Valentines Day 5K

The Valentines Day 5K is an early goal race of mine, meaning I did actually fix my diet and train for the thing.  Dungeon Master signed up for the race series, so this is her first race of the year too.  My plan was to run my race, then cool down jog back to find her on the course and walk in with her, which is pretty much what happened.  Bonus is that I seem to remain frostbite free.


Start time: 10am, north side of Lake Nokomis

Weather: 3* and 5mph winds.  It was cold.

Wardrobe: I was a little too hot for the race and had things mostly unzipped.  I was freezing cold walking in and then back to the car with the Dungeon Master.
Bottoms: fleece lined tights; brooks running pants
Top: smart wool base layer, 2xu fleece top, my new favorite running jacket
Socks: Compression socks, wool socks
Other: Gloves, fleece headband for during the race.  Mittens, hat, gaiter for after the race
Shoes: Altra Lone Peaks.  I'd considered a couple other pairs that would've been lighter and faster, but nothing else really accommodates two pairs of socks like the Altras.

Transportation: I drove Dungeon Master and myself.  We parked on 52nd street.  There will still spots available at 9:30, but it was filling up fast.

Route: Run one lap counter clockwise around Lake Nokomis.  (Every race I've ever done at Lake Nokomis is counter clockwise.  I think it has to do with opening Cedar Ave as quickly as possible.)  Note the start line is about 0.3 miles behind the finish, so it's like run for 2 minutes, 'oh here's the finish.  Psych! go run around the lake and then come back here.'

Plan/Goals: My A goal for sometime in 2018 is to run a 5K in under 30 minutes.  I figured I'd see how close to that I could come today.  I think I could've had a better mental plan than 'see if you can run a sub 10 mile and then see if you can hang on'.  I could've had a more realistic plan as well. But I really didn't want to feel like I left anything out there.

Execution: Sadly, a sub30 was not to be today.  My average HR was 171bpm or 93% of max for the entire race.  My run cadence was around 175.  So I think I did what I could here, and I have room to grow over the year.

Nutrition: I woke up around 7:30am and ate half an avocado with salt, then had a banana around 9am. I was glad I'd had a little food but also glad my stomach was mostly empty.

Results: Early results say a 32:15 or 10:23 per mile, which is about a minute slower than last year's best 5K where I was in the best shape of the year.

SWAG: SWAG is a medal and a long sleeve shirt.  Post race goodies were the normal chips, cookies, nut rolls, and bonus hot chocolate. 

Remember for next time: I did packet pick up a day early at the TCM offices (which is near my own work headquarters).  This saved me some race day standing in line and being cold.  If I run this race again, I'd do the early packet pick up as well.

Bonus: Dungeon Master wanted to go to Peppers and Fries afterwards.  Since I'm no longer Whole30 girl, I got the burger of the month, which is a bacon cheeseburger on a maple doughnut.  I did not have the whole doughnut.  And I did not have alcohol.   But I did remark 'I haven't had a pop since last year'

VDay 5K - One Week To Go/Race Week

IWeekly Miles Planned: 25?  I was realizing I need to taper this week, at least with the weight lifting.
Actual: About 20, and I'm okay with it.  2 sessions of weights instead of 3.

Proprioceptive cue: Butt Squeeze
Core conditioning exercises: Two Rounds: Single Leg Squat x10 each leg; Side plank x20 secs each side; Lying Draw-in with hip flexion x10 each side; Bird dog, hold 10 secs, x5 each side. One Round: Lying hip abduction x12 on each side; Cook Hip Lift, hold 5 secs x5 each leg; Knee fall out x12 each leg; Overhead draw in, hold 5 secs x5
Drills: Running No Arms; High Knees; One Leg Hops  These are two of my least favorite drills btw

Sunday Planned: 4-6 Miles at MAF, Sunday Kettlebell Workout
Actual: I am captain grumpy pants.  I'm cool with it though.  1.16 miles run, Kettlebell workout mostly done.  I got hot during the last exercise so I cut out a couple sets.  Like, uncomfortable hot.  Walked a couple literal cool down laps on the track and called it good.

