GOOOOD morning ladies,
No workout today, cause yesterday was race day.
OK, here’s the story:
Saturday night I was convinced my body was telling me not to start. Why else would my feet slip down the stairs on Friday, skipping at least two steps. It really wasn’t because I was running downstairs on my socks… And Saturday afternoon I suddenly had a bad cold. I mean BAD cold. I was coughing and sneezing and feeling terrible.
Sunday morning the weather was awful: freezing wind, snow, -4C. Now I knew this, cause the weather is always like that when this race is scheduled. The start was only 1K from my doorstep, so I used it as my warm up. I showed up at the starting line, just minutes before the count down, not because I planned it that way, but because I was so nervous I had to visit the bathroom like every 5 minutes.
Anyways, as I just started running I realised I hadn’t turned on my footpod (which measures the distance). So I stopped and turned it on… see I wasn’t meant to run a good race. I think by now I had every excuse in the book if I didn’t run well ;-).
Way ahead of me was a very tall and big guy. With that wind, I figured I should just abandon my race strategy and speed up to catch up with this guy. I ran the first 3K behind him. He did a very good job in protecting me from the wind, don’t think he knew though ;-) Once we took a right turn, I decided he went too slow, so I passed him. I passed the 5K mark at 31:59min. Not a PR, but average if I was simply running a 5K. So I was kind of surprised I was going this fast. Now by this time I was soaking wet. And so were the wine gums in my pocket. They were sticking to my MP3-player…yes ladies, I was running with headphones… Now this race course was a circle you had to run twice, so after about 6.3K, I had to face that freezing wind again. This time there was only a woman ahead of me. So I focused on her, wanted to catch up, leave her behind. That kept me from thinking about that nasty wind. So I barely noticed the wind this time. As I got close we were about to climb the second bridge (for the second time). I wasn’t sure what to do, pass her before or after going up the bridge. But she went a little too slow, so I speeded up passed her ran up the hill feeling really strong, having this mantra in my head: maintain effort, no speeding! As I ran down again, I was kind of relieved, just one bridge left. I passed the 10K mark at 1:04:21. Now that was a PR!!! I shaved 2 minutes of my previous PR (1:06:51). I couldn’t believe it! Well that was enough to make me run up the third and last bridge at increased speed, no maintaining effort here, as I ran down I used it to recover. And with only about 1.5K left, I was entering home stretch. When I got close to the finish, I was wondering if I had it in me to sprint. Ofcourse I could, how could I doubt myself? At least it felt like I was sprinting ;-) Finished my 12.5K in 1:21:12, again a PR!! I was really really happy.
Everyone have a great day and a terrific w/o.
No workout today, cause yesterday was race day.
OK, here’s the story:
Saturday night I was convinced my body was telling me not to start. Why else would my feet slip down the stairs on Friday, skipping at least two steps. It really wasn’t because I was running downstairs on my socks… And Saturday afternoon I suddenly had a bad cold. I mean BAD cold. I was coughing and sneezing and feeling terrible.
Sunday morning the weather was awful: freezing wind, snow, -4C. Now I knew this, cause the weather is always like that when this race is scheduled. The start was only 1K from my doorstep, so I used it as my warm up. I showed up at the starting line, just minutes before the count down, not because I planned it that way, but because I was so nervous I had to visit the bathroom like every 5 minutes.
Anyways, as I just started running I realised I hadn’t turned on my footpod (which measures the distance). So I stopped and turned it on… see I wasn’t meant to run a good race. I think by now I had every excuse in the book if I didn’t run well ;-).
Way ahead of me was a very tall and big guy. With that wind, I figured I should just abandon my race strategy and speed up to catch up with this guy. I ran the first 3K behind him. He did a very good job in protecting me from the wind, don’t think he knew though ;-) Once we took a right turn, I decided he went too slow, so I passed him. I passed the 5K mark at 31:59min. Not a PR, but average if I was simply running a 5K. So I was kind of surprised I was going this fast. Now by this time I was soaking wet. And so were the wine gums in my pocket. They were sticking to my MP3-player…yes ladies, I was running with headphones… Now this race course was a circle you had to run twice, so after about 6.3K, I had to face that freezing wind again. This time there was only a woman ahead of me. So I focused on her, wanted to catch up, leave her behind. That kept me from thinking about that nasty wind. So I barely noticed the wind this time. As I got close we were about to climb the second bridge (for the second time). I wasn’t sure what to do, pass her before or after going up the bridge. But she went a little too slow, so I speeded up passed her ran up the hill feeling really strong, having this mantra in my head: maintain effort, no speeding! As I ran down again, I was kind of relieved, just one bridge left. I passed the 10K mark at 1:04:21. Now that was a PR!!! I shaved 2 minutes of my previous PR (1:06:51). I couldn’t believe it! Well that was enough to make me run up the third and last bridge at increased speed, no maintaining effort here, as I ran down I used it to recover. And with only about 1.5K left, I was entering home stretch. When I got close to the finish, I was wondering if I had it in me to sprint. Ofcourse I could, how could I doubt myself? At least it felt like I was sprinting ;-) Finished my 12.5K in 1:21:12, again a PR!! I was really really happy.
Everyone have a great day and a terrific w/o.
