Cinco de Mayo 5K results posted

AAARRRRRGGGGHHH!!

I was ONE SECOND slower than my previous best time!

*sigh* All the "if onlies" come flooding in. Did I take too long at the water stand? Why couldn't I have been just... a little... faster...?

Still, great race and great time for me. I think this is going to be an awesome season, as long as I stay healthy.

And the next race up is the Lake Run. It will be fitting if I beat my personal best on the same course. That's what I'll tell myself.

Cinco de Mayo 5K

I'm so excited!

I think I ran my personal best 5K time today!

Up to now, my personal best was in the '04 Lake Run, where I turned in a 29:37 time.

My un-official time today, from starting line to finish line (in other words, not the gun time but my estimate of the chip time), according to my trusty Nike sports watch, is 29:21!

My nephew Max, who ran with me, ran a great race today, too. He stayed with me 'til well past mile 2, even though I was pushing the pace, and only finished about a minute behind me.

I saw my rock star friend Tom today, also, and he gave me encouragement when I streaked past him on the final straightaway up Front Ave... and then passed me at the mile 3 marker to finish ahead of me.

A fun, mostly flat course, and lots of participants. Red Hook beer and a breakfast burrito afterward. My dad got a picture of me crossing the finish line which I will post when I get a copy.

Can't wait for the official results!

Update:

I fixed the broken link to Max's website.

Freakin' freezing vs. earning it

I picked up my race packet for the 5K tomorrow. The t-shirt is cool - black, long-sleeved, nice bright yellow, red and green logo (¡Viva Mexico!) with red logos down the left arm.

The weather today was partly sunny, but a bit on the cool side. I was in short-sleeves and light pants, not even a jacket.

I went to see a movie (The Notorious Bettie Page with Gretchen Mol - rowr. More comments on my main site) and when I came out, it was pouring rain! I was so cold waiting for the bus.

Then I remembered my race shirt. But... I shouldn't wear it before the race. Should I? I had an ethical dilemma. I wouldn't wear a shirt for a race I haven't run, on the goofy theory that I have to earn the t-shirt. But I fully intend to run tomorrow... I simply haven't yet.

But it was cold and raining right now.

In the end, being freakin' freezing won out.

Uh-oh - painful heel injury

My right foot hurt all day today, from when I got up, to right now as I'm typing this at almost 9 PM. The pain starts in the heel, actually near the achilles tendon, and runs forward under my heel to the arch.

And, now that I think about it, it hurt right when I started running yesterday. I had to cross SE 17th, which is a busy street, during rush hour, and I took off quickly and came down a bit hard on the heel. But once I got moving, as I reported yesterday, it warmed up and felt fine.

Not so today, however. I kept stretching it when I could, but my morning was spent in a boring project management presentation, so I had to sit there for four hours straight. That might sound good for a painful foot, but actually I'd rather be moving around, flexing the foot, putting weight on it, and warming it up. However, sadly, no.

I'm icing it now, and once I'm done with the icing I'm going to put it in a tub of warm water and Epsom salts, and then maybe some icing again and then warm water and Epsom salts. I have got to be 100% for the race this weekend, and, y'know, for the rest of the year.

Not that I'm obsessed or anything.

Hillwork, ugh

Hillwork is not something I look forward to. However I planned it, and even though the negative voice inside said it was too hard and I shouldn't risk injury and gave me all sorts of excuses not to do it, I did do it.

1+ mile to warm up and cool down afterward, running to and from the hill I planned on conquering - four times. It's a fairly steep hill, and Google Earth tells me that the distance is about 320 yards, or 0.18 miles on direction. If I had measured it in advance I would have made it an even 0.25 miles or an even 400 yards just for consistency with general track and field... oh, well.

The plan was to run up it at a comfortable pace, jog or walk back down, and then try in each subsequent time to equal or beat my previous time. Since I haven't done a drill like this in a while I figured four total times would be sufficient, even though that seemed almost impossible to my negative voice inside.

I did time each run up, but didn't save them. I know that my first run up was around 2:10, and my last run up was about 1:44, which felt like a decent improvement. The idea was more about challenging myself during the run, rather than earn bragging rights about being a speed demon afterward. I'm not a speed demon, but this is different enough from what I normally do that I feel it breaks up the routine nicely.

