Roxymama's 5k to Marathon, Time to Collect Another Castle
- Thread starter roxymama
- Start date
roxymama
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 26, 2015
- Messages
- 6,432
Shamrock Shuffle Cont...the actual race day
(pictures to be added shortly)
The day before our race Chicago decided to cycle through all four seasons about every three hours. I kid you not, we had snow, we had rain, we had sleet, we had sunshine, we had wind, we had our coats on and then off and then on. It was insanity. How does one even prepare for a race the next morning? Well luckily the weather stayed pretty even keeled all race morning in the mid-30’s with very little sunshine and mild to moderate wind. It felt cold. Later that afternoon it would be in the high 60’s and sunny but that’s just Chicago for you. Oh and did I mention it is snowing right now as I write this? Yeah…
So I wore long tights, a short sleeve tech shirt and a tech pullover with big pockets (it was a freebie from work!) Pockets are key for weird weather. Had to have enough room to dispose of my gloves, headband, etc etc. I packed a heavier running coat but never wore it. Yes, I was cold in the corrals. But felt perfect during the run…the gloves lasted 3 miles. My father-in-law lent me a “buff” (Survivor fans know what that is) from last year’s shuffle which I ended up using on my ears instead of my thicker winter head band and that worked out well. I left it on the whole race. A tiny part of me felt like a cool survivor contestant. I’ll never be small enough to wear that thing as a tube top like most of the women do though. haha
Our in-laws condo is almost a mile to the start line. So we met up there and kiddo stayed behind with Grandma to attend Barbie’s wedding to Ken in her play room while Grandpa, Mommy & Daddy ran. We always comment how it’s the perfect distance from their place to the corrals (most of the big Chicago races start in roughly the same area) to really get a good warm up in. And in this case…to get physically warm. Funny enough we had to walk up half of the Mt. Roosevelt hill of doom that ends the race in order to get to the start. So that was a preview of sorts.
We passed the entire finisher shoot so we also previewed all the lonely bananas and medals. Good incentive to finish our race. And then we came upon the sea of humanity in spandex and sneakers. So Many People. We were in the back corrals. Father-in-law in F and hubby and I in G. So at this point the “first wave” aka people with red bibs A-D & Elites were already penned in. Us blue-bibbed folks had plenty of time to get into our back corrals for the second wave and did not have to walk far. I kid you not when I say our corral by itself felt as big as A through C combined at the Disney 5k. I could be totally wrong but it felt that way by my perception. It seemed like A-F were smaller and then G and H were GIANT. My guess is the # of people who had estimated times in the 50min+ range were massive.
(Well spoiler alert…I chomped my way through a couple of corrals)
The back pens were closing and the loud speaker guy said “if you are not in a pen go to the end of H, which limits your chance to win” and everyone laughed, because at that time a guy had already won a while ago. Steven Sambu at 22+ min!!! My brain still does not compute. Our corral had a weak spot in the fence and so we had probably the most “pen hoppers” but as most of them had red faster bibs I did not care. They were gonna smoke me anyways likely. But it got a little crowded…it all evened out as we walked slowly what felt like at least a mile to the starting line about 5 minutes at a time. I didn’t mind other than I was starting to get pretty cold as my “warm up” had worn off, but I got more excited the closer we got…I was feeling really ready and good about everything. I’m a “bopper”…that person lightly bopping to the music the whole time. Can’t stand still.
Our phones were totally dead though. No cell service, freezing up due to the cold. I just shoved the whole thing (armband and all) in my kangaroo type pullover front pocket and shrugged it off. Hubby said he got about 2.5 miles of music somewhere in the middle of the race. I went 100% radio silent for this run (same as my last three runs.) Remind me to find my ipod shuffle. It was nice that they did have piped in music on this course which was a huge surprise and I’ll talk about that more.
My Garmin watch was working though! And I set it up to give me lap pings for every kilometer I hit. Why? To keep me from being split obsessed and to help me count off how many k’s I had achieved. I'm not used to converting k's into mile pace afterall, but I knew there'd be 8 of them
OK enough pre-race…and now…
RACE RECAP!
Mile 1 game plan...run how my long runs in the neighborhood feel. I tried not to weave around too many people because that’s a recipe for going too fast out the gate for me. I stayed in the left area but not so far left that I was blocking or becoming one of the speed nuts. I did have to do some “easy paced weaving” because I didn’t want to come to a stop, or slam on my breaks too hard. Hubby and I stuck together about a .5 mile just by how the throng was going and then I turned and said I love you and he said “go go go” and I slightly put on the accelerator just a bit as it felt a little too slow. My father-in-law told me a bridge over the river would be in the first mile and they’d have a carpet in the middle and to try to run on it since the grating is terrible. And so I did and thank you to him for that piece of advice!
