On Sunday I ran Kaleo’s 5k in Carmichael, CA. I was really excited for this race because the peak elevation was 50ft. I have been wondering if elevation really does affect performance. Here in Reno, I train and usually race at 5000ft. Max and I made a weekend trip to Sacramento for the race. It was a short, but fun trip. We ate at this awesome restaurant that is unique to the Sacramento area called Brookfield’s. They had the most amazing garlic fries I have ever tasted. I was expecting fries covered in garlic salt, but this were covered with olive oil and actual garlic. Needless to say, I was definitely in need of some Orbit Gum (for that nice clean feeling, no matter what). After dinner we saw Guardians of the Galaxy. AMAZING MOVIE!!! It was funny, action packed, and super cheesy. I loved every second of it.

 

On the day of the race, I woke up and went down to the free breakfast the hotel offered. I was a little bummed because my race morning breakfasts are usually incredibly plain. I opted for a piece of toast and some apple juice. I was bummed because this was one of the awesome hotel free breakfasts with waffles and pancakes, etc. I showed up to the race about 45 mins early in order to get my bib and warm up. I was a good runner and actually warmed up for a full 20mins prior (usually my warm-up consists of about 5 mins of slow running…the end), and I included dynamic stretches and even 4 100m strides. I have a bad habit of judging my competition and while warming up I saw 2 other runners stretching dynamically and running pickups as well. One was a man and the other a woman and they were both super fit looking.

 

At the start line, those 2 runners were lined up right at the front. When the gun went off, I kept repeating to myself, don’t go out too fast. I settled into a comfortable pace for the first maybe .25mi until I glanced at my watch and saw that comfortable pace was 8:47 min/mi. Since I was hoping to PR in the low elevation, I knew that pace wouldn’t cut it. I picked up the pace a little and fell in perfect stride with a man right in front of me. I looked down at my watch again and saw 7:38 min/mi and I thought, what the heck, let’s see how long I could stay with him. I ran the first to miles directly behind him. Right after mile 3 started I noticed he was starting to slow, I was still feeling pretty good, so I passed him and tried to work on catching a man in a bright yellow shirt who was a ways ahead of me. This last mile was tough. I had to do a lot of self-talk to keep myself going at the same pace. With about a quarter mile left, I started closing in on the guy in the yellow shirt, I knew I had less than 2 minutes left of running and thought, I can do anything for 2 minutes. I stepped on the gas and passed him. I kept that final pace all the way to the finish line.

 

I have to say, I was very proud of myself for this race. I really wanted to slow down for most of the race, but I was able to keep going. I do believe if that man that I paced for most of the race wasn’t there, I would have slowed, but I was determined to keep with him. The result? A brand new shiny PR! I dropped exactly one minute off of my last PR. I came in at 23:46 which is 7:39min/mi. I was hoping to come up with an age group award with that time, but there were some pretty fast people in this race. Including the 2 runners I saw warming up earlier. I think they got 1^st and 2^nd overall. The women placed 2^nd overall with a time of 17:XX. Crazy!

 

Official Stats:

Time: 23:46

26/171 overall

10/114 female

7/23 in AG

 

 

As far as my training went for the month of July, not so good, I fell short of my weekly mileage goals every week. It has been very rainy here this month so I had to do a lot of treadmill running, and unfortunately, I can only run on a treadmill for so long before I want to shoot myself. Also, with having class on Saturdays, I am unable to go as far for my long runs as I planned on. Also the class interferes with my Tuesday and Thursday runs. I just haven’t worked out a plan to get all my runs in. I am a little worried about the upcoming 10miler in 2 weeks. I am definitely not as prepared as I should be. I did get a new PR for the mile, 6:37! I never thought I’d see a 6min pace for me in anything. So that’s pretty awesome.

 

Total Miles: 90.8mi

Peak weekly mileage: 7/14/2014-7/20/2014 (28.8mi)

Longest Run: 11.3mi

Average Pace: 10:11 min/mi

Races: 1

Truckee Firecracker Mile – 6:37 - PR

 

Lesson(s) learned

• Sometimes you have to sacrifice in order to stay on schedule
• Juggling work, school, personal life, and running is a lot harder than I thought it’d be

 

Plans for August:

Arrive at the 10 miler injury free and enjoy the race. Don’t stress too much about time. I have no other races I am signed up for, so I would like to return to building a stronger aerobic base for running.

 

Upcoming August Races: 1

Reno 10 Miler – 8/17/2014