Ow!

Woke up this morning to thunderstorms and 25+ mph gusts. Not really what you want to have for a race day morning. Fortunately it mostly cleared up by the time the race started.

The race was the Gasparilla 1/2 marathon in Tampa. I decided to escape the frigid tundra of the midwest and hop down to Florida for the weekend. The weather ( apart from this morning ) has been great. 70's and sunny. It's definitely going to suck going home tomorrow. I'll find a way to survive though.

Back to the race. I've been doing solid zone1 & 2 base training all winter long. This race kinda kicks off my speed work phase. The instructions from the coach were go out fast, and hold it. So that's pretty much what I did. Based on how training is going, I thought I had a shot at a 1:45 time. That's approx 8:00 per mile average pace.

We started in a gusty mist of a morning in the pre-dawn darkness. I had my sunglasses but ended up not using them the whole race due to them fogging up and there being a complete lack of sun. I'm sure if I'd left them behind, I would have wanted them.

The course wound through Tampa and surrounding neighborhoods. I kept my pace at just under 8:00 per mile through the first half of the race. I was feeling good at that point, so decided to push onward. Dropped in a couple 7:40'ish miles between 6 and 10. Then we turned to head back towards the finish and it started raining again. Not just mist, but full on rain. And wind. Shoes were pretty well soaked at this point, but not much you can do about it except keep plugging away.

Those last 3 miles were rough, due to the conditions, and also the fact that I had been holding my heartrate at my lactate threshold for the last 10 miles. I ended up crossing the finish line at 1:45:19 by my stopwatch. I count that as having my goal. My average HR was at LT. No wonder my legs hurt a little bit. Good to know that I can push it, and I didn't blow up.

Afterwards, there was much brunching of food with Karl and some other crazy triathlete friends, then it was back to the race to cheer in the marathon finishers.

A great weekend, and a great race. Now it's back to the cold, but only for a day, as I'm leaving again Tuesday for a 2 day trip for work. Then it's off to Colorado on Thursday for the last ski weekend ( for me ) of the winter. Phew, really earning those miles this week. Now, I just need to come up with a suitable way to cash them in.

Hey look, a BLOG!

Whoops!

Sorry for the lack of updates. Waaaah. Work. Waaaah. Training. Waaah. The usual excuses.

Training is going good. Running is going smashingly. I'm up to 80 miles this month, and will easily crack 100. Wooohoo! Decent swim and bike (trainer) volume too. And yoga. I've been going to a Pilates class for a little over a month now, and wow, it's good.

Now, for your enjoyment, here's my race report from the 10k I ran on Saturday. Try not to laugh too hard.

Hardest 10k

This was the hardest 10k I've ever run. To start with, it was about -5F plus a nice stiff wind. On top of that, it rained two days ago, before it dipped sub-zero. So the normally nice trails turned into bobsled tracks.

I ran about 10' to warm up, stretched, and then stood inside until just before the start.

Started on the road, then quickly moved into the woods along the running path. It was tough going, as footing was very sketchy. I near slipped a couple of times in the first mile. A couple people went down in front of me, from the ice.

At about mile 1.5 there was a rope climb up a steep little hill. The guy on the rope in front of me slipped backwards, and kicked me in the face. Ouch. I got a bloody nose, and a cut lip. Yay. :) I kept on going though, and passed him with a vengence. I was cruising along pretty decently until about the 3.5 mile mark.

I took a nasty spill on some glare ice, and hit the ground hard. I rolled twice and then slid off the path. Wheeee! Was slow getting back up, and felt like I might have tweaked my left knee and ankle.

At that point, I got pissed at the conditions ( ice everywhere ), and decided I didn't want to risk getting hurt any more than I was. I walked though a really icy section for about the next 10 minutes or so. At that point, I decided I wanted to get back to the finish, and I didn't want to walk the next 20 minutes.

So I took back off at slow pace, just taking it easy in zone1/2. Even at that pace, I fell two more times on the ice. Ow!

I finished as the clock said 1:02. Urgh. My slowest 10k ever. But at least it wasn't a DNF!

Oh, I almost forgot the best part. Thanks for the bloody nose and lip, I had bloodcicles hanging off my scruffy chin when I finished. I looked pretty scary before I got it cleaned up. Didn't have my camera as that woulda been a cool picture. Definitely one to remember.

Chasing Snowflakes

I ran my long run yesterday afternoon. It was a bit blustery when I started out. Mostly cloudy, a strongish wind blowing in from the North. I started out a little after 2 pm. About 15 minutes into the run, it started snowing. Not really a heavy snow, but more than just a flurry. I was running into the wind for the first half of the run, until I hit my turn around point.

After the turn around, I had the wind to my back, and chased snowflakes all the way home. I was just slightly slower than the wind, so the snowflakes went from blowing into my face to hovering just out of reach. It was a really cool effect.

The run felt good, and capped off a nice recovery week. :)

Today was a quick spin this morning, and I'm off to go hang out with some of fellow crazy training buddies and watch some football. There's some kinda big game today or something...

GO SEAHAWKS!!!