Race Recap: Columbia Remembrance Day 5k

It's 2-for-1 week on our blog! AKA I finally write something and stop leaving all the slack to Rachel the superior blogger. Let's hope that her blogging skills help her in joining the Oiselle family (good luck!)

Yesterday a miracle happened. The stars, planets, sun, and every dust mite aligned in some sort of fortunate accident and I had both the weekend AND the federal holiday off! (You'd think that I'd work fewer federal holidays given that I work for the federal government...)

With just about everyone I know scattering off to the beach for the long weekend, my only plans involved running. To kick off the weekend, I had a delightful run with the one and only Morgan -squirrel aficionado and law school year 1 survivor - around the National Mall. It was the end of a 44mi week (hey that's a lot for my mid-D legs!) and I was really feeling the fatigue. On Monday morning I dragged myself out of bed extra early to do a little local 5k in Columbia, MD. It was 75 and humid with some hills in mile 2 but nothing drastic. Didn't have a good idea of how this would go, but I was hopeful that I'd run something around 20 flat. Took it out quicker than I knew I'd be able to sustain: on purpose. Coach Dad suggested going out at 6 flat and seeing how far I'd make it. I went with this but opted  for a bit slower 6:15. Pretty much totally ran out of gas at about 1.5mi, so the rest of the race was quite miserable/embarrassing and no kick to be spoken of. This is what I like to call a "character building day". In the end, ran something around 20:45, won $35 for my age group, so I broke even and got my first race back out of the way. What I learned from this is that I definitely need to nudge that pain threshold over the next few weeks, I've gotten soft over the past (too many) months it's been since I was seriously training and racing.

Random note: thought I had some Columbia stalkers out there after hearing several people cheering for Robyn. I decided about halfway through the race that the woman running with me must also be a "Robyn" because the only person I know in Columbia is my boss and none of these people had an Israeli accent. She was indeed named Robyn, and with a Y!

Coming soon: Seltzer Intervals or "Lessons on how to scare people off the track"

Track Crazies

"For something to hurt that bad, and feel so good, it's just inexplicable"-Adam Goucher

Every so often, a runner goes crazy. She intentionally decides to inflict hurt upon herself, to put herself on the line, and risk disappointment. Sound familiar? This is the track workout.

Recently, I felt myself heading down this path. Frustrated after a hard day at work, I felt the need to relieve some stress. Although I had been craving some local ice cream, my thoughts immediately went to the track. For some reason, the idea of pounding out 400s on the track, rounding those corners again and again, gasping for air, legs heavy from lactic acid, appealed to me. Oh yes, its masochistic. But at the same time it feels fantastic to leave it all on the track. I knew that if I could get through this workout I would feel so much better.

Yesterday I almost didn't make it. It threatened to rain, and then did, and I considered scrapping the workout and biking at the gym while watching old episodes of SNL. But in the back of my head was the reminder that I wanted to run fast, and that this doesn't happen overnight or on its own, so I laced up and headed to the track. I'm working up to this 10k in a week so I went for a classic 10k workout from college: 3xMile. Like my last race, I didn't know what to expect for this workout. I figured I'd aim for 7:45 pace and try to dip down the last mile. As I started my first rep, I realized I hadn't even calculated my splits, and since I am not great at math, I had no idea what to shoot for. Having been on the track probably a thousand times, there are certain benchmarks: 1:30 for 400 is 6:00 pace, 1:45 is 7:00. But what if I wanted to run 7:39? Forget it. I started out at a comfortably hard pace and didn't check my watch until the first quarter. The math still eluded me but as I saw a 1:49, I knew that this would be a good workout. And so the chase began. On the one hand, I was pushing myself hard, constantly reminding myself not to let up on the back stretch, and to use my arms to motivate my legs. On the other hand, I didn't want to be disappointed; it was only a track workout after all, and it was just me out there.

