Good Run, Bad Run

Flying high off my awesome 10K performance last week, all the pressure was off today, as my run buddy and I participated in a local 5K in our hometown. I awoke early this morning at 5am, to the sound of thunder and then my house literally shook. Some strong thunderstorms were in the middle of blowing through--which is PRIME sleep time for me and I prayed that it would be clear by the time the race was to start. Running in the rain isn't particularly my idea of a good time, but if I had to do it, well....at least a 5k is not too far--I would slug through it.

I woke up at 7:45am, not feeling really rested, which was odd considering I fell crashed on the couch the night before at like 10:30PM. Got dressed and had some baked blueberry oatmeal for breakfast and got myself ready. I wasn't really feeling it, but I had been looking forward to this run so I told myself no excuses! My run buddy knocked on the door at 8:30am and got our bibs on and tied our chips to our shoes before making our way to the race. It was literally like a mile from my house. It was nice to see our little town have a decent turn out for this event. It goes to show that people were supporting the cause (a church going to Africa to build churches) and that there were people taking a step in taking their health and fitness seriously.

The sun was peaking out behind the clouds a little and it was quite muggy after those storms. Quite different from the crisp 50-degree weather we ran in last week (to which I very much prefer). We started the race quite quick. It was very familiar territory for me, as I run this route quite often on my training runs. Mostly flat with a few inclines and declines, nothing extreme. I knew it was gonna make for a fast run, but only a few minutes into the run my heart-rate was substantially higher than usual. Maybe it was the adrenaline or the heat, or excitement--I have no idea, but I never quite got it to go down to where I was comfortable.

My run buddy, was MOVING. Like really MOVING. Which is amusing, because all before the race, she had the jitters! She was nervous about this race. Gotta love the mental game of running. I chalked it up to her KILLING her 10K last week and now she had expectations of this race. We stayed together up until a little over 1.5mi and I just had to take a 15 sec walk break. My heart was pounding outta control. I told her to run ahead and she kept trucking forward. Then, it was just me and my thoughts.

For a 5K, I was miserable. I was mad at myself. Thoughts flooding my brain. I shouldn't of had that last piece of birthday cake at dinner last night. I really need to throw away all these leftover birthday treats, because they really aren't doing anything for me -_- I shouldn't of had those Wingstop fries (that I LOVE! Ahhhh) that my husband brought home last night--AFTER I had already had a huge dinner. You would think I would know better by now. Only eat the things that I am accustomed to eating before a race! *facepalm*

I get to mile marker 2 and my left foot starts to tingle. Now, I don't think I've mentioned this problem before in my blog--I've been vague and mentioned it was "runner problems". Well, for some reason the past couple months, my left foot (only) has the tendency to go numb on my runs. Usually around mile 2 or 3. Usually it comes and goes. If I stop to walk a bit it'll go away and I may have to do that a few more times before it completely goes away. Sometimes on my long training runs, I've literally had to stop, take off my shoe and massage my foot. I recently talked to my chiropractor about it this week and he recommended a podiatrist and inserts for my shoes. EVERYBODY has told me I need to change my shoes. I've got about 300 miles on these shoes and I didn't think they were ready (except for the fact that I'm about the poke a hole through the top with my big toe....) but I guess that can be the first thing I try to help figure out what the problem is.

OKAY--off my tangent, back to the race! Mile 2 to mile 3, I felt like I was running with a brick for a foot. The numbness didn't go away this time like it usually does. I pushed through anyway. I ended up with a official PR for a 5k with this race at a time of 33:33. First thing I did after coming through the finish line was sit down, throw off my shoe and massage some feeling back into my foot. My run buddy ended up finishing at 31:48, a PR for her AND she nabbed the final spot for an AWARD for our age group (I poked in at 5th). Super proud of her! She ran hard and she totally deserved it, she's been training and running her butt off...but I couldn't help but feel a slight twinge of disappointment in myself. That could of been me. Even though I had my PR, I still felt like it wasn't good enough. My time shows I had a good run, but my mind is telling me it was a bad one.

That's when I gotta remind myself why I run. Because I love it. I don't do it to win awards or be first to finish--I do it because I love being drenched in sweat and the feel of the pavement under my feet. I really hope that my foot issue isn't serious and that I can get it remedied quickly. I don't have anymore races until my half on April 13th. Until then, I will be slowly crossing items off my list hoping I get it all figured out before then. Wish me luck! Happy running!

Kicked It Into Gear

It's rainy outside. And cold. The perfect time for a nap. But alas, I am stuck at work...and it's slow--as in, no customers. So perfect time to blog right?!

I'm thankful that the rain decided to hold off until later this afternoon, as I ran in the Tyler Azalea 10K this morning. This is probably one of the runs I look forward to the most every year, as it's kind of now a pre-birthday tradition for me. (hint hint - my birthday is Monday.) The day was cloudy and temps in the mid-fifties, but still perfect for a scenic 6.2 mile run.

I was so excited when my alarm went off this morning because it was the first time, EVER that I had managed to sleep through the whole night before a race. I've done more than a dozen races now and before every. single. one. I was never able to get a restful sleep. I would always toss and turn, wake up every few hours -- afraid that I was going to wake up late or miss the race. Maybe because this run was closer to home, or maybe I'm finally becoming seasoned enough to not have those race jitters -- who knows!? All I know is....I got to catch some serious ZZzzZzs that really did "do my body good."