Mile 1 finished on a glorious downhill. And I was surprised that a DJ was stationed blaring pop music at the mile marker and there were spectators a plenty. Felt like a huge mile 1 party. I’d find these DJ's at every mile marker and the 5k marker and so each time they were kind of like little turbo boosts for me. I thought I ran over a mat at mile 1 and turns out I did. They had one again at 5k as well. So my final times had those listed. Kind of cool to get all that info...I never get more than a "here's your finish time" with my previous 5k races.
Official mile 1 time: 10:25
Faster than my long run pace by close to a minute…but I’d say a very nice start for me. I’m starting most 5k races in the low low 9’s and dying off…so success!
Mile 2 through 3.1 was a bit of a blur. I was just really happy to be running past some cool Chicago landmarks like all the giant theatre signs and over bridges where I’d seen marathon runners on tv traverse and I’m not going to lie…I was feeling really controlled and strong and happy and pretending like I was a marathon runner in my head. The weaving had died down a bit but still had to happen here and there. The entire race was packed with people, so I don’t blame anyone for not sticking to the right if slow…how could anyone account for all the paces happening at the same time. See…I could have gotten upset about being blocked in here and there but I swear I was being super zen about it. Well except for the guys with the suitcases who were trying to cross the street and I held out my hand like “I’m not stopping and hurting myself for you”…my one “moment” of the race where I wasn’t going to be zen.
Once I ran past mile 2 marker. I literally said to myself “I just did the last two miles and I feel fine, now I just have to run a 5k” and boy did that help me mentally over thinking “oh god, I haven’t even hit a 5k yet and then there’s more” I like to trick my brain in ways like that. There was a lot more lovely downhills in this section as compared to more up-hills towards the end. I like down hills.
Along the way I ran next to or past some giant cow costumes, a gingerbread man, a woman dressed as a rainbow tying her son’s shoe (he was a pot of gold), a green cardboard robot man, a thousand men in kilts, and a dozen guys with cat in the hat Irish hats holding onto them in the wind for dear life. Oh and two firefighters with the whole kit on.
My watch buzzed at me a fifth time and I wasn’t yet to the 5k mats so I knew I’d done some not-great-tangent running/weaving. But I hit 5k officially not too much longer and official was at 31:38 or 10:05 pace. Slower than my usual 5k races…but now my engines were ready to go. And I put them on really fast and was like “woah nelly….not this fast this quick” I peaked at my garmin and I was like sprinting so I eased back but still kept the energy going. Got too excited I guess.
Mile 4 was a maze of humanity. I cannot properly convey to you the number of people who took walk breaks at this point. I was physically and mentally ready to unleash my rockets and kick some bootie and chomp some people. I just underestimated how difficult it would be to get around all the chompees. I couldn’t be mad, these people were me a year ago, I was in someone elses way a year ago. I just had to keep finding my spot and make sure I wasn’t hitting anyone or coming to close to anyone. Just taking my moments to run where I could. It got better and more open the closer to the mile 4 marker that we got. I fell in behind people now and again that were clearing a path if you will. A lot of people were veering off to go to the porty potties and water stations at this point and that opened it up a bit. I was feeling a tad parched and grabbed a Gatorade and had to walk for a brief moment just because I can’t run and drink yet. Bad idea….system didn’t want it…spit it right back up…not my finest moment. I get phlegmy when it’s cold out (TMI?) Shrugged it off and saw a big window of open space and got to running again.
My phone hit 8k before I ever got to Mt. Roosevelt. So I took a sneaky peak at the garmin before the turn for the hill and was like “what the” and sure enough my phone had me beyond 5 miles already???? 8k is 4.97 miles. Oops.
Well I got my arms out and pistoned my hands up the hill while looking at the horizon like Dopeybadger told me too. Did I feel a little silly? Nope, I felt a LOT silly. But a strong and hill-crushing silly. I hadn’t mentioned the wind yet. It got me maybe three times but it was brief. I found a guy wearing a red kilt and drafted off him…then found an even bigger guy in all blue and tucked in behind him. My race photo is going to be a giant blue guy because I was totally blocked. So I doubt we will ever have proof of my existence on that hill. I didn’t walk at all! HILL OWNED! As I made the turn for the finish chute I saw my father-in-law on the left side and yelled his name. But I just kept running as strong as I could. We ended up about 20 sec apart in finish time but he was a corral in front of me. So that was a cool feeling and it was nice to get our medals and bananas together! I think we both chomped some corrals because we finished with a lot of E people J. Oh and they said my name as I finished too!