Oh, and the weather was absolutely perfect for running, maybe even a little too warm once I got moving (the high was 72 degrees F). But considering I did this during the warmest part of the day that's to be expected. I was well hydrated and stretched out well before and after the hill drill.

That's a total of about 3.7-3.8 miles today. This feels like such a light week with only about 10-11 total miles, but after last week's over 20 miles maybe I do need to back off a bit. Or is that just the negative voice talking? Can't tell.

Now I'll be taking Friday and Saturday off before the Cinco de Mayo 5K on Sunday. Arriba!

4.0 mile run

Ran my 4-mile loop tonight. Weather was gorgeous and perfect: 69 degrees, no wind, blue sky. Wore a sleeveless shirt and shorts and sunglasses. Had to start just a bit too fast because of traffic, and I left the house without any specific goal in mind, but within the first couple of minutes I decided I would aim for negative splits. In other words, I would aim for each segment (in this case, each mile) to be slightly faster than the previous one. In particular I wanted to have a really great time for the very last mile. I don't like having really slow times on the last mile.

First mile, I had to force myself to slow down, which might not be good because it's the one that's mostly downhill. My right foot was bothering me (plantar fasciitis) but it soon warmed up after I focused on my pronation. I hit the mile mark in around 10:10. So far so good.

Second mile had the steepest uphill section, and also featured clouds of gnats lurking in the darkness under the trees. I caught a mouthful of them, but I'm no frog. I spit them out. I hit the 2 mile mark in 10:16 or so. Not as good. I aimed to try harder for the rest of the loop.

Third mile was mildly downhill in the first half and nearly flat for the rest of the way. I was huffing and puffing and pushing myself, but I tried to breathe easy (I tend to restrict my breathing, so I've been trying to relax and let the air flow in and out more naturally) and think about my running form. I did have to stop briefly (less than 5 seconds) for traffic. I reached the water fountain which is the finish line in 9:45. Excellent! I did stop for water but didn't take note of how long. I estimate only 10-15 seconds.

Fourth mile... should have been my strongest, but I walked at least three times, cursing myself each time. This section includes having to cross SE Tacoma Street which is a busy street but that could not have added more than a few seconds to my time. Once past Tacoma I pushed hard, and within two blocks I broke into a full run, which prompted a little girl to say to her mom "he's running!" and must have looked funny, but I hit the finish line at 9:54. Considering the stop for water and the several times I walked, I honestly expected to have done worse, and am pleased with my time.

My second half, including the walking and stops for water and traffic, averaged about 9:50, about 23 seconds faster per mile than my first half. I think that was a good training run, and it will set up my speedwork on Thursday quite nicely.

Weight and sinus update

In addition to my running, I've been dieting, too. Cutting back on calories - I allow myself 2000 or less every day. I do not take into account the calories I burn running. I've been losing about 1.5 lb a week since I cut back to this level, sometime in March. It's a good, safe, healthy weight loss. When I started keeping track again I weighed in at 203 lb. Ugh.

This morning I weighed in at 188.5. Better but I'm thinking another 15-20 lb would be even better-er.

I weigh in every morning but the most important number isn't the daily weight - that can fluctuate depending on how much water or food is or isn't in my system. What I do is take the last 7 days and average those numbers. As long as the rolling average is going down I know I'm on the right track. This morning my average dropped another 0.2 lb, to 189.4. I got this idea from The Hacker's Diet, which is available in its entirety online.

In my mind, being thinner will make me a faster runner. But I've got to admit it to myself; I don't think it's weight that's slowing me down. Nor is it the strength of my legs. It's my lungs.

If I could breathe easier, if I didn't have to deal with allergies - I'm sure I could run faster and longer. It's one thing I can't entirely control and something I can't really correct at this late stage.

However... in addition to the Sudafed and Claritin I take all the freakin' time to help clear up my sinuses and breathing passages, I've started something new.

Introducing the neti pot. I thought it was some crackpot pseudo-scientific homeopathic garbage when I first heard about it. And, y'know, it just might be.

Basically it's a container that fits comfortably into the nostril. Yes, the nostril. And it's used to pour warm, slightly salty water in one nostril so that it fills up the sinuses and runs out the other nostril.

Sounds icky, huh? It is, kinda. Sometimes. But it also loosens up any clogs or obstructions in there, it's supposed to help with chronic sinusitis, and once I got used to it it actually feels kinda good. Like flossing, only, y'know, in my nose.

