Bittersweet

Hello friends!

After a nice relaxing weekend, away from the computer and taking lots of naps, I’m ready to get back to the grind. Saturday was my last 5K of the season and although I ended up slightly frustrated, I’m still very proud of running it and very much looking forward to the next time when the temperatures will be much cooler

Saturday morning it was in the high 70′s and it had rained over night so that made it seem a bit cooler although it did nothing for the humidity. By race time at 8:00, it was in the 80′s and right as we were lining up, out came the sun!

Before the race, I fueled up on some PB&J toast and fresh pineapple. It felt weird going against “tradition” (PB toast and banana) but it seemed to still work okay!

The first mile of the race wasn’t too bad, it was hot but I felt good and kept a really decent pace. But as soon as we turned at the end of a bridge to start making our way back (about halfway through), I started feeling it. I was hot, sweaty, weak and my breathing had become labored. I slowed down a bit and managed to recover and do a couple more sprints but not the plan I had been hoping for. It was just too hot.

I got a little frustrated during mile 3 because I had wanted to do better, but I sucked it up and ran the last quarter mile or so hard and finished strong!

I finished with my 2nd best time of 30:21 and I am very proud of that, especially considering the circumstances.

After the race, I felt good, drank 2 bottles of water and munched on some raisins. I walked around a bunch and waited to stretch until I got home and did so a few times throughout the day after I did some research on the topic.

I also made a new discovery that I wish I had my camera for! I made a green monster with soy milk, spinach, banana, and….peanut butter! I’d read about people using this before and I thought there was no way it would make a difference, but I swear…I felt like I was drinking a peanut butter banana smoothie, that just happened to be GREEN! I loved it and it will be making its way into the rotation. It was the best recovery snack ever and kept me full for a couple of hours!

I think next year, I will quit racing at the end of May! And I will never complain about racing in March again, ha ha. Maybe just a little

I love warm weather and I hate being cold anywhere, but I have to say, to me, running in the cold is so much easier than this heat and humidity. I’ve learned a valuable lesson here. Those of you who are able to are heroes in my opinion; I think some of us are just more sensitive to certain weather conditions.

Hope everyone had a great weekend and enjoy the first day of a new week!

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