Great Weekend - First "race" of the year

Friday, I worked from home, and after work, my wife and I went to the gym. My wife had decided that we were going to run a 5K on Saturday morning, so I didn't want to work out too hard. I did a fairly simple workout. After some warm-up reps, I did 3x3 of deadlifts at 315 pounds.

Then, I did 50 air squats and 50 kettlebell swings, but using a 40# dumbbell instead of a true kettlebell. After that, I did 50 burpees by doing 5 every minute on the minute for 10 minutes. And, I finished with 10 x 125m on the rower, with 30 seconds of rest. Surprisingly, my quads felt a little bit sore from this workout, and I'm not sure why. After the workout, we went home, had dinner, watched a hockey game and went to bed.

When we got up on Saturday morning, it was pouring. My wife drove us to the race site because she'd done the race before and knew how to get there. I was surprised where she drove us to, because everything in the area is hilly. And, it was still pouring. Forty minutes before the race, I was sitting in the car, telling my wife that she couldn't make me get out of the car to register and run. But, I did get out.

By the time the race started, it was barely raining at all. The last time I'd put on a race number, I had run my slowest 5K ever with a 30:11. My wife had run 28:37 that day, for a rare win against me in a race. Last September, after that race, I decided to take some time off running. A hamstring injury (partially torn tendon) from 2009 just wasn't healing well and running was no fun at all. From October of last year through March of this year (6 months), I ran a total of about 10 miles. I continued to train, but I wasn't running. In April of this year, I ran just over 30 miles. And, my May mileage is now up to 50 miles after the weekend. But, I had about 80 total training miles in almost 8 months for this race.

The course was rolling and had a few steep hills. Near the 1 mile marker, I walked for a while. It was a fast walk, but I was walking. I think I walked three times in the race when the course got steeper. My first mile was about 10 minutes. The second was just under 9 minutes. And the last 1.1 took me about 9 more minutes, for a total of 28:46. That's one of my slowest 5Ks every and almost 11 minutes slower than my best 5K ever. My wife stayed close to me for the first mile, but eventually lost contact and finished in 30:12. We practically reversed our times from last fall. Even at that slow pace, the race was a lot of work.

After the race, we went to the farmers market and then out for breakfast. After that, we went home and took a nap during a hockey game and I then woke up with the sun shining for the first time in quite a while. I took advantage of this to get the lawn mowed before dinner.

Sunday morning, we headed out for a "long" run, taking the dogs along. First, we did a hilly 5 mile loop. It was humid and a little bit warm and the older dog tired quickly. So, our time was pretty slow. After that first loop, my wife called it a day. I headed out for some more running, getting my total running time up to about 2:15. But, my total distance for that time was ridiculously low.

I have a marathon in mid-July. I'm still under 100 miles for the year, so it's going to be a slow run/walk in the race. My plan is to do a 3-hour training run/walk next weekend, another 3 hours two weeks later, and then a 4-hour run/walk the last weekend in June. That, along with some other runs and my other workouts will hopefully have me ready to at least complete the race in the 6.5 hour time limit.

Today, I'm planning to bike to and from CrossFit, plus do the CrossFit workout for my training.