Guess what?
I earned a new course PR last night! I did speedwork on my normal 4-mile loop and finished in 51:41 which is about 15 seconds faster than I’ve ever finished before!
(1 mile warmup, 2 miles speed, 1 mile cooldown)
The downside? I don’t think I can officially call it a course PR because during mile 3 I hit the draw bridge and got to take a “nice” little break.
I’m putting nice in quotes because when you’re in the middle of your speedwork flow, coming to a stop totally stinks, doesn’t it?
Mile 3 (the one where I hit the drawbridge) ended up being an 11:40 minute mile which is quite fast for me, but I’m sure it had something to do with the rest break!
It was pretty warm and humid out, so maybe I can cut myself a little slack ;).
The reason I went all out on my speedwork yesterday despite having a 5K race scheduled for this weekend is … I don’t plan to run that 5K.
My heart just isn’t in it. Getting up early to run short races in hot weather is just not appealing to me AT ALL.
I’m still trying to decide which races I do want to take on this spring. There is one race that benefits sea turtle conservation that I’m sure I’ll do (my first pet ever was a water turtle), but beyond that it’s less clear.
We’ll see… I’m not stressing about it!
I’m still all about that speedwork and trying to get faster before marathon training begins, I’m just not all about the pressure of racing.
Instead I want to run my beach loop, earn some unofficial PRs and slide into marathon training mode this summer.
Right now all the spring breakers are making their way into town and the beach is full of ’em!
GO AWAY KIDS AND STOP TAKING UP MY SIDEWALKS! I NEED THEM FOR RUNING!
Just kidding.
If I can actually pull myself out of bed early this weekend to go running I can have the sidewalks to myself. I’m sure the spring breakers will be sleeping off their hangovers :).
Hey, they don’t call Fort Lauderdale “Fort Liquordale” for no reason.
Actually, I don’t think they’ve called Fort Lauderdale that in years.
Go away kids and leave me my sidewalks!
Have a great weekend 🙂
Any exciting weekend plans? Are you into the March Madness thing?
I totally know what you mean about not wanting to get up early and go through the hassle of a short race. This may be a huge reason I have only ever run one 5k! So much planning and prep for such a short race.
Have a great weekend. 🙂
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Exactly! If I’m going to get up super early, I need the race to last at least an hour … and I don’t really want my 5K to last an hour 😉 That would be bad for my confidence.
5Ks just seem so daunting! I totally feel ya.
A lot of sleep this weekend is on my agenda 😉
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You deserve it! I seriously understand how hard finishing a marathon is when you have jet lag. Going from paris > london > fort lauderdale > portland > fort lauderdale killed me last year. I slept a ridiculous amount when we got home from Portland!
Nice job! That is really so great and you should be proud of yourself.
Exciting weekend plans are to head to Winter Park this morning for a long weekend getaway.
Love the long weekend trips.
Totally into March Madness. Rick and I are into most sports and we love MM. We fill out brackets but only compete against each other. As of this morning, we are tied!
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Oh, I’m jealous of your long weekend! I hope you have a great time.
The whole march madness thing is so overwhelming for me. I don’t follow college ball since my school isn’t very good, but even if I did I don’t think I’d be good at the bracket thing. My brain would explode from following/looking up stats for ALL of those teams! I’m impressed by everyone who does it!
I hope you pull out a win 😉
Awesome!! Reaching a goal or setting a new PR always motivates me to keep working harder. Such a great feeling. I’m doing a 10k on Saturday, so hopefully I can set a new PR too!
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Good luck this weekend! Go get that PR!!!! 🙂
Congrats! Eh, maybe you did have to stop but I still think you should give yourself a pat on the back 🙂
I totally know what you mean about the 5K this weekend. I did the exact same thing last month: I skipped a 5K I was signed up for, really for no other reason than I just didn’t feel like it. It was freezing that day and the race was a half hour away. A 5K isn’t exactly incentive to drag my butt out of bed on a Sunday morning and drive 30 minutes to race in 5 degree weather, ya know?
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I do know EXACTLY what you’re talking about, except replace 5 degree weather with 85 degree weather!
Although I don’t I would drag myself out of bed in 5 degree weather either! Brrr!
Congrats on the PR! I see the bridge has still has your number!!! Sometimes taking a break like that can be harder–It takes mental energy not to just throw in the towel!