It's helped a little bit - this is normally the season when I'd be dying of allergies. And I still get a runny nose now, worse in the mornings when all the plants are first pollinating, spraying their sexy particles into the air everywhere, but it hasn't been as bad. Could be psychosomatic, might be the nasal enemas. Hard to tell. But it's a cheap solution and doesn't really hurt so I'll keep trying it.

I'm not sure how I, by myself, could test it out but if I think of anything I'll let y'all know.

Long run - 7.0 miles

I ran my long run for the week, just as I planned.

The route was brand-new to me, even though I'd mapped it out last year. I hadn't ever run it. In addition to adding a half-mile to my next-shortest neighborhood run, it also added a new hill, going east on SE Woodstock past Reed College, up to 39th Ave.

Ugh.

Because I haven't run this far in months and months, and because of the hill, and because completing this run would put me at 20 miles total for the week, and because it was warm and windy, and, well, frankly, just because, I wasn't too worried about total time. I mean, I was worried about it but couldn't do much about it. I rationalized it by reminding myself that I'm just setting a time to beat next time I run this far or farther.

I probably should have fueled up better before the run - I had a small, ~500 calorie breakfast around 10:00 AM, then nothing but water until I was ready to run around 1:00 PM. Probably not a good idea to go out on that few calories. I did take along some Cliff Shot Blokz (Black Cherry) for refueling, and that likely kept me from collapsing too badly.

Did I mention the wind? The weather today was in the upper 60s, which would seem to be perfect. However, I've read that internal temperature during a run goes up by about 20 degrees, which meant that during the last half of the run it felt like it was in the upper 80s to me. Also, the wind - damned if it didn't feel as though it was against me the entire way.

At any rate, it's a nice loop, sidewalks or paths the entire way, with some shade and some nice views. And I finished it. That's the main thing.

Short run - 3.5 miles

Ran this afternoon. Needed the exercise to clear my head.

Weather was almost perfect - mid 60s, sunny, just a bit too windy though.

Wore the usual: Brooks, shorts, sleeveless shirt, sunglasses. No music, not in my neighborhood.

Ran my 3.5 mile loop. Did a half-mile more than I planned earlier in the week because my Monday run (which I did not blog) was so suck-y and I wanted to make up for it without increasing my planned long run.

I flew the first mile - did about a 9:42 pace. Shouldn't have gone out so fast but it was hard not to move.

I had to stop for traffic briefly at SE Milwaukie and Bybee, but it was less than 5 seconds.

I did stop to walk for about 60 seconds when I entered Westmoreland Park, and again at the 3.0 mile mark, which felt bad but I blame the fast start. Need to reserve that speed for the end, not the beginning.

Hit the 3.5 mile point in 34:51, giving me an average pace of 9:57. Good for a training run when I wasn't planning on going very fast.

Coming up - 7.0 mile run on Sunday. I know my plan was to do the long run on Saturday but I'm going to shift it by a day. The only run that will cut out is my optional run next Friday.

Terwiliger Blvd. - 6 miles

Ran up Terwilliger Blvd. tonight after work.

All day long I'd been looking forward to running. Today was a beautiful, almost summer-like day. Warm, blue sky, just a little bit of wind to take the edge off. I tried to spend as much time outside as possible during work hours.

I changed at the gym (Brooks, shorts, short-sleeved shirt, sunglasses) and headed out about 5 PM. Started running at Mill St. Tried not to worry about how slow I felt. Only had to walk once and stopped once on the way up for water at SW Hamilton and Terwilliger.

Time on the way up was 0:33:59 to the totem pole at The Charthouse, 2.97 miles per Google Earth, making my pace up about 11:26. Ugh. Slow. I did have to stop a couple of times at the bottom for traffic but not enough to make that a lot better. Still, it's a hard run, very steep.

I took a minute to walk until my breathing returned to normal, and I noticed that if I continued past The Charthouse there's a water fountain there. I'll keep that in mind for next time, but I really like the view from the totem pole so I'll probably keep it as my "finish line" for this run.

Time on the way down was 29:52 - pace wise making it a 10:03. Total time 1:03:51 for an average pace of 10:45. Did I mention the very steep hill? And the traffic? And the extra minute walking at the top? And the stopping twice to get water, once up and once down? And all the cute girls in shorts and running gear distracting me?

