My ponderings and reflections

I was tremendously pleased to have a great run yesterday after a fully craptastical week. .....and while my week was not really the best most glorious ever I'm actually referring to the fact that I had a BAD running week.... I gave some serious thought to why I was having lead legs and super slow feet. I am a fairly smart girl and came up with the following multi part conclusion:

1- I am exhausted as I have not slept well in weeks
2- It is freezing out so I am stiff and slow to warm up
3- It is freezing out so I forget to drink... Water...
4- I am over the euphoria of returning to running and have settled into the drudgery of improving my fitness

I was not particularly well rested yesterday but spent a few pre run minutes stretching and was sure to pound some high quality H2o. I felt considerably better and finally (and I mean, REALLY) was able to up my mileage without feeling like I was going to break my femur doing so.

I believe that I was the only runner in the world not to run a race this past weekend. In my perfectly well designed plan for 2010 I was scheduled to run a 5K trail race on Saturday. The 7ish weeks spent on the DL made me change my mind about that one which is a good show of unusual logic for me. Something about slamming down 5K over roots, stumps, wildlife and swampland on a just recovered and still not fully fit leg sounded nothing short of retarded. So I stayed home.

With 2 months left in the year I'm suspicious that my goal of running a 10K might go unfinished... Mostly due to my geography the race season is grinding to a halt because people are becoming hypothermic. I am toying with the idea of driving a couple hours south (which will tragically not improve the temps by more than 3 degrees) to run a 10K on January 1st. A good New Years resolution but it might be sub fricking arctic!! I'm having a tad bit of trouble wrapping my head around this one.
I am also fairly certain that I will not be cracking the 21 minute mark in any 5K's. It is painfully clear that shaving seconds off the time on a 5K is challenging. Knocking off another TWO minutes? It might as well be two hours!!
I will revise my goal by saying that if I can manage a 5K in under 23 minutes I'll be very happy. (I'm not giving up on my 21 minute 5K. No way, Jose. But I'm allowed to make changes to my ridiculous goals because I'm a grown ass woman, damnit!)

I'm a geek so I looked back at all my race results for the year so that I could mull over my VAST and DRAMATIC improvements...

This year's results:
-Day after Thanksgiving, 2009: 4 miler- 39:11 (the race that started the madness and introduced me to the fact that practice is important to ward off impossibly sore muscles.)
-June... 2nd?? 2010- Tri For a Cure 5K- 23:11 (ran a 6:14 first mile. enough said. and an over 10:00 last mile- so not enough said?) Placed 12th. Celebrated.
-June 25th or so- Ridge Run 5K- 23:19 (ran mile 1 in 6:03. I had not learned my lesson yet. spent the rest of the day wishing to die. lesson learned.) 1st place woman.
-July 4th- 4 on the 4th- 31:20- First time I ran smart enough to claim negative splits! In almost 90 degree weather!
-July 7th- Run by the lake 5K- 23:33- my slowest 5K time to date but ran negative splits in 94 degree temps. Won age division.
-July 17th- Old Home Days 5K- 23:14- another very smart race, neg splits and hot weather. Won age division.
-July 31st- Another "Old Home Days" 4 miler- 30:29- Ran the last mile the fastest- not a lot of gas left at the end but another smart run. Finished in top 100- big race.
.........Time off due to various shit in life plus insane shin splint............
-October 16th- Fall Foliage 5K- 23:00. Still a mystery as to how I managed this, but time off did not hurt evidently. 2nd place woman. by a hairrrrrr....

Upcoming events:
Me vs. the Thanksgiving day 4 miler. Rematch bitches.
and.... nothing else. I'm going to hunt around for some festive fun 5K's and continue to ponder the logic of a New Year's Day 10k.