Monday, October 4, 2010

5ks, Cooking and Other Random Things

Saturday morning I ran my first 5k since December.  This was the inaugural DSAJ All Star Beach Run, to benefit the Down Syndrome Association of Jacksonville.  I really wanted to come in below 30 minutes, as my times and overall fitness have really been better lately.  It was an out-and-back course on the beach.  The way out was pretty good- I was running about 9:30, which I was happy with.  I forgot, however, that the way back would mean running into a really, really strong wind.  Needless to say, the second half of the race was a lot slower than the first half.  I finished at 31:15, which was a little frustrating.  I'm getting to the point where I want to try increasing my time while I work on increasing my distance.  When I look at that 5k time, I was at the same pace last year, and I feel like I should have progressed more.  In addition to imminent strength training, I am going to perhaps do some tempo work or some other kind of speed training.

Additionally, last year and the year before, when I was running more 5ks, but hadn't upped my distance yet, I didn't care about my times.  Every 5k was a small victory, and I think I need to get back to that place.  I think when I quit smoking, I started to care about it more, because that excuse wasn't there.  Then again, if I look at my cessation as the real beginning of my training, then I've only truly been athletic and been training for a year and half, so I have to remember to cut myself some slack.      

On another note, lots of cooking and baking this weekend.  We had people over Saturday evening for some company and seasonal beer tasting, so we decided to make some great food to go with it.
Homemade Pesto

Some of the spread - Carb Feast

Pumpkin Beer Bread...mmmm...

Chocolate Chip Cookies

4 comments:

  1. Don't be hard on yourself about it. There are a lot of factors that happen in a race that can throw you off your goal pace/time. Just keep your head up, keep training, and you'll reach your goals.

    I love 5ks. I haven't done one in a really long time, I'm thinking about signing up for a Thanksgiving day one here. We'll see.

    Can you please share the recipe for the pumpkin beer bread? That sounds (and looks!) delicious.

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  2. It was good to do a 5k again, despite my grumbles :) It felt good to go and knock out a race without a lot of prep and anxiety.
    And here is recipe for the Pumpkin Bread: http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1854015

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  3. You're making me want to go to the store right now and buy some pumpkin. That looks delish. Thanks for sharing.

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