Monday Planned: 4-6 Miles at MAF, drills, core conditioning exercises
Actual: 4.5 miles at Lake Nokomis.  Drills at the end of the run except I did 'bounding' instead of one leg hops.  One leg hops on an icy sidewalk were not my jam.  Core conditioning in the evening.

Tuesday Planned: 4-6 Miles at MAF, Lift Weights
Actual: 3.5 miles on the track, Tuesday weight lifting.  (2x25lbs for squats; 2x10lbs for bench press, 2x12.5lbs for barbell row, all with big bar)

Wednesday Planned: 1 Mile Run, drills, core conditioning exercises
Actual: 4.42 miles at Lake Nokomis with drills at the end.  I am now laying on the couch partially dead and core conditioning seems unlikely.

Thursday Planned:2-4 Miles at MAF, Lift Weights
Actual: The tired monster attacked again. 1.2 miles of running outsidie

Friday Planned: 1 Mile Run, drills, core conditioning exercises
Actual: 1.2 miles outside, with some sprints during the run to help me feel excited for tomorrow.

Saturday Planned: RACE!
Actual: RACE!

VDay 5K - 2 Weeks To Go

Weekly Miles Planned: 24-27
Actual: 28 with running, walking, and ellipticals

Proprioceptive cue: Driving the thigh
Core conditioning exercises: One Round: Single Leg Squat x10 each leg; Side plank x20 secs each side; Lying Draw-in with hip flexion x10 each side; Bird dog, hold 10 secs, x5 each side.  Two Rounds: Lying hip abduction x12 on each side; Cook Hip Lift, hold 5 secs x5 each leg; Knee fall out x12 each leg; Overhead draw in, hold 5 secs x5
Drills: Bounding; Stiff Leg Running; Running No Arms

Sunday Planned: 4-6 Miles at MAF, Sunday Kettlebell Workout
Actual: 1.25 miles running on the treadmill, plus .25 miles cooldown.  4 'miles' on the elliptical.  Sunday Kettlebell workout. After the workout, I explored Super Bowl Festivities for a minute.

Monday Planned: 4-6 Miles at MAF, drills, core conditioning exercises
Actual: I am surprised to report, I ran 4.5 miles, did drills and core conditioning, and then walked .5 miles to cool down.  Who am I?  On the track, I saw my ultimate relationship goal: a couple walking around hand in hand. They looked so sweet.

Tuesday Planned: 4-6 Miles at MAF, Lift Weights
Actual: 1.25 miles on the dreadmill, 3.75 'miles' on the elliptical.  Tuesday weights.  I am up to 2x25lb plates for squats and 2x10lb plates for bench press.

Wednesday Planned: 1 Mile Run, drills, core conditioning exercises
Actual: 5.3 miles in Annandale around the lake.  Drills at the end of the run.  Core Conditioning exercises later in the day.

Thursday Planned: 4-6 Miles at MAF, Lift Weights
Actual: 1.16 miles on the track.  Lift weights.  (Mileage is swapped with yesterday.)

Friday Planned: 1 Mile Run, drills, core conditioning exercises
Actual: 1.3 miles plus drills outside; core conditioning

Saturday Planned: 4-6 Miles at MAF, Maybe Zumba?
4 miles running, a few laps walking with friends.
10 minutes of Zumba.  I was not feeling the music today so I left.  

VDay 5K - 3 Weeks To Go

Weekly Miles Planned: 24-27
Actual: 25+

Proprioceptive cue: Pounding the road
Core conditioning exercises: Three Rounds: Lying hip abduction x12 on each side; Cook Hip Lift, hold 5 secs x5 each leg; Knee fall out x12 each leg; Overhead draw in, hold 5 secs x5
Drills: One Leg Hops; Bounding; Stiff Legged Running  I'm pretty sure one legged hops are from the devil.

Sunday Planned: 4-6 Miles at MAF, Sunday Kettlebell Workout
Actual: 6.1 miles.  Sunday Kettlebell workout, drills that I'm almost positive won't happen tomorrow.  Because snow.

Monday Planned: 4-6 Miles at MAF, drills, core conditioning exercises
Actual: 1.19 miles before the blizzard.

