Snowman Shuffle

Because of my aggressive (overenthusiastic) last week, I listened to my body (o.k., mostly just my tired feet) and took it easy. I think that switching to my minimalist shoes completely and then PRing on mileage was not the smartest thing to do in the same week. This was PRing even though I've trained for 5 marathons previous. Like I said, overenthusiastic. I could just be THE queen of stupid. But it wouldn't be the first time I've called myself that and so I decided to, for once, be good.

Monday my feet were still a little achey and so I did some yoga and stretched for a good long time after a hot bath. Felt so good. Tuesday I was ready to be back at it. I woke up, got dressed, looked at the weather, put on another jacket and headed out in the 6 degree weather.

Even the frost tried to grow on my hat!

Beautiful, but the coldest this year. Luckily the weather got back into the balmy 30's for the rest of the week.

I also ran my first ever 5K today. I did run the Santa Run last year and it was a 5K but we just did it for fun and the pictures. My goal on that run was to not sweat. We were staying for a parade afterwards and I didn't want to be cold. Being that it was my first 5K I knew it wasn't going to be fun. I hate going balls to the wall right from the start. There's no time to speed it up in the end and it's all about pacing. So I hear.... I was SO nervous. I woke up with my heart racing and feeling like it was in my throat. This was the worst case of nerves I think I've ever had. Even worse than my first marathon. I was almost to the sick point. Trying to calm myself down was feeling impossible. Deep breaths wasn't working. I couldn't sit still.

I had already decided to run the 2 1/2 miles down to the start line to warm up. I figured that would help. So I put on some nice calm music and set out. The music worked wonders. I was able to relax and get in a nice rhythm. I have been using some imagery from my barefoot running book to help me relax during runs that is a little silly but really works for me. It's a stick image of myself only my legs and arms are made of well cooked spaghetti noodles. My core and head are nice and strong but my arms flail around and my legs look like something from a cartoon where they are flailing around in a running motion. Told you it was kind of silly, but it works. I've had to use it for my shoulders in particular as they have been getting sore on long runs from carrying my water bottle. Relaxation is something I'm still working on. Still sometimes it's so real that I don't dare look down because I'm scared that one of these days I might hallucinate and see spaghetti noodles for legs and that I'll collapse on the side of the road. See it works in a cartoon image but I don't think it would work so well in real life. Anyhow, I was nice and relaxed when I got to the starting line and somehow I managed to hold onto it until we lined up for the start. We were off and I tried to be just slightly uncomfortable. The first mile and a half were all uphill. Then a nice downhill part and then another slight incline to the finish. I felt surprising pretty good. I really can't wait to do another one and see if I can improve.

More pictures of my form. I've got the husband trained to take multiple pictures of me coming in so that I can examine my form afterwards! It looks like I might be landing more to the outside than I should.

My cute little cousin Jacquie was there. It was her first race and she got 1st in her age division!

I finished in 26 minutes, 40 seconds. Good enough for 2nd place in my age division. What can I say, we're a small town.

Monday: yoga

Tuesday: 4 mile run in Evo's, full body weights, 1/2 cycling class

Wednesday: 6 mile run in Newton's

Thursday: yoga, full body weights, cycling class

Friday: 5 mile run in Evo's

Saturday: 5.5 mile run in Evo's including the Snowman Shuffle