Carmel Indiana Spine Group 10K

I've been struggling with a 2mm slower pace than even last year, some injuries until December, etc. I feel slow AF. Some runs outside have been 14-15mm, 13:30-14mm on the TM. I've been run/walking more often than not as I cannot run more than 1-2 minutes without walking. The menopause athlete groups says it happens to some of us, where the VO2 Max takes a dive, etc. In any event, I canceled my Carmel Half because of that, and decided the 10K was short enough that I could run it by fun or race it depending on what my coach says.

My coach retired at the end of January and I thought of doing it myself but in the end, I hired another badass woman coach Caolan that I've known for years and that trains some of my running group friends (ladies). She started me at 4 days of running, low mileage, and no speedwork for 2-3 weeks. Then we started doing speedwork. It was nice to be able to train even at the slow paces without breaking again (never been injured as I have mentioned before and since 2021, I've had 4 injuries thanks to fucking menopause). My glute issue never flared and I was able to graduate to 5 days a week. Still, some weeks were really a struggle on every run.
I thought my coach would say just run it for fun, but nooooo, she said I think you can do 12:30mm and I want to see 140+ HR (my HR with the run/walking and the TM has been in the 110s). My friend Lori, who was coming all the way from Canada to run the marathon, brought me down from freaking out about this by thinking I would surprise myself. I didn't believe it.
Fortunately, the starting temps were gorgeous. My kind of racing weather, 35F feels like 30F, sunny, light breeze. Last year I ran that marathon in 20-30F and sleet and a 40mph wind gust headwind. I struggle the whole second half of the race.
Carmel is less hilly than Fishers and I do quite a lot of elevation on the TM thanks to iFIT so I didn't even notice the rolling hills. Plus we live on 1+ mile rolling hills land.
I decide on the fly to run/walk 2:15 and walk 45 seconds. Something I've done sporadically but not consistently and not for 6 miles. First mile was 12:35mm, second was 12:34mm, and I think maybe I can pull this off. Problem was I was starting to get dizzy; not sure if from my new meds or the fact that I wore a LS and I felt like I was too warm. Anyway, third mile, my sock bunched so I thought it was a great time to stop and take a gel and fix it. That mile was 14mm. Mile 4 was 12:33mm but the 2:15 running interval was killing me so I switched to my trusty 1/0:30 for mile 5. Not sure what happened, whether it was the switch to a shorter interval or the gel, but I flew that mile at 11:54mm and the last mile was around the same but then I felt myself getting dizzy again and thought I would pass out. Maybe I was pushing my current limits, and if so, Brad (LoveTheHalf) would be happy, lol, but I had to walk 1 minute or so twice to get myself back on track. Last mile was 12:46 so not too fast off. The 0.20 was at 12:34mm. Finished 1:19:58. My goal was sub-1:20 and my coach's was 1:18. I think overall, I gave it my all and I hit my goal considering.
It's my slowest 10K. My PR is 51:20, and I've run many in the high 50s and low 1s. It is what it is. But right now, I'll take the 1:19 and I will attempt sub 1:18 on the next. And maybe have more faith in myself.



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