Training 1/29 - 2/4 and Nut Race 5K

Mon- Treadmill, 6 mi, 51:18, 8:33/mi

Tues- Snow Route (9 F -12 F wind chill), 6.2 mi, 43:34, 7:02/mi
Face went numb and wanted to get the run over with as quickly as possible.

Evening: Upper Body Weights, 47 min
Treadmill, 4 mi, 33:42, 8:26/mi

Wed- Rest

Thurs- Diva Run, 6.2 mi, 48:19, 7:48/mi
About 1 inch of fresh snow made footing difficult. As I was moving over to the shoulder about 4.5 miles, I twisted my ankle stepping on the uneven crack between the road and the shoulder. I didn’t fall and maintained my balance, but it really hurt. I kept running and the pain seemed to mostly subside. I was very worried this incident was going to prevent me from running for a few days.

Evening: Treadmill, 4 mi, 39:54, 9:58/mi
Ankle hurt a little so I kept the pace very slow. I think my stride was off due to my ankle since my knees were aching just a little too.

Fri- Treadmill, 4 mi, 34:03, 8:31/mi
Barely noticed the ankle.

Sat- Treadmill, 6 mi, 54:12, 9:02/mi + Nut Race 5K
I decided Friday night to get up and run 6 miles on the treadmill before the 5K nut race at 9 am. Temperature was about 5 F with a negative wind chill at 7 am. By the time we left for the race, it had warmed up to about 9 F and I think a -5 wind chill. We arrived about 10 minutes before the race began and in order to stay warm I ran a little. There were 29 crazy runners that started and it was difficult to recognize some due to their face masks. I didn’t really have a goal time and cold temps usually slow me down during a 5K.

This course is a loop that we run around about 3 ½ times and every time we would catch the strong N-NW wind. Immediately my fingers went numb wearing 2 pairs of gloves but my face still had some sensation. My first mile split was 6:23, not too good for me but felt pretty good other than I couldn’t feel my fingers. 2nd mile split was a little slower at 6:31 but I did pass one runner. Somewhere during mile 3, I could hear someone behind me and he finally made a move. It was Steve S-F and he was holding a good pace and I let him go. Then I could hear someone else and I was determined to not let anyone else pass me this close to the end so I picked up the pace on the last half loop. 3rd mile split was 6:23. As we were almost to the finish I could hear faster footsteps behind me so I kicked it in. It turned out to be Phil S. as I suspected. He often seems to push me in 5Ks and beats me but I finished in 19:55, 2 seconds ahead of him.

I placed 7th overall out of 29 runners and first in the 35 – 39 age group and received a jar of honey roasted peanuts. Hugh finished in 23:59, 2nd in age group. Matt D won the race with an impressive time of 17:25. Overall results have been posted at Nut Race 5K. I’m pretty happy with my time considering the cold and my ankle cooperated with very little pain most of the race. On Sunday there was a nice article about the race Nut cases take to the streets. It’s nice to see the paper acknowledge there are other local sports.

Sun- Upper body weights, 44 min
At 8 AM is was 4 F and negative wind chill so I decided to do my weight workout first and wait to run until the afternoon.

Prathersville + Oakland Park, 18 mi, 2:33:15, 8:31/mi
I started the run about 1:30 and it had warmed up to 22F with some strong wind gusts and a wind chill around 6 F. I stayed plenty warm during the run, but at times the wind almost blew me over. I also had some fresh gravel on one of the roads that was difficult to run. It was a tough run to complete but I finished. My pace isn’t quite where I wanted it to be but considering the wind, ice and snow on parts of the course, still not too bad for a hilly course.

Running: 57.5 mi

Weight-lifting: 91 min

YTD Running: 277.4 mi

March 17th-St. Patrick’s Day 5K
April 1st-Hogeye Marathon
May 19th-Berryman Trail Marathon
September 3rd-Heart of America Marathon