5K Wrapup

My 5K was today. It was AMAZING!

Let me start at the beginning. My fiance and I hada fight last weekend that we never did anything together, so this weekend was a "doing things together" extravaganza. On Saturday, we went to a wedding reception until 9pm, then a ham radio (he loves ham radio) event from 11pm-2:30am. My 5K started at 8:20am on Sunday with check in at 6:30-7:30am, in a town that was 2.5 hours away. So...where does sleep figure into that? It doesn't. (Bonus, we live in a different time zone than the 5K, so we actually had to leave 3.5 hours earlier than the sign in time...i.e. 3:30am).

I had made a promise to myself to break my PR of 37 and some change by just running as a hard as possible. However...I was running on maybe 2 hours of sleep once you figured in some car sleeping. I was pretty skeptical I was going to do anything good.

Factor in the torrential downpour of rain that we had starting at 4am, and I wasn't feeling like this was the race I had planned.

However, as we were all hanging out underneath a pavilion waiting for the start, I made a friend. Her name was Jessica, and she was concerned that she was going to come in last. I explained to her that she couldn't possibly come in last since I was running the race :). Her friend had made her sign up for the 5K, and after some different family problems, could no longer participate herself. Jessica said that she was too cheap to not run in a race she already paid for, so there she was! I myself didn't successfully peer pressure anyone into signing up for the race with me...so it was perfect!

Me and my new friend

With 10 minutes to go to the start of the race, the rain started to clear up to just a light sprinkling. It was about 60-64*F. In short, the weather was PERFECT. This was also my first chip timed event. We lined up and then *bang*! We were off!

Mile 1 was pretty easy. When I passed the marker I looked at my HRM...10 minutes flat! Holy crap, I'm going too fast I thought. I'll never keep up this pace. At mile 1.5 there was water, I walked for about 30 seconds to drink...then right back to running! Jessica told me that she was going to use me to pace her on the run at this point. That was pretty flattering...I've never been anything CLOSE to a pacer before.

Mile 2 came at 21 minutes. This is where the hills started. They weren't huge, but very rolling. My legs were burning as I was running up them, but I pushed through. I think all the stairclimbing I've been doing on my crosstraining days have REALLY helped me. I'm definitely continuing that.

Around mile 2.5 I looked at my watch. 27ish mins! That means If I just could finish my last 0.6 of a mile in less than 8 minutes, I would have a hold of my original non-sleep deprived goal! AHHH!!

The last thing you had to do was to complete a lap on the track. It was a really neat idea, because you got to watch everyone finish. Mile 3 came on the track, and I think it was somewhere around 32:45ish. I hauled ass for the last 0.1 and finished in....drumroll please...

33:29.77!!!!!!!!!!!

My best by four minutes! FOUR MINUTES!!


VICTORY!

I ran sub 11 mins/mile!! First time ever for a sustained amount of time!!!! I can't express how excited I am.

Based on my results from today, I should be able to run a sub 2:45 half marathon, which is what I've been going for. Really, I'd like to run a sub 2:30 half marathon, but I don't know if that's possible for me yet.

How'd everyone else's weekends go??




38/52 overall for females
94/113 over for both genders
5/8 for Age Group
10:48 mins/mile average

I'm SO Frustrated right now.

I gained again this week. 0.4lbs. I know it's not a lot...and I had a feeling I was going to gain going into it...but I'm still mad. I know it's my fault. Even though I track, I've been "forgetting" bites/licks/tastes, or whole snacks at times...I'm eating out WAY more than I should...I know. I know all this and yet I'm still mad when the scale goes up.

Because of this, my commitment this week is to track every single damn thing that goes into my mouth, and to only eat out like 3 times this week. My larger commitment is to have oatmeal for breakfast instead of the McDonald's I usually have.

I'm also going to try to honestly use as little WP's and AP's as possible. I want I huge loss before going on my week long vacay at home, where I fully expect to gain.

I guess the good thing is that I'm earning 30-40 AP's each week. That really helps buffer some of the weight that I would have gained. Oh, and I know people say you can "gain muscle" when you work out that much and that can explain some gains....no. You simply can't gain that much muscle in one week as a woman on a restricted diet. You can lose more slowly, or maybe not lose at all for a week, but gaining almost a whole pound one week and a half a pound the next? No. All of the scientific studies I've ever read basically say this is something dieters tell themselves to make themselves feel better.

