Tri Del Sol Duathlon recap....( I medaled!!!!)

I was up all night ( I forgot to mention that hubby is out of town with the kids--I can't sleep when he is away!) So I was up before my 4:45 AM wake-up call. I was super tired ( still am).

Anyway on to the race. I placed first in my age group! Funny thing is ( to me, anyway) is that I was almost 2 minutes slower than last year and I placed 6th then! Oh well...I'll take it!

My Garmin biffed when I tried to download the info. Total bummer.

So the race started at 8am..... the run was hot and humid already. 2 miles in 16:04. Not to shabby for me this year.

My transition was over 2 minutes. That is too shabby for me any year! UGH. I can't believe I took that long to transition!! On to the bike. I did so much better than last year! That happens when your bike is in tact! The 18 mile bike took me 1:02:15. I am happy with that. I learned a lot from my buddy. He coached me basically the whole 18 miles!! The seconds transition was over 2 minute AGAIN. Boooo!!!!

The last 4.5 miles was basically hell on earth ( or as I imagine it to be). My legs were jello, and my lungs were heavy and closed. Not good. But I finished; albeit slow. 2:03:58 was my official time.

I always sprint to the finish no matter how sucky a race I feel I am having. In the duathlon you are marked with a "D"on your arm and leg to indicate that you are in the duathlon and your age as well. Some lady in my age group passed me with less than half a mile to go. Oh no she didn't!! She was the first person in my age group that I had seen all day. So I basically stayed on her butt until the final stretch--I beat her by 1 second. I actually felt bad, but I did what I had to do!

After over analysing the race, I feel I could have beat my time from last year just if I had gone quicker with my transitions! I hope to do another Du this summer. I plan on practicing my Bricks ( bike to running) a lot more too.

It was a fun, hot and GREAT day!

Me no sleepy....

I should be sleeping not blogging! I can't sleep!! I have to (I mean get to) get up at 4:45 to get ready for my duathlon! I am excited and nervous ( hence why I am here typing!).
It will be fun. I am going to run, bike and run again with a fellow spin instructor at my gym. He is the biker and I ( not lately) am the runner! So, we hope to motivate and push each other to the finish! I hope to get under 2 hours.....last year my time was 2:02:02! I should have played the lottery that day--I bet it was worth at least 2.2 million.

Anyway...today I taught spin and tried to control myself. I had to make up and switch the music. Don't worry--I was prepared, BUT 2 of the spinners that came this morning ( they never come on Friday) were at my Thursday class. I decided to recycle that class for Friday morning. Sooooo I had to change the music and think up a good spin ride in about 9 minutes. I did and it was pretty good. I hope I did not fry my own legs! I included a lot of speed drills and a few heavy climbs and bouts of endurance. It got hot up in that spin room!

I did a 20 minute yoga video later at home--Ahhhh! Ommmmm! Yeahhhh!
OK I better get to bed..starting to feel my eyes droop.

Race Day! T-Rex!

I came. I ran. I conquered! Well, not really, BUT I did win my age group (somehow!!)
This trail race was NO joke. It started off all uphill-to set the tone I guess!
My splits are crazy. I averaged about a 10 minute mile. That is slower than my long runs, but we don't do long runs on steep trails with sand etc. If I do this race next year, I vow to hit the trails beforehand to get a feel for trail running.
The weather was pretty good considering. I was grateful for the moments of shade from the trees; even it was momentary. It was nice.
I will honest and admit that I am not happy with my time. I walked A LOT today during the race. The hills were nutso and so were the flats for that matter!
I should be happy with my time though-even a cool 1st place age group finisher medal did not change that. ( I was totally surprised when I was handed the medal). I still had a good time ( I think), it was just a challenging and humbling experience. I had moments of energy and then BAM-I was walking. It was weird. Oh well...there is always next year!!
Here are the goods: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/39053022

T-Rexin' it today!

It's Race day and one again I am up way too early. But somehow I will still end up scrambling around to leave my house on time! How does that happen?!?!

I am looking forward to this race. It's more of a fun one, so I am told. It's too hard to try for a goal time; especially since it's my first time doing this race. It's mainly trails and hills. Cool and yuck! The weather is supposed to be quite warm, but at least the humidity will stay away until tomorrow.

I have quite a few friends running this one too. We all have different paces and goals so it will be interesting to see what happens. Will I let my competitive side take over and try to keep up with the faster guys OR hang low and really enjoy myself and run alone or with my conservative buddies? Come back later to find out!!!

Recaps.........

