Spring?!

I am so excited to be starting off the week looking at warm weather everyday. I hope it holds up, because we ran yesterday while it was 14 degrees, and I'm about sick of my face being chapped.

It's been tough running through this bout of cold weather, but I'm definitely thankful for it. When I ran the Frostbite 5k on Saturday, I could tell the intensive training I started in January is worth it. When I was running 5ks in the fall (before I had decided to run the Triple Crown and mini), I wasn't doing more than a four mile run. I didn't yet understand how running longer would make me faster when running shorter distances.

I am delighted to say I was very wrong. The combination of long runs, speed workouts and just more running overall has certainly improved my 5k racing. Prior to Saturday, my best time was from October, a 24:39. I came into Saturday's race hoping to break 24:00, which would have meant 8 minute miles. I wasn't sure I could do it, I hadn't been feeling very fast last week. But, I cruised through the first three hills, clocking 7:30-something the first mile. I crested the hill by Hogan's Fountain happy that the hills were over, but worried I couldn't maintain the pace. The downhills made that much easier, and I used those to catch my breath. I slowed a little on the flat stretch heading to the finish, and I had been warned that you had to run past the finish line before getting to the chute. I picked it up once the finish line was in sight, but held back and let some people pass me as we went by the chute. I could tell they didn't know where the finish actually was, because I passed them about 30 seconds later. I opened it up after rounding the final turn, and came in at 21:45, good enough for second in my age group.

It was a fairly fast race; all the runners from our Ken Combs "running support group" did well. I think everyone PR'd, and we all felt that our training has been worthwhile.

I went out and ran again today with some faster and more experienced runners. We did a 60 minute run at a pace slightly faster than what I would usually run, but not so fast I couldn't do it. It felt like a good run. But, definitely sore now.

This week
Monday: 3 or 4 miles
Tuesday: Speed night - 7x800 with 400 jogs
Wednesday: 5 miles
Thursday: 5 miles
Friday: off
Saturday: Run to the Sun 4 miler