A Killer Run - T-minus 4 Days Until My 5k

Today's run was killer.

It's been an hour since I finished it, and I still feel a bit like throwing up.

I woke up this morning actually MORE sore than yesterday.  I really wanted to make it a walking day again, but with my race on Saturday, I knew that at least mentally, I had to know I'd be able to do it.  So running it was.

My plan was to run for thirty minutes, unless I got a leg cramp, in which case, I would walk.  Fortunately, there was no muscle spasms to be seen (though the day's not over yet), but after fifteen minutes, I had to take a three minute walking break. Between the heat and humidity today, and the sheer exhaustion of my hamstrings, I just couldn't do the full thirty in a row.

The second fifteen minutes running were the absolute worst minutes I've ever spent running. I kept wanting to stop to walk, but I knew how exhausted I felt after my first walking break, and didn't think I'd be able to force myself to start up again. So I just kept going.  I think it was the longest fifteen minutes of my life.

But I was really glad I did it.  I might be singing a different tune tomorrow (especially since I'm already having trouble getting out of my office chair), but for now, I'm glad I pushed myself and got the run out of the way. I plan to run thirty (hopefully consecutively) tomorrow, and then just walk on Thursday and Friday to give myself some time to heal in time for Saturday's race.  We'll see how I do.

As my mom reminded me this morning, I don't do the 5k's for any competitive reason (maybe against myself, but that's it). It's not as though I'm at the point where I'm looking to come in the top 5 for my age group or anything like that - I'm just looking to finish the race, and run the whole thing.  So I can take it a bit easy on myself here and just enjoy running rather than trying to punish myself.

I mapped the run, and it looks like I'm at 2.71 miles in 33 minutes, which is a 12:11 pace - it's kind of hard to tell what my actual running pace was, since this includes three minutes of walking, but I'll take slow and steady today considering how my legs feel!