Monday, May 2, 2011

My 2nd 5k was.... A SUCCESS! Finally...

Last Saturday I had the opportunity to run the Larkridge Chick-Fil-A 5k and I am happy! I did good =) I typically don't tell my times on here, but who cares, I'm tellin' ya. My 5k time according to the official results was 22:26! My Garmin was a couple seconds slower but I always take the faster time and base my performance off of that ;) Not once has my watch and the official time been the same and it can go either way. Anywhoo, to keep braggin about it I ended up placing 7th overall for women and 2nd in my age group.

This is most of my friends and I at the start, and YES I did beat that cow but for a cow he did really well ....(I have grey on in-between fellow run clubbers Tara(blue coat) and Pam(Pink coat). It was cold out and very windy.


These chicks below are the speediest ones of our group. They actually took the overall women's 1, 2, and 3 spots. The one on right right is Kim. She is one of our coaches and very speedy. She won this race for the ladies and came in 20:26. The other two are Amber and Corey, they rocked it. But here is a warning my dears.... once I figure out how to unleash the beast inside of me I am going to come knocking on your heels.... ;)



Here I am with Corey and Tara C. Tara won 3rd in our age group and came in just after me.  Really as a "team" we all did great! 


Thats right, I won a medal... and it wasn't just because I finished. =) 



BUT, (there is always a but...) now I am thinking about my marathon. As Sarah pointed out on her previous blog post it is only 7 WEEKS AWAY!! I mean, who cares if you can run a 5k fast if the race you actually want to do well on flops.... I don't have a great track record for doing well on race day. But, I am moving on and wanting to be better.  I am asking all out there in blog world to please take note and send me any suggestions you might have. Here are a list of questions that I would LOVE any answers too.

1. how fast did you run your long runs?
2. What was your longest run? How many times did you run 20 or more?
3. How many speed/tempo workouts did you do in a week?
4. How many marathon pace miles did you put into your long runs.... (some people say up to 11, some say 16, some say 20)???
5. What are your race strategies..for example, do you run same pace entire time, do you start REAL slow and then speed up. If so, when do you speed up? How many miles do you run slow?

So help a girl out here.  My first marathon I ended up doing a run/walk situation because I was plagued with the most annoying IT band injury.  My second marathon I did OK. I went out strong and stayed strong until Mile 20 and then I was able to continue running but slowed down to nothing short of a turtle crawl... This time I want to try and stay strong and be strong because I FEEL STRONG DAMIT! I am hoping to show that marathon who is boss and I could really use all the help I can get.

Happy Running and wish me luck as I try to conquer this beast.  -Jen

13 comments:

  1. AWESOME race, girl!! :)

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  2. I'm a half marathoner myself but I always take it out slow and build and drop time from that. My dad always says you can increase your energy but if you are dying after mile one-it's going to be a long race and that is only a half!

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  3. nice job at the 5k!! As for the marathoning I actually do my long runs VERY slow. I'd say 90-120 seconds slower than race pace...I guess I just feel like it's about time, not distance so no need to break down my body more!
    I also probably do a max of 17 miles long runs, but I think that's just me being lazy and prolly why I can't recover from this last one :).

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  4. Jen--you are going to kick this marathon in the butt! You are more prepared than ever. Now just BELIEVE in yourself. I believe in you!

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  5. so happy for you! I'm going to send you a longer email when I get a minute, :)

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  6. awesome race!! You are super speedy! I actually don't have any marathon training tips as I'm kind of winging it for my first marathon this year. Possibly not the best way to go, but oh well :).

    I'm so excited you have my blog (jogging with fiction) on your blog roll, but I was wondering if you could put my new url (runningricig.blogspot.com) up in place of it. pretty please :)

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  7. umm that time sounds amazing to me! you are fast!

    I have not run a marathon yet (first is in June) and my training was totally different before I got my injury and now after. Now my goal is to finish and for training I just have to do whatever my body is feeling okay with. I am hoping to do 1-2 18-20 milers though still before the race. If I can at least get one in though I will be happy.

    Before my injury I was doing one speed day per week and trying to keep my LRs about 1 minute slower than my goal marathon pace. I have not raced in a long while though so I am not sure what my race pace is anymore so I just try to stick with whatever feels comfortable and painfree.

    I am sure you will do great!

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  8. Congrats on your race! I'm using the Run Less Run Faster Plan and it calls for several long runs to be atmarathon pace. I've heard from many that incorporating 5 or so miles of your long runs at MP help! Especialy at the end with tired legs!

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  9. I have never ran a marathon, but when I was training for my half marathon last year, I ran my long runs at an easy tempo pace, I didn't rush it, because you have to remember that you are running for a long time and you don't want to tire out.
    Good luck with the training!
    Good job on the 5k, you are super fast! I am still trying to break thru that 30 min barrier!

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  10. Wow great race speedy! I've never done a marathon currently training for my first half. But its different because of the shorter mileage. But i do 1 long run a week ~90seconds slower than goal pace. 1 medium run wiht tempo miles, speed work or hill work, and then a short recovery run, plus i play ultimate so that kinda is like a speed workout.

    Good luck with your marathon training!

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  11. Thanks for all the support and help! I just find it so interesting to hear what people do while training. I feel like all the books say go slow, but then there are several people I know who think that is just craziness and they never run too slow! So who knows I guess??? Good luck with training all -Jen

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  12. you are so so fast!! congrats and cute blog!!!

    xx

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