I am kind of getting into the March Madness thing, just because I hear so much about it…I guess you could say I am a sports junkie. I wanted to watch the Hampton UK game last night but it got to be too late. I caught the end of Cincinnati/ Perdue…
Not many plans for this weekend…Which is a good thing!
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It really does! When I see it up I can’t help but think, “so we meet again.” It’s just unfortunate that there is literally no way for me to best it in these circumstances unless I learn to fly!
I’m a sports junkie too, but I can’t handle the March Madness thing. There are too many teams to think about at the beginning! haha
Stupid bridge throwing a wrench into your speed work! That must have been so frustrating!
I live/work in a college town, so I am the opposite of you. I love spring break because all of the students leave and I get my sidewalks back!
Author
Hahaha nice!
I do like that my commute to work is much smoother now that spring break is here. All of the locals are going out of town, which makes the drive into the office faster. But I hate having to dodge around people a bunch on my runs … especially the groups of people walking 5 across and snapping selfies at the same time!
My sister gets married on Saturday so I’m in Jamaica this weekend! It will be quite busy and filled with activities 🙂
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I’ve seen your pics on Instagram and I’m so jealous! It looks amazing!
I went to Jamaica last summer and the humidity killed me. I thought we had to deal with humidity here, but Jamaica takes it to a whole new level. I hope you’re enjoying your runs though, it looks like you are! 😀
Unoffical PR’s totally count too! Awesome job! The stoplights are so welcome when the run is a slog but they’re PE#1 when you’re in the zone! haha
Have fun this week! My kiddo’s spring break is next week but she’s only 8 so I don’t think you’ll find her passed out on your front lawn or anything. 😉
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Yes! When my legs feel heavy and tired I pray for a red light or a stop sign or a shoe lace to come untied or an ice age to suddenly take over earth, but during speedwork I like to stay in the zone (and get it over with as quickly as possible)! haha
So I am not into the March Madness thing at all. I think it’s because I’m a Virginia Tech fan and our basketball team is usually not in the tournament. I wish there was a feature on Facebook where you could filter out all of the March Madness posts on your newsfeed 🙂
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Same here, I doubt you have even heard of my alma mater (Florida Atlantic University); we’re not well known or very good so I don’t get into it. I think to be really into the MM thing you probably have to be a huge fan of your team and follow your conference closely all year to even have a chance at putting together a partially good bracket. I don’t understand how anyone besides sports writers can know enough about all of the teams to put together a good bracket from the beginning!
Congrats on the course loop PR! I really wish I came to Florida for my March break. Instead I got to get stuck in the house by having to blizzards in one week and having a city that is in a state of emergency. But I am not going to be negative about it LOL, I am still making it to the gym to get my training runs done on the treadmill and today is the first day of spring so that has to be a good sign right?
Nice work! I bet it felt good to get that PR. Definitely one of my favorite things about speedwork 🙂 That bridge must be so annoying though! I’ve definitely gone out of my way sometimes to avoid traffic lights, etc. when I want to get in a good speedwork session. I haven’t quite gotten up the guts to do track work yet. It feels intimidating!
Haha I get so annoyed when drink college kids are all over the place around here, but we never deal with anything like spring break craziness! That would drive me crazy!
Have a great weekend!
Congrats on the PR. Oh man I forgot it was spring break time… how annoying! A week left, right?
Draw bridge?! No! That’s the worst!
And, you’re totally right! I’m in Tampa and the humidity has been yucky! Kudos to you for achieving a new record!
HI! I am new to the blogging world and stumble on your blog! I look forward to following your blog each day through email! I feel like following blogs gives me cyber friends who love running like I do. 🙂
Congrats on your PR!!! Stopping or not, you run with the elements, and this time that element happened to be a drawbridge. Nothing you can do about that – so it was really out of your control. I would still count it, personally. 🙂 Improvement is improvement.
That’s funny about all of the spring breakers. We get a few spring breakers (mostly families) here in bend, but they come here for the recreation, so our trails and recreational sites are filled with additional people out breaking a sweat. The locals know where to go to avoid the crowds, if need be. 🙂
Congrats on your PR!! You’ve been making such great progress lately, I love it!
I agree about 5ks. I like that training for the, helps me get faster overall, but I don’t really love racing them anymore. They almost feel pointless. But I’m going to race a few this spring (despite the heat) as speed training.