Friday Night 5K

On Friday, I did my first 5K in ages. Honestly, the last time I really ran one like a race was in 2005-- senior year of high school cross country (X-C). All throughout college I didn't run much and progressively got more out of shape, so any 5K was walked or completely half-assed. The race was part of the Crystal City Friday 5K series in which they host 5Ks every Friday at 6:30pm for the month of April. Don't even get me started on how the race packet was just a bib-- um, hello, where's my free t-shirt? I went with friends who live in VA, but it seemed to be quite the family friendly affair (lots of strollers, and well, a random 8-year-old who I was trying to keep up with for 3.1 miles). Anyway, my Garmin race time said 3.22 (probably due to all that weaving around people) at 24:55 (which is 7:44min/mile).

The race felt really good. There's something to be said about feeling like you're in the shape you need to be to run 3.1 miles and feel like you could have done more at the end-- even when you're moving along at race pace. It also helps feel awesome when the weather cooperates perfectly-- high 50s/low 60s with a slight breeze. Friday also solidified in my mind that I'm definitely a distance runner. I have never been any good at sprinting and the whole race I was kind of wishing I was doing a 10 mile run at a slower pace instead of a 5K at a 7:44min/mile pace.

It's been a really long time since I last thought about high school cross country. I really became a runner by accident. I switched high schools for junior year and, unfortunately for me, the new school had much better sports teams. So, I went from being "good" at lacrosse to being one of the last people cut from the varsity team and basically because I was too slow. Awesome. So, of course the logical response from this was for me to be super pouty, vow never to play lacrosse again because I didn't want to play JV, and then join the cross country team (they take everyone!). Cross country is kind of a weird sport. It's definitely a team effort, but it's individual too. Your team could lose, but you could have a PR at a race. The way it works is the first 6 people on your team (or 5, can't remember) have their scores "count" toward the end total. Everyone else just runs, but their score doesn't actually matter :/ So, I had this weird situation in which I got good enough to be around runner 7 or 8, so I still had to run hard enough knowing my time might count (basically in case someone got injured). After weeks and weeks (well really two full fall seasons) of running the 5K race I came to two conclusions:

1. I wasn't pushing myself hard enough. I had this mental block that I always didn't push to the max because I was worried I wouldn't have enough energy in the tank to finish the race. Only at the end of my last season was I able to break through this blockade. I had one race that was extremely flat, and I knew it was my best shot at a great PR. I told myself to run it as fast as I could, much faster than I would normally run and keep on going until it ended. Unlike whatever fear I had, I didn't roll over and die-- I finished out of breath and was fine about 5 minutes after finishing. So, my all time best X-C PR was 21:55, when most races I ran in the 23minute range. That is a huge difference and just goes to show how far the human body can be pushed with mental tricks.

2. Consistency wins the race. So, I wasn't great at X-C and there were tons of people on the team who were better than me, but I had one shinning achievement. In the two years that I participated on the team over the course of about 20 different 5K races, I was the only person on the entire team to complete every single race. Every single one. Our best runners would get injured here and there, some people would have a bad day and have to stop mid-race, and others had various commitments get in the way. Well, I showed up every single time and raced every single time. I think my first year starting times were probably around 25 or 26 minutes and then I finally shaved off all those minutes to my PR in one of my last races. This is probably my greatest personal example of constant dedication leading to improvement.

So long story short, not sure I'll be doing another 5K race anytime soon, but it definitely felt like a blast from the past. It's a great distance to gauge progress and improvement of speed. 

Kickin' it with the Fast Crew

My home base with the tri club is running with my Tuesday morning group. They are great-- awesome coaches, everyone's super nice, and the pace is good (this is the group I started with last year). A few times this year though I've decided to be a little extra ambitious and run with the Thursday crew (i.e. the super fast people). The time different between the two groups is pretty substantial. I'm basically at/near the front of the pack (when focusing more on running and less on gossip!) on Tuesdays and riding the caboose on Thursdays.

I've gone all over the speed spectrum with running in the past year and (almost) a half, but I think there's something valuable in embracing being last.  In any group, someone always comes in last, but if you're coming in last, well, you still beat everyone who's on the couch or hasn't even woken up yet in the morning. Being last is having the chance to catch up to those ahead and knowing that with the constant dedication, one day, you'll break through and catch up. That's kind of how I feel about Thursday run group. Even though they are really fast and I'm at the back every time, it's kind of exciting to know that if I keep it up maybe in a few months or a year, I'll be in the middle of the group and hey one day maybe I'll be up front.

The best part about running though and running with a group is that the competition in the end is always with yourself. Today we did a 2 mile track time trial to check up on our progress. Of course, I came in last for the group, but first for my own purposes! The 2 mile time trial is basically what the club uses to gauge our progress (especially since most of the triathlons we train for only require a 10K run distance).