My garmin said 5.29 miles at 50:07 and my official ended up being 50:02. I really didn’t think I had it in me to shave 5 minutes off my training time but I did…and if I hadn’t have weaved so much who knows what I would have done. I’m super proud of my effort and don’t tell anyone but I could have done a 10k right then and there…I think…It could just be my confidence talking out my you know what.
Hubby really wanted to finish under an hour and…HE DID!!! And he never walked either. We all PR’d…even father-in-law did by 3 seconds from last year.
Because I had my garmin rigged for laps being each kilometer to keep me from split-obsessing. My data after the race is split into 8+ parts. No idea what my mile splits were??? May never know
1k 10:50mi pace avg
2k 10:20mi
3k 8:37mi (looking at the map this was the biggest most sustained glorious downhill of the course)
4k 9:48mi (bye bye downhill)
5k 9:12mi
6k 7:33mi (this was my “woah too fast moment I was talking about” coupled with another downhill…it’s nice to know I have that in me…I’ve seen it before at ends of races…but ummm not yet body! Possible my garmin freaked out but I felt fast.)
7k 9:47mi
8k 9:50mi
8+k 9:14mi
The day ended with pizza from Flo and Santos, watching the Hawks beat Boston 6-4 with a Patrick Kane hat trick and hitting 100pts for the year solidifying his MVP bid. Did I mention we had tickets to that game and sold them so we could run? We are different people than a year ago. It was a rough game to miss (so many goals, so many exciting things happening) but the thought of sitting in those little seats for hours was a big NOPE!
I was able to take a nap (which is hard for me, I do not nap well) and my hubby got us tacos for dinner. It was a great day. Thanks to everyone for encouraging me and being with me on the course in spirit.
So now what’s next?
10k April 29th in Cincinatti…the Flying Pig. It has hills I am told. So do I run it with my hubby like a training run to do it together or do I go for a good time again? We will talk that over and decide soon. I have another 10k in July too.
I also need a May race right? Since 4/29 isn’t technically April? Maybe a 5k somewhere for fun? I dunno yet.
I am glad I took a whole year to get past 5k because I feel like I really took the time to improve myself physically. It allowed me not to totally die trying more miles. I’m glad I built it up gradually and that I stuck as closely as I could to my training (though not always perfectly.) Also my final thought is…starting a race at a 10+ pace where it feels easy is way better than starting too fast and finishing at that same 10+ pace where it feels like death.
(pictures to be added shortly)
The day before our race Chicago decided to cycle through all four seasons about every three hours. I kid you not, we had snow, we had rain, we had sleet, we had sunshine, we had wind, we had our coats on and then off and then on. It was insanity. How does one even prepare for a race the next morning? Well luckily the weather stayed pretty even keeled all race morning in the mid-30’s with very little sunshine and mild to moderate wind. It felt cold. Later that afternoon it would be in the high 60’s and sunny but that’s just Chicago for you. Oh and did I mention it is snowing right now as I write this? Yeah…
So I wore long tights, a short sleeve tech shirt and a tech pullover with big pockets (it was a freebie from work!) Pockets are key for weird weather. Had to have enough room to dispose of my gloves, headband, etc etc. I packed a heavier running coat but never wore it. Yes, I was cold in the corrals. But felt perfect during the run…the gloves lasted 3 miles. My father-in-law lent me a “buff” (Survivor fans know what that is) from last year’s shuffle which I ended up using on my ears instead of my thicker winter head band and that worked out well. I left it on the whole race. A tiny part of me felt like a cool survivor contestant. I’ll never be small enough to wear that thing as a tube top like most of the women do though. haha
Our in-laws condo is almost a mile to the start line. So we met up there and kiddo stayed behind with Grandma to attend Barbie’s wedding to Ken in her play room while Grandpa, Mommy & Daddy ran. We always comment how it’s the perfect distance from their place to the corrals (most of the big Chicago races start in roughly the same area) to really get a good warm up in. And in this case…to get physically warm. Funny enough we had to walk up half of the Mt. Roosevelt hill of doom that ends the race in order to get to the start. So that was a preview of sorts.
We passed the entire finisher shoot so we also previewed all the lonely bananas and medals. Good incentive to finish our race. And then we came upon the sea of humanity in spandex and sneakers. So Many People. We were in the back corrals. Father-in-law in F and hubby and I in G. So at this point the “first wave” aka people with red bibs A-D & Elites were already penned in. Us blue-bibbed folks had plenty of time to get into our back corrals for the second wave and did not have to walk far. I kid you not when I say our corral by itself felt as big as A through C combined at the Disney 5k. I could be totally wrong but it felt that way by my perception. It seemed like A-F were smaller and then G and H were GIANT. My guess is the # of people who had estimated times in the 50min+ range were massive.
