Hitting the Reset Button

After putting in a distance PR a couple of Sundays ago, I hit a week of the blahs, where I felt extra tired and rundown, but continued to slog through work and summer school, exhausted but feverless. So, day before yesterday, I got back into exercise with a very slow mile. I'm still a bit weary, but am feeling a little bit better. Summer school is still ever present, but only for two more weeks.




Meanwhile, I signed up for the Chocolate Party 5K in Cary in early September. It will definitely be a walk, but it's a (re)start, right?! After poking around the website, I decided it looks like a relaxed race, one where I don't need to worry about my time (thank goodness!).

Distance PR for 2014!

Crane Resting in Swift Creek

This morning, George and I walked with the Triangle Turtles and Hares group on the Swift Creek Greenway in Cary, and it was my longest distance of the year! It was a warm morning, but it felt really good to complete 2.67 miles in an hour. It was a slow pace today, but my training is a work in progress!

One of the highlights of the walk was spotting a crane in the creek. It's a prettier bird than this photo makes it out to be.

Un-Race Report: 2012 Tobacco Road Marathon and Half Marathon

Ivy, George, Esther, & Teri

George and I went to Cary this afternoon to see one of our friends from the Raleigh Galloway Training Program finish his 100th marathon! It was great to witness this accomplishment, and we saw many other friends there, runners and volunteers alike. I'd signed up for the Tobacco Road Half Marathon, but two weeks into the Couch to 5K program, I definitely wasn't ready to tackle this. Still, it was fun to be there--and very inspirational, of course! I hope I can take part in this race in 2013!

Here are the rest of my photos from the finish line and post-race celebration.

Galloway Run #4 from Inside Out Sports (Cary)

Today was the fourth Galloway run for the 2011 season. We ran from Inside Out Sports in Cary. We went a different route than usual from there, and the change of scenery was nice. Someone took a picture of our pace group before this morning's run. We were down a few people due to the holiday weekend, but it was still a good crowd across the different pace groups. We had big storms late yesterday afternoon, but things cleared up nicely for this morning's run, though it was very humid. (It did rain later in the morning, during breakfast at Panera.)

George is still curtailing his mileage due to IT Band Syndrome, but he saw us off this morning, then met up with us at the McDonald's bathroom stop. Since my pace (and our pace group's) is faster than I'd been doing on my own before the season started, I decided to hitch a ride with George about a mile down the road, where he'd decided to start his mileage with the group, continuing to the finish. I'm still having some issues falling behind the group, but I'm working on my mid-week training (which includes speed work) and weight (down 9.6 pounds--yay!). I was able to close the gap between the group and me a good bit this morning, and finished strong. I ended up doing 5.53 miles in 1:47:27, a 19:26 min. mile average pace. This included a warm up walk of about a quarter mile, followed by a run/walk ratio of 00:30/00:30. The slightly slower mileage buildup will pay off , I think. (The rest of the group did about 6.4 miles.)

My splits:

1) 20:19 (warmup)
2) 18:53
3) 19:19
4) 19:12
5) 19:25
0.53) 10:20 (19:26 pace)

Run/Walk AND Water Aerobics Today!

This morning, I decided to return to the Black Creek Greenway, where I did a 3-mile run/walk in beautiful weather. I was able to pick up the pace a bit, but forgot to turn off my Garmin for a bit when I stopped to use the facilities in Godbold Park, so my Garmin time isn't totally reflective of my time on the move. Ah, well, it happens!

Afterward, I met George at the gym for an hour of water aerobics. The pool water usually feels cold to me, but it felt really refreshing after my run/walk!

So after back-to-back exercise sessions this morning, I'm pretty pooped tonight! It's a "good" tired, though! :) I think I'll crawl into bed with a good book now.

Getting Ready for Tomorrow

Tomorrow morning I'll be attempting my third half marathon, the Tobacco Road Half Marathon in Cary, NC. My training has been less than stellar this winter, but I'm hoping for a nice 13.1 mile walk on a beautiful course. I'll be introducing my new custom orthotics to their first race, though I think my feet have adjusted to them in daily life. I also have a new ankle support that I've been wearing today only, but I think I will try it out for the race anyway, and see if it provides adequate support for walking the half marathon.

George and I went to the expo last night, and saw several people we knew, which was fun. One fun surprise was seeing my freshman year roommate, Lisa! We hadn't seen each other since college, but we've been Facebook friends for a while. She's doing the Tobacco Road Half too, and this will be her first! How exciting!

I've also set up race alerts for Facebook and Twitter, hope it works!

Black Creek Greenway (Cary, NC) Walk

This morning I joined George's running group for a 4-mile walk. (This running group is an extension of the Raleigh Galloway running group, but that training season ended in early December.) I was planning just to meet them at Starbuck's and walk at my own pace, while they did the run/walk thing, but they were so nice to walk with me for the first two miles, then I turned around and they continued on (George and Margaret are doing 18 today, and Sue has 10 on her schedule.) It was the first time I'd been on the Black Creek Greenway in Cary, NC, and it was lovely! I'd like to go back there.

I ended up walking 4.06 miles in 1:25:02, and am happy about my negative splits:

1) 21:47
2) 21:32
3) 21:05
4) 19:24 (yahoo!)

The morning was cold but beautiful, to boot! Great morning to be outdoors!

