Race Ready

Motivation isn't something that sticks with you 24/7

It comes in waves. When it hits your mind is instantly clear, your intentions are set and the impossible suddenly seems achievable. 
But what do you do when the wave has washed over you? How do you stay motivated for a goal that is 8 long months away? 

You create your own waves. More goals, more challenges, more steps towards the big one. Enter more races!


Race Prep

My training this week has been about finding my benchmarks and setting some new goals. On Monday, Emma got me to run a 5km time trial run to find a pace from which I can build a half marathon distance. I ran at an average pace of 5.22min/km and I learned two important things. 

• If you set Strava to record your run as a bike ride, you wont get updates of your km splits and you'll think you're running faster than you actually are
• Your legs will be tired and heavy after 2 consecutive days (finally) riding your bike enlightening you to the fact that this whole bike-to-run thing may not be smooth sailing

Yes I finally did it! And it was AWESOME!

Benchmark pace in hand I set my sights on the 10km Great Forest Run in Waiterere this weekend. Myself and two friends (Eszter and JT) drove for 2 hours to run 10km on a Saturday morning. THAT is the stuff motivation is made of! Stupidity aside, it gave us all the chance to feel race day adrenaline and really push ourselves in a medium distance race. I managed to increase my pace to an average of 5.14min/km and have a little play with race day nutrition (that's a whole other blog post next week).

10km mark was 52.40min - stoked as I had set 53.00min as my goal time

Pre-run selfie - finish line in sight

After run glory

With one race down I'm setting my sights on a few more trail runs to get my pace even faster before running the Wellington Half Marathon on 5th July. I've got 12 weeks to get a lot of running training done. The first 4 weeks will involve getting some kms under the belt, then Emma will be looking to introduce some specific running and pace training into my plan. 

My motivation plan:

10 May - XTERRA 12km off-road - Orongorongos

23 May - XTERRA Starlight 12km off-road - Wainui MTB Park

14 June - XTERRA 18km off-road - Makara Wind Farm

5 July - Wellington Half Marathon - Wellington CBD

BHAG - <1.50hr Half Marathon

Right now, if I could hold the pace I set today for another 11km I'd be looking to get 1.58. With 12 weeks to train I've been told it's not really possible to get down to <1.50. 

The only thing that can motivate you more than a dare is the hard word from your trainer. I stuck to my word and I completed my food diary (full diary and new plan next blog). Cath has spent a decent amount of time designing a nutrition plan for me and I've been given some pretty strict instructions around it. I was NOT eating pizza and drinking wine when I received this text. Definitely not. 

The text that put my tail between my legs

Emma's challenge set, Cath's hard word said. 

Scotty grab some dumbbells, Sunday Funday is about to get serious.