Long rest

I really did need to rest after the last 5K. My left knee began hurting, and I was afraid of causing injury by exercising on it, so I've taken off about two weeks, with one or two short jogs in between. Today I'm going to run with a friend, if she's up to it (I don't know if she likes cold-weather running), or run on the track. I'd like to get back into the habit of running at least 4 times a week. I'll be more careful about stretching, though. It was the outside of my knee that had been hurting, which appears to be iliotibial band syndrome. I'm not certain that's the problem, but if it is, the solution is to stretch the iliotibial band, and I notice that I had been neglecting that stretch for a while.

Not a PR, but close

5K Time: 26:45 Pace: 8:36
Yesterday's race went surprisingly well. It was about 30 degrees and windy, but the course was fairly easy, and I almost equaled my PR of 26:37 from August 2007. Best of all, I came in 1st in my age category, which was a great ego boost. I'm very excited about improving my mile time now. This week I will be taking it easy to give myself a rest, but I intend to do a lot of running this winter.

Race day again

It's two weeks to the day since the trail run, and I'll be running another race, a 5K. It should be easier than the trail run, since it's shorter and I've been running consistently in the past two weeks (I finally got a reflective vest), although I don't think that I'll be setting any PRs. I ran another 4 miles last week, and it was even slower than the race had been. I've also run on a track and timed my mile splits, and they were slower than I usually average. Next week, I'll keep up the training, but scale it back in terms of mileage and intensity to give myself a rest.

My first trail race

4 miles in 37:49. That's 9:28 per mile. It's not too bad, but it's not great. What is great is that I met my goal: I set out to place in my age group, and I came in second out of six runners in that group.
This was the first trail race I've run, as well as the first 4 miler. My previous 3 races were 5Ks. I knew that this one would be tough, not only because it would be a little longer, but because of the terrain. It was, as I was afraid, a pretty tough trail, with a lot of sand. Most of the path was covered in pine needles, which was firm and easy to run on, but every patch (and often stretch) of sand was a workout. It was raining, which isn't exactly comfortable at the end of November, but I think that may have helped to firm up the sand a bit. In any case, it was quite a challenge for me. I got lucky that the other runners in my age group weren't a lot faster, but reaching my goal has motivated me to continue with my running and maybe work on speed for another 5K. I just checked a listing for local races and there's a 5K nearby in less than 2 weeks. If I'm not scheduled to work that Saturday, I'd like to run in it...