Day 89

I expect a shocking metamorphosis to occur on day 90, unrealistic though that may be! I spent approx 90 days trashing my system with lots of wheat in preparation for the celiac tests so I figure that it'll take at least 90 days to undo that damage...my rational is purely symmetrical. I have no idea how long it will really take!

Anyway, Saturday: 25 minute easy run.
Sunday: I'm not sure how much I ran today. I figure about 1:40, same as last Sunday: 20ish min warm up, 5K, then 1 hr jog, this time with my husband and the dog. We had to go pick up the car; we took a cab back from the casino/Army Ball. A lot of fun last night!

The race was later this week, 10:45. I appreciated the extra sleep-in time, but I don't really sleep in even when up past 1 am the night before. I was worried about getting hungry so I ate some dessert tofu and drank some water. Jogged over to the start an hour before to get my chip, jogged around and warmed up and cheered some runners finishing the 1/2 marathon, then jogged back to use my washroom one more time, then jogged back to the start and warmed up some more. Did I mention that my house was about 300 metres from the start line? Very convenient! I didn't have to feel bad about doing damage in a public restroom.

This race didn't feel as mentally strong as last week's...it was later, hotter, and I wasn't as optimistic. And physically I didn't feel as good. I was sort of expecting this: army ball last night and a tougher workout week before. I felt like I was running so slowly today and it was a downer, and I had to keep pushing myself.

I think I seeded myself better this time, in that I didn't have to pass as many people, but I think I went out a shade too fast. It wasn't major, though. Things settled down, I passed a woman and then another passed me (us) at 2ish K, an older lady who looked like a born runner, lanky and leggy. She swept by seemingly effortlessly and I tried to dig in but didn't quite manage. The first woman wasn't too far behind me at the turn around and that helped keep me going. A guy passed me sometime soon after that and then that was pretty much it, I think--lots of space ahead, too much! I tried to break the course up in minute intervals, picking things that I thought were a minute ahead, and I remembered to loosen up my shoulders, keep my guts tight, and my turnover quick and not too sloppy, but I did feel sort of mired in place. Push, push, push....

The woman behind me passed me somewhere past 3K, the longest km of the race. So, her turn to pace. I trailed her, started counting down after 1k, but haphazardly, push, push, push, and then it was 500M to go. Nice! I felt like crap but only 2:15ish to go, I guessed. The woman ahead of me looked a little closer so that was incentive to push a little more. When we got to 200M I decided that I would try to start to kick it in at 100M. baby steps! Maybe one day I can have a longer kick, but today was a good start. It wasn't my best 100M but I found another gear. I passed her sometime shortly after the 100M mark, I think, and ended up beating her by 5 seconds (gun time). Not bad for 80-90 metres. Turned out she was in my age group too. You just never know!

The kick was a bit of a confidence booster but overall I was a bit disappointed at how hard this race was. But a 6 second improvement over last week's race, LOL: 22:52 vs 22:58--I forgot to correct it, but my time last week wasn't 22:54 after all.

I won a CD as a door prize and a pair of socks as an age group prize. They also had pancakes after the race (i didn't have any, of course! but good to know).

This was the Minto race--I did the 10K two years ago and enjoyed it. It's really nice having the 500-400-300-200-100 markers at the end and it's a smoothly run race. They had some really enthusiastic volunteers at the drink stations and road blocks.

So now I have another tough week and one more 5K...still trying to decide which one because there's the Law Run on Friday, one by the river on Saturday, and one on the same course as last week's Physio Run on Sunday. I have to catch a flight to San Antonio on Sunday, but I'm still tempted by the Sunday race...