Well that didn’t go as I had hoped… 20:20 5k

20:20 or so at the Musky Festival 5k. I was the second woman (out sprinted at the end). I actually haven’t looked up the official results.

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I was so excited to race this weekend! Jerry was kind enough to allow for a mini-taper (i.e. only 64 miles that week!) so that morning I could feel a little extra spring in my step. Problem was, I could also tell my hip was a little “stuck”.

It wasn’t bad, though, and there is no longer any pain in the hip joint.

The gun went off and I could tell immediately that even though my feet had some spring that I wasn’t running smoothly like normal. No biggie, I told myself. Remember when you ran 19:5X at Gustavus a few months ago? You are certainly smoother, and more fit!, than that!

But at 800m, I could feel my left quad (the good one) burning. I must have been limping really heavily onto it. At ~1400m, I decided to stop to stretch out the quad and try to get my R leg working properly. There was no way I could run hard limping like this, so it was better to spend 10-15 seconds to fix it now — plus, maybe I’d loosen it up & actually be able to race! I watched as Nate cruised by me while I was stretching. He reminded me to be smart about running/racing!

Except, no such luck in loosing up the hip and alleviating the limp onto the left leg. I stopped two other times. The rest of the time I ran comfortably hard as I couldn’t really pick it up. Sigh. My HR monitor didn’t register but I’m fairly certain I averaged somewhere in the low 170s for the race (recent max in a workout has been 197). *Sigh*

Between my race and her “Minnow Run” (aka mom carry baby around the block)

I was able to put the race behind me shortly thereafter, but I would be lying if I said that the result didn’t affect my mood greatly. For the first time in my training after Anna, I had some expectations of how this race would go.

I’d run low 19s, beat Nate :), and be able to send a very excited virtual hug with my race result to Jerry.

Sounds fun, eh?

Instead, I ran mid 20s, Nate beat me by ~25 seconds, and I skipped the long cool down that was written (there was no benefit of limping through extra mileage, I thought). I allowed myself to think negatively while walking back on the course to cheer. One negative thought lead to another… you maybe can relate. What a Negative Nancy I am, I thought to myself.

No one likes a Negative Nancy. So let’s let this result be a positive for me in some way, I thought. How?

1. I still won my age group so won a free entry to next year’s race. That’s all I was hoping for in the first place, so mission accomplished!

2. I need to be even more diligent about my PT exercises, stretching, and communicating with my providers. As in: I’m carving out 20 minutes during the work day to do one set of exercises and 20 minutes at night. If I can’t find time for two sets of PT exercises or stretching sessions, I can’t plan on doing doubles, long runs, etc. First thing is first.

3. I also wiped the negative thoughts from my face because we had Greta and Anna in the Minnow run, along with their cousin Simon. They don’t care about winning, PRs, etc – and shouldn’t! So why should they see their mom/aunt bummed about a race result?

4. I may consider going to see a different chiropractor this upcoming week. There is a business that I’ve been to before offering a $29 new patient special (hopefully a new injury means I qualify? It has been a few years since I’ve been there) that offers x-rays and a thorough consult. I think the more eyes and brains I have working on this, the better.

Onward and upward, right?