Latest / Hurdle with Emily Abbate / #HURDLEMOMENT: So, I Did a Virtual Race — Here's What I Learned

Transcript

#HURDLEMOMENT: So, I Did a Virtual Race — Here's What I Learned · Hurdle with Emily Abbate

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: You have to have some grace. Listen, none of us
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: have ever dealt with a time like this. So the
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: fact that you are motivated, you're getting up, you're getting out,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: you're lacing up, and you're giving it your all, that
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: is a pretty impressive accomplishment within itself. Hey, Hurdler's Emily
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: about here, bringing you another installment of Hurdle Moment from
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Hurdle this week, I am bringing you the lessons I
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: learned from actually executing a virtual race. It's something that
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: I told myself I wasn't going to do, but then
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: when the challenge presented itself, I just couldn't hold back,
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: and so I a couple of weeks back, did the
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: Virtual Seaweez Half Marathon, and I have some takeaways to offer.
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: You spoiler alert.
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: It was my fastest half marathon ever, with a time
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: of one forty three oh five.
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: That's a seven fifty two average pace.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: Although after the fact, and I'll touch on this in
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: today's episode, my Strava adjusted and told me that I
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: actually ran thirteen point five two miles at a seven
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: forty pace. So God knows what's really going on here.
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: I guess this is part of the frustrations of virtual racing. Anyway,
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: bringing you my lessons today for Hurdle Moment. As always,
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: if you have a hurdle moment of your own or
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: just want to say hi, feel free to reach out
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: to me over email.
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: It's Emily at hurdle dot us.
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: I'm also curious if you are virtual racing, if you're
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: not virtual racing, do you think that these are fun?
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: Do you think that these are lame?
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: I want to know, so feel free to tag me
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: or DM me at Emily a Body or at Hurdle Podcast.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: And one last request for this hurdle Moment Wednesday. We
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: are in September and I still want to keep this
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: push of ratings and reviews alive. So if you could
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: just do meet this one solid, head on into the
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: iTunes store, rate and review the show if you have
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: yet to do so. It means the world to me
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: and it helps Hurdle move up the charts, get new
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: eyes on it, all the things which gives me all
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: the feels. Thank you for being a part of my community,
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: and with that, let's get to hurdling. I would like
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: to think that I am a pretty self motivated person.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: I'm a morning person, although some days I might feel groggy,
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: I have like no problem getting up getting out running
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: on the days that kind of feel like I don't
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: want to, just because I truly believe and understand that
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: I'm going to feel better after that effort, after that
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: jump start to my day. With that said, the reason
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: why I haven't been super enthusiastic about the idea of
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: virtual racing is because I feel as though it's really hard,
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: and it was very hard, if I'm being honest. The
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: thing with virtual racing is you really can just pull
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: out at any time, as opposed to like showing up
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: on race day. You have a course, there's people there
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: watching you, there's people they're cheering you on, people are
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: like following you and your chip time, and it's just
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: a lot of accountability that you don't get necessarily if
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: you're doing it virtually.
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: I digress. The good people at Lululemon offered me a
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: quote unquote BIB to run the Sewee's Virtual Half Marathon,
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: and Seawez is one of my favorite races I did
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: a few years back. The course is absolutely breathtaking up
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: there in Vancouver. I had such a good time and
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: I just wanted to replicate that feeling all bites being
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: here in New York City, and so I just decided,
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: you know what, I'm going to do it, and you
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: guys know me I am And all it takes is
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: all you've got, person. So if I was going to
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: go out there and race I have marathon, I was
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: going to go out there and race A have marathon.
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: So let's get into my takeaways and tips. Tip number one,
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: make sure you know your course before you go out there.
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: If you are truly racing on open streets, which is
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: extremely difficult because of the bobbing and the weaving, and
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: if you live in a major city like me, the
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: traffic lights might not always be in your favor, it
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: is so important that you know exactly where you are going.
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: I mapped out the route before taking off in the morning,
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: and knowing the turns and not having to make a
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: lot of quick decisions really helped my cause. With that said,
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: it's also important to know the area that your route
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: is in in case you do need to pivot. So
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: for me, running.
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: Up to one hundred and twenty fifth Street and down
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: the West Side, I plotted this course knowing a good
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: amount about the area, knowing the elevation that I was
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: going to be getting into, which wasn't a lot at all,
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: and just having a good sense for where I would
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: be this helped remove some of the anxiety and I
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: could make sure, no matter what, that I had a good,
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: solid thirteen point one mile course. Tip number two if
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: you can, in a safe and socially distant.
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: Way, run your race with a friend.
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: So, my friend Brett is definitely faster than me, and
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: I asked him if you wouldn't mind doing me this
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: solid because he was going to run the race as well,
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: if he would be my rabbit so to speak, which
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: means that basically he would run in front of me
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: and I would pace by him in order to hopefully
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: reach my goal, which was to p r this effort.
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: And so so grateful for him so many reasons, but
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: mostly because because Brett was there, I felt less compelled
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: to ditch. And let me tell you, like I totally
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: so many times during that period of time thought about
