Full of Questions

This is long.

10K RACE - Post-Preggers PR at 48:33 (pre-preggers PR 47:49)

This week I signed up for a 10k that I had last run in 2008 – which was my super spring pre-babies!  It was a good gauge of fitness for me and I thought I’d be pretty close to my time from 2008 if not beating it. I feel like I’m in pretty good shape! But, apparently not quite in the shape I was in 3 years ago.  It is a challenging rolling hills race with about 500 people doing the 10k.  I warmed up with 2 miles. With my hamstring tightness/injury I have to warmup before racing! I ate peanut butter and bread before this race and could taste the pb (not in a good way) towards the second half of the race. What's your pre-race food? I need a new one.

Thinking about the race the last couple of days, I was kind of thinking, why did I sign up for this? I’m not gung ho jolly runner right now. I’m just getting by.  This morning I was nervous and told myself it wasn’t going to be a repeat of the last 2 races I have ran (5k and Broad Street) where I wanted to die soon into the races.  I started off running too fast and very quickly brought it down to a comfortable pace. The first mile was 7:33. As I was running, I was telling myself – I am going to run a comfortable race. At no point do I want to feel like I did 2 weeks ago – I will be comfortable and not want to die or wonder why I am here.   And so I did. I felt like I was putting good effort into it and at no point did I feel that I wanted to give up or that I was really pushing myself over the limit. My last GOOD race experience was the half marathon at the end of March.  In that race, I felt like I was determined, focused and running comfortably but pushing myself in a comfortable fashion. The word comfortable, not sure if it is not enough pushing or just enough. Which leads me to the question: 

How do your races feel when you end up running a PR?

Are you:  Running comfortably?  Huffing and puffing? Wanting to die?

My second mile was around 7:39 and I was happy to hold times in the 7:30s range, knowing my last PR was a 7:47 average pace. Then I started feeling tired. There were some good hills and they were kicking my butt. I haven’t done hill training in months.  The next 3 miles were a slow down –averaging around 8 min miles and I stopped looking at my watch and just running at a pace where I felt like I was pushing it comfortably.  I was thinking in my head maybe I could be in the top of my age group and checking out all of the women that looked like they might be in my age group and trying to catch them.  Do you think age should be on your shirt or something like that?  I was wondering that. I was able to get my last full mile down but faded for the last stretch. Amazing it was exactly 6.2!!

I was completely spent at the end. That’s usually how I know that I left it out on the course but I did feel like I was loafing a few miles in the middle there. I never know how to pace and I didn’t run with music to push me along.   I felt weak when I started walking afterwards. I couldn't pick up Nick. My family and my parents came to watch – it’s a great kid’s race because they have things for kids at the finish, so they got there when it started and Nick got to go around and play, then they saw me finish. It was fun!

thanks for the pic Mom!

Nick pounded carbs and had a good time!

baby girl - she was so good!

it was humid - aside from no boobs now 24/7 headlights too. Awesome

what does the vo2 max mean?

 CHIRO

After the race, I headed to Dr Kelli – the worst for me has been driving or having to sit still. It’s a pain in the butt! No pun intended.  It’s my hamstring but very close to my butt. Kelli thinks I have adhesions from the muscle being tight for so long and uses the Graston method to break them down. I like going – it’s a good hurt. 

SUCCESSFUL BIKE RIDE

I took a little eating break and some family time then headed out on the bike for just over an hour. I decided to go on the roads nearby to save the time driving to the trail and to get in some hills. I will call this ride my “house hunt” ride. I want a house in my town so it’s nice to browse – what better way then a bike ride?  It was not bad. What hurt the most – my back/shoulder blades.  Maybe my form stinks.  I felt more comfortable riding out of the saddle, but I feel so slow. Here are the questions I thought about while biking:

If I’m flying down a hill, is there a need to pedal?
How often do you find yourself switching gears?
Is the only time you ride out of the saddle when you are going up a hill?
Do you have any tips?

How bad is it that my bike times are as fast as some people can run ?

I don’t think I see a future for myself in triathloning – because of the bike and all of the stuff you need and bringing everything to the start – way too much effort for me when you have a family! I like going to running races and just showing up at the start.  I do like having something to test my swim endurance but I have a feeling I'm going to despise the open water swim anyway!

MARATHONING
I am enjoying running short races and trying to get fast.  I’m kind of dreading marathon training actually –the long runs and higher mileage. I’m looking forward to seeing if I can run a really good one with strong training. I didn’t think I could do it myself and was starting to get some coaching ideas: Lindsay, Michelle, Miss Zippy and an email circulated in our running group about discounted training working with an intern with the coach that does the track workouts (I’ve only been once and never met him). It was first come first serve, so I just sent in an email giving my info and I got picked. I’m excited about it! I'll report back on how that goes. So far, I filled out a survey with all my info and put my goal as wanting to run a 3:35 marathon. The thought of that scares me, so basically a sub 4 hour marathon will do the job for me too. : )

BLOGGING
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