Week5 wrap up and Valentine's Day Race Report

I am clawing my way back to being fully functional. At the beginning of this week, I was still sniffling and wheezing. I knew it was just going to work its way through but, Grumpy insisted I see the doctor. No fever. No ear infection. No sinus infection. No bronchitis. Doctor made me get a chest X-Ray and voila! No pneumonia. Just my asthma completely out of control. Doctor gave me a stern lecture and I'm back on 2 allergy medicines and 3 asthma medicines. Darn if I don't feel better already!

The early part of this week was pretty easy especially since I skipped the 5:30 am masters swim.

Wednesday, I raced through my workout to get Shelby to the obedience walk through. Thanks to the seminar I attended last week, she was really into the heeling. I won't delude myself into thinking she's fixed. We will probably not qualify next week but, I hope we continue to show improvement.

Thursday I finally got to do a little force work and spent a little time in zone 3+. I felt great afterwards so, I'm really getting back to normal. I braved the 5:30 am masters swim on Friday and while I could feel the wheezing, I did fine. Tazzy joined me for my pre-race run and feet up the rest of the day.

I managed everything on the training schedule with the exception for that first swim. Coughing less and less every day.

Valentine's Day 5k Race Report

Saturday I braved the 34F degrees and headed out to do a local 5K. The course was on a trail that I regularly run. I was pretty nervous about doing much pushing but, I wanted to see how much fitness I'd lost.

I couldn't get my mind straight on how to race. That morning it hit me: it's about pushing through the discomfort NOT about the pace. Whether it's 13:00 or 9:20, this race was about mindset.

I did the 20 minute warm up and thought my pace would be way off. I planned to start at 10:30 for the first 1/2 mile and adjust from there. The second 1/2 of the first mile and each mile after, I was going to try to push a little more. I used my Garmin only for that first 1/2 mile, the rest was blind.

It was my first shotgun start and the course was narrow. I made sure I was behind the fast racers and not near the little kids. The first time I looked at the Garmin, I was going 8:26! The Garmin kept whining that I was going too fast, I kept dialing it back and dodging walkers and slower runners.

I pushed too much during the second half of the first mile and didn't have enough reserve to push the last mile that had slippery bridges, narrow/crowded paths, and a couple of under passes. Around 2 miles, my stomach was burning so, I eased up a bit before going back at it. I sprinted the final turn into the stretch.

I was nervous about my asthma but, I did ok. I think if I'd pushed any more, I would have gotten into trouble. The result is that even being sick for 2 weeks, I have a lot more capability than I've had before and I'm much more confident.

Official time 30:42 which is about 20 seconds slower than December. I'll keep knocking and eventually I'll break through that 30 minute barrier.  I wasn't expecting it today... Then again, I didn't know what to expect today! Good confidence boost.
Picture of the week:

5th AG out of 53!