April is off to a good start

Racing season has officially begun! The Reed's have got 5 "races" in 6 weeks - April through early May. This makes me feel like I'm in college again, traveling and racing every weekend.

We kicked things the first weekend in April. We headed down to Stockton State Park Marina to run in the 8th annual Crappie Day 5k. This was a good opportunity, being the week before Rock the Parkway Half Marathon, to get out the racing flats and get some speed work in. We ran surprisingly well. I ran my fastest time on that course, 17:21, which was a couple seconds faster than last year. This course always has more hills than I remember. It's actually not that bad, I'm just used to running in flat Springfield. For a bit more speed work, we jogged about a  mile away, to the flattest part we could find, and added 4 x 400. This was tough on tired legs.

Race 1: Havin' A Crappie Day 5k
Goal A - 1st female
Goal B - sub 17:30
Actual - 1st female; tied Marshall for 2nd overall
Actual - 17:21, then added 4 x 400 (all sub 78)

I think this was just past 2 miles in

Race 2: Rock the Parkway Half Marathon

Goal A - Top 2 female

Goal B - Sub 1:17

Actual - First female (10th overall: men and women); 1:18:10

Results - click here

I fell a bit short of my goal time, 70 seconds off. However, I feel pretty good about this race. This is an out and back type course, so the way back was into a 15-20 mph head wind. It was just a bit too much for me to maintain pace. Also the race didn't seem as competitive up in front, so the top 12 runners were very spread out. The next person behind me was over 90 seconds back. Luckily I had Marshall with me through about 10 or so miles. He then proceeded to have an awesomely fast finish and catch the runner in front of us, so he finished in 8th place. This was his highest finish at this race, despite being probably one of his slowest times on this course. 

March in Review:

1 race - Big 12 12k run; first female

Kimi - 305 miles

Penny - 4 miles (21 yearly total)

1 day no running

Highest week - 72 miles

Penny slacked off a bit this month. . . better get her back into shape ;)

I'm feeling really fit right now. I got my body fat checked today and it's right around where I usually am for goal races. I've got 3 weeks until the Half Marathon Championships!! Let's hope the weather is wonderful and I can have some good workouts the next few weeks. The focus these next weeks are going to be practicing taking in nutrition with cups during long runs. I got a mild side stitch around mile 3-4 during the half marathon this past week, and I'm blaming my awful ability to take in water through cups. 

Big 12 run; Finish line photo - it snowed the entire morning!!

In other news, the upstairs room is just about finished. The room that we started fixing the Friday after Thanksgiving. The room that Marshall thought would take only 4 weeks and be done by Christmas. Here we are 4 months later and it is just about done. It looks great though! Probably the best room in the house. Each room we fix gets better and better as we learn from past mistakes. I'm thinking we should have started up there. Haha! Pictures to come soon!