We did an Alaskan cruise 8 years ago and loved it. I hope that you feel better soon and that your knee doesn't give you anymore problems. I'm sure you'll do awesome on your 5k!!
Sorry to hear you were sick on vacation
Recapping my week a day early as I'm fixing to head to NYC for a few days for a work conference. Right now, the forecast for that day is for a high of 98 with a chance of thunderstorms. The plan is to hydrate, a lot 
, and give it my best shot!
Took a lot of convincing to get him out of bed this morning. He wanted to sleep in!
Glad you're feeling better!
I can sympathize, it's SO hard to drop the pup off at doggie daycare.
YES. We miss the dog so much it's changed how we vacation (as in, we take shorter vacations now). We have issues.
in my opinion, running around the deck of a cruise ship is INCREDIBLY boring. I tried it on the Fantasy last year and thought I was gonna lose my mind.
So I opted for sleeping an extra 45 minutes instead and planned to complete the run after the conference. Then, when I walked out of the conference, there was a huge thunderstorm (definitely not in the forecast). By the time the storms finished, I had lost all motivation to run. To make myself feel better, I ordered takeout from my favorite sushi place. Peanut avocado roll, I could eat you every day. 
I was no longer surrounded by cross-country so I figured I was probably in a better place.
Week of 7/18 - 7/14
A semi-eventful week. Spent the first half of the week in NYC for a work conference which ended up throwing off my training plans even more than anticipated. Also, it was a race week! And the temperatures were approaching the surface of the sun.
Monday: Rest
I planned to get up early this morning and run a 3 mile run before my conference. But it was my first night in the hotel (which was in Times Square - yuck!) and I slept terribly. Tourists in the hallway kept me up with shouting until midnight and then I woke up at 3 am and couldn't fall back asleep for the longest time.
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Tuesday: 4.X miles/35:00
Initially, I had planned to do my NYC runs in the hotel gym but the hotel was so crazy and chaotic that I didn't even want to deal with it. So I headed to Central Park to attempt a 35 minute tempo run. I've never done a tempo run outside before and I didn't have my Garmin with me (because I thought I'd be on a treadmill) so I had to rely on the not-super-accurate mapmyrun app on my phone. The plan was for 10 minutes easy run, 20 minutes tempo, and 5 minutes easy. Weaving around tons of tourists definitely kept my pace in check for the first 7 or 8 minutes or so. I think the app overstates distances so I can't really rely on the splits it provided but I definitely did the middle 20 minutes at a much harder effort than the first 10 or last 5, so I suppose I accomplished the objective of the run. The app said the total run was 4.18 miles but I think, based on the distance I traveled around the edge of the park, that it was probably closer to 4 miles.
Wednesday: 40 minutes cross-training
Before heading to the last morning of my conference and my train ride home, I woke up extra early for my very favorite NYC souvenir: bagels! Bagels are better in NYC, they just are. I make a cross-town walk to one of my favorite bagel shops to stock up on a baker's dozen to bring home a freeze. The walk was about 20 minutes each way, so conveniently achieved the 40 minutes of cross-training I had on the schedule.
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So happy to get home and pick this guy up! He smelled like flowers from his bath at doggie daycare!
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Thursday: 3.5 miles/30:46
Resumed my regular routine with a run on the treadmill at work. Nothing too exciting here.
Friday: 2 miles/19:22
I had originally planned this as a rest day since I had a race the next day but I was also wanting to make up the run that I missed on Monday. As a compromise with myself, I ran 2 miles instead of 3 and kept the pace slower than I would have otherwise.
Saturday: Twilighter 5K/24:43
Race day! I had signed up for this race with the intention of trying for a new 5K PR since mine is 3+ years old. Why I thought I could achieve that with a race in July, I don't know. The forecast for the day was for a high temperature at or near 100 degrees! The race was at 8:30 PM (hence the name Twilighter) so it wouldn't be max heat but was still forecasted to be about 90.
I picked up my packet in the morning at the local running store that was putting on the race, went to the grocery store and did a few other small errands, and then tried to get off my feet for a few hours in the afternoon. I had never run a race at night before, so I wasn't totally sure how to approach it. I made a fairly simple dinner of pasta with zucchini, sun dried tomatoes, and fresh mozzarella. I ate at a little after 5 pm hoping that would give me enough time to digest. I also drank a ton of water all day. We left my apartment at about 7 pm (my mom happened to be in town, so she came with me) for the short metro ride to the race location. The race was in Crystal City, which is an area of northern Virginia not far from DC and National Airport. There was an underground mall with a number of restaurants right by the start line which meant real bathrooms! I got there around 7:30, used the bathroom, then walked my mom to a nearby hotel to wait while I raced (it was too hot for her to stand around outside). I used the bathroom (real bathrooms!) again and headed over to the start area around 8:10/8:15.
