Time to toe the line again!! [31M]

I have another race planned this week! Woohoo! I enjoy these weekend races right now because since I am not in shape yet and haven't really done true workouts up to this point, there really is no pressure! It's just a chance to go test my limits, be around the running community, and enjoy the benefits of some extra adrenaline and energy for my run! :)

I definitely still have quad and hip flexor pain, but I am still confident that it's soft tissue. As I slide my palm along my left thigh, I can feel it rolling over lumps in the muscle; whereas it slides nice and smoothly on the right leg. Definitely encouraging to feel that because it makes me less concerned with damaging bones, etc.!

Sunday, September 29th
3M easy, 3M of 4' hard, 1' easy, .75M cool down. I was only going to do a six mile run today, but had to stop for a while after the first three miles for my stomach to un-knot, so we decided to treat it as a warm up and get in a little extra quality this week. I knew I ran hard on some of the four minute segments, but I must have really been booking it at the beginning because I came through close to six miles in 41:40 and that was with my first three miles being relaxed! Super ridiculously hot and windy though because I ran at noon, so it definitely was not a "feel-good" workout. Followed it up with lots of Want More Energy and a shot of Ionix. Should be good tomorrow! :

Monday, September 30th
No running day #1! Strength work during lunch with heavier weights. :)

Tuesday, October 1st
6M + 6 x 150m strides. Spent the entire time on our grass track and changed directions twice! I felt great in terms of energy again, but my quad was extremely sore and achy from yesterday's ART session. Hopefully when that soreness passes, some of the pain I had before he dug in there is gone! Strides were good as well. I started about 5-10m behind Jake's girls and tried to push the back group on them. Worked very nicely!

Wednesday, October 2nd
5M run. Slept in a bit since Jake's team didn't have practice and because of that almost finished too late for work! I had to cut it from 6 miles to 5 miles, but with the aches in my quad and hips I figured that was a good idea. Plus this week will be a new mileage high even if I am a mile short today.

Thursday, October 3rd
6M run with mono fartlek. Did the team's 25 minute warmup with 10' easy, 10' of 30" quick, 2' easy, then 5' easy. After that we started the mono fartlek which consists of 2x90", 4x60", 4x30", 4x15", all with equal rest. Very short workout that is actually harder than it sounds! Ran with one of Jake's girls that fell off their pack early on and was set up for a solo workout. I actually added on an extra 90" moderate effort segment at the end because he had another girl who started the workout late and was having to do the last rep solo.

Friday, October 4th
No running day #2!

Saturday, October 5th
2M warm up, 5k race, 2M cool down. Nothing exciting to share about the warm up, other than I was sweating bullets, had "sticky mouth", and was struggling to get deep breaths. But, I did actually feel good muscularly and adjusted my goal to aim for between 6:00 and 6:05 on the first mile. Looking around, I saw one Kenyan guy and then there was my friend Carolyn whom I was planning to run with. About 800m in, I found myself about 8m behind the Kenyan who seemed to be chilling and trying to help pace me, and other than that, pretty much solo. Came through the mile in 6:02 and actually felt very good at that point, but was concerned that Carolyn was not with me as I knew we would benefit from each other later in the race. At that point we started winding through a neighborhood and the Kenyan began pulling away. Around 1.5M, I remember thinking "I can't breathe at all. I should stop, wait for Carolyn while I catch my breath, and then get back into it with her." But I couldn't convince myself to stop in a race, so I proceeded to just run slower, and slower, and slower! My second mile was a whopping 6:20. But WAIT! It gets worse!! At this point, my breathing was so difficult that I was feeling sick to my stomach!! I kept trying to close my eyes and take in deep breathes while running! All this time, I assumed I was safely 1st female so I was not concerned; but with about a 1/2 mile to go I thought I heard clapping for someone not too far behind me. I tried picking it up however much I could and hoped it was enough to maintain pace from my second mile... Nope! 6:39!!!!!!! I have never run that slow at the end of a 5k race! It was a slightly long course, but the Garmin doesn't lie. I just flat out stunk it up today! Luckily it was a small one and not too embarrassing, but I have some mental work to do between now and the 19th!! Got in a 2 mile cool down after the race, but couldn't squeeze in the third mile because a huge storm had blown in. Literally, that quick! It was super hot, pretty windy, and definitely very humid (as I'm sure you guessed) during the race, and not even 20 minutes later it was raining, COLD, and no humidity!!