Thursday's run went pretty well. I felt more comfortable, and had a slightly stronger pace. Overall, I ended up with a little less energy than Tuesday's run, so I ran a couple minutes during my cool down, but ended up at 3.18 miles, and kept a pace of 11:12, which is what I did on Tuesday as well. However, my running intervals were faster, which was great. The main reason my overall pace didn't increase was because on Tuesday's run, not only did I run an extra 3 minutes, but I ran it at a pretty hard pace (probably close to twice as fast as my normal pace) so that got my time much lower than it should have been for the first 34 minutes or so. I kept Friday a very lazy day, so I would have plenty of energy for this morning's 5k in Albany. I was invited to go to Dixon last night, but I knew if I went, I'd have a tough run.
Today was awesome. So I woke up at 6:23 (before my alarm... But when I have something important scheduled in the morning that I'm anxious for, I usually keep waking up accidentally), and ate at 6:45. Left the apartment about 7:30 and got to the 5k area at about 7:45-7:50. Picked up my packet with my number and what not, and got my chip ready (it was a chip timed race, to accurately time your race, for those who aren't race savvy). Out of the group that I was with (all of which were Malika's family/friends), I was the only one in nothing but shorts and a t-shirt. Classy. But I was plenty warm as soon as I started running. So the race started at 8:15, and off I went, running with Malika and her aunt Laurie. My plan was to run with Malika the whole way, but after about half a mile, she kept telling me to go on since I was slowing myself down a bit. So I ended up taking off, but I didn't feel so bad because Laurie was still with her. I ran at a pretty hard and fast pace. I was actually shocked at the rate I was going. But then it hit me, my food hadn't digested enough, and I began to get horrible stomach cramps. So unfortunately, I had to stop to walk far more often than I had hoped to (knowing I can't run a whole 5k yet without walking). I kept trudging along though, and with about half a mile left, I felt like I was going to be sick for a bit there, but I relaxed myself with a bit more walking, and was able to get going a bit more. I finished at 32'43", which is a good start. I probably would have broken 30 minutes had I run it a bit more seriously, and hadn't gotten the stomach cramps, but I'm still happy with what I got. I was also the first person finished out of the group that I ran with. My official goal (should be pretty easy in 3 and a half months) is to get sub 25 minutes for the July 4th 5k. Will keep it simple for now. When June comes around, if I'm able to run a 5k (just on my own, not necessarily a race) quite a bit faster than 25 minutes, than I'll create a goal at that point - give myself sometime to aim for when it comes down to crunch time. I still really enjoyed the run, and am glad that I did it, to see how far I've gone come July.
After the 5k, I went out for breakfast with Malika and her mother and aunt, and after that point, went home to be lazy for the rest of the day. It's 11 PM, my body has been exhausted all day (on top of about 6 hours of sleep, which if I've learned anything about myself, I can't do shit without 8-10 hours of sleep), and I'm going to bed now. Stay fancy. Today, I did not stay fancy, but rather athletic shorts and a green t-shirt - it's tough to be fancy on St. Patricks Day when you have a 5k to run.
Learning the perfect timing of when to eat before a race (and what) is one of the hardest parts of running. Food cramps during a race are the worst - nice work on getting the 5k done though!
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