First Race Postpartum: Todd's Trot 5K

My first race is in 5 days! Every time I think about it I get a nervous swell of adrenaline in my belly. I'm excited because I feel prepared to do well. At least well for 6 months postpartum, I don't think I'll be PRing. I haven't set any time goals...well, sort of. In my head I have a time but I don't want to share it. Even just saying that "I feel prepared to do well" makes me nervous. I do best in races when I don't over think them and run by feel. Like my last marathon when I went in thinking I wasn't going to finish and ended up PRing. But I do feel a level of confidence, especially after last weeks speed workout. Last Wednesday I ran 10x400 on a relatively flat section of road and these were my splits:

1:39 1:43 1:43 1:41 1:40 1:44 1:42 1:39 1:37 1:33 400m recovery jog between each interval pace ranged from 9:53-10:24

I was especially pleased that I was able to drop the pace on the last three repeats. That shows me that my pacing is better than it has been in the past. I was able to dig up some old times from a similar workout I ran back in the summer of 2011 on the track (the summer I PR'd in all distances).

1:34 1:41 1:43 1:44 1:45 1:43 1:46 1:46

Notice how I got progressively SLOWER? Not the way you should run repeats on the track.

I thought these workouts made for an interesting comparison. I'm not sure how indicative it will be of my performance on Saturday. I'm trying to remain neutral about it.

Race Plan: Like I said I run best when I run relaxed, but on Saturday I want to wear my Garmin (I've never worn a Garmin in a race before...I didn't own a Garmin 'till a couple months ago). The purpose of wearing the Garmin is twofold: to be able to look back at the race and critique it and to keep from going out too fast But I think its important that I run the first mile by feel. I need to go out relaxed. If I'm over ambitious with my time goal, then I'll run the first mile too fast and crap-out at the end. So I want to run the first mile fast, but controlled and then go from there.

I plan on doing a few short runs and some strides this week to get ready. Come race day I'm hoping to go hard and leave it all out there. We'll see what happens!

How do you approach your first race after a long break? Are you good at pacing in races? What was the smartest race you ever ran?

--Sarah