Yahoo, a race!!!!!
With the exception of a couple of go's at my 800 and mile time at recent track events I haven't raced for what feels like FOREVER.
May and June have been all about summer swim league, my sons (and all of ours) first. So Saturday mornings have been spent watching my 5 year old bring his 25m freestyle PR down from well over a minute to 40.6s GO RAMSAY!!!!! There is still one meet to go, Divisional's on Saturday but I have cracked! I am desperate to fit in one more 5k before we go on holiday at the end of June so have organized a sitter for my youngest 2 and my husband will have to cope with Ramsay AND being 'tent parent' for around 2 and a half hours on Saturday morning whilst I get my 5k on!!!!!! It's so close and therefore convenient that I ought to be back in time to see him swim (cake and eating it!)
I have run the Woodlands 5k once this summer, I think it was around 2 months ago now and I am so excited to give it another bash and hopefully beat my last time (and PR) of 19:30. I have been doing my 2 track session a week for...weeks now and I am really hoping it will pay off with a new PR. Add that to desperate to race and I feel certain the heat and humidity won't stand a chance!
I am going to take it easy this week so I feel nice a rested for Saturday. I am just going to go for it and try for 6 min/mile pace. I really don't know if I can pull it off and I may well die trying but I want to give it everything I have. N and M are going too so I'll have company and won't have to drive which is a bonus! M is going to pace N at 6:20 pace so she can get the kind of time she wants, so maybe they will come steaming past me in that last long mile, time will tell!
I feel like I'm working hard and I can tell I gone up a level or 2 fitness wise in the past few months but don't feel I've really had an opportunity to test that feeling out in a race situation. I love to race but I also think it's important to treat races like special treats you give yourself just to make sure the hard work is paying off and as a reward for all that hard work. I think it's good to keep the desire to race strong which is hard when you're racing all the time but this spring has been very hard with next to no racing and as I've mentioned several times now I AM BURSTING to race!!!!!!!!!
I have even signed up for a race in December (rungirl half marathon, Deussen Park) just to try to get my race fix vicariously through...signing up! It worked, a little. Also the price goes up on July 1st and I am inherently mean so I'll admit saving $5 was a factor.
As an aside, I have been feeling a bit flat the last week or so and am wondering if my iron levels might be low. So I have googled 'iron rich smoothies' and as a result will be pumping myself full of spinach based drinks, so be prepared for some Popeye like photos in the near future!
Oh, N has caved and is going to email Coach Doug, yay! I knew she wouldn't be able to stand it now H and I are both under his tutelage!
Anyone out there have any good food/drink tips for me to pack some iron in? Also any tips to running 5ks, or is balls out the only way?! :D
Some vitamin C along with the iron rich foods help. If you're a meat eater, Bison is the way to go and really lean. Other than that, supplementation usually kicks in pretty fast if it is decent quality.
ReplyDeleteHave a good race!
I am most definitely a meat eater and tend to buy bison and lamb over beef (just a taste preference) so good to know I was doing something right. I bought a supplement too and I'm sure it hasn't had time to get into my system yet after only a couple of days but I am feeling more like my old self ready.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the tips :) I will let you know how the race goes!
You are gonna crush that race! Can't wait to hear about it! Do you have any cast iron skillets? Cooking with them is another way to absorb extra iron. Otherwise, you're on the right track with spinach, or dried fruit, beans, etc.
ReplyDeleteI do use a skillet (cast iron possibly?) how does that help absorb iron???????????
ReplyDeleteGood luck in your race. You're going to kill it!
ReplyDeleteAs an aside to the comment above, your food absorbs the iron from the skillet, then you absorb the food. I believe that until about 40 years ago or so, human derived most of the iron from using cast iron skillets. I read that somewhere, so not sure if it's true.
Every day's a school day, I didn't know that, thank you, I will use it more often now! Thank you re race, I am ridiculously nervous as always but healthy nervous I like to think?! Hope you're migraine has gone, I have never suffered from sore heads until I moved to Houston and now I can tell when a storm is on its way, I get a throbbing head ache which goes the second the storm does - stupid air pressure!
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