Ausherman 5 Mile and How Not to Prepare for a Long Run

The good: I ran a 5 mile race this weekend and improved my time in this distance by almost 8 minutes.

The bad: Doing the race before a scheduled long run wasn't the best decision but I figured I'd swap my long run weeks and do my step back week (13 miles) yesterday.

The ugly: 13 miles didn't happen either but the race and a bunch of other reasons were the cause - I only managed about 10.

I'll start with last week. Last week was busy...very busy. It started to go down-hill on Wednesday. Woke up early Wednesday morning and ran eight miles. Then, worked from 7 AM - 4 PM. The minute my last conference call of the day ended at 4 PM, I packed up the dogs and drove two and a half hours to my parents house. It was hot out that day, my parents house doesn't have air conditioning. I've learned I'm very spoiled with air conditioning. Even though it's hot out, I still eat a bowl of vegetable soup there because I'm super hungry and then gorge myself on candy. I attempt to go to sleep early since I know the next two days will be tiring.

Due to the heat and the strange bed, I don't sleep too well but am up at 5:30 the next day and head into the office to work from 6:30 AM - 5 PM. I normally work remotely from home, but sometimes have to travel to one of the offices and work there when there are meetings, training, new projects, etc. I've worked this way for years. This will sound incredibly high maintenance, but the office environment is hard on me. I'm not use to flourescent lightning (get headaches) and I always seem to end up sick for a day or two - I'm not sure if it's the air quality or just being around lots of people. This day I also decide to eat Taco Bell for lunch and then pizza and lots more candy for dinner.

Friday - I repeat the process. Head into work early but only work a few hours and then have a big company meeting and picnic. That shouldn't be too stressful but I ate all kinds of food I don't normally eat (noticing a trend?). There was a hot dog involved plus many random desserts made by various people. After awhile, I pick up the dogs and head back home. Once there, I go out to eat with my husband. I order some pasta with tomato basil sauce. Note to self, ask what kind of sauce it is instead of just assuming. It ended up being a cream based sauce but I still eat about half of it.

Saturday - wake up early to try and prepare for the Ausherman 5 Miler. Eat a piece of toast with peanut butter and drink lots of water. I head over to the location early to pick up my number, warm-up and stretch. The time went by fast and soon, we were off.

I signed up for this race with the intention of trying to run faster than usual but still trying not to kill myself so I could run the next day. It's one of the larger local events (still less than 400) people and I just wanted to run it since it was local. The course is advertised as flat and fast. Wow...these people are definitely fast! The winner's time was 23:47! There is a little prize money involved so I guess that attracts some faster people as well.

The race itself was pretty un-eventful. I managed to keep a fairly consistent pace. I reached mile 1 at 8:02 and was OK with that. I didn't have my Garmin on but was wearing a regular watch and checked the time at each mile and found most were within the same range even though I slowed slightly after the first mile. The course was definitely flat, just through some down-town residential streets for one large 5-mile loop. Two people passed me with about 1/2 - 3/4 of a mile to go. They were the only ones I really remember passing me and I tried to catch up with them toward the finish line but didn't quite get them. As I was just approaching the finish line, I saw my husband waiting for me. He had the camera but I was so fast that he just couldn't get me in time...Actually, he had no idea when I would finish (I told him 45-ish) and then couldn't get the camera on when I waved to him and he recognized it was me!

So, here's my finish line photo...haha!

I was happy with my time which was 41:52. The first 5 mile race I ran was in January with a time of 49:40 - so just a slight improvement! :-) I haven't done a thing to work on getting faster over these months, it has just started to happen as I've been logging more miles. I'm a pretty big believer in building endurance before trying to work on speed. I'm hoping next year I can focus a little bit on getting faster once I've built up my endurance.

This race had good post-race food for being a smaller event. All kinds of drinks (including beer but I'm not a beer drinker), sandwiches, lots of fruit, pretzels/chips and lots of popsicles/Klondike bars, etc. Yum! I normally don't stick around for any awards because I'm not exactly an award winner but since they were giving a random trip to Bermuda away, I figured I'd stick around. I didn't win, but it was still a nice morning!

I spent the rest of Saturday trying to get back to normal - grocery shopping, chores, etc. When Sunday morning came, I did not want to get up out of bed. I was still tired from the week, the race and had the start of a sore throat. This is the first time that I really haven't wanted to get out of bed for a run. Some days it takes a little longer but I just did not want to run at all Sunday morning. I eventually forced myself up, got ready and headed out. The first three miles were miserable. I'd certainly given up all hope of doing 18 and decided to strive for 13. Then, about 2 miles into it, I said to myself I had to make it to at least 10. Miles 4-8 started to feel normal and I was talking myself back into doing 13. But, then, I started to have to realize I was going to need a bathroom break and headed toward home fairly uncomfortable.

Here was my dilemma. I had never paid attention to it before, but when you start to have an urge to find a restroom, you start looking around you. I was on one road with several wooded areas, but not wooded enough to sneak into. Then, I was in a new neighborhood with lots of construction...there are port-o-potties everywhere! Not that I'd ever want to use one, but I definitely debated it. I opted not to and just headed home for the break and was going to venture back out.

I was going to finish the run after the break and even had myself back outside to the end of the drive way when I just decided to quit for the day. I wasn't enjoying the run and decided to just say screw it, went back inside and opted to go to breakfast with my husband instead. The past several weekends, he's been going out to breakfast while I've been doing the long runs. When I stopped back at the house for the bathroom break, I heard the shower running so I knew he was going to go out soon. I felt like crap anway.

I threw a little fit because I was angry at myself for quitting, but got over it pretty quickly and enjoyed the rest of the day. It's a new week and I'm getting myself back on track and the 18 miles will definitely be completed this weekend. I'm also not going to eat crap all week long either...yuck! Now, this sore throat better go away. I do not want to this turn into something more!!