A little bit of this...A little bit of that...

I had a rough week.  I had three days of what I chalked up to sinus pain/pressure which caused pretty bad dizziness (can you say, the room is spinning?).  So I didn't run Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday.  And then I felt a little better, but my motivation to run was entirely gone.  I didn't drag myself out of bed on Thursday or Friday either.  Five straight days of no running.  I can't tell you the last time I went 5 days without a run.  Probably not since I started running nearly 2 years ago.

I wondered if running was a phase, and I was over it.  Was I burned-out - temporarily - or permanently?

I had a 5K planned for Saturday.  The weather forecast called for the coldest morning of the season.  I was nervous.  Would I be able to run?  Would I want to run?  Would I be able to finish with a decent time?

We arrived about 20 minutes before the race started, hit the portipotties and headed for the starting line.  We chatted with some friends who were also running the 5K.  Hubby was running the 10K and he wanted to line up closer to the front.  My daughter and I stayed near the middle, with our friends.  (Sadly, my son had a school project he had to do, so he had to sit this one out.  He was very disappointed since this was to be his first 5K since he finished his cross country season.)

The race started and my daughter decided to take off and run with our friends, while I held back a little bit.  It was cold (about 32 degrees) and I felt like my legs were blocks of ice.  I stuck with it, and about 3/4 mile in, I realized I forgot to start my Garmin.  I decided to just run by feel.  

About a mile in, I passed my daughter and friends, and kept on going.  I started feeling good, and I knew I was pushing myself, but I wanted to save some in the tank so I could finish strong.  The race seemed to fly by, and pretty soon, I was nearing the finish line.  I saw that the race clock said 33 something, so I knew I had a good shot at a PR.  I finished strong in 34:07, a 13-second PR.  I was so happy!

I grabbed a bottle of water and banana from the cutest little girls who were handing them out, and doubled back to watch my daughter finish.   She came in a couple of minutes behind me, and was freezing.  We ran back to the car and she grabbed my gloves and I put a fleece on, and we headed back to the finish to wait for hubby.  I knew he was hoping for around 45 minutes (his 10K PR was 47 something).  Sure enough, he rounded the corner as the clock turned 45 minutes and sailed through the finish in 45 and change.

We waited to see them post the race results, and I was happy to see I finished 11/27 in my age group.  Finally in the top 50%!  Then we looked at hubby's results.  He came in 1st in his age group at this 10K last year, so we thought he might place again.  But we were disappointed to see that the race changed the age groups from 5 year spans to 10 years, so he ended up coming in 4th.  At that point, we decided to jump in the car and warm up before we hit Panera for breakfast.  All in all a great race!

Pic of Race Shirt

Quick (and terrible!) pic hubby snapped of me after the race while we were trying to stay warm, waiting on results.

I really felt better about my running after yesterday's race, despite the slump that went from bad to worse over the last two weeks.

Then today, I had some speedwork on the training plan.  6X800's  This was only my second attempt at this, though two weeks ago, the 4x800's, went well.  I headed out, and had another great run totaling just over six miles with my warm up and cool down easy miles added in.  

Channeling my time at Disney World with a new Bondi Band I got this week!

Even though I had a rough week, I feel like I'm back on track, and ready to conquer the motivation stealer once and for all.

Hope you all had a great weekend!