Signed Up For Another Race!

Well, I did it! Last night I registered for the Tobacco Road Half Marathon in March! The race is a local one (in Cary, North Carolina), and a good chunk of the course goes along a section of the American Tobacco Trail in Wake County. One of the biggest plusses for me is that the half marathon has a seven hour time limit! Not that I plan to take seven hours for a half, mind you! It means that the race, which has the same finish line as the full marathon, is walker-friendly! :)

Meanwhile, training at the gym has been going pretty well the past few days, but it's nice to have a race to focus on now. I'm tempted to do some 5Ks now for speed practice (and, truth be told, I love road race mornings!), but I'd be pretty slow right now.

And yes, I am watching the calendar! January 7 is my podiatrist appointment for casting the orthotics! Woohoo!

Second Wind

I continued to feel tired all morning, but around midday I started feeling better, so I ended up joining the North Carolina Roadrunners Club's Thursday Trail Series at Bond Park in Cary. I did this run a couple of weeks ago and got lost a couple of times, so I was the last one in. This time, I ran a shorter distance (2.72 miles) while most of the group ran about 5 miles. Several of us ran the shorter course, so I didn't feel like a loner on a group run this time, and I enjoyed socializing with the other runners as people came back to the starting area. It turns out there were several Galloway runners there tonight, so it was nice to meet some people from other pace groups and talk about various races.

Another thing that made it fun was that I was a winner in the drawing again! (Last time I won a hydration belt, and I thought the group was trying to tell me something, since I was still on the course when I won it.) This time I won a cute wicking t-shirt! It's a little small for me, so I can swap it at the New Balance running store in Raleigh, I'm told. Sweet! :)

Race Report: Cary Road Race 5K

Yesterday I ran in the Cary Road Race 5K. I was a little nervous, considering that I hadn't gotten back up to 3 miles of running since my injuries. I felt like I had a better than decent chance of finishing, though, since I'd done 3+ miles on the elliptical machine several times since returning to exercise.

I got to the race area at Regency Park in Cary in plenty of time to pick up my race packet and chip. I didn't get a t-shirt for this race, as they cost extra. (I shy away from paying extra for race t-shirts unless they're particularly good, since I already have a pretty good collection of t-shirts. I do regret not buying the CRR t-shirt from two years ago, since it was the race that I first entered in my journey toward getting back in shape.) While I was putting the chip on my shoe, I overheard a lady giving some race advice to some friends running the race for the first time. She told them not to go out too fast because there's a hill early in the race, but after the turn-around, there's a big downhill and a lot of flat course after that. She said she went out to fast last year and was sorry! I was glad to be eavesdropping, and took her advice to heart. (I'd forgotten about that hill from 2 years ago!)


Anyway, the 10K started at 8:30, but the 5k didn's start until 9:45, so I returned to the car, and read and dozed a little bit. I'm glad I didn't oversleep, but I wish I stretched a little more! I found myself trotting toward the start line and getting just a few stretches in before the start of the race. It didn't even hear the starting "gun," but I was in the back of the pack, so when the crowd surged forward, I knew the race had started!

I started the race slowly, and walked up that early hill, which helped. I was able to pick up the pace on the level and downhill stretches, even passing a handful of people. The course took us around a small lake in Regency Park, a pretty picture. The temperature was pleasant at first, but was heating up toward the end of the race. It was also windy at times. I noticed that my Garmin was 10-15 seconds behind the timers along the course, probably from the start that took me by surprise. (I didn't start the Garmin until I saw the surging crowd.)

Injury-wise, I didn't feel my knee much at all during the race, probably in part because I took 3-4 walk breaks (some on flat ground, toward the end of the race). I did feel the plantar fasciitis starting to make a comeback in my left foot, which surprised me a little, but I am nearing 300 miles on my current running shoes, so maybe it's a nudge to get a new pair.

I finished the race a bit under 40 minutes, though official results haven't been posted yet. My Garmin time was 39:30. I was thrilled to finish, and was very surprised to get a finisher's medal at the end! It's the first medal I've gotten at a race, and eventhough it's not an age-group award, it was better than a t-shirt to me now, and just what I needed. With the injuries I've had and recovered from in the first quarter of 2008, finishing this race was indeed a big deal for me. I feel like I'm "back in the race," so to speak, and that's done a lot for my spirits. :)

I'm sufficiently sore today, so I've been doing some extra stretching, and didn't run this morning at the gym. I did go in to keep the routine going, but only did 20 minutes on the elliptical machine. I've gotten a lot of R & R since returning from the gym, as yesterday's race wore me out more than I expected.

I'll post official results when I learn of them. Thanks for all the encouragement.

UPDATE: The official results are in! My official time was 39:47, finshing 247th out of 265 runners in the competitive division. In my age group, I was 14th out of 15. The top female finisher overall was a 43 year old, which rocks! There's hope for me! I'll probably never be the top finisher anywhere, but age matters less and less.

Countdown

Just 2 more days until my next 5K (the Autism Ribbon Run in Raleigh)! Wow! Part of me can't wait for the finish line, to see how I do compared to last April's Cary Road Race. Part of me is looking forward to the road race experience again, to being in better shape for this one. This will be my first time to use a timing chip.

This morning I did 60 minutes on the elliptical.