Sunday’s Shamrock Shuffle was pretty uneventful.
I was happy to be in Corral D – and achieved my goal/accomplishment of starting before Mike finished! By having worked my way up to Corral D over the past 4 years, I started after he was running for 20 minutes — he’d just passed the 5K mark but well before the finish line!
Look at all the green!!!
It was a chilly-ish day and I wasn’t sure how to dress. I ended up in a t-shirt & shorts for the race, with a long sleeve keeping me warm before the race. I ran comfortably, and was targeting a 9 minute per mile pace. However, I didn’t plan out for how I’d try to manage that pace, and got confused throughout as to whether I should be using the auto-lap feature on my garmin, nor was I prepared to do the math on clocks otherwise. I ended up with a 9:09 pace for a final time just 4 seconds off of last year’s PR.
What I’d do differently next year if I’m gunning for a time goal:
- Write out a race plan in advance. Detail my goal, and how I plan to manage toward accomplishing it. Include non-time goals as well.
- For the Shamrock Shuffle, turn off auto-lapping on the Garmin. This race is so much within the loop that the Garmin has trouble with identifying distance accurately.
I am proud that I didn’t get tired during the race – instead I negative split this event! On shorter races I have a problem of often going out too fast for my endurance at that speed, and I did not get tired or stop to walk at all yesterday. It was an easier run than last year’s PR.
It was cold after the race, so following my celebratory beer, I hightailed it home (well, to DD for a hot coffee & then home) to chill out and rest. This has been a high sleep weekend for me!
I also had another mini accomplishment (or two yesterday):
- Yesterday started my Ragnar Relay training! Following my not-too-hard race, I went to the gym in the afternoon for a short run on the treadmill. I’m going to try for a double run once a week throughout. This one was a very easy pace and just two miles.
- Part of the treadmill run was to try out new tri running shoes! I bought a pair online in two different sizes and wanted to figure out which one would be best for me! Figured that out… please feel free to send me more shoes in size 9.5 if you’d like!
Anyway, I’m off to a bike maintenance class tonight and maybe a “swim/strength” combo if I can make it through the rainy day!
