pr all the way, baby

Okay, so it has been a horribly hectic ten days or so, so I apologize for not blogging. I literally couldn't get a minute to write anything! You know those people who never seem to return an email? I became one of them last week. I have always wondered what the heck they were all so busy doing. I am busy, too, but always seem to have time to pop a quick email off to someone. Last week, though...not so much. I am looking forward to a less hectic week this week (yeah, right).

On Saturday I ran in the Teapot Days 5k race. We went to spend the weekend with my in-laws, and their town has a huge festival every year, complete with road race. I haven't run a 5k since last September, and I really wanted to get one in before I start back to marathon training for Nike in October. This was perfect. It was a fast and flat race, and I PR'ed in 22:45. I think my fastest time prior to this was like 25:30 or something, so I really blew the doors off my previous time. I think I can get that time down even further, though, so I am going to shoot for another 5k next month that I will actually train for, and try to finish in 20 minutes or so. 

Now that I have run a marathon, my perspective on distance has been forever altered. I really looked at this race as a sprint, which, as my husband told me this weekend (several times), is crazy, since it is still 3.1 miles. Who wants to run a 3.1 mile sprint? But that is really what it is. When you run a marathon, you have lots of time and distance, so you have to pace yourself to stay consistent throughout the run. It's a lot the same in a half marathon. Pace, pace, pace. But a 5k...you have to go out fast and stay fast, because it's over in a flash.

I am not sure yet if this new philosophy on running is a good thing or not. I certainly don't want to become one of those people who don't think I got a workout in if I ran less than 8 miles. There is a lot of benefit in being able to run the shorter runs quickly. Hopefully I can find a nice balance between the two races.