Ok, so Saturday morning was a jammed packed morning (time wise that is)...... First, I had to get up and get ready for the day. NO..... I do not normally get a shower and do my make up and hair..... Not before a 5k anyway. However, today, the 5k that I was running started at 8am, and I had to be at work by 9am!!!! Yeah, cutting it a little close. But..... there was no way I could miss this 5K. First of all, the 5K is in honor of the son of the beautiful lady pictured in the middle of the photo above. The money raised benefits scholarships in the honor of James. Secondly, a co-worker and friend was going to be running her very first 5K! So, for those 2 great reasons, I made sure I worked this 5K into my schedule.
I jumped into the car and the song "Work IT" by Missy Elliott was playing...... Oh yeah, I was getting pumped up!!!!! However, my ballon bursted when about a quarter of a mile from the race start, I got pulled over by a policeman!!! Errrrrrrr! I was sitting at a red light and saw the cop across from me in a turn lane too.... he was to be turning the opposite direction of the way I was turning. Anyway, the light turned green and all of a sudden I see this cop turn in the direction of the way I was turning and turned on his lights... while he was cruising at warped speed to get right on my tail!!!! The picture below is my "Are you kidding me?!?!" face...........
Seriously, as I was rolling down my window and getting my license, I was thinking, what could possibly be the cause of this pull over. For one, I KNOW I was NOT speeding because I just had gone from a completely stopped position to turning, so I couldn't even have been going 25mph. Then, I got to thinking, "Oh man, the light did turn green, right? Surely I just didn't go through a red light?! Oh pleeeaassseeee, tell me I did not go through a red light." By the time all these thoughts went through my head, there was the cop at my door..... Asking me how my day was going....... well, I said exactly what I was thinking, I told him, "Good, until I saw you." Ok, not nice, I know.... but honestly, why today? He went on to ask for my license and told me I had a headlight out! Which, let me say, I had no idea of!!!! errrrrrrr!!! Cars should have a sensor that alerts you to a headlight out..... right? Especially since you can get a ticket for that!!!! On the bright side, he did let me go after running my license.
OK, now on to better things..... the above picture is my of me on the left, Wendy in the middle who was running her very first 5K, and Brandy who not only PR'd the 5K but smoked it!!!!! I did ok, I ended up finishing with a time of 25: 24 (average 8:10 pace).... not the day I hoped for, but it was ok.
Got to work, washed off & freshened up, changed clothes, and put on my happy face........... the day had to get better!!!! And, I have to say, not too bad of a work day........
Now, today.... Sunday...... long run day! I had 8 miles on the books. I decided to run solo.... so, I left my house later than I normally do, so that I wouldn't be running in the dark!! I am one BIG chicken!!!! LOL! Lately, I have kinda dreaded my long runs. The pace was feeling pushed, and I would find myself doing this go fast for a little while, and then slow dow.... the back and forth was exhausting. I am not sure if it is coming off running a marathon March 5th or what. But lately, the long run has been a bit of a "stress" to me...... I was being left feeling tight in my legs and tired. During the week, I have been skipping at least 1 run and some weeks 2 runs because I simply just loss the desire to even get up and go on those days. I started to think, maybe I am just pushing to much on the long run and need to stay "controlled" at a steady pace..... and an "easy" pace where my breathing is not labored. So, this is what I did today......
I felt good afterwards too! Not tired! And, my legs did not feel tired either!!!!!
The first mile was my warm up which was at a 10:08 pace.... Then, my focus was to stay between a 9:15- 9:30 pace. The run was so relaxed and felt good!!! There were a couple of times that I started to notice my breathing starting to be a bit labored and looked at my watch... yep, going too fast! I found out that there is a threshold between 8:55-9:00 where I instantly go from enjoying the run with easy breathing, to not having so much fun with labored breathing. I could feel when I was going to fast for me! Let me tell you, staying controlled with pace during the long run can be a bit challenging to do.... seems easy in theory, but sometimes the body gets going faster without you realizing ....... but you quickly know when things turn from unlabored to labor breathing............ I am not the fastest runner, but not the slowest either. But, if there is one thing that marathon training did teach me, it was that you can honestly become faster by running slow on the long run. I can't explain why, but it is amazing how much I benefitted from a slower long run than a faster pushing pace. For now, I am planning on keeping things controlled and hopefully, this lack of motivation for running on week days will go away and I will once again love running as I did before.
After the run, I walked the for about 30 minutes and then I was off to the grocery store...... it was a beautiful day and the weather could not be more perfect!
I love spring! Cute little bunnies like the one picture above are being spotted in our yard daily!!!! This one let me get extra close for this picture the other day!!!! LOVE!!
Gotta run, lots of things that I need to get accomplish today..... UNTIL LATER!!!!!!!!! Thanks again for everyone supporting this blog!