Mastering the Negative Split

Hey hey hey! Who's got two thumbs and PR'd in her 3rd half marathon over the weekend??? THIS GIRL! Woot Woot! Holla! To say I'm a little excited might be an understatement! I kinda knew and expected to PR in this race, seeing as it was pretty much all downhill, but I didn't want to count my chickens before they were hatched, nah-mean! It's weird, at no point during my training or leading up to race day did I ever feel nervous, false confidence? I don't know, but it was strange. Now, thinking about running anything longer than 13.1... now that scared the crap out of me, and this weekend will seal my fate on whether I take the leap into the world of 26.2, or stay in my half crazy little world! I am going to try to run that 18 miler again, annnnnnnnnnnd maybe 2 more miles on top of that - eek! IF, I can do it without dying, I will go ahead and pay the astronomical $135 registration fee (so ridiculous) and run the Austin Marathon in, oh you know, 25 freakin' days! Holy balls Batman, I'm freakin' out just thinking about it, even after the high of this weekend's awesome race. So speaking of the race, check out who is finally starting to master the negative split, baby bay-bay!

how stinkin' cute are the signs the hubs made?! Love him!

Austin 3M Half Marathon Splits


1 - 9:51
2 - 9:35
3 - 9:37
4 - 9:26
5 - 9:25
6 - 9:21
7 - 9:21
8 - 9:12
9 - 9:26
10 - 9:42 (there was a hill)
11 - 9:26
12 - 9:00 (tried like hell to get in under 2 hours...)
13 - 9:21 (but realized there was no way)


Unofficial time (stopped watch at 13.1)-  2:03:43, Official time- 2:05:15 (avg pace 9:27)

you bet your ass I ate an S load of Girl Scout Cookies after the race! Holla! #iheartsamoas

They say that the key to a successful race is running a negative split (your second half of the race is faster than your first half), and I have been really trying to do this in my training runs. In previous runs, I have struggled with going out too fast and burning out toward the end. So this time I really had to talk myself down coming out of the start line, because you get so caught up in the excitement that you just want to take off, all like this girl is on fi-ya, but you gotta tell yourself, yo, slow your roll girlfriend, save it for the end! And that is exactly what I tried to do! I've certainly not mastered it by any means, but I'm improving, and progress is progress my friend, and I'll take it where I can get it!




I took yesterday off, as my thighs were kinda thrashed (downhill races are killer on your quads, and running them correctly is an art form in itself, one I clearly have not mastered - eh, add it to the list), but I was back at today. I hit the pavement for a 5 mile recovery run. Gotta keep on keepin on, right! I started off slow so I could get my poor muscles nice and warmed up. I was very pleased to find that I had negative splits again, and without being a slave to my Garmin - woo hoo! If I can get this whole pacing business down, I just might be able to go the distance and earn that 26.2 sticker on the back of my car. We shall see.




In other news, there are only 10 more days left to SHOP FOR A CAUSE!




Have a fabulous week everyone!




-Candice