Slow week, but good race

Sorry. I am already a terrible poster on this blog. So it goes. Here is the rundown for last week:

Monday: 0 miles. Plenty of excuses. But mostly, I still just felt exhausted and messed up from travelling that previous weekend. Oh well.

Tuesday: 5 miles on the treadmill, just barely under 8 min pace.

Wednesday: 7 miles outside. Didn't feel good at all. In fact, I stopped and took a break after all but one of those miles. It was the only way I could keep myself from just going home or walking. Depressing day.

Thursday: 6 miles on the treadmill. Still sluggish, but done.

Friday: 6 miles on the treadmill, but finally forced myself to try and pick things up a little. Sped up gradually, with the last mile being under 7:30 pace. Didn't feel amazing, but still felt better just making myself push it a little more than I have been.

Then Friday evening, we went to dinner, and stopped to say hi at the running store on the way. A few minutes later, we left the store with a comp entry to a little 5k just a few minutes from our house the next morning. I wasn't excited about the prospect of running a race after the slow 2 weeks I've had, but I was hopeful that maybe the racing adrenaline and such would get me out of the little funk I've been in.

Saturday: 5+ miles total. 1 mile warm up, then the 5k, then a mile cool down. The race definitely helped do the trick for me. It was a tough course, out-and-back with the first half being almost all downhill and the second half being almost all uphill. Not fun for the mind or the body. And I took the first half pretty fast, like faster than 7 minute pace... just praying I would crash and burn when I turned around to climb back up. Of course, I did slow down in the second half, and my breathing sounded TERRIBLE, but I kept pushing. I was even complimented later by a nice, older gentleman who runs pretty much every race in this area. He said, "great job pushing to the finish... you sounded like you were hurting. And nice job on the tangents!" Yes, sir I was hurting, and yes, I took every tangent to the max... it's the only way I was able to reel in the girl in front of me and take 3rd overall for the females. Always take the tangents. She didn't, and that's how I got her.

Anyway, I ended up tying my 5k PR at 22:20. A little sad that I was in such a survival mode that I didn't look at the clock soon enough to see that I could have gotten a new PR, but at least I proved that I can still do it... even feeling like a sick pregnant lady. Good mental boost. And a good end to the week.

Week: 29 miles... I know, missed my 30 mark, but there just wasn't time to fit any more miles in on Saturday... to much going on with the family and such. It's all good.