My last race as a 33 year old!

Today I ran in my second ever track meet and officially my last race as a 33 yr old as my birthday is this coming Tuesday!  I did not have to work the night before but I did have a birthday party the night before so not sure which was worse! Lol!  Since this was a joint party for myself and a friend, I did not exactly hold back.  I had a ton of fun and stayed up quite late but did make sure I did not go overboard (i.e. did not do a repeat of the night before the Centurion! Ha!).  I did get a fair amount of sleep but woke up exhausted and had to pry myself out of bed to make sure I caught the bus to make it to York U for the OMA Ontario Champs.  I decided to run the 3000m again and to see if I could improve.  I was thinking about running a second event but when I realized that my bday party was the night before I decided to just stick to one.  I did a decent warm up but again, did not want to run too much as I wanted to save whatever I could for the run.  I am pretty sure though I could have done a longer warm up and it would not have sucked any extra energy out from me.  This time I had some advise thanks to Duncan and followed a target.  When the gun went off I tucked behind a guy and stuck with him for a while.  And I mean I was right behind him.  He had a good pace and I felt comfortable.  Then I felt as though he was slowing down a bit and another guy had passed us so I decided after a corner to pass him and try to catch the other guy.  I probably should have stuck to the other guy as soon as he passed because I was not able to catch up to him.  But I had my eyes set on him for a good while.  I was so focused on my targets that I had no idea what lap I was at or how long I was running for.  Mind you, 15 laps is also a lot to count which is why there are lap counters for us.  But unlike what I had the last time, my person was not yelling at me the number of remaining laps I had left.  I heard the bell lap but I was unaware it was for me.  I thought there was another person right behind me who was going for their final lap.  I thought I had another one left.  So I was not able to give it my all in my final lap with a finishing kick as I did not realize it was my final lap.  I had another teammate of mine who was taking photographs tell me I was done. I was ready for one more and actually a little disappointed that I did not get to do a finishing kick (my version of it anyway!).  Lol!!!  As I was approaching the finish line I saw the time of 13:35 or something and thought to myself, "boy, I ran slower today...how am I going to run a 30sec 200m!".  Haha!  My finishing time was 13:51 which is 17sec faster than my last run.  Initially, I thought I actually ran 30sec faster and was really ecstatic with that.  Not sure why I thought that but it turned out to be only 17sec faster.  Hmmm....wonder how much I could bring it down if I was able to throw the hammer on the final lap! ;)  I think the pacing really helped me though and I felt pretty comfortable throughout!  I think I may try this again in a couple of weeks and try to run even faster.  I did have a lot of fun today and the encouragement was awesome!!!!  Thanks!  But I am also losing my voice right now at work again accompanied by a nice cough.  Guess I can't avoid that with indoor track running.

My first track meet.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I participated in my first ever track meet on Sunday.  This was an OMA event held at York University and I actually had some fun! Lol!  I was completely out of my league and was in awe at some of the talent and running prowess surrounding me.  And at the same time, everyone was very supportive and friendly!  What a great mix! 

I ran the 3000m in between my night shifts (I really have to stop doing this!).  In retrospect, I probably should have tried to run harder but I was worried about falling apart.  Why did I think that, who knows.  I can survive 3km, lol!  But there is the potential of completely blowing up if you do go out too hard.  I started off feeling pretty good and was running right behind a guy until I fell off pace and then I was running on my own getting lapped by the other guys.   But I stayed focused and tried to stay relax and held an even pace from laps 4 to 15 with the last two being the fastest ones.  I ran the first km in about 4:07 and then my pace dropped to about 4:30-4:40.  I ran the 3000m in 14:08.  My lungs were on fire afterwards as the track venue is super dry.  I even had an aweful cough for several hours and sounded horrible at work that night and was losing my voice.  I am looking forward to trying this again and think I will sign up for the next event in two weeks time.  And hey, I even actually brought in points for the club.  I am going to try to drop my time and see if I can improve.

Anyone have any tips for me on how to run fast on the track? ;)

Getting my mojo back! :)

I am finally getting back into training mode after a bit of a hiatus.  Now, I never actually stopped training, I just wasn't focused.  If it was not for the masters clubs and yoga I would be in trouble.  I continued going to practices and classes which has kept me in decent shape.  But with race season looming I needed to be more disciplined and more focused and thanks to a new coach I am back on track! :)  I am the first to admit that I need a coach because I need to be accountable to someone.  I know what I need to do, well more like I think I know what I need to do to prepare myself for races.  I have done enough races that I could probably figure out my own training plan and stick to it.  BUT I shamefully and pathetically cannot.  I need that accountability otherwise I would just be up in the air doing what I feel like as oppose to what I need to do.  So now with more of a direction I am much more focused and I am back on the training horse!  Last week I logged just over 15 hours of training and I am heading towards that this week as well.  I finally got on the trainer which was way overdo! Lol!  In the pool I am getting my speed back and actually played with the big kids (the fastest lane) yesterday!  And I bought a year pass at Fireflow Yoga and have incorporated this into my training!  I am loving the yoga right now!!!!!  It is soooo awesome!  I get a great workout and am getting stronger!  It is a great place with great teachers and it is just so much fun!  Hopefully I will gain new strength from my practice which will help me get faster! :):):)

And just in...tomorrow I will be participating in my first ever track meet!  Eek!!!!  I was not planning on running the Ontario Masters mini meet but I am taking one for the team and will get my a$$ whooped big time out there! Ha!  UTTC needs points to maintain our first place standing and I think I can actually bring in some points being female from a younger age group.  So I will be running the 3000m tomorrow! OMG!  And in between my night shifts to boot!  Oh oh!  I have no idea how to run a track meet but I will be looking for some tips tomorrow, lol!  So wish me luck! ;)   I will report how it goes tomorrow!  Just hope I have some juice in my legs leftover for a decent run.