I am excited and grateful that I have made good progress the last 8wks. I am a bit nervous that the last 10 days or so I am getting increasing aches and pains in my right leg. The same leg I had the stress fracture in. grrrr. I am wearing a medical grade/ sports compression sleeve that I bought for my LEFT leg where my vericose veins are but am now wearing it on my RIGHT leg b/c I am more concerned about the aches and pains and want to give more support to that leg:)
SO, Dr.John Foland gave me the okay on Monday to do a mini tempo run today as a warm up for the race. He told me 6 miles with the first 3 easy (but progressive) and the last 2-3 at tempo pace or goal race pace (7-7:15ish).
So I headed out this morning around 11:15am and it was already 70 degrees....I was a HOT SWEATY MESS when I got done....
Tempo Run recap:
My first 3 miles were 8:15, 7:45, 8:00..and I felt good...it was a good relaxed effort the whole time so I was feeling really confident about that....
Mile 4 was 7:16 and honestly felt relatively EASY which I also felt good about...but then by mile 5: 7:15 my legs were TIRED......I pushed hard and ran mile 6 in 6:50...but I was spent and it was all the effort I could muster.
I probably shouldn't have pushed so hard but there is something within me that once I get out there will NOT let me give anything less than 100%....which can cause serious problems ( and lead to stress fractures people) from running all your 18-20 milers at sub 7:30 pace. sigh....I get so mad at myself!!!
Anyway, I think I feel LESS confident about my 10K on saturday after todays run b/c those 3 miles at an average of about 7:10 pace was HARD!! how am I going to run 6 miles at that average?
RACE THOUGHTS/PLANS:
Lucky for me I have the Beautiful Amanda from Runninghood who will be running this for fun with me on saturday. I know I won't get to run with her for more than a mile before she takes off but it will just be nice to know she's there and I know she will hug me at the end of the race regardless if I do great or I flop.
So..thinking of all this, I decided that I really want to run this race for FUN!!
Here is the elevation map. I ran this race 2yrs ago and do not remember it feeling like it was downhill at ALL! I was also not in very good shape so maybe it just felt hard b/c of that. I am REALLY curious to see how it feels to me this time. The Race director said the elevation is "overstated" here...what does that mean?
anyway..a 250 ft drop over 6 miles is really not that much anyway...and that hill at mile 5...I had to walk part of it 2yrs ago lol. Goal this year...Do NOT walk that dam HILL!!
GOALS:
-have FUN and enjoy it! don't feel like death upon finishing
-run it progressively! Lately I have loved finishing off runs with a last fast mile...I hope I can do that in this race...there is one hill at the beginning of the last mile though so that might slow me down but at least EFFORT wise, I hope it can be my best mile:)
-goal I would LIKE to attain is sub 45min but we'll see.
-use this race merely as a BENCHMARK to see where I'm at after 8 weeks of base running after 2.5 mos off.
-have fun and enjoy running a race with a great new FRIEND!!
-use this race as a CELEBRATION of the last 8wks of running!!! I think this one is most important to me right now.
*all in all, I think I am going to be able to enjoy this day! I always put too much pressure on myself but I think the fact that I have only been back running for 8wks allows me to give myself a little break so that is good.
more than anything I want to look at this race, REGARDLESS of my results and remember it as FUN! ...and happy! I need to remember to just be GRATEFUL that I can run:) This will be my FIRST ever race where I don't PR....so I am just preparing my mind for that:)