Weekly Rundown- Never Give Up
Happy Sunday! I hope everyone had an awesome week. I switched things up this week and instead of doing a long run, I did a 5k time trial! It was fun to do something different, and definitely a learning experience. But first… I’m linking with Kim and Deborah for this Weekly Rundown! I’m going to be brief in the first part of this, so we can get to the fun stuff later in the week. Monday Day off, always. Tuesday Easy four mile run, followed by pull-ups. Wednesday Five mile run with two miles at tempo pace, and I’m still trying to figure out what that is. I’m just starting to add in some speed work, which I’ll be talking about later on… Thursday Lower body strength. I focused on single leg activities like Runner’s Touch, single leg squats, calf raises and side planks. Friday Easy four mile run, followed by Gauntlet Plank workout. Saturday Three very creaky miles. Everything felt achy and I thought “How am I going to run a time trial tomorrow???” I hoped it would be like a theater performance, where I bad dress rehearsal means a good opening night. Followed this with pushups- my “ten down” routine which equals out to 55. Saturday Night Here’s where things got fun! There’s a SLIGHT chance that going out to World of Beer the night before my 5k time trial wasn’t a great idea… but my husband and I and another couple wanted to go out to celebrate the fact that we’re all fully vaccinated, and this was the night that worked best for everyone’s schedules. I didn’t want to be a wet blanket and say “I have to be very careful about what I eat and drink because I’m running a race tomorrow… well, not an actual race… I’m going to run as fast as I can and then write about it on my blog…” No. I just went out like a normal person and enjoyed myself. It was the first time I had been to a restaurant since the pandemic started, and it was amazing. Sunday Oof. Started out a little fuzzy, but drank a large glass of water with electrolytes (note to self: next time, do this the night before.) I got outside and did a two mile warmup. I actually felt okay- the electrolytes must have done their job. Then I did some drills and strides, and was ready for my 5k. A note about pacing. I haven’t run a race since the pandemic started, had an injury in September and have hardly done any speed work. I actually have some experience with this situation, and the last couple times I ran a race with no speed work after coming back from injury, my mile pace was 8:40. I’m kind of mad this is actually a category in my life, but it is what it is. You have to know where you’re starting from or you’ll never get anywhere. So my vague, hopeful pace was around 8:40. WELL. It turns out that was a GREAT pace… for two miles. I tried to find that 5k pace where it’s painful, yet sustainable but when I started the third mile I started to feel awful. I seriously wanted to stop. I had to remind myself that it was a 5k- if I were running a live race would I really want to DNF a 5k? Or walk it in? I knew I slowed down, but forced myself to keep pushing as much as I could. I didn’t allow myself to check my pace, because I was afraid I would be so discouraged (I felt like it must be around 9:30 at that point) that I would just stop. I just kept pushing to the next telephone pole, then the next, and then next… and finally my watch beeped 3.1. I still wasn’t ready to look at the time- I just turned it off, and when I stopped wheezing I ran a slow cool down mile. The pace for my cool down was 11:42- that’s how wasted I was. When I got home I finally screwed up my courage and checked my pace. The first thing I saw was my average pace- 8:47. NO. WAY. How could my average pace be 8:47 when my last mile was so slow? Then I checked my splits- first mile 8:37 (excellent.) Second mile 8:49 (hey! I didn’t know I slowed down there) and third mile… 8:55. Really??? I though it was much, much slower. Now I’m kind of mad I didn’t check my watch during that last mile- instead of discouraging me, it might have encouraged me to speed up a little. Physically I was exhausted, but our minds are so powerful. My takeaway from this was: NEVER, EVER, GIVE UP. Sure- 8:47 isn’t what I set out to do, and it’s slower than my usual coming-back-from-injury pace, but I was so close to stopping in that last mile. At the end of the day, 8:47 is something to feel good about- quitting before the end would have felt terrible. And hey, the first two numbers are right- let’s just say I ran 8:4x and call it a day, ha ha. This time trial got me really excited to race again! Where else can you experience exhilaration, dejection, redemption, and learn great life lessons, all in the course of half an hour? I’m going to do some speed work and sign up for a July 4th 5k. And this time I won’t spend the evening before at World of Beer- that might help. Did you race this weekend? Do you have one coming up? Have you ever given up during a race and regretted it?