Training for 11/30/15

Last Thursday was, as we all know, Thanksgiving. I’d planned an 8-miler, but by the time I got everything done around the house, I only had time for a shorter run. I did an easy lap around the 4.5-mile loop. It was an absolutely beautiful day, in the 70s and sunny.

Dinner was great. I don’t mind hosting it at all, because everyone else does all the cooking. All we have to do is clean our house and borrow some tables and chairs from Clark’s work. I did make a couple easy vegetable side dishes, and I made sure I had two cans of Ocean Spray Cranberry Jelly for Aunt Helen, since she’d made such a production about having to “settle” for homemade cranberry sauce the last time we had Thanksgiving.

Friday was another unseasonably warm day for late November, sunny and in the 70s again. I took Pepper out for another easy lap around the 4.5-mile loop.

Saturday, I had the Huffin’ for Pumpkin Pie 5K in Rehoboth. Clark left super early to meet my brother at the beach house. Dave just bought himself a drone and he wanted to try taking videos of Clark surfing. Since I’d be gone for a while too, I dropped off Pepper at Clark’s grandmother’s house for the morning, pulling back into my driveway right behind TK, who was there to pick me up.

We drove to Rehoboth and got parked with plenty of time before the 9 a.m. race. After picking up our race bibs and event shirts, I ran an easy warm up mile.

It was a little cooler Saturday morning than it had been the two previous days, but it was still really nice weather for this time of year. I wore shorts and a long-sleeved shirt, but wished I’d opted for short sleeves instead at the end of the warm up mile. Oh well, too late now.

I joined the crowd at the start line. We got some last-minute instructions from the race director and then we were off.

This is the same course we run several times every year. I know it like the back of my hand now. Sometimes they start it on the straightaway, but sometimes, like this time, they start it just around the bend from the straightaway. It makes it a little dicey right after the start, when the whole crowd tries to make the turn, but after that there’s plenty of room to spread out.

I tried to just run by feel. I was hoping I’d made some progress on my 5K times since the summer series, but I also knew I’d still been majorly slacking on the speed work, so I didn’t really deserve to run any faster.

The Garmin chirped at the end of the first mile and I looked down — 6:52. Not bad!

I swear, I really thought I was maintaining my pace in the second mile. Imagine my shock when I heard the Garmin chirp and looked down to see 7:26. I’d slowed down more than 30 seconds! Ugh.

I tried to pick it up in the third mile but my body just wasn’t having it. Mile 3 was pretty much the same, 7:27. I’ll say the same thing here I said after every 5K I ran this year: I really need to make myself do speed work again!

Anyway, I gutted out the final 10th of a mile and crossed the line in 22:42. That was seven seconds faster than my best 5K of the summer, but still. Just a few years ago I ran this race two minutes faster.

Coming to the line.

I did another easy mile to cool down, arriving back at the park just before TK and her sister Kari finished. I got a slice of pumpkin pie they were serving to the runners.

When the results were posted, I’d managed a third place finish (of 19) in my age group — first place ran 21:15 and second was 22:22. I was also the 11th of 207 female runners and 45th of 368 total runners.

Oh, when I was looking through the album of finish line photos, I saw this one:

Get it? She’s a pumpkin pi(e) haha. Very appropriate.

After the race, TK and I got coffee from Dunkin’ Donuts and then did some shopping at the outlets, which were packed.

When I got home that afternoon, I got to see the aftermath of Clark’s first surfing injury. He’d gotten smacked in the head by his board, and it had sliced open his left ear. The whole ear was still caked in dried blood.

He said he hadn’t even realized his ear had been cut after it happened because the water was so cold. When he came out of the ocean, some other surfer had come over to check out my brother’s drone. When he saw Clark’s oozing wound, he excitedly pointed out the board-induced scar on his own face. I guess that’s like street cred among surfers.

I also got to see the videos my brother had made with the drone. I was very impressed! He bought this thing for $1,200 from Best Buy, and it can go 1,600 ft. in the air and a mile and a half away from the remote. He got some really cool videos of Clark in the ocean, and pretty much all of Fenwick Island.

Sunday morning, Clark had to get up and leave early again, but this time to go to the airport. He’s in California right now, where he’s getting ready to take another state contractor license exam tomorrow.

It was cold and drizzly yesterday. I didn’t really feel like running, but I was worried Pepper was going to poop in the house when I had to leave that afternoon to meet my friends for lunch, so I took him for a run.

It turned out to be a really nice little run, once I warmed up. We did a lap around the 5.5-mile loop. He didn’t poop though. I figured he must have done it earlier. I mean, that would be really impressive, if he could hold it through a 45-minute run.

I met my friends at the Olive Garden in Easton for lunch, which was fun, and then went straight back home to find — no dog poop! What a good boy! We spent the rest of the day on the couch. I kept thinking about going upstairs and bringing down all the Christmas decorations but… meh.

Today, I still have to take Pepper out for the last run of November, an easy 3-miler, and then I’m supposed to do some strength training.

And since this is the last day of November, here is my monthly summary.

Mileage:

• Week 1 (Nov. 1-7): 14.5 miles
• Week 2 (Nov. 8-14): 39.4
• Week 3 (Nov. 15-21): 31.1
• Week 4 (Nov. 22-28): 26.6
• Week 5 (Nov. 29-30): 8.5

Total: 120.1 miles

That’s down quite a bit from last month, but that’s to be expected, since I tapered for and then recovered from the marathon Nov. 8. I ran three races: the 8K and marathon weekend, and then the 5K this past weekend. I think I did OK in all of them.

Looking forward to December, I have the Rehoboth half marathon in a mere five days, which I would like to run in about 1:45. Other than a free ugly Christmas sweater 5K on Dec. 19, the rest of this month will just be about training for next spring’s Shamrock Marathon. I can’t believe it’s time to train for that again already!