Shelby Bottoms Boogie 5K

I decided earlier this week to do this race. I hadn't intended to race this early in the off season, but I noticed there was a race, looked at the previous years' results, and decided it was one I could win. Or knew, at least, that I could have beaten the girl who got second place. I started at the front and stayed with them the entire time. Final place: 16 over all.

The very wet start...I'm behind the guy in the black and white and beat the girl next to me!

There were a few other women at the front at the start, so I was focused on them. I figured if I could stay with or close to them, I would have a great chance. I started my Garmin but didn't split the miles because it was raining. In fact, I never looked at it until mile 2.65 when I stepped on a rock and twisted my ankle slightly. I think I wanted to see how I'd do without knowing HR or pace. I'm not sure whether I did as well as I might have had I known since I didn't finish with a PR, but that could have been partly due to the puddles and rain we had to contend with.

Finishing...I had thought I was lifting my legs better than this picture shows; bummer!

I ended up as the 2^nd overall female of 49 and the 16^th overall finisher of 98. I was 1^st in my age group of 5, but that was negated by the overall finish. There was also a 15K (it started about 15 minutes after we did, and we did our awards before they all finished) with 182 finishers.

• Total time: 22:48 (PR time: 22:10)
  
• Distance: 3.08 miles (slightly short because the lead cyclist led everyone the wrong way; I wondered how they could have 0 water stops during the 5K—not that I needed it, but others certainly would have benefited from water!)
• Pace: 7:24 (the results said 7:21, or 1:02 per minute slower than the winner/the woman who beat me); best pace: 5:33
  
• 168 HR

Drying my shoes—this might take a couple days!

The swag—bag with papers about other races, trophy, 10^th-annual-race cup, and number

I spent a little time working on a sponsorship application for Trakkers. This looks like a fantastic product with great technology—not only can family and friends and supporters all over the country track me during my races, I can look at my stats at the end of each race and see how I did—swim included! Then it was lunch with Will, definitely one of my best friends ever. Then we went to work out. I'm glad he's so patient and willing to teach me and help me get faster and stronger; some parts of today's workout were tough and frustrating:

• Iso extreme lunge, 30 seconds
• Bouncing lunges, 12 seconds (these are basically mini Russian lunges; I needed to remember to lift my knees up with my hip flexors and dorsa flexing the ankle on my front foot)
• Rest 30 seconds
• Repeat the previous 3 10 times, then switch legs
• Lots of calf jumps, simulated running steps, calf jumps, bouncing lunges, calf jumps, you get the idea; I was definitely struggling with the concept of lifting my leg high so that it comes down fast and propels me forward wall and correctly and efficiently. I don't want to run by shuffling and I want to be efficient, so that's what he's trying to help me accomplish.
• Glute ham, 3×10 reps to the top
• Iso extreme push up on knees, 30 seconds
• Altitude drop bench press, 30-lb bar, 3×6; my problem here was that I wasn't moving my arms away fast enough; each set was only 6 reps, so they should have been good (excellent) reps and they weren't.
• Repeat the previous 3 6 times (we should have done this 10 times but were running out of time)
• Bent over rebound barbell row, 30-lb bar, 6×3 (it might have been 6? Warren called and we got distracted); reminder: Bent over barbell row is basically an inverted push up
• Scapular pull up, 30. This was supposed to have been 3×30, from deepest position possible, basically pulsing my lats. I struggled, Will demonstrated, I tried again. He said it looked good, but I felt like I was using only my forearms. I don't know why I won't let my big muscles work when they're supposed to. So we tried something else that I just couldn't do, and then we did 30 total, with about 4 or 6 inches range of motion. I did 20, took a break because I couldn't hold on, then completed 10 more.

So the reminder for today is that scapular pull up (which always frustrates me) is supposed to feel pretty much just like push up or bench press. Because you're basically using the same muscles—laterals—in a slightly different way. That will be my focus the next time, and hopefully I won't get frustrated.