Eileen Swanson's Tales

Today’s “training” race was definitely a great learning experience. I came into this race with alot of “firsts.” First time with a great experienced coach, first time with a plan, first time without a care in the world of my finishing time, first time that I wore tights, long sleeves and a vest to a race, and the first time that I would race with 29 mph winds (no joke) and pelting rain (pretty cool, until mile 10, will explain). I followed coach’s advice and started back a ways in the crowd, between the 7-8 minute pace banners. Wow, little did I know that these people walk until they get across the start line (a good minute or so). It was absolute craziness. People walking, some people attempting to run over people, etc. I stayed calm and once I saw an open spot I ran through it and got around a bunch of slower runners. It was like this for the first 2 miles. I was all over the road, trying to get around people. I think since this race was so crowded, I should have started a little further up. Oh well, no big deal. I stayed focused and held back alot. I had a weird issue at mile 1-3 with my right leg falling asleep (as if I sat in a weird position and got up and felt pins and needles). It was so weird and I was nervous that I would have to stop and walk to shake it out. The feeling finally went away by mile 4.

Back to miles 1-3. Other than my leg feeling like this, I felt in control, my HR stayed between 141-147. Cardiovascularly, I felt great. At mile 4 when this leg issue went away, I felt amazing. I was passing so many people and holding my HR at 151-155 and running 6.15s-6.39s depending on the rollers. On the downhills I was getting down to 5.50s and a bit faster and feeling golden. I was so excited but knew I had to hold back until the halfway point. Each mile I felt stronger and passed more people. Mile 6 came (had a GU and water) and I started to pick it up a bit and hold 6.10s -6.29s. It was the greatest feeling to feel effortless, my HR stayed at 155. At mile 7 we hit the Great Highway which would become both euphoric as well as unforgiving. This section was an out and back along the ocean with winds gusting up to 29mph and rain pouring down, for us Californians this is tough. I felt amazing miles 7-8, we had a tailwind and I was running anywhere from 6.23 down to 6.09/mile pace and holding 156-159HR. I knew we would have a serious headwind on the way back, so I tried to hold back a little. I kept telling myself to relax and enjoy the tailwind and run smooth and stay in control. It did feel good passing some women I knew, but as we got closer to the turnaround I could see a bunch of women on their way back. For like 5 seconds this bummed me out and then I quickly got over it and remembered that this is a process and I can only worry about myself. I got back in a Zone and felt ok.

By the end of Mile 8 I was getting a little tired, not my lungs and heart but my legs. I kept looking down to see what my HR was and why I was starting to feel fatigue in my legs. I thought it could be that I jumped up too high too quickly, but that was not the case. I was at 161 when I started hurting a bit. Through mile 9, I remained steady, smooth and felt pretty good other than fatigued quads. My HR remained around 159-161. Once I reached the turnaround at Mile 9.8, I hit the major headwind. WOW, it was STRONG. I tried so hard to draft off of people, but most were too fast. Geez! It was such a great experience to have this strong wind and rain pelting down on me. I kept thinking that this was making me tougher and I kept hearing my Coaches positive words. Thanks, for the motivation Coach! At mile 10 I was at 1 hour 09 minutes and my HR was at 161. I thought I could start picking up the pace, despite the headwind but my legs just wouldn’t go. They were super tight. I pushed as hard as I could without blowing up and I just could not get my legs to turn over fast enough despite my HR being steady. My pace was starting to climb into the 7+ min miles. Uh oh! I was just hoping for mile 11 to come quickly. It’s funny how one mile can feel like forever. Mile 11 was rough. I knew if I didn’t pick it up, I would get re-passed by the girls I had just passed (again, I know I shouldn’t think this way especially since this wasn’t a real race for me). So I thought, oh well, just run your own race and remember that this is not the goal race, just a training day. HR continued to stay steady and in control. By Mile 12, I was pretty much thrashed but kept thinking positively to get myself moving. My quads were so tight now that I was almost cramping up, but I knew just 4 more laps around the track I just held on as best I could and tried so hard to pick up the pace. I was now running at 7.30s-8.03. Ouchers! The last half mile was an uphill finish. Here is where my quads basically were completely done. I hit 9 min pace here. Yikes. But I was happy to finish (1.32.59 real time, distance 13.34 miles due to my lack of running the tangents) and take the positives out of this race.

Key Positives:

I remembered to stick with the plan and focus on the process.

Lots of work to do, but all I can think about is how great I felt during parts of the race. Thanks for reading and I know I have a ways to go, but I believe that I can do it.

E