2008 Women's 5km Run

Well, I did not have a very good night but I felt ok in the morning, if only a little tired. My tummy was unsettled all night from something I ate yesterday, most likely the two sips of Erik's Ice Capp. That ALWAYS does it to me and I should have known better than to even let myself have a sip. Anyway, I was feeling better in the morning so I had my usual plain yogurt, banana, and dry oatmeal mix, skipped the coffee, and we headed down to the race at about 7:10.

I registered, stood in line for the bathroom again, and deliberated several times over what to wear. It was 13C, and the sun just starting to break thru the clouds. I was feeling chilly when the sun was behind the clouds tho, so I switched into a regular jersey instead of the sleeveless.

We did the mandatory warm up then went to line up. I got myself set fairly close to the front, since I was in the top 25 last year, I didn't want to have to weave around a lot of people at the beginning. I had my ipod set to 170 bpm Podrunner and my Garmin was on. I set off a bit too fast at first I think because my HR seem to soar right away, but maybe that was just nerves. I settled into a steady pace right away and had to run right off the road to get past a few people. Later, I'd wish I'd done that sooner because it turned out I was only 9 seconds short of a PR.

I kept up a fairly steady pace and soon found myself running on my own. As we got close to the turnaround point at about 2.3 km, I was able to count the people ahead of me as they passed me going the other way. It looked like I was about 21st at that point. I was thirsty so I grabbed a cup of water at the turnaround and had to walk and almost stop just to slurp it down. That was my second mistake that cost me a few seconds. Next year, I'll wear my fuel belt. In the last few kms, I passed a few more people and one woman passed me but I couldn't keep up with her so I let her go. The last km was hard and I couldn't wait for it to be over. I didn't feel like I could pull off a sprint at the end and was just happy to get to the end. Erik got a few pictures of me coming in and this time I wasn't quite so bagged at the end.

Stats

km1 - 5:22 (1% grade)
km2 - 5:41 (1% grade)
km3 - 5:10 (-1%)
km4 - 5:10 (-1%)
km5 - 5:13 flat

Avg Pace - 5:22
Avg HR - 171 bpm
Max HR - 185 bpm
Avg speed - 11.2 kmh.

I made sure to keep on walking so my legs didn't cramp up and I ate some shot blocks, drank lots of water, and did a lot of stretching afterward.

After the run, we watched the rest of the 5k's come, followed by the 10k's. Then we headed into the hall to see if we'd won a door prize. There were over 250 women in the race (5km and 10km total) and I think most of them were in that hall. I didn't win any of the cool door prizes, but I did manage to come in 3rd place in my age group and 18th over all and I won a nice running hat!

So it was a fun race and I am really happy I did it. I am even happier that Erik ended up being in town this weekend and was able to come and be my SAG crew. It made it all worthwhile having someone to cheer me on.


Thanks for all of your support!

Pre-Race Strategy

Well, tomorrow morning is the Women's 5km - my second race. I've been telling myself that I am only going in it for fun because I've been doing well with my shins lately and I don't want to get injured again and jeopardize my triathlon. Not only that but for the past 3-4 months, I have focussed on building up my endurance and staying injury-free - I haven't been working on speed at all.

Last year, I had been running 29 min 5ks on average before the race, then I did the race and went really hard and had a time of 26:17. My average heart rate was 174 and for 18 minutes of the race, it was at LT or higher. I was totally spent when I finished and my legs cramped up after. I ended up with shin splints the next week and couldn't run for awhile. Now - to be honest, I did not stretch properly after that race and I generally wasn't doing much stretching at all back then, and I did a long run too soon after the race which was also dumb.

So fast forward to tomorrow. My fastest run this year was a 30 min 5k. I am feeling good, my shins haven't been hurting and although I haven't gone all out, I think I COULD go faster, especially if I take my ipod and put in a 180 bpm podrunner song. Dare I try to truly race tomorrow and see if I can get a PR? Will I hurt myself? And if I do hurt myself, can I heal quickly enough that I don't put a big dent in my training for the triathlon?

