I had another 5K race today. Not to bash my race last weekend, but walking into this race today I could see the competition was a little more serious....finishing the race I know the competition was more serious. Last week 24:28 got me 2nd place in my age group. This week, 24:07 did nothing. The 3rd place in my age group came in @ 21:39!! I'll take my 21 second improvement tho.
That 21 second improvement leads me to my newest thought....how hard can you push?
As I'm racing lots of things go through my head...who can I have pace me? Did I go out too hard? Not hard enough? How much energy to have left? What am I going to eat after I run? (not a lie...I'm always thinking about food) Should I be going harder? Am I going too hard? Should I change the song on my ipod to something with a tempo to make me work harder?
The idea of how hard can I push it is one aspect of my running I need to concentrate on. I need to learn my limits and push myself to them. Throughout the race I felt comfortable...A decent amount of energy was exerted, but probably not enough. (In fairness to myself I will say today I ran for the 1st time since like 2010 without any type of brace on my knee so I was trying to be careful..ish) I did find a pretty good runner to pace me. I was within five feet from her at all times (she didn't realize I was there...very stalkerish of me ha ha). I thanked her after the race for doing all the work pushing me. She invited me to join her running group.
After it was all said and done, I felt fine very quickly after the race. I wasn't panting or puking ha ha Then it hit me....I could have gone harder. I know I'm better at going up hill so I do try to really push it on hills (Famous last words as I think about my 7 mile race in San Fran in 3 weeks ha ha) All in all though I wasn't exerting my best effort. (After the race I did the only logical thing in my head-I went tot he gym and ran another 4 miles ha ha) I think one thing I will start doing for races is looking at course maps prior to the race so I have an idea of what I'm up against. While "hindsight is 20/20" "Knowing is also half the battle" so perhaps that will help me. I've also decided I'm going to do more sprint work in my training to give me a better idea of what my body is able to handle and for how long. Hopefully the combo of new things I'm trying will give me better baseline data on what I can handle.
I do know what thing...this running thing is a lot of work beyond the actual act of running. I will say that I'm taking this as seriously as possible and really learning a lot about myself as a runner both physically and mentally. This blog writing is really forcing me to pay attention and listen to my body more!
"Racing teaches us to challenge ourselves. It teaches us to push beyond where we thought we could go. It helps us to find out what we are made of. This is what we do. This is what it's all about."
-PattiSue Plumer, U.S. Olympian
Happy Running!
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