OK, maybe those girls didn't slow me down.

Tonight my legs are stiff and hard to move. I did stretch out a bit at the gym but I didn't spend much time at it - it was pretty perfunctory. I walked about a mile tonight; I got off the bus early and walked home, still wanting to enjoy the amazing spring weather.

Next up is a short run on Friday.

Looking ahead

I just realized that, if I increase my long run by a mile per month, by September I'll be running 12 miles on my long run.

If I'm that close, I might as well be aiming for a half-marathon by October.

Sadly, they do not have a half-marathon concurrently with the Portland Marathon. That would be perfect - it's on October 1st this year.

In September, there is the Champoeg Half-marathon on the 10th... or the Maui Marathon and Half-marathon on the 17th... *sigh*.

The only half-marathon that's local in October looks to be the Run Like Hell. Might be an option if I don't want to travel.

Plenty of time to plan.

Training Plan this week

Looks like I've got two weeks until my next race (the Cinco de Mayo 5K on April 30th) so here's my plan until then.

I will keep alternating shorter (3.0-4.0 miles) runs with longer runs (5.0-6.0+), with one "quality" run of either hillwork or speedwork. This week, hillwork; next week, speedwork.

My long run has been 5.0-6.0 miles for about a month now, so I'm going to increase that this week to a full 7.0 miles. I will back that off to 6.0 or 6.5 miles next week.

So the next two weeks should look like this:

Week 1

• Mon: 4.0 miles
  
• Tues: Rest
  
• Wed: Hill work (Terwilliger?)
  
• Thur: Rest
  
• Fri: 3.0 miles
  
• Sat: Long run - 7.0 miles
  
• Sun: Rest

Week 2

• Mon: 4.0 miles
  
• Tues: Rest
  
• Wed: Speedwork 3.0 miles
  
• Thur: Rest
  
• Fri: 3.0 miles or rest
  
• Sat: Rest
  
• Sun: Cinco de Mayo 5K race

Running with the Wolves - Results Posted

The results for the Running with the Wolves have been posted.

My official chip time was 1:03:16, for a 10:11 pace. I placed 77 out of 89 over all, and dead last in my age division, and dead last for all men.

Gotta work on that...

Running with the Wolves... in the RAIN

I've known for a couple of days now that it was entirely likely that I would be running in the 10K this weekend in the rain. Sure enough, this morning dawned (barely) gray and rain-soaked.

Still, I couldn't back out of this race. Since I'm dieting lately, and my "reward" for running in a race is to earn a day where I don't have to count calories at all, with Easter tomorrow, I needed a free day. Being atheist, Easter is just an excuse to hang out with my family, eat lots of candy and food, and drink. I'd rather not have to worry about keeping track of portions and calories, especially since the emphasis is on drinking.

Today I had a secret weapon in this race. At the Race for the Roses last week, the folks from Cliff, makers of the most delicious energy bar ever, were demoing other products. One of them is an energy gel called Shot Bloks. I've never eaten an energy gel, or anything at all, during a run, and I mentioned this to the booth babe. I've assumed that energy gels were for races or runs much longer than an hour.

The booth babe disagreed and said that eating one or two of these Cliff Shot Bloks between 4 and 5 miles into a 10K would give me an energy boost and help me finish strong. The Bloks are tasty, in fruit flavors, but chewy. Definitely need water to wash one down. I decided to give them a try in this race.

I packed three Cran-Raspberry Bloks along with me on the race. I picked the flavor that advertised having caffeine in it. I wore my Pearl Izumi long pants, short sleeved shirt with a long-sleeved pullover, um, over, and my trusty Brooks Adrenaline GTS6s. Baseball cap. No music.

There were still quite a few people there for the race, about evenly divided between those for the 5K and those for the 10K. I warmed up by running around the parking lot. I was dismayed that I'd forgotten my watch so couldn't keep track of my splits. My goal for this race was just to finish, push a bit, and use this time as a baseline time as the season progressed. I've been doing about a 10:00 - 10:30 pace in training so assumed I would be about the same. Would the Shot Bloks help me? Would the rain and wind hurt me? Would they average out? So many questions.

Not surprisingly the first half went pretty well. I worried that I was the very last person after the 3-mile mark, but kept looking back and seeing one or two other runners behind me.

