Flat Trail 5k

it was a beautiful day for running

We haven't traveled to a race since the Great Smoky Mountains half two years ago. This race wasn't nearly as far away, and was close enough that I probably could have driven down that morning. However, packet pickup was only until 7am and the 5k didn't start until 8:30. I'd have had to get up super early, and then wait around.

I thought it would be easier just to drive down the night before and pick up my packet, spend the night in a hotel, and then get to the race start line 15-20 minutes before it began.

Hah.

Silly me.

The boys napped on the way down and then didn't want to fall asleep when we got to the hotel. Sunshine went to sleep pretty quickly, but River didn't fall asleep until 10, and I don't know when Ocean actually fell asleep. It was sometime after 11:30, which was the last time I checked the time.

We brought a portable crib, but he refused to sleep in it- just screamed. So we had to pull him out and hold him so the neighbors wouldn't get upset. He was so, so tired though, and not happy about not being in his own bed. He crawled this way and that way on top of us, and sucked his thumb and snuggled blankie, and then crawled around some more, and then fussed some more....

Then he'd calm down for a bit, but if Mr M or I moved even a little, the mattress would move exponentially more, and he'd start fussing again and we'd go through it all over again. And again. And again.

All. night. long.

Needless to say, we all woke up tired.

Despite the lack of sleep, my legs felt pretty good. I've run races where my legs felt so heavy it required extra effort just to walk, never mind run, but that was not the case Saturday, which was a nice change. In fact, my legs felt so good that I was able to run the whole race without stopping!

I was also able to run the whole Corn Maze 5k last year, but I'm not counting that one since there were more than 300 turns. Not exactly your normal race experience. Before that, I'm not sure when the last time was that I was able to run a race non-stop.

Hopefully my increased mileage has something to do with my improved endurance. If that's the case, then as I continue to increase my mileage, my endurance should increase as well. Though the course had something to do with it as well. The course was absolutely flat (or pretty close to it). It's amazing how much easier it is to maintain your pace and keep running when you're not struggling up and down numerous hills.

Running the race without stopping helped me maintain a more consistent pace, and I even managed to run the last mile faster than the first two miles. In fact, this was my second fastest race this year. The New Year's Day 5k was my fastest at 33:01, but I beat the March 5k by 2 seconds.

I ran exactly 3.10 miles in 33:47. I just checked the online results, and apparently I placed second in my age group! yes, it was a smaller race, but not the smallest I've run in, and I'll take what I can get :) We didn't stick around for awards because I thought they were doing them after the half marathon finished and we needed to get back to the hotel so I could shower and change. Now I'm kind of bummed that we didn't stick around... excited, but bummed.
1st mile: 11:01
2nd mile: 11:09
3rd mile: 10:41

The weather was perfect: overcast, so no sun shining in my eyes; cool, but not too cold; and not too humid either. The trail was nicely shaded, so even if the sun had been out I don't think it would have been an irritant.  The trail itself was a wide path and mostly packed gravel. It was such a great place to run- I wish it was closer :)

The trail we ran on was once a railroad bed and part of an old canal tow path. Like I mentioned earlier, it was flat and fast. I ran this race because I wanted to scope out the area and course because there's also a half marathon run at the same time as the 5k, and I'd like to run the half next year. The half marathon course apparently has a short, but steep, hill in it, though that may just be this year because of a detour because of a washed out bridge. I'll have to check the description next year to see if the hill is still a part of the course. Other than that, though, the course is flat. With proper training, I think I can run it in about 2 hours, which is quite a bit faster than any of my recent half marathons. It'll come down to the training though. And a good night's sleep, uninterrupted by screaming babies.

