Training for 6/1/15

As has been the case all month, I ran another horrendous race Saturday – not my worst 5K ever, but not far off, and my slowest in five freaking years.

Well anyway, Friday was fun. I got up to the track just before the skybox opened at noon. I was under the impression Dave, Kasey and her brother Wes had left home earlier in the morning and would already be there when I got there, but apparently they were running a few hours late. So for the first couple of hours, I was in the skybox all by myself, drinking all the free Buds brought to me by the employees, who probably felt bad for the girl waiting on her “friends” haha.

My only company for quite a while!

Probably to the employees’ surprise, the other three actually showed up eventually, and we enjoyed all the free food and beer while watching all the qualifying and practice sessions on the track. I left right after Denny Hamlin won the pole for Sunday’s race, and got home to find Pepper had not pooped in the floor yet!

I didn’t sleep all that well Friday night. I got up around 5:30 the next morning, fed Pepper – who clearly knew something was up because it was so early and so refused to go out after his breakfast – and left around 6 with TK. I was 99 percent positive there was going to be dog poop in the floor when I got home. Oh well, nothing I could do about it at that point.

We got to the race site in Lewes just before 7. I had plenty of time for an easy mile to warm up. It was definitely a much warmer and more humid morning than we’d had for the 5-miler the weekend before. Around 7:30, I got in the starting pack and we were off.

The course was a simple out and back along a residential street. There’s not a whole lot to say about the race. I was just slow from the start. Felt like I was barely moving, and the first mile would never end. It did eventually, in 7:20. At the halfway mark, we made the turn to go back and were running into the wind, which just made it feel that much harder. Mile 2 was barely under 8:00! And mile 3 was about the same.

I crossed the line in 23:59, a 7:40/mile average pace. The last time I ran a 24-minute 5K was in 2010, after I’d gone through the ITBS crap. Obviously I don’t have that excuse now. I just don’t know what my deal is. I’m slow and it sucks.

I did another slow(er) mile to cool down, and then TK and I went to the after party at Irish Eyes, where they had free Blue Moons and ice cream for us. That helped haha. Then they posted the results. Once again, no one faster in my age group showed up, and I was first of eight in the F 30-34 age group. I was also sixth of 133 women, and 32nd of 156 runners overall.

All the winners. I’m to the right of the same kid I was running behind in the second picture after the start.

TK and I got iced coffees and went to Cape Henlopen State Park to lay out on the beach for a couple hours. When we left, I was a little pink on all the places that have been covered by my shorts or sports bra but not my swimsuit, but not burnt, which was nice. We got lunch in downtown Lewes and got home around 2 p.m.

I wasn’t as lucky with the dog poop Saturday. Pepper had absolutely blasted the utility room floor! It was… a lot. I couldn’t be too mad at him though, because I’d left earlier than he usually goes.

I spent the rest of Saturday at home with Pepper. There was a 5K at 3rd Wave Brewing that evening that, earlier in the week, I’d thought about also running. I didn’t though, because dogs weren’t allowed to run it too, which meant I’d have had to leave Pepper home alone again. I wasn’t too broken up about it though.

Sunday morning, I got up early, fed Pepper and took him for a run around the 4.5-mile loop. He didn’t poop while we were running, but he’d stayed outside for a while after his breakfast, before we ran, so I had high hopes he wouldn’t go in the floor while I was at the race that day.

I met Mike at his house a little after 8. We were in the parking lot and tailgating by 9:30. It was going to be another hot day, and it didn’t look like there would be any chance of the storms they’d talked about — it was clear and sunny.

Took this picture for Clark — he was the only thing missing.

My family stopped by as usual on their way to the track to get a free burger, and my dad sold three of his four unused tickets to three people tailgating next to us who hadn’t bought tickets yet, so that worked out.

My mom helped Mike and me clean up the tailgating stuff before we went to the track. We got there just in time for the national anthem.

Every now and then, one of those clouds would move in front of the sun and give us a little bit of a reprieve, but for the most part, we were in full sunlight the whole time, on the hottest day we’ve had for a Dover race in years. Worse, Jimmie stupid Johnson won. In spite of all that, we still had a great time. It’s NASCAR at Dover!

After I dropped off Mike at his house, I went home to find — no dog poop! Two out of three days, poop-free. What a good boy! After I fed Pepper and unpacked the Jeep, I drove him over to my uncle’s house, where my aunt had made Schmidt barbecue chicken and strawberry pie for everyone.

Today, it’s hot as balls again, and I didn’t get up in time to run before it got too warm. I might do some strength training after the meeting I have to cover for work tonight.

And since it’s the first day of a new month, it’s time to sum up last month.

Mileage:

• Week 1 (May 1-2): 18 miles
• Week 2 (May 3-9): 30.5
• Week 3 (May 10-16): 37.6
• Week 4 (May 17-23): 26.4
• Week 5 (May 24-31): 30.1

Total: 142.6 miles

May was my best mileage month of the year, which is good. But, except for the half marathon I paced, all of my races this month were terrible — worst half marathon ever and slowest 5-miler and 5K in five years.

I hope some of it has to do with how hot it got before the St. Michaels half marathon, which I’ll get used to eventually, and some of it has to do with my lack of regular speed work, which I can fix by actually doing that again. It would suck to just never again be as fast as I once was.

In June, I’d like to keep up my mileage before OBX Marathon training begins the first week of July. I have three more 5Ks coming up this month too. I would say they can only get faster than the one I ran this past weekend, but obviously it could get even worse so, knock on wood!