Dirt in your skirt blog

Day 48… Housekeeping

Posted on July 24, 2011 by Margaret Schlachter

It’s that time, housekeeping, physically and mentally today. After a night at my parents and a morning spent on laundry, blogging, cleaning my car and a few other chores. I headed back to VT and now find myself on my favorite writing spot, my porch looking up at the mountains. The heat has broken and here I am enjoying the cool evening air listening to a favorite Pandora Station, Adele Station.

This morning I found out the official results were posted for the Tough Mountain Challenge, now I am writing this post before the race recap because I feel a little mental housekeeping has to happen before I post about the race itself. I have been trying to write the recap all day but now feel this post must come first. As I had posted before on Facebook, I had been given some misinformation about my place when I got to the finish yesterday. I was told I was the first woman to finish in my heat, today I found out I was actually third.

I can honestly say I was feeling pretty badass knowing I was off track for a couple minutes in the race and still managing to win the heat for women. Prior to the start of the race I had set a goal for myself, totally personal. I wanted to finish the race under forty minutes. I mostly kept this goal to myself but it was in my mind the whole race, I think when I finished with a time of 41:29.08 I knew I had missed my goal. I know I got lost, blah blah blah. Excuses, I missed my goal, and I still think I could have been in the 38 or 39 minute area with getting lost. At the time a redeeming factor was thinking I won my heat. It lifted me above missing this goal.

When I found out this morning, not only had I missed my goal, but I also didn’t get that heat win. Now I had posted it on Facebook already and felt a bit like a fake since it was an accomplishment that was not mine. To everyone I am sorry, I actually finished 3rd in my heat.

TOUGH MOUNTAIN CHALLENGE 
RESULTS
Time: 41:29.08
Distance: 5K
Place: 8 out of 168 Women
Overall: 74 out of about 650 People

I know these are all good results and many people would be happy with this accomplishment. I am happy in one sense as I am consistently finishing higher and higher in these races, but at the same time know I could have been higher in the standing.

I have one big area of improvement, warm-up. I spoke with a friend today saying I didn’t feel warmed up until I got well over a mile into the race. He told me it was probably because I didn’t get a enough of a warm-up in before the race started. He suggested a total of 4 miles of warm-up in segments at different bursts of intensity. So I did what any other person of my generation would do after we finished talking, googled, “5K race warm up” and found this excerpt from Runner’s World…

5K Warm Up
By Jenny Hadfield, Runner’s World , September 14, 2007


“5K-10K Warm Up:

Runners Who are Competing and Racing Hard– The goal is to prepare your body for the full steam ahead pace of the race so you are not shocking your system and can run efficiently from the first step and can reach your race goal.  The shorter the race distance is, the longer the warm up needs to be.  To warm up for a 5K or 10K race, start with brisk walking 5 minutes to wake your body up, then run 1.5 – 2 miles, starting out at an easy running pace and incorporating four to six 30-second pick ups at race pace in the last half of the running warm up.  Try to finish your warm up as close to the start of the race as possible.  This may be easier in smaller races and more challenging in larger ones.  If you have to line up earlier, complete the warm up routine and then keep moving in the corral by knee lifts,  or running in place.  This will allow your body to stay warm, especially on colder days.
5K-10K Warm Up:
First Timers or Those Who are Participating for the Fun of It [Not Speed]– 15-20 minutes prior to the race start, take 5 minutes and walk briskly gradually raising your heart rate and circulation to the working muscles.  Then run 5 minutes at an easy pace and then walk briskly 3-5 more minutes.  If you run-walk, alternate running for 1 minute and walking 1 minute for 6 minutes instead of running continuously.  Line up at the start line according to your planned pace.  Your body will be warm and ready to go.”
Final Thoughts – The race is over, lessons learned. 
GO YOUR OWN WAY, pay attention to signage not just the pack you are running with, or you just might find yourself way off course. 
PUSH HARDER YOU ARE NOT DIEING, if you don’t hit a goal it’s just a reason to push harder the next time. Even in the race when I think I need a rest, it’s a short race, push harder!
I will get it next time as well, Tough Mountain Challenge I WILL be back next year and I will take you down in under 40 minutes, this time staying on track. Done feeling sorry for myself and beating myself up. Finished with the mental housekeeping, putting this race on the shelf and moving along. Spartan Beast you are now in my sites. Each run is dedicated to you!