Cooley Law School 5K for Education

I did it!  I trained, I worked and I finished the first 5K I ever paid to enter.  And I ran the whole thing!  Woo!

I finished in 36:46, took 51st in my age group (according to the picture I took, but the online results say I'm 52nd), 336th overall for women and 609th overall.  My mile time was not very good, 11:50, but I have something to improve on for next year.

Next year I will be running in the 25-29 age group and the winning time for that was 19:21.  So that's my goal, to get my time down in the next year.  Guess who's going to be running intervals? (Me, in case you didn't guess!)  It won't hurt that if I make my goal weight by my birthday, I will be running next year's 5K with significantly less poundage dragging me down.  Even if I decide to maintain a higher weight than I currently am aiming for now, I will still be much less heavy.

Which will be very good.  For many reasons.  Besides the obvious of not having extra weight, I will hopeful not injure myself while running the 5K.  During the 5K I must have just been running high on adrenaline and not noticed, but my feet killed afterward.  My right foot still hurts, although less than it did yesterday.  Ice and acetaminophen will do that.

The big suck for yesterday was that I woke up with a sore throat and stuffy nose.  Ick.  Not really what you want when you're about to run 3.1 miles.

Alright, race report: (OMG, I get to do one of these!)

Mile 1 (10:36, about 8:40am)


We had to rush to the starting line because we had to take stuff back to the car after we checked in (and now we can't find my keys).  I plugged into my phone for music and turned it up.  The air horn went and we took off, the 5K in one direction and the Half Marathon in the other.  I felt alright, but as mile one came up, I was starting to get down a bit, and was thinking about walking after I hit the mile marker.  I got to the marker and said, if you still want to walk after mile two, you can for a bit.

First Water Station


As we approached, I thought they were people waiting for certain runners and was cursing myself for not asking someone to water us.  Then I realized it was for everyone and I was happy!  I cannot walk and drink out of a paper cup let alone run and drink.  So after slopping a large amount of it down my front I stopped, finished the water and continued.

Mile 2 (22:42, about 8:53am)


I didn't let myself stop and walk here either.  I wasn't going to let myself walk at all during this.  And I am stubborn, especially with myself.  I kept on keeping on.

Second Water Station

There was a band playing along the second water station, which was nice.  I got some water, stopped to chug it down (attractive, I know) and kept running.

Mile 3.1


There were tons of people flanking the finish and the last bit leading up to the finish along the River Trail.  They cheered on everyone, not just who they came to support.  It was wonderful. Thank you! We really, really appreciate it!  I sprinted with everything I had left to get across before another minute ticked off the clock.

After the finish Meijer had donated bagels, fruit, water and apple cider.  All of which was awesome.  I had a bagel, an apple, some water and cider.  We also got a free beer from a local brewery.  I had a bite of Adam's pizza but didn't give in to the desire to get my own slice.  Also, my feet hurt, so I didn't want to walk around to find it.

We stayed to watch the Half Marathoners finish, and we had a friend running in it.  We stayed til she finished, her husband couldn't run because he broke his toe a few weeks ago. :(  It was really nice to see them.

Adam and I look forward to racing again next year, but hopefully we'll get to race again before that! (Read: when I find a job)

Well, that's all I got, I'm going to see if I can convince Adam to write his own race report to post too.

'Night!

Adam and I after we finished!

Exercising More Than Once

I mentioned a few posts ago that I was changing my routine (again) and running M-W-F instead of just on the low (or no) miles bike days.

I've been experimenting with when I got for my run after we get back from our rides.  This is tricky, because I've never trained for two events at once before.  And I am by no means an expert, exact opposite actually.  But these are my experiences/experiments and I am sharing them with you, my imaginary, massive, audience.

First I tried just resting a bit before running, not eating or drinking anything.  That did not work.  I was sluggish and I just didn't feel very good while I was running.  My time sucked and my muscles, though rested a bit, were upset.

Then I tried just coming back from our ride, changing and just shooting right back out the door to run.  Huge flop.  Just BLECH!  I was a mess.  I was slow, joints hurt, muscles ached, I had stitches in my side the entire run.

It made me stop and walk portions when I wasn't supposed to.  It was so bad.  And I had to stop and stretch more because my muscles were seizing up.

Then, I hit upon the perfect plan.  I would come in from our ride, change, drink a glass of chocolate milk, eat some fruit and rest for about an hour, maybe an hour and a half.  Then I would head out and run.

MIRACLE OF MIRACLES!

I felt so great on my run today!  I got a small stitch in my side, but I was able to breathe through it.  My ankle never hurt, I didn't have to stop for anything.  Well, I did stop once because I mis-read the stop watch, but other than that, I was flying!

It was a beautiful day, I felt so good.  And when I got home, I still felt great!  I got a little drowsy after lunch, but I didn't nap.

I am so glad I found something that works!

What about you? How do you handle multiple workouts?

Rest Day for the Crazy

Ah, rest day!

It's a great day.  Until recently, I didn't really have an actual planned rest day, I would do a 5K training run on my century training rest day.  Ah, but genius of genius strokes, made me decide that I should, you know, actually rest from my crazy training schedule.  So now I switched to running Monday, Wednesday, Friday.

Having a whole day off is glorious!

