Three Things Thursday - Race Edition

With the Riverbank Run 25k looming over me coming up this weekend, I thought it only fitting to devote my "three things" to the race! :)

(1) I shared a bit about my last long run here.  What I didn't mention is that was my last run, period.  That means, I went about 10 days with no running at all. Initially, while S was in the hospital, it wasn't practical.  Then, I was just ... exhausted. Even the thought of walking my dogs was painful.  Fitting in a 3 mile run was just out of the question.  I still regret this a bit because I think it would have helped me deal with stress.  But, in any event, I didn't run. As this week started and the race inched closer, my doubts began creeping up significantly.  I had this mental block and did not want to run.  I don't know if it had anything to do with the fact I was out running when S was taken to the hospital (?) or just the random fears that creep in any time I go for a period of time without a regular run. But it was weighing on me. Last night Mark really pushed me to go - he knew that I was afraid and if I didn't go running last night, I might not be able to do the race mentally.

(2) So, last night I ran 6.5 miles.  That's a rather long mid-week run for me, but I knew I needed more than my typical 3-4 miles.  Honestly, overall, the run was pretty bad. : /  My pace was slow, my body felt plodding.  I didn't eat a real dinner but I had grabbed a bite here and there and the food was not sitting well at all. :( Everything was irritating me. I had forgotten to take my necklace and earrings off and I hate when they bounce around. So I stopped and took those off. I took my handheld water bottle but wish I hadn't. Annoying. But, after all that, I finished.  And I felt better the last mile and a half than I had the rest of the entire run. That left me feeling less freaked hopeful about running 9 more on Saturday... 

(3) Race Goals - Back in January, I developed a pretty ambitious training plan. I followed it for several weeks.  My initial goal was to run the 25k in under 2 hrs 45 min, which averages to a 10:37 pace.  That's a little fast for my long runs, but seemed like a conservative goal.

Once we started working toward our adoption in February, I grew much more lax with the plan.  Yet, I did a fairly good job about keeping up my long runs, so I was feeling okay. I abandoned all speed work and just focused on getting 2-3 weekly runs in (about 9-10 miles) and one long run on the weekend. Unfortunately, that morphed into 1 long run every OTHER weekend. But ah well.  But my initial goal seemed a bit lofty, especially since I was still walking on many of my long runs.  So I set a new goal of averaging sub 11 min/miles, which would be right around 2 hrs 50 min.  I wasn't too far off this mark when I did 15.5 a few weeks ago.  

However, given the last couple of weeks, I'm tempted to revise my goals again. I want to finish the race. I want to enjoy it. I want to NOT fall apart.  I wish I was comfortable being more ambitious than that, but right now, I have to work with what I've got.  I guess those would be my "a" "b" and "c" goals, with me trying to accept that "c" is the most realistic. I don't want to be disappointed.  Given that I nearly threw in the towel completely yesterday, I simply want to be proud of myself for running the distance, period. Feels a little wimpy to say that, but I know I need to be realistic and find a way to fully enjoy the experience.

In any event, I WILL be crossing that finish line in just over 48 hours.  And someone will place this medal around my neck.  :) And, for now, that's enough for me.