Fresh Pond 5 miler, take 2, RR

Last night I made the decision to not race Derry 16 miler this year. The timing was just not right. Petru has his first African drumming lesson tomorrow at the same time the race starts and I want to go with him; Petru has a tendency to make up his mind about whether he likes or dislikes something in one minute, and Chris, albeit the best father ever, will do anything to avoid conflict. Plus my mom is arriving from Romania today!

So, in lieu of the Derry race, I decided to run 16 miles, 5 to the Fresh Pond race start, then the 5 miles (actually 4.75) race @ HMP, then 1 (actually 1.25mile) @ HMP for a total of 6 HMP miles and 5 miles home. My hammy has been feeling good as I took the entire week easy, so I was ready to roll. When I got to the race site, there were few runners. The director said that there will be no race, as the woman who typically does the timing thought it would be too dangerous to race (ice and cold), but then someone else decided to do the timing, so the race was on. At the start, the director asked whether anyone wants to do the 5 miler, and about 5 of us raised our hands (I think I was the only woman).

I felt pretty good from the beginning. I had run the 5 miles to the race start @ 7:45, HR 160, so was well warmed up. The path was very slippery and there were 2 occasions where little dogs jumped at my feet, but otherwise the run was great. I ran mostly by feel, with the goal of not going all out. My breathing got a bit heavy toward the end, but I managed 4.75 miles in 31.01, which is 30 seconds faster than last time (as the winner of the male race mentioned as they announced my time - cracks me up that he remembered). Average pace on Garmin was 6:45. After spelling my name to the RD, I headed out for 1.25 miles at HMP, and then did the 5 miles back home at a super easy pace.

Although I still think that my planned HM pace is a bit too ambitious, it was nice to be able to do 6 miles at this pace today, on snow and ice (and to not fall, LOL). Plus, my name will be in the Boston Globe again tomorrow, which I KNOW is going to be the best present for my mom:)

Legs felt fresh for the entire 16 miles, no lactic acid accumulation, which is probably because of the strength I developed from all those big ring bike intervals. It was also so nice to run pain free. I'd lie if I said I was not concerned about my hammy pull. In the back of my mind, I still feared a stress fracture, even though there was not a discrete painful spot, I was able to jump on that foot pain free, and the pain would be present only when standing up or during the first couple of minutes of a run or walk. I personally think that injuries are part of the sport, and if you race hard enough, no matter what precautions you take, there will be injuries. I mean, elite runners always get injured, even though they have the best coaches, and that is because they push hard enough. Having said that, I do believe that babying the little aches and pains is the way to go. This week I skipped my run on Tuesday, and ran super slow, at a 120-130 HR the rest of the time until today. Plus, I am becoming a true believer in compression socks and wear them all the time now.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!