Today was a great day! First, Saturdays are my usual weekly Weight Watchers meeting and I knew I was going to have a good weigh-in. Today was also the culmination of LifeTime Fitness' "90-day Challenge" program (a weight less/fitness challenge) which ended with a 5K Run. This program started in April with a 5K Run. So I had to plan out my strategy to do both things.
Weight Watchers
I got a great night's sleep so that was the first good thing. I had to wake up for a Weight Watchers meeting at 7AM so I got dressed in my running shorts & shirt and headed for the weigh-in. I did not stay for the meeting because I wanted to have plenty of time to eat before the race at 9AM. I was excited to weigh in 1.2lbs down from last week! So the first objective of the day was met -- I lost more weight! Sweet!
Race Preparation
So I got home and immediately made a quick breakfast of toast, almond butter, a banana, and several glasses of water. Yum!! Then I relaxed and slowly put my gear together. I decided to fill a water bottle with 1/2 water and 1/2 Powerade Zero since I tend to sweat a lot and it was going to be around 76 degrees and very sunny. So after applying sunscreen, setting the heart monitor/footpod, and checking shoelaces, I headed to the club.
First thing I had to do was weigh in at the club since this was the end of the Challenge. Tomorrow, they will announce winners of the Challenge (based upon total weight loss during the 90-day period) as well as the results from today's race. Then I went to warm up before the race started by walking for 1/2 mile on a treadmill. I might have over done the warm up a tad.
Then, as I headed to the race start, I heard a familiar voice. It was Mike Rice and his wife! They came out to encourage me and cheer me on. It was great to see them! Then I saw Meghan, my personal trainer, who was organizing the race. After all the help she has given me, I really wanted to do well in this race to show her how much she has helped me improve.
The Race
I also ran into Natalie, another LifeTime Fitness Run Club member. Natalie is training for a marathon and she is a lot faster than I am. She and I signed out waivers and lined up at the start. And then we were off! I started out pretty fast at a 10:00 pace with Natalie. This is faster than I usually start but it felt good for a while. But then Natalie started speeding up to her 9:30 pace, so I let her go on ahead and settled into an average 11:00 pace.
The cool thing? I was actually passing people! And the people I passed did not pass me later. I can't tell you how awesome that felt. The first 1.5 miles were pretty uneventful. But then came the uphill inclines. These were tough at times but I kept going. I did take two 1-minute walk segments to recover and bring my heart rate down a bit -- it was getting warmer and the sun was beating down. But other than that, I ran the race.
The last half mile was cool! I was running strong and in the distance, I could see the green WISH shirt of Mike Rice. It gave me a boost to see him cheering me on. I finished with a 33:50 time! That was MAJOR given that my original April time was 40:41. And it was over two minutes faster than my Rock-n-Roll 5K time of 36:02! A new PR! And what an improvement! I am stunned!
Post Race
I found Meghan and shared the good news with her. She was so happy! We agreed that I would take a rest day on Sunday and then do my regular TEAM Weight Loss workout on Monday at 6AM, followed by a Personal Training session to focus on Core Strengthening at 10AM. Got to keep moving forward, right?
Then I took a nice cold shower, changed clothes, and went home to celebrate with a nice breakfast. I have to admit that I did not do much more than watch TV for the remainder of the day. But I figured that this week has been pretty busy so I deserved some down-time.
Another Race? Oh yes!
So now that makes my race schedule as follows:
- August: Windrunner 10K
- October: Chicago AIDS 5K
- November: Hot Chocolate 15K & Schaumburg 5K Turkey Trot
- January 2012: Disney 5K & Half Marathon
What a great day!