2 PR's, 1 week.

I ran my second half-marathon on St. Patrick's Day on a pretty hilly course.  It must've been the luck of the Irish, because I took 22 minutes off my last half time.  Now before I make it sound absolutely amazing, let me explain my reasoning why this happened.  And, why anyone else who is "slower" (than most other runners at these things), can do it too!

• My first half time was 2:33 a little less than a year ago.  At that point that was the furthest I had ran, and it was an ugly, boring course on a rather hot day.  I was just happy to complete the run, at that point said I wouldn't run that distance again.

• I was still experimenting with fuel and was still taking mint chocolate gu gels (which I've since discontinued) because I realized my stomach didn't appreciate them.

• In between these two half marathon's I did run a full marathon, which totally changed my perception on running. And fuel, and water, and stretching.

• I started doing speed work, intervals, tempo runs etc about two months ago.

• I added two days of strength and yoga in the mix too.

• The running plan I followed had me running a 9:15 race pace, yea..

The day before, my parents, for the first time that I can remember, had a themed party, for St. Patty's Day.  I obviously couldn't miss this, so I went and decided not to drink alcohol.  My food the day before was all over the board: steak, baked potato, cornbeef sandwich, cake, cookies, and LOTS of water.  I figurd my time couldn't get any slower, so why not experiment with food.  Again, this wasn't the smartest idea, I could've eaten much cleaner.

It was then the morning of the half.  I started running and maintained a 9:30-9:45 pace for the first 7 miles.  The hills then kicked in and decreased my pace closer to 10-10:30.  I just made sure i was at or below a 10 minute pace.  When I ran up the ridiculous hill at the end I finished in 2:11, it must've been adrenaline because thinking of that today makes me cringe.  Probably because my body is still recovering, I'm pretty sure I strained my calf.  I ran once last week since the half then ran a 5k on Saturday.

I went into the 5k with hopes of beating my time from last yeat at the same race.  My time last year was 29 something.  The night before the run I went to happy hour and had pizza and beer, again not the best idea.  I got to the 5k and decided I wanted to run it between 26-27 minutes.  If I didn't have to bob and weave through 85% of the people, I think I could've made my time.  I still pr'd and finished in 27:58.  I beat my old PR from 5 years ago of 28:27!!

Next half goal is under 2 hours and next 5k goal is 25-26!

Speed work, most definitely works and saves you time running extra, unnecessary mileage.