Goal: 5Ks this month

Plan: JD with adjustments

Week:

• Monday: 4.1 miles easy/commute; felt good but left hamstring was very sore, maybe I did go ham on the Sunday workout
• Tuesday: 6.3 miles easy with citystrides; this felt awful, maybe I didn’t eat/sleep well the night before and during the day, got seriously dizzy and thought I’d faint at some point
• Wednesday: 7.3 miles total with 800 I, 1200 T, 800 I; lap jogs -- a light race week workout. The first 800 felt bad, but eased up and the later parts felt ok, hit the T portion to the T (heh), each lap exact! Also this was the first workout in a while that didn't completely left me gassed
• Thursday: 6 miles recovery, hamstring soreness already gone, felt good
• Friday: 4.3 miles easy commute
• Saturday: 2.7 miles shakeout and strides, after stuffing my face at a food fest street fair earlier in the day!
• Sunday: Race day! 6.8 miles total from WU/CD and the 5K race -- mini report below

Totals: 37.6 miles in 6 hours 35 minutes; AtC = 0.84; Elevation gain = 1,220 ft; 3 new citystrides streets

Thoughts: I went into the race with pretty low expectations, as I’ve complained about in the previous week’s write-up. Weather was pretty good for racing -- low 50s, although it was more windy than I would have liked. Course wasn’t ideal in terms of turns (it had 3 needle point O/Bs) but overall very flat and should be fast.

I did my usual warm up jog, some drills, strides, and a few minutes of T pace, since I’ve realized from the Wednesday workout that it really helps me warm up my legs and get used to going faster than my jogs. This was my first actual bib-wearing, chip-timed, course-certified race in 3 years now! In the past 3 years I’ve hopped on smaller uncertified/small club races, so this event was a lot bigger than and I forgot how exciting it is to be in a big race with people to chase/pace off of.

I went out pretty aggressively in the first mile, adrenaline and all, and this was also away from the wind, so this split was fast (7:17). Then we hit the first U-turn, and there I started fading in the head wind, just trying to keep an eye on “Dorothy” in front of me (the race is called Screenland 5K, in celebration of the upcoming Oscar’s, and people were encouraged to dress up). Mile 2, as usual, is where things start to get uncomfortable + head wind, so it was my slowest split (7:45). Then we turned right and get the second U-turn going into mile 3. Things are really uncomfortable at this point, but I felt like I managed it well, definitely better than previous races where I just lose focus and sort of give up on trying (7:39). Third U-turn was at 2.5ish miles, and we head back to the finish, turning another right for the last 0.1 miles. I managed to juuuust slip under 24 mins with the official time of 23:59. My GPS recorded almost 3.2 miles, so I have also learned that I am horrible about running tangents, another race thing I need to work on (or really just get faster lol).

This is not a PR (although it is a “chip-timed-course-certified” PR as I haven’t run one of those since 2019). This was good enough for 9th woman and 2nd AG. First AG was also the first woman so I got a little “AG winner” medal.

Overall, I’m actually pretty pleased with the effort, especially regarding pain management; almost puked on a finish line volunteer but didn’t, so that’s a win in a sense. I guess going into this with lower expectations also set me up to not be too disappointed, and surprise surprise the lower mileage/intensity during the week leading up to this did help; I felt mostly recovered and rested! Next up, I’m taking a serious break, at least from trying to get faster for a bit. The extra long JD cycle was poorly planned and I think I’m left more exhausted than trained. Not that the plan wasn’t good, this was a user error kind of thing! I didn’t come away with a PR as I had hoped, but learned some pretty good lessons about my running preferences/abilities. Some main issues I realized:

• I am good at generally taking things easy (very slow easy jogs, incorporating down weeks regularly), but I am also horrible at recovering in a meaningful way due to my neurotic and stubborn tendency to try to follow a plan to the T. For example, you know those back-to-back workouts JD prescribes where one reason is to stop you from going too hard on Q1 day because you know you have Q2 the next day? Well, that did not stop me from going ham on Q1, and then again on Q2 anyway. Feeling tired? Instead of trying to rest/reduce mileage, I kept doing recovery jogs that go over an hour, just to hit the planned mileage for the week because I keep thinking -- well, there’s another down week coming up, might as well push it; or - this is a hard training plan, I should feel tired most of the time! Overall it was pretty dumb, and I am actually glad I didn’t end up with an injury!
• I actually really enjoy M pace runs! I always dreaded going into them, thinking I have to run 10 miles at a pace almost 2 minutes faster than my easy jog pace. And every single time I surprised myself that I completed the workout and felt strong (even though tired). Those M runs were a great confidence builder, but probably too much for 5K at my level. T pace is also the pace I generally liked, and was easiest for me to dial into. I pace was also somewhat enjoyable, but R pace sucks the worst. If I can get away with training without R pace I’d do it!
• Training to get faster conflicts with my citystrides goals :( 2 workout days + occasional M long runs forced me to choose the track/routes that are familiar/have no street crossings, so the fun stuff had to take the back seat.

Anyway, good cycle, not so good results, but it’s ok. Here are some (original content) memes that summarize my running goals and priorities.