Roxymama's 5k to Marathon, Time to Collect Another Castle

[BuckeyeBama]

Question: How do you get yourself out of a slacking off rut? It's been too many days of non-running and I'm starting to realize how easy it is to just not run. Even though I like running.

You just get back out there again. A few days in a row and things will be right back where they were before.

 

[SarahDisney]

Question: How do you get yourself out of a slacking off rut? It's been too many days of non-running and I'm starting to realize how easy it is to just not run. Even though I like running.

You just get back out there again. A few days in a row and things will be right back where they were before.

This.
After my first race, I kinda just couldn't motivate myself to go back out there, no matter what I did. I'd either go out and not feel it or just keep delaying my runs. But once I started just forcing myself to go back out there on my regular schedule, it got easier. It was no longer "okay, I did it once, can I do it again," it had become back to normal.

 

[Pixie Heart]

And now a "things a newbie has learned" and "new rules" report.

I know I'm a little late (sorry about that!), but I have to say: congratulations!
Even with all the odds, I'm sure you had a wonderful time!

I never ran a race on a week day, but I can only imagine how difficult it was to get there on time!
Most of the races I run are far from where I live (São Paulo has 3 or 4 race courses authorized by the City Hall), so I am always worried about traffic and parking spots!

 

[roxymama]

I put my running clothes on even before my daughter went to sleep last night. If I was wearing them that meant I was going to have to go running, because it would be silly not too.
Decided to run outside since it is staying lighter much later.
The run kind of kicked my behind. I ended up taking a walk break at about the 15 minute mark and then another again 23 min and another about 4 blocks from my house. I was getting a little bit of side cramping because I didn't hydrate very well that day and I ate a big Chipotle dinner at 7:30. Oops. But it was deliscious.
I did end up going 3.29 miles before walking back down my street to cool down. It had just gotten dark when I was at my house and I started stretching in front of my stairs to the front door when a creepy van started slowly going past my house with a guys head out the window just being creepy. And staring. And driving slowly.
I've never had any kind of "runner harassment." He never said anything. Maybe he was just trying to see a street number to deliver food or go to someone's house...but it felt icky.
So I went inside immediately and told my husband.

It would suck if something like that deterred me from running outside on weekday nights, but it put me ill at ease.

Maybe I'll do treadmill next time and save my outside runs for the weekend mornings.

 

[Pixie Heart]

Oh, I'm sorry about that awful experience!
It must be terrible to fell harassed like this, but don't let this experience take away the joy of street running!

I know America is waaaaaaaay less violent than Brazil, but violence is violence anywhere, right? And I hate to say this, but I only run on the streets during a race, because I am too scared to run alone...

I am always looking around while running in the park, and there are darker places that I try to stay away from, which is awful because it gives me only a small portion f the park to explore.

 

[roxymama]

This is why I have to stay active. Because this is the view I usually have of my toddler...who wants to run everywhere these days. She's a fast little bugger too!


My hubby started couch to 5k today and I'm super proud of him. I heard about a 5k that goes through our local baseball team's stadium and I am going to research that today.

 

[girliea]

This is why I have to stay active. Because this is the view I usually have of my toddler...who wants to run everywhere these days. She's a fast little bugger too!
View attachment 104581

My hubby started couch to 5k today and I'm super proud of him. I heard about a 5k that goes through our local baseball team's stadium and I am going to research that today.

She already has a sparkle skirt! Precious!
Good for hubby doing the couch to 5k....looks like you might be a running family!

 

[roxymama]

Last night was one of those nights where I knew I was going to run but I somehow took an hour to go to the bathroom, get changed, look at nothingness on my phone, drink some water, gather my things....totally stalling and for no reason. I just had that "I don't want to" thing going on.
But I really need to run twice this week to be in good shape for my 5k on Saturday.
So I grabbed my keys and headed to the gym...and I grabbed the wrong keys...no gym tag...doh. Luckily the gym is less than 5 minutes away. So I went back to my house and got the right keys and ACTUALLY WENT BACK TO THE GYM! Yeah, even I surprised myself. I have a habit of throwing in the towel when a little thing goes wrong. I'm good at excuses.
Then I talked to my Dad on my cell once inside the locker room...yeah more dawdling, but it was a good talk.
It took me from 8pm to 9:30ish just to get myself onto a treadmill because of all my stalling tactics.
I did a solid 30 minutes and felt pretty decent. But that's all I had in me.

