Honestly, I considered not doing a recap because I was so grumpy about how poorly the race went.  Now that I have had a day or so to rest, relax, and move on I am ready for the recap.

Race Morning my alarm went off at 530am.  I had set the coffee maker to start making coffee at this time in hopes that it would be easier to get out of bed with coffee waiting.  I quickly jumped in the shower in an attempt to wake myself up.  Dressed in the chosen racing outfit and proceeded to eat a cliff bar and drink a cupish of coffee.  I spent about 20 minutes looking for matching socks.  It was annoying.  Then I packed up an extra shirt and headed out the door.  I met Pat, Kristin W, and SF at LA running CO to carpool.

Before the race we did a 2 mile warmup and I felt pretty freaking good.

The first 3-4 miles of the race I ran in a pack with Kristin W and Steph K along with some dudes.  I never felt good.  We were hitting 620′s and I just couldn’t get into a groove.  Soon after 4 miles I fell off to 630 pace and then around mile 6 I hit 650.  The last 3 miles were a terrible 710, 730, 750 something.  My legs just had nothing.  It felt like something was lacking in my body.  My cardio was fine, it was a leg meltown.

(the look of a terrible race)

So, instead of harping on this race for the rest of the week I have come up with a game plan.  This week I will be switching up my workouts a bit and possibly getting on the track for some 10k type workouts.  Maybe a change of pace will help!

And always looking on the bright side…at least I am not hurt or sick and I have been putting in good training so the fitness is till there.

This week was a down week running wise.  Life wise there was a refrigerator emergency that took up a lot of my time.  We also had an out of town wedding to attend so running was sure to be interrupted.

Summary:

Sunday: Easy recovery run before the saints game: 4.25.  Played frisbee after and was sore for a few days.

Monday: 8m. From house to run group, run group, and back.

Tuesday: Off.  Refrigerator Emergency.  Spent most of the evening cleaning.

Wed: 7.1 at run group.  I was grumpy on this run and wanted to run it quickly.

Thursday: 6.6 with Mearn at run group.  Felt easy.

Friday: Long Run was moved to this day because of previously mentioned wedding.  The goal was 19ish miles.  I made it 14.6 and had to call it quits.  My legs hurt. My stomach hurt.  Basically I NEVER felt good.

Saturday: 4.3 with people before the wedding.  We ran slowly.

Week total was right under 45.  Not bad for a down week.  Did not get in the workout for the week due to stress from the refrigerator.  Not too worried about it.

Other running news.  The Chicago marathon was this weekend.  It kicked my marathon fever back into high gear so motivation this week should not be a problem.  Louisiana runner Matt Manning ran 2:28 which is not what he wanted but is still an impressive time.  The female winner Liliya Shobukhova finished in a VERY impressive 2:18.

She is poised to be one of the favorites in the marathon next Olympics.  Any time a woman is breaking 2:20 she is breathing rare air.

In other news.  I am racing this weekend.  10 miles.  This is exciting because I tend to get bored just training.  Also, I have limited experience with longer races so hopefully the more I do them the better I will get.  I will post a race report after.  I think I am going to race in my Lunar Racers.  I have only used them once and I am considering using them for the marathon.  I guess a 10 mile race is a good way to test them out.  Hopefully they don’t hurt my feet!

Thats all the news for now.  I will leave you with a lolcatz.

Weekly recap time!

56.6

Sun 25th: I started the week of with a day off.  It was lovely. 0

Monday 26th: 8 miles.  At run group.  It was grossly humid.

Tuesday 27th: 10.3 miles including a workout of 4xmile with 1 min recovery, 5 min jog, 3xmile with 1 min recovery.  The miles were at threshold pace.  I averaged mid 620′s.

Wed 28th: AM; 3.1 easy  PM: 6 at run group.  Kind of quick at the end, but mostly easy.

Thursday 29th: 6m.  I was very tired.  I planned to go longer but called it a day early.

Friday 30th: 6m.  Attempting to recovery.  Felt better today.

Saturday 1st: 17.2  Including 4×5 min on 1 min off at the beginning and a 15 minute tempo at the end.  The weather changed over night and it was lovely out.  This run was very nice.  I did it in the am with a group.

So this week went pretty well.  Tuesdays workout was VERY HARD and I am happy I managed to complete it.  Poboy did most of it with me and served as constant motivation.  Sundays long run/workout went really well and it reminded me of how much of a difference nice weather can make.  Hopefully the horrible heat is gone for a while.

The only problem with the season changing is that now every evening run will be competed in the dark (see above).  Lame shorter days.

I have decided to do a race on the 15th.  It is 10 miles.  I tend to get bored just training so I am going to mix it up a little.  It will also help me get an idea of what kind of shape I am in.

This blog post by Nick Symmonds is a very interesting read.  I do not know how much I would like it if professional runners looked like nascar drivers, but I agree that the IAAF and USATF seem to be out of control.  I believe taking away the women’s world and american records was the last straw for some of these professional athletes.  I am interested to see if anyone else speaks out in the next few weeks.

I will try and update if anything interesting goes down this week.