My third 5k "back"

My 5ks progression since discovering sobriety:

1st 5k, done while at Beauterre, 8/16 – 24:01

2nd at the Frightening 5k on Halloween, 10/31 – 20:48

3rd at the Jingle Bell 5k, 12/19 – 19:05!!!
*Just 4 months after my 24:01*

I’m just as surprised as anyone. My goals were to: break 20 minutes and to hang with Teresa S, a friend and very fast woman in town I sometimes train with. 

I did both! I thought both goals would be a stretch since it’s only been 7 weeks since my 20:48 and Teresa is a strong runner. She wasn’t with me from the beginning, which worried me. Was I going out too fast? Turns out I was just running faster – she finished in 19:53 (where I thought I would be!).

A few of us TNC folks before the race. Do you like my slimed-up-with-dermatone greasy look? I thought so.

The main observation I have from the effort is that I need to re-learn how to hurt. My HR maxed at just 189 for the effort. I have to check, but I’m pretty sure I hit 198 or 199 when I was still training hard after Greta was born. So… I probably wasn’t going all out, even though it felt like I was! Guess it’ll just take some racing practice…

Anyway, I’m surprised and downright elated! I’m so happy to be seeing progress, to be loving the process, and to be able to scheme about goals!!

Nate BEAT me! He ran 18:59.

Speaking of goals, I’m not sure where to go from here, since my *big* goal this winter was to break 20. Ha! After thinking about things this weekend, here are some ideas:

-Could I break 18 again? That is a *big* goals since I’ve only done this a handful of times. Perhaps a couple of indoor 5ks to see?

-Could I lower my 1/2 marathon PR of 1:20? That PR was set in a marathon pace workout. Since my 5k mile pace is slower than the average needed for a 1:20, this would also be a *big*, out there, goal. In case you are curious, my 19:05 5k translates to a 1:28:25 1/2.

-Would running something at Grandma’s be fun? It seems like that is the race that everyone is doing this year! The 1/2 might be fun. Or should I challenge myself to a full?

-If I’m not expecting #2 by then, I would really, really like to re-set the world record in the indoor marathon which is now 2:53:53. Crazy, yep, but wouldn’t that be awesome?!?

Aside: this whole back-to-running thing is changing the way we plan for #2, and it’s something that is constantly on my mind. We were pretty excited to have a second sooner rather than later, but I am really torn now. We definitely want Greta to have a sibling, and to have them be close in age, but I’m really enjoying training and racing and I don’t know if I want to give it up so soon. Plus, running has been so good for my recovery and continued sobriety. I don’t mean for that to sound selfish… but having #2 would put a lot of this on “hold” for me for a while…

.. hmm…

Have you set your goals for 2016? What are they?