First 5K

I have run several times since the last post but nothing post worthy or exciting. I did run a 5K on July 25th. It was my very first race ever. Even though I routinely run 3 miles or more every time I run, I wanted to have an actual race experience before the half marathon. It was just a small community race that I ran with several of my family members. I was aiming to finish under 30 minutes and my time was 29:54. I think I started out a little too fast (it's really hard not to do that!) Also, I started to get faster when I had about .75 miles left - and I ran out of steam too early. My first mile was 9:39 - which is surprising because that was about my time for just one mile. I think that I should be able to do just one mile a lot faster. Also, when I finished, my watch didn't stop and the time on my Garmin page is over 34 minutes - which is incorrect. Overall it was fun and I think I learned a few things. I think it's going to be difficult to take walking breaks in the half marathon because everyone is going to be passing me. Also, I just need to be proud of what I am doing and not let it bother me that I am going to be one of the slowest people in the race. I really don't want to come in last in my age group. I was looking at the results from last year's half marathon and it's a very good possibility that I could come in very near the end. I'll just have to not let it get to me. I am officially signed up now! There's no turning back :)


Garmin Connect

Rock Island Trail - Long Run

A friend mentioned that she knew about a great trail that was right by our church building. Today I needed an 11 mile run and I thought this would be a great place to try it out. I love not having big hills and running on a trail - as opposed to running on sidewalks around a neighborhood. It was a nice trail and I'll probably do it again sometime. For this long run, I took along some energy gels. I seriously need more exercise clothes that have pockets - how do you runners out there carry around all the stuff you need? I have an mp3 player, cell phone, car key, water bottle, and now energy gel packets. My only pants with a pocket have a tiny hidden one in front that fits one cell phone pretty well. I usually stick my mp3 player in there too. I have tried an armband, but the one I have rubs my arm raw by the time I am done with my run. Today I put 2 gel packets in there too - I just left my cell phone in the car, it wouldn't really fit with the packets in my pocket as well. I just carry my water bottle in my hand. Anyway, I waited until I had run for about 35 minutes, and took "sips" of the gel during my walk breaks. Man, that stuff is nasty. I didn't eat it all at once - just small amounts over the course of about 15 minutes. Then I started the other one at about 1 1/2 hours into the run. I think that it did help. Near the end of my run my head and my heart felt really good - it was just my legs/knees/feet that were killing me. I was able to keep up with the scheduled run periods, but I definitely slowed down on the last half of the run. I set up my watch for an interval workout - I tried 4 mins running and 1 min of walking. When you set up the workout on the watch, you have to say how many intervals you want to do. Since my goal was 11 miles, I had to guess how many intervals it would be. I entered 26 and that ended up being the perfect number. I completed 11 miles during my final walk break. I did better on this run than my last long one (12:22 average pace per mile) and hopefully I'll still improve a little.

Here's the map. I think this trail might connect to the Pikes Peak Greenway trail, but I couldn't be sure. A sign said the trail was ending. There was another established path that I took at the end of the Rock Island Trail - the Shooks run path.


All in all I felt pretty good on this run. I was still pretty tired for the rest of the day, but I guess that's pretty normal. Here is the link to the Garmin Connect data.

Garmin Connect July 11th Run

One Mile Time Trial

This is the second time trial that I've done during the course of this training. It's actually probably not very valid because I did it on the treadmill. It was the 4th of July and Aaron had to go into work for a couple of hours in the morning. I knew that I wasn't going to want to run later on in the day, so I opted to do my time trial (plus 4 more miles) on my treadmill. I used my foot pod (and not the treadmill readings) for the distance. When I ran a mile on the track, my heart rate was high. It seems like it was at or above my AT (167) the whole time. I was able to shave 7 seconds off of my time and did a mile in 9:23. But my heart rate barely got out of zone 3. I guess you just aren't working as hard on the treadmill. I really need to just do it on a track again to really compare the numbers. Then I ran a few more miles. I tried a 4/1 run/walk ratio and it felt pretty good. I ran slightly slower, but since it was for a minute longer, I think it improved my overall time. Now it feels like I can run 5 miles and it's not really that hard - at least I can feel like I'm improving a little.

Garmin Connect Data

A friend told me about another trail in town that I want to try out this Saturday for my 11 mile run. Also, I got a variety of energy gels, bars, and drinks to try out. I really needed something on my last run and I'm hoping that this will really help. I will have to use some trial and error to see what works best for me.

Also, check out the cool new widget I found that works with your Garmin Connect data. You can choose what info to display and they have three different styles to choose from. It's at http://garminconnect.codedrobot.com.