Weekend Wrap-Up (includes Race Report)

After my hilly double on Thursday, my legs were tired. and sore. and did I mention tired? I went for a 4 mile recovery walk Friday morning and that was about it. I thought about swimming, but it never got past the thinking-about-it stage.

Saturday morning, I went for a 4.4 mile easy run. My legs were still sore. I came home afterwards and stretched a bit and used the foam roller. I was a little concerned about some tightness that I was feeling in my right calf; felt like it was on the verge of cramping.

This morning I got up bright and early for the Women's Distance Festival 5K. . Start time was 7am sharp and since I hadn't gone to pick up my packet on Saturday, I needed to be there at about 6:30am. Before leaving the house, I used the foam roller again.

Arrived to a sea of red shirts. These were the "Women-in-Training." Wow. There were a lot of them. Right before the race started, Misty came up to me. I hadn't seen her in ages. Well, at least since sometime last fall. Misty, if you are reading, just a shout out that you look great!

Ran the most of the race with my running friend. Didn't quite finish together, as I had a bit more of a kick at the end than she did, however we both finished with 5K PRs. I haven't seen the official, but my Garmin had 27:52 which is the first time I've been under 28mins. Woot! I'm quite happy with that. For a long time, I was finishing right around 30 mins, it seems like I'm at a different level of fitness these days which seems pretty amazing for someone in their mid-forties, if you ask me.

Updated: Official results are posted and they have me at 27:50, an 8:58 pace. Yeah, baby! Found a photo of me finishing from the race site and am posting it even though I look like a dork. I'm gritting my teeth because I was trying to get in under 28:00, trust me, I was smiling on the inside.

This is my third time to do this particular race. It's one of my favorites because it's a women's only race and a lot of women are out there for the first time at this distance. I think that is very cool. They also have a tradition of giving chocolates and a flower at the finish line. This year they also gave away several loaves of healthy bread as raffle prizes. I ended up walking away with a yummy whole wheat cinnamon roll. And the race shirt this year is a women's specific technical shirt with a really cute design. Score!

But the fun didn't stop there.A few hours after the race, Husband & I went out for a bike ride. We ended up doing 17 miles total. If you've been following for a while, you have probably realized that I live about a mile above sea level and it's easier to find hills than a flat route around here. Even so, that first hill was particularly tough for me!

I took a photo from the mid-point of our ride to give you some idea of the area, but I think I'll save that for another day.