Week 2 of training went as expected. I had 2 days of running scheduled- Thursday & Sunday and I was able to get both runs in. One thing is for sure, running in the winter creates a ton more laundry because you have to wear so many layers!
Thursdays run was cold. I ran 5 miles that day because I knew I wasn’t going to get a LSD (long slow distance) run in over the weekend so I wanted to get a couple extra miles in during the week. Sunday was the second run in the Winter Run Series. It was at Robert Moses State Park. It was about 18 or 20 degrees by the time the race started at 11 AM. I bought new gloves thinking they’d help with the cold and wind. I was sadly mistaken- there was barely a difference. My legs and feet were numb for the first mile. Luckily, 3.1 miles is over in about 25 minutes so it wasn’t too bad.
I came in 12th out of 281 females in the race and 3rd in my age group. One of the things that I love about running is that you can compete with others, but you can also compete with yourself. If I came in last in the entire race but I got my best 5k time, I’m perfectly fine with that. If I come in first in my age group but my time was 30 seconds slower than my best, I’m perfectly fine with that too. It’s different when you play other sports. A loss is a loss. You can say you played your best game ever and still lose and you still walk away with a L. It’s either a W or L. I’m never going to come in first place in a run. So I focus on beating myself. I rather get my best time ever then say I beat every female in the race.
Nick kicked butt again and came in 12th overall. His age group is highly competitive and he’s having difficulty getting into the top 3, but he’s getting closer every time. Running has been great for us. It’s something we can do together and support each other in. When Nick was training for his marathon, I was his biggest cheerleader. And him doing the marathon inspired me to add that to my bucket list and make it happen too. He’ll be running with me in May and it’ll be awesome if we can actually run the entire marathon together but we’ll see. Even though we enjoy running together, we’re both competitive with ourselves and others– and if one of us isn’t feeling it and the other is, well, we’ll see each other at the finish line because we’re going for it. I’ll probably never be able to keep up with him on the shorter runs but as the runs get longer, he gets slower and I am an endurance machine so it kinda works.
As far as my overall training is going, the workout program I’ve been doing has been leaving me sore. Not sore in a way where I can’t walk, but sore enough to know that I’m pushing myself and getting stronger. I’m not sure what week 3 will hold in terms of my running. I am scheduled for 3 days of runs- 3.1 with speed intervals, 9 mile long run and the 3rd 5k in the winter run series.
lauren goodman 