Tuesday Planned: 4-6 Miles at MAF, Lift Weights
Actual: 1.25 miles on the treadmill.  3.75 'miles' on the elliptical.  Lift weights.  I moved up to 2x25lb plates for squats and 2x10lb plates for bench press.  That may not sound like much but there was a time I was scared to press the big bar.

Wednesday Planned: 1 Mile Run, drills, core conditioning exercises
Actual: 4.55 miles outside.  Drills.  Core conditioning exercises.  Mileage is swapped with Blizzard Monday.

Thursday Planned: 4-6 Miles at MAF, Lift Weights
Actual: 1.18 miles, drills, core conditioning, yoga before bed.  I am captain grumpy pants today. and absolutely didn't want to get out of bed this morning.  Add my work schedule in and this is what happened.  It's supposed to 40* tomorrow so I'm hopeful to get a nice run in then instead and also be able to lift weights.

Friday Planned: 1 Mile Run, drills, core conditioning exercises
Actual: Run 6 miles outside in the best weather ever! Lift the weights I owed myself from yesterday.  (Drills and core conditioning happened yesterday so all is well.)

Saturday Planned: 4-6 Miles at MAF, Maybe Zumba?
Actual: 1.55 miles.  I felt like garbage most of the day thanks to a raging sinus headache. The run actually made me feel better.  But it was super icy outside.  This was one of those 'run up and down the street until it gets to a mile' kind of runs.  By 1 mile, I was feeling better so I kept on a bit.

VDay 5K - 4 Weeks to Go

Weekly Miles Planned: 27
Actual: Almost 25.  I need to reconsider my mileage totals.  It's much harder without a long run each week to know what volume is right.

Proprioceptive cue: Pulling the road, explained here.
Core conditioning exercises: Two Rounds: Lying hip abduction x12 on each side; Cook Hip Lift, hold 5 secs x5 each leg; Knee fall out x12 each leg; Overhead draw in, hold 5 secs x5
Drills: High Knees; One Leg Hops; Bounding

Sunday Planned: 4-6 Miles at MAF, Sunday Kettlebell Workout
Actual: 5 miles on the track.  In my huaraches. It was nice to be in sandals and pretend I live in an environment where that could ever be possible outside.  Kettlebell workout complete.

Monday Planned: 4-6 Miles at MAF, drills, core conditioning exercises
Actual: 1.18 Miles outside.  Core conditioning exercises done.  I didn't feel like doing anything, and am hopeful for better weather later in the week, so I'm okay with this.

Tuesday Planned: 4-6 Miles at MAF, Lift Weights
Actual: 3.25 miles on the treadmill.  I tried to go short because we're having good weather later in the week and I want to get some miles outside.  Lift weights.

Wednesday Planned: 1 Mile Run, drills, core conditioning exercises
Actual: 4.35 miles at Lake Nokomis in the somewhat warm.  Drills, core conditioning.  Yoga too.

Thursday Planned: 4-6 Miles at MAF, Lift Weights
Actual: 4.5 miles.  The drills I owed myself from Monday. Lift weights. Stretch.

Friday Planned: 1 Mile Run, drills, core conditioning exercises
Actual: 1.18 miles, mildly icy.


Saturday Planned: 4-6 Miles at MAF, Maybe Zumba?
Actual: 5.25 miles.  Core conditioning and drills that I owed myself from yesterday.  Those need to come off my easy days.  Yoga before bed.

VDay 5K - 5 Weeks to Go

Weekly Miles Planned: 25 Miles.  I know.  So short!
Actual: 25.19

Proprioceptive cue: Scooting.  So far, I hate this one.  End of the week update: I did better at this when I imagined not hitting my head on the ceiling and pulling myself along on a tug of war rope than how the book originally described it. I only really liked it one day this week.

Core conditioning exercises: One Round: Lying hip abduction x12 on each side; Cook Hip Lift, hold 5 secs x5 each leg; Knee fall out x12 each leg; Overhead draw in, hold 5 secs x5
Drills: Running No Arms; High Knees; One Leg Hops

Sunday Planned: 4-6 Miles at MAF, Sunday Kettlebell Workout
Actual: 5.23 miles on the Greenway. Slow as hell 'scooting around' but it's done. Sunday Kettlebell workout is: 5x5 of Step ups, 2x8kg bells; One legged single arm press 8kg, 10kg, 10kg,  10kg, 8kg; Single leg deadlift 12kg; Single arm high pulls 12kg, 16kg, 16kg, 16kg, 12kg

Monday Planned: 4-6 Miles at MAF, drills, core conditioning exercises
Actual: 4 miles with Running Neighbor.  Drills: that 'one leg hop' business is harder than it sounds.  I did 20 secs/leg instead of 30.  Core conditioning.

