I went home to Beaumont for the weekend to visit my parents and ran a 5k on Saturday morning while I was there.
The winning time in my age group was 27:28. My pr set last February was 24:27. The winning time on Saturday did not belong to me. If you had told me all I had to do was run a 27:28 to win my age group I would have told you I could have done that with my hands tied behind my back.
WRONG!
While I did get 2nd in my age group (keep in mind this is Beaumont...no one runs there), and have a wonderful trophy to show for it, I ran what I think was my worst 5k ever. You may say "well, that is ok, you probably weren't going all out or anything." Wrong. I gave it my all and 29:30 was all I had. That is like a 9:22 pace or something like that. That is 1:30 min/mile slower than my pr race.
I am a bit horrified by my experience on Saturday. My foot also bothered me quite a bit, but it wasn't what slowed me down. Nothing worked. Not my brain, not my lungs, not my heart, and not my legs. Not even for 3 miles. I just couldn't do it.
Now you may also say "you just ran a marathon two weeks ago, you aren't recovered." I agree. However, two weeks after I ran the Houston marathon in January I ran a half marathon at a faster pace (MUCH faster...8:59 min/mile) than I ran the 5k yesterday...and that was 10 miles longer!!!!!!!!!!!!! You might also say "well, you ran a PR in St. George, that was a big effort for your body." Well, to that I say that I only ran a 2 minute PR in St. George as compared to a 42 minute PR in Houston.
What the hell? The weather was perfect, the course was flat (boring...but flat) and I have only walked/run 7 whole miles since the marathon so you can't say I've done too much too soon.
I have a few issues here. I guess it is hard to know which is a bigger issue, but there is my foot, and then there is the rest of me. I'm going to the dr on Thursday for my foot. I'm about 99% sure my foot is posterior tibial tendinitis (I am sure I just butchered that spelling), giving me trouble where it attaches at my arch. I had issues with it three years ago and ended up in a boot for 2 weeks, but it hadn't bothered me since. So I'm wondering if I should have gone into the boot as soon as I knew it was messed up (i.e. the day after the marathon). When I run it hurts immediately and is sore for the rest of the day. I hadn't run since Tuesday before the 5k and by Friday I had no pain whatsoever, even walking barefoot (usually hurts pretty bad barefoot), but it hurt as soon as I ran 3 steps on Saturday morning and still hurts tonight from yesterday's effort.
I am not sure what the doctor will say and not 100% sure what to do between now and then. I may do a few short runs, but then again I may not. I might swim and spin and do some other stuff to stay active because after 2 weeks of recovery and working late, I'm ready to get back into some sort of routine. Unfortunately the fate of running in that routine is temporarily unknown.
Next is what to do with the rest of me. I was planning to run the Houston Half on Sunday and I don't think I'm going to do that anymore. NEWSFLASH!!! If you know me, backing out of a race I had wanted to do is huge. I was planning on trying to run it exactly at marathon goal pace, as Sean Wade (Kenyan Way) had recommended, and I was going to be proud of myself for having a plan and sticking to it instead of trying to race it all out. But considering my goal marathon pace is 9:30-9:45ish and I had a terrible time even running 3 miles at 9:22 pace, I could see the half marathon going terribly wrong.
I plan to get back to some sort of strength training/pt routine to make sure my IT band won't come back to haunt me at the most inopportune time (i.e. St. George), and I just need to get back to it in general because I had let it go during the last 2 months or so of training for the marathon. I also hope to start swimming and/or biking a bit more than I had been (haven't done it all since the beginning of August). These changes are some of the plan going forward, but I'm not sure what to do with my running. I'm planning to do the Rocky Raccoon 25k on Nov 8 and the San Antonio 1/2 on Nov 16. Both of those can be minimum to maximum effort, depending on how I am feeling, but I really don't want to give up either of those as they are important runs for Sunmart, which I have NO intention of backing out of. I'd cry. Really. I love Sunmart.
So if you read this long, what do you think I should do? Am I prematurely freaking out (besides the foot part - that deserves attention)? Am I finally facing what has been coming to me for two years by not taking enough time off? Do I just brush it off as a weird day and be proud of my trophy? I just don't know!
I am editing to add a bit more info:
1/13/08: Houston Marathon (4:30, 10:22 pace)
1/27/08: 3M 1/2 Marathon (1:56:51, 8:59 pace)
2/17/08: ATT 1/2 Marathon (1:56:01, 8:52? pace)
2/24/08: 5k pr (24:27, 7:52 pace)
(just to show there wasn't necessarily a lot of recovery time after Houston when I had some fast races...and that I wasn't exactly training for that 5k when I did it)
The winning time in my age group was 27:28. My pr set last February was 24:27. The winning time on Saturday did not belong to me. If you had told me all I had to do was run a 27:28 to win my age group I would have told you I could have done that with my hands tied behind my back.
WRONG!
