Wow. I've been so horrible about blogging recently! To be honest, part of the reason is that I'm afraid to jinx my training. The last time I wrote about how great training was going, I wound up with a stress fracture only a few weeks later. So, instead of jinxing myself, I just haven't been writing. But, I have been running & training!
It took me a LONG time to feel like I could run well again after my stress fracture. I started back up in May but spent several weeks dealing with the mental aspect of running again after having a cracked tibia. I was EXTRA cautious and paranoid about EVERYTHING and it took me a month to make it up to 5 miles. After that first month, I started to relax a bit, but still kept my mileage very low and didn't add in any speedwork until August. I started working with my coaches again in July and they came up with a very conservative plan for me that I felt comfortable with and with their help, FINALLY feel like I'm almost back to where I was before injury.
For the last few weeks, I've really been questioning how in/out of shape I am, so this past Wednesday, I ran the last 5k of the Al Goldstein Summer Speed Series to find out. I ran this race back in June as my first race post injury so couldn't wait to see how far I had come since then. I went back and forth about how to run this race- with a watch, without a watch, with tape over my watch, etc and ended up wearing my watch (so I would have splits afterwards) but I put tape over it so I could run by feel. I'm proud of myself for actually keeping the tape on the whole time and not peeking (although I almost asked a guy I was running next to what pace we were running!) but it turns out that I'm not sure I like running "naked"! I honestly think that I would have pushed harder at certain points if I had known my pace. I'm glad I tried it out once, and this was a good race to do it, but I can't say that I'll be doing it again anytime soon. It didn't result in an instant PR, like it seems to for many, and had me questioning if I was giving it enough effort in the middle of the race, which probably means I wasn't!
My splits were:
7:12
6:50 (first sub 7 mile in I-don't-know-how-long!)
7:06
6:28 (for 0.1)
Total time: 21:43 (7:00 pace)
I was secretly sort of hoping to run 6:59 pace for this race and am pretty sure I would have made that happen if my watch hadn't been covered. But, I'm still happy with only being 12 seconds off my 5k after only a month with speedwork! I ended up being the 5th female and 2nd in my age group. Should have stuck around for my mini medal, but I didn't think there was a chance that I was anywhere near placing!
Up next is the NYRR Autism 4 mile race on September 7, but I'll run that as a tempo portion of a long run, then Philly Rock 'n' Roll Half in a little over 2 weeks. I'm still not exactly sure what I'm going to do with this race. I'm not going to all-out race it, but I think I would like to run it comfortably hard to see where I stand for the Wineglass Half in October (goal race). I'm really excited for Wineglass weekend- it's going to be an awesome girls trip and 4 people I'm coaching are running/racing it as well! I may be more excited to see how they do than how I do!.....
Oh! And I'm also running the 5th Ave Mile. Last year I BOMBED on pacing myself in this race. When I first looked down at my Garmin, it said 4:xx. Um no, I cannot sustain that pace for a mile, so this year I'm hoping I can run it smarter and PR!
Do you race with or without a watch? Have you set a PR without a watch? What races are you running this Fall? What's your goal race?
It took me a LONG time to feel like I could run well again after my stress fracture. I started back up in May but spent several weeks dealing with the mental aspect of running again after having a cracked tibia. I was EXTRA cautious and paranoid about EVERYTHING and it took me a month to make it up to 5 miles. After that first month, I started to relax a bit, but still kept my mileage very low and didn't add in any speedwork until August. I started working with my coaches again in July and they came up with a very conservative plan for me that I felt comfortable with and with their help, FINALLY feel like I'm almost back to where I was before injury.
For the last few weeks, I've really been questioning how in/out of shape I am, so this past Wednesday, I ran the last 5k of the Al Goldstein Summer Speed Series to find out. I ran this race back in June as my first race post injury so couldn't wait to see how far I had come since then. I went back and forth about how to run this race- with a watch, without a watch, with tape over my watch, etc and ended up wearing my watch (so I would have splits afterwards) but I put tape over it so I could run by feel. I'm proud of myself for actually keeping the tape on the whole time and not peeking (although I almost asked a guy I was running next to what pace we were running!) but it turns out that I'm not sure I like running "naked"! I honestly think that I would have pushed harder at certain points if I had known my pace. I'm glad I tried it out once, and this was a good race to do it, but I can't say that I'll be doing it again anytime soon. It didn't result in an instant PR, like it seems to for many, and had me questioning if I was giving it enough effort in the middle of the race, which probably means I wasn't!
My splits were:
7:12
6:50 (first sub 7 mile in I-don't-know-how-long!)
7:06
6:28 (for 0.1)
Total time: 21:43 (7:00 pace)
I was secretly sort of hoping to run 6:59 pace for this race and am pretty sure I would have made that happen if my watch hadn't been covered. But, I'm still happy with only being 12 seconds off my 5k after only a month with speedwork! I ended up being the 5th female and 2nd in my age group. Should have stuck around for my mini medal, but I didn't think there was a chance that I was anywhere near placing!
Up next is the NYRR Autism 4 mile race on September 7, but I'll run that as a tempo portion of a long run, then Philly Rock 'n' Roll Half in a little over 2 weeks. I'm still not exactly sure what I'm going to do with this race. I'm not going to all-out race it, but I think I would like to run it comfortably hard to see where I stand for the Wineglass Half in October (goal race). I'm really excited for Wineglass weekend- it's going to be an awesome girls trip and 4 people I'm coaching are running/racing it as well! I may be more excited to see how they do than how I do!.....
Oh! And I'm also running the 5th Ave Mile. Last year I BOMBED on pacing myself in this race. When I first looked down at my Garmin, it said 4:xx. Um no, I cannot sustain that pace for a mile, so this year I'm hoping I can run it smarter and PR!
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| Random picture that does not belong in this post but needed a picture to spruce it up! Nicole's dog Molly, Allison, Beth and me. Photo credit: Nicole |
Do you race with or without a watch? Have you set a PR without a watch? What races are you running this Fall? What's your goal race?
