Weekly Recap 7/21-7/27 and a 5K!

July flew right by didn't it? I am well on my way to meeting my goal of 150 mile for the month and I can hardly wait to get there. I have 10 miles to go!! I wasn't sure how my body would respond and I was definitely ready to back off of the miles if my legs were not happy. I don't want to jinx myself but my legs have held up pretty well but I think I owe the results to my foam roller. Things have sure changed for me since I have committed to foam rolling after my runs!

This week was a cut back week. My body sure appreciated the break. I also threw a 5K in this week to tire my legs out a little bit before my long run. I ran this same 5k last year and it was not pretty so I really wanted to go back and make things right. It didn't need to be a PR but just a decent race where things felt normal. I have a love/hate relationship with 5K's!

Monday: Rest Day from running but did some strength training.

Tuesday: 6 Miles @8:14 avg pace/I went to a different gym and the treadmills are different than the ones that I am used to running on. This run felt really hard and my legs felt really tired for the first two miles. I wanted to quit at Mile 3 but I kept telling myself to just hang on.

Wednesday: Rest Day with strength training.

Thursday: 6 Miles@8:04/I really wanted to run on the roads but it was 102 degrees when I got home from work and there was just no way! I was determined to have a good run after my Monday run was not so great.

Friday: Rest Day since I wanted to be rested for my 5K.

Saturday: City of Cypress 5K (23:43) avg pace 7:37

Sunday: 15 Miles@ 9:19 avg. pace/I made it out the door super early and kept the pace easy. I had cloud coverage for the first 10.5 miles and it was great. The first 12 miles were MGP plus 60 seconds and the last three miles were at MGP.

Total Miles: 30.11

Week three of the Summer Run Challenge is complete and I met my goal for the week! This week I will take the mileage back up a little bit! 

The heat will still be with us here in So Cal next week which makes training a little tricky. I know that I have to stick with it even if it means bringing down the pace and focusing on getting the miles in.

Do you love or hate 5K's?

7/26/14: City of Cypress 5K

This was my second year running this race. Last year I had a horrible race so I really wanted to run this race again with better results. I really like this race and the course is flat and easy. My only complaint is the start time. The race starts at 7:30 am and with the summer heat I think a 6:30 am start would be much better. I like that they offer same day bib pick up but I am sure they would not be able to offer this if they had an earlier start time.

I am kind of useless in the heat when it comes to running. I just don't feel right and I really have to work much harder than I really want to. I knew by the first mile that things were not going to be fantastic. My legs felt heavy the entire first mile so I think I kind lost confidence after that point and just hoped to finish with a better time than I did last year.

The last mile was tough. It was hot and we were running with the sun in our faces. I wanted to be done. It was pretty sad how I didn't push myself to finish stronger. I am still kind of mad at myself for giving up so easily.

Last year I finished in 23:57 and placed 5th in my AG so I was glad that I beat my time by 14 seconds and placed 4th in my AG this year. 

Official Time: 23:43 (4th Place AG)

I am sure I will run this race again. Maybe I will get lucky next year and the weather will be much cooler or I need to get brave and learn how to run in the heat!

Three Things Thursday

1. My goal for July is to run 150 miles so I signed up for The Bigfoot Challenge over at http://www.teamigotyaback.com/#cac5. I saw it on Instagram and decided to try it since it is already in line with the mileage I had planned for the month of July. I hope I can do it but as we all know that sometimes life gets in the way and we have to make changes in our running schedule. I don't follow the recommended running schedule because it does not work with my schedule but the mileage I have planned will meet the goal if I can stick with it. Wish me luck!

2. I am thinking about running the Cypress 5K again this year. I ran it last year and got the worst side ache so that is all that keeps playing in my head. I am going to wait until the last minute to sign up to make sure I am ready for it. 5K's are short but oh so painful! If I run it, my goal will be to break 23 minutes (22:59) and I am not sure if I am capable of that right now.

3. This is kind of a sad thought but it has been on my mind for the past few days. I was driving to meet my carpool on Tuesday morning and I saw something in the road. I assumed it was a dead animal and sure enough it was. I decided to change lanes to avoid hitting the dead dog and when I made the lane change, I noticed a small white dog laying in the dummy lane who was still alive. I presume that he was waiting there for his buddy that had just got hit by a car. It was just really sad and just makes me realize how darn faithful dogs are. I did not stop because it was really dark where the dog was at and I did not want to scare him and make him run into traffic because of me. I drove past the same spot after work because I wanted to make sure that he did not get hit too. He was not there so I was relieved to know that perhaps someone rescued him or he made it to safety. This just makes me love my fur babies that much more!

Today is my Friday since I have the day off tomorrow so have a great weekend everyone!

7/27/13: City of Cypress 5K

I don't care what anyone says. 5K's are tough! They are tough for me because I really push myself thinking that it is just 3.1 miles. It had been over a year since I last ran a 5K so I was a little nervous going into this race. I had no goal going into this race except to do my best since my focus has been on improving my endurance and no real commitment to speed work.

This is a small race (5K and 10K only) but it was well organized. My friend Caroline suggested that I line up in the front since the race tends to be congested in the beginning and there are lots of strollers and walkers throughout the course. The course was very flat and fast but the temperature was about 70 degrees at the start which was no bueno! 

I also liked that bib pick up was available the day before the race as well as the morning of the race. I arrived about an hour before the start time and it was not crowded at all. Parking was close to the start and there was no problem getting in or out of the parking lot. I was able to pick up my bib in less than 5 minutes and had time to go back to my car, put my sunscreen on and use the bathroom.

They had real bathrooms as well as porta-potties. The lines at the real bathrooms got longer as the start time approached but the porta-pottie lines did not.

There was plenty of water and snacks such as bagels, bananas and popsicles after the race. I was not able to enjoy my popsicle because someone else wanted it more than I did. My son has the habit of taking all of my snacks after a race and I end up with nothing but water.

Now onto the race....I debated about actually running this 5K because I went to a church function with family the night before and ate way too late and I didn't get to bed until way past midnight. We laughed about how my race might go the next morning and apparently it was not a joke. I also woke up several times in the night feeling thirsty and I think I even had a nightmare! My alarm went off at 5am and I decided that I should go and make the best of it in spite of feeling super tired since I paid for it!

The race started out on the wrong foot because I broke the "don't go out too fast rule." I didn't do it on purpose but I didn't glance at my Garmin until the first turn (about a half mile into the race) and it read 6:35. "Hello...you can't hang at that pace so you better slow it down!" I immediately took it way down and settled into a 7:15-7:20 pace. 
Mile 1: 7:16

As I approached the last half of Mile 2, I started to feel a pain in my left side. I tried to push through it by holding my side but it didn't help much. I slowed it down a little more to about a 7:30 pace to see if that would help but it got worse and I had to stop. Yes, I stopped! I was absolutely hating myself for stopping but I had to or else I would not have made it to the Finish Line. 
Mile 2: 7:32

The last mile really sucked and I just tried to finish the damn race. I thought that maybe I had not hydrated properly and that was why I was feeling the side ache. I drank more water and that made it even worse! I never experienced a side ache before so I have to figure out what I did that brought it on. In any case, I kind of gave up mentally and that just sealed the deal. I didn't care anymore and when I saw the clock at almost 24 minutes I just wanted to forget that I even showed up! 
Mile 3: 8:16

Official Time: 23:57

5th in AG

I know that every race will not be perfect or result in a PR. I just wanted to do my best and know I did not so it was a disappointing race. This was my 9th race towards my goal of 13 races in 2013. I have a long run in the plan tomorrow so hopefully it will be a better day.