Running Down the Dream: May the 4th be with You and Cinco de Mayo

Weekly mileage: 50.1

This week was about recovering from the Prairie Fire Spring Half on May 1, getting in base miles, and attempting a 5K race without having done any speed work (oy!).

Monday 5/2 – 45-minute lap swim to loosen up the day after the race. I usually do short shake-out runs the day after races, but with this one being on a Sunday instead of a Saturday it kind of threw off my schedule.

Tuesday 5/3 – 8 mile shake out (8:06 average) and 15 minute of leg strength. My legs were feeling the half still on this one, but definitely felt better as the run went on! With 3 races in 3 weekends I’ve been missing my HIIT bootcamp recently, so did some squats, one-legged squats, lunges, bridges, and calf raises to get some strength in. I didn’t want to do too much since my legs were still race-tired, but I didn’t want to wait until later in the week since I had another race planned on Saturday. After my May 14 race I will be back to a more normal strength training schedule (bootcamp on Mondays and Fridays), although I plan to go next week on May 9 as well.

Wednesday 5/4 – 12 mile base pace “long run” (7:33 average) with Missy on farm roads. I have a hard time calling 12 miles a long run, but this week it was planned to be my longest (although that didn't exactly happen)! I felt great on this run and finished with a mostly uphill mile in 7:08 without even pushing it. Running with Missy is the best, and it’s almost light for our whole run now even starting at 5:15 a.m.!

Thursday 5/5 – 8.1 mile base pace (7:41), again with Missy on farm roads. My Garmin said 8.08 when we got back to our cars so I had to make it an even 8.1, haha! My legs were tired and so were hers, but it was another good one nonetheless. She told her husband that we were “just running short” today and he made fun of us because 8 miles is our short.

Friday 5/6 – Just 30 minutes on the elliptical to keep the streak and loosen up. The best part was that I slept until 6:00 a.m. (actually I woke up on my own at 5:51 a.m. before my alarm) – heavenly! My sleep hasn’t been the best this week – I’ve been staying up until 10:00ish, which doesn’t seem late until you remember that I get up between 4:45-5:00 a.m. most mornings. I’ve been working late a lot, so getting home from work late just seems to push everything back. Missing sleep has definitely hampered my recovery!

Saturday 5/7 – 8.9 miles total, with the Bradleyville 5K race in 19:16 (mileage was split with 2.2 warm-up, 3.1 race, 3 cool-down, and 0.6 shake-out before strength training later in the day). I was scared to death to race a 5K having done no speed work, and once I saw the course I was even more terrified (so hilly!). In the end, I think both helped me mentally because I didn't psyc myself up to run certain splits but just went out conservatively with the initial half mile uphill then pushed the hardest I could.

5Ks are by far my weakest event, and last year my fastest 5K was the second half of my best 10K! After running most of the Bradleyville course for my warm-up, I feared that I wouldn't even be under 20 minutes. The first half mile was all uphill, but that was sure nice for the final half mile on the out and back course (almost made it like a 2.6 mile race, although it was really needed after marching up around 200 feet of elevation gain in about 2 miles)! The weather was pleasant at around 60 degrees and low winds, and I felt good overall. I was quite pleased with my time all considering, and managed to win some cash in 3rd overall female (once I saw the entrants I knew I was racing for 3rd - money brings out the fast ladies!). Really can't complain about this one at all for my current condition and being 6 days off of a half! Plus, my daughter ran a PR mile -- even though the mile course went up the hill a half mile just like we did. She's been destroying her mile PR almost every time she runs. Later in the day I did 30 minutes of strength work (lunge variations, squat variations, calf raises, planks, side planks, rows, etc.).

Sunday 5/8 - 13.1 base pace miles with my friend Amy (8:06 average). I was planning 12 miles today, but who wants to run 49 in a week (I thought I needed 13.1 miles to hit 50, but I actually could have stopped at 13, hah!)? I hadn't run with Amy since last year on Mother's Day, which was far too long between runs, but we hadn't been able to coordinate for various reasons. I needed an easier pace today coming off of the hilly race, so this worked out nicely, although we ran up Veteran's Cemetery hill at the end (which was not easy!).

Happy Mother's Day to all!