Before I get to my goals for tomorrow's race, I want to briefly recap this past week. The short version is that I've had a sore ankle this week, so I haven't run since Monday.
I think I may have twisted my ankle late last week. I first noticed it was sore on Sunday, so took a rest day. Monday it was still a little sore, but not too bad, so I went ahead and went for an easy 4mi run.
Tuesday I spent most of the day on my feet. I've been on vacation all week, and on Tuesday my family and I went to the Ft Worth Science museum. When we got there, we found out that we could also get free admission to the Ft Worth Stock Show with our museum passes, so we checked that out too. But by Tuesday night my ankle was pretty sore and had some swelling, so I passed on the intervals I had planned for Tuesday night.
Wednesday was supposed to be another run, but I decided to rest my ankle because it was still sore. Thursday and Friday were scheduled rest days because of my race tomorrow (I never run the two days before a race).
As I write this, my ankle is still a slight bit sore, but not bad. I don't expect it to be a problem during the race. After the race might be a different story.
Okay, goals for tomorrow.
Tomorrow's race is a relatively small (I think) local event. My whole family will be participating tomorrow. My wife and three kids are all running a 1k fun run at 8:10am, and then I'll run a 5k at 8:30am.
The 1k will be my kids first race, so I'm really looking forward to seeing them run. Two of the three are looking forward to it; the other is somewhat apprehensive. I told her it was optional because I don't want this to be something that is forced on her. She may sit out and watch with me, or she may run. We'll see.
Another really cool thing is that my Step-Dad is running his first 5k tomorrow! He started running a few months ago and has made amazing progress. I'm secretly hoping he gets hooked on racing and together we can get my Mom into running too! Again - we'll see.
So goal #1 is to really take it all in and have fun and enjoy the event and all of the firsts.
As for the race itself, my primary goal is to run a disciplined race. I want to focus on sticking to my target paces, especially for the first mile. I want to start off at a reasonable pace instead of taking off too fast like I've done so many times in the past.
So I'm setting goals for miles 1 and 2 as follows:
My goal for mile 1: finish between 7:40 and 7:45
My goal for mile 2: finish between 15:20 and 15:30
I'll be keeping a close eye on my 1/4 mile splits, especially for mile 1. I want nice, even 1:55's.
If I hit these goals, then mile 3 will be a great learning experience. Will I be able to maintain the 7:40 pace since I didn't use up so much energy during the first 2 miles? Will I be able to pick up my pace? Will I still need to slow down like during mile 3 of past 5k's? The idea is to learn something about myself, rather than focus on a PR. I just PR'd two weeks ago, so I feel like I already know where I'm at right now. I'll get more out of tomorrow by sticking to the plan and seeing if running even splits improves my running.
I'll also be sporting this:
It's a long-sleeve tech shirt I customized using some t-shirt transfers by Wilton. The instructions say to use the transfers on a cotton or poly/cotton blend shirt, but I found that they also worked on this 100% poly tech shirt, at least so far. I'm hoping the transfer stays put, because it will be cool to be able to do some other fun stuff with my running shirts.
Let me know if you would like more info on how I did the custom text on my shirt.
I like that verse! You did great on your race!
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