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: that I didn't want to be doing this anymore, and
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: I thought, like, you could just delete this from your garment,
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: nobody would know. Life will go on. It's just a
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: virtual race, like so many things. But because I was
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: out there with someone I knew. I didn't want to
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: let him down, and that made me further not want
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: to let me down. So definitely tackling the effort with
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: someone else is a huge, huge perk. The next tip
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: that I have for you all, make sure, just like
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: a normal race, that you bring your own fuel and
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: specifically right now if you can bring your own water.
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: Not having water stations in a race was very, very hard.
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: I am literally the kind of runner who almost stops
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: at every single water station on the route. I think
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: back in Chicago, I drink gatorade at least twelve times
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: for all I know. So I'm a big, big hydrator,
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: which meant that I was really struggling because I did
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: not bring my own hydration. That was a big fail
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: that I made. I did, however, do two things that helped. First,
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: I drink you can religiously the day before the race.
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: As well as the day of.
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: They have a lemon flavored energy powder, which is my
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: absolute favorite.
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: I can't recommend it enough. I'll link to it in
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: the show notes.
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: But I was hydrating with that, and so that was
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: helping me to really amp up those glicitgen stores and
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: then also on the run itself, I was carrying two things.
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: One a you can't energy bar so they have a
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: salted peanut butter one again obsessed with it, and then
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: second a cramp crushers lemon chees. These are something that
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: got sent to me recently. They are not a hurdle
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: sponsor at all, but again you can tell I'm all
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: about this lemon salty situation and they were just great.
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: So I was able to put both of those in
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: the pockets in the shorts that I wore. Another really
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: important tip there, shorts with pockets and have fuel to
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: keep me going on my run. Again, the takeaway here
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: if you can bring your own water, definitely do it.
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: That was definitely an error that I had and makes
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: me think that because I was able to get this
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: time despite not having a good hydration strategy, that on
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: a closed course in another condition I could have done
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: maybe even a little bit better. My next tip for
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: all of you on the accountability side of things is
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: definitely let someone know that you are going to do this.
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: If you're not going to run it with somebody else,
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: It's so good to have your support squad behind you,
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: even if they can't be physically present. So maybe that's
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: you sharing something on social media, or it's you just
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: like telling your parents before you go out. Also good
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: for safety, but letting someone know that you have this goal,
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: that you're going to do this thing, it will keep
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: you accountable to actually showing up and going through with it.
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: And last but not least, have some grace with yourself. Again,
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: these are as people love to say lately, unforeseen times.
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: I read this tweet the other day that was like,
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: I would love some foeseen times. I feel that this
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: isn't your normal race and that's okay. And instead of
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: getting worked up about how things are going or how
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: things could be and they aren't that way, or whatever
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: outcome happens from your race, just understand you have to
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: have some grace. Listen, none of us have ever dealt
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: with a time like this. So the fact that you
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: are motivated, you're getting up, you're getting out, you're lacing up,
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: and you're giving it your all, that is a pretty
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: impressive accomplishment within itself.
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: You know. It's funny.
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: After Chicago, I was in total disbelief of what I
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: did and what I was capable of, And there would
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: be so many days in the last almost year now
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: since that race where I would go out and run
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: my absolute hardest or what felt like my absolute hardest,
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: and it was still slower than whatever miraculous sub eight
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: minute pace that I ran for twenty six point two
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: miles through that windy city, And for a while there,
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: I just wondered, like, is this something I'm ever going
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: to be able to do again, or was that a
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: fluke or was that really me? Or was it just
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: like this utopia and I'm never going to experience like
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: that feeling of just being so blown away by my
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: own potential and that virtual race that I didn't think
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: that I wanted to do.
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: Was that for me?
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: It was this moment where despite all the crap that's
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: going on in the world and the fact that, like,
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: shit isn't how I wished it could be, or this
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: year hasn't been how I envisioned it, I was able
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: to get out there and just work and work hard
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: and remember that I am so capable and I can
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: do hard things. I'm like closing my eyes and talking
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: into this microphone because it just it feels good when
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: you take the time to believe in yourself. And so
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: I'm not saying that virtual racing is for everybody, and
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: like I mentioned, like the Strava hiccup, things like this
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: are just gonna happen because it's twenty twenty. I don't
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: exactly know for sure or for certain exactly how fast
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: I was, but what I do know is that I'm
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: happy I showed up and I am capable. I'm better
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: for giving this one a shot again. Let me know
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: if you've got virtual racing plans in your future. I'm
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: so so curious to hear how you feel about it.
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: And as for me, I have another time trial myself
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: coming up this weekend. I'm gonna be going for that
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: five k speed round, So wish me luck. Luck to
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: you at Emily a Body at Hurdle Podcast Another Hurdle Conquered.
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: Catch you guys next time