10K Race Results

The weather for the 10K on Turkey Day ended up being 100% perfect. It was about 40 degrees and dry! It stopped raining about 20 min before the race started, perfect timing. It was a very popular race, tons of people and it resulted in my first mile being about 9:00, slower than I wanted. I ended up picking up the pace to make up for it and that resulted in a 52:44 official time. I couldn't believe it, I averaged an 8:30 pace for the race. That is so awesome! 15 seconds faster than my goal pace! I was walking on cloud 9 after the race, it was a great day and nothing brought be down from the victory of my time. My confidence is really increasing and I'm starting to believe I just might manage a 4 hour marathon next year. Running really has become a passion for me and I'm so grateful for that. Happy Thanksgiving!

Final Training Run

I finished out my last training run for my Turkey Trot 10K race this morning. It was a chilly/windy day and I struggled to keep an accurate pace on my 400M repeats. However, I managed to get the run completed before the winds really picked up, I can hear the how nasty it must be outside right now. Trees are blowing, branches scratching the side of the house, and barely a ray of sunshine coming out... not nearly enough to warm anything with that wind. I believe the weather channel said it was about 42 degrees but with the wind it felt like 35. That I believed! For the first time my fingers were actually cold inside my running gloves for the first 10 min of the run. Eventually I warmed up once my heart rate increased from the first repeat, but the wind kept pushing me. It was nice when I turned around and it was pushing me from behind and I was going downhill, felt like I was flying! But then when I rounded the corner it was a huge blast in the face/chest and thought I hit a wall. I still managed to keep my pace below my goal, but it was rather annoying to deal with the wind. So far the weather is calling for a wintry mix for race day, doesn't that sound like fun.

Weekly Improvements?

Last week I ran my 2 x 2 and really struggled to maintain an 8:45 pace through that run. Yesterday I was scheduled for 2 x 3 with the same goal pace. I nailed it, it was easier than last week, I even went a little faster and 2 additional miles. Holy crap, really?!?!? I was shocked, didn't really believe it at first. Here I am moving along quite well into mile 3 of the first set and I'm surprised to notice that my heart rate is down and I feel strong. I do my 5 min recovery... stop to pick a rock out of my shoe... and then I'm back moving again for the second set of 3 miles. I knock it out with a faster pace than the first three and practically a lower heart rate. I felt GREAT! All the crappy runs I've had this year, they are completely forgotten when I go out and have an awesome run like this. I am so excited about my 10k next week and I have complete faith that I will hit my 8:45 goal pace, and maybe even a tad bit faster!

Country Road Run

This morning I went out for the first time on a country road to complete an 8 mile run. I was at a friends house for the night and got up first thing in the morning. The sun was just coming up and I enjoyed a great run down several dirt roads. It was quiet, light traffic and very refreshing. Such a great change of pace from the city neighborhoods. I would love to do more of those runs, I wish I had more places like that around me. I will need to investigate some new areas to run in order to keep things interesting and fun!

800M Repeats

Another tough workout! My goal was to maintain an 8:00 min pace for all 8 repeats, I came pretty close to it. I did run into some shoulder cramping again, but I think the issue is directly connected to breathing, so if I can just get control of my breathing when I'm over-exerting myself I might be able to keep that pain in check. We'll see how things progress. I was planning to do a little swim this afternoon, but I'm feeling pretty exhausted already today so I might just skip the swim and try it another day. Yesterday I did a bike/run brick, went to 40 min of spin and then charged on the treadmill for 20 min. It was a great workout and likely contributing to my feeling tired and a bit lazy to go for a swim.

2 x 2 Tempo Run

Wow, today was a tough workout. I went out with a goal of maintaining 8:45 for each set of 2 miles, this is the first time in a while I actually stayed with the pace I set and did not exceed my expectations. That tells me that I finally pushed myself hard enough in a training run, and I'm actually pretty proud of myself. It was a hard workout, but it felt great after it was over. Also, the weather today was very nice, about 57 degrees, 10 degrees warmer than the last time I ran!

Play it safe or push yourself?

Earlier today I went out for a 5 mile tempo run. My goal was to run it at a 9:10 pace and over the course of the 5 miles I ended up averaging 9:02. I realized during the run that each time I set out with a goal in mind, it's usually a relatively safe goal that I would tend to always meet and even exceed. Case in point today, my first mile was 9:08, then each one after was just a little faster, ending the last two miles below 9. How did it feel? Well, it felt pretty good, not seriously hard and not seriously easy. Two weeks ago I ran my last tempo run with a goal of 9:20 and I ended up averaging 9:15. I tend to do this a lot, I pad my running goals to allow myself the opportunity to exceed my expectations. I'm not sure if this is the best approach, and I didn't even realize I was doing it until today, but I'm pretty convinced that this is my tendency. I also noticed this yesterday while climbing at the gym. I tend to pick easier climbs I know I won't have any trouble with, or I'll go in the opposite extreme and get on something I know I can't climb, so there is no pressure to succeed. With me finally realizing what I do to ensure I succeed, I'm not sure how I want to handle it. I definitely think that I'm doing really well with the running the way I manage my goals, but sometimes I wonder if I could have excelled even more had I pushed myself further. With climbing though, I think that I'm holding myself back from excelling because of this fear of failure. I try to embrace the fear of failure to some degree, because it was the fear of not being able to run a half marathon that pushed me to lose 70lbs. I wouldn't never have gotten here had it not been for that fear. I can see positives with it, but there are some things where this fear holds me back. Definitely something I need to continue to watch and think about for the future.