Võistlused – Lehekülg 122 – Nourish, Train & Flourish

In Workout Week posts I will tell you everything about my last week’s workouts.

Monday was a super busy day as usually. Late in the evening I had an 8.15 PM BodyPump class. It is by far the most difficult class I take. I’m seriously tired after it. And we have a new routine for 3 months now.

On Tuesday I had a regular strip aerobics class. One hour of dancing and pure fun while sweating like crazy. Love it!

Wednesday was the same as last week: 6 PM body conditioning. It was difficult for sure but I survived. Came home, collapsed into my bed and slept like a baby.

On Thursday I had and 8.15 AM workout class. This time it was a 45 minute core workout. That instructor seriously kills us. No small breaks, just 45 minutes of really intense exercises for stomach, back and overall core. It’s a great way to start the day. After that I had quick breakfast and rushed to the bus station to go home for the weekend. Yay! In the evening made a nice walk with my dog.

Friday can be described as a fail. In the morning I made a regular walk with my dog. The plan was to go swimming in the evening with my mom. We got in a hurry, I had to have my dinner in hurry and we ran to the bus station to get to the city. We made it on time. Got to the pool and the door was locked. Say what?! And then we saw the little sign that said that it is closed today due to an emergency and that they are sorry for that. I had to rush my dinner, run like crazy and waste money on bus tickets and get no workout. Utterly disappointed. So Friday became rest day instead.

On Saturday I was determined to get a good run because my next and second ever running race is in 2 weeks. It’s going to be Tartu Tudengimaraton 10K so a lot more difficult then my regular 7K laps. So I went on my regular 7K with no specific plan. But after the first kilometre RunKeeper told me that my pace was under 7 minutes per kilometre and since I felt awesome, I decided to try and keep my average pace under 7 min/km. And I managed to do that! I didn’t kill myself although it was a bit more difficult. Well ofcourse it was: usually it takes me about an hour, on Saturday it took me a little over 48 minutes so roughly 10 minutes faster per 7K. My average pace was 6:52 min/km (previous best was 7:13). I loved my run. Progress is great!Oh, and did I mention my weight is reducing? Seeing the numbers get smaller every week is such a motivating feeling!

It’s the emotion that counts. Ignore my hair.

Sunday was official rest day. Had an hour long walk with my dog.

In total:

1 hour of running

2 hours of walking

1 hour of dancing

2 hours 45 minutes of muscle workouts

Had an amazing week. Workouts were great, my eating was under control, I felt great and am also progressing in my school work and bachelor’s thesis. Lets hope the trend continues!

Narva Energy Run 2013 was my first ever sports competition. I was never the person to do sports, not even to talk about paying to do sports or pay to compete. But last Saturday I was competing against about a thousand runners (plus another thousand who didn’t have their time measured) on the 7K distance in Narva Energy Run.

As many of you might know if you follow my Workout Week posts, I really didn’t have specific plan for the 7K since I run that about twice a week anyway and do other sports 3 times a week. If I was running half-marathon, I wouldn’t go without a plan but this wasn’t that big. And it was my first race so I didn’t have any expectations really.

Some days before the race I felt the nerves kicking in a little bit. The night before they started to get kind of annoying. 😀

After my last workout before the race on Thursday

You can read about what I ate the day before here. The evening before the race I had a sharp flash of sciatic pain in my buttock once. That made me even more nervous.

On Saturday I got up at 8 AM. Washed, got dressed and then decided to take a regular 30 minute walk with my dog. The weather was nice, normal temperature and no rain.

We were about half way done with our walk when I decided to make a few running steps. We have done that a million times before. But this time something went wrong. After about 10 metres of jogging with my dog, somehow I found myself on the tarmac. The more I started to fall, the more the dog started to pull me and I was on the ground. My wrist, elbow and knee were bleeding. I just couldn’t believe that. “How do those things happen to me?”, I could only think.

I was so angry with myself. Why did I have to jog?! Why? I started crying (I don’t cry like ever) and was really upset. My knee and elbow hurt, my knee was really bad. I walked home but was still really upset that my first race experience was ruined.

I cleaned my wounds and found something to cover them with. They hurt. I was upset. My family started running around crazy and I was even more upset. I tried to be calm again. Had some water and breakfast (some LCHF cheesecake). Then we had to hit the road to Narva. My mom, dad and brother and then… a miserable me.

We picked up my friend from Jõhvi. Pretty much the first thing she asked me was why I was so sad. I only showed her my elbow and started crying. I still only thought that my first race is ruined. Ruined.

We reached Narva about 10.45 AM. Parked the car, saw the start of the half marathon, got our numbers and other stuff and gave away my backpack. There was plenty of time so we walked around and also got a body analysis for free. The results were a little off, though. I’m going to get that analysis again in September.

First runners in the half-marathon start

So 45 minutes after noon there was a little warm up, I met some old acquaintances and then it was already 1 PM and start time. I didn’t rush, just did what I normally do on my 7K runs.

The weather was HOT. And the sun was shining. I wished it was a little cooler, that would have helped a lot. The people were nice though and it was a new experience to run with 2000 other people.

5K was the drinking point. I got a little water and kept going. Then a small insect got to my eye. Fortunately I got it out and that didn’t cause any other troubles for me. I felt my knee patch coming off, the wrist patch was already off and the elbow patch was long gone.

Before the 6K point a car wanted to join our running lane. Didn’t get hit. Considering the whole day, that was an accomplishment.

Already the finish line approached. Last little climb uphill. Last 100 metres. I sprinted to the finish line! People cheered. I did it. Happy.

Got a sportsdrink. Then I looked at the label: almost 6 grams of carbs per 100 grams. So the bottle was more than my daily norm. Thanks, but no thanks. Got my own water from my backpack and did some stretches. My knee patch was almost off so I got a new one from the medics. But my skin was sweaty so it started coming off almost immediately.

Then I saw my family reach the finish line. The race was over.

We took some pictures, my mom took photos of the rewarding ceremony and we started moving back to our car. By 4 PM we were home.

My official time: 51 minutes 52 seconds

My RunKeeper time: 51 minutes 37 seconds (my personal best ever!)

Average speed: 8,31 km/h (my best ever!)

Average pace: 7 minutes 13 seconds per kilometre (best ever!)

My position: 734 (830 finished + another 1000 without time measurement)

My position among women: 374

In my agegroup: 21st

Overall it was a good race. I got my best speed which is the most important, I won myself, I outdid myself. But I am not happy, I’m still… disappointed. Somehow I didn’t get this amazing “I-want-to-do-it-again!” feeling and was sad when I saw the positions and everything. I was just sad. The falling and hurting myself in the morning had a lot to do with that, I think.

When will be my next race, I don’t know. But I hope someday I will overcome this bad feeling inside me that I still have now after my first race. I feel like a poor jogger not a runner anymore. Will someone make that feeling go away, please?

Rubriik: Võistlused

Workout Week 16.-22.09.2013

In total:

Narva Energy Run 10.08.2013