Scenic Sandpoint - 5k Fabulous

A few days before my planned half marathon (Scenic Sandpoint), I was stressing about the race and feeling under-trained and over-tired.  My cool-headed husband says, "why don't you just run the 5K?"  I fretted - won't you think I'm giving up?  But I signed up for the half and I have to follow through!?  He tells me it's no big deal (true) and that he'd rather see me push myself hard in a shorter distance since we both know that I can plod along through a half marathon and cover that distance (also true, and I laughed, envisioning myself plodding along!)

So, that is what I did, and I am SO GLAD!

Half Marathon start

It was really fun to race the 5k, and it was also comedic.  My sister was also running the 5k, and we thought it was scheduled to start at 9 am.  So, after watching the halfers start, and then seeing the 10k folks line up around 8:40, I casually walked over to use the bathroom.  On my walk back (around 8:45am) I hear the announcer saying that the 5k will be starting in 1 minute (?!).  So I see my husband, and quickly try to hand him my vest and long-sleeve shirt and explain to him that the race is starting, and my mom runs over asking if I've seen my sister (and I hadn't!).  Thankfully, my sister runs up as the announcer says "20 seconds to start" and we frantically try to pin her race number on her shirt.  As the race starts, I am facing the wrong direction, finishing pinning on her number and we both start running, nearly trip each other, and thankfully manage to run the rest of the race smoothly. 

See me in pink and my sister next to me in the sunglasses?

I just kind of took off at a pace that felt hard but manageable for the distance.  There were no mile markers, but I had my Garmin so I could track my pace.  It was a small race and out and back, so I counted the number of women ahead of me as they turned around.  Less than 10!  I think my miles got progressively slower, and my chest was feeling tight as I came through the final turn to the finish.  I got totally humbled though when this 12 year old girl sprinted past me to finish just under 25 minutes, I finished in 25:04.  I had to laugh because she reminded me of my 12 year old self, since that's when I started running 5k road races and loving it!

I still hope to run the half marathon another day, this just wasn't my day.  It was a beautiful morning for running, and the process of switching races was very smooth.  We had a delicious (peppery - as in, the bacon was covered in pepper) breakfast at Trinity, right next to the finish line, so we got to see my friend finish her first ever half marathon!

All in all, it was a fun day.  We originally intended to participate in this race with my mom and my other sister too, but my sister couldn't make the trip out to Idaho. =(  Hopefully, we will get her out here for another race soon!

He was cheering "Go Ms. L" for my friend, finishing her 5k race!  He was such an enthusiastic fan!

Who ran the Scenic Sandpoint Half Marathon?  What did you think?  Tell me about it!

Running Lately

The Scenic Half Marathon is one week away, and I think I am a little bit burned out, running-wise.

My longest long run this training cycle was 10 miles, about two weeks ago.  That run felt so hard!  I was just exhausted afterwards, and usually I feel really rejuvenated by having a nice, long run on a weekend morning.  Then last weekend, I didn't run long at all.  I ran Monday for a 30 minute stroller run.  It went fine, but was nothing special.  Wednesday I did a tempo run, which felt good, but was still only about 30 minutes total.  D thinks (and I now agree) that my long runs have been disproportionate to my total weekly mileage.  I haven't been getting enough mileage in during the rest of the week (cutting too many runs too short!), so my fitness hasn't really been improving as my long runs have been getting longer.

Today I did a little over five miles.  It felt fine, but over all I know this race is not going to be an easy one!

I am looking forward to getting through the race, and then maybe focusing on running more days, and working more on strength training too to try to build up some strength.  So those are my thoughts on running, lately!  Wish me luck next weekend!

The pic doesn't capture it, but the leaves are starting to change!

Work It Out #2

Last week's training for Sandpoint's Scenic Half Marathon:

Monday: Easy 4 mile stroller walk/jog - 5 min walk warmup, then ran around the neighborhood, then 3 min walk cooldown.  Followed up with some playground time for my stroller companion!

Stop the paparazzi!

Tuesday: 1 hour strength class.  I love this class!  It wears me out!

Wednesday: Easy 40 minute walk/jog in the late afternoon when D came home.  It was warm, and then a biker rode by me and said, "you think it's hot enough out?" which then made me panic that maybe I should have brought my phone, it was too hot to be running hard, I was going to bonk at the furthest point away from my house, etc.  So I just kept it at a slow, easy pace.  Isn't it crazy that I just let some little offhand comment affect my run like that?  In any case, this run went a lot better than last Wednesday's run.

One of our gorgeous running/biking paths!

Thursday: no time to workout - unplanned rest day

Friday: About 3 miles of hiking in the mountains

Saturday: 1.23 miles of hiking along Priest Lake

Sunday: Rest day

My training plan called for 9 miles on Saturday.  There was no way that I was going to run by myself up on that mountain, so I am not going to worry about missing that run! =)  It happens.  I'm planning to do it for my long run this weekend instead.  But I know that if I am going to PR in Sandpoint, I really need to pick up the pace on my weekday runs and make them more effective!

Happy running!

Work It Out

Since I'm going to do the Scenic Half Marathon in September, I thought I'd start sharing my workouts for the past week.  Hopefully this will help me to stick to the training plan!

Here's what went down last week:

M) 20 min stroller run + 15 min walk.  I was feeling exhausted, so this run turned into a walk!
T) 1 hour strength class
W) 25 min easy run + 25 min walking.  Exhausted again, that strength class really took it out of me, plus we were all sleeping poorly.
Th) 45 min bike ride with the trailer
F) Rest day!
Sat) 10 mile family bike ride
Sun) 6 mile run (Training plan called for 8, but I ran out of time.)  Followed up with a 2 mile hike later in the morning.

5 Things From This Week

1.  We had non-stop rain for two days this week.  We had to turn the heat back on!  M and I were going a little stir-crazy with all of the time in the house, but some play time at an indoor play area and a trip to walk around Kohl's sure helped get the wiggles (and screams!) out.

2.  Speaking of M, he now says "yum" and "yay" occasionally.  It is adorable.

3.  I am trying out the Whole 30 program.  So far (day 5) it feels like it takes all of the fun out of eating.  But I guess that is kind of the point!  I know I eat way too much artificial sweetener/processed foods, and a friend is one week ahead of me on the program, so I thought I'd see if this has any positive effects.  I'm also curious to see what (if any) effect this may have on my unexplained infertility and running training.

4.  Speaking of running training - my next planned race is the Scenic Half Marathon in Sandpoint.  I'm going to try to follow a program that I found on Jenny Hadfield's site.  It is a 14 week program so I'm already a few weeks behind, but I like that it includes a lot of strength training, cross training and speedwork.

5.  It's Ironman weekend!  And our 6th wedding anniversary!  I'm hoping to get to watch some of both the Ironman start and finish this year.  Last year we didn't get to watch any of it, but I am a running/fitness groupie and I am kind of fascinated by the level of commitment that it takes to train for, complete and complete in Ironmans, so I am really hoping to check it out.  I did a few sprint triathlons as a law student and I still have my tri-bike, I just don't get out there on it nearly enough!  Oh, and for our anniversary, we're just going out for dinner.  =) We typically don't make a big deal out of our anniversary.  I think we'll do something fun though for our 10th, so I'm glad I've got some time to plan!

Have a great weekend!