Sunday-OFF
Monday- X-fit and Spin instruction
X-fit is at 5AM and it was HARD!
Today we performed a circuit of:
pull-ups
sit-ups
squats
push ups
4 rounds of each exercise (20 seconds per exercise with 10 second rest)
5 hours later I taught Spinning. It was a hard interval class.

Tuesday-yoga and hills
I was up super late Monday night due to tornado's and stuff. Looong night. I missed my regular morning cardio session because I slept in. I love sleep.
I opted to do a Jillian Michael's yoga session. It was called Yoga Meltdown. It was really good. Totally power yoga. I was a sweaty mess and it was only 35 minutes long. It was perfect for me..I am not so good at following yoga outside of a classroom setting.
Later on was running with my running club. It's been a while! I have to get back at it. I really did not feel up to going yet-I still have a cold, but kind of feel I need to get back in the habit-sick or not! It was hills today. I ran 6 + the warm up and cool down. It was HOT out. Ugh. I used to love running in the heat.

Wed-Spin and x-fit
X-fit at 5 am. Today we did something called HELEN.
440 meter run
dumbbell swings (21x)
pull ups (12)
Ugh...3 x through as fast as you can!
I did it in 10:50.
My lungs were on fire for a while.
It was the kind of thing I love/hate to do. I love good, clean competition though and this was it. It does not help that the X-fit instructor yelled " Marcia; you should be killing everyone!" Ummm- this dude does not even know me. But, I had to speed up after he said that. Dang him!!

In other news:
I am not sure I will run the 10k on Saturday. I don't feel so well still, but this might change by then. I can always sign up on Saturday morning if need be. My lungs and head are full of crap.
I have done this race 3 years in a row so I really want to do it. It's a good race!
I will be smart and listen to my body and play it by ear for now.

Wordless Wednesday

Better late than never--June 12th race recap

Summer is here and I seem to need more hours in my day to get stuff done. I can't believe I did not even give a race recap!
My half marathon went really well!! In the end, I knew I could have given a bit more, but I am still pleased with my performance! My first half marathon to date: 1:51:48. Not too far off from my *secret* goal of 1:45! Almost...ha!
I quick recap of the day.
Almost perfect weather (compared to last year)
No allergic reaction to my in-laws house ( HUGE)
No breathing issues ( HUGER)

Miles 1-2
8:10 and 8:13
I wanted to keep my pace here for the duration.
Mile 3
7:32
Umm-what?!? So not my fault...this little chick in green decided to race me. I think she thought I was in my 20's ( seeing i look young for my age....haha!!) She was in her 20's and wanted to beat me. I finally slowed my pace after seeing how fast I was going! I think she beat me. Who cares though..not me!
Miles 4-5
8:20 avg.
Must have been too tired from racing the girl in green.
Miles 6-7
9:40
9:03
Ugh....who threw in 2 miles of trial and sand dunes?!?! It was a fun challenge...I will be sooo ready for this for next year
Miles 8-12
8:34 (slowest mile) 8:21 ( quickest)
I never got back into my pace that I wanted. I think it was mainly my mind not my body. Need to work on this.
Mile 13
8:00 flat
Of course!
I had a lot of fun doing this race. I think it gave me a lot of confidence over my breathing/anxiety issues as well.
Next up:
Reed's Lake 5k or 10k OR both races (June 26th)

Bayshore 10k

What a perfect day for a race. Well, a perfect day for a SHORT race! It was in the mid to low 60's by 7:30am on Saturday. I was happy with my outfit choice-- running skort(ha!) and tank top. I was hot even before the gun went off. I was going to use this race to push myself to possibly have an "episode", but once again I freaked out and did just the opposite. My time was not horrible, but it's still not what I would like to get. I am not complaining either, just explaining. My official time was 51:54 which is a 8:21 pace. I was 25th out of 189 in my age group, 118th out of 1099 other women 10kers and 339 out of 1806 finishers overall!

I am thinking 2010 will be my year of slowest race times. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/35082936

I got too scared to push myself again. I had moments of a quicker pace, but nothing consistent enough. I need to break the barrier, but am not sure how to do that!!! Frustrated.

On a good note, there were 2 people in my running group that qualified for Boston yesterday! The weather was awesome, but not for a longer race. People were dropping like flies in the heat. It was scary and heart wrenching to see my teammates in such agony. Everyone made it out alive and well though. It was a change of pace for me to be on the sidelines to cheer them on too. I liked that!

Friday-- less then 24 hours until GO time!

Friday!

