Go Lucy Go 5K & Speed Training

If you haven’t entered the Shelf giveaway here, please do if you have time.  = )  All you have to do is sign up for a free Shelf account and leave me a comment.  The winner will pick a clothing, shoe, handback or jewelry item of their choice up to a $60 value!  You can still enter the giveaway for the I Run for Boston Tank Top giveaway here too.
Meredith, Janessa, me, Lora, Laura and Jaime.

This past Saturday I ran the Go Lucy Go 5K out near my hometown.  I had been wanting to run this race for years since it is for a little girl who has cancer and lives in my parents’ neighborhood.  It is usually in May, and I’m out of town for work, but this year they changed it to April, so I was pumped when I found out I could go.  I ran with 5 other awesome Memphis blogger friends.  One of them, Laura, just moved the the Memphis area a few weeks ago, so I was so excited to finally meet her.  She brought her whole family out to run, and they were so sweet.  One of her son’s completely smoked me lol.  I got up that morning and did my usualy of no food, but did chug a whole bottled water.  My mouth gets really dry if I don’t drink something before I run, and my stomach feels too heavy if I eat.  Then I go to leave and realize that my husband took my vehicle the night before to go out with friends, and came home in a taxi.  That would mean my vehicle was still at his friend’s house.  Thank goodness, my mother-in-law lives right down the road, so I borrowed her car and then set out for the 45 minute drive.  My ETA on my GPS was 9:11am and the race started at 9:00.  Oops.  Thank goodness, I made good time and pulled up at 8:58am.  My mom had picked up my bib and saved me a good parking spot not too far away.  I actually ended up having some time to spare because they did about 30 minutes of announcements.  I had never been so happy for them to start a race late.  It worked out perfectly!  It was a little hilly, and my left knee did start hurting a little around mile 1.5, but not too badly.  I think I kept up with Meredith the first 0.25, and that was it haha.  She blew me away.  She even set a PR; she did incredible!  I finished in 28 minute, and I was okay with that.  That was a minute faster than the weekend before.  I’ve still got a few more minutes to shave off, but it’s definitely progress!  I came in sixth in my age group, and as Becca reminded me yesterday, I’m 29 which means I’m at the top of my age group and still beat some young’ins!  Made me feel much better, as I’d never thought of it that way before.  That means I will have no excuse come this July when I’m 30 and at the young end of my age group, uh oh.  = )  All the girls I ran with did wonderful.  Jaime even pushed her son in a stroller and still did incredible!  I also got to see a few other friends who I hadn’t seen in a while, so it was a great day!

One of my favorite races of the year, the Harbortown 5K, is coming up on June 7.  If you’re in the Memphis area and are doing it, please let me know.  It is such a fun race, and they give you some awesome Nike swag when you sign up too.  I’ve ran it the last 5 years, and have included my times below.  The first year was my first 5K that I ever did.  I walked the entire thing with my sister-in-law.  A few years later, Shane and I decided we wanted to start running and the 2009 run was my first 5K.  It is a fun race, but it is also HOT.  I mean Memphis humid hot.  As you can tell by my times, I usually get worse each year.  It is all flat, but hot.  Have I mentioned it was hot?  But last year, I actually not only beat my time for that particular 5K, but I set a PR at 25:52 (or an 8:19 pace.)  I have yet to beat it, but I am really going to try this year.  The only bad thing is I’m about 3 months behind on my training from where I was last year, but it’s never too late to start.  My best time previous to last year’s Harbortown 5K was the Rebel Run last April where I ran 27:03 and placed first in my age group (only because the fast runners were enjoying the beautiful day instead of running.)  = )  That same race is this coming Saturday, and I think I’m going to do it.  I am going to run 4 more times this week before Saturday, and hopefully I will do well this Saturday.  I need to start going back to Bootcamp again and finally break down and try Jillian.  I know that Bootcamp was also a big factor in me setting a PR last summer.

Harbortown 5K
2005 51:23
2009 31:18
2010 32:21
2011 32:33
2012 25:52

I started this Sunday doing more speed training by doing sprint intervals.  I started out running 0.25 miles at a 6:30pace.  I would like to get that closer to 6:00 by next week.  Obviously the longer I run, the much slower I get, so even though I may do 0.25 miles at a 6:30 pace, my last 5K, I averaged a 9 minute mile.  I get, slow, slower and slooooowwweerrr.  Some people are better at speeding up as they go along or even keeping a nice steady pace, but I tend to run faster at the beginning, slow down in the middle, and then sprint at the very end.  I ran that same 0.25 sprint interval a few times this Sunday and was consistently around 6:30.  When I ran half a mile, that increased to 7:00, and when I ran 1 mile, that increased even more to 8:00.  Run 3 miles, and I’m looking at 9:00.  Run a half marathon, and I’m looking at 13:00.  Last year I was running 1 mile closer to 7:00, so that is my goal over the next month.  Like I said, before, I get slower as I go along, so I would expect my next mile to be about 8:00 and my last 9:00, but I am really wanting to try harder to run at a consistent pace instead of killing myself in the beginning to tire out later.  I really think trying these sprint intervals for 0.25, then 0.5 and so on will help.  I didn’t mention it before, but I walk between the intervals to give my body time to cool down and recharge.  Below are a few pictures from the race, and you can follow me here on Instagram to see even more.  I’ll be back tomorrow for a Jose Eber Clipless Curling Iron Trio giveaway worth $170, peace out!