I wish I wasn't so competitive... :)

I took yesterday off and I swam 1600m today by the way.

Oh my...

Just imagine my surprise when I downloaded the latest Phedippidations podcast today and found that mine was the featured blog of the week! Holy cow. I don't know what to say. I'm a bit overwhelmed I guess. I write this thing mostly for me and don't really think about anyone else actually reading it - I am almost a little worried that it would be a bit too boring for others to read since I tend to go on ad nauseum about every little thing [insert sheepish grin].

Anyway, I am humbly thankful to Steve for the recognition of us 'average guys (and girls)' and truly appreciate the 'kind words' (as he would say). I'd like to take a moment to let Steve know how he first motivated me to get out and run.

Three months ago, about a week after my eye surgery, I was lying in bed feeling sorry for myself. I couldn't swim for 2-3 weeks, there's no way I could ride my bike, and I didn't even feel up to running. I had downloaded a new podcast so I decided to listen to it while I dozed. I only got through about 20 minutes of it before I was motivated to stop whining and just get up and at least TRY to go for a run. That turned out to be a turning point in my recovery and I was able to get back into my training with renewed confidence. As I listened to the archives over the next few weeks, I learned about the World Wide Half, and was introduced to other running podcasts. Soon, I began to envision a specific running goal, in addition to training for my triathlon.

So thank you Steve for the mention in your podcast. I don't know if you truly realize how much you touch other people's lives and how even a simple suggestion can help to motivate people like me to just get out there and try.

As Steve says - "Run long, and taper".

Eye Appointment

Well, I saw the eye doctor today. I am three months post-op (PRK laser eye surgery for anyone who hasn't read my voluminous earlier chapters. :)

Anyway, both eyes have improved marginally in the past month so I got a new contact lens for each eye. I will continue to wear the right contact all the time, and save the left one for biking only.

May 5th

Right -1.75
Left -2.25

June 4th

Right -1.50
Left -1.75

My left eye is pretty well at the level we want it to be but it's hard to say how much more the right will correct (or regress) over the next few months. It's unlikely that it will get down to '0' though so I will probably need an 'enhancement' surgery next fall on my right eye only.

I wore both new contacts this afternoon when I went for a 20km bike ride by myself after dinner. I rode the hilly lakeshore route and although it was windy going out, I made fairly good time with a 24.4 kmh average over all.

I'm hoping to get up early to run tomorrow morning again. I only have a few more weeks until school is out so I think I can force myself to do the early morning runs until July. We'll see.

Over and out.

Mid-Week Update

Tuesday evening

Well, I haven't been eating as well as I should, and my weight is steady around 120lbs as usual, but I have been doing more training in the past 10 days. Since I had close to 10 hours of training last week, this week should be a little easier, according to my new plan. I'm only going to swim twice, I'll make my midweek runs a little shorter and/or easier, and I'm not doing a long run this weekend because of the race. Since the weather is wet and cool, I won't likely do as much riding either, but if I can, I'll squeeze one in tomorrow.

Monday I did my swim while the kids had their lesson and that worked out well. It'll be nice to be able to do that for two more Mondays and be able to get my swim workout in during school hours.

This morning, I got up at 5:20am and was out the door for my run at 5:45. Only ran 4km in a half hour but I was ok with that. I'll try to do that again on Thursday if I can because it works out really well.

Tomorrow I finally have my eye appointment and I'll be really glad to find out what the acuity of my right eye is now. I'm pretty sure that my contact lens is too strong, or else my astigmatism is worse, because my vision is really crappy right now. I'm also going to talk to him more about getting a medium contact for my left eye, to bring it a little closer to the vision in my right. The difference just seems too great to be able to see well and my brain is just not adapting, even after 4 weeks.

So, that's all for now. My bike still isn't in yet, and I haven't been called to pick up my new heart rate monitor either. Hopefully both will arrive by the weekend.

Erik's not going to Edmonton this weekend after all so he'll be able to come cheer me on in the 5k race this Sunday. That'll be nice. :)

I'll post an update tomorrow if I get any interesting news about the ongoing laser eye surgery saga....