The Little Things
March 24, 2014

Friday was a beautiful day, and I knew that it would be perfect running weather. I moved my long run up a day, which meant that I would be running again right after work (which is a pretty rare occurrence for me). Jill Conyers is hosting a virtual race this week (Spring Fling), so I had a 10k on the schedule. I had a migraine the few days leading up to it, so I didn’t know if my body would want to go even 6 miles. I was nice and drugged up (I have 5 different prescription meds for migraines, and take them in various orders depending on what sort of migraine is going on-thanks POTS).

It was sunny and 60 degrees when I set off a little after 5 pm- awesome weather for running, right? I stopped at mile 4.6 for a quick fuel and water break (ate some sports beans, took in a salt packet, and drank some water), and then was off once again! I felt strong and solid the first part of my run, and every mile seemed to fly by faster than the previous one! Kids were out playing, adults were standing in the streets with their dogs, and people were out grilling. It was fantastic.

According to my Garmin (which I’ve had for 15 months), this was the fastest 10k I’ve ever logged- coming in at 1:09. In my head I sort of wanted to hit around 9.5 miles for my run, and at the 10k mark I felt fantastic, so I kept going.

photo 1

One of the migraine meds that I take has caffeine in it, and I’m wondering if that helped on my run? I never have caffeine before I workout in the morning (or before races), so I’ve not really thought much of the impact it might have on me? All I know is that I had an easier time keeping pace than in many of my runs in the last two years.

In my last 3 half marathon training cycles, I’ve only trained up to 8.5 miles, mostly because of IT band pain and weeks I had to take off so I didn’t get really injured. I’m a little nervous about how smoothly this training cycle seemed to go. I didn’t have IT band pain during my runs, and by and large I felt great during most of the miles I’ve run in training.

On my last long run (an 8.6 miler), I was starting to get little baby cramps by the end, so I was interested to see if full on cramps would hit during this run. Right around 8.6 my right calf cramped slightly, but after about 20 seconds of stretching it out I continued on and didn’t struggle again with it the rest of the run. I think that stretching it most days during the week is helping? I also plan on continuing to take salt packets in the middle of runs and during my upcoming half marathon.

photo 2

I finished the 9.8 miles in 1 hour 51 minutes for an average pace of 11:21 per mile!

Overall I couldn’t have been more happy with this training run. If I can keep that pace up for 3 more miles in the half marathon I will be a very happy girl. The weather, my fueling, how I felt, and my pace all seemed to work together well. It was one of those “on” days that led to a smile on my face most of my run! I’m thankful for this run…

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6 responses to “10k Spring Fling Race {and 9.8 total miles}”

  1. Briana says:
    March 24, 2014 at 7:32 am

    Great run! I logged my first post-baby double digit run yesterday too and it also felt surprisingly good! Fingers crossed it continues!

  2. Lindsay says:
    March 24, 2014 at 8:16 pm

    great job!

    quick question – what are “sports beans”?

  3. Charina says:
    March 25, 2014 at 9:15 pm

    Wow. Thanks for sharing. I too am experiencing IT pains and had to take a break. I need to look into this salt packs…

    • Caroline says:
      March 25, 2014 at 11:06 pm

      IT pains are nasty. It took a solid year of PT exercises to really notice differences. Are you doing any strengthening exercises?