The (new) PLAN

Hopefully this post isn't too all over the place, but if it is, well, then it probably accurately reflects my last few days not being able to shut off my head and why I haven't been leaving comments on everyone's blogs like I try to do.  I've been doing "productive stuff" on the internet- researching races.

I went ahead and signed up for the Indianapolis Monumental Half Marathon, on Nov 5th.  I thought about it a lot.  I got a call from Cristina who said I had to qualify to NYC, and we spent some time looking at race calendars.  This one seemed to be the best, never mind that I am already signed up for a half here on 11/12, but that is hilly, with at least 3 Ambassador Bridge sized hills in it.  The Monumental is supposed to be very flat, which I like a lot.  Sometimes I questions decisions like this, but for the most part, the more I think about, the better I feel.  Then I saw this on f/b this morning:

That pretty much sums up how I felt about the race next weekend.  I knew that if I didn't at least try, I would be very upset.  The pain of not being trying/not being able to try is harder for me than defeat.  Ryan knows this, and when I asked what he thought (after putting together most of the plan), he answered with "whatever" before even asking the price. 

Also, some other things that led to my decision:
1.  The race is on a Saturday and reasonably close.  There is one here this Sunday, but I don't want tempt God in any way when I need a perfect day by racing on a Sunday.  I also feel like the extra week to do a decent taper will be helpful.  I hit the cross training pretty hard on Monday, and really benefitted from some speedwork this week.  There aren't any other races between now and Jan 31st that are close, flat, and inexpensive, let alone full or not.  Disney has a couple, but those are likely full, SUPER EXPENSIVE and if I am going to race in Disney, I want to enjoy the experience and the whole day, not be exhausted and have to walk around the park feeling all spent.  Ryan is also not down with "wasting time racing" at Disney when we should be sightseeing.  The Indy race is actually one of the cheaper major races I am doing this year.  See #3.
2.  Shelby is going to be there and can get my packet if I need her to.  She raced at my last race in IN, and I PRed and had a freaking awesome day. 
3.  The race management hooked me up with a small discount on entry fee, because I had stopped by their booth in Detroit and picked up a coupon, but lost it.  It ended up that it was expired when I sent an email asking for a new one, but I think they even gave me a better deal.  It never hurts to ask these questions.  I really didn't expect this from such a large race either!  It will be about the size of the Derby Mini, but with a different breakdown of marathon vs half.  There are a lot more marathoners, like Shelby.
3.  I threw a post out on f/b in a local tri club's closed group inquiring of people doing the race.  There are a ton, and I have even found a group of guys to follow down if I drive in the morning.  Since setting that up, my neighbor has said she is thinking about racing too, and we could ride together.  I need to ask her about the possibility of splitting a hotel room, but want to wait until she signs up first to get my hopes up.  The guys I am following are doing the full, and I don't know them aside from being in the group, so I didn't want to ride in the same car, but this makes me feel a lot safer knowing that in the crazy event that I get a flat tire or some other crazy mechanical problem en route, I will have them to take me there and will deal with the problem later, and will be able to reciprocate this.  I've had a car break down 100 miles from home on more than one occassion, but not this one.  Hopefully it is not this one's turn.  

So, that is how I ended up racing again in just over 7 days.  Ryan thought it was HYSTERICAL that I was rummaging through books yesterday afternoon, minutes after signing up, searching for an actual half marathon training plan.  His response was, "do you really think you are going to find a training plan that is a week and a half long, actually, more like a week and a couple days long?"  Silly, I wanted to make sure I was tapering properly and not doing TOO MUCH.    I just wanted to look at the last couple weeks to make sure what I am doing is in line, and also I wanted to make sure I didn't run TOO FAR on yesterday's run.  I had been using the taper of a full marathon for the Detroit race, and I just wanted to see what a real half marathon plan had me doing (which is actually almost the same, except for the Sat long runs).  I also wanted to decide if I was going to swim today, and I decided NO, two full days of complete rest (aside fom ankle strength) would be good this week, even after that whole week of rest I took after Detroit.  That was because I was sick, though, and needed to get better.

So, I have been eating well all week (initially b/c Halloween is coming up and I wanted to create a calorie/weight deficit so I would have some room to splurg this weekend, but Halloween candy will keep until post race), doing my recovery stuff (Compex, foam roller, ice), and my run yesterday felt great.  Hopefully I really have done the work I need, and my speedwork has been enough.  I did just race a half 3 weeks prior to the race, so that fits in nice with "the plan" too.  I think I might need to buy some new gus, but I think when I bought stuff, I bought enough for the half on the 12th, which I no longer  really care about, and I will use the better stuff from that stash.  That race might be a purposeful PW (personal worst).  Depending on how I do on the 5th and how I feel after, I may inquire about being a pacer for a nice slow pace that I know I can do so that I can help some people out and make it not a complete waste of time.  Or it might just be a PW and suck :)

Also, I posted my Detroit recap on their facebook site, and Anita, read my post (and is a new follower, yea!) was there and we saw each other.  She considered her race an "Epic Fail", as she missed qualifying to NYC by 3 SECONDS!!!!  WOW, I would have had a hard time with that.  She is trying again on Nov 6th, and is my new hero.   We were in the same corral, and I remember being passed by her.  She had "Nita, 1:37" on her back.  When she passed me, I was already feeling bad, but it gave me a bit of hope.  I thought maybe I could hang on to her, but after a little while, I just couldn't keep her in sight anymore.  Turns out her pacer let her down, starting too slow, and she had built up a bit of time that she had to take off in the end, but she just couldn't overcome it in time.  She was still behind pace a bit I think when she passed me.  Anyway, I think that it is amazing how things work out, and hopefully next weekend will be great for lots of people.

There are just a few details I need to iron out, but I knew those would come together faster once I was already signed up and committed to doing the race.  Mainly, will I get a hotel? Next is will my parents come down to help with the kids or come to watch the race, as well as if I will have someone to ride with.  If I go by myself, I can leave whenever I want, but if I am feeling rough afterwards, it might be nice to have someone to make sure I don't drive to soon or possibly drive me home.  After Martian I felt like butt for the first couple hours, and Cristina drove me home (she drove me there).  I felt great after an ice bath, hot shower, and my recovery shake kicked in, though. 

Finally, I did finish reading the Jade Rabbit.  I will do a review next week, as well as accept my "Versatile Blogger" award from Erika.  I need to speak in Church on Sunday, as well as plan a special extra activity for my class, AND do Halloween activities with the kids tonight and tomorrow.  I am not sure what we will do tomorrow, but there are several costumed activities during the daytime for children in the area.  Tonight is a chili cook-off/trunk or treat at church.  Thank goodness for LED candles, they are the bomb around kids and flamable areas of the house.  We might decorate our trunk with some tonight.  Apparently we are supposed to do that at tonight's trunk or treat.  We never did it before.  Here are a couple ways we have been using the LEDs at home.  We have some pillars we could put in the trunk too, that I haven't opened yet.  They don't look as yellow in person, have black wicks, and flicker.  We were always afraid to light the wall mounted thing, because it is so close to the wall, ceiling, and we have always had a chair relatively close to it.  Now it is perfectly safe to use!

Thanks for reading!  Anyone racing this weekend or have any good plans for Halloween?  Let me know your opinion on my new "PLAN".  I hope you have a great Halloween weekend.  Don't eat more candy than you plan to work off!