It’s Monday again and back to the grind… but I just wanted to give a recap of the rest of week 10, which included the St.Patrick’s 5 mile race!

I knew the weather for the race this year was going to be much chillier than in years past, however I did NOT expect to wake up to snow on the ground!  Ugh… I was so ready to race in shorts and a tank top and knew that was not happening.  I dug out my running tights (I have had them packed away assuming I was done wearing them for the year, boy was I wrong) and pulled out a long-sleeved top, along with gloves and started to slowly get ready.  I’m not sure what the deal was but JMR and I just weren’t as excited to do this race as in years past…so much so we got up at 7:50a and the race was at 9a…. talk about cutting it a bit close!  We left the house around 8:24 when JMR noticed he was almost out of gas, so with a short detour to the gas station we were on our way.  By 8:45a we were getting close to the normal exit we take when we noticed that traffic was backed up in all three lanes, at least a mile away from the exit.  Ugh.  So we took the next closesest exit only to find out that all of the roads were blocked off for the parade and run route.  No dice.  We backtracked, went back over the highway and tried to take another side street, which was also blocked off.  More looping around… it was 8:55a and JMR said, ‘That’s it, I’m turning around’, but I convinced him to try one more street and hooray! we were able to get to the other side of the highway where the race was and quickly found a parking lot (which was $10!, usually we park for free or pay $5 in a garage…but we were desperate!).  It was already 9a, so after parking we both took off for the start…which was about .75 miles away, good grief.

Once we got to the start, we got stuck behind all of the walkers/strollers/and dogs on leashes and by the time we crossed the mat it was already almost 9:10a.  Oh boy, this was going to be fun.  I did so much zigging and zagging and weaving the first two miles it was crazy.  I was frustrated, however it also our fault for showing up so late that we missed the competitive corrall.  Since the first mile is mostly downhill, and due to adrenaline, I ran a 7:15 min/mile, however mile 2 was a bit slower at 8:06 pace.  I also noticed that when I crossed the mile 2 marker, that I was already .1 over, so I would need to pick up the pace knowing my splits were going to be off.  Unfortunately mile 3 was more than half of a very steep uphill, so I ran that mile at an 8:21 pace, but the last two miles were more flat/downhill and were 7:58 and 7:55…I ended up running .15 extra, so even though my avg pace was 7:55 (my goal!), my official race pace was 8:09.  Bummer. Last year I ran around .7 extra, so that extra bobbing and weaving in the beginning few miles definitely added up.  Lesson learned, we need to get there earlier next year! 🙂

After the race since it was so chilly, we decided to head to the car and head home, in years past we’ve stayed to get an early lunch and also watch the parade, but after the hectic morning and being freezing cold, we thought going home sounded much more appealing.  The rest of the day we weren’t too productive! I did some cleaning, watched some lifetime and cooked dinner.  To be fair it was freezing outside, so staying inside and relaxing sounded like a good idea.

Sunday I got up and rode the trainer for 1hr 30min, the first 30 min was tough because my legs were still fatigued from the race the day before, but then they warmed up and felt pretty darn good the rest of the ridde.  After the ride, JMR and I met his mom and aunt for lunch since they were in town for the weekend for a shopping trip.  Then JMR did some work, I did lots of laundry and that was pretty much the end of the weekend!

This week since my eye is looking back to normal (thanks to prednisone and steroid cream) I’ll be back in the pool, which I’m excited about but also dreading a little because it takes me a while to ’embrace’ swimming, lol.  Also since my pace was better than expected at the race (slower than year’s past, but not as slow as I thought it would be this year), and was closer to my 5k goal pace so far this season (7:50) my coach has me picking up the pace on my tempo and long runs this week, so that should be interesting to see how those go…I’m going to have to give myself some pep talks!  This week’s volume is getting back on track to where it was before the whole biopsy and then eye issues….hooray!  IMWI is less than six months away… yikes!  It really is time to buckle down and get back into a routine.

Happy Monday – I’ll leave you with a picture of what I woke up to this morning… and it’s going to be in the 60’s this weekend….such crazy weather!