Pre-race pic courtesy of mom (They handed out glow sticks to wear during the race. I was worried it might bug me while I ran but it didn't):
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After wandering around for a few minutes, getting my picture taken in front of a race backdrop (official photos aren't up yet), and drinking a few small cups of water, they called for everyone to line up. I made my way to the starting area about 50 feet or so back from the start line but as people filed in for some reasons they weren't heading all the way up to the front, so there were only about maybe 5 rows of people in front of me. I had assumed that the really speedy folks would head right up to the line. At any rate, I realized that I was surrounded by a bunch of high school cross-country runners (this is a big warmup race for cross-country, I think) who were discussing their race plan. When they said that they were planning to run the first mile "easy" at 7:00/mile pace, I knew I was in the wrong place. So I scooted my way out and moved back about 15 or 20 feet and then wedged my way back into the crowd. A few minutes later, before the race start, everybody shifted forward. So I don't know what the deal was with everybody staying back before.
Meanwhile just standing at the starting line all crowded together, I was already breaking a sweat. The temperature at start time ended up being 93 with a heat index of 99! Luckily no sun beating down, though, since it was now after sunset.
Initially (before I knew about the temperatures), I had set the following goals for the race:
"A" goal - 23:50, 30 seconds faster than my PR
"B" goal - 24:20, my PR, set at a small 5K in the spring of 2013 (also my only ever age group win!)
"C" goal - 25:35, the pace I've been running my pace runs for the past couple months
With the temperature being so high, I didn't really know what to expect. I figured that my "A" and "B" goals were probably not attainable but thought I could still aim for the "C" goal. Ultimately, I decided to just go for it at A/B pace and if I couldn't maintain it, so be it.
The gun went off at 8:30 pm and everybody around me set off slowly. Like, very slowly. Part of the problem, I think, was that the course was narrow at the start, basically one lane of traffic. But I also think that the people around me just weren't planning to run all that fast. Which is fine, but they should have started much further back. If it had been a longer race, I probably wouldn't have worried about it too much, but with a 5K I didn't have the luxury to make up the time later. So I ended up doing a lot of weaving around and took some turns very wide just to try to break out of the crowds. It was a quarter of a mile before I could start to speed up and almost half a mile before I felt like I could settle in and just run. In the end, my Garmin said my total distance was 3.2 miles. So I added an extra 0.1 mile, which is about what I usually add in a 10 mile race. Oops.
Once up to speed, I felt pretty good. Passed the first mile marker with an 8:01 split. Mile 2, I sped it up some and was actually feeling really strong and great. Late in the second mile, there was a fire truck set up with its hose shooting water high up in the air so that it would rain down on the course. It felt amazing to run through! Just before the 2 mile mark was the one water stop on the course. I normally don't bother with water stops in a 5K but with the heat, I decided that I should. I debated about it for too long, though, and ended up with a cup of Gatorade instead of water. Took a couple little sips and dumped the rest. They were also handing out cold sponges just past the water stop, which felt amazing! After the water stop was a turnaround and then the mile 2 marker. Mile 2 done in 7:51.
Shortly after the Mile 2 marker, I started to feel fatigued. My pace slowed some, and I started counting down the number of minutes I had left to run. I wasn't feeling terrible but I knew I didn't have it in me to hold a sub-8:00 pace. By this point it had gotten fully dark but there were street lights keeping the course pretty well lit and the ground was sprinkled with discarded glow necklaces. As I neared the mile 3 mark, I realized that nobody had passed me that final mile and I was still picking off people in front of me, so I was pretty happy about that! Mile 3 split was 8:08.
The finish line came into sight and I dug deep to try and finish strong. I didn't feel like I had a ton left in me, so I was surprised to see later that I ran the last 0.1 at 6:48 pace! Pretty good, though I did get passed by two people in the last 20 feet or so.
Results:
24:43 (7:58/mile pace)
356 out of 1360 overall
94 out of 687 women
20 out of 146 age group
Overall, I'm really happy with my performance given the conditions. I felt really strong during the race. I regret letting the cross-country runners intimidate me, though. If I had stayed were I was, I probably would have had a better start and avoided all that weaving. Would that have been enough to get me a PR? I don't know. I think probably not. I might have just tired out sooner. I'm definitely looking to add another 5K to my race calendar in the fall (something I hadn't really planned to do) because I KNOW I have that PR in me!
Sunday: Rest
Well earned rest day. Not really sore from the race. Ate all the things for brunch!
Great race write-up! That's an awesome finish time (hot weather or not.) Figuring out where to be in the corrals is such a tricky thing and unless you are an elite front line person or a "walking with a stroller" back of the crowd person, it's really hard to figure it out.
Good luck on your next PR attempt
so I didn't get started quite as early as I had hoped but still managed to get the run in before it got totally unbearable. My first goal for my long runs is to complete the planned mileage. My second goal is to run about 45-60 slower per mile than my target half marathon race pace of 8:15-8:20. So looking to keep the run in the 9:00-9:20/mile range if possible. The first 5 miles were in the 9:01-9:05 range. By the end of mile 5, I was starting to get tired and slowed up a bit but still averaged the last two miles at about 9:17. So both goals met! Woohoo!
Well done on your long run and hitting your desired pace!
Love the doggie play time shot too.
Tetanus shots are the worst for sore arms.
Yay! Pug party.
As opposed to the fact that I'm just getting older! And a series of shots? ::shudder:: Glad they don't seem to be hurting too much!
I tried to get an early-ish start (especially considering my overall Olympics-induced sleep deprivation) but it was already pretty toasty. I ran the first 2 miles *slightly* too fast but reigned it in for the second two to finish right on target overall. It felt a little hard adding the extra mile in, especially with the heat, but not too terrible.