(Well spoiler alert…I chomped my way through a couple of corrals)
The back pens were closing and the loud speaker guy said “if you are not in a pen go to the end of H, which limits your chance to win” and everyone laughed, because at that time a guy had already won a while ago. Steven Sambu at 22+ min!!! My brain still does not compute. Our corral had a weak spot in the fence and so we had probably the most “pen hoppers” but as most of them had red faster bibs I did not care. They were gonna smoke me anyways likely. But it got a little crowded…it all evened out as we walked slowly what felt like at least a mile to the starting line about 5 minutes at a time. I didn’t mind other than I was starting to get pretty cold as my “warm up” had worn off, but I got more excited the closer we got…I was feeling really ready and good about everything. I’m a “bopper”…that person lightly bopping to the music the whole time. Can’t stand still.
Our phones were totally dead though. No cell service, freezing up due to the cold. I just shoved the whole thing (armband and all) in my kangaroo type pullover front pocket and shrugged it off. Hubby said he got about 2.5 miles of music somewhere in the middle of the race. I went 100% radio silent for this run (same as my last three runs.) Remind me to find my ipod shuffle. It was nice that they did have piped in music on this course which was a huge surprise and I’ll talk about that more.
My Garmin watch was working though! And I set it up to give me lap pings for every kilometer I hit. Why? To keep me from being split obsessed and to help me count off how many k’s I had achieved. I'm not used to converting k's into mile pace afterall, but I knew there'd be 8 of them
OK enough pre-race…and now…
RACE RECAP!
Mile 1 game plan...run how my long runs in the neighborhood feel. I tried not to weave around too many people because that’s a recipe for going too fast out the gate for me. I stayed in the left area but not so far left that I was blocking or becoming one of the speed nuts. I did have to do some “easy paced weaving” because I didn’t want to come to a stop, or slam on my breaks too hard. Hubby and I stuck together about a .5 mile just by how the throng was going and then I turned and said I love you and he said “go go go” and I slightly put on the accelerator just a bit as it felt a little too slow. My father-in-law told me a bridge over the river would be in the first mile and they’d have a carpet in the middle and to try to run on it since the grating is terrible. And so I did and thank you to him for that piece of advice!
Mile 1 finished on a glorious downhill. And I was surprised that a DJ was stationed blaring pop music at the mile marker and there were spectators a plenty. Felt like a huge mile 1 party. I’d find these DJ's at every mile marker and the 5k marker and so each time they were kind of like little turbo boosts for me. I thought I ran over a mat at mile 1 and turns out I did. They had one again at 5k as well. So my final times had those listed. Kind of cool to get all that info...I never get more than a "here's your finish time" with my previous 5k races.
Official mile 1 time: 10:25
Faster than my long run pace by close to a minute…but I’d say a very nice start for me. I’m starting most 5k races in the low low 9’s and dying off…so success!
Mile 2 through 3.1 was a bit of a blur. I was just really happy to be running past some cool Chicago landmarks like all the giant theatre signs and over bridges where I’d seen marathon runners on tv traverse and I’m not going to lie…I was feeling really controlled and strong and happy and pretending like I was a marathon runner in my head. The weaving had died down a bit but still had to happen here and there. The entire race was packed with people, so I don’t blame anyone for not sticking to the right if slow…how could anyone account for all the paces happening at the same time. See…I could have gotten upset about being blocked in here and there but I swear I was being super zen about it. Well except for the guys with the suitcases who were trying to cross the street and I held out my hand like “I’m not stopping and hurting myself for you”…my one “moment” of the race where I wasn’t going to be zen.
Once I ran past mile 2 marker. I literally said to myself “I just did the last two miles and I feel fine, now I just have to run a 5k” and boy did that help me mentally over thinking “oh god, I haven’t even hit a 5k yet and then there’s more” I like to trick my brain in ways like that. There was a lot more lovely downhills in this section as compared to more up-hills towards the end. I like down hills.
Along the way I ran next to or past some giant cow costumes, a gingerbread man, a woman dressed as a rainbow tying her son’s shoe (he was a pot of gold), a green cardboard robot man, a thousand men in kilts, and a dozen guys with cat in the hat Irish hats holding onto them in the wind for dear life. Oh and two firefighters with the whole kit on.
My watch buzzed at me a fifth time and I wasn’t yet to the 5k mats so I knew I’d done some not-great-tangent running/weaving. But I hit 5k officially not too much longer and official was at 31:38 or 10:05 pace. Slower than my usual 5k races…but now my engines were ready to go. And I put them on really fast and was like “woah nelly….not this fast this quick” I peaked at my garmin and I was like sprinting so I eased back but still kept the energy going. Got too excited I guess.
