St Malachi 5 Miler Race Report and Training Update

It's been a few years since I've run the St. Malachi 5 miler, which used to be my season opener pretty much every year in my earlier 30s. This was my final one in this decade since I'll be 40 in August.

Rocking my Skirt Sports Redemption Capris!

My time of 34:35 is a personal best for me. I'm happy that I ran a good race for me and was able to place 3rd in my AG as well! This is the first time I've placed in my AG at this race because it's competitive and many talented local runners come out to test their early season fitness.

My result surprised me a little because my training has been spotty the last month or so. I was travelling for work back to back weeks and then last week I was nursing a hamstring injury until Thursday and only had a couple of easy test runs on Thursday and Friday. I did my best to rehab the hammy and taped it up with KT tape to stabilize the muscle. Fortunately this worked. I felt good the entire race and my first mile of 6:38 was a good start to the race. According to the splits, I ran a 6:41 for the first 2.5 miles and a 7:10 for the back 2.5 miles - averaging a 6:55.

It was great to see so many friends out running and winning AG awards including my other half Steve who also had a 5 mile PR with his blazing fast time of 30:49! After the race we headed over to Masthead Brewing to enjoy some post-race hoppy beer with some of our Cleveland Tri Club and Snakebite Racing friends. It was a great day all around!

So the race went better than expected this weekend...but my long run yesterday was a fail and I only got in 9 miles. My legs were just too tired and I didn't want to risk re-aggravating the left hamstring. Today I did 45 minutes of core this morning and plan to do an easy 15 miles on the bike at lunch. I'll hopefully be back to running tomorrow and really have to build up my mileage now since marathon season is rapidly approaching! I think we are 7 weeks out from Hall of Fame and 10 weeks out from the Cleveland Marathon! Eek! I still have some serious work to do!

Post race with my friend Sasquatch and hubby 

February Training Wrap-up - Running to Burn Off the Crazy

February is the shortest month of the year...but it was a long, hard one for me! Training is not always easy when life happens. I had a couple of business trips: Cancun for four days and then to Chicago for a few days the following week, both of which were productive but tiring. And of course when I travel my workouts are not as frequent...if at all on some days.

And in between those two trips my car was hit in a parking lot at my gym LA Fitness in Cuyahoga Falls and although I filed a police report they have been total jerks about it and so I had to file a claim on my own insurance because they will not allow anyone to view the camera footage without a police warrant (really?). I would totally cancel my membership if these jerks weren't so conveniently close to my office. Grrr. End of rant.

So, despite a crazy month I am still pleased with my progress overall. Here's where my mileage ended up for the month:

Running - 170.35 (Average 42.5/week)
Cycling - 215 (Average 53.75/week - big drop here from January but hard to bike when travelling)
Swimming - 1 mile (less than January and also hard to do when travelling)
Core - 11 workouts (average 2.75 x week)

I'm having a harder time this season with my running. Or at least this month. I also had a minor calf strain last week that forced me to take a couple days off running and this week my left hammie has been tender but I was able to do an easy run this morning. Why can't it just be easier?! Either way I will keep running to burn off the crazy!

I am hoping that March is a better month entirely and for my training. So far it is off to a better start! Next Saturday is the season opener at the St. Malachi Run. It's a fun, St. Patty's themed 5 mile race that involves beer directly after so how can I resist that? I'm not sure how it will go because I don't feel as speedy as I would like yet - but regardless I plan to push myself and also have some fun. Stay tuned for the race report.