Saturday, December 7, 2013

Race For The Hungry Holiday 2013 5K Recap

We lived!!  And there was no rain!!  So much to say about this race today.

The Night Before

This was a first.  Usually I have some pre-race jitters the night before, but this race was different.  I guess because there wasn't a lot of pressure (self-imposed, of course) to do well.  The goal was simply to finish & I knew that barring any acts of crazy nature (or rogue vehicles) I'd finish.  So with zero pressure on me, the night before was pretty easy.  I went to bed at a reasonable time, my gear had already been laid out for a few days since I had to buy things that were appropriately sized - my old running clothes were no longer acceptable in public, LOL. 

Getting Started

Luckily I didn't have to wake up insanely early for this race since it's not that far away so my morning routine was easy as well. I had my half a bagel with Nutella and some coffee and was feeling pretty good by the time LMG got here.  I packed a Gatorade Prime like I did for the Milltown Firecracker 5K in July and drank that in the car as we were getting ready after we picked up our race packets.  Speaking of race packets, guess what number I got?  Just guess?  I can't believe this one keeps recurring!!  This is my sister's number, it's the number I had at last year's race, it's the number 35.  Seeing that, I knew she was with me & that I'd probably do better than I had hoped.

As we headed to the starting line, it was absolutely freezing!  According to the Weather Channel, at 9:00am it was supposed to be 43 and sunny.  According to the thermometer in my car, it was only 35.  Yikes!  It was rough while we were waiting but once we got moving, we were totally fine.  I was definitely dressed appropriately for the race and don't feel like I over- or under-dressed.

Setting The Pace

This was LMG's first race and I had never run with her before so I had no idea what to expect.  Would she be leagues ahead of me, would I have to slow down for her, I just didn't know.  I didn't want to hold her back if she was faster and had more endurance than me but I also didn't want to be crazy far behind where I could have run.  But as we started and the crowd dispersed a little bit we fell into a decent pace.  I asked her if this was her normal speed or if she was adjusting for me and she said that this is how she usually runs, so I was ecstatic that we seemed to be at about the same level.  As we continued, it turned out that we had the same stamina as well.  We both walked at the same spots and ran at the same spots.  I don't really think that either of us held the other back at all.  If anything, the fact that we were staying together kept me going because I didn't want to let her down on her first race, but I didn't feel like I was pushing too far or couldn't keep up either, so we did stay together the whole race.

I am extremely happy to report that I ran more than a mile straight, which is double what I have been doing on the treadmill!!  According to the MapMyRun report, we did the first mile in 11:25!  Again, faster than I had been running this week too!  You can see on the graphic that we slowed down a bit when we hit the largest hill we would come across, and ended up walking at about the 1.35 mile mark.  Not too bad - I ran for over 1.25 miles straight, which was more than I was hoping for. 

We did walk up the rest of the hill, and at the 1.67 mile mark we picked up the running again.  So we walked for just over a quarter mile at that point, but it was a well earned break and even walking the hill wasn't the easiest.  So we completed the 2nd mile in 13:18 and that was the longest we walked for the whole race.  The third mile we had two brief points where we walked because one of us was struggling, but it was very briefly and we were able to do that mile in 12:22.

According to MMR, we completed the race in 39:10.  Since this race doesn't use chips to track us, I think that time is more accurate than the official results, which show 39:23 & 39:24, a difference of a mere 13 seconds.  We were 215 & 216 out of 237 and 116 & 117 out of 134 for our age group, with an average pace of 12:40.

While these were by far my slowest race results, about 10 full minutes longer than my best race results, I am probably the most proud of these.  I had 5 days to prep after an almost 5 month hiatus, I surpassed my goal of running a full mile straight, more than doubling what I was doing during this week, and I finished in less than 40 minutes.  The only way it could have been any better was if I had run the entire thing, and I just don't think that was a possibility for this race, this time around.  I achieved ALL of the goals I set for this race, so yeah, I am happy :)

We finished!!!