Mile 4 was a maze of humanity. I cannot properly convey to you the number of people who took walk breaks at this point. I was physically and mentally ready to unleash my rockets and kick some bootie and chomp some people. I just underestimated how difficult it would be to get around all the chompees. I couldn’t be mad, these people were me a year ago, I was in someone elses way a year ago. I just had to keep finding my spot and make sure I wasn’t hitting anyone or coming to close to anyone. Just taking my moments to run where I could. It got better and more open the closer to the mile 4 marker that we got. I fell in behind people now and again that were clearing a path if you will. A lot of people were veering off to go to the porty potties and water stations at this point and that opened it up a bit. I was feeling a tad parched and grabbed a Gatorade and had to walk for a brief moment just because I can’t run and drink yet. Bad idea….system didn’t want it…spit it right back up…not my finest moment. I get phlegmy when it’s cold out (TMI?) Shrugged it off and saw a big window of open space and got to running again.
My phone hit 8k before I ever got to Mt. Roosevelt. So I took a sneaky peak at the garmin before the turn for the hill and was like “what the” and sure enough my phone had me beyond 5 miles already???? 8k is 4.97 miles. Oops.
Well I got my arms out and pistoned my hands up the hill while looking at the horizon like Dopeybadger told me too. Did I feel a little silly? Nope, I felt a LOT silly. But a strong and hill-crushing silly. I hadn’t mentioned the wind yet. It got me maybe three times but it was brief. I found a guy wearing a red kilt and drafted off him…then found an even bigger guy in all blue and tucked in behind him. My race photo is going to be a giant blue guy because I was totally blocked. So I doubt we will ever have proof of my existence on that hill. I didn’t walk at all! HILL OWNED! As I made the turn for the finish chute I saw my father-in-law on the left side and yelled his name. But I just kept running as strong as I could. We ended up about 20 sec apart in finish time but he was a corral in front of me. So that was a cool feeling and it was nice to get our medals and bananas together! I think we both chomped some corrals because we finished with a lot of E people J. Oh and they said my name as I finished too!
My garmin said 5.29 miles at 50:07 and my official ended up being 50:02. I really didn’t think I had it in me to shave 5 minutes off my training time but I did…and if I hadn’t have weaved so much who knows what I would have done. I’m super proud of my effort and don’t tell anyone but I could have done a 10k right then and there…I think…It could just be my confidence talking out my you know what.
Hubby really wanted to finish under an hour and…HE DID!!! And he never walked either. We all PR’d…even father-in-law did by 3 seconds from last year.
Because I had my garmin rigged for laps being each kilometer to keep me from split-obsessing. My data after the race is split into 8+ parts. No idea what my mile splits were??? May never know
1k 10:50mi pace avg
2k 10:20mi
3k 8:37mi (looking at the map this was the biggest most sustained glorious downhill of the course)
4k 9:48mi (bye bye downhill)
5k 9:12mi
6k 7:33mi (this was my “woah too fast moment I was talking about” coupled with another downhill…it’s nice to know I have that in me…I’ve seen it before at ends of races…but ummm not yet body! Possible my garmin freaked out but I felt fast.)
7k 9:47mi
8k 9:50mi
8+k 9:14mi
The day ended with pizza from Flo and Santos, watching the Hawks beat Boston 6-4 with a Patrick Kane hat trick and hitting 100pts for the year solidifying his MVP bid. Did I mention we had tickets to that game and sold them so we could run? We are different people than a year ago. It was a rough game to miss (so many goals, so many exciting things happening) but the thought of sitting in those little seats for hours was a big NOPE!
I was able to take a nap (which is hard for me, I do not nap well) and my hubby got us tacos for dinner. It was a great day. Thanks to everyone for encouraging me and being with me on the course in spirit.
So now what’s next?
10k April 29th in Cincinatti…the Flying Pig. It has hills I am told. So do I run it with my hubby like a training run to do it together or do I go for a good time again? We will talk that over and decide soon. I have another 10k in July too.
I also need a May race right? Since 4/29 isn’t technically April? Maybe a 5k somewhere for fun? I dunno yet.
I am glad I took a whole year to get past 5k because I feel like I really took the time to improve myself physically. It allowed me not to totally die trying more miles. I’m glad I built it up gradually and that I stuck as closely as I could to my training (though not always perfectly.) Also my final thought is…starting a race at a 10+ pace where it feels easy is way better than starting too fast and finishing at that same 10+ pace where it feels like death.
