Well, I set some goals. I met a few, missed a few. But, I participated in (and finished) my first 5K on Saturday. It was Homecoming weekend and I signed up for their 8am Saturday morning 5K along with the support of DH, Ashley, Amanda and her mom, Sue. I had my first thought that I might be able to do such a thing when last year’s Homecoming 5K took place, so it seemed fitting for it to be my first. I also wasn’t too keen on the ones taking place in July or August at the peak of our summer heat. October seemed nice.
As I knew was possible, we had some of the coldest temps of the fall so far — hovering around the freezing mark. Thankfully, the snow held off until we were waiting for a table at Lucile’s which our friend Gene kindly got us on the list for. It was cold waiting for the table, but we didn’t have to stand around too long before the race because DH’s office is right on the oval. Once we got running I was doing good temperature-wise. My upper body layers even proved to be a bit much towards the end.
When I committed to the 5K I had 8 weeks, plus a few days before the race - plenty of time to get through a couch to 5K program! Except, I dropped a U-lock on my big toe joint at the end of week 1 which put me off running for about 9 days. I picked up the pace on the early weeks since I wasn’t starting from the couch and did just 2 of the 3 workouts in each week but maintaining the schedule of running everyother day until I got to week 5’s program. Unfortunately, the last 3 weeks I had an 8 day intestinal bug that had me not eating solid food for that long (though still hungry) plus almost 2 weeks of shoulder/neck pain which had me only getting in one run each of the last two weeks.
I haven’t actually completed week 5 of the 8 week program yet. So, I knew one of my goals - to run the entire 5K was not in the cards. Based on my mileage for my 30 minute work outs though I was hoping to get in under 40 minutes with intervals. I met that one with a time of 36:59 (pace of 11:56). The pace was not my best for intervals, but better than my last 2 runs for sure. While not a stellar result, there were about 400 people who came in after me so I was not at the back of the pack and the bulk majority of the people were in the 30:00-34:00 minute range so I wasn’t that far off.
I definitely need to learn a lot more about pacing and I think that is pretty much just practice. I don’t think I pushed too much too fast out of the gate, but I was dragging towards the end. I think in this one, running intervals, I didn’t divy up the intervals well. But I found the mile markers hard to see and for intervals, markers between miles would have been very helpful. Next time I’m definitely doing the ear bud in one ear thing so I can check my distance and pace along the way. I think music would have been extremely helpful for me too.
As one of my co-workers pointed out - around these parts there is always another 5K next week. So, what will be next? Amanda is suggesting the Jingle Bell run on December 1st. That should be out far enough for me to make marked improvement. But I’m not yet quite convinced to push the weather further. I’ll have to think about it. There is no doubt, I need to obtain more cold weather running gear either way with fall here and winter on its heels!
It was a big weekend all around because DH and I celebrated our 10th anniversary on Friday as well. Then he beat me in the 5K, despite not really training on the run-side of things - though he has 7-8″ on me and thus a much longer stride. I’m really looking forward to my first post-5K run tomorrow morning because DH got me a bluetooth heartrate monitor that will talk to my phone and various fitness apps for our anniversary. He knew I had been looking at heartrate monitors for over a year, but just wasn’t taking the leap so he figured that was a good gift - something I wouldn’t actually buy myself. He was right! He also gave me a new piece for our Dickens’ Village - Champion Hearding dog. Sheep and dogs and Dickens’! All in one. You can’t do much better than that.
We’ve come a long way in 10 years! We are both healthier and tremendously more fit. Not something I expect too many couples can say on their 10th anniversary. Thank you so much, Drew, for being supportive and encouraging on this new lifestyle we’ve shifted into and for your support and love for the past 10 years! Think we can say the same thing in another 10 years? Even more healthy and fit?