Last week's mileage:
My mileage was a little low again last week. We've been busy taking advantage of Mr M's time off work, so projects and family fun time have taken precedence over workouts. It's temporary, so I'm not worried about the dip in mileage.
Monday- walked on the treadmill 3.1 miles
Thursday- stained part of the basement patio
Friday- stained most of the back deck
Saturday- ran the Flat Trail 5k, then hiked to a waterfall, about 1.5 miles round trip (post to come)
             Total for the week: 7.70 miles plus 2 work days

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25th race in 2016

	Month	Event	Time
1.	January	New Year’s Day 5k	33:01
2.	February	Frostbite 5k	37:37
3.	February	Mud Run	1:35:37
4.	March	4k Walk	33:19
5.	March	March 5k	33:49
6.	March	Pi Day Virtual 5k	1:01:30
7.	March	Obstacle Race	44:06
8.	April	Glow Run	35:16
9.	April	April 5k	41:15
10.	April	Evening Run	34:59
11.	May	May 5k	35:18
12.	May	Evening Cross Country Race	43:17
13.	June	June 5k	39:21
14.	June	1 Mile Glow Run	11:38
15.	June	Vineyard 5k	39:10
16.	July	July 5k	35:53
17.	August	Predict Your Time 5k	37:41
18.	August	August 5k	35:45
19.	August	NPS 100th Virtual 10k	1:49:17
20.	August	4 Mile Run	45:20
21.	September	Labor Day 5k	46:54
22.	September	1 Mile Color Run	18:25
23.	September	3.5 Mile Trail Run	41:07
24.	October	Run Long & Prosper Virtual 5k	49:55
25.	October	Flat Trail 5k	33:47

37th race towards 40 by 40 goal

	Date	Event	Distance	Event Type
1.	July 2015	4th of July 5k	5k	Pregnant
2.	August	4 Mile Fun Run	4 miles	Road Race
3.	September	All Terrain	5k	Mixed surface
4.	October	Hill Valley Half	13.1 miles	Virtual half marathon
5.	October	Corn Maze 5k	5k	Corn Maze
6.	October	Kilted Trail 5k	5k	Kilted race
7.	November	Trail Half	13.6 miles	Trail Half
8.	November	Turkey Trot	5k	Road Race
9.	December	Veteran’s 5k	5k	Mixed surface
10.	December	Army Virtual Marathon	26.23 miles	Virtual marathon
11.	January 2016	New Year’s Day 5k	5k	Road race
12.	February	Frostbite 5k	5k	Cross country race
13.	February	Mud Run	4.8 miles	Mud run
14.	March	4k Walk	4k	Walk
15.	March	March 5k	5k	Road race
16.	March	Pi Day Virtual 5k	5k	Virtual 5k Walk
17.	March	10 mile race	Not applicable	Water stop volunteer
18.	March	Obstacle Race	5k	Obstacle run
19.	April	Glow Run	5k	Glow Run, 1st of 2 races in 12 hours
20.	April	April 5k	5k	Pushing jogger, 2nd of 2 races in 12 hours
21.	April	Evening Run	5k	Evening run
22.	May	10k Kayak Race	10k	Kayak race
23.	May	May 5k	5k	1st of 2 races in same day
24.	May	Evening CC Race	5k	Evening cross country, 2nd of 2 races in same day
25.	June	June 5k	5k	Pushing jogger, 1st of 2 races in same day
26.	June	1 Mile Glow Run	1 mile	Pushing jogger with both boys, 2nd of 2 races in same day, glow run
27.	June	Vineyard 5k	5k	Vineyard run
28.	July	July 5k	5k	Road race
29.	August	Predict Your Time 5k	5k	Predict your time
30.	August	August 5k	5k	Road race
31.	August	NPS 100th Virtual 10k	10k	Virtual 10k run
32.	August	4 Mile Run	4 miles	Road race
33.	September	Labor Day 5k	5k	With all 3 kiddos
34.	September	1 Mile Color Run	1 mile	Color run, Sunshine’s first solo race, River’s first race
35.	September	3.5 Mile Trail Run	3.5 miles	Trail run
36.	October	Run Long & Prosper Virtual 5k	5k	Virtual 5k run
37.	October	Flat Trail 5k	5k	Travel to race, trail run, ran without stopping

Sunday Funny

a sneak peek at Ocean's Halloween costume

I was trying to peel potatoes for dinner, but Ocean wanted to be held. I picked him up, held him for a minute, then set him on the counter to talk to him about why I couldn't hold him right then. A lost cause, but worth trying, right?

"I'm trying to peel potatoes for dinner, and little babies aren't good at peeling potatoes."

