I’m writing this one with an eye one the time to head out the door for the Lifemark 5k at Bluenose weekend! Zero more sleeps!!!! This week included exactly two runs which all of a sudden wasn’t nearly enough. That’s because the weather was amazing and work was really long and a bit stressful. We’ve been working like crazy to get caught up and we sort of officially are now but spending 13 hour days working full out and together means that a nice alone night run would have been perfect. But having fresh legs on race day means lots of rest this week no matter how much I want to be out there, it’s time to rest. On a related note I crushed a lot of candy, caught up on some sleep and didn’t get the house clean again this week. I’m deviating from the training plan this week a bit by not running my splits and instead doing the 5k with my mom. It’s also finally time to reveal the surprise I’ve been hinting at since February!! My step sister flew in to surprise her dad, my trainee, and run his first road race with his daughter! I’m pretty excited and I’m actually really proud to say that it was my idea and I’m so thrilled to finally see it happen! Stay tuned for a full on 5k race recap later this week.
Monday: 5 km at race pace: The weather here is finally pretty beautiful during the day but the temperature sinks like a stone once the sun starts to set. It was also around this point that rain on race day was starting to be legitimately forecasted. Sad face. Truthfully the last one I ran was in a post tropical storm and it poured the whole time. After I kept asking everyone was it raining like this the whole time? So I’m not as bothered by the forecast as maybe I should be. This run went really really great. I went a bit faster than I aimed for and felt pretty darn comfortable doing it. As I was plugging along I was thinking maybe I’ll even beat my goals on the big day. Speaking of which at this point I’m pretty much thinking about those goals like 17 hours a day. Officially, I just want to beat my previous time. Somewhat officially I would like to be at about 2:24 for some reason that number seems doable and happy, unofficially if I beat 2:20 I’ll be over the moon happy for weeks to come but that’s a bit of a stretch I think. Running after a taper on fresh legs is a totally new experience and I’m not going to lie I felt fast and fit after all that training!
Tuesday: 8 km easy run: Due to tides and weather I ran before I met my trainees starting at pre 6:30 at my mom’s place. Not stoked about that BTW. I was still feeling great and my trainees did amazing as well! This week I was all super excited for the surprise reveal on Friday and a bit nervous because this was my last opportunity to F it up. I’m glad to report I did not do that but if it was going to happen that would have been the day. Nothing too exciting to say about this one but at the time I was looking for my first scheduled three day stretch off since OMG January! Later as the week unfolding I wanted nothing more that to go on a run but you have to trust in the plan right?
Saturday: Splits: I’m not sure I’ve ever seriously done splits the day before a race, actually I’m lying sort of. I did them before last year’s 10k. I have this weird reoccurring thought that I’ll fall running all out the night before the big race and be all sorts of cut up at the start line. Because of this I usually aim to do them on the soft sand beach just for that reason. This time I was doing the 5k with my mom and trainee runner. She ran the whole time admittedly slowly and I ran and walked beside her. My stepdad and his daughter ran just ahead of us and it was pretty awesome! Stay tuned for a full race recap later this week. Overall it was pretty awesome and I was so proud of both of them especially my mom! Not to diminish their accomplishments in any way, actually to enhance them but… If two senior citizens in their mid and late 60’s one of which preciously had a mini-stroke can train for and run their first 5k in about 10 weeks literally anyone can do it, including you!
Sweat Sweetly 
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