race |

Monday: Rest

Tuesday: 5.2m easy 9:21/pace

If you follow me on Instagram you already know the outcome of Sunday’s 1st attempt at a sub 20:00 5k!

There’s not a whole lot to say about the race (cause 5ks are a whirlwind) except it felt as good as a 5k can feel. It was hard, yet bearable. I held back the first mile, pushed through the 2nd and gave everything I had in the 3rd and still managed to kick the last 400m. I paced myself as best I could for the given day. We had a ton of that mean wind again (10mph, 28mph gusts), and the course was nothing but rolling hills except for the start & finish which was on a high school track.

That picture was of the last few hundred feet and me squinting to read the clock. I finished in 20:51, 3rd overall female and 1st in my age group.

A few things I did differently during the race than my previous 5ks: I warmed up for 20 minutes. I made sure I was pushing during the entire race. If I felt like I was taking a breather or my foot was on the ground too long, I just picked up the pace! Kept saying to myself, “Forward, move forward” or “pick up your feet, keep moving.” One thing that really got my motivation sparked was this saying I found on Instagram the night before:

I literally repeated “You can stop when your done” out loud and to myself when I felt like I wanted to quit. Which suprisingly didn’t come around often. These mantras & positive thinking tools were actually on my side this time, which makes me even more excited for running longer distances. Plus, I was on a mission. There wasn’t time to waste! Instead of going into this race expecting the worst, I wanted only positive thoughts and planned for the best outcome with the reality that the best outcome was going to hurt and be uncomfortable.

Now I know you might think, I’m usually upset with myself after a race I didn’t hit goal on. Usually you’d see the Mackayla Maroney meme of her not “impressed” face, but honestly, i knew going into this race i’d run between a 20:30-20:55. I’d never understood how elite runners and coaches can predict race times so closely but I totally get it now. And in another 4-8 weeks I’ll shoot for a sub 20 5k because i know how many more weeks it will take to drop time, based on the previous training log.

Based on all previous training logs a very awesome meal & adult drinks are part of the recovery. First this lady & her man met me at McCormick & Schmidt’s Grill.

Emmeline & Joe!

Breakfast included us all splitting donuts & berries:

I ordered eggs benedict & also got some sort of chicken with eggs thing. I can’t remember, I was so tired and brain dead at this point.

Last Week

Monday: 15min Rope Pull Machine

Tuesday: 6m interval 10 x 200s (5 @ 5:33/pace, 5 @ 5:30, 2 @ 5:27), 100 TRX Chest Press + 100 TRX Chest Flys

Wednesday: 3000m row, 20 min TRX Rip Trainer

Thursday: 6m + 5 strides easy 8:40/pace

Friday: 3.1 easy 7:57/pace, 20 min shoulders

Saturday: Rest

Sunday: Run for Haiti 5k 6:44/pace + 1m warm up

Total Miles: 19.2

Best tips for a 5k?

Mantras to stay positive??

Sunday’s 1/2 marathon splits (7:54/pace): 7:49, 7:54, 7:58, 7:49, 8:01, 7:40, 7:40, 7:45, 7:57, 7:24, 7:36, 7:45, 7:59

1:43:25 Overall place 2065 out of all 18,074 runners. Division 25-29 female age group 176 out of 2406

This was a race full of firsts. This was my first time traveling for a race, staying in a hotel and eating at a restaurant for my pre-race meal. All of which I was scared of. All of which turned out really fun and totally in my favor. For the first time I actually slept a full 8 hours before my race. Woke up and had peanut butter on half a bagel, a banana, a water with grape Nuun and a Starbucks coffee. I got to eat and take care of business in the comfy hotel room. I ended up leaving the hotel at 7:25 for the 8:00am start. I did a proper warm up run to the corrals, and did some dynamic stretching.

The first 4 miles of the race were through the city streets and it was gorgeous. I felt good, really good. Like, kept looking at my Garmin tick off sub-8 miles in disbelief and tried to slow myself down. When I hit my 5th mile at an 8:01 pace, I thought what the hell, let’s run fast today! So I took my Jet Blackberry 2x caffeinated GU and sped up for the remainder of the run along the river.

downtown heading toward Kelly Drive

My legs were hanging in there, my arms were relaxed, head was up and form was good. I focused on my effort to keep pace, more so than my watch. I only checked the Garmin at mile splits. The race finally got hard 8.5 miles in. I panicked and thought I went out too fast, my sub 8s were too good to be true, questioned the last time I ran over 10 miles?? This was the time of the race when my head decided to tell me it was tired. My body wasn’t though, so I shut up my brain and pushed on.

Taking my 2nd GU, Mandarin Orange w/caffeine at Mile 8.7

The last 3 miles were torture, the hardest of any race i’ve done by far. The sun was hot, my legs were getting heavy and my breathing wasn’t calm anymore. I kept telling myself the last 5k is supposed to be difficult. This is where it matters, one foot in front of the other, take shorter quicker steps and pump your arms. I kept moving, my times slowed slightly, but i wasn’t letting it get me down. I wanted to push until my body quit. Luckily I only had to stop once in the final mile to catch my breath and shake out my legs. I finished with a PR, almost 4 minutes off my last time from 6 months ago and ran a great race.

done. and getting blinded by the sun.

This wasn’t my ‘A’ goal. I wanted 1:40 so bad, but with my training it was a stretch. I haven’t hit numbers like that to even come close to that time, which is why I’m not upset about it. Coming off of an injury and an abbreviated training cycle (only 8 weeks), I’m really excited about my next races to see what I can really do with a healthy body and full training plan completed. Sidenote–can a girl get a sponsorship from a beer company? or Starbucks?

free beer!

The real fun was after the race when we had a celebratory brunch at Marathon. Seriously. We stumbled upon this gem and I couldn’t believe the name or that it sits kitty-corner to Philadelphia Runner store.

Marathon Grill

Delicious. Everything was grass-fed, organic and yummy. $5 drink specials on mimosas and bloody mary’s, and you bet we took advantage. I got eggs benedict & Cameron got the Philly Cheesesteak.

New blogger alert…I guess I’m supposed to take the pictures before we eat.. haha

My favorite way to explore a city is by running it. And maybe I’m on a big high from my PR, either way, I liked the city and would definitely recommend this race to everyone. It was flat, fast and very pretty. I will be back for sure.

I have nothing on the roster as far as races go and this week is a relaxing zero running week. Okay, not relaxing, I’m sore and already missing my morning runs. 😦