3 days until the Hot Chocolate 5k! My new running form is strong, Ihave my new game plan which I wrote about last blog, and had my final training day today. Time to make those final preparations and see what I did and didn’t do well in the past pre-race.

Physical Preparation

Here’s my last two training days:

The first day, while I increased my distance from last time, my pace slowed down which bummed me a little bit. It’s close to that “beat the PR” rate, but just under.

I’m still confused about how I got a 48:22 when I walked seemingly half of it, guess I really was going considerably faster than my training pace when running.

This morning, however, once the C25K app said I was done, I decided to just keep going. “Let’s see how far I can go.” When I ended up stopping because a truck was in my way, I clocked the timer and low and behold, 3.10 miles. I just done ran a 5k non-stop!

Pretty decent pace too. I also continued my “secretariat’ness” pattern (which I’ve since learned is called a “negative split”). I now know my body takes a while to warm up. After that first mile marker, I’m feeling good!

Preparing for the Race

Both the training plan that Hot Chocolate sent as well as my running veteran friends said to give yourself two days rest before a race. So today was my last training day. Next two days keep it light, maybe do a light jog/walk to stay loose. I have to remember to keep stretching and heal up from today’s run. I’m already feeling sore.

I’ve been trying to eat light food all week and with low sodium in hopes to avoid retaining water to take some pressure off the legs. All the articles say not to change your diet too much, so I’m trying my best to follow that advice.

Funny thing, I’ve been eating foods that are supposed to be light on the stomach because bathroom usage is an anxiety of mine. In natural fashion, doing what they said would stop bloating and build up just ended up giving me a stomach ache, haha.

So, lesson learned, I’ll keep everything to moderation the next couple days.

Tomorrow I’m picking up my packet at a fitness expo, that’ll be pretty cool to check out everything around there! <– random thoughts

Mentally Preparing

Now to address the elephant in the room, not repeating what I’ve done every other timed race, psyching myself out.

While this morning’s run gave me incredibly confidence, let’s not forget the past. That’s what this blog/journal is about anyway, right?

A few days before Bucktown, I wrote how I ran 3 miles on my 33rd bday! The pace was similar to today’s as well, and I cramped up after 1 mile come race day.

Just before the Chicago Bears 5k, I ran roughly 3.59 miles in 55 minutes (I don’t recall if it was non-stop or if I walked some). I ended up getting a 50:50 that day, although it was really hot that day and everyone I know that ran that day did poorly.

Point being, I need to learn from the past and stick to my plan. Don’t get too sad when people pass you, don’t try to catch up and cramp up.

One huge benefit is that I’m much more aware of my pace and how that feels this time around. Also, since Hot Chocolate is also a 15k, there will be pacers. So start at 15:30 and see how it goes from there.

If I perform exactly how I did today on Sunday, I will be ecstatic, we shall see!