River was also playing in the kitchen and chimed in: "Nope!"

The 5 Mile Race I Didn't Run

River thought the ditch witch was pretty cool

Saturday I'd signed up for a 5 mile race, but when it came down to it, I didn't run the race.

I went to bed on time, but didn't fall asleep for more than two hours, so I woke up tired. I went downstairs and sat looking into the darkness as I ate breakfast. I could hear the rain coming down, and I started thinking about the race. I'd already received an email the night before that the race was on, rain or shine, so I knew it wouldn't be canceled. But as I sat there, I just felt sooo tired. I was tired from lack of sleep and my feet hurt from two days of working on the uneven ground of our woods, expanding the chicken run (more to come on that).

And then I realized that this was one race I could actually back out of without any problems. Mr M took some time off work, so he was home to watch the kiddos. Normally I'd have a babysitter coming, but since I didn't, I could just go back to bed if I wanted. And I wanted to, since I was so tired, it was raining, and it was a 5 mile race. If it had been a 5k I might still have done it, but I was just too tired for a 5 mile race. After giving myself permission to stay home, I went back to bed and went back to sleep. It was glorious.

Sleep has been an issue lately. I don't always fall asleep as easily as I'd like and I don't always stay asleep and get a restful night's sleep. I'm going to give Calms Forte a try to see if it'll help me sleep better the night before a race. I tend to wake up multiple times, afraid of sleeping through my alarm, even though I set two different alarms.

River really wanted to help Mr M with the ditch witch, but had to settle for standing back with me

Last Week's Mileage:
Monday- Run Long and Prosper virtual 5k on the treadmill plus an additional .9 miles, for a total of 4 miles run and walked
Wednesday- walked 2.06 miles on the treadmill
Thursday- we worked to expand the chicken run. Mr M ditch witched a new, much larger perimeter. I cleared out a few sections that had dirt fall back in during the process then dug post holes while he ran to Lowes for posts and hardware cloth, and then we set the posts in cement.
Friday- I cut the rolls of 1/2" hardware cloth in half, from 24" to 12", then buried the fencing in the ditches dug the previous day. I also filled in the ditches with all the dirt that had been dug out.
               
                  Total for the week: 6.06 miles, plus 2 work days

September Mileage

River is such a little boy, who loves digging in the rocks and playing with his trucks and tractors

and he's wearing the mitten to keep his hand clean :)

My efforts to exercise more consistently in September paid off with my highest monthly mileage of the year. 42.31 miles is significantly more than my next highest month (April, with 27.17), so my main concern now is to train carefully so I don't get shinsplints as I continue to increase my mileage. I still need to increase the number of days I'm exercising, so that's my goal for October, along with continuing to increase my mileage.

I only had one work day in September- I re-stacked our firewood in a different location, built some pallet compost bins, and cleared the brush from the site of our future greenhouse. No pictures yet since I want to adjust the design of the compost bins a bit and do a few other small projects in the area. We're working on them this week so I'll probably post some pictures next week.

September's mileage:

9 treadmill workouts + 4 hikes + 3 races (Labor Day, color, trail) = 42.31 miles total

August's mileage:

1 treadmill walk + 2 hikes w/stroller + 4 races (5k, 5k, 10k, 4 mile) = 26.10 miles total

July's mileage:

2 treadmill walks + 3 hikes + 1 race (5k) = 13.72 miles total

June's mileage:

4 treadmill walks + 3 hikes + 3 races (June 5k, 1 mile glow, 5k)= 21.46 miles total

May's mileage:

7 treadmill walks + 1 hike + 2 races (May 5k, evening 5k) = 23.87 miles total

April's mileage:

6 treadmill walks + 1 hike + 1 outdoor run + 3 races (glow 5k, April 5k, 5k) = 27.17 miles total

March's mileage:

4 treadmill workouts + 3 hikes w/stroller + 4 races (4k, 5k, 5k, 5k obstacle) = 25.7 miles total

February's mileage:

9 treadmill workouts + 2 races (5k + 4.8 mile mud) = 26.15 miles total

January's mileage:

8 treadmill workouts + 1 race (5k) = 16.17 miles