Woohooo! w00t!

Ah so a bit of an update after my short, angry and fed-up post from last Tuesday.

Well as was likely obvious, I took off the remainder of the week from running. I let my calf rest and luckily all was well this past Saturday for my first 5k of the year. Actually, I didn't work out at all. Not just avoiding pressing my legs, just plain old took off for a few days. A lot was going on personally and despite those of you who are shaking your heads at me right now it seems it was a good thing to do. I'd been going 2.5 months without a break and a few days of coming home from work without having to go to the gym was nice. Friday I managed to get myself to the gym, more from guilt than anything else. I got a decent 30 minute workout in on the erg. 1 5k and 1 2k with a few minutes of rest in between and did some core work.

Speaking of core work. It became very obvious to me this morning that I need to put more time and effort into my core. I was trying to do renegade rows and man was it tough. More on the core on another day.

Anyways, Saturday I had a 5k race. First race of the year. First race since Thanksgiving when I did the 5 mile Turkey Trot. This run was about 40 minutes driving away from home so it worked out well with eating breakfast and hydrating prior to the race start. 2 slices of whole wheat bread with natty pb and a liter of water and I was good. I've found that I particularly like bread and PB prior to a race. Good combo of carbs and proteins in one shot. Brought a NuGo bar with me as well for post race protein.

Got to the race site around 8:30, got my bib, stripped to my running attire and started my warm up. I did a 10 minute warm-up and stretched for about 15. I did another warm-up run when I found out there was a fun run at 9 and the 5k was at 9:20. Managed to give both calves a good stretch as well.

I started the race about 50' from the start so I lost a few seconds there. I went out at what felt like my usual pace for shorter runs. Passed the 1 mile marker at 8 minutes, 2 miles at 15:30 and crossed the line at 23:41.7. Felt good the whole race and at one point while passing another runner, noticed just how controlled my breathing was. I don't think I pushed hard enough but hey we'll never know. The race felt good. I felt strong and kicked it in the last 200 meters. Calves gave me no problems and were only a little tight.

Took Sunday off. Had things to get done. Have a 7 miler for tomorrow. I am contemplating running in the AM but we'll see. Hopefully my calf cooperates. I will also be introducing more lower legs exercises in addition to my core work to try to alleviate some pain and keep myself healthy the rest of the way to May 3rd. 1.5 months!!!!