While I did get 2nd in my age group (keep in mind this is Beaumont...no one runs there), and have a wonderful trophy to show for it, I ran what I think was my worst 5k ever. You may say "well, that is ok, you probably weren't going all out or anything." Wrong. I gave it my all and 29:30 was all I had. That is like a 9:22 pace or something like that. That is 1:30 min/mile slower than my pr race.
I am a bit horrified by my experience on Saturday. My foot also bothered me quite a bit, but it wasn't what slowed me down. Nothing worked. Not my brain, not my lungs, not my heart, and not my legs. Not even for 3 miles. I just couldn't do it.
Now you may also say "you just ran a marathon two weeks ago, you aren't recovered." I agree. However, two weeks after I ran the Houston marathon in January I ran a half marathon at a faster pace (MUCH faster...8:59 min/mile) than I ran the 5k yesterday...and that was 10 miles longer!!!!!!!!!!!!! You might also say "well, you ran a PR in St. George, that was a big effort for your body." Well, to that I say that I only ran a 2 minute PR in St. George as compared to a 42 minute PR in Houston.
What the hell? The weather was perfect, the course was flat (boring...but flat) and I have only walked/run 7 whole miles since the marathon so you can't say I've done too much too soon.
I have a few issues here. I guess it is hard to know which is a bigger issue, but there is my foot, and then there is the rest of me. I'm going to the dr on Thursday for my foot. I'm about 99% sure my foot is posterior tibial tendinitis (I am sure I just butchered that spelling), giving me trouble where it attaches at my arch. I had issues with it three years ago and ended up in a boot for 2 weeks, but it hadn't bothered me since. So I'm wondering if I should have gone into the boot as soon as I knew it was messed up (i.e. the day after the marathon). When I run it hurts immediately and is sore for the rest of the day. I hadn't run since Tuesday before the 5k and by Friday I had no pain whatsoever, even walking barefoot (usually hurts pretty bad barefoot), but it hurt as soon as I ran 3 steps on Saturday morning and still hurts tonight from yesterday's effort.
I am not sure what the doctor will say and not 100% sure what to do between now and then. I may do a few short runs, but then again I may not. I might swim and spin and do some other stuff to stay active because after 2 weeks of recovery and working late, I'm ready to get back into some sort of routine. Unfortunately the fate of running in that routine is temporarily unknown.
Next is what to do with the rest of me. I was planning to run the Houston Half on Sunday and I don't think I'm going to do that anymore. NEWSFLASH!!! If you know me, backing out of a race I had wanted to do is huge. I was planning on trying to run it exactly at marathon goal pace, as Sean Wade (Kenyan Way) had recommended, and I was going to be proud of myself for having a plan and sticking to it instead of trying to race it all out. But considering my goal marathon pace is 9:30-9:45ish and I had a terrible time even running 3 miles at 9:22 pace, I could see the half marathon going terribly wrong.
I plan to get back to some sort of strength training/pt routine to make sure my IT band won't come back to haunt me at the most inopportune time (i.e. St. George), and I just need to get back to it in general because I had let it go during the last 2 months or so of training for the marathon. I also hope to start swimming and/or biking a bit more than I had been (haven't done it all since the beginning of August). These changes are some of the plan going forward, but I'm not sure what to do with my running. I'm planning to do the Rocky Raccoon 25k on Nov 8 and the San Antonio 1/2 on Nov 16. Both of those can be minimum to maximum effort, depending on how I am feeling, but I really don't want to give up either of those as they are important runs for Sunmart, which I have NO intention of backing out of. I'd cry. Really. I love Sunmart.
So if you read this long, what do you think I should do? Am I prematurely freaking out (besides the foot part - that deserves attention)? Am I finally facing what has been coming to me for two years by not taking enough time off? Do I just brush it off as a weird day and be proud of my trophy? I just don't know!
I am editing to add a bit more info:
1/13/08: Houston Marathon (4:30, 10:22 pace)
1/27/08: 3M 1/2 Marathon (1:56:51, 8:59 pace)
2/17/08: ATT 1/2 Marathon (1:56:01, 8:52? pace)
2/24/08: 5k pr (24:27, 7:52 pace)
(just to show there wasn't necessarily a lot of recovery time after Houston when I had some fast races...and that I wasn't exactly training for that 5k when I did it)
Comments
you're gonna be fine...just take it easy and see that doctor!!
You need about 3 weeks of ez swims and bikes, stretching, yoga, and time on the massage table. Enough with the running, eh?
MOM (a/k/a Shellie)
If Sunmart is your "A" race, you have to stop making the other events you enter your "A" races as well and heaping a lot of unnecessary stress on yourself for not hitting a pace that would have matched or beaten a past event pace.
Do you think that between now and Sunmart that you can go out and do your other events without stressing out about your finish times??? Are you enjoying what you are doing or are you seeing your training as a way to fight back the mental hee-bee jee-bees such as weight, feeling "good enough", and hitting a specified time?
No matter what decision you finalize on, it has to be one that you are happy with and do not let other people derail your train. You are still A+ with the bloggy peeps.
Keep your chin up girl!