Love on the Run 5k!!

So I got out the door today for a break from being stuck inside with my sick boy and working from home. Although I ran 6.5 km in total under the Jeff Galloway program, I used the middle 5km as my Love on the Run 5k. I forgot my bib though!!

It was an interesting outing today. The weather was nice for February, it was really mild. The roads were good through the subdivision, and I walked up to Carriage Lane before starting my run. Keep in mind I wanted to stay close to home, just in case the boy needed me. I followed my current run:walk ratio of 2 minutes running and 1 minute walking and found that this worked well for me. The first kilometer went great and even though Boomer tried to trip me and mess up that sore sciatic area on my left I still managed a time of 7:13 on the first kilometer.

I always seem to struggle with the second kilometer, my legs get tired and I just feel like I'm not going to be able to keep going. I usually take a slightly longer walk break here, give my body time to recover and then start in again. My time here was 8:23. I picked it up in the third kilometer and finished that one in 7:45. Then I struggled again in the fourth but pulled out an 8:39. I would just like to point out that this fourth kilometer consisted of me trying to puddle hop through several flooded areas on the sidewalk. After slowly going through four of those areas but somehow managing to still get wet, Boomer and I stepped out onto Highway 2 and started running there to avoid the last flood zone that was sure to ruin my sneakers. The last kilometer was uphill (yes, I said uphill, the four letter word of my running world) for 500 meters and then I turned around and ran back downhill for the last 500 meters. In spite of the up portion of that kilometer, I still managed to pull off a 7:45.

So I don't do those grand things called negative splits...that's okay. I move in the right direction: forward. I did, however, manage to pull out a PR (personal record) today. My time of 39:50 was my first time breaking 40 minutes for 5k!! That's more than a full minute faster than my time 3 weeks ago for the Movie Madness 5k!

I figure my actual time is at least 15 seconds less than this, because of stopping and switching up with the dog, the puddles and yes, even snowbanks. But that's okay, I will take a sub-40 time today and be extremely excited about it!! I even did a little dance on Bona Crescent when I finished!

Here's the details from my Garmin.
Love on the Run 5k by wandaleese at Garmin Connect - Player

Don't forget my medal:

Thank you Jim Parker at www.muffinstomarathons.com for creating these great virtual races that we can do on our own time, at the location of our choosing, and yet with a great group of people over the internet!

Todd has to do his 5k tonight...did I mention that I have convinced him to join me on this hare-brained goal of running at Disney in November??