Post race thoughts

It's been a few days since my run.  I'm still kind of dragging.  It's been a busy week I wish I had taken Monday (the day after the race off work).  I think I was the most sore on Sunday afternoon.  My hamstrings hurt more and more as the day went on.  I realized that when I crossed the finish I grabbed food (bananas and a power bar) and gave them to my husband standing outside of the barriers.  I never ate any of those.  Even the Noosa yogurt (did I tell you Noosa is the BEST yogurt ever!?!?!) we brought back home with us.  I drank 2 cans of Michelob Ultra Light though! :)  But I didn't eat.  I would estimate it was an hour or just over till we ate lunch.   I probably should have eaten something immediately following the finish line.  Not that it would help with my soreness, but probably my level of energy later. 

Living in this area my whole life I've always thought it was flat.  I remember growing up and we'd get a lot of rain and things would stay wet for a long time.  My grandparents farmed (as did my own parents for many years).  They both raised pigs at some point and the pig lots would get so sloppy.  My Granny would say "we live on the flat part of the round Earth".  Lol.   I'm here to say that St Louis is NOT flat.  And it sure drives like it's flat.  It "looks" flat.  It's not.   Here is what my Garmin says - the top is the elevation chart for my KY Half and the bottom is St Louis

That's quite a difference when you are on foot.  That makes me super proud that I beat KY by 6:20 mins.  :)   I will say that I'm quite sad I didn't make the 2:30:00 finish for this race but with the Garmin being off by 0.1 miles and at times my confusion over how fast I needed to run to make that time, I'm not sure I could have pulled it out.  But I was just so close!  I'm almost tempted to find a flat flat half marathon in Nov to do so that I can try to make that time, but I don't know if I'm that crazy!

Monday I went to work and I think I was brain dead.  Certainly stiff and semi sore.  I went to the barn to ride Eli after work and my legs were *so* tired. My calves didn't hurt till I squeezed them the first time when I was riding. Ouch!  Overall though it loosened me up and was a good thing, even if it was an awful ride. 

Tuesday I took Eli to my trainer's barn about 1.5 - 2 hours away (2 hours with road work this time) for a saddle fitting and a lesson. 

The driving made me stiff but we had a really good lesson and my body felt good after.  It seems the longer and more I run, the shorter my riding legs get.  I had to shorten my stirrups a hole before the half marathon and it felt like I needed to again after,  But I refuse to go up 2 holes!!

Last night my trainer was at my barn and I got another lesson.  *happy dance* for a lesson 2 days in a row.  But Eli and I were both tired and it wasn't that good.  Eli did really correct work on Tuesday.  He hadn't been anywhere in 2 years and I was super proud of how well he did.  But I think the long day tired him out.  

I'm thinking of running 3 miles today after work.  I signed up for my first virtual race and it's a 5K.  I could just do it tonight.  The medal is already in the mail to me: 

My husband signed up too and I will not let him have his medal until he runs the 5k!  I think that's one thing I don't like about this type of thing.  It's kind of like buying a medal.  But you better get your butt out there and do the work.  For me I do races because of the atmosphere.  The shirts are fun.  Medals are a plus.  Well medals are a *must* for longer runs and so fun!  This last weekend was the first time I got a medal for a 5K.   So I'm not sure how I feel about just running a 5K from my house to earn this medal.  But I'm going to give it a go!  

So one thing I wanted to do after my *first* half was get a 13.1 related tattoo.  When I finished the race I thought "that was a fluke" and I didn't earn the tattoo.  I'm whacked!  The training I put into this distance, the time commitment and the actual run are all worth it.  But I signed up for another just so I could make sure it wasn't a "fluke" and earn my tattoo.  I'm kind of having second thoughts still on whether I should do this.  I still don't consider myself a runner.  But . . .  currently this tattoo is tops on my list (I have many pinned on pinterest).  However, when I show this to people they really do not see what it is.  (I'd use 13.1 instead of 26.2 obviously).  I don't want a tattoo I need to explain all the time.  I already have a crap tattoo that no one can recognize.  Maybe that's why I have cold feet. 

Elevation

I've been running more and trying to increase my distance.  I want to stay fairly low over the summer and maybe pick up training for a fall half marathon.  I just can't decide which half I want to do.  In the meantime over the summer I'm alternating running with Chalean Extreme weight workouts.  So I'm not doing her whole program, just the weight level workouts. 

I've been doing short runs, usually 2 miles, at work over lunch.  It helps break up my day and keeps me more "awake" in the afternoon at work.  The town I work in is much more hilly than the town I live in.  So it's also good hill work for me.  I swear, I feel my calves expanding.  I do *not* need larger calves.  No no no!

Earlier this week a coworker brought doughnuts and I ate one.  So I made myself do an extra mile at lunch.  Up till this point I never took the time to run 3 miles at lunch.  Mostly due to taking too much time on my lunch break. 

As I was catching up with my online Garmin data I thought I'd share with you an elevation comparison.  

Here is the 3 miles from earlier this week at work: 

Here is 3 miles from a run I did in my town a couple weeks ago.  

As you can see my town is quite flat!   When I run a 3 miles out and back from my house for some reason the elevation chart looks hilly.  I'm not sure what's going on, but I don't feel it is a true reflection of what the run feels like, so I'm not sharing it. It feels like a very flat run.   Maybe it's because the back roads are lumpy.  Ha!   So while I'm not doing any major hill work, it's enough to tire out my legs and work on those muscles.