Tufts 10K Race Report

Result: 50:36. Feeling: Disappointment.

So I had never run a 10K heading into Monday's race but I wanted to finished between 48min-52min, or so I said but secretly my goal was less than 50. I got up relatively late since the race isn't until 12pm. Headed over to the boyfriend's house after getting my stuff together and stopping at Dunkies. His two aunts were running as well, and we were driving in with his mom and 1 aunt and picking his grandmother and other aunt up at South Station. Headed in, the drive was easy, picked up everyone etc ... I finally decided to wear my old shoes after much debate. Got to the race, had to find our bib numbers and then go to number pickup. My line was extremely long, for some reason the line was 1-1500, whereas every other line seemed to be in groups of 500. Not sure why. Got our numbers and stuff. It was about 11:15 now. I visited the porta-potties twice and hung out. I took my salt before the race and then went and lined up in the middle of the 7 min mile group.

The race started and I felt ok, my stomach was bothering me and I was worried about my foot. But at the beginning there were a lot of people and it was really energetic. I also still had my Garmin on autolap and it always hit a mile marker before the official mile marker, which sucked. I started it right as I crossed the start line too, so I must have not run the tangents well. The following stats are from my Garmin:

Mile 1: 7:28
Mile 2: 7:29

I felt good but when I saw the numbers, it seemed a little too fast but I probably should have just ignored the numbers looking back now.

Mile 3: 7:59 

Trying to hold back a little and my stomach started really bothering me here. So I decided to stop at the porta-potty on the course, and then I still had to walk some after to try and get rid of a bad cramp.

Mile 4: 9:01 

That mile sucked. Includes porta-potty and walking.

Mile 5: 8: 19
Mile 6: 7:57 
.34 miles: 2:29 (7:24 pace) 

Decided I needed to just suck it up and run, so I did. My foot and stomach hated me but I finished. Not very pretty but I'll take it. I really wanted a sub 8 min/mile pace but my official min/mile pace is 8:09 even though my Garmin has me running further and at a sub 8 pace. I figure I ran wide on some turns and I didn't pause when I ran into and out of the porta-potty, so I was bound to have some extra mileage on there. I really wish I hadn't had to stop. Everyone I went with thought my time was great and it is, don't get me wrong, I just know I could have done better.

Next time, sub 50 for sure.

First run in a week

It was only 2 miles but it was a run! I hadn't run since last Wednesday since my foot had been acting up. I think it was/is plantar fasciitis and mild tendonitis, which I'm going to continue to treat. I saw my doctor a few weeks ago and she wasn't concerned so I'm trying not to be. I did buy a Strassburg Sock, and honestly I can't tell if it's making a difference yet or not but we will see.

So I ran my two miles in 18:36 and felt really good. I had a few twinges in my foot but I think that was because I was overthinking it.

And boy did I need this run. I've had an absolutely awful week between work and grad school and I needed some me time. Some free, don't think just run time. And even though it was a short two miles, it helped my mind so much. Ahhhh love running.

I have a 10K Monday and it's a guaranteed PR since I've never raced a 10K before, sweet! The boyfriend's aunts are doing it also, so it should be fun. I just hope it doesn't snow! That's what is predicted but I doubt it will or at least, I hope it doesn't!

In addition to the three day weekend, I don't have one of my classes next week! Yes! So, so relieved to have a little break.

MIA

I've been on a bit of a running hiatus since last week's 5K. My foot has been bothering me again, I think it's just a mild case of tendonitis but I'm resting and icing to not make it worse.
I did run once this week, 3x800s on the treadmill on Wednesday and it actually felt really good but my foot ached afterwards so I won't run today. I think I'll take this weekend off, bike and do yoga instead, maybe run once or twice before my 10K on the 12th and see how I'm feeling. If this little break doesn't do the trick, I'll have to head back to the doctor and I really hope it doesn't come to that.
This injury has also affected my planned marathon training. I was planning on starting an 18 week marathon training program on Oct 19th for The Breast Cancer Marathon on February 21. Unfortunately it's looking less likely that I will be ready to start training by then. Plus, I was already worried about training for a warm weather marathon in the New England winter. So now I'm looking at a DC Marathon in March or possibly Nashville in April, I think. If I do DC, the boyfriend has family there so that would be nice and if I do Nashville, I have family there. So hopefully one of these two relatively later winter/early spring marathons works out and I can start training soon.
So that's my update for now. Hopefully I'll have a good cycling and yoga weekend along with the hours of studying I have to do for an exam Tuesday.

