Well, I know it's been a while. Since Tour I got super burnt out. I spent a few weeks trying to train for a half marathon. Then a few weeks being lazy. Then dropped out of the half marathon. Then decided to get my act together and start base building again.
In these weeks, I ran the Run the Rocks 5k for the second year in a row! Always a very challenging race and a very disappointing time this year compared to last year but... it is was it is. I've been slowly amping up, doing mostly whatever exercise I've wanted as long as it was useful. This week, I finally put in some real time with training rides and some treadmill speed work.
Yesterday I got out for a brutal 48-mile bike ride and after having not done more than 35 since Tour in September - it was a painful, hilly, long 48-miles.
Today, I'd asked my boyfriend if he wanted to do a 5k and he easily obliged, but it was an interesting experience for me.
First off, I had tweaked my hamstring (stupid hamstrings...it is always something with them) this week and while it didn't hurt it felt, odd. Luckily a little warming up and gentle stretching seemed to hit the target area and loosen it up for the most part. I noticed an immediate difference between jogging at the start of my warm-up and jogging at the end of my stretches.
I also accidentally stepped on my iPod charged a few days ago so I've had no way to charge that so music wasn't an option. A crutch I usually lean on, as I was walking out of the house I realized I didn't have the option to run with music. I decided I'd done it before during triathlons so I would be fine.
More so than a race, today was a test for me - what moderate pushing for 3 miles would get me. I knew it wouldn't be a PR due to the injuries and working myself back from those. I knew it wouldn't even be the best I can run in my current shape because of the crazy ride yesterday. Still, I was hoping for 10-min miles.
As I usually do, stupidly, I sized up the people around me to find people who looked like me that I could run with. Yeah... people who "look" like me run 11-12 min/miles. So I immediately got stuck for a few minutes behind some very slow traffic. It was okay though, not terrible to start off slow - especially with the bizarre hamstring tweak thing. After I cleared the traffic I started focusing on getting into a stride. Which brought the first mile in at 9:44. I wasn't super happy with it - but I also wasn't disappointed! I knew there was more in the tank and it was nice to not see 10 min/miles. (Granted I ran 7 miles at 9:58 a few weeks ago...idk, small victories. I biked 48 hilly miles yesterday for christsake!)
I hit the first mile with a false sense of "only 2 miles left!" and started picking it up. Nothing crazy - but hit the turn around blah blah. Came through the second mile market at a 9:28. Just before that some random lady high-fived me who I thought was my friend Christine but...actually I have no idea who it was and I think she had no idea who I am and together we thought we high-fived other people.
Then it hit me. My legs started feeling weird and things were getting hilly, and I was telling myself "don't walk" and then "seriously, you are telling yourself not to walk in a 5k? C'mon woman" and then I walked for about 15 seconds up a hill. My unofficial goal sometime during the second mile was sub-30 min. Unfortunately, my watch, I was done in about 30:11 (womp womp) but still not all that bad for a rough few weeks and some previously slow running. I also hear the course was a little long so, cross your fingers! All in all, by far not my best race, but a good indicator of what I hope to be progress towards where I was before.