Ok, on to good news. I rode my bike 8ish miles on Tuesday. I parked at Lake Antoine and then biked 1 mile to go around Big Lake Fumee.
That's my track from Tuesday. It only says 7.27 miles, but that's because I started the program later into my track.

I also tried my eGel energy gels by www.cranksports.com for the first time on this ride. I knew I would be out there for over an hour, and I hadn't had dinner yet, so I brought one with me and ate it about half way around. It went down easy (although was a different consistency than I expected, but I've never had a gel before...so...) and it didn't cause me any stomach upset. I bought a multi box with 4 different flavors; I tried the cherry bomb one. The other three flavors are mountain rush, vanilla strawberry slam, and tropical blast. The flavor of the cherry bomb one was really good...I hope the others are that good! I want to try all four flavors on my training runs before I have to use them for my 15K in August or my half marathon in October.


eGel claims they are the best because they are 150 cals instead of 100, so you get more per pouch, and they have higher amounts of electrolytes than other gels. I tried this brand because it was recommended in Marathoning for Mortals.

Getting excited/nervous for my 5K on Sunday!

Internet Was Down ALL WEEKEND!

Frustrating. Anyway, I'm going to do my post in chapters, because I have a lot to talk about over the last weekend, and I don't want it to be too hard to read.


Chapter 1. Friday

Went to Relay for Life after work (rode my bike there and back). The basic premise is that you walk around the track to fight cancer. I don't really understand it- nobody sponsors people per lap that you do (like some other philanthropies do), so why do people walk and walk and walk? But they do. And I'm glad they do- it's great to see people out and doing something that requires burning calories. It's rare in America.

Anyway, I walked. One of the groups were selling buttons that you attached a ribbon to, and everytime you went around the track, you got a bead to put on your ribbon. It was AWESOME. It encouraged so many people to walk more than they would have on their own...myself included. I walked 5 miles that night. The entire time I was walking I desperately wanted to be running. Walking felt slow and cumbersome. It was so frustrating to know I could run that far MUCH faster than I could walk it. One of my friends brought her stepson, and he was trying to beat her in the race for beads, so I sprinted with him for the last 200 yards of each lap for a few laps. It was awesome.

Button and beads from relay

Chapter 2. Saturday

Came back in the morning to run on the track so I could get more beads. You aren't really supposed to run, but it was 5:30am on a Saturday, so there were very few people there. I ran 4 miles and completed my long run for the week. It wasn't arduous at all (like track running normally is) because of the silly bead competition.

I got out of work early and came back an hour and a half before the event was over and walked another 3 miles. I think next year I'm going to take the weekend off of work and just see how many beads I can get (the group that did it this year is going to do it again next year because of how big of a hit it was).



Chapter 3. Sunday

Rest day.



Chapter 4. Monday

Ran- sort of. Had Thai food for lunch, and then went to the beach all day with no fluids. Attempted to run in the afternoon, and just about died. The warm up walk was ok- I could tell it wasn't going to be a spectacular run, but I didn't know how bad. Two minutes into the run, I had to walk. It felt like everytime my left foot struck the ground, a homeless man ran up to me and stabbed me in the gut. I tried running a few more times unsuccessfully, and grudgingly walked the rest of the route. Sigh.



Chapter 5. Tuesday

Crosstraining day. Biked 8 miles and then ran into the lake immediately and swam (90* heat is hot!!). It was SO refreshing. I'm going to do that more often.



Ok, enough of that. Tomorrow is a rest day, so nothing fun to update with tomorrow. However, I'm doing a 5K this weekend in Munising, MI and I'm SUPER EXCITED for it. My plan is to run full out and try to PR. It shouldn't be hard because at my last 5K (the only one I've done as an adult) I could have ran a lot more of it, but I ran with a friend and we took it easy and just enjoyed it. Plus, Nate (my fiance) is driving me to it, and he's never come to one of my races before, so that should be fun.



Woo!


The stairs I climb on crosstraining days...I wish the picture was bigger so you could see them all!