Moody Street 5K 5/22/11

So, after my HM on May 1, I took a little time off from running.  not a lot, but just relaxed a bit, didn't push myself too hard.  The weather got crappy, so it was hard to fit in outdoor training and I H.A.T.E. the dreadmill. For the past couple of weeks I've done a few speed workouts though.  partially on purpose, partly by accident and partly by necessity - as in "I don't have time to get much done, so let's try and see how fast I can go".

I'm running a 10K on July 4, and I'd really really really like to run sub-60.  I ran 1:01 something on my last one, so I think I can get there, especially if the weather cooperates on race day.

Anyway, this 1st Annual Moody Street 5K was being held right in my backyard, so we reassembled members of Team Missile Toes for the occasion.  Unfortunately, one member lives in DC (Hi Anamarie) and one member was in the hospital (get well soon, sweetie!), so 3 of us ran.

L-R: me, Geno and Joanna

The first 3/4 mile was uphill through the retail district of Moody Street.  I remember when this hill would kill me.  Pleased to say that now it was nothing.  I looked down at my Garmin and was shocked to see how fast a speed I was sustaining while still managing to fall behind my sister and my nephew.  My nephew was going to be out of sight in no time, I didn't worry about it.  My sister starts fast and then falls off, so I wasn't worried about her getting too far ahead.  I caught up to her right after the 1 mile mark and we ran together for a mile, cheering for the leaders who were passing us heading back out. We kept a pretty good pace on this one mile loop of "the island" section of town. Nice and flat with a water station that was well staffed and easy to maneuver. 

Soon after the 2 mile mark I knew I was slowing down a bit, cuz I'm just really not ready for speeding along for that long.  Neither is my sister, and she fell back into the pack while I just kept repeating to myself "you have run a g-d half marathon, you can gut this one out" and "there IS more gas left in the tank".  While I took the sharp turn onto a paved riverside path, I knew there was .6 left to go in the race, and I run this path often as it is a block from my home.  I know every tree, turn, bench and duck on the path, so I was pacing myself well to have something left for the finish.  I plodded along with my mantras hoping and praying that I might PR.

I made the final turn off the path (cursing the sharp turn which forces you to slow down) and just had to run over a bridge.  I waved to my family and charged for the finish line.... to a PR!  My Garmin read 27.26.  The "official" time is 27.36.  we were not chip timed, so they don't have a net time.  BOO.  My nephew pulled off a 25:15 (he's 14) and my sister clocked at 28:01. 

If you like Garmin data, you can enjoy my positive splits (oh well).  :)

Go Team Missile Toes (we named ourselves for a Jingle run...but thought the "missile" speed was fun - my nephew kept calling our logo "bomb feet" so if you look at his shirt, we made him a special one)!!

 Way to go Sue!!!

hooray bomb-feet!  congrats on the PR, very sweet, and yes you CAN do hard things :)

Hell, I'm starting to LIKE doing hard things!

Way to go! I love the team name and t-shirts also.

LOVE IT! Congrats on the PR. I love your shirts. How fun to be able to do that with your family. Looks like the winter didn't slow you down any.

Jan

Sue,

You are so awesome!

I agree---Sue, you are so awesome!!!

Way cool! Great job! I hope someday I can do that!

What do you do for speed workouts?

Julie

Julie,
 you can do intervals, like 1 minute run as fast you can, 1 minute recovery jog, REPEAT.  that can also be 2 min run, 1 min walk, or whatever formula feels good.  I did something on the elliptical last week where I went "moderate" for 4 minutes and "speed demon" for 1 - and did that for 35 minutes.

These can easily be done on a treadmill cuz you can look at the time right there or on a track where you maybe run a half lap or a full lap at full speed, then walk a half lap, and repeat.

I try and end EVERY run I do with a sprint to the finish, so even if I set out to run 3 miles "easy", I try to really kick it at the end, last 200 yards (sometimes more, sometimes less).