TexasLindsey

My plan this morning was to run 6, but both my kids woke up at 5:45 am.  I was not defeated.  I made breakfast for everyone, I fed the baby and I changed two diapers... all in record time.  I put everyone in front of their favorite show to eat and I was out running by 6:30. 

My garmin wouldn't turn on.  Still not defeated... though this really discourages me.  I took a stopwatch instead and did my 4 mile route in 36:30 minutes.  I guess about 9 min pace. Easy~ish except on the hills, I charge the hills. 

I'm running a 5k on Thursday.  I really want to do 7:20 pace or better... so 22:45 or under.  Prior to this my PR is 23:45 but that was hot weather in September and I didn't get much sleep prior.  I've gotten much faster since then too.  

I haven't run alot of 5k's...  I don't know of any strategies -if there is such a thing in this short of a race.  I'm thinking I'll maintain a 7:20 pace until the turn around and then I'll crank up the music and start getting faster and when I only have a mile left I will do as close to a dead sprint as I can muster. 

I think before Thursday I need to go to the track to do a few 7:20 pace 400's to practice.  Also some faster than that.  

6.5 miles at 6:15 am.  I'm trying to prepare for the 5K on Thursday.  I figure tomorrow I need to rest or run easy so today was my last day to work on speed.

First 6 miles - there are 9 hills on this route (some short and steep, some long and gradual) and I tried to run them all 8:15 or better.

mile 1- 9:45

mile 2- 9:08

mile 3- 8:30

mile 4- 8:20

mile 5- 8:36

mile 6- 8:23

Then I just did some speed stuff ....   First I ran .35 miles at 7:30 pace. 

When I got to my street, I pushed the "lap" button on my garmin and I sprinted from the stop sign to my house, which is about the length of a football field... then I jogged back and did it again... and then again. 

Sprint 1 390 feet at 6:00 pace

Sprint 2 390 feet at 5:27 pace

Sprint 3 390 feet at 5:24 pace

-Note: Around mile 5, my left knee cap started bugging me.  When I started sprinting, I didn't notice it anymore. 

I was the overall female winner at the 5k this morning!!  I got a big turkey trophy.  My three year old is very impressed.  Ha, ha! 

Splits

First few seconds of race - I had trouble pressing start with my garmin for the first few seconds of the race because of my gloves...  I was going REALLY fast. 

mile 1 - 6:45

mile 2- 7:13

mile 3- 7:08

Final race clock time 21:15

I was going to be happy if I did a 7:20 pace average... deep down I thought I could do better... but I was surprised that I did THIS well.   I never even looked at my watch the whole race.  I just ran by how I felt.   

Either the race was slightly short of 3.1 miles or my Garmin's distance was off. 

I recorded exactly 3 miles on my watch.  I was delayed pressing start on the timer at the beginning of the race, however, I doubt I covered the remaining .1 mile during that time... I think I only missed 15 seconds.  If this is the case, I was running an average 7 min pace and I probably would have finished in 21:45 if the course was a full 3.1 miles.

The other possibility is that my Garmin's distance calculation was off and the race was the full 3.1 miles.  Sometimes maymyrun.com is different from what my Garmin says.   If the race clock and distance were accurate, I did 6:51 per mile. 

What should I go by in this situation?   The race clock or my garmin?

It was pretty miserable weather today.  A cold front came in and dropped the temps to 40's or 50's.  It was windy about 18 mph.  There was a slight rain.  The second half of the race was against the wind.

I was thinking I could have probably gone faster if my leg muscles were stronger.  Towards the end of the race, I was trying to get my legs to pump faster but my quads felt like they just couldn't move any faster... Aerobically, I felt fine... but my quads felt like they were out of energy.  I usually have a bigger kick at the end of a race than this.  It reminded me of what my legs used to feel like during the last set of lifting weights..  I bet I could get faster if I strengthened my muscles.  I need to add some weight/strength training.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!   Time to go pig out! 

8.4 miles at 8:30 am. 

Splits (9:09, 9:06, 8:47, 9:06, 9:10, 9:01, 8:29, 8:15, 8:07 pace for last .4)

Visiting the in-laws this weekend so I'm running in the piney woods of Conroe, Tx this morning.  It's so beautiful.  Different landscape than the Praire-like Fort Worth.  I've always enjoyed it here but never so much as I do now that I run when I'm here. 

Tomorrow morning I'm running 12 miles with The Woodlands Running Club.  I'm going to jump in the 8 minute pace group that I ran with last time.  It was challenging last time... there were lots of hills.  Thre are about 7-8 people that run the 8 minute pace... which is alot more than I'm used to running with so I think it's fun.