Isaac Dickson Hot Chocolate 10K

This past Saturday I ran my 1st 10K and the 2nd race of my running “career”.  It was awesome!!!  I totally hit my pace goal, and felt great during and afterwards.  My goal was to finish right at or just under 50 minutes, which equals right at about an 8 minute mile pace.  My “chip” finish time was 49:46 and I finished 154 out of 825 people!  I was also 27th out of 58 in my age group (male 30-34).  For me, this race was a real confidence booster.  I set a goal and nailed it.  I trained hard, but didn’t overdo it and got the results I wanted.  My Chi Running practices really paid off.  Even though I ran harder and for longer than any of my training runs, I still felt great after the race.  I really focused on my form and not only did the race seem to fly by, but it almost felt effortless!

This week I started my training for my next race which is in April.  It is the Morris Broadband Dupont 1/2 Marathon.  This half marathon will be my 3rd race and my second half marathon.  However, it will be my first trail race.  I’m super excited about it.  I plan on doing the same thing with my training….sticking with the plan and not overdoing it.  While training for my first 1/2 marathon, I made a lot of mistakes.  I ran hard every time and just overworked my system.  I paid for it with an injury and a bad race time.  My goal is to keep my 8 minute mile pace, but for the 1/2 marathon distance.  This will be a challenge because it is a trail race, and there are a lot of hills.  But I think I can do it.

In other news, my fitness goals are going great.  I’ve been very consistent with my strength training, and my weight loss is coming along great.  I’ve lost about 6lbs in 3 weeks and feel great.  I hope to be at my goal weight for the 1/2 marathon.  Over the next few weeks I plan on tracking not only my calories, but also my nutrients…meaning that I want to see how much protein, carbs, fat, sodium, etc. I’m consuming on a daily basis and adjust accordingly.

Well, that’s it for now.  I hope to post some more training tips next week.