Welcome to 30!

This weekend I celebrated entering a new decade in my life with my 30th birthday on Friday. It was a fun weekend filled with strawberry picking with the family, a 5K, and fun with friends around the fire pit.
First off, I�d like to update you on the the weight loss goal I committed to 6 weeks ago. I intended to lose 11lbs by my birthday. The short of it is that it didn�t happen. But a lot did happen. My final weight loss tally was:

-6.3lbs

I also took measurements at the start, and even more exciting than those 6+ lbs is the inches I lost. I lost 1 inch from my bust, 1 inch from my waist, .5 inch from each upper arm, .5 inch from each thigh, and .5 inch from each calf. That�s a total of 5 inches gone from my body!

I worked my butt off at physical therapy 3 times/week for the past 6 weeks. I began to run again logging a total of 13 miles (which is a very small number for me, but a wonderful increase from zero!). And, I cleaned up my eating both in content and portion sizes.

And I got to test out my fitness my first 5K since injury Saturday morning! I went into without really articulating hopes or goals. It was my first 5K back from injury. I�d only run 13 miles in literally months. I wasn�t set up to run my best race by any means. But, at the same time, my current 5K PR (personal record) of 30:46 was from September 2011. It was somewhat outdated, as I ran the first 5K of my November 10K at a faster pace (29:35). Prior to injury, I knew a had a 5K PR in the bag the next time I ran one, and likely a big one. But things were not so simple. I planned on going out fast and seeing what happened.

To add to the fun, I strained an abdominal muscle at physical therapy on Wednesday which led to a very painful track workout on Wednesday evening. I took good care of it Thursday and Friday. On race morning, I taped it and popped a couple ibuprofen (which I never do) and hoped for the best.

Of course, I dressed for the occasion. I love my Team Sparkle skirt!

I went out fast. The course was crazy hilly, even for what I�m used to. Even the flat spots were slight uphills and the downhills were few and far between. My husband overheard a number of the first finishers remarking that it was the hardest 5K they�ve run in a looooong time. I hung on tight and was hurting early on � but that�s how 5Ks are supposed to be. I avoided checking my watch knowing that if I looked at the wrong time I�d be discouraged with my pace on the hills. At the first mile marker, a volunteer said it was 9:20, so I knew I just had to hold on and I could break 30 minutes. It got harder from there but I just kept at it. I grabbed water at 2 water stops because my throat was really dry.

I knew I was cutting it close as we re-entered the cemetery where the finish was, and then I saw the last hill. An ugly uphill finish nearly broke me. In fact, I stopped to walk with the 3 mile marker in sight. Who does that?!? Looking at my heart rate stats now, I see it was up at 204 so that 10 second walk break probably wasn�t a bad idea. I poured whatever I could into the last tenth and crossed the finish with my watch reading 29:33 (official time 29:40 � not chip timed).

In the finish line chute, a volunteer went to grab the tag off my number and quickly asked if I was okay or needed a medic, and I just nodded at her while she looked scared I might puke on her (valid concern). After a number of cups of water, I recovered pretty quickly, and I am thrilled with my achievement. My splits were 9:09, 9:19, 9:33, with the last .1 at a 9:56 pace. No where near a negative split but I left it all out on the course,

 

A new 5K PR! 29:40 (official)

That�s a 1 minute 6 second PR. On a hilly course. Minimally trained. Coming back from injury, and with a pulled abdominal muscle.

 

I cannot WAIT to see what I can do as I add some more mileage into my training, and someday� I�ll find a flat, fast 5k course and see what happens!

What a great start to my thirties!