WEEK 13: 38 miles and Fast Friends Race

Monday: My Birthday.  20 min bike and hip/core strength
Tuesday: Lift + elliptical 25 minutes
Wednesday: Pisgah with my favorite wolf, Lily -Nash- South Woods; LOG 10
Thursday: 0
Friday: Keene rail trail with Tat, legs still sore from lift; Log 7
Saturday: Fast Friends 4.5 mile race; 34:37/7:42 pace; LOG 7
Sunday: Surry Damn + wheelock at Goal Marathon pace; 1:57:30; Log 14

I was still pretty happy with my 18-mile effort on Sunday and really wanted to recover.  Took Monday and Tuesday easy.  Unfortunately I over did it with the lift on Tuesday and my legs were terribly sore for the rest of the week.  Running Wed and Friday was torture and uncomfortable because of it and I didn't have much faith that I'd feel good Saturday.  Luckily I was wrong.  I felt pretty good Saturday morning.

We headed out to the race that's in it's third year but I had never run.  The first year I was injured (achilles bursitis). But went anyway to "volunteer" (to be honest I wanted to see if I could get the chance at talking to a certain cute runner-boy - I did a little bit :) (blushing)).  The second year I had "the flu" after 4 martinis bought by the before mentioned runner-boy for my birthday.  So this year I was gonna run!  I did some foam roller and magic stick and my legs miraculously felt better.  I wore my new addidas tempo- which I wasn't liking walking around but liked immediately upon picking up the pace!  It was a chilly morning, but perfect for running.  Lots of cute dogs around too.  We started and my plan was to stay comfortable and not go out too fast.
Mile 1: It's a deceptive incline to the bottom of ash hill.  7:38.  perfect, not too fast and maybe I can pick it up later. 
Mile 2: Not so decpetive giant hill.  Although not as bad as a thought as I hadn't been on this road in a long time.  I tried to stay comfortable and not completely breakdown.  I didn't get passed and felt ok.  I came over the top and hit the downhill hard- love that!  I passed a person or two on this section, trying to take advantage of catching my breath.  7:52.  I'll take that- it's a big hill.
Mile 3: Rolling hills, passed another person.  7:46 (I think, I didn't write down 4 mile splits so doing math I came up with the last one but not sure which mile it is)
Mile 4: More rolling hills on a lonely stretch of road.  I couldn't hear anyone behind me but started to get the feeling someone was coming.  Wanted to ask the people on the course how close the next person was, but didn't and didn't look back either.  Best I don't know.  Still stayed comfortable but was working somewhat hard.  7:43?
Last .5: I had been waiting to see this stretch of road.  Came around the last little set of turns to see Eric Macnight (winner) -he says a couple encouraging things and then a few seconds later he's yelling for his girlfriend (Kimber) and telling her "Jens' right here"...Oh man!  That made my knees weak and put a rumble in my tummy- I don't have the stomach for competition!  I just wanted to roll in comfortably, I figured I was top 5!  I wasn't sure how much of a gap I had but I decided to try to up the tempo a bit.  I came around into the parking lot- had to avoid a car- and felt I was going to get to the finish before Kimber caught me.  I did - Whew.  3:38 (7:20 pace).  Overall: 34:37 for 7:42 pace; 3rd female overall and 1st MASTER female!

Good fun.  My legs felt good.  I did a short cooldown and had to take off to work, so I didn't even get to enjoy it much!  Kind of a bummer, but it gets worse...so the write up in the sunday paper...I'm not even mentioned in the list of local participants let alone that I won my age group and was third overall (granted the first two had quite a large gap on me).  Would've been nice to be mentioned with my new last name and god knows winning my age group may never happen again!  So I was pretty bummed about that.  It gets weirder.  So I go to look at all the pictures- I'm still looking for a good running picture of me so I don't have to use wedding photos on my blog- welp you guessed it...none of Jen Hammett.  It'd be somewhat comical if I wasn't doubting my own existance!  Oh well.  I went to work and then headed to Andy and Tat's for a fun gathering with lots of food and friends.  I know I was there!

Sunday.  I decided to do a longish run since my legs were feeling so good.  I parked at the hospital for my trek to Surry damn, come back through so I can refuel at my car and go out Wheelock Park to a 6 mile loop.  I was tired but  felt good about being able to maintain a good run.  Started out at 8:45 pace and slowly but surely worked my way down to a final 6 miles at 8:20 pace.  Overall 14 miles in 1:57:30 - 8:30 pace.  I'm again encouraged and looking forward to the 21 miler I have planned for Friday.  It's supposed to be a little warmer- which will be a good test- and Tat has agreed to once again join me for the final 6 mile loop- that is such a huge help. 

This week, welp I've blogged away my only time to get on the bike today- oops.  But I'm surprisingly not sore and my legs feel good.  So I guess I didn't over do it.  Got some trails and spin classes planed, but the focus is on Friday's long run.  I'm excited!  It's a process and I love it!