I taught Spin early today. I did the same class as Monday..or was it Wednesday?? I forget. I just know that I took it was easy and my avg. HR was 145. Nice and low. I had my moments in class where it got up in the 160;s, but I had to reign it in!

I stretched for a good 15 minutes after class too. Ahhhhh!

SO that was my workout for the day.

I am looking forward to tomorrow. Even though the high is in the 40's. Even though there is a 40% chance of rain. Even though I might not breath so well.

I am looking forward to tomorrow. I always love this race. My husband and almost 6 year old daughter will be there. They will be running the 5k!! I am not sure how much Amara will like being rained on, although she had fun playing in the misty rain today (with umbrella in hand). I hope it's a good experience for her. I am looking forward to tomorrow. I love running with my friends that have trained just as hard as I have. I love crossing the finish line-no matter what the finishing time is. I am looking forward to tomorrow.

I get to run.

Sunday stuff!

If you are planning any races this year here is a training guide to follow:

5k( 3.1 miles) -10k (6.2 miles)= 8 to 10 weeks

Half marathon (13.1 miles) = 12 to 14 weeks

Full marathon (26.2 miles) = 16 to 18 weeks

Of course the number of weeks you need can vary from person to person depending on your current fitness level, how many miles you are currently running and whether or not you are a newbie or veteran. At any rate, ease into your training, recover and enjoy the experience!

Next on my racing agenda:

25k- May 8 ( Goal- under 2 hours. last year I did it in 2:00:39)

10k- May 29 ( PR is I am not sure of a goal yet!

half marathon trail race OR 5k - June 12

10k- June 26

Duathlon- July 11 ( IF I have a bike..haha)

Duathlon- July 17 ( See above!)

That's what I have so far. I hope to remain healthy so I can do all these races and then some!

What are your plans for the upcoming race season?

Getting Jiggy Wit' It! 5k style.

I am glad I can still be in such a great mood after my less then stellar race on Saturday!

I know that all races cannot be a PR or even close to one for that matter. But still, I want to have a good race all.the.time.

Since that is not a reality for all human beings ( yes, I will go out on a limb and make such a BOLD statement! ha) I will chalk yesterday up as my crappiest race of the season(hopefully!). For starters The Irish Jig is deemed " The kickoff to 2010 Race Season" in my area. So that just means I have a lot of races to do better in-right?!?!

Sometimes I wish not doing better affected me more-kind of. It might secretly though, my next 5k ( I hate you 5k) is not even for a few months-and I think I might be busy that day (washing my hair or something).

So back to the race- I am not sure what my deal was. Could have been lots of things or nothing. I hate making excuses as to why I had a craptastic time, but I just wish knew the real reason.

My buddies and I did a nice 3 mile warm up and strides up until the race started. I was nice and warm and ready to rumble! My first mile was under 7 minutes-I clocked it at 6:54. I was feeling kinda crappy already BUT I always feel crappy during a 5k. Nothing new here, so I noticeably slowed down, but not that much (or so I thought). I wanted to try and actually keep a consistent pace (ha! Good one Marcia). Mile 2 was an 8:04. What the what?? I was hoping for a 7:04 or something. Dang. I might have felt defeated inside. I think my race was more of a mental game then physical-maybe. My last mile I know was pretty slow. My chip time was 23:08 or something like that. Ugh. My times should be getting better NOT worse.

I would like to add that a bunch of my running club friends got PR's during this race and I am truly so happy for them. The volunteers and fans and the awards ceremony were also top notch. They had the best cake. I am not much of a cake girl, but this stuff was really good. And it's all about the cake-right?!?! Not to mention lunch out with friends afterwards! I still took away good memories and experiences from this race even though the actual racing was not the best. That's OK though. I run for the fun of it! I should want to do well for myself of course, but not let it get to my head in a negative way. All in all. Saturday was a great day!

Kind of Tired......

Kind of tired. Yep, that's me these days. My sleep has not been going so well.
Thursday- I made it to the gym somehow. I did a running specific ( click on it to see what I did!) workout the required no weights at all. Thanks Krys ( check out her blog)! It went by super fast too! Love that, especially since I was DOG tired. I might do this again next week if I feel pressed for time or just tired in general. I will keep on the look-out for more runner specific workouts and share.
I taught my 3*2*1 class later in the day and almost went for my prescribed 6 mile run...but I decided to head home and take a much needed HOT shower instead. I think it was a wise decision to skip the run. That was my Thursday. I will admit that I felt like a total slacker ( only for about 5 minutes though) because of my short workouts. I then realized I exercised for over an hour--just not as HARDCORE as I think I need to be. So this was a nice change of pace and I was soo over it before it got to be a problem.
Friday- Spin. I am kinda spun out this week. It's my own fault. I did one ride 3 times this week because it received good feedback! Lesson learned. I will tuck it away and bring it out next month for one lucky class-not all 3! After spin this morning I stretched and gossiped with a friend-mostly gossiped, but I did get in some good hip flexor stretches at some point.
Ok. So the 5k that I have not signed up for yet is tomorrow. It is causing me much anxiety too--I wonder if that's why my sleep has been craptastic all week....... Wish me luck!

