Matanzas 5k & Playing Catch-Up

Happy Monday and T-4 days until my Crazy European Ski Vacation!

I have been uber-busy getting ready for our trip, but I seemed to be in a good spot with everything so hopefully all my work this weekend payed off and I don't have to play catch-up all week.


Heading back to Saturday, I raced, a 5k, worst distance ever invented. After the marathon and the injury I began to doubt my knack for distance running, that is of course until this race. I can say with extreme confidence that I am a distance girl, I can take moderate amounts of discomfort for prolonged periods of time, although if you pace race, it isn't even discomfort, it just feels normal...5k's do not feel normal, at all!!!!!


Last Year this race was good and bad, I broke 30 minutes for the first time in a 5k, but I over-dressed and started too fast, and lets just say that it was a less than pleasant feeling by mile 3. I was determined this year to nail this race, the course is so pretty all through old St. Augustine and the weather was expected to be perfect 46* and sunny.

So John took me down there and we got the start area about an hour before the start, there was bunches of people already there and it ended up being a little cooler and windier than anticipated. I did a 2 mile warm up, and my quads were still oddly sore from the 200's I had done on Wednesday, apparenly my legs cannot handle the stride length that comes with paces that fast.

I ditched my warm clothes and lined up right at the 8:00 pace marker. I wanted a new PR (the old was 25:59 from August) and I really wanted to hit 25:00 or sub-25:00 but I wasn't sure if I had it in me with sore legs, but I figured I would give it a shot and either nail it or crash and burn. A 25:00 5k is an 8:02 pace, so I was prepared to go out at 8:00 and hold on for dear life.

Mile 1- 7:58
So pretty much right on target, I tried to keep it under control and I think I did. I never felt tired and my HR
never got too high during mile 1, and I felt great and enjoyed the scenery.

Mile 2- 8:07
At about 1.5 we were turning to head back towards the finish and the sharp turns threw me off a tad and after the last turn to head back north we were met with a bit of a headwind. Nothing compared to the winds in Apalachicola, but enough to make an 8:05 pace feel like a 7:55, and to send my heart rate climbing a little early.

Mile 3-  8:08
The congestion at the water station and the slight wind just threw me, I let it, I lost the edge to just push through the pain and couldn't keep in under 8:05 no matter how hard I tried. I would hit it for a few seconds and then lose some gas and it would drop. Looking back now, I am glad I kept it consistent in the last 2, put you can't deny positive splits- I don't know if I have ever run a 5k without positive splits.

Mile 3-3.13- :54 (6:57 pace)
I laid out everything in the last tenth or .13 since I did a decent amount of weaving during the race. I felt like I was running so hard at the end I seriously thought I may hurl on the girl collecting the time chips at the finish line- lucky for her, she was spared.

3.13 Miles- 25:08, average pace 8:02

...8 seconds, I missed that 25:00 by 8 seconds! I know if I could have run a perfect 3.10 that would have been the 8 seconds right there because my average pace was right where it needed to be, but it is still a PR by almost a minute, and to be honest I didn't even think I would come close to that 25:00 goal on Saturday, I thought I was looking at a 25:30ish, so I was very pleased with the race and my effort. Although I passionately hate 5ks, I will put myself through the suffering at least once more this spring in the hunt for that sub-25:00, it's so close now I can taste it, just a couple more track workouts :)


I was supposed to do a recovery run on Sunday, but I decided shopping was more appropriate ;) Made even funnier by the fact that I ran into my coach while I was out doing said shopping exercise! I spent most of yesterday (and actually the whole weekend) getting our lives together for this trip. Packing had commenced, it appears as of this moment that all of my things will fit into my 1 alloted suitcase, I am just hoping I can stay under the 50lb limit. Last time I nailed it at 49.3lbs, its just a skill I have!


Something about a busy week and an upcoming trip really motivates me, I already have my whole week planned out, including my workouts. I have double workouts every day this week except Friday, it may seem a bit much, but I will be sedentary for almost 18 hours while we travel to our destination, and who knows if I will actually be able to run once I get there. I have packed the warmest clothes I own in attempts to get in 3 runs over our 8 says in Austria, but I don't know how this Southerner with fair in snow and altitude, so I may just have to look at it as a week of cross-training  since we will be skiing every day.

Today, I started my beautiful schedule off with an 8 mile bridges run. I know hills are important, but starting the week with a slow run always kind of blows, I miss tempo Monday's, but my tempos rock because I have been doing hills recently so I will just keep trudging through them.

I did the standard 3 bridge 4 mile loop, I did a 2 mile warm-up before hand along the (flat) riverwalk and added an extra loop at the end.

8 miles- 1:15:06, 9:23 average pace
9:27, 9:11, 9:29, 9:44(the beast), 9:25, 9:23, 9:22, 9:05

I told myself that every bridge needed to be under 9:45, and actually all of them except the big beast were under 9:30 so that was good. Even though that was fast for a bridges run, I still felt a little slow, but tempo run tomorrow will make it all better. This evening has weights, core, and some much needed cross-training on deck. See everyone with a big Tuesday update!