Monday, July 4, 2011

Peachtree Road Race

My only goal for today was to run the first three miles and then try to run more than I walked of the rest of it.  I'm pretty sure I managed that. I got to the race and into my starting corral about 5-10 minutes before my starting wave.  I blame the train delay and the fact that we jammed up getting off the train due to poor logistics.  Also it was a 1 mile walk from the station to my starting point.  Still I managed to get there with a little time to stretch before the start.
My corral was based on my time in December, which I can't do right now, so I intentionally lined up near the back of the pack since I didn't want to get in anyone's way.  Though I was keeping my pace slow to make sure I had enough fuel in the tank, I ended up passing half a dozen people before I even got to the starting line.  I kept it slow and steady through the press of people.  I didn't want a repeat of what happened at my last 5k when I turned my ankle dodging people at the beginning.  The first mile or so went off fine.  Dumped water down my back, drank a little, ran through the sprinkler, all in all a good run.
Mile 3 the course started going uphill.  I ran some of it, but I then saw my first passed out runner so it seemed like a good idea to walk the hill.  I made the biggest mistake of the race near this point and let myself get soaked in a sprayer.  My shoes and pants got very wet, which got uncomfortable fast.  The biggest part of the pants getting wet is they kept sliding down.  Finally got them tied well enough to keep them from falling off.  I think the wet socks attributed to my left ankle and right foot hurting.
Top of the hill meant running again.  I got moving and ran to the next hill.  Walked that and started running again.  Since my foot and ankle were still hurting, I tried to balance my running and walking because I knew I wanted to be able to push through the last half mile and finish running.  I kept moving and passed as many people as I could, walking when I had to.  When I could see the sign marking the end of mile 6, I ran as fast as I could manage for the last what I assume was .4 miles.
In all it was a pretty good run.  Not as fast as I hoped, but I got through the whole thing and wasn't one of the 6 people collapsed on the side of the road.  Time to start training for the 15k in 10 weeks.

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

A new PR?

If you can call it that.  My slowest 5k on record, hooray...  Only by a few minutes and had 1k of walking so I was probably doing pretty well overall.  I think the hill at the beginning of my run killed me.  And that was more mental than anything.  Long and short of it, the run makes me think I can hold on to my E Corral number for the Peachtree and at least get close to the time standard for the group.  I'm only off by 5 or 6 minutes and that's without the adrenaline of an actual race.  Plus the first 3 miles are downhill, so I might be able to roller coaster up Cardiac Hill and finish on the run.  More likely I'll just walk that half mile to a mile and try to run the rest.  Problem with that is that I've discovered once I start walking, I tend to want to walk again soon thereafter.  I really hope I can just push through the hill and run the whole thing, but I don't foresee that being an option.

Monday, June 27, 2011

It's been awhile

I'm finally exercising regularly again.  In fact, thanks to a 100 Day Challenge, I'm on 7 straight days of exercise, including 5.6 miles yesterday.  I haven't run a full 5k since I got going again a couple weeks back, but I'm getting closer.  I actually plan to do a full 3 tomorrow, though since I'm trying to do a route that has a pretty significant incline in the first mile, I may allow myself to do intervals.  Problem with either option is the 10K on July 4.  If I put off the 5k, then I'm not going to be able to do it later in the week without risking too much stress on the body before that long of a run.  If I do it and put too much stress on the body, then I may slack the rest of the week and not be ready next Monday and I'd screw up my 100 day.

Either way, being back in the saddle is nice.  I'm even planning to ride my bike on Wednesday, which I haven't done in years.

Saturday, April 30, 2011

First 5k in 4 months

And some idiot cuts in front of me and stops right near the beginning.  I dodge, land funny, and turn my ankle under.  Of course, I keep running.  Ankle loosened up as I ran.  Managed to run for just short of 2 miles before I decided to walk a bit.  According to Gmap-Pedometer, I walked about 1k to let my back recover a bit.  Ran again but had a sudden stitch in my side.  Walked a minute to breathe that out then decided that come Hell or high water, I was finishing at the run.  I even managed to pass a few people in the last bit.  Official time was 33:56.  I think that if I'd kept running, I might have broken 30, but I'm not sure that I was going fast enough to do that or that I could have run that far.  I know now that I was making about a 10 minute mile pace when I started walking at 18 minutes or so.

In general, I'm really happy with my performance.  I've only run 5 or 6 times, counting today, since I started back up.  Hopefully this ankle injury won't knock me out for too long since I have to get ready for the Peachtree.

Monday, April 18, 2011

After 4 months of no running

I did a day of Week 3 of the Couch to 5k.  Started out too hard on the first run considering I was 4 months out of shape.  Luckily, I realized it and slowed it down a bit.  Noticed my feet slipping in my shoes a bit and the old foot pain from December cropped up randomly.  It all stopped when I took a few minutes to tighten my shoes. 

A mile or so in, my back started hurting just like it did when I first started running.  I had stretched before I ran, but apparently not enough.  I'll have to do better next time.  Luckily, the pain was gone by the time I drove home.  Hopefully it will be like last time and after a few runs, my body will get used to it.

Biggest concern right now is that I have a 5k in 12 days and I'm pretty sure I won't be in any condition to run the whole thing.  Hopefully, I'll be able to get myself to the point I can run 2 miles, walk a little, and finish running.  I'll know more on Wednesday when I have my group run/training.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Still out of commission

Since I'm still hacking up Slimer from the Ghostbusters, I've been holding off on everything.  I shouldn't let it stop me from doing strength and stretching exercises, but it's so hard to get moving in the morning when all you do is cough until the medicine finally kicks in. 
Unfortunately, I haven't been paying attention to my diet recently and I'm sure it's way out of control.  I need to start tracking my food again.

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Slack-tacular

The ice has finally disappeared.  I'm not sure if my foot is better yet because I wasn't going to run on ice.  Of course, I also have a major cold that has gotten into my lungs so not one I can run through. 

If I get through three miles on Tuesday, then I'll keep following the Hal Higdon Half Marathon training plan.  If it's the foot, then I'll hit the bike.  If it's the legs being too out of shape, then I'll backtrack into C25K.

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Yup, still a slacker

Have not run in weeks.  I had everything set up to run today, but a screaming baby kept me up half the night and that 5:15 alarm was just too early.  Tomorrow, I run.  I don't care if I don't get any sleep tonight, I'm going to get back into the habit.  I'm going to pick a 10k by the end of the week so that I have a goal again.  I'm leaning toward one that's about an hour north on a college campus.  It's the only one I can find that's relatively close and in the time frame I want.  There's also a 5K significantly closer to home pitting the Cherokee County Sheriff's department against the Fire Department to see who can raise more for charity.  That one could be fun.