5K PR!

I ran the Susan G. Komen Race for a Cure 5K this morning. I got up at 6 and got ready. Headed out, stopped at Dunkin Donuts to bring the boyfriend coffee and breakfast since he was nice enough to drive me in. I went over to his house, dropped off my car and we headed into town. The drive took way less time than we thought, there was no traffic and there were no parking lines, score! Except we were there so early. But that's okay. It was chilly so I had sweatpants and a sweatshirt on over my race clothes. I got my bib number and put my timing chip on my shoe and then we walked around the expo. It was nice but emotional, I lost my grandmother two years ago to breast cancer and there were bibs that could be filled out 'In Memory of ...' so I did one of those for the back of my shirt and broke into tears as I was writing Meemom on it but the volunteers there were understanding of course. The the boyfriend and I took our stuff and walked it back to the car and then headed back and just walked around. I used the porta potties twice before the race, did a little jogging and stretching and then we lined up.

The starting line was emotional too as they had a breast cancer survivor speak then. I teared up a little and told myself I would push as hard as I could through this race since it isn't anything nearly as hard as what my Meemom went through or anyone else battling cancer.

The race route was a little weird and choppy, there were a lot of U turns. But it was soooo flat, which definitely contributed to my PR. It was great to see so many people out there in support of the cause, there were over 7,000 participants. The 3.1 miles went by very quickly and then the finish line was in site, and the clock said 23:xx, and I was so so happy. My gun time was 23:46 and my chip time was 23:34! My old 5K PR was 25:11! I had a huge smile on my face as I finished. I think it may have been my best race ever and even though the day was emotional, it was also great.

Here are some pictures:

The race started at the World Trade Center on the Seaport.

A runner's shirt that the boyfriend liked

Before the start of the race

Starting line

The boyfriend getting a picture of me running by. I have the Recovery socks on and bib on the back. (Wore the pink Recovery socks since they were pink and I wanted to be as pink as possible!)

Near the end

Finish line! Furthest to the left :)

Have a great Saturday and good luck to anyone racing this weekend!

Injuries, Track and 5ks

I've been a little MIA the last few days. After my run on Saturday, I started having some sharp pain in my left foot. Ugh. So I rested it and iced it. The pain didn't go away so I went to my doctor on Tuesday, praying it wasn't a stress fracture.. And it wasn't! Just a ligament strain. My doctor is a triathlete so she understood my worrying but assured me I could run this week, which is good because I have the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure 5k this weekend. I'm really excited for this race, since I'm doing it in memory of my Meemom (grandmother), who passed away 2 years ago after battling breast cancer. I'm really hoping I can PR.

So I didn't run Monday due to my foot. But yesterday after work, the boyfriend and I headed to the track. I wanted to see how fast I could run 1 mile. The first track we headed to is closed for repairs apparently, although there was someone on it. But the sign said closed and we didn't want to disobey so we headed to another track. I did a mile warmup, pretty slowly. Then stretched out before my fast mile. I just wanted a 7 minute mile even though in high school without training I was faster than that. So I ran my 1 mile in exactly 7:00, blah. I want to get faster. I know I said it was my goal but I really was hoping for faster. Oh well something to improve on. After my mile time trial, I did one cool down lap of walking and then 1 800, followed by 400 recovery and a mile cool down. It was a pretty good workout although the track was quite dark when we finished. There are lights that supposedly can be turned on but we couldn't get them to work. Luckily, my mom knows the Athletic Director, so we'll contact him and see if we can figure it out since the track is really nice, they recently redid it and I'd love to be able to use it more but I need some light. 

My foot didn't hurt too bad at all during the running and I iced it last night. Today it felt fine, so I think it's on the mend! I've actually been writing this blog post all day and it's taken me all day. I had a work conference today so the boyfriend dropped me off at the train at 7:20 and I headed to it. I got off the train and was crossing an intersection when my boss pulled up beside me in her car so I didn't have to walk the 10 blocks to the conference in heels at least. It was really good timing! The conference was good but very long. The food was excellent, which I appreciated. After the conference ended at 4, we had to head back to work since both my boss and I had class tonight and we work on campus. I just quickly checked in, changed and headed to my Epidemiology review session from 5-6, and then I had Epidemiology from 6-8:45. I kept updating the post throughout all of this on my phone and I'm finally getting around to tweaking it and posting it. I'm off to bed now. I've got 2-3 easy miles on the schedule tomorrow and then my 5k Saturday!

