PBs since December 31st and I can safely say I'm just about in the best shape of my life. On top of that I didn't get a single paddle or red card, and haven't gotten any cards in I think the last 7 or so races. I got one paddle at the race I did 3,000 at, but I was pushing pretty hard and I never got a card. So I think I'm safe in saying that I've successfully ironed out my technique. I received some very nice complements from judges on how I'm looking, so that seems to reinforce my belief.
I followed my nutrition plan perfectly and didn't have any of the tummy trouble I had in New Zealand at their 50K championships, so that makes me happy. The weather was much better than it had been the last few years in California, so that was a relief. It started to feel a bit warm near the end of the race, but definitely nothing horrible. The course was new this year and I liked it. It was an L shape and it broke it up so that it didn't feel like you're just going straight out and straight back. The turns were really nice and wide so there wasn't the feeling of losing all your momentum and having to get going again, so that was really nice.
As I have been reminding myself, about 7 months ago I was officially anemic and could barely workout. Coming from that to here I think is a huge achievement and I'm very proud of the progress I made in such a "short" time.
Now for some nitty gritty... Here's my 5K splits:
26:50, 27:05, 26:40, 26:47, 26:16, 26:31, 26:34, 26:54, 28:04, 27:53.
I'm happy that my last 5K wasn't my slowest. In fact, of the top five finishers, my last 5K was the fastest of all of them, men included. My halves were 2:13:38 and 2:15:55. Even my second half was ahead of my old PB pace. My middle two 20Ks (10-30 and 20-40) were 1:46:14 and 1:46:15, faster than I raced the 20K Olympic Trials. I placed fourth overall, so even if for whatever reason there isn't a women's 50K NACAC Championship I will be on the open Pan Am Cup Team, so I'm officially going to Lima, Peru, which is awesome.
Am I sad I lost my American records? Of course. But records are made to be broken and having more women racing hard, fast, strong 50Ks means that there will be an official women's 50K sooner rather than later. And since records are made to be broken.... well....
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| When you need protein after a race what's better than a Brazilian restaurant!!!!! Yummy!!!! |
I recovered a little slower than I normally do, but only by a day or so. I got a fantastic massage in Lake Havasu where we were visiting my parents and she really helped work things out. Friday I did some speed work and absolutely flew. I'm changing my focus to speed for a few months to work on foot speed and hit a few hard 20Ks. But I still have some long walks in there to help me improve endurance for Peru. It's so nice writing my schedule. Since I believe in what I'm capable of I don't have to worry about a schedule that won't help me work up to my potential. I've written it and had it checked by people whose opinions I trust and who know me and my training. Everyone agrees it's a program that can help me get to all my goals, and that is very exciting! It'll be challenging, but I'm up for the challenge.
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| The cheerleaders were awesome! Cheering for us all the way! |
So here's to another block of training, focusing like I've never focused before, believing like I've never believed before, and training like I've never trained before! I think I'm going to surprise a fair few people this year with what I accomplish.
Happy training!
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