24:47

Well well well… it’s been a little while since I last posted BECAUSE I got a little discouraged.  I was so focused on training and my family life going at a zillion miles an hour I just felt like something had to give.  And that something was this.  Sorry about that.  Things here are still super busy, but with the Mudder right around the corner I wanted to keep up to date with training so at the very least I can look back at how much I have accomplished this summer.

2 weeks ago I ran a local 5-K.  It was super small and raining really hard up till 5 minutes before race start.  I was in my car freaking out that I would have to run without headphones/music because it was too wet out.  Thankfully the rain stopped and I had my music.  I would be okay without it, I just never train without music so it would be like entering a foreign land.

praying for the rain to stop

As I was walking to the starting line I saw a reflection of myself in the school window and I remember thinking, “what the heck am i doing here?  i don’t look like a runner.  i’m not made for this.”  I can be so hard on myself sometimes.

I had been told by a friend who ran this course in 2009 that it was pretty flat and there would be pizza at the end.  So that was exciting.  All I could think was, “PR. Followed by pizza.  Awesomeness.”

Mile 1 held true to word and was pretty flat.  I ran it in about 7:20.

Mile 2 the rolling hills started.  This was NOT what I would call a flat course!  8:32

Mile 3 (+.1) finished the rolling hills and went back to repeat part of mile 1’s path.  8:51

When I rounded the bend at mile 3 and saw the finish line & the big digital clock ticking UNDER 25 I was SO PUMPED.  I have been training SO HARD for a sub-25 minute 5K and to think it could actually happen was kind of a big deal to me.  So I kicked it out and finished in 24:47.  I was so proud.  And it really got me thinking – if the race really had been flat… could I have hit a 23-minute time?

The other surprise was there was no pizza.  I don’t know if it was because of the rain or because things change year to year, but no pizza.   And the bananas were so green they were actually crunchy.  Gross.  But nothing could hinder my joy though of breaking under 25 minutes AND getting a new PR.

So I’m standing by the crunchy banana booth and a girl walks over for a snack and I notice she too is wearing ProCompression socks!!!  I had chosen black for the race, she was in neon pink!  So I said, “nice socks :)” and we got to chatting.  Turns out she’s a mother runner and lives about 25 minutes from me.  We have a tentatively scheduled run date planned for some future weekend.  Also turns out that I placed 2nd in my age group – and she placed 1st.  I chalk it all up to our awesome socks.

2nd place in my AG & a new PR!

So all in all a great race.

Aside from that, I’m still in 2/day workout mode 4 days a week getting ready for the Mudder on the 24th.  I’ve begun attempting monkey bars (which I should have started trying to do months ago) but better late than never.  That’s really the only obstacle I think I’m going to have troubles with.  More about that next time.

Recap

Since I haven’t given any updates in a few days I thought I’d go ahead and do that now.

Friday night my husband and I had a disagreement over whether it was fair for me to get to work out first Saturday morning. When I said, “I should probably go first because I need it to be cool out,” regarding Saturday’s workout being my distance run, he responded, “oh yeah you’ve been getting to workout whenever you want for years you definitely should get to go first, that’s fair.” His workout was weights in the basement. Mine was a 9 mile run in the heat & humidity. His wasn’t bound by temperature & time, but mine was. He later said he understood why I wanted to go first, but what do you think? Is this a problem in your relationship? Regarding the 9-miler, I couldn’t seem to get myself under 9 minute miles which was frustrating but my last mile was actually the strongest and was sub-9 minutes. Made all my frustrations dissipate instantly.

I ran another 3.1 miles on a track Sunday.

I got my hands on some pics taken at boot camp and I thought I’d share them.

I’m off the two a day workouts this week because I’m running a firecracker 5k race Thursday and I’m trying to actually make it to Thursday with a little gas still in the tank. Typically by Thursday I am near exhaustion.

I see this car every day at 6am boot camp and it makes me actually LOL every darn time. This is the kind of old person I hope to be for sure…

Finally, my favorite cheat snack from Friday…… So delicious…..

What are your experiences or thoughts on choosing who goes first when both you and your significant other want to get a workout in (& can’t do it together / at the same time)?