I get up, make breakfast and head out to my weekly Weight Watchers meeting.  I weigh in, eat breakfast and stay for the meeting.  I usually text Adam and let him know how the weigh in went, read the weekly hand out and read my book for a little while before the meeting starts.

After the meeting, I go do laundry, and come home.

Ok, well, it's not really that exciting, but it's nice to not have to be out huffing and puffing my way around the complex to get my 5K training in.

The only thing that I would like to have to do instead is to have to work all that around a job.  (I didn't get the job I interviewed for last week :-(... which is why there are now ads on this site, I earned a whole penny the other day!)

So, aaaaanywaaaay, even though I love the biking and the running and the crazy schedule I have set out for myself, it's nice spending a whole day without giving my sebaceous glands a work out.

A whole day of being dry, and smelling nice. Aaaaaaahhhhhh!

Yeah, I'm nuts

Remember when I posted a few weeks ago about how I was thinking about running a 5K on top of my Century Training?

Yeah, well I'm pretty sure I also posted that I decided to run it. I can't find it right now.  But I wanted to tell you all that I have confirmation that I'm nuts.

Today, after doing our century training, I waited about an hour.  Ate some watermelon, drank some chocolate milk and watched some M*A*S*H while I waited. Then I got back up and went out to run TWO days worth of training.

That's right. TWO DAYS.  I ran the third day of Week 5, and the first day of Week 6 back to back.  55 minutes.

And I'm going to do it again tomorrow, and finish the last two days of Week 6.

Then I will be caught up and only running 3 days a week.

So maybe I'm only partially whacko.

But the great thing is, is that I felt great.  I rode hard, ran so long and worked my legs to the bone.  But after both, and in between, my legs felt great.  Sure now, my knees are a little swollen and sore, but my muscles feel fine.  Adam is still recovering from our long ride on Sunday, which is crazy! I'm usually the one who is still lagging a day or two after.

This is wonderful!  I hope that this continues and I keep getting stronger and stronger.

WOO!!

Procrastination Staaaation!

I'm a really great procrastinator.  When I was in college (it's so weird that I can say that now) I was the master at starting out with the best intentions toward a project or paper, then bam! It's the night before it's due, and I'm up til 3 am trying to finish it.

Funnily enough, I seemed to do my best work while up against that wall.  I am a master BS-er apparently.

But the real procrastination that kicks me is when I put off a work out.

Take yesterday afternoon for example.  I was feeling a little sleepy after lunch, in part because we were up early for Adam's appointment.  Even though I knew I should get up and go run, I fell asleep instead. Because I'm LAZY.

I still got my run in last night, but if I had run earlier, maybe I could have avoided the nausea that cut my run short.

Another problem I run up against is that the days are getting shorter, so if I wait to run (because I'm lazy) or we can't do our bike rides in the morning (because of conflicts), we run out of day light.  This is a problem. If you are asking yourself, "Why would this be a problem?"

Let me answer you, kind reader. Adam and I ride road bikes and a majority of the places we ride are on roads and we are averse to getting hit by a car.  We like living, it's a fun activity and we enjoy it.  So we try and ride whilst there is day light.  I also don't really enjoy swallowing bugs, and the likelihood of that happening increases in the dark.

Running after dark is a different story.  My only problem with running after dark is the stupid mosquitos.  I wish they would all die.  Scientists even say they are useless and could be wiped out.  We should do that.  Where was I? Right, running in the dark. I kind of like it.  It's cooler, I feel more confident for some reason.  Or maybe that's my training kicking in.  I don't know.

I need something to kick my butt off the couch when I am feeling procrastinatory. Suggestions?

What do you do to beat off the procrastinating faeries?

I am crazy. Absolutely insane.

Recently (3 days ago) I set a goal for myself to walk at least 5K (3.1 miles) every day.  And I am proud to say that I have managed to do that every day since I started.  Yay!  I also am training to ride a century and I go to yoga twice a week.  But, today a new challenge arose when a friend asked me if I was planning on running any 5K races soon.

I told her I wasn't planning on doing more running until after cycling season was over, but if she found a 5K to run together before that, I would start earlier.

This begs the question: what the hell is the matter with me?!

With everything I'm doing otherwise, how can I do 5K training too?

But I am considering it, I even have the Couch to 5K Program page open right now and my calendar to add the training in as a separate calendar so I'd have it for reference on my phone.  And, conveniently enough, the week after we do our century ride in which entrance fees go to breast cancer research and League of Michigan Bicyclists, is the Capitol City River Run Half Marathon and CCRR Cooley Law School 5K for Education.  We have to drive a bit to get to the century ride and the 5K is right here in Lansing, so, I'd like to do it, even though my friend is already signed up to do the half marathon section of the race.

I've participated in the Weight Watchers Walk-it 5K day in the past (twice, this year and last), but I'd like to do an "official" race where I get a number an everything.

Again, what is the matter with me?!  I'm actually thinking about doing a 5K, where I would have to train 3 days a week, on top of the 6 days a week I'm training for the century?  And yoga.  But it certainly would push me to the 5K every day faster.

I am nuts. Crazy. Whacko.

There is a reason professional athletes are professional athletes, training is so time consuming!

And I have a lot of thinking, deciding and planning to do... yeesh.

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