Holy Moly guys!
Thanks so much for all the amazingly nice comments on my race report from this weekend (especially the ones where you guys said that me and Lacey were way cute and adorable hahah)! It definitely makes me smile to read them and makes me feel really special 8)

I want to give you a big bear hug 🙂 (and note that his sign says "Teddy McIntosh says Eat More Fruit". Awesomeness.)
I’m still kind of on cloud 9 post-race. It still *really* hasn’t hit me how fast I ran or how much of a PR that race was. I can tell in subtle ways though. Despite my saying I wasn’t sore at all the day after the race I can feel my quads and shins hardcore now. Nothing “OW” inducing but enough that I would really like a massage. Preferably by a hot male.

Do I have to beg?! Hahahah
I can also tell because my runs in the days that followed have been pretty fast. Even with the muscle soreness. I know that seems a bit counter-intuitive but I’ve typically found that after a hard effort my subsequent runs are faster. Even if they don’t feel that way in the moment.
Here’s a rundown of my working out post-race
Monday was a run in the continued AMAZINGNESS that was post-hurricane Earl (if you could even call it a hurricane. Neither was it a tropical storm. Only heavy rain.) The weather truly felt like fall and the run felt good because of that. My legs weren’t feeling fresh (duh) but my pace was an 8:33 which kind of stunned me a bit just because I had RACED HARD the day before. I also biked today because there was no food in my house when I got back from NH so my brother and I biked to a sub shop to catch up and eat — I love how I’m a bit closer with my siblings now that I’ve moved out of my hometown! I suppose I also got in some “lifting” because I had to move some more furniture to take with me.
Tuesday found me back in RI and back on the pathway. Because of my work schedule I was able to “sleep in” and that was pleasant. I love waking up on my own, even if it’s still pre-0700, and feeling the covers engulf you. Of course I did eventually get up after laying there and was rewarded with sore quads and shins. Not that I didn’t see this coming because when I woke up on Monday I felt it too but man, I really thought about going back to bed! Like always, I’m glad I didn’t because I was rewarded with this run
- 1st loop: 4.1 miles @ 8:40
- 2nd loop: 4.1 miles @ 8:33
- Add-on: 1.1 miles @ 8:15
- Total: 9.3 miles @ 8:34
A great run for sure and it was really surprising to see such a fast first loop. I really did tell myself (out loud too!) that I wasn’t going to try and pass anyone and do racing a la Jess (which I know I’m just linking to her homepage but whenever I “race” someone I think of her!). Well I guess the competitive juices were flowing (or my beat – frequency theory from aways back was brought up) because I wanted to pass all those runners out there. Oops.
Wednesday was a weird start time (for a Wednesday) because there was a clinic (the 2nd Wednesday of every month has a women’s clinic and the 4th Monday has a men’s clinic in addition to the regular Tuesday / Thursday primary care ones) so I got to sleep in AGAIN. Hoooooooooooollllllllllllleeeeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. I woke up with an alarm though. It wasn’t obscenely early or anything (if fact it was the same time as Tuesday) and I was able to lay in bed for a bit before getting up. The shin soreness had subsided a bit but the quads still felt like I had lifted heavy!
I hit the pathway again with the following results
- 1st loop: 4.1 miles @ 9:01
- 2nd loop: 4.1 miles @ 8:30
- Add-on: 1.1 miles @ 8:15
- Total: 9.3 miles @ 8:42
The reason the second loop was so fast was because a thunderstorm kind of popped up out of the middle of nowhere! And, of course, it had to pop up when I was at the FURTHEST point from my apartment. Nothing like lighting overhead to make you haul ass. Interestingly enough when I first heard the thunder (and then saw the lightning) my first thought was “oh #$#@ I’m NOT going to be able to run faster”. And I actually didn’t feel like I was. But there’s got to be something said about survival mechanisms or something like that because I did run faster. The storm passed through really quickly (it went from sunny and happy to dark and scary and then back again in a matter of 20 minutes or so) and by the time I got back to my apartment I was able to tack on the extra Add-on.
So that’s the deal-io with my running post-race. I’m sure that running so many miles isn’t advisable. But when have I EVER done anything advisable. Seriously. I dare someone to say something and challenge that. I double dare ya 😉

Thank you google images
I just always feel good / fast the week after a race. I figure that my body will tell me to go slow when it needs to (it has never had a problem doing so in the past!)
Looking ahead though I think that I’m racing a 5k next weekend (aka not this upcoming one but the next) And, depending on schedules and which one I end up choosing, it might be with Lacey again (that girl is going to get SO sick of me hahahah). I’m hoping that I can trust my new strategy of GO OUT HARD AND HOLD ON to get another PR. I ran my first (and so far only) 5k around this time last year so it’ll be interesting to see how I’ve progressed in the past year. I’m planning on adding one legit speed-work session and some some quicker overall runs sometime between now and 10 days from now (YIKES) just because I know I clearly have endurance but I haven’t done anything purposely fast since my Boston training days.
The same goes for the Tufts 10k this year as well (which I just found out that my work is going to SPONSOR me to run. Maybe not sponsorship in the most technical definition of the word — because I don’t even know what that would be — and I would have run it anyway but now I just don’ t have to pay — always a good thing), which is more of a goal race than any 5k I’m going to do. I’m ready to smash some more PRs. This past weekend was extremely cloud-9-y and scary as well. But I’m ready to embrace it.
On a totally NOT running related note: a few weeks ago I won a giveaway from Jess (yup she gets double link love today and I also am 100% aware that I have about 3-4 reviews to do and post. Most of them are already written I just need to polish them! Oops.) Now this isn’t going to be a review per se but I wanted to share what I won and how cool it was.
It was also my very FIRST package at my new place. I had only been here for a few days and it was wonderful to get home from work and find this

And then when I opened it up:

Always a good thing to be told that. Not that it would have stopped me anyway 😀
Here’s some of the loot that was inside:

Coupons and chapstick and tea. OH MY 🙂

Recipes. Yum. Maybe now I’ll actually have to start baking.
So thanks Jess! And check out these other giveaways from ShutUpAndRun and Marcia. Or not because I want them 😛