14 Mile Day.

The weather was almost perfect ( for March that is) . I was actually a bit warm towards the end. I like that better than being too cold though. Even my hands were only mildly frostbitten today.
I really don't know my splits for today. It's very annoying too. I just like to know these things. I do know that the first 7 miles were slower than the last 7. I ran the first 7 with 2 nice ladies from my running club. One is training for Boston and had to run 16 so I turned around after that, turned on my iPod and was gone.
The route we ran today was most of the 25k race that I am training for. Flash backs baby! It was this race that I tried to run a sub 2 hours in. I did it in 2:00:39. Yep. So close yet so far away! My goal of course this year is to get under 2 hours, but I am feeling as if I am not in as good of shape as last year at this point in the game. Either I need to get my act together and step up my game or I will not get my goal. I don't like meeting goals if I know that I could have done better! OK. It's decided. My goal will be attained come May 8th!

5k--or 3.2 miles, but who cares?!?! (ME-that's who!!)

Race Day! Heart and Sole 5k

It was a beautiful day for a race. Near perfect weather conditions for this time of year! Just about no wind, in the low to mid 20's. No complaints from this girl.

My buddies and I did a 1.5 or so mile warm-up and ran part of the course.

The race got underway on time at 8:30 AM. 250 racers (114 females).

I took off trying to keep my eye on a few key people in front of me. As I have mentioned before, I am not a good pacer. Nope. Not me. The first mile was around 6:54--oooops!! I felt pretty good actually. I am sure I could not have kept up this pace for the rest of the race. There were 3 hills today. They were all varying heights too. One had a sneaky gradual incline that I did not care for either.

So I started to really feel the pain about half way into it. That kind of pain that makes you think crazy thoughts (walk please) and you just have to push them out of your head. Or you will regret it later. I kept telling myself-- "It's only 3.1 miles" it worked I guess. I never stopped. My finishing time ended up being 22:55. What the WHAT? I felt so much stronger then that time! My lungs were on fire, as were my quads. I know the hills slowed me down, but COME ON?!?! Do not get me wrong. 22:55 is a great, great time for me. I just felt faster that that today.

Sooooo.....that brings us to the title of this blog. Yea. Soooo the race was really 3.2 miles in length and not the standard 3.1 as a 5k is supposed to be!! IF I had the correct Garmin I would have known that sooner than later. I talked to at least 5 peeps that do have one though. Their Garmin's all registered 3.2 miles for the race. If we want to get all technical and stuff (and I do). My time would have been closer to 22:15 or so. It is very annoying to pay for a race and then get craptastic results. I mean, when/how did they measure the distance for this race?? I don't understand. No skin off my back. I am not sure I could have gone much faster today.

My celebratory IHOP Harvest Grain N' Nut pancakes made it all better!

The Lowdown:

Chip Time: 22:55

Overall place: 57/250

Gender Place: 13/114

Division place: 2/27* woohoo!

Total Pace: 7:24

My next 5k will hopefully be in March. After searching the web to locate my PR for my 5k's through the years, I found that it was 21:26. 2002 baby! WOW that was a long time ago. I remember the race well too. I was the overall female winner! I was 24 years old and the the girl I beat was 19. Her grandpa came up after the race and hugged me and told me I really made her work! Funny, the stuff we remember. I probably remember it becuase it hurt. I would love to say that I would like to get a PR this March in the 5k...but, well, that time was kind of fast. LOL!
Here is a run down off all of my chip times from past races. Thanks to Caitlin (check her out-she is training for Boston) for sharing this site!

Friday!

