9.29.11

Another benchmark we test on is the 5K, which is equivalent to 3.1 miles.

I have a fondness for 5Ks because a 5K was the first race I ever ran.  Years ago when I first started running recreationally, I had a dream that one day I would run in a real race...a 5K.

And now for a walk down memory lane...

My very first race was the Vacaville "Run the Lagoon" 5K, back in April of 2000.  My time was 27:37.  I loved it so much that 3 months later I ran another 5K, and another one 3 months after that.  I was hooked! After that I ran more 5Ks than I can count and moved on to 10Ks, half-marathons, a full marathon and triathlons.

I love 5Ks because they are fast and short.  The fastest 5K time I have recorded was 24:10 at Loop the Lagoon three years ago.  I even won a great Fleet Feet hat for placing in my age group!  I know I'm not a speed demon, but I love the possibility of placing in my age group in smaller races and the challenge of trying to beat my previous 5K times.

Ever since I started doing CrossFit, I pretty much stopped running.  I went from running 15-20 miles a week (up to 30-40 miles when training for a race) to just running whatever was programmed in the metcons.  

I'm trying to start up running a bit more and for the last few weeks I've been running once a week - mostly speed work.  Coming off a disappointing CrossFit Total experience, I was hoping to at least have a decent 5K time.

The morning I was planning to run, I woke up at 5:51 am, and did not feel good at all.  I had a headache and my stomach hurt, but I had no choice but to get my run in that day.

Pretty much throughout my whole run, I felt like I was going to throw up.  Not a good feeling.  However, when I finished running I was happy to have ran a 24:40 5K!

I was only 30 seconds slower than my best ever 5K, and that was with minimal running training, and feeling like I was going to have to find a bush to hurl in the whole time I was running.  I fully attribute that to CrossFit training (my decent 5K time, not the hurling part).  CrossFit works! :)