March 10k

cute little spring house (I think?) that we ran past

Last week I was still recovering and trying to catch up on everything, so I didn't get any mileage in until Saturday, when I ran a 10k.

I thought about doing the 5k (this race has both distances), but opted for the 10k since I needed to get the mileage in since I was still planning on doing a 10 mile race at the end of March. Regardless of which distance I ran, speed was not going to happen, so distance it was. Last year I did the 5k while sick, and while I ran the fastest 5k in four years, I also got an ear infection and burst my ear drum.

Since I was coming off the strep infection and I really didn't want to get sick again, I ran slow and conservative. Turns out I didn't have much choice in my pace: my fitness level has been hit hard by first the flu and then strep throat, and I just couldn't run fast, hard, or long.

Oh, so before I finish talking about the race, I need to talk about our weather last week.

Thursday I'd planned on going on a hike, but it was gray and drizzly and cold, so we stayed home and I got some work done instead. I thought we could go for a hike Friday before taking Sunshine to her co-op, but that didn't happen either.

Thursday night, we started getting strong gusts of wind, and it continued most of Friday, with gusts in the 70+ mph range. We only had some smaller branches fall, but we lost power for 4 hours that morning and our internet was out most of the day.

Schools were canceled due to power outages, and a lot of businesses were closed as well (Mr M got an unexpected day off). Sunshine's co-op was canceled, so we just hunkered down at home and skipped the hike. I did get some decluttering done, so it wasn't a complete loss.

we ran along this river, crossing it several times during the race

Saturday I didn't notice any wind when I left the house, but when we got to the race site, there were some gusts blowing down the canyon. The good part (if you can call something about wind good), was that we were running into the wind on the way out, which meant the wind was at our back after we turned around and headed back to the start/finish line. So the first half was tough, but it wasn't quite so bad on the way back.

Going into this race, I figured I could do a decent amount of running and not feel too bad. This race is one of the flattest around, after all. However, that wasn't the case. I really struggled. After the 5k last week I knew I'd lost a lot of fitness, but this longer race showed me just how low my current fitness level is (hint: a lot worse than I thought). In the past I've been able to maintain a level of fitness that would allow me to run a 5k without too many problems, even if I wasn't doing as much running as I'd like. Under training for races has worked for me.

At this point though, I can't even call myself under trained. I might as well have no training. Since I had such a hard time on a flat 6 mile course, I've opted not to do the hilly 10 mile race I'd planned for three weeks from now. I just don't have enough time to build my fitness base back up, not for that long of a race. So I'll get back on my workout schedule and get stronger, and I'll find a 5k in April to do instead.

after the race, enjoying the sunshine

Weekly Mileage
Sat- 6.24 miles walked and run
    total miles- 6.24 miles

1 hike towards #52hikechallenge

44.41 foot miles towards #365milechallenge

25.00 bike miles towards #365milechallenge