Last edited:
SarahDisney
So ... Yeah
- Joined
- Jul 23, 2014
- Messages
- 9,323
Wow, in and out of the expo in less than an hour - that's awesome!
And awesome job not buying the leggings. If you don't need them, you might as well save your money for better stuff at the next expo
Awesome job! I really appreciated you sharing so many details about the race. It definitely sounds like you had a good plan for the race and you did an awesome job staying slow and then breaking out at the end. I'm incredibly impressed that you made it up that hill. You did an amazing job with this race, and I'm super proud of you! (I'm super proud of your DH and FIL for finishing and PR'ing too!)
And awesome job not buying the leggings. If you don't need them, you might as well save your money for better stuff at the next expo
Awesome job! I really appreciated you sharing so many details about the race. It definitely sounds like you had a good plan for the race and you did an awesome job staying slow and then breaking out at the end. I'm incredibly impressed that you made it up that hill. You did an amazing job with this race, and I'm super proud of you! (I'm super proud of your DH and FIL for finishing and PR'ing too!)
roxymama
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 26, 2015
- Messages
- 6,432
Ok gotta finish my recap with a huge thank you to @DopeyBadger for making me a training program that worked with my schedule, motivated me and kept me on track. I really appreciate you doing that and helping me through my questions and concerns. I think this style of not going all out hard for every training run kept me sane and safe and helped me succeed! So many many thanks! I hope to continue my career as a pac man chomper now
roxymama
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 26, 2015
- Messages
- 6,432
Wow, in and out of the expo in less than an hour - that's awesome!
And awesome job not buying the leggings. If you don't need them, you might as well save your money for better stuff at the next expo
Awesome job! I really appreciated you sharing so many details about the race. It definitely sounds like you had a good plan for the race and you did an awesome job staying slow and then breaking out at the end. I'm incredibly impressed that you made it up that hill. You did an amazing job with this race, and I'm super proud of you! (I'm super proud of your DH and FIL for finishing and PR'ing too!)
Thanks Sarah! I told u back in the fall that I'd do an 8k...well it took awhile but I finally did
SarahDisney
So ... Yeah
- Joined
- Jul 23, 2014
- Messages
- 9,323
Thanks Sarah! I told u back in the fall that I'd do an 8k...well it took awhile but I finally did
I think it was October when we were originally talking about it ... and I think that if you had done an 8K then, it would have been a very different race. It's good that you waited - it gave you a chance to get a great plan, work with an awesome coach, and really put yourself in a position to rock the race!
So yes, this may have been a little late ... but you did it and you were amazing, and that's all that matters!
DopeyBadger
Imagathoner
- Joined
- Oct 15, 2015
- Messages
- 10,345
@roxymama i am very proud of you. I did the easy part, coming up with the plan, but you did the hard part, doing your best when it mattered the most. This was one of the best running recaps I have ever read. I felt with each moment of the recap that i was there running it right with you. While it may be odd to say, this will go down as one of my proudest moments as a runner. As a runner, making myself better brings me great joy, but helping others achieve that same level of joy brings me even greater happiness. I was honored to help you reach this goal and will be here if you need any further help in the future.
roxymama
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 26, 2015
- Messages
- 6,432
. Oh geez, you got me right in the feels! It's awfully dusty in here right now. But seriously, that means a lot!
roxymama
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 26, 2015
- Messages
- 6,432
Woohooooo, great recap! You are totally going to own your 10K races!!
I saw a woman wearing your irish lass ink n burn outfit over long sleeves and pants at the race this weekend and for a second I thought "is that?" but no, definitely was not you
I promise I did not knock her over and steal her skirt (but maybe the thought crossed my mind.)
Ariel484
DIS Legend
- Joined
- Dec 27, 2011
- Messages
- 11,911
She sounds very stylish and like she has great taste!I saw a woman wearing your irish lass ink n burn outfit over long sleeves and pants at the race this weekend and for a second I thought "is that?" but no, definitely was not you
Kudos on not stealing!You know if I was going to be there I would have told you!! Chicago DIS-meet!
roxymama
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 26, 2015
- Messages
- 6,432
She sounds very stylish and like she has great taste!
You know if I was going to be there I would have told you!! Chicago DIS-meet!
pssssstttt hot chocolate 15k chicago...hot chocolate 15k...hot chocolate 15k...I'm just gonna leave @SarahDisney 's name right here for no reason...
SarahDisney
So ... Yeah
- Joined
- Jul 23, 2014
- Messages
- 9,323
It couldn't possibly be because I'm flat broke and probably can't afford plane tickets...
(Although I may have enough credit card points for a short flight...)
roxymama
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 26, 2015
- Messages
- 6,432
How about I just mail you a giant box of chocolate and free marshmallows from the expo? I am legit bringing an extra backpack this year just for marshmallow smuggling.
