Sunday, December 5, 2010

WEEK 48: 38 miles and an unlikely 5K PR

Monday: 30 minutes of lethagic elliptical....still don't feel very good (stomach bug), maybe tomorrow.
Tuesday: 6 miles rail trail, feel MUCH better
Wednesday:  3 miles, circuit, 2 miles with speed play; stomach still not quite right, but log 5 miles

Thursday 7 slow miles with Griffin on the Ashuelot Railtrail.  Loud river and lots of little cascading creeks after yesterdays rain! 
Friday: 6 miles railtrail- slow and sore 
Saturday: 5K in Concord; 22:43/7:19 pace (new PR); log 8 miles
Sunday: 6 miles solo on Railtrail.  Nice morning, but kinda lonely!
Miles so far: 38
Previous week: 11

I know, I know, why not go 2 more miles and get the 40?!  Just too much to do today, including getting to the store to get food for the boys as they return from a run in Pisgah!  I felt good about the week, so I'm not worried about it.  Saturday I went with Greg and Boj to Concord for the Jungle Bell 5K run for Arthritis.  Friday night I almost backed out since my run that day was so bad and my hamstring was hurting, but I bit my lip and decided to see how I felt in the morning.  Obviously, I felt OK and decided I needed the workout anyway.  We left pretty early for a race that started at 9am...no wait...10am.  It was nice to get there early and use the facilities as many times as we wanted to!  It was a crisp, kinda windy morning, but the big news was that the course had been changed from the notoriously flat 5K.  On the warm-up I went out a mile and came back- flat, but when the boys got back from running the course I heard that mile 2 was in fact a bit hilly.  Oh well, I wasn't too worried I felt good on my warm-up and kept it to myself so as not to jinx it!  As the race started there were a couple turns and I could see Greg way out in front from the get go.  I didn't wear my watch but I felt like I was probably running what I did in Corning- if not faster.  Mile 2 was in fact a bit hilly...and windy, but I felt good and passed a few people and recovered well on the downhill.  I got to mile 3 which was flat, but windy.  I started to feel like I must have a PR coming and when I turned the corner for the finish I saw it was a bit closer than I thought! I almost wish I had my splits, but it was probably best I didn't wear my watch and wil do that again- it's pretty obvious I have no kick at the end- I don't need a watch to tell me that!  I ended up at 22:43 (7:19 pace).  A 6 second PR is PR nonetheless and on that course I can't complain- 3rd in my age group.  Best of all I felt strong and know what I need to work on to be faster.  My cool down was another out and back to mile 1 or so and by 11am I could log 8 miles.  Good day.

This week, a couple more strength days and keep chasing miles.  It's a process, and I love it!

3 comments:

  1. Congrats on the PR!! Good to see you guys are apparently using the Bentley method of arriving at races 5 hours early, just in case! ;)

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  2. Hey Jen, congrats on the PR. If you are ever looking for a group to run with on Sundays, we meet at Brewbakers at 9:00 for an easy 6-10 miles. Good luck with the miles. 40? A good round number.

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