Well I decided to see how this improvement translated to a 5k. I had the brilliant idea to sign up for the Cross country championships at Van Cortland. I haven't been jogging for any 1mile+ distances lately but since I knew the course I felt comfortable. HA! I thought we would do the FLAT loop plus the little wooded loop, twice. I was sadly mistaken.
The course was expanded to go over the little bridge into the wooded area that I had never gone through which I swear was 2 miles of uphill! Or it seemed that way to me. Hello. What was I thinking? Excellent challenge though. So I sadly admit I walked the entire wooded area to bring my time down to 54 minutes. Yeah I know. I know. Almost the last one in again. But I did the first mile in 13.5 minutes! So I felt good about that (small victories!) So this is another race to add to my goals for next year. Maybe some of you would like to run it too! I'm doing those &*%% hills! The weather was absolutely perfect. And the course not too muddy. And the crowd was extremely generous with their cheering. It made me misty eyed.
I do want to congratulate my volleyball teammate Nina, who decided to run the course with me just to see how she would do. Damn. The girl is a machine. 28+ minutes. Can't imagine how'd she do once she begins training. She wants to do more races. The winner, Frank Corrigan, did the course in 15:55 minutes at a 5:08 pace. HOLY COW! Congrats Frank!
I gotta say I really enjoy the cross country running. It's so much better on my possibly torn meniscus (grrr MRI coming) and the view is gorgeous. I saw a Blue Jay and a Mocking bird (I know I should have been concentrating on the run but hey!) and tons of squirrels. The trees were all shades of yellow, orange and red. What a great course! Afterwards we treated ourselves to a large unhealthy breakfast at the Coffeshop under the bridge for 4$ each.
All in all, a great day at the races.
10 comments:
Good job! Sorry to hear that you have a possible tear of the meniscus. You are still able to run? Are you icing and using NSAID? Just wondering as I am currently on the injured reserve list (haha)
Way to go, Ruth!! You are absolutely right. Setting small goals and achieving them is the road to success. Feels good, right?
Hope your MRI turns out for the best. Keep us posted.
Mjay, I take 2 extra strength tylenol for arthritis or 2 aleve (which works better) before running but I've been reading that one should not do that for long distances because it sould lead to kidney failure. I figure 5k is harmless enough and I'm not running 5k all the time, I'm running more like 1 mile. I'm also going to PT and I ice it every evening. My PT says I need to strengthen all the muscles around the knee to support the damaged area :( Biking is good.
and of course I need to lose a bunch of weight to alleviate the pressure on the knee. So it starts at the diner table for me...ay ay ay
Thanks Ruth! I am hoping that PT is what they ultimately recommend for me. MRI is scheduled for Saturday. I miss having healthy legs...it's been 12 years for me....knee is just the most recent problem. FRUSTRATING
Had my MRI today. IT'S LOUD!
Congrats on finishing the 5k Ruth, Van Courtland is a really tough course! I hope everything is ok with the knee.
Ruth! Holy cow...I had no clue an MRI was so loud. I had mine on Saturday. They gave me headphones so that I could listen to music but do you think I could hear anything over the noise....NO!! 25 minutes of banging, whistling....If I was a creative person I'd sample those beats!
When I had the MRI of my lower back I was completely in the tube. They asked if I had anything metal on me they should know about. I showed them my wedding band. They said that won't be a problem, it will just buzz. Sure enough it was buzzing like crazy. Very odd sensation.
They told me to bring music as well, but their headphones didn't work...
My biggest concern of being in the tube was, what if my back goes into spasm when inside. That would have been awful.
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