Saturday, October 23, 2010

Race Report: Fall Classic 10K

It was every bit as cold as I had expected at the start. Luckily, I parked within sight of the start line, and just hung out in my car, jamming to my iPod until nature called. My heart sank when I realized that using the portajohns meant basically exposing myself to the chilly weather. No thank you! I snuck in to a nearby hotel and found an empty, warm restroom, with running water, soap, paper towels, and muzak. Awesome!

Once at the start, I bumped in to Jen of Jen on the Edge! Yay! She's a newbie runner, but is pretty badass as far as I'm concerned, because she walked there from her house (1.5 miles away!!) and her husband was going to come pick her up after the race on a tandem bike.

The race started with a sharp right turn and a hill. Chugga chugga. I kept a careful eye on my pace, and held back - I didn't want to run out of steam, because I knew a really big hill was coming in Mile 5.

After the uphill, it was mostly flat, and then a long downhill to the river. My first mile was about 10:30 - a little faster than I had intended, as I was shooting for 10:45's.

At the water stop at mile 2 (10:15 on the split), I took some gatorade, and headed down to the path by the river. I love this stretch. I have done a few training runs on it in the past, but since it's not near where I live, I don't come here nearly often enough. I noticed frost on the ground, and geese on the water, and just let my body do its thing while my mind doodled around. It was entirely pleasant, which was great, because after this lovely stretch I knew what was coming.

The 3 mile mark was somewhere along the path, and I hit it in 10:06. So that's what it's like to run on a flat course!! I was pretty sure that would be my fastest mile of the day.

And then happy time was over, and it was time to go up a huge hill. Oy. I used to live in that neighborhood, so I already knew what was coming. It was even steeper and longer than I remembered. The 4 mile mark was partway up the hill, and my split there was 10:17. I'll be honest, I think I was walking at that point. I must have really been flying on the flat part to squeak out a 10:17!!

The hill topped out, and it was back to mostly flat, and I reached mile 5 in 10:31, which was pretty good for me, considering that I had walked a little and was not feeling so hot at that particular moment. The good news was that I was through with the hardest part of the course!

I wound up all by myself for basically the last mile of the race. Which I quite enjoy, except I escaped the notice of the officer directing traffic at a busy intersection and had to wait quite a while before I could cross. Both he and the race volunteer apologized profusely for not stopping traffic sooner, but I told them quite honestly that I enjoyed the break.

And then, ZOOM. Downhill. Feeling good, lots of fuel still in the tank, and it was time to make it happen.

I hit mile 6 in a 10:05. That's right, people. Negative split. Can I get an AMEN!

Down the downtown mall, zigging and zagging around pedestrians, and across the finish.

Final chip time: 1:04:14/10:20 pace.

I did a little internet research and found my 10K PR to be 1:06:37/10:45 pace. This was during marathon training four years (and one kid) ago.

I smashed my PR. Second race in a row. I can't begin to describe how awesome it feels. I'm running faster now than I ever have, and I know I've got more in me. I spent most of today trying to slow myself down. For the first time ever, I feel that a sub-10min pace for the shorter distances (5K, 10K) is within reach. Could this be the year that I break 30 min in the 5K?

Friday, October 22, 2010

Pre-race freakout

I think I mostly keep a blog so that I have somewhere to vent during my pre-race freakout.

Vent 1. It is going to be very cold tomorrow morning. Until just a couple of weeks ago, I could hardly run at all during daylight hours because it was so hot. The temp at gun time is supposed to be 31 degrees. Fahrenheit. I have spent the last 30 minutes in a made scramble around the house trying to find a toque and some gloves. And yes, I'm having a real crisis about the layering issue. Don't get me started.

Vent 2. The t-shirt. It sucks, and they didn't have my size. This race was NOT CHEAP and I'm stuck with an ugly, too-large shirt. Grumble grumble. Maybe I'll wear it as my top layer and shed it at the start. Heh.

Vent 3. Did I mention this race was NOT CHEAP? And in addition to the shirt sucking, the packet also sucked. A bunch of coupons for stuff I don't care about, and two samples of Wheaties. I am not kidding. Not even a course map or information sheet. And, their website sucks, is confusing, and keeps opening up new browser windows.

Vent 4. It's a for-profit race. I don't run very many of these - they're a relatively new addition to the running scene here. I like having more options, I do. But give me a down home CTC race any day, where all comers are welcome, you get a welcome dose of information overload, the registration fee is reasonable, the website is spartan but functional, and a worthy charity gets the money.

Vent 5. I keep track of times and PRs for all my races on a spreadsheet, and for whatever reason, I only have 1 entry for the 10K distance, and I KNOW I've run it at least twice, and possibly three times. This is pissing me off, because I don't know what my PR is.