Takeaways from last night:
A) I totally get what people are saying about running in the Summer now. It's finally really summer weather here and I was dripping sweat even inside the gym with the fans going...probably my sweatiest performance to date (TMI?)
B) I'm proud of myself for actually doing my workout when I was my own biggest roadblock to getting started.
C) I'm kind of ashamed of myself for dawdling so much when I could have been in bed a full hour earlier technically if I just went to the gym at 8. Gotta "rip the bandaid" off sometimes and just do it.

Thing to look forward to:
I really want to run outside on Wed night right at 8 if I can, since I am not able to run Thurs night. I want to take my cute new tank-top on a test-run before my weekend 5k. Fashion is a good enough incentive right?

 

[SarahDisney]

Fashion is a good enough incentive right?

YES!!

I'm very impressed that you were able to get in 30 minutes on the treadmill, even after the stalling and when your heart may not have been in it. It's definitely hard to get out there some days, but it's worth it!

 

[roxymama]

Thanks @SarahDisney ! I had been falling into a rut of putting off my runs for "tomorrow", so I wanted to make sure I got myself back on track. Because I like the way I feel when I run and I'm in shape vs when I run and I'm not.

 

[roxymama]

Ok, I am planning on running at 5:30am tomorrow morning for about 30-35 minutes. I have never ran this early so this will be something completely new. I'm writing this here as kind of a "well, now I have to do it" thing.

My gym tonight is having major plumbing and construction with dust in the air...and there's a very good chance of rain. I really want to run again before my 5k on Saturday so Thursday early it is!

Now I have to remind myself to set out my clothes...maybe I'll sleep in them, and all my paraphenalia and hope mother nature doesn't call too much after I get going. Wish me luck!

I normally wake up at 5:45 every morning but dawdle for at least 15-20 minutes before even attempting to do anything human like.

 

[roxymama]

Just got back from a fun morning. Ran the Day in the Park 5k and got a PR! 30:32. Not bad for not really keeping up with my training like I should have. I will write more later today. Right now I need to just get over the post race adrenaline and exhaustion combo.
Also I need to start looking for my next race

 

[roxymama]

So I thought I'd do an actual real write up of how my 5k went.

That's me in the pink hat and purple shirt and seemingly levitating.

