Anthem 5K - A new PR!

The Anthem 5k was this morning, a very BRISK and CHILLY morning in downtown Louisville. I think the bank I passed said 24 degrees. BRRRRR..... Still been stressed and not sleeping well all week. Went to bed exhausted last night, but didn't sleep well. I think it's because I was afraid I may oversleep and miss the run. In any case, the last thing I wanted to do was crawl out of bed at 6:15 a.m. and head out in the cold to run such a small race. However, once I got going I felt pretty good. In such a small race there are a lot of un-seasoned participants and walkers, so I think realizing that I was a little faster than most of the people I was coming in contact with gave me a little extra boost. I still did the 6:1 intervals because, as I said, I wasn't looking forward to the run in the first place, and definitely not looking to break any records.

At the 1 mile marker I was just at a 10 min. pace which is lightening fast for me - sad as that may seem. About 19 minutes in I started getting side stitches, but stuck it out and concentrated on my breathing a little more. Passed the 2 mile marker around 21:30 or so. At this point, I had just started another interval of running and thought to myself "If I can't run the last mile without having to walk, I'm a major weinie." So.... I ran the last 1.1 mile and came across the finish in 32:15 - about :42 seconds faster than my prior PR which was just last year.

Obviously this tells me that the work I've been doing has been paying off - even if a lot of the workouts I do aren't spent on running necessarily. I think the endurance and cardio strength, not to mention muscles that have been building in my legs due to spin class have played a huge part in this. I'm feelin' pretty good about this last run, and after finishing up the weekend of being on-call, will once again be ready to face the bike, pool and treadmill for some more training. Next event: Rodes City Run - 10k in 2 weeks and another Sprint Tri the weekend after that. Here goes nothing. Again.