I woke up this morning at 4 am, and went out for a shakeout run. It was much needed, because I pretty much hobbled through the whole two miles. Then, I came home and stretched and massaged out my quad and achilles. They were both very sore this morning.
I warmed up three miles on the trail, and it still took a while to get going. I feel so old some days. I am still feeling the effects of Wednesday and Thursday's workouts. Especially those darn hill repeats! So, I wasn't sure what the race would bring, but I was determined to go for that sub-18.
I went out the first mile in 5:38, and honestly didn't feel that great. Susannah was in the race, but I knew that she hadn't done full training the last few weeks, so I wasn't sure if she would be able to hold with me. Apparently my training week was a great equalizer, because she came right with me. The second mile is slightly downhill, so I tried to play to my strengths and make a big push through this mile and put some distance on Susannah. I went through the second mile in 5:31. My plan worked, but then my legs started to feel the burn. The third mile is slight uphill, with a bigger climb with about a half mile left, but then the last 400 is downhill to the finish. I was trying to keep close to Taylor, who is my running partner during most practices. I looked back (I know you're not supposed to do that!) and Susannah was charging hard. She ran a great third mile. I was just trying to hold on. Trying to chase Taylor down kept me ahead. Taylor and I crossed the finish line together, but he got the win. His time was 18:02. Somehow they missed my time, and I wasn't even in the results . . .so the 18:01 was a made up time by the race officials. So, I really ran18:02-18-03. Darn. I missed my goal by 2 seconds. Why is sub-18 so elusive?
I cooled down with Andrea, Jake, Bill, and whoever else happened to be on the trail. We ran 2 miles out and turned around. Then, I went to the awards ceremony, which was, shall we say . . .eventful and dramatic.
I'm pretty happy with my race for a couple of reasons. I did want to be faster, but Thursday killed me! I'm happy Susannah was so close, because I really had to race in the last mile. This element has been missing from the last couple of races. I had to keep running hard when my legs were killing me. Races like this will help me push through to the next level. It' s also good to get used to racing off of a heavy training week. The rest of the summer will go like this, so I need to stick it out. And, I'm really happy my achilles and quad felt good.
PM: I got obsessive compulsive and wanted to even out my mileage, so I went to the health club. I planned on 3.4 miles on the treadmill followed by boot camp. I only managed to get in two before bootcamp started, but I'm claiming the rest of the mileage. Any class that starts with windsprints is going to be harder than 1.4 more miles. I don't know what was harder, all the jumps, the stairs, or the one-legged burnouts on the cycles. Actually, the most difficult part was when we did relays, and he had us do cartwheels. I don't think I've attempted a cartwheel since I was about 8. I'm a runner, dang it! It was a fun class. There were no men in the class (except the instructor) but these women were all hardcore athletes. No dancy-dance girls in this class. Plus, I learned new, fun ways to torture the East High kids on bootcamp day! MWAHAHAHAHA!!!!!! (evil laugh!) | 