Monthly Archives: May 2019

May31

May Races

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I had two races this month: Red Deer Half Marathon and the Willow Creek Wilderness 10km. These are both races I ran last year. And they are both races I did worse at this year.

I have done Red Deer Half numerous times. My slowest time for Red Deer is somewhere around a 1:56 (this was before I really started taking my training seriously) and my fastest is in the 1:42. Considering I ran a 1:37 and change at the Police Half in September, I was incorrectly assuming I could maybe break 1:40. Of course, I didn’t take into account how shitty my training has been going this winter and spring. I also seemed to forget that the Red Deer course is actually a bit challenging. While the city of Red Deer is lower in elevation than Lethbridge, the course winds along the Red Deer River with many sharp turns. There are also numerous little hills throughout that put a strain on your body.

I started off the race too fast (of course) but I felt good the first 5 km and thought I was settled in to keep a 7:30 min/mi pace. But mile 4 was a 7:35 and then mile 5 was a 7:49. When mile 6 hit an 8:20 and it felt like my legs had already ran a full marathon, I knew I was in trouble. My husband Dan caught up to me around mile 8.5 and he jokingly said “Don’t let your piece of shit husband beat you!” (He says he’s a POS because he does not train NEARLY as seriously as I do) Well, I was able to join him again by mile 9, and it did push me to keep on trucking. I had told him we should just run together the rest of the race, which we did, but once I got up the final hill and had the last 400 m downhill to the finish line I decided to just fucking book it. Well, he ended up passing me at the finish and I lost. This is the first time my husband has gotten a time better than me in a half marathon. And it sucked.

I ran a 1:43.20. Dan ran a 1:43.12. Last year, at 7 months postpartum I ran a 1:42.28. I know race times can change year to year. But I really didn’t think I’d be a little bit slower than last year. But then, I have to keep reminding myself that I don’t have the same time to train like I did last year on maternity leave.

My body doesn’t recover from races as fast as it used to either. I’ve done back to back race weekends before, but doing the Willow Creek 10km this year after doing the Red Deer Half was maybe a poor choice. My time, just like Red Deer, was slower than the previous year. I ran a 48:25 (slightly longer than a 10km) but last year I ran a 47:48. My body was just dragging. I did have fun because our friends Chelsey and Adam were there too, and they won the female and male categories. I came in behind them in 5th place.

I really hope that my road race times can get back down closer to where they used to be. But I may have to just start to accept that this may be my ‘new normal’ for some time.

May9

Spring

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Well, Spring came late with winter never seeming to end. I *think* we can finally say that all the snow is behind us…even though a snowfall occurred last Saturday night and left the trails wet and muddy for the local 5km Rita’s Run this past Sunday. All of it is melted and now we can move onto Spring and Summer, right?

It’s been 3 months since my last post. That’s the longest, by far, I’ve ever had between postings. Anytime I have an idea to write, I am either busy with school work, busy with life work, busy with parent work, busy with wine-work….I just don’t have the energy to make it up to my laptop in the evenings to write a post. When it’s my ‘down-time’ I now just want to relax on the couch. So with that, I never even did a post about my Moonlight Run results from March, haven’t updated anything about how my training this Spring is going, my latest race this past Sunday, and what the next coming months look like.

Moonlight Run 10 km was held on March 23, 2019. Weather was great for this race, and there wasn’t any crazy snow or crazy cold. My overall goal for it was to do better than I did last year. Now, my husband thought this was a stupid goal because he said it was a no-brainer. Last year, I was 5 months postpartum. Of course I would be faster. But, my training had been all over the place since going back to work that I didn’t want to hold my breath.

The race went as well as it could for me. I finished with a 45:17 and was 1/52 in my 30-34 age group, 6/246 in female and then 38/455 overall. Claiming my age group award was the best feeling in the world. Last year I was 3rd with a 47:13. So shaving close to 2 minutes off is definitely on the right track for a comeback!

I opted to not do a lot of races this spring mainly to save money and to also focus on just getting the training in. Having no races in April was probably a first for me since 2012????!!!! Crazy, huh? I also during that time decided to stop my run streak. I made is 135 days straight of running at least a mile a day. I had had it in my head I would streak for a year, but I think it was running a toll on my body. I have bigger goals for this year than just running a mile a day, and getting rid of the streak will help with that.

This past Sunday I ran in the 5m Rita’s Run, which raised money and awareness for Mental Health. It was the first year this race was put on, and they had an awesome turnout for both the 5km and 10km events. there were 231 who completed the 5km and 67 who did the 10km. I think there were more registered, but the unseasonal weather that came through may have caused some people to just sleep in that morning.

The course was in the river bottom and while it was a pretty course, it definitely was not a course to get a personal best on. It started very narrow, had lots of turns, and then ended up measuring over 3.1 miles (3.24 miles on my watch). I hope they can sort those things out for next year. It made it more challenging for myself as I was running with Andy in the stroller. I’m glad I only did the 5km with him because all the sharp turns and narrow pathways did prove a challenge. The extra distance was also not fun with the stroller when I wanted to just be done. We did manage on finishing 2nd overall! 24:07 was our chiptime, and we placed 2/63 in age group, 2/169 female, and 6/231 overall.

So now what? Well, the big task this month is the Red Deer Half Marathon. That’s really what my training has been building towards this winter and spring. I would like to run a decent half marathon time for myself. I feel confident I can get under 1:40, as I ran a 1:37 and change in late September. However, I was training for Berlin right before that and had had more time to get quality training in while on maternity leave. Maybe I can run my ‘best’ Woody’s RV Red Deer Half time? 1:42.28 is the time to beat for it.

I’ve also started doing trail running during the week in preparation for my summer and fall events. I’ll have to do a different post all about my trail running trials and tribulations….hopefully that gets written in less than 3 months!