Weekend Race Recap + Creating Habits

I ran a 4k this Saturday (2.48548 miles in case you were wondering) completely unattached from a running stroller (no strollers allowed). After diving into two track workouts last week (which totally boosted my confidence and reminded my legs how to run fast) I was definitely hoping to see some results.

Of course getting there in time for the fun run with our stroller and bags is a always an exhausting race in and of itself, but it was totally worth it. She had a great time running the quarter mile fun run with her cousins. This race was actually a health and wellness fair with all kinds of fun for kids–soccer clinics, face painting, music–they had a blast.

The 4k started immediately after. It was 2 laps that took place on the rolling hills of the high school grounds. My goal was to run less than an 8 minute pace for the race. Based on my time trials at the track last week, I now knew that was possible. Before the track work, I was struggling through all my 5ks, finishing close to 9 minutes per mile and was starting to think I just had to accept that at this point in my life. The track workouts brought me back to reality by actually giving me data to assess my current levels and devise appropriate goals.

The race was HOT and HUMID. Two factors I was not totally prepared for, but being it was only about 2.5 miles I figured I’d survive (still working on race morning prep, but at least I fueled this time!). I went out at about a 7:30 pace and felt like I was running comfortably hard. Since my mile time at the track was 7:08, I knew this was an attainable pace for me and was just hoping I could hold it for the duration of the race. I was definitely breathing heavy (2 days of track work wont fix that yet), but again the 4k was a safe distance to push my pace.

I finished in 18:55, second female overall and felt pretty awesome about it.

 

The husband did pretty well for himself too. He has been gracious enough to sacrifice for me to hit the track, so his time was on his pure athletic abilities 🙂

 

My Monday posts are becoming not only a race recap, but the reflection always sparks a motivational quote that mirrors where I am in my athletic life right now. The thought for today is this:

I was super motivated to get my butt in gear, but now (even though life is kind of crazy) I know it needs to become habit if I want to get back to where I left off. I have 5ks pretty much every weekend, so follow my progress–let’s see how far I can go!

Ever run a 4k??

Are you consistently doing track workouts?

What did you do this weekend?