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What do you do when you crush your half marathon goal a month before the race?

10/23/2013

6 Comments

 
At some point, while training for the Pittsburgh Marathon, I fell in love with the half marathon distance.  While the marathon was still the main focus of my training this past Spring, I was really looking forward to the Philadelphia Half Marathon in the Fall.  I managed to hit my original half-marathon goal during my full marathon training, so I did what any runner would do - I lowered my goal.  Since I'm relatively new to the racing scene, I had no idea what was a reasonable amount to lower my goal.  At first, I lowered it 2 minutes.  But over the summer, I decided I was going to "dream big" and lower it 5 minutes.  I knew it wasn't something that was going to come easily (or even at all), but that number has been in the back of my head for a few months now.
 
What do you do when you crush your half marathon goal a month before the race?
This past weekend began with thoughts of a 13.1 mile run.  Part of me wanted to go out and "race" the run to see if I could hit my goal, but the other part of me was scared that it just wasn't possible, and I would wind up walking the second half of the run after my legs gave out.  After agonizing over this, I decided that training is for practice, and I was going to try to hit that goal.  If I made it, great, if I didn't, I still have one month to go.

What do you do when you crush your half marathon goal a month before the race?
Lately I have been using the Nike+ app, so I know what my pace is, but I tend to run more for effort level than pace.  I usually let myself go about 0.5 miles before really deciding what my pace is going to be for that run.  Imagine my surprise when I look down at my Nike+ app and realize I'm 10-15 seconds faster than I need to be to hit my goal!  If it was race day, I probably would have scaled back a little to be safe.  But, it was a training run, so I decided to just stick with the pace.  I figured eventually it was going to catch up with me, and I was going to have to slow down a little.  But, mile after mile I was maintaining that pace.  It wasn't until the last three or so miles that I started to slow down, but by that time I knew I had owned the run.  I just had to keep pushing to the end.

My Nike+ app registered my 13.1 mile run at one minute and 45 seconds LESS than what I thought was a "reach" goal for my half marathon!  I guess that answers the question of if I "can" run the distance at that speed (whether or not I can do it again is another story).  So with less than four weeks left before race day, I'm left with two options.
What do you do when you crush your half marathon goal a month before the race?

Option 1: Keep doing what I'm doing

I can keep up with my current training - running three relatively short runs during the week (with at least one being speed work) and a long run on the weekend.  I'll aim to finish at about the same time that I did during my training run this past weekend.  I'll feel confident that I can do this, since I have already proved that I can, but I risk finishing the race feeling like I could have done better.

Option 2: Step it up, set a new goal

I can set a new goal.  While very tempting, this option brings up so many questions for me: 1) What should the new goal be? 2) Should I adjust my training? and 3) At what point during the actual race do I decide whether or not I'm going to hit that goal?

Another option: Who cares? Stop obsessing!

This option comes after reviewing my post on pace.  Maybe I should just let whatever happens happen?  I've already come so far!
What do you do when you crush your half marathon goal a month before the race?
I'm have not decided yet which option I will take (suggestions welcome), but as I often say - when struggling between two options, it's usually because they are both good ones!
Have you ever reached a goal before the race?
6 Comments
Anna @ Piper's Run link
10/22/2013 10:26:26 pm

Congrats on reaching your goal. If it was me, I would aim to reach the same goal on race day but see if I could do better. Good luck!

Reply
FitYaf link
10/22/2013 11:26:20 pm

Thanks Anna! I think that's probably what I'll wind up doing :)

Reply
Martha link
10/23/2013 02:26:49 am

Congrats on being ahead of schedule! I'm no expert but if I were you I would be confident that the type of training you're doing is working, and I'd just enjoy the rest of your training knowing you are probably going to whip out a big PR come race day. Enjoy the rest of the ride! You earned it :)

Reply
FitYaf link
10/23/2013 02:29:06 am

Thanks for your opinion Martha! Secret is this is my first half (I went a little out of order), so anything will be a PR for me :)

Reply
Pam and Christine link
10/23/2013 06:05:51 am

Love that you already met your goal. I would be cautious of going for anything more until you see what the conditions are on race day, weather, how you feel etc. Good luck!

Reply
FitYaf link
10/23/2013 10:37:29 pm

That's a great point! Thanks!

Reply



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    Jillian [FitYaf]

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