Thursday, December 5, 2013

Day 3 of 3

Well that's it folks.  My last run before the race is complete.  A few interesting things to point out.

1.  I wasn't as sore today as I was yesterday, so yay for that!  Even my ribs were hurting!  I guess I overdid it with the rest of the workouts too.  I keep forgetting that I have been out of it for so long that it's going to take me time to get back to where I was.  Hopefully with tomorrow's rest I'll be ache-free for Saturday morning. 

2.  I don't know if this is a real thing or not, or if there is some sort of explanation behind it.  Maybe you can tell me.  It actually hurts to run slower.  When I picked things back up on Tuesday I wanted to ease into things so I started and stayed running at a 5 on the treadmill.  Much slower than I had been running before, but I figured I'd take it easy and pace myself since I didn't want to hurt myself or overdo it right away.  And that's where I started running yesterday too.  Eventually yesterday I bumped it up to a 5.3 but it all kinda felt the same.  Tonight, however, I was feeling brave.  I felt like I had my sea legs back, so to speak (feeling more in my body than out of it now for sure!) so after a few minutes of 5 and then a 5.5 I said, "What the heck" and went up to a 6.  And it wasn't so bad!  It actually felt easier to run at that speed than the 5!  At the 5, it felt like my heart was going to explode and like I had no control over my legs, but at the 6 I was grounded.  It's so weird.  I don't know if this is common or even a real thing or all in my head.  But it made me feel better :)  So I got some speed back, but didn't do much as far as endurance goes.  I still had to walk after about half a mile.

I completed the first mile in 12:12...not too shabby, took some time off from yesterday.  Almost a 12 minute mile which is respectable.  I did a grand total of 1.5 miles in 18:06.  So while the progress is slow I am definitely making some.

But can I just say that I LOATHE the treadmill!!  I never thought I would say that!  I hate not being able to just organically speed up and slow down, it has to be in finite increments and none of them are ever right.  I wonder if I will be able to run further outside than I am on the treadmill...we shall see in 2 days!!

Now, there is a chance that weather could be an issue for this race.  Right now there is a 50% chance of rain in the morning but I will keep you posted if anything changes.  The website says, "CHECK BACK TO THIS SITE IF THERE IS INCLEMENT WEATHER.  This event will be held rain or shine."  Puh-LEEEESE keep your fingers crossed for DRY weather!!  I don't care if it's warm, I don't care if it's sunny.  But I would like it to be dry!

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Day 2 of 3

Finally things work in my favor!!  The boy took it upon himself to go down for a nap nice and early at 1:00 so I took the opportunity the let the technology babysit the girl and I went downstairs for a run. 

I wish I could say that things were different than yesterday but they were not.  I get about half a mile in and then I need to walk.  I walked for shorter spurts today than the 0.1 but my walking and running was slower.  My body is hurting from being plunged back into activity!  Not only did I run yesterday but I did my whole workout routine after - pushups, situps, weights, etc.  I'm figuring that since my whole body feels off I need to get my core strengthened again.  So my core was pretty sore today too!  All in all I covered 1.25 miles in 15:23.

One more day of work tomorrow and then what will be will be.  I'm hoping that race day adrenaline will allow me to get a solid mile in before walking.  Any hopes I had of running the whole race are gone.  I want to be optimistic, but I have to be realistic too.  I'm keeping in mind that this race wasn't even going to be a possibility at all 3 weeks ago, so I'm thankful that I even get the opportunity to run this week :)  And for starting from scratch after a 14+ week hiatus, half a mile isn't too shabby!!  When I go back and look at where I started from over a year and a half ago, jogging for 60 seconds at a time was daunting.  So I've still come a long way, even though my performance is nowhere it had climbed to.  Plus it's for a good cause.  And there will be people dressed up like reindeer and Santa Claus.  And brunch at my house after.  Whatever happens, it's going to be a great day!!

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

And We Begin Again...

