#summitmultisport

Well here goes nothing!  Even though my main goal here is to chronicle a form of training that’s new to me, I feel like I need to give a little back story.  

I started running almost 10 years ago.  I wasn’t an athlete in middle school or high school.  I had just started seeing a guy unlike anyone else I’d ever dated.  This one had potential.  Something about him made me want to be a better version of myself.  And with that, I decided to take up running.  It started with the goal of running a 5K.  Eventually, it led to signing up for a half-marathon.  You know how this goes, right?  I know y’all drank the Kool-Aid, too!  

So what’s happened in the last 10 years?  Well, I’ve run more 5Ks than I can count.  There’s a box in the basement filled with medals no one ever sees.  I’ve run 5 half-marathons.  I’ve also had 3 kids in the last 4 years.  When I started running again after the birth of my third daughter (May 2017), something felt different.  I felt stronger and more determined than ever before.  I felt a desire to challenge myself and reach new heights.  When I signed up to run the Cap City 1/2, I set a goal time of 2 hours.  This is right around where I’ve finished in the past, so if I could do that again after 3 babies, I’d be happy.  But I trained really hard this winter.  I didn’t deviate from my plan, and I really invested in speed work.  I ended up moving corrals with a new goal time of 1:50.  On race day, I fell short of my goal with a finishing time of 1:51:52.  This was still a big PR for me, and I was ready for the next challenge.  Currently, I’m training to run the Columbus Marathon in October 2018.  I stay connected with Moms Run This Town (MRTT) so that I can rack up some miles with local moms. I also signed up for Marathoners in Training to help me conquer the 26.2.  

Anyhow, back in April, following the crazy weather at the Boston Marathon, I saw this image posted.  It was taken from a Runner’s World article. (https://www.runnersworld.com/news/a20853168/6-training-habits-that-lead-to-boston-qualifying-times-according-to-strava/)  

I started to realize that I was running MOST of my runs at race pace or faster.  I was only slowing down for long runs and not by much.  But how do you get faster by running slower?  

Enter LACTATE THRESHOLD TESTING.  I used a company out of Grandview called Summit Multisport Racing.  I was just tested two days ago, so this is really fresh info! For anyone interested, here’s how the process went:

Blood is drawn just like it would be if you were a diabetic.  It’s a tiny little pinch on your finger.  She started by measuring my resting values.  Then I hopped on the treadmill and started jogging at an easy pace.  The pace was determined in advance based on info I had given them about my runs.  Every 2.5 minutes I would report my heart rate (from my Garmin watch).  At the 5 minute mark, I would straddle the rails of the treadmill while my blood was collected to measure the oxygen levels.  Then I would hop back on and increase the speed.  We did this over and over until I maxed out.  I started running 10 minute miles and called it quits after 2 minutes of running a 6:30.  Now I’ll take the data, apply it to my training plan, and retest in about 8 weeks.  Depending on the results at that time, I may need to adjust my training for the last 8 weeks or so leading up to the marathon.