Race Time :)

It's not much, it's not a nice juicy half or 10 miler but I have a race this weekend - hooray! There's a local 10 and 5k a 5min drive form my house on Saturday so it would be a crime not to run. I was toying with the 10k but I wimped out and opted for the 5. It's just so hot and humid still that the thought of the 10k filled me with....dread! I ran it last year, my 2nd 10k ever ( actually not true I ran a couple when I was around 18 but have no idea of my times) It was hell on earth. It was so hot and humid and despite the fact I had only been running for 8 months, I started like I was a super star and died the most vile death :D Also Coach Doug wants a few 5k's over the next month or so I had my get out clause from the 10k.

I have zero idea what I'll be capable of. The heat is such a killer and despite putting together some nice threshold runs on the treadmill I'm not sure what I can pull off in the real world! 

I am going to play with my approach to this 5k a little bit. I will do a bit of a longer warmup up and try to ensure that my heart rate is elevated at the start. I find when I'm doing my 4/5 mile threshold runs on the treadmill, which are run at 6:30 pace, it takes me until the 3rd mile to settle in and get in my groove. I want to lose that 'shock to the system' feel I've experienced at the start of the 5ks I've run over the summer. 

It's also my intention to make the 1st mile my slowest. I CAN DO IT!!!!!!!......right? No, I will do it! I feel like I have so much discipline in some things but this is one area I am sooooo weak. I spent my whole running career when I was younger being a front runner, I think I felt (feel?) if you don't go for it and give yourself a chance to win then what's the point of starting?! But I am beginning to slowly realize that you can be competitive AND be a smart racer. Who knew. I'm not running sub 19 5k's let alone sub 18 so I need to have a word with myself. I want to start off conservatively and build, build, build and finish the same way I do during my fast training runs. I have only run one race since taking the sport up again in which I felt strong and it was by far my best race (1:29 PR in half last Dec). I took the 1st 2 miles easy, made myself hold back and then when I started to struggle to keep with the 2nd placed female (Adrienne Langelier!) at around the 5/6mile mark I decided that I wasn't there to run her race but my own so I let her go and ended up with the sub 1:30 time I wanted. It's time to get race smart.

Tomorrow I get to string 6 threshold miles together, yeh! Actually, I'm usually pretty pleased to see the 4.99 click over to 5.00 so we'll see how I cope with that extra mile. 

On a completely different note, my 5 year old starts Kindergarten on Monday. I am terrified. We are going to be cycling to school and did a Walmart shop today for his bike lock. That was the last item on the list of TTD, we are ready. Well he is, I'm not so sure. Any advice on surviving next Monday would be greatly appreciated. Makes a 5k in 90 degree heat feel like a piece of cake. 

I have also signed up for the Houston half and 1o for Texas in October, here's hoping we get some nice cool weather running!