I have a new PR, and I finally got to update one of the pictures in my banner. I’ll do a full Race Report, and publish it on Monday, since I have the day off. The short version is that in spite of me not feeling 100%, I ran well. I’m starting to think these slow easy runs are paying off. I’ll find out for sure at my next race, the Charlotte 10 Miler on February 18. I had been thinking about signing up for it, and I finally did it this week.
My 10K PR is a little bit more simple now. My 10K race PR was at the 2015 version of the Joe Davis 10K, but last year at the Charlotte 10 Miler, I ended up running the last 10K of the race even faster than that. So technically, that was my PR, but it didn’t feel right using the post-race picture from that race to represent my 10K PR. Well, in the race yesterday, I beat my time from the end of the Charlotte 10 Miler, so, at least until February 18, I’ve got just one PR.
Fun fact: With the update, I’m now wearing the same shirt in all 4 of my PR pictures. It’s the shirt from my very first race, the 2011 Rock & Read 5K. I don’t wear it at all my races because of sentimental value. I wear it because it’s a neutral color (white), and has a fairly small logo that gets mostly covered up by the race bibs. For any race where it’s over 45 degrees, that’s the shirt I wear. I have a plain dark gray long sleeved shirt I’ve worn for a few colder races. I wore a couple of pullovers for the 2014 Joe Davis 10K and 5K because it was really cold, and I had to switch bibs between races.
I also feel obligated to point out that the 10K and 5K races started at the same time this year, so I couldn’t run both races. Of course, they changed it so the 10K was basically 2 trips around the 5K course, so doing both races would have ended up being 3 times around the loop, and that would probably get a little old.
Weight Check: 165.2, up 2.7 pounds from last week. I didn’t do a very good job this week of avoiding junk food, Mountain Dew, and beer, although I actually thought it might be worse. And while my mileage isn’t quite where I want it to be, and I haven’t had a proper long run in the last couple of weeks, I really shouldn’t be relying on a long run to bail out poor eating and drinking.
| Day | Total Miles |
|---|---|
| Tuesday | 5.01 |
| Wednesday | 5.06 |
| Thursday | 5.07 |
| Friday | 4.16 |
| Saturday | 7.21 (Joe Davis 10K, plus 1.01 mile warm-up) |
Total: 26.51 miles
Yes, I ran 5 days in a row. I wasn’t expecting that either.
In a perfect week with a Saturday race, I’d run Monday through Thursday, take off Friday to rest before the race, and rest Sunday to recover. Well, Monday morning was 9 degrees, and there may have been a little bit of ice on the roads left over from last weekend, so I didn’t want to drive to the Y, and that became a rest day. I still wanted to run 5 days this week, and I didn’t want to run on Sunday because of my plans for next week (more on that later), so I ended up running all 4 days leading up to the race. I guess it worked out, but I’d rather not try it again.
Tuesday morning was still in the mid 20s, which I might have been able to tolerate, but I was afraid there might be a few small icy spots in my neighborhood that I wouldn’t be able to see in the dark. I figured I could safely drive through my neighborhood, though, so I drove to the Y. I was a little nervous, since they had extra signage about enforcing the 30 minute rule on the treadmills, probably due to the influx of new people with brand new resolutions. While it was probably slightly more crowded than usual, I was constantly looking around to make sure there was at least one other treadmill open, so I was able to be on there for about 50 minutes. I was doing the slow running thing, which makes the treadmill even more mentally excruciating than usual, but I survived.
Wednesday was back to normal, although I got a late start. I had hoped to get closer to 6 miles, but things didn’t work out.
Thursday was the same deal as Wednesday, I wanted closer to 6, but couldn’t get out there early enough.
Friday was the first time I’ve run the day before a race. I took it easy and kept the mileage fairly low.
I got a short warm-up run in before the race on Saturday, and part of it was so that I could increase my mileage for the week just a little bit.
I’d still like my weekly mileage to be a few miles higher, but all things considered, it’s not terrible.
Next week, I’ll be on call starting on Tuesday, and that includes the weekend. However, Monday is a holiday, so I can go out and run for as long as my legs can tolerate it. My plan is to do my long run on Monday, hopefully around 10 miles, then get in enough miles during the rest of the week to get up to around 30. Also, I’ll be publishing my Race Report on Monday.