THE RACE:
Way better than I could have dreamed. Originally, I was just hoping for sub-30 minutes. Then I was hoping for 27+. Then, after two good runs last week, I thought maybe MAYBE 26:xx.
Ready for this?
25:28! And first in my age group!!!! Unfortunately, we left immediately following the race because we were hosting a Halloween party the same night, so I think I missed out on a prize. Of all the races to leave early! A FLYERS prize, potentially!!! Aaaaaagggghhhhh!!!!! Still, 25:28 is faster than I could have imagined running. Woo hooo!
THE STORM:
Luckily, we appear to have been spared the worst of it. The rain started Sunday and still has not completely let up, but we still have power and have escaped major damage to our home and property. All we're dealing with is water in our basement (every storm, so that's not a surprise) and a leaking front door (that one is new). We are very lucky!!
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Feeling slightly better about this running thing
This morning I dragged my butt out of bed and ran to the track -- not for a speed workout, but for a tempo one. I figured the track was (a) easy to measure, and (b) softer than pavement. It was also (c) boring and (d) dark, but what the hell.
After a particularly painful and hellacious 4 mile run on Saturday (followed by a much more enjoyable and far less painful 7.4 miler on Sunday, wtf?), I figured I'd be lucky to do a sub-30 minute 5K this weekend. Secretly, I thought I might be able to do a sub-28 minute (right around 9 minute pace).
Well, this morning's run went way better than I expected. Easy jog to the track, two miles in 17:07, even easier jog home. As a result, I'm readjusting my goals and expectations for the race. I think I can do a 26:30 or a little better, unless there are monster hills in the course that I am not aware of. Certainly not my best time (not even close!), but not my worst either. What a relief!!
After a particularly painful and hellacious 4 mile run on Saturday (followed by a much more enjoyable and far less painful 7.4 miler on Sunday, wtf?), I figured I'd be lucky to do a sub-30 minute 5K this weekend. Secretly, I thought I might be able to do a sub-28 minute (right around 9 minute pace).
Well, this morning's run went way better than I expected. Easy jog to the track, two miles in 17:07, even easier jog home. As a result, I'm readjusting my goals and expectations for the race. I think I can do a 26:30 or a little better, unless there are monster hills in the course that I am not aware of. Certainly not my best time (not even close!), but not my worst either. What a relief!!
Thursday, October 18, 2012
How to cram for a race in 10 days (or, This race is going to be ugly!)
Well, I have my big comeback race in 9 days. And I can honestly say I am nowhere near ready for it.
Can I run the distance? Sure. I mean, I did 7.5 miles on Sunday. Slow miles, but 7.5 nonetheless. No, my concern isn't the distance. It's the tempo.
As soon as I registered for the race, I did a track workout. My intention was just to alternate faster laps with slower ones, but I felt so good that I ended up doing pseudo-400s instead. Faster than I intended or expected, which is always a great surprise!
The following week, I went back to the track for another workout -- the dreaded ladder. It's my least favorite track workout, but it's a critical one because it gives you an idea of where your paces are AND forces you to run faster when you're more tired. Due to time constraints, I cut one of the intervals out, the 1200 (which is by far my least favorite part of the least favorite workout, so you can see that I wasn't exactly crushed by the limited time, haha). The workout went like this:
.6ish mile warmup jog to the track (yes, I live just over half a mile from a track!)
1600 in 7:55 (ummm, 7:55 pace)
800 in 3:45 (7:30 pace)
400 in 1:48 (7:15 pace)
2 x 200 in :48 and :46 (6:27 and 6:11 pace)
2 x 100 in :22 and :22 (5:55 pace)
.6ish mile cooldown jog home
At first, judging only by my watch, I was disappointed. I used to do those 200s in 42 seconds! And 100s in like 16 seconds. And my fastest 400s (back in the day) were in the low 1:30 range. Gawd, I SUCK. And then I calculated the actual paces and realized that my times were pretty damn good for someone who is 1) coming back from a 4 month injury, and 2) older than dirt.
Unfortunately, those 100s and 200s did a number on my glute. It ached for the rest of the day and part of the next day, I'm sure due to the added force of landing hard and pushing off in addition to the longer stride I took during the sprints. I dragged myself to yoga that night and to the pool the next morning, and that definitely helped. I've been afraid to push the pace since then, however, and that's why I'm kind of dreading this race. It won't be a race as much as a really expensive 3.1 miles with a couple hundred of my closest friends. Ugh.
I'm forcing myself to look at the bright side, however. It's my first race in nearly 8 months and a great excuse to get decked out in Flyers gear for the first time all fall. Speaking of which, this lockout simply must come to an end. I am going through freaking withdrawal without hockey.
Can I run the distance? Sure. I mean, I did 7.5 miles on Sunday. Slow miles, but 7.5 nonetheless. No, my concern isn't the distance. It's the tempo.
As soon as I registered for the race, I did a track workout. My intention was just to alternate faster laps with slower ones, but I felt so good that I ended up doing pseudo-400s instead. Faster than I intended or expected, which is always a great surprise!
The following week, I went back to the track for another workout -- the dreaded ladder. It's my least favorite track workout, but it's a critical one because it gives you an idea of where your paces are AND forces you to run faster when you're more tired. Due to time constraints, I cut one of the intervals out, the 1200 (which is by far my least favorite part of the least favorite workout, so you can see that I wasn't exactly crushed by the limited time, haha). The workout went like this:
.6ish mile warmup jog to the track (yes, I live just over half a mile from a track!)