SarahDisney
So ... Yeah
- Joined
- Jul 23, 2014
- Messages
- 9,323
That could work. I'm not a huge marshmallow person (I know, sacrilege), but I always accept gifts of chocolate!
roxymama
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 26, 2015
- Messages
- 6,432
Back to Training
Last night I had the sudden realization that it was Tuesday...and I run on Tuesdays. Since my next big event is The Flying Pig 10k on Sat. 4/29, I can't put on the breaks now. I fell into that trap last year after my final race of the year.
So I decided that since I had been running 2.5 miles at my EA pace for the last couple months of Tuesdays that I would stick with that. The gym was packed and it took awhile to get a treadmill but I did, and I did my workout and the legs surprisingly felt pretty good. Was not sure how I'd feel since I pushed them pretty hard on Sunday. I was really tired all day so proud of myself for making myself go.
A thought about Tuesdays at the gym. Why are they so packed? Is it because no one really wants to go to the gym on a Monday...And so Tues is a good "first day of the week to go" and then lots of people take Wed off and then lots of people "go out" on Thur and Fri? Or is it because a lot of people workout Tue/Thur/Sat and are less likely to skip the first day? That's my conspiracy theory.
So now I need to start looking ahead to my 10k! YAY A 10k! This sounds weird but a year ago I was scared of a 5k...like more scared than going to the dentist. So this is an exciting new chapter. Really glad I put that 8k in the schedule last week because running "just 1.23 miles more than an 8k" is a whole lot more digestable than "run a 5k, then another 5k back to back." I'm going to go into obsessing mode soon over looking at the website for course maps and expo stuff and faqs. Here's the link if anyone is interested (hope it's ok I put this here.)
http://flyingpigmarathon.com/events/10k/
So I am thinking (and please step in Coach @DopeyBadger if you think this sounds right or wrong) that I want to keep my paces the same as my 8k training. They felt good and I'm not sure my intention is to try to get a lot faster for this one. It's more about maintaining this level and trying to complete the new distance. I do not have a super secret time goal yet since I haven't run over 5 out in the neighborhood yet for training.
Should I keep my tue at EA 2.5 miles per usual and then look something like this (or should I be upping to 3mi)? Is the progression right...I know I'm supposed to taper right? Feel free to edit this with a big ol red pen. I was just guessing.
4/4 week 12 mi (45%)
Tue EA 2.5 mi
Thur .5mi WU, 3 mi TEMPO, .5 CD
LR 5.5 mile
4/11 week 12.5 mi (48% - too high?)
Tue EA 2.5 mi
Thur .5mi WU, 3 mi TEMPO, .5 CD
LR 6 mi
4/18 week 11 mi (41%)
Tue EA 2.5 mi
Thur .5 WU, 3.5mi TEMPO, .5 CD
LR 4 mi taper ???
4/25 race week ?
Tue EA 2.5mi ?
Thur EB 4 mi ?
LR 6.2 RACE
Last night I had the sudden realization that it was Tuesday...and I run on Tuesdays. Since my next big event is The Flying Pig 10k on Sat. 4/29, I can't put on the breaks now. I fell into that trap last year after my final race of the year.
So I decided that since I had been running 2.5 miles at my EA pace for the last couple months of Tuesdays that I would stick with that. The gym was packed and it took awhile to get a treadmill but I did, and I did my workout and the legs surprisingly felt pretty good. Was not sure how I'd feel since I pushed them pretty hard on Sunday. I was really tired all day so proud of myself for making myself go.
A thought about Tuesdays at the gym. Why are they so packed? Is it because no one really wants to go to the gym on a Monday...And so Tues is a good "first day of the week to go" and then lots of people take Wed off and then lots of people "go out" on Thur and Fri? Or is it because a lot of people workout Tue/Thur/Sat and are less likely to skip the first day? That's my conspiracy theory.
So now I need to start looking ahead to my 10k! YAY A 10k! This sounds weird but a year ago I was scared of a 5k...like more scared than going to the dentist. So this is an exciting new chapter. Really glad I put that 8k in the schedule last week because running "just 1.23 miles more than an 8k" is a whole lot more digestable than "run a 5k, then another 5k back to back." I'm going to go into obsessing mode soon over looking at the website for course maps and expo stuff and faqs. Here's the link if anyone is interested (hope it's ok I put this here.)
http://flyingpigmarathon.com/events/10k/
So I am thinking (and please step in Coach @DopeyBadger if you think this sounds right or wrong) that I want to keep my paces the same as my 8k training. They felt good and I'm not sure my intention is to try to get a lot faster for this one. It's more about maintaining this level and trying to complete the new distance. I do not have a super secret time goal yet since I haven't run over 5 out in the neighborhood yet for training.
