Ugh. So first of all I decided to do the 5k instead of the 8k because everybody I was with was doing the 5k and I didn't want to wait the extra 1.5 hours for the 8k when I have a med school exam to be studying for. I guess everyone has bad days, and worse days, and some even worse, and then one day you die. This I will just file away as one of my worst races ever. I don't have much of a reason for running so slowly. I went out in 5:22 and didn't feel all that bad. Then mile 2 was 6:08???!? That has to be like 10 mile race pace for me. I don't know what happened. Could the course have been long? And the third mile was only slightly faster and I really had nothing to kick it in with. I could list a thousand excuses, but I honestly don't know what went wrong in such a big way as to make me run nearly 30 seconds slower than what I did last week on a hilly course only 6 days after my marathon. I am gonna ask jamie what I should do. He has much more experience than I do with this stuff. I might take 2 or even 3 weeks off and cross train with swimming/cycling/elliptical. Last december I spent 3-4 weeks at around 25-35 miles per week because I just didn't ever feel like getting out the door for runs. Then in the spring I ran huge PR's. But I don't know if that is why. After my break, I did a spinning class, kept my mileage at anywhere from 50-65 miles per week and did workouts every week. If any of you have had similar experiences or advice please tell me. I am currently thinking I won't run the downhill mile next weekend because if I don't break 5 I will be absolutely crushed. And right now I don't have much speed or confidence. | 