1600 in 7:55 (ummm, 7:55 pace)
800 in 3:45 (7:30 pace)
400 in 1:48 (7:15 pace)
2 x 200 in :48 and :46 (6:27 and 6:11 pace)
2 x 100 in :22 and :22 (5:55 pace)
.6ish mile cooldown jog home
At first, judging only by my watch, I was disappointed. I used to do those 200s in 42 seconds! And 100s in like 16 seconds. And my fastest 400s (back in the day) were in the low 1:30 range. Gawd, I SUCK. And then I calculated the actual paces and realized that my times were pretty damn good for someone who is 1) coming back from a 4 month injury, and 2) older than dirt.
Unfortunately, those 100s and 200s did a number on my glute. It ached for the rest of the day and part of the next day, I'm sure due to the added force of landing hard and pushing off in addition to the longer stride I took during the sprints. I dragged myself to yoga that night and to the pool the next morning, and that definitely helped. I've been afraid to push the pace since then, however, and that's why I'm kind of dreading this race. It won't be a race as much as a really expensive 3.1 miles with a couple hundred of my closest friends. Ugh.
I'm forcing myself to look at the bright side, however. It's my first race in nearly 8 months and a great excuse to get decked out in Flyers gear for the first time all fall. Speaking of which, this lockout simply must come to an end. I am going through freaking withdrawal without hockey.
Thursday, October 11, 2012
This is a slightly happier post than it was yesterday when I first wrote it
I realized last night that I have been completely neglecting this blog (and my blogger friends). Work is busy, life is busy, blah blah blah. We're all busy. I hate that excuse.
So I was going to take 2 minutes and post this afternoon. The trouble is, I'm in a sad mood. On Sunday, I found out that a former coworker -- a lively, vivacious, energetic, laugh-a-minute woman -- is dying of ovarian cancer. I had seen a pic of her on FB in a hospital bed, but in the weeks since I've seen tons of pics of her looking like I remember. Foolishly, I thought she was recovering... until Sunday, when I realized that the recent pics were all being posted by her friends in her honor as she and the Hospice volunteers by her side wait for the inevitable. She can't be more than 47-48 years old. It's just not fair.
And then today, I randomly thought of someone from my past that I haven't seen in years. He was a customer of mine at my high school job in an ice cream parlor (best job ever), and over the years we had run into each other a few times. He was a really nice man who had endured more than his fair share of hardship. I googled him... and the first three hits were his obituary from January of this year. I feel awful that I didn't google him a year ago and maybe get in touch with him one more time. He was 64. RIP, Len.
UPDATE:
I thought I had lost a third person, but it turned out that I was mistaken. (Long story.) That brings me back to the original point of this blog post. Growing older definitely has its advantages: more wisdom, less anxiety about what other people think (in fact, I pretty much don't give a crap anymore), more peace and self-awareness. It's not all sunshine and roses, of course. Growing older also means wrinkles, gray hair, slowing metabolism, potential health issues, and, by far the worst of it all, losing people you love more regularly and frequently. I can't say I truly loved either of the people I mentioned above -- I didn't know them that well -- but I truly liked both of them and am sorry that their time has been cut short. There are many others, though, that are gone that I did truly love... and the older I get, the more I realize that this is just the way it's going to be from now on.
That's hard to accept. It's not so much my mortality that concerns me. It's my loved ones' mortality. :(
So I was going to take 2 minutes and post this afternoon. The trouble is, I'm in a sad mood. On Sunday, I found out that a former coworker -- a lively, vivacious, energetic, laugh-a-minute woman -- is dying of ovarian cancer. I had seen a pic of her on FB in a hospital bed, but in the weeks since I've seen tons of pics of her looking like I remember. Foolishly, I thought she was recovering... until Sunday, when I realized that the recent pics were all being posted by her friends in her honor as she and the Hospice volunteers by her side wait for the inevitable. She can't be more than 47-48 years old. It's just not fair.
And then today, I randomly thought of someone from my past that I haven't seen in years. He was a customer of mine at my high school job in an ice cream parlor (best job ever), and over the years we had run into each other a few times. He was a really nice man who had endured more than his fair share of hardship. I googled him... and the first three hits were his obituary from January of this year. I feel awful that I didn't google him a year ago and maybe get in touch with him one more time. He was 64. RIP, Len.
UPDATE:
I thought I had lost a third person, but it turned out that I was mistaken. (Long story.) That brings me back to the original point of this blog post. Growing older definitely has its advantages: more wisdom, less anxiety about what other people think (in fact, I pretty much don't give a crap anymore), more peace and self-awareness. It's not all sunshine and roses, of course. Growing older also means wrinkles, gray hair, slowing metabolism, potential health issues, and, by far the worst of it all, losing people you love more regularly and frequently. I can't say I truly loved either of the people I mentioned above -- I didn't know them that well -- but I truly liked both of them and am sorry that their time has been cut short. There are many others, though, that are gone that I did truly love... and the older I get, the more I realize that this is just the way it's going to be from now on.
That's hard to accept. It's not so much my mortality that concerns me. It's my loved ones' mortality. :(
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