I split every 400 and even as my splits dropped, I continued to feel good. Between miles I took roughly 1 minute rest, and felt heavy, droopy, and queazy in the thick, spring air. But once I stepped back on the track and began again, the humidity would fade and I could focus once again. I clocked two miles in 7:14, 7:15, with the first mile being my new post-broken leg mile PR. After mile 2 I felt good and decided I was going to go for sub-7 for my third mile. I started out a little harder than I had before, and crossed 800 at 3:32, slightly above 7:00 pace. I dug in, faced the wind and rain around the corners, checked my watch with 200 to go, and went for it. I do not have the best kick, but dammit I wanted a sub-7 mile. I may have groaned out loud as I crossed the finish line (I did). 6:58. This is a post-broken leg PR that I can be proud of.

What I'm most excited for, though, is the difference between this workout and my 5k race just a few short weeks ago. I'm not saying that I could average 7-flat for 6.2 miles next weekend in Providence on a hilly course, but now I have confidence in my ability. Throughout the workout I reminded myself that it was only myself holding me back. Not my legs, not my training, not the weather or the road conditions. If I want to run fast, I can.

Cast to 5K: Complete

"When the legs go fast, the heart goes free" -Lauren Fleshman

There is something to be said for rest. Despite having been on my feet and back running seriously for 4 weeks, when it came time for my first race back (!) after breaking my leg in December, I was hoping that rest was on my side, and that the time off my feet would actually help me in my glorious return to competition.

There is also something to be said for adrenaline. I really wasn't sure what to expect for this race. I had run a handful of fast miles but hadn't done any real speed work yet and had run no more than 7 miles at a time. Certainly I had a base, but what was I to expect in a race where 3 months prior I was in a walking boot? The excitement of the race propelled me forward, along with the sloping downhill of the first mile, and my competitive spirit came back.

Before the race started, I warmed up for 15 minutes nice and slowly. I had my racing flats on and some new Oiselle duds (the Winona Tank is the softest article clothing I own, and Oiselle's signature Roga Shorts are tight and flattering without the bunching up of spandex and are the absolutely best pair of shorts I have ever owned), so I was ready to focus on the race. I drank a lot of water and did a few dynamic stretches, because let's not get too ahead of ourselves with pre-race prep. Joining me were the boyfriend and my best friend and running buddy from work, who ran almost the whole race with me.

We don't look pretty, but we look like we worked hard!

My goal was to run sub-24, but I didn't have a true sense of how my fitness and speed would play out in the race. We started in the middle of the pack and went out comfortably. I was surprised when I looked at my watch that we were chatting easily at 7:45 pace. We somehow managed to keep that up and went through the first mile in 7:44. We soon stopped talking and started passing people. The race, Jog with Judy, was a relatively flat out-and-back, so we looped around the farthest point and picked up the pace a little more. I saw a lot of women ahead of me but we kept it up and were able to pass many of them. The second mile ticked off in 7:42 and we had negative split! Unfortunately the last mile was the most uphill and this was where it started to feel hard. I dug deep and was surprised to find that I actually had another gear. Maybe it was that my legs were actually well rested, or maybe it was the adrenaline, but I was determined not to slow down. It hurt and I liked it. It felt good to run fast again, and especially to do so while passing lots of people. With less than half a mile left, I yelled to my friend to come with me as I surged, but she didn't have it in her and so I went. I battled with one last woman as we rose and approached the finish line and she ultimately won but I was okay with that because I was spent.

I crossed the line in 23:48, beating my goal of sub-24 and I negative split the whole way and came from behind, which in my opinion is always the best and smartest way to race. And running with a friend and partner for the majority of the race gave me so much strength to keep working hard. I finished 4th in my age group, but the 3rd woman was over a minute faster than I was so I don't feel so bad about that.

I'm charged up about being truly back, about averaging 7:39 pace (that's my half marathon pace already), about long runs and track workouts and no more PT. And I'm psyched to race more and get my speed back, so I have two potential races lined up to keep me honest. First is a Girls on the Run 10k in Providence which supports a great organization, on June 1st, and soon thereafter is the Hollis Fast 5k in New Hampshire on June 12th, which claims to be the fastest 5k in New England. I'll take it! I have a lot of work to do to get to anywhere near my speed from college but after so long I'm definitely ready to take on the challenge.

Follow me and Robyn as we chase down some new PRs this spring and summer!

Celebrating our comebacks post-race