For those of you waiting eagerly for an update on my last post, I'll start with confirming that pretty much as soon as I posted it I registered for this year's Race For The Hungry Holiday 5K in Burlington.  So it was just a matter of getting clearance to actually run.  My doctor appointment was yesterday and I was happy to hear that I had clearance to not only run again but he was thrilled and a bit shocked that I had signed up for a race so soon.  He actually called me a badass and told me to have at it.  So that's all good news :)

I consulted briefly with one of my running heroes and she advised me that there really wasn't much training to do with only 5 days prep, but that we could hope to work out any soreness before the race.  She gave me a schedule of:
  • Monday:  Run
  • Tuesday:  Run
  • Wednesday:  Rest
  • Thursday:  Run
  • Friday:  Rest
  • Saturday:  RACE DAY!!
Sounded good and reasonable to me!  So I was all geared up to get back into the swing of things and then it dawned on me:  Wifey will be gone the ENTIRE WEEK not to return until Friday night!!  Yikes!  Finding the time to run with 2 kids and no help was going to be challenging.  I figured I had two options.  I could either wait until they were both asleep and run at night.  We all know that I don't function well at night and anything after 9pm is going to be a lost cause, or I could force a nap on the boy during the day and bring the girl downstairs with me.  Clearly I was hoping for the second option.

Monday is upon us and K was getting over some kind of stomach funkiness.  We went to my mother's house in the afternoon so the boy fell asleep in the car ride up there, so there was no option 2 for Monday.  My best bet was to get them to sleep early and run after that.  I strategically stayed at my mother's house until 7:30, hoping they would fall asleep and be out for the night in the car.  No such luck.  Not only were they both awake for the whole ride, but the boy was WIRED!  When all was said and done, they were down around 10:00.  There was no way I was taking to the treadmill at that hour.  Ugh.  So let's recalculate the run schedule:
  • Tuesday:  Run
  • Wednesday:  Run
  • Thursday:  Run
  • Friday:  Rest
  • Saturday:  RACE DAY!!
Not thrilled but there's not really another option.  So here we are, today is Tuesday and I just did my first run since August, and let me tell you it was horrible!  I was hoping to get through a straight mile without walking and if I could do further, great.  But I greatly overestimated my abilities and underestimated how much my body had changed.  I'm still carrying about 5 extra pounds on me, which doesn't sound like a lot but it sure feels like a lot when you're trying to run! I wasn't very far along, but I guess my body changed more than I had thought.  I guess it being the 3rd time around the shift happens more quickly.  My running clothes felt strange and looked even more horrible, and running itself just felt foreign.  This was not what I remembered running to be like.  I could feel the extra fat pulling my stomach down as I took each step, my legs felt like lead, and the whole of my posture and form just felt wrong.  Like my body wasn't moving the way it was supposed to.  I'm trying to remember what it was like when I first started running; I remember it hurting, sure.  I remember being unsure if I was doing it right.  But I felt like I was in my own body.  Tonight I didn't feel like I was me, I felt like I was running in someone else's body.  It was foreign, it was wrong.  My center of gravity and balance was shifted.  All of this makes sense of course, but I didn't think that all of this would have happened within 12 weeks.  Hopefully as time passes and things go back to "normal" I will feel more like I'm in my own body, but who knows how long that is going to take?

But here we are, we have a race to run, and these are the cards that were dealt.  Tonight I managed to run a half mile, walked for 0.1, and then ran the other 0.4 in a total of 12:33.  Dreary.  Blech.  But I have to remember that I am starting from scratch basically, and I can't expect 9:30 miles right now.  Apparently I can't even expect a mile right now!  lol.  But we still have two more days.  I know there won't be much of an improvement but the only way it's going to get any better is to run through it.  My goal for the race at this point is to just finish in whatever way possible.  Just finish.

I made sure to stretch, but I am sure that I will be sore as heck tomorrow anyway so the foam roller is on standby!  Here we go!