Week 16: Five miles

30:45 second run/walk ratio
1:22:17 hours
5.41 miles
15.2 minutes/mile

A short five mile recovery run today, a week before the half marathon! It is supposed to rain all day today, and snow tomorrow, so I figured I might as well just go out there and do it in the rain. I got lucky, though and managed to hit a break in the rain for most of my run. It started misting during the last mile or two, but not heavy, and it was not terribly cold, so I managed with no problem.

Temperature was around 48 F and cloudy but humid. Wore base layer, leggings, short-sleeved shirt and my zipper jacket. I thought I might get cold, but I didn't. I brought along one GU just in case, but didn't eat it. I had hot chocolate this morning before my run. I was a bit hungry while I ran, but had plenty of energy so I didn't worry about it.

My right hamstring is still giving me a slight twinge when I start out, but once I get warmed up, it's fine. I noticed on my cool-down walk that I was holding my right leg stiff while I walked. Don't know if that's a result of the sore hamstring or possibly the cause of it, but I tried to relax my leg. Will have to watch that during the race.

I bought a new Amphipod race-day belt to use for the race and tried it out today. It has clips to hold the bib, which I tried out with the bib from Long Beach, and it works nicely -- holds the bib in place without pins or messing with trying to figure out where to put it on a tee-shirt. It has one big stretchy pocket in back -- they say you can put all your stuff in one pocket, but still leaves the problem of cramming everything in so tight that when you pull something (like phone or GU or handkerchief) out to use, you risk pulling something else out along with it and losing it. So I put my little extra pouch on the side to hold GU, ID & card key, and handkerchief, and the phone can go in the big pocket in back. The belt itself is soft and stretchy so it fits snug without being tight and is very light. I like it, it will also work well for short runs where I don't need a water bottle.

I did one midweek run this week, on Thursday, and exercised for 30 minutes with my WiiFit Plus on Tuesday. So, not quite two runs, but close. Will have to make extra effort to get two runs in this coming week -- it's supposed to snow tomorrow and possibly Monday, so I might have to drive to the park to run on Monday, but as it's my last week before the race, I want to make sure to get those runs in.