Free Beer After Races!

Yeah, just another catchy title to get your attention!

But the past two half-marathons I did this past month were both giving away free beers.  Two at each race, to be exact.  But I'm still chicken to drink beer right after a race.  Not sure how it will feel in my stomach.

Well, it's been a loooong couple weeks for me between running two half-marathons, training runs, and coaching.  To put it all in perspective, the coaching is going great, the halfs went okay, and the training went kaput the past couple weeks.

Both of the half-marathons really had me thinking afterward about how I want to approach my next long race.  I've always wanted to be able to run a half-marathon or full marathon completely from beginning to end.  Just something I've always wanted to accomplish.  I came really close in Frederick, but succumbed to achy calves and wound up stopping around mile 11.5 to stretch and walk for about 2 or 3 minutes.  I than went to a 2-min. run/1-min. walk ratio for a couple cycles, and was able to run in the last .75 miles or so.

I came relatively close in Williamsburg.  I felt great until the "turn-around" at mile 8 on the Colonial Parkway.  Was actually on PR pace until that point.  As soon as I turned around - whoosh! - a bit of a head-wind caught me off guard.  I was okay until I hit a nasty hill (although it wouldn't have seemed that nasty at mile 2 or 3) that just sucked it out of me.  For some reason, my legs were still a little dead from the Frederick half.  And the hot weather didn't help.  I only got in two training runs total between half-marathons - one each week. 

So, after contemplating and reflecting after each race, I'm seriously leaning toward re-incorporating the run/walk routine into the remainder of my long races.  I set my personal best of 2:30 in the half using a 4-min. run/2-min. walk ratio for my very first half-marathon five years ago.  And the closest I've come to that time was Frederick a couple weeks ago.  And I don't think I was nearly in as good as shape five years ago as I am today.  Maybe after another year or two, I'll re-think my "racing" strategy again.  So from here on out, I'll continue to completely run my week-day "maintenance" runs of 4 to 5 miles, and incorporate the run/walk for anything over 10 miles.

As far as anything else, lets just say it's time to re-dedicate myself.  Now that the races are out of the way, I'll probably take this week pretty easy  Maybe get in a maintenance run on Friday and a longer run on Sunday or Monday and take it from there.  Also time to start adding the weighlifting back into my routine.  I've gotten away from it the past couple months. 

Here's a little poster I think we can all relate to in one way or another.  I posted it on my Facebook wall a few months ago, but I think it's too funny not to share...

My tip for the "blog" - when in doubt, rest...