Glorified Tempo, PR, and Time For Some New Brooks!

I don't have one of those "Reflections and Recaps of 2011" posts for you.  Nor do I have any New Year Resolutions to share yet.  No goals and reflections for Runninghood?!  What is this blog world coming to?  I suppose I reflected and set goals so often in 2011 that I'm all reflected and goaled out for the time being.  No, never.  I'm just a little mentally tired.  I'm sure the 2012 goal post will come soon.


No resolutions but I did start my year off right! My first day of the new year was actually a pretty awesome way to start 2012.  I made the decision last week to sign up for a 10k just for fun and to see if I could start the year with a PR.  Well, it wasn't really fun but I did set a small PR so I have to take that as a reason to celebrate.  

Out with the old and in with the new!  These shoes have seen their last race.  Now time for some real racing shoes!  Can't wait for a new pair of Brooks!

Race:  Twenty Twelve Resolution Run--Portland Oregon
Weather:  Clear skies, mild temps, windy.  Besides the wind, it was actually some pretty great racing conditions.  I was overdressed by a lot!  
Weekly Mileage before race: 59
Goal:  My biggest goal was to break 42 minutes but hoped for a 6:35-6:40 pace or better.  I feel confident that this was a very realistic goal right now.  
What really happened:


42:09 Chip Time (PR by 10 seconds)
20:54 split
1st in AG out of only 11.
4th woman out of only 65...I could have sworn I only saw 2 women ahead of me.  Weird.  


Some not stellar parts:

• Nerves nerves nerves and self doubt.  Lots of it.  Even during the race I found myself talking all kinds of non-go-getum talk.  I will have to work on this.
• I honestly did run hard even though my splits don't show this to me.  But my body was telling me differently.  
• A 6:40 pace felt like a 6:15 pace today.  
• I really shouldn't eat pizza and sweets all week and then expect to perform efficiently.  Fueling correctly really can't be underestimated. At the same time, we shouldn't be overly concerned with what we eat either.  Definitely didn't have balance this week.  
• My prerace meal was half of a Pizza Schmizza pizza with a beer.  Ha!  I don't think this really had that big of an impact on me to tell you the truth.  Just funny.  
• I think that even though I cut back on the miles towards the end of the week, 59 was still a bigger week considering that I ran a lot of miles at the start of the week and my body is still adjusting to this.  I know this wasn't a peak race so I won't dwell on this too much. My plan was to NOT run this race on totally fresh legs so that was expected.
• Hope this isn't too much information but this weekend does mark ovulating day for me...not sharing this with you for any other reason than to bring up the topic of ovulation and the affect it has on our bodies.  For me, I get very tired, irritable, break out, and just want to stuff my face with food. There are just a couple of positive things about it too but for the most part, I feel pretty drained. Does ovulation affect you in a negative way or do you even notice??    

Positives:

• I ran hard
• I was running alone for most of the race (especially the second half) and I didn't sneak off into the trees and quit like I wanted to when I saw my splits being so much slower than my goal.  ha!  
• Even though my husband claims that I didn't change my stride or pace at the finish line and look like I was working hard, I felt like I was working it.  I didn't have a kick in me but I pushed it.  
• This served as a strong 6.2 mile tempoish run (a bit faster than I'd do my tempo but with a few 7 min miles in there, it felt rather tempoish and less 10k race-like)
• I won a gold medal for first in AG.  Who cares if there wasn't much competition.  AG win is AG win.  I'll take it!  
• I had my kids and husband to greet me at the end.  
• I got an awesome pep talk and pep e-mails from some great running gals!  I feel really blessed with friendships recently. Lots of love and support after the race too.  
• I was inspired by some very beautiful and chiseled bodies at the starting line.  One of them being someone I kind of know...Helen Rarick, who ran an impressive 17:12 in the 5k!  Seriously, sometimes I bend down to stretch at the starting line just so I can check out all the pretty legs around me.  Lots of shorts today too.  I love runner legs!  Helen's got some amazing ones.  
• Waking up to a crayon scribbled note from my husband.  He left it right by the coffee pot.   

Love the way that my four year old is dressed.  If only we were all like four year olds in the way that they just are who they are.

Finish line...overheated and very tired.  Ready to be done!!

1.  How did you start your new year off??
2.  Ladies, curious on your thoughts about ovulation and the affect it has on you?  Do you get overly tired, emotional, or irritable?  Does it make you want to crawl into bed and sleep like it does me?  I usually have one or two days like this.  I'm pretty sure today is one of them.  


Amanda