Hills

The boyfriend and I headed to a nearby state park this morning because he wanted to ride his bike not run and I wanted to get in some hill work, and there are some good hills there. We headed out and I did a little over one mile of warmup with him, some of it on trails which I really enjoyed. Usually, the boyfriend rides his road bike but today he wanted to do some trail riding so he rode the mountain bike. After our warmup, I went back out on to the main road to run this hill:

 I think this may actually be the downhill view of it. Here's the uphill, I think:

Anyway, it was a nice size hill even if the pictures don't necessarily show it. I did about 6 hill repeats.

After I was done with hill repeats, I met back up with the boyfriend and we did a cool down, which actually involved more hills. Fun! Did 4.75 miles total which is less than I originally planned but when I looked back at my schedule for the week, I had planned on 2 miles yesterday not 3.1 and 5 today so I ended up with more miles than planned anyway, so I'm all set. My garmin and training log are downstairs right now so I don't have all my stats and will have to edit later to add them. I'm having a little bit of arch pain, so I'm babying that right now, hopefully it will be better in time to run Monday but if not the day off won't hurt me.

I spent the rest of my day helping my mom clean (I'm living at home until January) and boy did we get a lot done. We completely reorganized both bathrooms, the kitchen cabinets and the fridge. I also did another little project, my dad is a magazine hoarder and has about a million golf magazines. Well about 100 of them resided in a wicked basket in our living room and it looked really messy, which drives me crazy so I went through them all and arranged them by year (some dated back to 1996!) and then by month and boxed them up for him. So now they're in a box in the basement and when he needs an article, he'll know where to find it and I'm happy because they're out of sight. I'm an organizational neat freak which is completely opposite of my parents so it felt really good to get some things organized today.

I also helped the boyfriend go through all of his clothes and clean his room since his family is selling their house soon and it needs to be clean for viewings.  

We did not get to go apple picking as planned :( but we will soon. Just too much going on today. I did however get my apple pie. I met up with one of my best friends from high school for dinner tonight and had apple pie for dessert after my clam chowder bread bowl, yummmm. It was so good to catch up with my friend too since we hadn't seen each other in a while and she just moved back to the area.

A busy but good day. Tomorrow will be a homework day so that I don't have to do my homework on lunch breaks like I did last week.

- Ashley

Running with my dog

My chocolate lab is one of my running partners. Or really, my only running partner right now except for the boyfriend who will run with me when he feels like it. And well, Remy, my chocolate lab, isn't the most consistent runner. She gets so excited when she realizes that we're going running that she takes off on the first mile. I basically just let her drag me until we get into a relatively steady rhythm. Then we hit our turnaround point at 1.3 miles and it's my turn to drag her home. She's got to learn about endurance, can't go out so fast.

When I run with Remy, we usually do a 2.6 mile out and back and then I drop her off at home. She gets to lay in the grass and catch her breath while I finish my run. I really do love her company on those 2.6 miles though. She stays by my side (well kind of), keeps me company and makes me feel safe. I hope I can get her up to about 4 mile runs eventually but we will see. For that, not only does she have to learn how to pace herself better but I have to try and find a slightly different route which is hard in my town which lacks consistent sidewalks to run on. I find it really unfortunate how many towns around here do not have sidewalks that make it safe for people to go out for a walk or run in their neighborhood. Although, I personally only run on sidewalks when I'm with Remy because I prefer the feel of the road but it's just not safe enough with her.

So Remy and I ran tonight. She did 2.6 miles and I did 3.1.

Stats:
Miles - 3.1
Time - 26:36, avg 8:35 min/mile
Mile 1 - 8:29
Mile 2 - 8:40
Mile 3 - 8:37
Mile 3-3.10 - 8:15 min/mile pace
Calories - 326

I just iced my foot which I tweaked somehow on the run and now it's time to relax and watch the Red Sox.

Have a good night!