St. Pat’s 5K Race Recap

Yesterday I ran the St. Pat’s 5K in Providence. This was race #2 of my goal for at least #14in2014. We couldn’t have asked for more awesome weather for a race in March. It was a high of close to 50 and just pure sunshine!

 

 

You know I can’t resist a Zoolander gif when I have the opportunity to use one. Come on now, people!

Yesterday was very exciting for two reasons: 1) it was first race ever last year, which meant this was my first repeat race and chance to beat my original time and 2) since I walked it last year, and was run/walking this year, I knew I’d have an instant PR.

 

 

My walking time last year – 47:16. This year’s time – 37:08 (apparently I started my Garmin sooner than I needed to since it showed 37:13).

 

 

I love this course because the atmosphere is insane. People come out in droves to line the streets for the parade that starts at noon, right after the race ends. This means there are people all up and down the whole course cheering the runners on. It’s not a bad course, either. Pretty flat, with the exception of a massive uphill when you reach the turn-around through a neighborhood. It’s really just an out and back, with the exception of that neighborhood.

 

I’m in the hat and orange sleeves under my green shirt

 

You can see clearly in my splits where I did the majority of my walking. I was surprised at how fast I started out. It didn’t feel like I was running that fast because there are SO many people that come out to just walk the race so you spend the majority of the first half of the race weaving in and out of the walkers. Plus, I was only 5 minutes in to the race when the winner was coming back down, which meant everyone had to move over to the right to clear the left side of the road for the returning runners.

 

 

While I have to say I wish my endurance was back to where it was before my IT band injury, I’m not that upset with this race. I ran more then I expected to, so that made me happy. My knee was a little sore afterwards, but I will say that I never actually warmed up (ran out of time due to huge portapotty lines) and was too nervous and excited after the race to remember to stretch right away.

Why was I nervous and excited afterwards? Well – I was meeting my first ever fellow blogger! Alaina from The Jogging Concierge is trying to reach her goal of 30 races in 2014 and this was one of the races on her list. We arranged beforehand to try to meet up after the race so she stuck around with her parents to wait until I finished. She’s much quicker than me and finished around 30 minutes. She was just as nice in person as she sounds on her blog and it was a pleasure to meet her. You guys should go check out her blog when you have a sec and wish her luck on her 30 races!

 

 

My friend Julia that I work with was supposed to walk the race with another coworker of ours, but she texted Julia and said she wasn’t coming. Since Julia got caught in the traffic with the highway being closed right where she needed to get off, she ended up getting there really late and decided to just hang with Tara and watch the race instead of walking by herself. Once I crossed the finish line and found them, we met up with Alaina for a few minutes, then we decided to grab some lunch at The Cheesecake Factory.

When we got home, we were able to open the slider door for a little bit to get some fresh air in the house. We also took the cats outside for a few minutes to give them some “outside time” (they’re strictly indoor cats, but we have leashes for them).

I also got a nice little surprise in the mail – I feel official now!

 

 

I can’t wait until I receive the tech shirt I ordered as well and I’m really looking forward to this Saturday when I get to meet some of the group.

I’m off to get my butt in gear for the upcoming week. New strength training starts tomorrow, need to get some meal plans in place and I need to ready my snacks for work for the week. Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

 

 

 

 

 

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Face The Music Friday #17

Fitness this week:

Saturday – Shoulder/Leg – all 3 sets of 12-15 plus 30 min Yoga

Machine Shoulder Press – 15 lb, Barbell Incline Shoulder Raise – 20 lb, Dumbbell Shoulder Shrug – 25 lb, Barbell Squat – 65 lb, Barbell Standing Calf Raise – 65 lb, Farmer’s Walk (50 steps) – 40 lb, Abductor – 150 lb, Adductor – 150 lb, Plank – 3 x 45 seconds

Sunday – Resolution 5K race & PT stretches

Monday – Chest/Tricep – all 3 sets of 12-15

Dumbbell bench press – 15lb, Machine Fly – 65 lb, Dumbbell decline bench press – 15lb, Push-ups – 8, 7, 5 (no knees), Cable rope pushdown – 25 lb, “The Monster” – 20 lb, Machine assisted dip – 100 lb

Tuesday – Unscheduled rest day – not feeling well

Wednesday – Back/Bicep – all 3 sets of 12-15 plus 15 min Yoga

Machine assisted pull-up – 140 lb, “Good Mornings” – 30 lb, Cable seated row – 45 lb, Flexed Bicep Curl – 20 lb, Dumbbell Incline Bench Curl – 17.5 lb, Cable Standing One Arm Bicep Curl – 10 lb

Thursday – 35 min run/walk, 1 hr Obstacle Class @ Unleashed

Friday – rest

 

Or a blog in this case…

 

I call that a decent week! Kept up with my walk/run plan and it has moved up to 2 min run/2 min walk and I believe it will change again on Saturday. My plan for that day is to combine Saturday and Sunday’s workouts so that I can get in some #megsmiles on Saturday since that’s not a current normal running day on my schedule right now. I’ll then take Sunday as an extra rest day and just enjoy watching my Patriots play and maybe get some stuff done around the house.

Last night I had my third obstacle class at Unleashed and it was a doozy! I worked up a huge sweat and loved every minute of it. I love that each time I’ve done the class it’s a little different. The first time I think we had 11 obstacles, then last Thursday was 12 and last night was 13! And our warm-up was just running laps around the gym this time – no burpees! Yay!!

 

 

I think I did pretty well last night, at least with the wall. This time, I got high enough to see over it, but still can’t quite get my leg up over the top. I don’t have enough confidence or strength for that yet. At least it felt good to notice that progress as before I was just staring at the wood. I also climbed a bit higher on the rope ladder and cargo net, but until my grip strengthens some more I’m not comfortable going higher without a pad beneath me (and neither of those things has one under it).

As good as that felt, my left shoulder is definitely NOT feeling well today. It stiffened up a bit last night before bed, but I took some ibuprofen and figured rest might help but it feels worse this morning. I tried reaching higher to climb instead of closer to my body and I think I tweaked something by doing that, especially since it’s my left   shoulder that hurts which is my weaker side.

Last night, this is how the obstacles went (from where I started in the rotation): Rope wall climb (this is a 12 ft wall), the monkey rope (as I call it), Muscle up on Rings (go to around 6:30 in video), Kettlebell hoist, Cargo net climb, Rope ladder climb, Pull-ups (or in my case, hang from the bar for like 5 seconds at a time), Sandbag carry over plyoboxes, Sled push, Weight bag drag and pull, Sled pull and then my nemesis, the 6 ft wall. There is also an 8 ft wall that is part of that rotation with the 6 ft wall that if you get over one, you do the next, but please…I’m still working on the 6 ft wall.

Before we get to my musical selection for this week, here’s a quick registered race update for my #14in2014:

Race 1 done – Resolution 5K

Race 2 – Old Fashioned 5K – 2/16

Race 3 – St. Pat’s 5K – 3/8

Race 4 – Cox Rhode Races – 5/3

Race 5 – Goal race #1 – Tough Mudder – 5/31

Race 6 – Goal race #2 – Surftown Half Marathon – 9/14

This week I’m sharing a song that gets me pumped up whenever I hear it…even if I’m not working out.

Radioactive – Imagine Dragons