Last year in January, I'm not sure I could have even run 2 miles in a row. If I could, it was super duper slow. By the end of the season last year (June) I had improved quite a bit and have my 2 mile time trial down to somewhere in the 10:15min/mile range. The fall came around, and I became more serious about running. Then this year I decided to train for the half marathon and by the beginning of tri season (beginning of February) I did the time trial in 8:10min/mile. Now, just this morning, I did it once more at an all time best of 7:31min/mile. A tiny bit of that improvement is probably because today was on a track and in February it was on pavement, but that's still a huge time improvement regardless.

On the jog back to the gym after the time trial today I was talking to one of the coaches about speed. She said to do track workouts, hill repeats (at least 5 times or it's not worth it), and force yourself to do bursts of running faster intermittently in every long run. I think this is what I'm going to try and do more. I'll still keep on long run per week to maintain endurance, but for now, I want to work on speed speed speed.

Stay tuned-- planning on doing a Friday Night 5K tomorrow. Super excited-- it's been ages since the last time I did one of those. I know my time won't be a PR, but looking forward to it. I ran cross country in high school (and then became a slacker, stopped running, and gained weight), but back in the day my PR for 3.1miles was 21:55. Yeah, not happening tomorrow, but dream big!

GW Parkway Classic 10 Miler

UGH- photo fail once again! I promised myself I'd take a photo at the next race and 100% failed on that front. But, in my defense, it was rainy, cold, wet, gross and everything you hope a 10 miler NOT to be on Sunday. Alas, we still got to the start and were pumped for it. I ended up starting the race with my former boss (who won her age division!) and Christopher. The GW Parkway Classic is definitely a race I will have on my radar to participate in next year again. Regardless of the gross weather conditions, it was only a few thousand people (not bad for DC area) and was a point to point race on the highway (closed down obviously) from Mt. Vernon (yay George Washington!) to Old Town Alexandria, VA.

The race had just a few rolling hills and mostly was right next to the Potomac with beautiful views. Next time I'll try to pay more attention to the scenery. There was also one guy who had run the race every year since 1988 and I passed him on the course which was cool (people kept congratulating him), so good to see people of all ages kicking butt. As for the race, it was a PR for me since I beat my Cherry Blossom time, but I felt like it could have and should have been better.

First of all, I was wearing a huge windbreaker. I guess this was kind of necessary since it was 40s and raining and overall gross, but in the future owning a sport vest would be much better suited for such an event. Whatever, gotta work with what you have. Secondly, I started the race out WAY TOO FAST. WAY TOO FAST. The race started on a downhill and my first mile was sub-8 minutes which is NOT SUSTAINABLE FOR 10 miles. So basically by miles 9-10 I was doing around 8:45-9:05 min/miles because I used up too much energy at the get go. That is really something I would like to work on for future races-- pacing myself. Slow and steady wins the race-- you have to know your body and how fast you can endure for all the miles. I knew sub-8 minute for the first mile was stupid, but I guess the adrenaline of the race or something made me not make the rational decision of slowing down.

 So what's in store for this week?

 Well, I'd love to start increasing my mileage. Not really for any specific race or reason, but just because I think it will create a larger/stronger base for future races in general. I'm also planning on doing a Friday Night 5K with one of my friends. I haven't done a 5K in forever and am actually super excited about it. The fastest 5K I ever ran was in high school cross country at 21:55 for 3.1 miles. Woah. That will not be happening on Friday, but I would love to crush that time at some point this year. Running is so weird-- I feel like there are ups and downs and then something just clicks. I'm still in awe how I went from only being able to run for 20 minutes in January 2011 at a 12 min/mile pace to doing a half marathon and two 10 milers over the course of March-April 2012 in the range of 8:41-9:07min/mile. I guess I'll just keep trekking along and see how far I can push myself. It's also a pretty cool change to go from absolutely HATING running to absolutely LOVING it. Not sure how I managed that one, but it's awesome.

Cherry Blossom 10 Miler

THE GOOD: I ran at a great pace- 1:27:28 or 8:45min/mile pace. I couldn't believe it! The course was also way flatter than my half marathon course, so that probably explains some of the discrepancy (HM pace was 9:07min/mile). Also, the weather was ideal racing conditions at least IMO-- 50s, not too sunny, not windy. The half marathon was 60s and sunny, which sounds lovely, but felt like it was 80 and I was dying.

THE BAD: No Cherry Blossoms! Unfortunately those buggers bloomed about two weeks earlier than expected this year and then were quickly washed away by the rain. Although, I got my share of morning runs near them. Would have been really beautiful to do the run with the beautiful pink blossoms everywhere.

THE UGLY: So. Many. People. Now I know what it feels like to run in an unorganized race with 19,999 of my closest friends. Super annoying when people start in the earliest waves and then walk the race. Also super annoying when people wear headphones the whole race and have zero situational awareness. Annoying people aside (and running around/zigzagging for 6 miles), it was still a fun time.

*Next time I'll have to take some pre/post-race photos to post!