Running and pancakes and yoga, oh my!

On New Year's day I rolled out of bed on about 5 1/2 hours of sleep and suited up for a 5K, the Frosty 5, with my friends Beka, Ed, Katie, and Liz. I had set a rather lofty goal time for myself, thinking that with all the mileage that I've been putting in lately and the time in which I ran my last 4-mile race, surely I could run this 5K at a minimum of under 27 minutes. What I discovered is that I need to focus more on my speedwork and actually run some hills in my training - clearly my two weaknesses. The first section of the race was going pretty well, I was maintaining a pace that would allow me to meet my goal time, and was feeling pretty good. Then we had to run up a fairly steep hill - and I nearly CRAWLED up that hill. My poor performance on the hill was the start of what I felt was a steady decline in my performance level through the race. On the other hand, it seems that running outside in ridiculously windy conditions has actually done me some good, as the parts of the race where we ran into a fairly steady south wind did not bother me at all. And, despite the fact that I didn't achive my goal time, I still ran this 5K faster than my last 5K by a minute.

My friends Ed and Beka were kind enough to join me for pancakes after the race at my favorite breakfast restaurant. Pancakes are by far my favorite post-run food. I try to mix it up by adding different things to my pancakes, though, and yesterday's choice was a combination of oatmeal and coconut. Sounds weird, but it was a winner and may be my new favorite combo.

By the time I got home, I was ready for a nap. But, I was still a little disappointed in my running performance, and still feeling the effects of too much good food on New Year's Eve, so I decided to go to yoga instead. For those of you out there who have never done yoga, I do NOT recommend doing yoga on a stomach full of pancakes. Luckily, as this was the first day of the year, we had a lot of new faces in class and my teacher made the class a little less intense than his normal holiday classes. I always really enjoy yoga class after a run, but it was especially nice yesterday because I felt like I was starting the New Year right by doing my two favorite physical activities, running and yoga.

My husband and I wrapped up the evening last night by spending some time with friends of his that are in town from DC and Chicago, along with some other friends of his that live in town that we don't necessarily see very often. I always like spending time with all of them, and it's pretty entertaining to hear the guys tell stories from high school about each other.

At the end of the day, it ended up being a very fulfilling New Year's Day for me. I got a PR in a 5K, had a yummy breakfast, relaxed in yoga, and got to spend time with my husband and with good friends. Happy 2009, everyone!