Most of the course ran through Tualatin neighborhoods. I tried to thank every volunteer I saw. Several times residents were watching and cheering racers on, which was nice.

The water station was at the 4-mile mark. Since I knew I needed water for the Bloks, I stopped briefly to chew down two and wash it down. I didn't notice any stomach upset, and did feel a quick surge of energy a minute or two after eating them. Was it psychological or actual, though?

I still had to stop briefly a couple of times on the last full mile. The final stretch runs along SW Boones Ferry Road. Tualatin has installed a reader board that shows the speed of oncoming traffic, and I was amused to see that it actually could "see" me when no other traffic was in the lane. It showed a speed bouncing between 6 and 7 miles - 6 MPH being exactly a 10:00 pace. I tried to push a little bit harder as I turned into the high school parking lot. I felt tired and hungry but tried to keep going. I had to stop once more. The absolute final section ran 3/4 around the track and then into the finish line. Still very hungry, I pushed to a full run for about the last 100 meters. I spotted 1:03:21 on the clock as I passed over the finish line (it was chip-timed so I might have finished a few seconds faster) and the announcer called out my name. That calculates to a 10:11 pace or so.

I'll post the official results when they're up but I'm satisfied with my performance for the most part. I think 4 miles is too early to eat something, or maybe I should have saved one for the final mile? It's all new to me so I'll experiment and see what works for me.

One more thing tonight

I just wanted to add that I'm really really glad it didn't start raining until after I was done running.

I'm especially glad that it started raining just as I was getting home, and getting ready to work on my site(s).

Rain encourages me to stay inside, not go out for a walk down to the corner bar, or out to get a delicious bear claw or apple fritter from Foster's Market two blocks away, or down to Twin Paradox for a delicious soy vanilla chai even though they have free WiFi and I could in theory work on my sites from there.

So it's helping with my diet. Thanks, rain!

On the other hand, the white noise of rain, with the occasional hiss of traffic going up and down my street, is lulling me to sleep. Bad, bad rain!

I live in a world of black and white. Literally - black and white. Both of them at the same time. No greys. Or grays, even.

Speedwork

Tonight, as previously noted, I planned on doing speedwork. I had a vague idea of what I wanted to do but hadn't finalized.

I had packed my Fila racing flats, so that set some limitations. First, it meant I shouldn't try to run more than 3 miles. 2 would probably be better. That was because I am still getting used to them. Second, it meant that I should be running somewhere soft - treadmill, track, grass or dirt. Not on the street.

My vague idea was to do some kind of repeats - I was thinking of 400 meter fast sections, repeated four times.

After I got out of work, I could see that it was cloudy but warm, which meant I wanted to run outside. Treadmill is fine for colder weather, or rainy weather, but I love the feeling of running outside. It's a strong motivator for me. That narrowed my choices down to a track, grass or dirt.

I knew I could try the track at Duniway Park... except I was feeling self-conscious. I know it's track season, so there were likely to be a lot of actual good runners practicing at the track. The story would be the same at any other track I could get to, like the one at Milwaukie High School. I know, it's a dumb reason not to go.

That left running on the grass in Waterfront Park. That was good enough for me. Since I didn't have any measured distance to run to, I chose a measured time - I would run hard for 2:30, then walk or jog until I was rested or 5:00, whichever came first. And I would repeat this four times.

Since I was changing at my gym, a jog to and from the park would warm me up - which would be about 5 minutes' worth each way. Perfect.

And - I did it. My shoes didn't work perfectly on the uneven lawn but it was still better than pounding pavement. And I still got a small sore spot on my right achilles tendon, even though I wore higher socks to protect from blisters. Still getting used to the shoes, I guess. I'll have to figure something out.

But the actual running felt good. It was medium-hard - not too hard, not to easy. By the fourth one I was tired but still had something left, just as I've read I should feel. Oh, and my negative inner voice was talking to me the entire time, telling me to stop, telling me I didn't have to do all four of these, and generally harassing me and trying to keep me from doing this. However, I did it, I did it well, and I'm proud of my work tonight.

I stretched back at the gym. Then had dinner - an Almost Jumbo Chicken burrito at Taco del Mar. Yum.

Next up - the 10K in Tualatin on Saturday.

Running with the Wolves

I did, in fact, sign up to run in the Running with the Wolves 10K on Saturday.