Should I keep my tue at EA 2.5 miles per usual and then look something like this (or should I be upping to 3mi)? Is the progression right...I know I'm supposed to taper right? Feel free to edit this with a big ol red pen. I was just guessing.
4/4 week 12 mi (45%)
Tue EA 2.5 mi
Thur .5mi WU, 3 mi TEMPO, .5 CD
LR 5.5 mile
4/11 week 12.5 mi (48% - too high?)
Tue EA 2.5 mi
Thur .5mi WU, 3 mi TEMPO, .5 CD
LR 6 mi
4/18 week 11 mi (41%)
Tue EA 2.5 mi
Thur .5 WU, 3.5mi TEMPO, .5 CD
LR 4 mi taper ???
4/25 race week ?
Tue EA 2.5mi ?
Thur EB 4 mi ?
LR 6.2 RACE
roxymama
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 26, 2015
- Messages
- 6,432
so back in my recap post I wrote "I found a guy wearing a red kilt and drafted off him…then found an even bigger guy in all blue and tucked in behind him. My race photo is going to be a giant blue guy because I was totally blocked. So I doubt we will ever have proof of my existence on that hill."
Guess what...I have one race photo...I had to find it in the "unidentified bucket"...I just kept looking for the big blue guy and found him. Not on the hill but after the finish. Turns out he beat me
Guess what...I have one race photo...I had to find it in the "unidentified bucket"...I just kept looking for the big blue guy and found him. Not on the hill but after the finish. Turns out he beat me
DopeyBadger
Imagathoner
- Joined
- Oct 15, 2015
- Messages
- 10,345
Here is the best way to approach it. What is your next "A" goal race? In a given training cycle (18 weeks, a year, etc.) we only get so many "A" races. When we made your original training plan it was with the intention of this first 8K to be your "A" race. So, the question is what is the next race you want to give full effort at?
As for training paces, I am a big proponent to keep the training paces the same within each training cycle (typically 12-18 weeks). Since you just completed your training cycle for this 8K it would be time to adjust your training paces. You receive the most benefits from training when they're done at your current fitness level. However, lucky for you your finishing time for your 8K wasn't too far off the predicted time based on your recent 5Ks. So I would agree with you that your training paces will stay the same for now.
I would probably bump the Tuesday up to 3 miles now. I would probably also consider bumping 4/11 tempo up to 3.5 and 4/18 tempo to 4, but I'd wait to commit to 4/18's tempo until we see how 4/11 tempo goes. Your training goal pace for the 10K is the tempo pace (9:37) which we've secretly been building to since January. Muhahaha! No worries though, we won't worry about actual goals for the 10K until we see how this month's training goes.
roxymama
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 26, 2015
- Messages
- 6,432
This all makes a lot of sense. I would say that this 10k coming up is not really an A race the way my 8k was. It's on a family vacation in Ohio and it's more of a "let's just do it" kind of run. That one is more about just enjoying it and completing it. Lots of unknown factors with the kiddo and how she'll be with my relatives and all that.
I would say my next A race would be in July. I signed up for the Rock N Roll Chicago Remix Challenge which is a 5k followed by a 10k the next day. The 10k course is going to have a lot of similar elements to the 8k that I just did. I think that one I would be more apt to see if I can get any faster for the 10k portion, see if I can conquer two days of running. My version of a Dopey. And that is 7/16 & 7/17.
And then my final A race would be the 15k hot chocolate 10/30/16. Which is 9.2 miles. I don't plan on any halfs this year.
That seems reasonable right?
Any 5k's I do in between aren't as personally important to me.
Good plan on the training times and I will comment (as I always do, probably too long-windedly on how I'm feeling)
Now NO MORE SNOW!
-
Every Restaurant & Menu in Celestial Park at Epic Universe
-
Last Days for Loungefly Star Wars 'May the 4th' Savings
-
Get a FREE Make & Take Grogu at Disney Springs LEGO Store!
-
New Magic Shots for Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage
-
Meet Red Guardian at Disneyland Resort for a Limited Time
-
New Merch Celebrating Disney Fantasy Ship's Arrival in Europe
-
The Millennial Pink Shake is Back in Disney Springs!
Save Up to 30% on Rooms at Walt Disney World!
Save up to 30% on rooms at select Disney Resorts Collection hotels when you stay 5 consecutive nights or longer in late summer and early fall. Plus, enjoy other savings for shorter stays.This offer is valid for stays most nights from August 1 to October 11, 2025.
CLICK HERE
