Distance: 3.5
Pace: 9:45
Because I skipped Sunday, I figured I'd pony up to LA Fitness before work and clock a 5K, just to catch up. And I enjoyed myself! I kind of like this schedule: drive a kid or two to school, shoot by LA Fitness, join all of the 'career people' doing their fitness thing, put in a short 30-45 minutes, and then get to work. It feels like a 'thing.' Lol. Or at least more reasonable than 90-120 minutes before work. I can see why people move to two work outs a day.
The run itself was not very miraculous. I stupidly "parental controlled" myself into wifi-less-ness. (Note to self: take MY phone off of the monthly data restriction; I'd never gone over before, but I take it being in Cincy this month pushed me over my allotment). Anyhoo, that meant no music.
Treadmill - music = BORING.
It'd been a bit since I ran on a treadmill, so I opted out of incline. We'll get back there, but not this morning. In hind sight, I could have pushed the pace quite a bit more to start, even for just an easy pace, but I didn't want to go over board. By mile 2-3, I was making up for lost time pronto. Next time, I can for sure do that sooner. For just a 5K, easy pace should for sure be lower into the 9s.
Tuesday AM
Distance: 7 x 50 m laps (7 - 25 m there and 7 backs .. pool distance confuses me!)
Time: who cares
Look at me. I swam. Without Michele! I think that means MAYBE I am a little committed to this sprint TRI thing after all.
One of the girls needed to be dropped off early at school again. (testing week). I didn't want to run; figuring I'll save the fresh legs for the All Comers track meet tonight. So I decided on a bit of swimming. It didn't take very long, I for sure don't feel like this gives me much by way of cardio, but I can feel it in my arms, so rather than go as long as I think I should for cardio / heart rate / oxygen maxing out, etc., I stop when I think my arms are going to end up too sore. Hopefully T-Rexing like this will be a thing of the past sooner rather than later if I just keep at it. :)
Excited about All Comers tonight, but racing just for fun, so a lot less anxiety than last year. I have never done either distance, so PR palooza guaranteed. The only source of anxiety this year is: please don't let me be the one who drops the baton! :)
Tuesday PM
Distance(s): 4 x 400, 200, and 1 mile
Times: ~1:39, 42:01, and 7:47!
What a fun event! So much camaraderie and energy can be felt on a track field. This annual event for certain holds its own special place in running. It was everything I remembered it to be from last year ..and more! *^_^*
Most of the day, I managed to keep cooler, calmer and more collected (*from now on CCC) than usual. I'd done this before, but not enough to be so pressed for any kind of outcome. The only thing that threw a monkey wrench in there was getting the heat list midday. With ages. And names! Firstly, it was pointed out to me that I was seeded earlier than some speed demons I know. ;) Maybe I was a little too ambitious with my math?? 44:99 was the guess I used to register with. Uh oh. Next, it was pointed out that there were only 13 women in my age group, all but two who were seeded below me. The two remaining were IN MY HEAT. So it could literally end up being a race to the finish for placing (anything 5th or better gets Grand Prix points). So these are the thoughts rattling around in my brain. Shoot for the moon, right? Plus, I repeat: don't drop the baton!!
To start, for fun, I ran the 4 x 400 with the 10kTuesday gang. It felt hard, but at the time, it didn't feel hard for the right reasons: i.e. feeling like flying. I just felt hot, and heavy footed. The time: 1:39ish was perfect, though. For a race I was trying to run moderate, rather than hard, it was a great outcome.
Team #10kTuesday with Enrique drafted in as anchor! :)
Then to the matter at hand: 200 m. Well, the results were seriously mixed. The good news: 42:01 put me solidly under predicted pace. Boom! AND .. AND .. AND .. 5th place in my age group, which I think should give me a few extra Grand Prix points for the year .. maybe? I think. Not so good news: In general, right after I felt like: oh damn, its over??? I was just getting ready to start racing! Boo! So that was not a great general post-race physical assessment of effort. And 2. I did not get 3rd or better. and 3. I had result-checked the woman in my age group who came in 4th .. I should have beat her because my time was a solid chunk better than hers at Singleton. Waaaaaahhh. Teen tiny bit of baby toddler Judy. But I was too happy with the time and everyone else's excitement, and the Grand Prix ranking, to get too bent out of shape.
Then came the surprise no-mixed-results cherry on top ...
By the time we knew it, with pictures and gabbing, it was 8:15 pm, we still hadn't left and the mile was about to start. I hadn't planned to stay for the mile, but the weather was feeling lovely, and now that I've started keeping an eye on weekly total miles, I thought, heck why not get in at least a little more distance. There was a small fear that I wouldn't be able to repeat last year's 8:16. Would I be able to discount that if it happened? Yes, I told myself, because its late, I've already run a good bit, and so what if it ends up just being a race I ran rather than oh man, what a race I ran. That happens. Get used to it. But .. oh, man what a race I ran!! :)
At the last moment, I almost weenied out. First they called 4:10s, 4:20s, under 4:45s .. oh okay, is this how we roll? Then under 5:30, and 6. Then "everyone else." Bahahaha. So this everyone else heat puts me toe to toe with Enrique, a bunch of track high schoolers, David Bloomquist, and almost NO ONE that looks like they might run an 8, 9 or more mile, like I might. Rough! The two who kept me CCC were Kathy and David. Both have such an altruistic nature to them, its contagious. Very zen to draft off of them for a bit before 'just another run.'
