The feels like was 19 degrees as I headed out, and I threw a Jillian Michaels podcast on as I hit the road. The grass still had frost on it and the sun was rising, which made for an absolutely beautiful start to my morning.
It was a gorgeous day to race, and I enjoyed each step of it. I finished the 5k in 35:45, which is alright for a training run, which this one was part of. I had 4.5 miles on my schedule, so I continued on for another 1.4 miles after I finished the race portion, and tried to pick up the pace just a bit.
I haven’t run outside since New Years Day, so I’ve been really trying to practice keeping a consistent pace since it’s easy to do so on the treadmill. Gosh- it’s much harder to do in person! I did alright though:
It’s been quite a few months since I had a run with a pace like that, so I couldn’t have been more pleased.
My last .25 of a mile I steadily picked up the pace, as I’m trying to continue to practice finishing strong so I don’t cramp up on race day as I have in the past. I realized as I was pushing myself those last .2 of a mile that I had a huge smile across my face. Between the gorgeous sunrise and the lightness to my pace today, it felt like a truly beautiful 50 minutes outside, and I walked inside feeling overwhelming thankful for the ability to move and run and experience beautiful mornings like this.
Of course I recovered with one of my favorite Nuun Flavors: Watermelon! I enjoyed it while stretching 🙂
I also wanted to mention one another thing. (disclaimer: I received this product free through being a BibRavePro Ambassador). I used my 2Toms Sports Shield for the first time, and absolutely loved its easy application! I’ll share more with you later, but wanted to mention it as soon as I tried it out since I liked it so much!
So with that, race #1 of 2016 is complete!