Running Journal February 2009

Week 9 (2/23-3/1)
Week 9 miles: 24.5
Week 9 race miles: 22.54
2009 miles: 228.8
2009 race miles: 153.94
2009 races: 13 - One Year Anniversary of Racing!

The Sequoia 30K marked my one year anniversary of racing - I can hardly believe it! Last year, I remember prepping for the 20K and being pretty worried as I pulled headphones on; now, I don't have to think or prepare that much to run a 30K and I would never wear headphones! It's dangerous and who needs it anyway? This year I took the 30K slow and easy and had a good race. What else is there to say? Other than I hope all my little annoying injuries go away so I can actually train!

Race Stats:
PCTR Sequoia 30K - 3:23:16; 10:56/M; 34/100; 9th F; 6th Age
DSE Great Highway 3.95M - 29:58; 7:29/M; 43/110; 6th F; 1st Age


Weeks 7 and 8 (2/9-2/22)
Weeks 7-8 miles: 31.7 Weeks 7-8 race miles: 28.6
2009 miles: 204.3
2009 race miles: 131.4
2009 races: 11

Week 7 was shot - life got in the way - busy at work, tired and my hip/leg were being weird. I just rested, which is fine sometimes. Not to mention all the rain... it rained for the Ballpark 5k, for the President's Day race and for the Embarcadero race. I don't mind running in the rain sometimes (sometimes I even like it), but enough is enough! I went swimming this week, which I'd like to do more of, and I'm thinking about checking out a new weight training center where they do cross-fit classes. I'll go check it out. I'd like to get back in the swing of some weekday running, but I think I need some time.

Race Stats:
DSE Ballpark 5K 2/15 - 22:45; 7:19; 29/78 overall; 2nd F; 1st Age
President's Day Coyote Point 10K 2/16 - 46:40; 2nd F; 4th overall (out of 24)
Buzz Half Marathon 2/21 - [to come]
DSE Embarcadero 10K 2/22 -47:28; 7:38; 42nd/1327th F; 2nd Age


Week 6 (2/2-2/8)
Week 6 miles: 31
Week 6 race miles: 31
2009 miles: 172.6
2009 race miles: 102.8
2009 races: 7

Well, despite the fact that after the Kaiser half my right hip was out of whack all week, preventing me from running at all, Saturday morning rolled around and I felt almost better, but not quite. I really wanted to run Jed Smith though so I decided I'd wait until the very last minute to decide whether to run or not. Literally, after running around the grass a bit minutes before the race, I just decided to go ahead and run it and if my hip hurt too bad, I decided I would drop and not feel bad about it. So, I started the race, which consisted of a a tiny extra leg and then a 3.3 mile loop 9 times around a flat farm north of Sacramento, in a type of figure 8 with one paved loop and one dirt trail loop. I thought it might be boring, but because there were so many people I knew running the course and I saw them a lot, so that was entertaining, plus you got to count down the loops to go and have your bag of stuff along the way. My hip didn't really hurt that much actually and I ended up enjoying the course, thinking that it pretty much looked like Michigan where I grew up and it was nice for once not to have to do any hills. I didn't go all that fast, but I was pretty sore afterwards so I ended up getting some volunteer points at DSE's Sawyer Camp races, which is too bad because I like running that course. I know I need more consistency in my training to avoid this type of soreness. I'll try not to spend this entire week in recovery mode, maybe some swimming or a massage will jump start me out of it.

Race Stats:
Jed Smith 50k: 4:52:42; 9:25; 28/70; 7/20 (F); 2nd Age