And boom: 7:47. New mile PR. And fast enough to give me the mile PR for #100selfies mini-group. Pacing was my god-sent tool in the tool belt this go, where in the 200 it hurt me. I stayed quick for a half lap, steady for most of three laps, and then gave it more gas at the 200 mark (see, learning .. I had done 200 before, and felt unfulfilled .. better up the anty NOW rather than at the straight away if I don't want to feel that way again), plus a mighty big kick to the finish at 100! I got an inkling that maybe I had it when my watch told me to slow down. It was too dark to see my pace, but I had set ridiculous lap pace goals; if it was telling me to slow down after two laps already, I was going to do. this. thing. ;) I had a run angel with me, too. David Bloomquist ran along side me THE WHOLE WAY, and gave me some bursts of encouragement here and there that I was extremely grateful for. A good bit of the tribe was still around, too, so I heard the 'Go Judys' all the way to the clock! Hi-fives and sweaty hugs, and I was officially spending time in that special (and now a bit rare) run nirvana place.
Oh and P.S., I can not really remember anything about running cross-country and track Freshman year in high school, and the 'time bug' for sure had not bit me then. (I think my eyes pretty much glazed over every time the Varsity gang's convo turned to minutes, seconds and splits; I was too new to the entire thing to understand. Plus, results weren't tracked like they are now: it was a clipboard and a stopwatch. But the two times I remember are 33 minutes for my first 5K (Before I really started training .. freshman mostly ran 2 miles, so 1st 5K stands out), and a 7:14 mile. The other number I remember from back then was 10 minutes .. when the coach once said during a random 5 miles: "come on, ladies, that was a 10 minute mile. My grandma can run faster than that!" lol. I take it 10s were not common for us back then.
But ... SOOOOOOooOOOOOOO, if I can take off about 30s from last year to this year, next year, I could very well be FASTER than I was when I ran track.. as a 16 year old! Goals!!! :)
Oh and ...
If You Can't Beat Em (or get us to stop competing), Join Em?
My little mini-pod of Michele, Kyle, and Pam has really become some of the best friends a girl could ever want. That said, when three out of four of us finish one 1/2 marathon at the same time of 2:14, it adds a crazy dynamic to how we run together, and feed off each other. This never would have crossed my mind AT ALL last year, but this year, it seems to be completely unavoidable to compare! So now we have mini-pod PRs. I say this while rolling my eyes, but refer to the section title.
| 200 meters | Kyle | 34:69 | ||
| 1 mile | Judy | 7:47 | ||
| 5K | Judy | 26:46:00 | ||
| 4 miler | Michele | 36:33:00 | ||
| 10K | Kyle | 57:30:00 | ||
| PTRR 10 miler |
Judy Judy |
1:03:59 1:40:53 |
||
| half | Michele | 2:03:49 | ||
| full | Kyle | 6:07:41 | ||
| Kyle | Judy | Michele | Pam | |
| AG/Hardware | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
Let the games begin, and may the odds be ever in your favor? Lol.
Wednesday
Distance - 1 mi WU, 3 x 1 mile (hard) with 400 recovery
Oh god. No other way to say it except: what a fuck-fest this was! Lol. 80+ degrees, and my legs WOULD. NOT. MOVE. I took the WU slow, and interval 1 as another WU mile. I didn't even stop my watch to distinguish between the two; guessing the pace for the 1st mile interval was between 9:30 and 10. (Goal for these: 8:45). Ouch. The saving grace was finding Craig and Jody for lap 2, who were also not interested in tackling these full out. (Or at least, they weren't after power housing through a first one at 8:20 something). So we took my 2nd at a more respectable 9 - 9:15, and the last one at about 9:20. Even that was stretching what my body was wanting to do; gotta love the assistance of a little camaraderie. We're all in this together intervals for the win! .5 CD, and done, with nothing to write home about, but another workout under the belt. Lets chalk that up to staying out so late at All Comers.
Thursday
Distance: 3.1 (out of 6.2)
After Wed., evening, I don't know what possessed me to not only tackle a forth day of running, but also in the early morning (aka, not even 10 hours later).
I knew I wouldn't have time for the 6.2 miles I was owing, but tonight the fam wants to head to Taste of Alpharetta, so 5K before work after drop off at school was the best I could do. I will get a good bit of walking tonight, but won't have time for exercise. So I figured I would hop on the treadmill at the gym and just BRING IT. (and by BRING IT, I mean crawl through a drudgery of slug-tastic awfulness just to say I did something. bah!). I started with 3-1 intervals (which tells you where my head was .. I haven't done these for my own workouts since last IT4P) After one mile, I still couldn't find my legs, pace, or the mental game, so I just ditched running all together, and Facebook / walked on the treadmill for a mile. FANTASTIC, J. Just FANTASTIC. lmao. After mile 2, I was finally ready to do something, so I ran the last mile at 9:45. So another ugly looking check in the log book, but damn it, a check.
I need to give the legs the rest they are obviously begging for. Tonight will be just walking, and tomorrow will either be complete rest, or a bit of swim. (how a new activity like swim counts as rest is beyond me.. fine, you caught me .. it is not the brightest idea if I want to be rested for big mileage weekend, but hey .. that's how I roll?).
Friday
Rest
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