I had a couple of short but speedy runs this week, so I'm hoping that I blaze tomorrow. I'm not super familiar with the course, but I know there's one killer hill in my old neighborhood. I'm hoping for a PR, but between the cold and the big hill, I think that's a stretch goal for me tomorrow. And, see Vent 5, I'm not even sure what that PR might be. Argh.

So, I got my freak on, looks like I should be in good shape for tomorrow.

Saturday, October 16, 2010

Fall high

The past few weeks have been pretty uninspiring, as running goes. A few weekday runs, maybe a longish run on the weekend. Pushing the buggy with 1 kid or 2, or sneaking out by myself at dusk.

Last weekend, I did one of my usual Saturday gigs - I pushed both kids in the buggy to the gym, and took a group exercise class while they tore it up in the kid room. It's about 1.3 miles to the gym, and the class usually is a nice combo of cardio and strength - just enough cardio to make me feel better about only running 2.5 miles on a Saturday. Last weekend, there was a sub, and my "Athletic Conditioning" class morphed in to "Super Ass Kicking Cardio Blast." We even did plenty of running around the building, way more than I was expecting. I was pretty spent by the end of the class, and pushing two kids home in a buggy that could probably use a little air in the tires was enough. I was done!

This morning, I had the rare luxury of both sleeping in (well, as much as you can when your kids wake with the sun) and going for an actual run, all by myself!! I decided to hit the Monticello Trail, and off I went in the cool morning. It was about 50 - perfect running weather. The leaves are just now turning and beginning to fall, and around every curve in the boardwalk was another heartbreakingly beautiful glimpse of shafts of sunlight through the fall canopy.

How lucky am I that one of my regular routes was also Thomas Jefferson's route back in the day? How many people get to enjoy a beautiful fall Saturday run at a World Heritage Site?

I needed to do about 5 miles today, and I ran up a half mile, and back down, then all the way up, 2 miles. The run downhill was fantastic. I was properly warmed up, and I just let my legs go. I glanced at my watch a few times and saw an "8" in front of my pace, pretty outstanding for me. And according to Nike +, I ran my fastest mile ever (or, at least in the last couple months since I started using Nike +). I couldn't have slowed down if I tried. The endorphin rush was phenomenal.

At the bottom of the hill, I stretched for a moment, and then headed straight for the city market for a taco, the best recovery food ever.

Sunday, October 03, 2010

Welcome, Autumn!

And with autumn comes blessedly cooler temps - I can run at 10am on a Sunday, instead of having to get up at the crack of dawn on a weekend to beat the heat. I can run at 5:30pm without endangering myself. It's bliss.

This past year has been so hard for me to keep up my running. I look back at some of my blog entries, and I'm amazed that I've kept going at all. There's been so much illness, so much snow, so much record-breaking cold weather, record-smashing hot weather, that it's a wonder I have kept up training (even though it's not for more than a 10K) and set a PR in the 4 miler.

Autumn does this every year to me - the crisp, cool air rushes through, clears out the gnats and the stale air, and makes me feel like there is hope. Oh, the spring races I am planning!

And as my youngest leaves her babyhood behind, I'm getting little glimpses here and there of what it is like to have just a little more ease in my day. Not that parenting gets easier, but that so many of those tiny yet incessant demands on my time are easing up. I don't have to carry her everywhere, which means I don't have to make two trips from the car into the house at the end of the day. I don't have to completely mince every bite of food, which means that mealtime goes just an eensy bit faster. She can participate in dressing and undressing herself, which means getting her ready in the morning or in her jammies at night goes just that much more quickly.

And her brother - he can actually help with so many chores. He's not quite five but I can give him a dinner knife and soft things to cut up to help prepare dinner. I can give him pre-measured ingredients and he'll mix them together. He can buckle himself into his carseat. They'll both take their dishes to the sink or dishwasher.

When I think of every little thing that I do as a mom for my kids, things that people without kids just don't even consider, I wonder how it is that I get anything else done at all, let alone have a full time job! It's death by a thousand cuts - sure, it's only 30 seconds to pour another cup of milk, but I do that 3 times a day (at least) for each child. That's three minutes a day I spend just pouring milk. And I haven't changed a diaper (I do that 4-5 or more times a day, at about 2 minutes per), run a bath (2x/day, 10 minutes per), made a meal, reminded a busy boy to go to the potty, put a bandaid on a scrape, read a bedtime story, or soothed a toddler back to sleep in the middle of the night. How is it that there are even enough hours in the day to do all those things?

Yes, in case you were wondering, I am Superwoman.