Great run and a PR

Today’s race was excellent!  My day didn’t start off so great though.  I woke up with a bit of malaise  and wasn’t too sure how the race was going to go.  We left the house at 7, were there before 7:15, and sat in the car for awhile drinking my green tea. 

About 7:30 we got out, had a bathroom break then headed towards the festivities.  There was a pre-race warm up lead by one of “Baltimore’s Best”.  No I did not participate, nor did the majority of the nearly 800 race participants, you see, she did Zumba for about 15 minutes.  There were only about 25 people that did, and it was quite funny watching some of these people do it.  Shortly after the race began.

My main gripe about this race is it was extremely crowded at the start.  They had us all lined up in one lane of a two lane road and didn’t open it up immediately, therefore, the start was congested and everyone started slow.  Once we got out, it got better.  The race was familiar, I’d just run the course on Thursday actually.  This morning I chose to change up my strategy and went with 4/1 run/walk from the beginning. My intention was to skip the last one, but I’ll get to that later. The first mile went great.  I ran it in 10:24 and that was with two minutes of walking, so my pace was pretty quick.  The second mile was a bit tougher, but I was pushing myself, and completed it in 10:35, again with 2 walking breaks.  The last 1.1 miles was tough, there was a pretty steady up hill for most of it, and unfortunately, my walking fell on the downhill part.  As mentioned above, I was going to skip my last walk, but I came in sooner than anticipated and I didn’t get the chance.  I should have skipped the previous one, oh well!  The last quarter of a mile I took off.  I ended up sprinting and passing a bunch of runners at the end.  It was a great feeling, reminded me of my cross country days (I always had a strong sprint at the end). 

After finishing, I met up with Jen  and Connor, and we grabbed some food. there were a bunch of places catering so we had a good breakfast after the race.  We then sat around hoping for a door prize (I doubt I’ll ever win one of those), and the race results.

Now we’re home and ready for a nap.

Now for the digits:

Mile 1 = 10:24

Mile 2 = 10:35

Mile 3.1 = 11:31

Total = 32:31 (PR of over 30 seconds!)

The official time was 32:32, but I didn’t cross the starting line right away so I’m going off my watch. 

 

Tomorrow’s race Goals

Tomorrow I have the Pikesville 5K.  I’m pretty excited  excited about this race.  Not because it’s so glamorous, but because I’m confident I’ll PR.  Not to mention it’s a course I’m familiar with, only 5 minutes from the house, and I’ll actually know people running it.  I’ve been giving it a lot of thought regarding my goals so here they are:

 

1.  Finish the race.  This should be no problem.

2.  Run the course as a 3/1 run walk without any additional breaks.  Again, this should be no problem

3.  PR the race.  I’m pretty confident I can do this, I need to break 33:06.  That’s slightly over an 11 min/mile.  Most of my long runs were averaging under 11 min/mile.

4.  Break 31:00.  This is my pie in the sky goal.  It’s where I’m striving to get to in running. To be below the 10 min/mile mark. 

 

Strategy:  Given that my last two 5K’s I ended up tanking the last legs, I need to start off slow and steady.  The last few weeks, all of my runs have been run/walks, and I plan to start off that way, but I’m not intending to finish it out as a run/walk.  I’m choosing 3/1 as my starting point, and after I hit the first mile, I’ll probably adjust to a 4/1 and the last mile just run it.  Now off to enjoy the rest of my Saturday and rest for tomorrow.  Happy weekend and good luck those of you racing!

New Running Partner

Last night I ran with a new partner.  She's my 1 year old Boston Terrier/Lhasa Apso mix named Fala.  I didn't think she would make a good running partner because she's generally so skiddish when out and about, but she took to it like a, um, dog to water.   We did a 2/1 run/walk around the neighborhood and she didn't try to stop but only a couple of times.  We went 2.58 miles, and at a fairly quick pace (11:32 per mile total, even with walking 1/3rd of the time.)  It was so funny, during the running portions, she mostly stayed behind me and I had to slow down sometimes, but during the walking portions, she'd jump to the front and was practically dragging me! 

Fala is a loving dog, but she's had some behavioral issues lately.  Clawing at her gate, not coming when called, jumping up on Connor to lick him, and just a bunch of tomfoolery.  It's been suggested that she isn't getting enough exercise so I decided what better way than to drag her along with me on runs.  Not only does it motivate me to run more, but hopefully will help her expel her abundance of energy.  Who knows, maybe some of that excess energy will rub off on me!

Holiday Weekend

I had an awesome 4th of July weekend.  On Thursday I decided to run with a set of people from my running group.  Normally I run 2/1 intervals, but a group was planning to run the Pikesville 5K course at a 30/30 pace so I decided to tag along.  I've never done 30/30 and it was shall I say different.  I didn't really feel like I worked out hard, but I'm not sure if that was the intervals or that I was running with a slower group than normal. Either way it was a nice run. 

Friday, I was one of only a few people that came into work, and being that I was caught up on most of my projects, I decided to rearrange my office.  Before, my back faced the door which I hate, but after tearing apart my massive corner desks and moving them around, I've got a brand new feel to my office! 

Saturday, We had a birthday party/ baby shower thingy with my wife's family.  Good food, family, and nice weather made for a great day. 

Sunday, I got up and ran a 10 miler.  Yup!  you heard that right.  I really wanted to do a nice long run, and with my last attempt, I decided to try it as a run/walk. I chose 4/1 intervals and it came of awesomely.  I'm considering converting most of my runs to run/walks.  In a later post I'll go into more detail but for now, just know It helped tremendously on Sunday.  The run was great, but I started it too late (around 10:00) and so before i was done the heat kicked in. As I left I passed a time/temp display and it said it was currently 91F.  Ouch!

That evening we hit up my work (Fort Meade) for some family fun, food, and fireworks.  Quite a nice 4th of July.

Monday, we had a relaxing day with breakfast, shopping, and visiting with a friend.  Along with some gardening. 

All in all, a great weekend, and to top it off, I only have 3 days at work! 

Clean Slate

With last months craptaster regarding running, I've been thinking about why running took a back burner to things.  I haven't done a race since early May and since my next scheduled race wasn't until October, there wasn't any point to push myself.  I've decided to run another 5K (or 2) to boost my motivation.  The timing was perfect because on July 11th, there is a local race down the street from my house, and to top it off, the route follows one of my groups evening routes!  It's the Pikesville 5K.   Now only a little over a week to freshen up. Time to crush some concrete.