Ups and Downs

Well last week was interesting to say the least. As I wrote on Monday, I skipped Monday’s run and then ran Tues-Friday. I only ran a total of 29 miles! When I went to run on Tuesday, I just didn’t feel right. My legs were still feeling fatigued from last Saturday’s 20. Then for the rest of the week I had some calf pain. This made me extremely nervous because it happens to be every cycle. Last cycle, I was seeing a chiropractor, so she helped work out the knots. All last week, I foam rolled and used the stick religiously. I did my long run of 12 on Friday because I wanted a day of rest in case I decided to race on Sunday (which I did!).

I wore new shoes for my long run: Mizuno Wave Nirvana 6s. These are a newer model than my last ones, and I called the company to ask about fit. They told me that they would fit and wear the same. Well, I wore them on my run and they felt terrible! The side of my foot was killing me and it rubbed my pinkie toe. I had that pain on the side of my foot all day on Saturday. Since I ran in them, they can’t be returned and they were $120. I am going to test them out on some shorter runs to see if I get used to them. I hope my issues are in my head. Otherwise, I will be wearing my old shoes for the rest of this cycle.

That brings me to: RACE DAY! Many people advised me against it, but I just couldn’t resist. I ran the Winter’s End 4.5 miler for the last two years, and I wanted to see where my speed is compared to last year. I wasn’t sure of my expectations because I am a little run down from the training and I wasn’t sure how my calves were going to feel. I got there early, registered, and warmed up a little. It was a record turnout: about 170 runners. I thought my age group was 20-29, and I saw a really good local triathlete who is about 22 there. I knew she would beat me, but I was hoping for 2nd. Usually at the Strider’s races they only give out awards for the top 2 in each age group. There were a lot of unfamiliar faces who were dressed like they were seasoned runners.

I lined up towards the front. I used to feel self-conscious about lining up towards the front, but I can hold my own and I am sick of dodging and weaving at the beginning of the race. When the gun went off, I took off just to get out of the crowd. I hit mile 1 at 6:15….wayyyy too fast for me! I was running with some of the leaders (women…not the eventual winner though…she smoked everyone right from the beginning). Many of these women beat me at all of the races, so I let them go ahead a bit. My legs were burning and I still had 3.5 miles to go!
This race isn’t as easy as it looks. While there are no big hills, there are some rollers and I definitely felt them. It is an out and back course and towards the turnaround, the course is on a dirt surface. It isn’t even and there was some gravel, so I was extremely careful with my footing. The thought of falling entered my mind, so I pretty much ran looking at the ground. At the turnaround, I saw that I was the 6th female. I was pretty far ahead of the 7th place girl and the top 5 were pretty far ahead of me. I knew I wasn’t going to be able to catch them, and I was pretty sure I could hold off the rest of the competition. And that was pretty much what happened. I was the 6th female in 32:08 (7:09 pace). Last year, I ran 33:30 so this is a big improvement. I felt good and am pleased with this time. I wasn’t sure if I was going to place in my age group, since I knew the one girl beat me, and I didn’t know how old the 2nd place girl was. It turned out that they split the age group, so in the 25-29 group, I got 1st! I would have had 2nd if they didn’t split it. Plus, they gave out 3rd place awards too. I guess because of the record field. So all in all, it was a good race.

This week marks my final “Peak” week. Here’s the schedule:
Sunday: I am counting the race as 5 with the warm-up.
Monday: 5 recovery
Tuesday: 10
Wednesday: Supposed to do 8x800, but I may just do 5, since I just did some speed.
Friday: 10 pace
Saturday: 20, but I may do 21 since I did that for Steamtown and it worked for me.
Total mileage: 56 miles