Taper week, 5k, and half marathon!

Last week a planned a great taper week leading into this weekend's races. It was a great plan, so last Sunday I began, and in the first 2 miles of my easy run i pulled something in my leg! Taper week quickly became a week of no running. I spent the week icing an stretching, hoping I could run the 5k an half marathon at the end of the following week.

Saturday morning was the 5k in Orlando (I was there for work). It was also the first day I woke up with no leg pain so I decided to run! (it was also the first race with my Garmin forerunner 205 to track my pace, in short, I love it!). I ha hoped to break the 20 min mark, I didn't quite make it, but I did take 2nd overall an first in my age group! My time was 20:20.7 at a pace of 6:41. I was very happy with it! And my leg did great!

The next challenge was flying cross country that afternoon, getting home late (very late when you consider he time zones), waking up early and driving 1.5 hours to the half marathon in tricities.

The temperature was 40 degrees with strong cold winds, much different than the Orlando weather! I lost feeling in my hands within the first few miles, but I thought it was a great race! My pace for each of the first 12 miles was between 6:50 and 7:14! Then the last mile (and tenth) about killed me as it had a pace over 8 min! But then just before the finish line I saw my family cheer me on (including my kids who I had not seen since Wednesday night). I used there energy to finish the race strong! My time was 1:34:10 (a PR for the distance) which comes out to be 7:11 mile!

At the awards ceremony I learned I finished 19th overall, but 2nd in my age category! Not bad for my first half!

My next race is the 10k Canal Caper in Ephreta, the season has begun!

300 miles!!

I hit 300 miles a few days ago, but I just got around to the blog today: total distance of 300 miles in 41:31:44, an average of 8:18 mile. Again the last 100 miles set a record with a time of 13:10:18 or a 7:54 mile. My distances are starting to regularly be above 10 miles, and the great part is 10 miles no longer feels like a long run. While the half marathon race is in two weeks, I'm starting to think about that first full marathon in July!

Under 1:35!

I ran a new record half marathon, this one was at 1:34:47 or a 7:14 mile! I'm significantly ahead of my goal! My first race is just under two weeks away, I have three more runs before I begin to taper for the race!

New Records!

Today I'm in Bellevue, Washington for a conference. So I had to run in the hotel gym. It was a bit weird running with so many strangers, this is why I like the comfort of our home and treadmill! But it wasn't to bad, we just had to all watch the same thing on the TV - basketball, not one of my preferred shows to watch while running, but the run was good either way:

I Ran another half marathon today and set some new records! My big record was I completed the half in 1:36:38! That comes out to a 7:23 mile! It felt great and I'm getting excited for my race in a couple of weeks!

The second record is a distance record, the workout was another 3:22 long (total of 1:40:00 workout) so my new record distance run is 13.75!!! Starting to look at increasing that number to the magic 26.2... but for now I need a break - and water...

(and i'm very glad tomorrow's workout is a short 25 min jog!)

My second half distance...

Ran another half today, 1:41:14, about three minutes slower than my first, but still ahead of my race goal by 3:46 so I'm happy with it - a 7:44 mile!