November Training 11/18/12-11/24/12 and a race report

Happy Turkey Day everyone! :) I hope you all had FABULOUS turkey days.  The weather was gorgeous and I had a wonderful run that day. Besides my family, health, friends, life, etc, as I ran I thought of how thankful I am for the park system we have here.  I can run in a different, wonderfully maintained park any day of the week and several are less than 15 miles from my home.  My usual running place is less than 3 miles away!

My legs were super tired this week.  I think I've been over training. Monday I ran and also did a 45/45 spinning and yoga class AFTER my loooong YTT weekend.  I ran Thursday and Friday last week then had a stressful and grueling YTT weekend, ran Monday and the spinning/yoga class.  So this week after my run on Wednesday, I realized that I needed to rest up for my race on Saturday.  I've been working my butt of this week with jewelry stuff because I decided to do a show on Saturday.  Thursday I had a pretty decent run but my legs still felt a bit heavy.  It was soooo gorgeous! Friday I rested so I'd be ready for the race.

I got to the race early, hit the bathroom and ran for 15 minutes or so and was warmed up and ready by 8:45am.  The problem was that the race didn't start until about 9:10am. So by that time, I wasn't really warmed up anymore.  The course was nice and pretty easy with the exception of one giant hill. I felt good and didn't over do it.  I feel like I'm FINALLY getting this whole pacing thing! haha But seriously, I ran a pretty consistent race and even kept my pace through the finish.  Normally I sprint in but I was feeling good at my pace and happy to come in under 45 minutes. I forgot to turn off my garmin though until about 3 mins after the race. :(  Official time from the race is 44:58 with 14:30/min. I'm happy with it.  It is my first race in several years and while it isn't an official PR it is my fastest time besides a super flat and super fast course so I'm considering it a PR. ;) I have another race on December 8th, so hopefully I have another PR in store!

My training plan schedules 3 days per week but I run four days a week usually MWFSat. Monday I begin week 4 of the plan which is a build week so hopefully I'm ready for it.  Saturday will begin a recovery week and the halfway point in the plan.  The run group that I belong to on FB is holding their own trail 10k on December 29th so I might be ready to run it.  I just have to see where I'm at then.

11/19/12 - W2 D3 - 3.26 miles at 13:46 - ECP - mixed trail and paved

11/21/12 - W3 D1 - 2.11 miles at 14:14 - ECP - mixed trail and paved

11/22/12 - W3 D2 - tempo run - 2.41 miles at 14:31 - NCR - bridle/white pine/bird trails

11/24/12 - W3 D3 - race day - 3.15  miles at 14:30 - DirtDirty Trail 5k - I didn't want to set back my training schedule so I used this as a training run

Weekly total:  10.93 miles