Tuesday Planned: 4-6 Miles at MAF, Lift Weights
Actual: 5.61 miles in the afternoon in the sunshine.  Tuesday weight lifting (heavy squats, barbell rows, bench press).

Wednesday Planned: 1 Mile Run, drills, core conditioning exercises
Actual:  It's 37* and no wind now.  Winter is Coming and I will go outside while I can.  So, 4.45 miles at Lake Nokomis.   Drills outside after the run.  I'm saving core conditioning for tomorrow and it may get permanently moved to a weights day.  Because logistics.

Thursday Planned: 4-6 Miles at MAF, Lift Weights
Actual: 1.21 miles in the snow.  Core conditioning exercises I skipped yesterday.

Friday Planned: 1 Mile Run, drills, core conditioning exercises
Actual: 1.5 miles on the track.  Inside. Because weather.  Drills. Core conditioning exercises.  Lift weights that I skipped yesterday.

Saturday Planned: 4-6 Miles at MAF, Maybe Zumba?
Actual: 3.03 miles outside.  No Zumba.   It was really cold for this run, but I just couldn't deal with the gym. 

The Plan: VDay 5K

VDay 5K is coming up in about 5 Weeks.  This is a relatively short training cycle.  Unlike Marathon Training I'm not worried about covering the distance, so I'm focusing on form and making my body and mind as strong as possible.

Nutrition training plan: Stay on Whole30 until the race.  Bonus nutrition plan: Stay on Whole30 the whole day of the race.  Usually the moment I'm done racing, I'm all "pass me a beer" which is probably not the lifestyle choice Whole30 is trying to teach.  So we'll see how long after that race I can maintain my nutrition.

Form and strength:
I finished reading Brain Training For Runners.  Since I'm doing the MAF thing for now, I'm holding off on running by pace still.  I am adopting some of the other ideas from the book.

Proprioceptive Cues:
Week 1: Scooting
Week 2: Pulling the road
Week 3: Pounding the road
Week 4: Driving the thigh
Week 5: Butt Squeeze

Core conditioning exercises:
Week 1: One Round: Lying hip abduction x12 on each side; Cook Hip Lift, hold 5 secs x5 each leg; Knee fall out x12 each leg; Overhead draw in, hold 5 secs x5
Week 2: Two Rounds: Lying hip abduction x12 on each side; Cook Hip Lift, hold 5 secs x5 each leg; Knee fall out x12 each leg; Overhead draw in, hold 5 secs x5
Week 3: Three Rounds: Lying hip abduction x12 on each side; Cook Hip Lift, hold 5 secs x5 each leg; Knee fall out x12 each leg; Overhead draw in, hold 5 secs x5
Week 4: One Round: Single Leg Squat x10 each leg; Side plank x20 secs each side; Lying Draw-in with hip flexion x10 each side; Bird dog, hold 10 secs, x5 each side.  Two Rounds: Lying hip abduction x12 on each side; Cook Hip Lift, hold 5 secs x5 each leg; Knee fall out x12 each leg; Overhead draw in, hold 5 secs x5
Week 5: Two Rounds: Single Leg Squat x10 each leg; Side plank x20 secs each side; Lying Draw-in with hip flexion x10 each side; Bird dog, hold 10 secs, x5 each side. One Round: Lying hip abduction x12 on each side; Cook Hip Lift, hold 5 secs x5 each leg; Knee fall out x12 each leg; Overhead draw in, hold 5 secs x5

Drills:
Week 1: Running No Arms; High Knees; One Leg Hops
Week 2: High Knees; One Leg Hops; Bounding
Week 3: One Leg Hops; Bounding; Stiff Legged Running
Week 4: Bounding; Stiff Leg Running; Running No Arms
Week 5: Running No Arms; High Knees; One Leg Hops