When I woke up and my daughter woke up too I told her mommy was going to run a race. She really wanted to go to the race too. So my husband said he would come with me and be on toddler watch while I ran. One of her favorite parks is where the start and finish was, so we knew she'd be able to play.
We ended up arriving way early, maybe because in my head I was so worried about what happened with being late to the last race. But only living 3 minutes from the starting line it was probably overkill to be there an hour early. I know to kind of split the difference in timing next time.
It was good that I got to play in the park so much with my family though. And my lil girl went big girl potty twice. TMI? I was proud of her though. I could only stomach a piece of bread and some water because of nerves. I still get nervous before races even though I run 3 miles a lot now, something about the race part gets me all anxious. Excited, but anxious.
The race field seemed small. I think maybe 300 people, with maybe 100+ runners and rest walkers? I am not really sure as I have not seen the final list of times yet. I was about four lines back at the starting line and kept to the side in case people wanted to speed past me. We all had a lot of space. I think I started off maybe too fast though. I can see why it's easy for people to get out the gates too quick. In the bigger race I was in you couldn't really go off too quick because of the mass of people, it was almost like we shuffled in the beginning just to get going. Here is was like "have all the room in the world to run as fast as humanely possible." I eased back quite a bit after about the first couple minutes because I knew it was too much for me too soon.
I loved that my hubby was there to take pics of me and wave though during that first part. Kept me smiling and he got some great pictures.
At about the half mile was when I could see the really fast people just take off. I was in more of a blob of people going at my pace which was great. I couldn't believe how fast we were at the mile 1 marker...probably because I ran way to fast in the beginning. They did not have clocks and I was not running my phone for pace, but a lady with a stop watch was yelling and I caught her say 8 something. Oops...that's faster than I've ever ran. As I've always ever been in the 9-11 range when I'm really running. I thought to myself, maybe she said something else like 9:38 or something like that...I really don't know. I need to start monitoring these things better on my own during my training runs.
During my second mile I really was feeling the effects of that first one but I just kept plowing forward. My sites on the two firefighter women who are in the photo above. I kind of was trying to keep them in my sites but at this point they were at least two blocks ahead of me. I just told myself I was going to always be able to see them and that's what kept me from really falling off to way too slow. Spoiler alert...I could see them the whole race until the very last turn to the finish line.
I have no idea what the split was at the end of mile 2, I just knew there was a water table and I was going to walk for a tiny bit with my water. I got passed by only two people while walking. And never caught them again or passed anyone else at this point. So I really ran the last mile on my own. I tried to not think I was the last person even though it felt like that since I was in a sea of nobody...looking behind me to see all the other people a block and more behind me helped confirmed that I wasn't in last place. That kept me from imploding...feeling like I was being chased kept me running. Instead I just focused on getting to the end of that mile.
I had some side cramps happening at about 3.5 miles. I really think my last mile had to have been in the over 12min range because I took 2 more walk breaks. I did feel a little jump after each little break but I was slightly sad at myself for taking them. But I NEEDED them. Once I got close to mile 3 marker I had the pull of knowing my husband and daughter would be there to get me to the finish so I just kept moving my legs, run run run run run. I pulled out my earphones so I could hear them cheering for me. I was so focused on finishing that I didn't realize the finish shoot was a very small space of cones to run through with a guy with a stop watch, so I ate probably 5 extra seconds trying to run back to the right part. But he called out 30:32 and that's my fastest overall time by a little bit. I had a grand plan of being sub 30 because I was on my home turf, but I think my body was not ready to go that hard. I had slacked on my training pretty badly the last two weeks and I felt the effects of that. But I am still so proud that I kept on going through adversity and got a PR. Go me!
Things I learned and game plan for what's next.
A) I should start races a little farther back. Not too far back with the walkers, but far enough back where I can start off a little slower and then speed up if I need to.
B) I need to learn how to monitor my mile splits better when training, so that I can try to do that thing where you get faster as the race goes on instead of slower. Anyone reccommend an app I could use now that C25K is over?
C) I should actually keep running at least three times a week instead of taking off too many nights. I want to feel as in shape as I did for that first 5k even though it was slower.
D) I think I might like finding people to pass or finding people to try to at least run behind. With the really small race and me being by myself essentially for a lot of it, it felt kind of odd. Like it felt like it was impossible to go pass the person in front of me and that discouraged me a little bit.

My two super positive takeaways are that the third place women was 27+ minutes and I'm only 3 min back from that. Also I can now say I am ALMOST as fit as firefighters. And my family seemed super proud of me. My hubby even ran week 2 day 1 of his C25k on Sunday. Yay!

Now I need to look for my next race. But I think I really am going to focus mainly on getting even better at the 5k distance while training so I can get more comfortable the whole race and be more consistent throughout it. I'd like to master feeling good for the 5k before stepping into the 8k/10k world.

 

[girliea]

So very proud of you! Love the picture. It does look like you're levitating!
Keep up the good work, you are doing so great!

 

[SarahDisney]

Great job! Congrats on the PR - even if it wasn't your goal, it's still amazing!

Smaller races are definitely a little harder because there aren't as many people there to help you figure out how you're doing. It's definitely good motivation when you have someone to pass, but in smaller races, you just have to find a way to keep going.
In terms of apps - I use either Fitbit (because I have it on my phone anyway because I have a Fitbit tracker) or MapMyRun. The alerts really help me with my pace - I have Fitbit set to give me an update every half mile (MapMyRun is set for every mile just because I don't use it as often and I keep forgetting to change it), which really helps me get a sense of how fast I'm going and whether I need to try to adjust my pace.

