Brrrrr!!!

I finished my first ice bath of the year a few hours ago. As usual, the first 2 minutes were torture, then it was fine an definitely worth it, especially since I just finished a hard tempo run and I'm planning to do my run early tomorrow morning. I need to start working more on recovery, which I think I have been getting better at recently. Ice bath tonight and I've been stretching more regularly. Now I just need to get the massages happening again.

Hail Mary

No, I didn't run a marathon. I just got back from my LSD and it starting hailing near the end. First time. Kinda cool

A change of pace

I headed out for a trail run this evening. In addition to the rocks, roots, and other obstacles, I wasn't really ready to deal with the elevation gain. It was fun though, and I would like to get to the trails once a week just to change it up a bit.

First race of 2008

Today was my first race since I ran a half marathon PR on June 24, 2007 and then completely quit running - or I guess take a break, since I'm back at it now. Since that half marathon PR, I didn't run again until January 4 of this year.

Okay, enough boring background information. The event was a flat and scenic 8K. I ran the inaugural event last year in a painful 42:27. I mean it was really painful, I think I remember my legs wanted to give out at around the 5 or 6k mark. It didn't actually feel too confident about 2 weeks ago, and I was contemplating whether I should race today, or just treat it as another training run (like I'd have the discipline to hold myself back). Then things just kinda came together, and my runs were getting quicker and started feeling better. So, I went out this morning with a goal to crack 40 minutes. My plan was to run the first half in 20 minutes, then to evaluate how I felt and adjust my pace accordingly. Well, I started out pretty quick, and I just couldn't seem to get myself to run any slower than 4:30/km according to my Polar so I just decided to keep going with that pace and hope not to crash from starting out too fast. I just kept motoring along at around a 4:30 pace, and I was still feeling great after 4k, 5k, 6k, I couldn't believe it - I was on my way to finishing well under 40 minutes! Or would my lungs or legs give out with 1k left to go? I wasn't sure, but I felt fine so I kept going, feeling very strong - I even ran right past the water station! I always say that I won't stop for water in the shorter races, but it's always so tempting when it's right there. Well, 6k down, 2 to go. I started to pick up the pace a little bit, and then quite a bit more for the final 800m or so. I think I was even racing the guy beside me to the finish (that's us in the picture!). I was going to ask him to race to the finish line, but I think the race was already on. I'm not too sure who won between the two of us, but that's not important, it was just a nice push for both of us to cross the line faster. Official time ... 35:53! I didn't even shave that much time off my half marathon PR after 6 months of training!! I am very surprised and happy with my time, especially since I've only been back at for 9 or 10 weeks now, and 3k was such a challenge when I first started back up. I'm also very curious to know how fast I could run this distance if I was in peak form. Here are my splits for this race:

1 - 4:50

2 - 4:33

3 - 4:27

4 - 4:29

5 - 4:27

6 - 4:25

7 - 4:27

8 - 4:15

This is probably the most evenly paced race I've ran.

Oh ya, it was also nice not to have a bunch of walkers in front of me with huge golf umbrellas this year (that happened last time). I have no problem with walkers, and I'm actually glad to see them there, but not at the front!

Okay, that was way longer than I expected, thanks for reading. Can't wait until my 10k next month, unless I do a 10k trail race 2 weeks from now, in which case, I can't wait for that!

What a great run!

Just got back from the best run of this short year. It was also a short run, but I felt fast and strong. It was the fastest that I ran this distance while keeping my heart rate in the same range as usual. Can't wait for Thursday!

Time to recharge

... not me, but the battery for my foot pod. I don't understand. The originally battery got me through five months of training, then it died sometime during my six months off. I started running again, so I bought a new one, but it only lasted 3 weeks and less than 30k! What gives?! It must have been a cheap battery. I hope the one I bought today lasts longer.

It's official!

Okay, so when I pronounced my comeback in the last post, I wasn't sure if it was a permanent thing or not. Well, I can't say that I'm officially permanently back, but it really feels like it. I did however, officially register for 3 races last night, so that makes everything feel more real. What a great feeling!

On a side note, I went out for my first snow run today. It was quite peaceful at first. Dark. Nobody around. I was happy to just hear the sound of my shoes digging in the snow. Then I came across group of runners ... a big group of runners. At least 40 of them warming up for a run at a park that I was passing by. There are usually quite a few runners in the area where I run, but I've never seen that many runners in one place except for at races. It must have been a running group from a local running store. It was quite an uplifting feeling to see all these people getting ready to get out for a run as well.

Oh well, I'm looking forward to the three races I registered for, plus at least one and maybe 2 inbetween that time.