Pushing Mediocrity

I look at fitness, running specifically, like a sliding scale, measured by the amount of effort I am able to exert.  Since that’s tough to quantify, we can look at it in mph (treadmill-style).

When I first started running, maintaining a 6.0 pace (10-minute mile) was really tough.  My race goal was to finish a 5-K in under 30 minutes.  Also, I thought 3.1 miles was really, really far.  I’d show up and run as hard as I could, and I am happy to say that only once in a race nine years ago on a day that was 20* and snowing did I finish over 30 minutes.  As I’ve become more interested and dedicated to  running these past five years, my scale has been directly correlated with how long it’s been since I’ve last given birth or how many weeks I have until I next give birth.  I’ve been pregnant almost as much as I’ve been not pregnant.  So my scale has slid between 8.0-8.5 when I’m furthest away from giving birth / early in pregnancy to a 5.0-5.5 when I’m over 30 weeks pregnant / just given birth.  While none of those times are elite status I realize I’m not made to be an elite runner, I’m just a regular person, a regular mommy, who loves to run my best.

My best is something only I can define.  And my limits certainly are defined by pregnancy, along with age, injury status, weather, time of year (and ability to get outside for runs), and my kids extracurricular activities that season sucking up my time to workout.

Earlier this month I ran a 5-mile race I run every year for the past four years.  It’s a super hilly, very challenging 5 mile race through the countryside in the town where my mom grew up.  And it  honors a girl who was hit and killed by a car that my cousins went to school with.  Last year I had my best run on the course to date, finishing in 42:32.  I had been running really well this spring and was hoping to beat that time this year.

Lo and behold comes race day.  Race starts at 9am and it’s already a muggy and humid 80*.  Also I made the poor choice to eat 3 pieces of stuffed crust pizza for dinner the night before.  In normal running conditions (65-70*) my diet’s never really been a factor. But in the heat, it’s like the pizza was being re-baked in my stomach again.  Disgusting.  5 miles later and I finished the race in 46 minutes.  My 2nd to worst time ever (my slowest time on the course being the  year I ran 4 months after giving birth).  And I only barely beat my slowest time.  It was disappointing.  But it was also a learning experience.

Lesson 1:  Pay attention to the weather.  If it’s going to be really hot or really cold or really rainy before your race, eat, hydrate and dress appropriately.  I shouldn’t have had all that pizza.  And I should have brought my carry along running water bottle.

Lesson 2:  Even when you feel you’re at your strongest, race day doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to translate into a PR.  This year I had more friends at that race than I’ve ever had at a race before, and the pressure of knowing they all look to me as the “real runner” because I’m so into fitness and working out definitely added pressure.  It’d be a lie to say I didn’t think I cracked a little bit under the pressure of knowing I was expected to beat them all to the finish line.

Lesson 3:  Find a way to have fun.  I had all these friends there.  But because of the heat and the pressure, I had zero fun.  My husband had my kids there for their first 1-mile kids fun run and they were miserable in the heat.  I was worried about them.  I was worried about running fast in the heat.  I was worried about my oldest daughter who wasn’t with us because she had dance practice.  I wasn’t focused on things being just me and the road.  And I wasn’t having fun.

me and my first-time racers

Watching Monsters University with my kids earlier this week got me to thinking…  Mike Wazowski wasn’t the best scarer.  He wasn’t even scary, not even a little bit.  But he worked hard and made himself into the best he could be and he ended up having fun and making a lot of friends along the way.  He never gave up on himself no matter what others told him.  That’s all I can hope for on my running journey.

I know I’m not elite.  I’ll never be.  But now that we are pretty sure we are done having kids (I guess you can never say never, which is why I put that semi-open ended) I want to work on pushing my mediocrity.  I want to see how far I can slide that scale until I accomplish some of the goals and dreams I’ve had since I started running seriously 5 years ago.  Every time I’ve gotten within seconds of breaking under 25 minutes for a 5-K I’ve gotten pregnant and watched my scale slide back towards slow and safe for the baby.  I don’t regret that at all.  But I’m ready to reach for full potential.  Whatever that might be.