All done for the day!
Spin was this morning at 5:30 AM. Small crowd of 10 only today. Mid winter break is on so I hope this is why the "regulars" sat this one out!
I repeated my Wednesday class with a few changes in music selection and I also changed a few of the intervals in the ride. It went over well. I basically took out the jumps and made them 15 second standing/seated runs. Which is essentially a jump, but a little different! Ha. I don't particularly care of having jumps in my classes, but I add them in for variety. I took them out for today's ride, because I had another participant express her dislike of jumps! Of course she did not show up today! That's cool though, it made it a brand new ride for me. I did my best to take it easy because I have my 5k tomorrow morning. My heart rate did get up to 166 at some point, but the average was a cool 144. I did it! Well..this avg. was also from my 20 minute elliptical ride I did after class....but still. Not too shabby! If I would have to guess, my HR avg. for spin was at least 150.
The elliptical ride was nice and easy. I just did not feel like heading home yet. I wanted to watch some TV! I have big plans of perhaps stretching or even doing some REAL yoga. We shall see though!
OK...race day tomorrow. 5k baby! We might even go to IHOP ( I loooove me some pancakes) after the race!!!

First race of the season--kinda sorta....

Today was the Frostbite Marathon Team Relay! Lots of fun. COLD.COLD.COLD!!

I was the first leg of 5 people. I went out strong and finished not so strong! It's cool though. It was not a timed event. I don't even know what my time was. I think the number one reason I fizzled out fast was lack of fuel. I ate breakfast at 5:20 AM and the race was at 8. I ran out of carbs etc. I took a swig of a sports drink a few seconds before the race estarted, but obviously I needed more. Such a dumb mistake. I know my body and I know that I needed something else in me to fuel the tank! I ran over 5 miles. That's all I know for sure. I think I did the 5+ miles in about 42 minutes or so?!?? I have no idea and don't really care! It was meant to be a FUN event and FUN it was. The name of my team was-
What? Are you kidding me?

I thought that was funny. Many of the other teams came dressed up and with fancy batons to pass. There was a penis (yep, they actually got the cops called them by an upset citizen that saw it as they ran through town.) a rubber chicken, a miniature piano leg, and other fun stuff! We had a G.I. Joe doll and a Baribe doll kind of stuck together. Not sure what that meant, but it got a few laughs!

Since my portion of the race was at 8AM it was still rather chilly with a windchill of course. And naturally we were close to a lake so that made things a big more cold and windy! My face was so cold that when I tried to drink the warm( thank God) Gatorade it literally dribbled down my chin because I could not feel my lips. Yup. Super cute.

My team was very fun and we got to know each other a lot better since we were stuck in a mini van for the duration of the race. Things got quite silly up in there!

After the race we went to the pub that sponsored it and had our free chili and beer and treats. It was quite a gathering. Even though this was a FUN race and sooo not competitive, it really got me thinking I am ready to pick up my game this year. I think I am ready to do it. I just wish it was a tad lot warmer out already!!

Can't wait til next year!

Late start....

Today was a weird day. Well not really. I did not make it to he gym until after 5pm.
Miles decided to take at least 60 minutes to eat half a waffle and 4 orange segments this morning and I was not going to give in. I am a Taurus. I am bull. Hear me roar. So I missed out on the class that I wanted to take. Oh well. There was a 5:30 pm spin class that I decided to take. It was with a great instructor and guess what? It was a Race Day. OY! It was a very simple format ( pretty sure I will use it for my Monday Race Day). It was really fun and challenging and all that good stuff. I actually had it in my head that I might tack on another 15 minutes of cardio. Ha. Nope. I was out of there with the quickness. That's how a race day should make you feel. As if you just participated in a race( hence the name!)
If I would have had anything left, then shame on me for slacking during class!
I had plans to spin in the morning, but I am not so sure i will even be recovered by then. We shall see. I must go drink some water since I left most of my bodily fluids under my bike. It was a hot one.

One more day!

One more day until race day. For some reason I have not been nervous at all for this race. I know I will be tomorrow or even tonight, but it usually kicks in a few days prior. It might have something to do with the fact that it just became a reality that I am actually running this race. I just signed up yesterday afternoon.
Tomorrow should be a perfect day for a race. I have to save my not so healthy food for tomorrow too. I wonder what that meal will be? Maybe a trip to DQ..they have some new blizzard of the month........ The last race I ran on a Sunday was the Chicago Marathon in 2005. I normally either take Sunday's off totally or I cross-train.

I went to the gym today. I did an incline walk/run intervals for 2 miles and then rode the recumbent bike for about 2.5 miles. I then went to check out the Zumba class. I love this class. This was not my usual instructor either. She is good, but it just was not the same. I left after the first 30 minutes. As an instructor, I never do that!!! If I do have to leave early I just was not feeling it.
I will report back tomorrow after the race!