Day 84 – Race Day

I regularly compete in trail running events where the terrain is varied and off road. I enjoy the change from road racing and the challenge of tree braches in your face, rocks on the paths and steep hills both up and down. I also like that the races usually involve kids with a short pre-race for them.

Today was the first one in the season for me and I wanted to compare it to how I did last year. I felt that I wouldn’t do quite as well since I haven’t been training much outside the PCP and it was not a physical or emotional focus for me.

I was surprised that I held my own on the course and the hills did not pose much of a problem due to the strength I gained in my upper legs and gluts from PCP. On the last hill, I felt quite winded but recovered quickly to finish the race strong.

I compared my time to the last year and found I beat the previous by two minutes even though in this event they increase the distance by about ½ kilometer. So, without as much running training, the PCP got me into really good shape for this race.

I am sure that my weight being down by twenty odd pounds, muscle condition and strength at my best level since university and a sense of euphoric self pride all helped to get me to the finish line faster.

After the race, I was famished and had a quarter whole-wheat bagel, a banana and some oranges. For the last few weeks, I haven’t been eating much fruit and have been seriously craving sweets. When I had the orange It satisfied a craving and I will have some this week when the need arises. For the last few days I’ve been craving pop, candies, almost anything sweet and for the most part I’ve been good but I’ve got to get back to fruit!

So there you have it, the PCP will likely help you finish a short race faster and you don’t even have to spend much time training for it.

I even did my rope jumps and training today, which really got me in the mood to race and I felt that there was no impact on my time because of this.

See you soon.