4 Mile Run

Today I went for my first 4 mile run since January 1st! I was only planning on a 3 miles, but I was running on the nice and flat bike path and at the turn around point I decided to keep going since my ankle felt fine. I ran the 4 miles in 41 minutes. I was surprised on the time since I did take 2 walk breaks. After the run I felt great! I do have a long way to go before I am ready for the 10 mile blessing of the Fleet run, but I have have 2 months to get ready. On another note, I am part of the Hornet Juice Challenge so before my run today I drank some of the magic elixir and I really didn't feel any different during or after my run. I have a good 2 week supply of the stuff, so I will continue to use it and hopefully I will notice any sort of difference.

I am on the hunt for Tri shorts for my upcoming races this year and I am wondering if anyone has any recommendations on what shorts are the best? Keep in mind that I am a Clyde and skin tight shorts is not really the thing for me. Is there lose fitting Tri shorts out there? Any help would be great!

HAppy Hump day!

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!

This weekend is the official start of the summer. I don't know about the rest of the country, but Rhode Island will have some great weather this weekend! Everyone have a fun and safe weekend. And on Monday, please take a moment to remember those who gave their lives for the freedoms we enjoy today.

First Race of the Year

Yesterday's A Race to Grow 5k race a... lets just say a beggining of the race season for me. I knew going into the race that I was not going for a PR, just wanted to get back into racing, hangin out with other runners and enjoying the race itself. The day before I didn't know if I could even run the race. While working in the yard I twisted my ankle, yeap the bad one, yeap the same one from last weekend. So I took care of it and it felt fine Sunday morning. I took a few advil before the race just in case. My ankle felt great during my pre-run so I knew it would not be a factor. I normally like to start up front and to the side in the race, but I knew I was going to be slow right out of the gate so I stuck to the back (actually there were only about 75 people running so I wasn't far from the start). The gun went off and I started at a nice slow pace. I had set my Garmin 305 to alert me if I was going over 6.5 MPH and if I was going slower then 5.8 MPH. So for much of the first mile the Garmin was beeping at me to slow down. As you know, for the past few weeks I have been dealing with a wall that creeps up around mile 1.5 and lasts until mile 2, well I must have missed the wall because I didn't hit it at all during the race. I was really excited about that. Run time - 30min 44 secs for a 9:54 mile. I wasn't expecting any better. My next 5k race is Celebrate Summer 5k on July 19th (that's if I am not going to cheer on my peeps at IMUSA!).

A BIG CONGRATS goes out to Michelle who at the last minute decided to run and placed 3rd in her AG!!!!! WTG!!!!!

So what did I learn at this race? There is no wall, Its all in my head, I know I am faster then 30min 44secs, Take a couple advil before the race, Smile for the camera guy, and I have a long way to go before I am ready for the Blessing of the FLeet 10 miler.

Happy Monday!

Quick Upate

This is a quick update. I hit the pool the other day for the first time in close to a month. Yeah I know I have been slacking on that. I completed 1000m and I felt really good. Everything felt really smooth. I did a TT for 50m, which I set a new best time of 51sec. Running has been pretty good too. Over the weekend I rolled my left ankle on a rock while walking on a path through the woods with Brady on my shoulders. Thank goodness I didn't fall. First thing I thought of was, "Oh crap not that ankle...I have a race coming up this weekend." But I walked it off and the ankle felt fine. Thank goodness for that one. I had a nice run through town today. Still really slow, but I know my speed will increase with time. As for the 5K race this weekend, I really don't plan on going for a PR or any time for that matter. I just want to get out there and race again. Nothing like lining up and running 3 miles with a bunch of people. It is so fun.

Ok, thats my quick update!

Finally Coming Together

I had a decent run today. I was kinda excited about it. I started off doing some Nautilus machines and then a quick 10 minutes on the Elliptical before my run. I figured that should be a good warm up before my run. The first mile of the run was great. Then probably around 1.5 miles I hit a wall. I stopped and walked for about 30 secs and then started running again. Then I hit the wall again 4 minutes later. So again I walked for about 30 secs and then started running. From that point on I felt great! Breathing was awesome and my body felt great. I think I will stop trying to understand how fix this "Wall" thing. I am just going to keep running and I think it will work itself out. I plan on running again tomorrow. I normally don't do back to back running days so I will probably keep it under 3 miles, probably 2.

My first 5K of the year is coming up in 2 weeks. I am kinda excited about running a race again. My last one was back in November. If I didn't have my 3 month layoff from running due to my injury I think I would be setting a new PR in 2 weeks. But I am taking it slow for this race and hopefully I will not be hitting any walls. I have been averaging a little over 10 min miles on my runs lately. Pretty slow compared to where I was back in November. My running will come back and I know I will be better then ever!

Busy Week

This week has been very busy. We are having a party for Reese's 2nd birthday on Saturday so I have been going crazy getting the house ready, doing yard work and shopping. At least I squeezed in a 3 mile run yesterday.

Same thing happened during yesterday's run. I used my Garmin 305 to make sure I wasn't running to fast. I figured keep it at a steady 6.0mph. I still felt like crap until mile 2. Then for the last mile I was running around 7.0mph with no problem. I even sprinted up the death hill leading up to the Y!!! I just can't figure it out. Some one at work thought I might be catching my "2nd Wind". Is there such a thing? I felt like I could have ran another couple of miles. But I am still taking things slow with running. I have felt no pain for the past few weeks so I am good to go and will probably start increasing the mileage.

Happy May everyone!