Quite a few of my friends ran this race today & it's awesome to have a group of running buddies. Speaking of, my running buddy that I've been training with the past few months, ran her first RACE EVER today -- and let me just say, she ran #likeaboss. Hashtag is non-negotiable on that :) [**side note** check out her blog--link there in the upper right corner!]While most of my other friends took off ahead in the pack, we stuck together for most of the run. We PR'd and broke all kinds of personal records that we held for ourselves in this one run alone. ONE. RUN. We ran our fastest mile, our fastest 5k and fastest 10k! BOOMshakalaka! I ended up finishing a whole 10 minutes over my time from last year, thanks to continued dedication in training, my #cave work and a stronger mental focus. Official time today was 1:09:17! I'm super proud of myself and of my running partner. We continue to push ourselves continuously and the hard work is paying off in results. It's amazing, when you kick yourself into gear -- what you can accomplish. If any of you are struggling out there, that's ok. We all have setbacks, just take yourself outta park, put yourself back into gear and keep cruising. Your best is yet to be seen. Happy running!

Running Is My Therapy

I'm slacking off in the blog department! Between workouts, runs, work, food prep and that pesky thing called sleep -- I haven't been able to hop on and talk to you guys!

Last Sunday's training run turned out to be medicore. My run buddy is currently on VACATION (I'm so JELLY) and so I ended up going at it alone. I forgot how hard those long runs are by yourself. Not really in a physical aspect, but mentally. It was hard for me to get focused, on anything really. My mind was just bouncing around all kinds of different things as I pounded the pavement, step by step. Thoughts of what to cook, what to eat, what I did the past few days, my problems, my friends problems -- WHEW! Exhausting! But it turned out to be good in a way -- by the end of the run, I had no thoughts what so ever! It's funny how that works out that way. How when I first lace up my shoes, it feels like I have a monkey riding along on my back, but as I push through, mile by mile -- the moneky gets lighter and eventually by the end of it, it's gone.

The theraputic aspect of running is what drew me into it in the first place. Of course, I can't lie -- I wanted to "loose weight" or whatever, but I found that feeling of leaving my emotional load out on the road to be amazing -- mixed in with the runner's high and it's almost euphoric! I will admit, by sheer laziness, I haven't gotten in any training runs at all since Sunday. I still clocked in 4 days at The Cave and we did happen to run some laps, so I sorta got some running in! ;)

My run buddy should be back from vacation I think sometime today and we're supposed to clock another 9 miles tomorrow. Not sure if we're gonna hit that mileage. Shes been on vacation, sick, and hasn't really run in almost TWO weeks! *facepalm* We'll make due and put in as much as we can without hurting ourselves. It's gonna be a gorgeous Texas day for it tomorrow. Until next time peeps! Happy running!

Just. Keep. Running.

It's been a while since my last post. That stinker called Life, just got in the way. Life has a way of doing that sometimes....

Quick recap:
My blog had a small feature on the front page of the Fitness section in the Sunday paper about 4 weeks ago. Booya! I'm legit now! Kidding!!!.. I'm far from being a fitness guru or running expert but it's nice to get some recognition for what I'm doing, PLUS get a little extra traffic to the blog. Hopefully, I could inspire someone. anyone. to get off the couch.

I've also started this eating clean challenge. It's nothing that I've joined or am doing with a group, but it's just something that I've challenged myself to do. Basically, cutting out all processed foods, salts, artifical sugars -- essentially I have to make every meal I make from scratch. Sunday, is now my food prep day, along with my long run training day. I'll spend a few hours in the kitchen preparing foods to eat for the next 3 days & then my next prep day is Wednesday. It seems like it's time consuming, but it really is a time saver because I don't have to figure out what to eat, what to cook, or God forbird, stop by a drive thru! *gasp* I just pull out my carefully prepared meal outta the fridge and I am good to go :) It hasn't been as hard as I thought it would be and I do have my weak moments where cave and have a handful of chocolate chips or half a bag of chips. But I'm only human and I just enjoy my little "cheat" and then get right back on track!

 

I've still managed to continue my training runs and my workouts at the Cave. I had a week where in dealing with some family sickness, the stress caught up to me and I managed to get myself sick as well. I missed about a week total of sweat sessions, but thankfully I kicked my cold to the curb pretty quickly and I was back at it! 

Yesterday, my training buddy and I had to log 9 miles. She just became under the weather too and I was dreading the run. For some reason, once I start having to get in 7+ miles in, I just don't look forward to the runs anymore. BUT, to my surprise we kicked some major @$$ on the run! We're still slow; about a 12:30 min mile but we ran 85% of the course and a few of the times we stopped were due to #runnerproblems but an 1:48 later -- we had our 9 miles in. Which is MINDBLOWING to me! I think back to my last half in December, ONLY 3 months ago and I am such a stronger runner now than I was then. At the pace we went yesterday, we would kill our next half at a little over 2:40. That is practically, 30 minutes faster than I ran in December! **happy dance**

Just a little under 3 weeks until the Tyler Azelea 10k! I plan on PR'ing over my previous time of 1:19. Keepin' my eye on the prize! Happy running!