 

[roxymama]

@SarahDisney Thanks! I don't have a fit bit, but I'm thinking I want to check out that MapMyRun app. Having updates for pace will really help me in the long run I think. And it gives me something to work at before my next race which I'm still trying to figure out when/where/what that will be.

I read online about a night race in Lisle, IL in July and I got all excited because it has a huge medal and nice shirts and I figure will not be as hot. But then I see it's a Friday night. Ugh, weekday nights are just impossible for me. So I'm going to keep searching for a good weekend run for me soon. I see one in Tinley Park that is for Colon cancer and there's not much about online but I support that cause fully right now because of family ties to it. Still deciding.

My hubby works tonight and tomorrow late so Thursday will be my "start again" point and I'm going to get all set up with a new app and a new plan and new goal before that hopefully. I need goals to keep me motivated to keep going.

 

[roxymama]

And here is where I will put some "longer distance" race goals for next year while I am thinking of them. I won't hold myself to doing all of these, just some ideas for things I've seen this year that I wish I was trained for already and something to look forward to! Maybe I will start training for 8k/10k distances this fall.

Disney Marathon weekend 5k- 1/6/16
I'm already registered for this, the thing that got this whole crazy thing rolling so I figure I might as well put it here.

Chicago Shamrock Shuffle 8k - 3/20/16
I'm Irish, I live near Chicago, 8k is a good stepping stone to 10ks, I'm Irish, ummm green sparkle skirt purchase?

Lisle Christmas in July 10k - July 2016
Christmas lights and Santa medals. There's an ultra going on at the same time. Yikes to that. I didn't even know what an ultra was until yesterday.

Rock N Roll 10k Chicago - July 2016
It looks like a lot of fun and travel would be minimal compared to big disney races, but I'm not yet ready to take on that distance this month. I'm putting it in my mental calendar for next year.

Hot Chocolate 15k Chicago - November 2016
I'd like to do the 5k this year. Who knows maybe I will be super crazy and do the 15k this year. I'm banking on next year though. Because chocolate and it won't be hot out. And chocolate.

2017 - If I'm still doing this crazy running thing and my mom is healthy enough for travel I'd love to get myself to a Princess or Tink or Disneyland etc half marathon just to say I did it once and to take her. Even if I stay in a cheap hotel and go for a weekend.

We shall see.

 

[SarahDisney]

I was actually looking at the Chicago Shamrock Shuffle! I've been thinking about travelling for races and somehow the idea of Chicago came up, and since I've been thinking of 8Ks, I decided to google 8Ks in Chicago, and that's one of the ones that came up! The course looks like a nice way to see a bit of Chicago ... but since I'll hopefully be past the 10K distance by March, it's probably not right for me ... but I think you should definitely consider it! I think 8K is a nice stepping stone between 5K & 10K and it'll be a nice next step after the Disney 5K (which will be awesome).

I also want to do a Hot Chocolate race eventually ... I'll do anything for free hot chocolate! Chicago is one of the cities I'm considering once I get closer to the 15K distance (because they don't have it in NY, and Philly, which is the closest to me, is on a Saturday, so I can't do it), so maybe I'll see you there in 2016!

 

[roxymama]

@SarahDisney The 15k medal for hot chocolate appears to be a giant chocolate bar! I'm shameless in my pursuit of shiny things.

So I just was informed by both a coworker and my mom-in-law that there is a Ditka Dash near Soldier Field in Chicago in October. And it is not timed, they just let you self time yourself off their clocks. You can start at 8am or 9am or 10am. Seems like its super informal 5k. I feel like I need to add this to my schedule so I'm putting it on my main 2015 5k list page.

So now as I see it, I need to save up for sparkle skirts in the following colors.
Orange - Ditka Dash (go bears)
Green - Shamrock Shuffle
Red - Christmas race
Dark brown - Hot chocolate run
Unknown color of unknown disney character for Marathon weekend. I feel a pull towards lime green as it can be a tinkerbell or a mike wazowski thing. That or maybe light purple and I'll be daisy duck. Or polka dot minnie mouse. hmmmmmmmm

 

[SarahDisney]

I just have to comment on the fact that there is such thing as a Mike Ditka themed race. Only in Chicago...