Monday, December 1, 2014

Napa Training Week 5... Do Race Miles Count Double?

I fell really short on mileage last week but I'm just glad to have survived. It was a busy week with four shifts at work, three road races, the Thanksgiving holiday, and two family gatherings. So here's how it went...

Sunday - Rest. Spent the whole day at work.

Monday - Unplanned rest day. I had 4 miles on the schedule. Plan was to run them while G danced. I spent the whole day at work then was way too tired to run in the evening.

Tuesday - 8 miles.

Wednesday - Another unplanned rest day. I had 17 on the schedule. I got dressed to run but then bagged it. My right shin was still feeling funny - not painful but just an uneasy pressure feeling when I walk. Anyway I got nervous. Plus, I had a bajillion things to do to get ready for Thanksgiving and I knew 17 miles was going to eat up 3 hours of my day and I had a race the next day.

Thursday - 5 miles.
Got up at 5 am to drive down to Seymour and run the Girls Inc. Turkey Trot 8K at 7:30 am. My plan was to try and keep an 8:00 pace. I wanted to run sub-40:00. I thought I could do it as long as my leg held up...

Mile 1 - 7:54

Mile 2 - 8:00

Mile 3 - 8:08  My 5K split was 24:50. At this point I realized I was having a really good race as long as I didn't crash in the next mile and that I could make sub-40:00 if I just pushed a little harder.

Mile 4 - 7:58

last 0.97 - 7:40

Official time - 39:40.5  (7:58 pace)
Finished 1st in the Female 40-49 age group and 8th overall in the women's race

I met the rest of my family at my sister-in-law's house after the race to celebrate Thanksgiving with my husband's side of the family then left to go to work.

Friday - Rest. I worked Thursday night from 7 pm to 7 am Friday morning. Slept til about 11 am then had to do house stuff to get ready for the second Thanksgiving gathering at my house on Sunday. Went back to work at 7 pm and worked til 7 am on Saturday morning.

Saturday - 9.5 miles.
Got home from work at 7:30 am, changed into running clothes and was running out the door to drive to Columbus when I realized I still had to brine my turkey! I had made the brine on Friday. I just had to throw the turkey in except the bag of gizzards was still frozen to the inside of the turkey. Aackk!! 5 minutes and lots of hot water later I had the turkey in the stockpot and ran out the door.

I had the No Shave 5K and 10K double to run on Saturday. If you ran the Turkey Trot on Thursday and the No Shave Double on Saturday, you earned 8 bonus points for the Crossroads Race Series. I had to finish all three races to stay in first place for my age group so I showed up to run a double on no sleep. First race was at 10 am. Second race was at 11:15 am.

The course was the same course as the Pink Strong 5K that I didn't get to run. I guess it worked out to my advantage that I didn't know the course (for the first race at least!) Everyone was complaining about how hilly and awful it was...  Almost everyone was running both races so I there was some strategizing involved. I was tired. I was lucky to have clothes on. I forgot my gloves and headband. It was cold and windy. All I had to do was finish to have enough points to win the year. I decided to go out at an 8:00 pace again and see how I felt.

5K...
Mile 1 - 8:05  It's hilly, it's windy... and I'm leading my age group

Mile 2 - 8:13  The hills won't end! Every time I crest a hill there's another freakin' hill. I didn't even look at the course map before the race. I guess we ended up running several loops of the same hills. It just all looked like hills to me. My watch beeps for mile 2 and, oh hell, I'm still leading my age group. I felt awful but my competitive drive kicked in and I wanted to win.

Mile 3 - 8:07  I kept hearing footsteps behind me but they were all men. I ran most of this mile with some guy that caught up with me on every hill and I passed on every downhill, mainly because I was running all the angles I could see while he hugged the side of the road. To the man that was running with me - learn to run your angles and you'll cut at least 10 seconds off your time!

last 0.1 - 0:36.6  I felt like I was going to pass out the last quarter mile. I got outkicked by all the guys I was running with but  held my place in the women's race.

Official time - 25:01.6  (8:03 pace)
Finished 1st in the Female 40-49 age group and 3rd overall in the women's race.

I felt like death after the race. This was the toughest 5K course I've run all year. I knew I was done for the day. All I had to do was finish the 10K now... and I was starving! If I had had half a brain, I would have packed a gel or some food to eat between the two races but, like I said, I was lucky to have clothes on. I finally found a vending machine at 11 am... and all I had was a $20 bill. I went back to my car to scrounge around for change. I came up with $1.15. I needed $1.25 for a PowerAde. Oh screw it! I'll just go run my race now.

10K...
Mile 1 - 9:14 I let everyone go at the start.

Mile 2 - 9:39 It was actually interesting to watch the race develop from behind. The women's leader took off. The next three women ran in a group.

Mile 3 - 9:34  The first 1.5 miles were the hills I had just ran for the 5K. The course then went out onto some country roads. They were just as hilly plus the wind was just brutal out on the road.

Mile 4 - 10:28 Mile 4 ended on the top of a hill and I walked up the hill. My shin was hurting and I was just dead tired. Then I told myself that I had done 20 miles after being up for 44 hours at Western States so I just needed to finish this!

Mile 5 - 9:00

Mile 6- 8:23 The course went back over the hilly loop again but I picked it up because I was just ready to be done.

last 0.2 - 1:46

Official time - 58:04  (9:20 pace)
Finished 3rd in the Female 40-49 age group. That was a gift.


Awards from this week
 
Jane, me, and Nora Jo after our Double
 
 
Week 5 Total Miles: 22.5
3 good days, 2 rest days, 2 bagged runs
 
So WAY short on miles this week unless my race miles count double!
 
 
 

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