Yeah, the proceeds are going to support a drug- and alcohol-free prom night or somethin', and normally I can't get behind that. Mainly I just want to run a chip-timed 10K soon to give me a sense of where I'm at. I think I could actually manage a sub-10:00 pace but want to put it to the test.

Long slow run

My first run of the week was a long run through my neighborhood and into Brooklyn, then back along the Springwater Trail. From my starting point (SE 19th and Linn St.) to my finish line (SE 11th and Linn St.) it's 6.02 miles, as measured in Google Earth, which totally rocks, by the way.

I wore shorts and short-sleeved shirt, and my beloved Brooks Adrenaline GTS6's. No musical accompaniment.

A week ago, when I last ran this loop, the city of Portland had not turned on the water fountains along the route - there's one on the north end of Westmoreland Park (just over a mile along my loop), one in the parking lot for the Rhododendron Gardens (which is about the 2 mile mark), and one at the north entrance to Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge (just before the 4 mile mark). Last week I was cursing the lack of water along the way. This week, I could tell as I approached the first fountain that it was working - there was a puddle on the ground in front of it! Sweet, blessed water... Ahhh.

My plan was to warm up for the first 2 miles (between a 10 and 11 minute pace), then toss in one or two 4 minute "pushes" during the second two miles, then again make with the slow on the final 2 miles. And I pretty much made it to the first "push" right as I planned - the stretch after the Rhododendron Garden water fountain is mostly soft gravel, and flat, so it's perfect.

However, the next section is down, then up, then down, then up some short but steepish hills, along Holgate Blvd, which put a kink into my "pushing the pace" plan. So I just tried to maintain my normal pace up and down those hills, which is plenty hard enough. Once I got to the top of Holgate, where it meets Milwaukie Ave., I did push myself along Milwaukie until I got to the next water fountain, but that was only about 2 minutes' worth.

Entering Oaks Bottom is a steep downhill, and while I was running down it, an old scruffy-looking guy on a beat-up bicycle carring a plastic bag of empty cans was cycling up the path at the same time. When he saw me running, he shook his head and said, in a deep voice, "No running. No hurry. Not going to hurry." Which seemed funny at the time.

Had to stop once or twice because my socks had bunched up in my right shoe, or there was a rock or something in it, and it was totally bugging me. I never did get it straightened out because I didn't want to stop long enough to actually take the shoe off and mess with my sock, so I just ignored it. I only had two more miles to go. And today, no blister. So I lucked out.

Once on the actual Springwater Trail, I tried to a) keep running no matter what, and b) say hello to everyone I saw. First cute girl I saw completely ignored me. And the most I can usually get from guys is a head nod or chin point, and I'm OK with that.

Just as I'm struggling along, huffing and puffing, shuffling my feet, a pretty brunette in blue shorts and blue t-shirt ran by, with a large black dog on a leash. I'm a little surprised, and surprise myself when I say "hi!" to her as she goes by. She smiles and says "hi" back. She's just a few steps in front of me, and since she's going faster than me she's going to be gone in a minute. So I take a deep breath and try to speak loudly enough (I'm usually pretty soft-spoken so it takes extra effort to speak up) and manage to get out, "Man, I wish I had a dog to pull me along!"

She laughs over her shoulder and says, "Yeah, he's a good companion. And he's not really working that hard, either!" And I can see that that's true - she's running maybe an 8:00 - 8:30 pace (I'm totally guessing but I was only going about a 10:00 pace at best), but the dog is walking. Maybe a trot. Not much effort at all. Is it because he's got four legs to our two? Sure, his tongue was hanging out but dogs do that when they're sitting still. Anyway, it was nice to make a complete stranger laugh.

I marked my distance at the one-hour mark - I reached 5.73 miles in about 1 hour and one minute (don't have my watch with me at the moment), and I reached the 6.02 mile finish line in 1:03:19, giving me a final pace of 10:31. Not bad, I did have to stop to walk a couple of times, and I stopped for water three times. I'm happy with that pace for a training run.

Next up: some speedwork of some kind on Thursday, and I may or may not (probably may) do the Run with the Wolves 10K in Tualitin on Saturday. I did the 5K last year, but I've decided to attempt at least one 5K and one 10K every month this year, hopefully working up to a half-marathon or even the Hood to Coast in late summer. Time will tell.