Doylestown Race

This past weekend was the Doylestown 5k. It was hot and humid!! I think it was nearly 80 by the time I got to the start line and the humidity was at about 90%. It certainly made things interesting. It was using chip timing, and I may have over estimated what those chips can do. I was under the impression that they didn't start recording your time until you physically passed the starting line and that they also logged when you crossed the finish line. Since I was under this impression I stayed towards the back of the crowd and after the horn blew I waited patiently so I wouldn't be bumping into people to go. Doylestown is an older town and the streets are a bit narrow, and the people who lived along the race route were not required to park in their driveways. So combining nearly a thousand people on car lined narrow streets was not my idea of a good time.

Apparently I'm wrong, because the official time given to me was the one that I saw as I crossed the finish line. So to make myself feel better I'm shaving off 10 seconds. Those 10 seconds somehow mean the world to me. I'm also starting to think I didn't something wrong with my chip. When I look up my results on the web the chip time is blank. Just the clock time is filled out. I guess I'll get the hang of this eventually.

This morning I head out the door at 6 am and it was already 77 degrees out. The heat is killer. I almost can't wait for September. I'm hoping when it cools down that I'll see my race times improving. The disparity between the treadmill and the outdoors continues to kill me.

There's a 5k not even 2 miles from my house on Sunday. I haven't registered for it. I'm thinking of just showing up and paying the race day registration price. I'm just gonna play it by ear and see if I'm up in time (though I can't imagine not being up by 7:30).

The weight is still staying the same. I seem to hang between 237 and 240. It's not terrible. I know that I can do it, but have the hardest time with all the parties that are neverending in the summer. I'm pretty sure we have one every weekend from now until the end of July and that's only because no one plans futher out than that in advance.

Here's to being good!

Race #2!!

My second 5k is this upcoming Saturday. I'm super excited for it. My mom is going to be there with the kiddos. Greg has yet to decide whether or not he is coming. It will be sad if he doesn't, but that will mean I sleep at my mom's and she's only 5 minutes from the race. If he does go, I can definitely say that I'm not looking forward to waking up the kiddos at 7:30am to get ready (my house is full of relatively late sleepers - all but me).

I'm bummed because the outfit I had planned in my head did not work itself out. I'm having an issue with women's running tops. They're all too fitted. I wouldn't mind if I was walking, but when I run it slides up above my belly fat and doesn't go back down. That would be awful to deal with on race day. I ordered a men's tank (like a tee shirt with just the sleeves cut off), but when I put it on I totally looked like a man and it made my arms like big. No thanks! Guess I will just be in something I already own, but it will not be red, white, and blue for Memorial Day weekend as the race urges. :(

I have been getting the chance to be outside a lot more often now. Since sunrise occurs between 5:30  and 5:40 now timing is perfect. I've been able to get in an extra half mile just by not having to drive to the gym. AND I'm not missing my train to work :)

I was toying with the idea of trying for a 10k this fall. I decided to see what a longer run would feel like this past weekend and went out for a 5 miler. It felt great! A little slower than my current pace (but not a ton slower) but I didn't feel dead half way through it like I was afraid I would. Now I'm toying with the idea of signing up for the Philly Half Marathon in November. This would give me time to focus on my strength training now (I want to be a bit more secure in my upper body strength before the mud run) and then I can focus on training for a half. I was shocked when Greg told me he thought I could do it! I really expected him to tell me I was reaching for too much too soon. I'm going to revisit this thought after the mud run and will just silently obsess over it until then.

Elevation

So I went out for my run again this morning before work. It was just as hard (if not harder) than it was two days ago. I'm starting to think maybe it's the hills, but I'm not sure what is "typical" and what really constitutes as "hill work". I've included a graph below to show the elevation of the current route.

It's challenging to me, but running just about any distance is still challenging to me. I'm going to snoop around the internet to see if I can find myself some answers.

The next race I'm scheduled for gives me this to go on:



I'm guessing the biggies are somewhat equivalent, but I'm just used to doing the hills in the beginning. I just remember going into the first 5k with maybe 2 days experience outside (and a huge lack of hills at that), and the thing I remember most is thinking how much more difficult it was to do compared to all the treadmill running I've gotten used to.

Going from treadmill to outside has made me gain about one and a half minutes per mile to my time. I'm getting discouraged by it but realize it'll only get better the more I do it. Some days though (like this morning) I feel like I'm just meant for being inside and running in place.

Feels Like A New Start

I was excited in February as I was approved for my first conference/business trip. Of all places to end up - Boston! I really like it there. I seem to be drawn to cities that preserve a lot of history (hence the uplifting feel of walking past the liberty bell everyday to and from work). I finally got to go last week. The Boston Marathon had just happened a week prior as well, so I was hoping there'd be some running excitement left in the air.

I was able to carve out time to go jogging along the Charles River Basin. It was great!! There were TONS of people out jogging too, and it was 6:30 am! It really is a running town.

Despite my ability to keep up with workouts (one every day I was there) - the awful diet did me in. My first day back home I went for a quick treadmill run and it took everything in me just to get through 5k. That's not really what I was hoping for. Yesterday I was able to get outside, and even then, my time was still lacking. It feels like I'm starting over again (ok, not really, because at first 2 miles was a helluva challenge) and it's kind of disappointing. I'm in no way defeated, but I was really hoping to shave at least 26 seconds off my last 5k time in the next one that I have coming up. I still have a couple more training weeks, so here's to hoping it starts getting better.

So... even now, I am unable to find ANY photos that were taken at the Spring Zing 5k. What a total bummer! I really wanted to update with a photo. I suppose it will have to wait until the next one. I'm working on suckering Greg into coming to the next one too so he can take photos this time.