solar squirrel

This past weekend was the Akron Marathon.  For the past few years I’ve been on a team of 5, and the past couple have been all women teams.  This year Daisy coordinated an awesome team and still included me even though I am a broken out of shape joke of a runner.  (Ok, that was a bit rough)  Luckily for me this year they changed the distances a bit and the shortest leg was now 2.8 miles - a waste for any of my other team mates - but PERFECT for me, since my ITB issues have caused my fitness level to decline dramatically and my longest run this past month has been a little over 3 miles.

AkronRelay2009

I had the 4th leg which was conveniently located walking distance from Todd’s house on Sand Run Parkway.  I got to sleep in and walk to my relay point!  Our goal was to try to come in top 3 as we’ve done every year before (Kent State always beats us!!), but worst case was just have fun.  (Can I just repeat the fact that I am so happy to have such easy-going fun running friends?  No way would some of the people I know allow for an INJURED SLOW team mate to compete with them).  I figured my slowness would only cost us a few min. since my leg was so short.  I got to the start around 2:50 pace and got to see all the fast runners.  I saw Frank and he looked awesome.  I saw a few relay teams, but it seemed as if we were going to be in the top 3 spot.  I was a few seconds late seeing Christina because they announced the number as 296 and I was anticipating them saying the entire number.  Luckily I was watching for her so I knew it was her without hearing her number.  We had a bit of a clumsy handoff of the 80’s snap bracelette and I was off!  I felt awesome the first mile - catching the female relay runner ahead of me.  She was tall and thin and like a gazelle and I felt like a stomping elephant running next to her.  We had a pretty good pace ~6:35 for the first mile and then the hills started coming and the fact that I’m out of shape caught up with me.  I was so happy that I only had to run 2.8 miles!  The AMAZING thing is that my knee didn’t hurt AT ALL!!!!!  I slowed down and she had about 20 sec. on me when I finished.  I was excited to see Jen and I handed off to her and told her to catch the girl in front of me.  Garmin said I had a 7:34 pace which I’ll take given the circumstances.  I took the bus back to the stadium to watch the finish and had an awesome time hanging out with my running friends.  (And yes - we got 3RD PLACE!!!) How I YEARN to be back into running shape!!!  This was just the thing to keep me motivated.

The relay was Sat.; Sunday I ran my weekly Sunday run w/ Katy and my knee hurt, but not too bad.  (This was the first time I’ve done 2 days in a row).  Monday I swam and yesterday I biked.  I feel like I’m seriously on the road to recovery now.  I just need to stay focused and humble and not try to do too much too soon.  I want 2010 to be my best fitness year EVER.

Last Sunday I did the Planet X sprint triathlon - I went into it knowing I was not in the best shape and would be happy with just finishing but I ended up feeling really good the whole time (except during the swim - thank goodness I brought my wet suit!!) I felt good on the bike and I was talking to people - I scared one person when I said hi to her!  Then on the run I was able to run w/ Daisy, until the end where she pulled ahead and beat me.  It was fun and the weather was perfect!  I ended up w/ 3rd female overall - with Mel and Daisy taking 1st and 2nd.  (And wouldn’t you know it - the 3 of us are part of the Akron Marathon relay - LOOK OUT!!)

This was just what I needed to motivate me to get my butt in gear and start a more regular workout routine.  After Sunday’s good turnout, I managed to get in a track workout on Tue, a trip to Westbranch for some mountain biking on Wed, spin class on Thurs, and a solid 12 miles running w/ SERC today in Solon.  Now, for many people I know 4 days of workouts is a joke - but compared to what I’ve been doing this is PHENOMINAL!  I plan to slowly get myself back to 7 days/week.  (Using my swim day as a rest day).  At least for the summer I should be able to handle this, but once school is back in session I’ll likely fall apart again.

Planet X results:

Swim (1/4 mile):  7:12
Bike (11 miles):  36:12 - 18.2 mph
Run (5k):  23:04 - 7:26/mile

At the finish - still feeling good!

Thanks Joey for the pictures from Planet X!  Someone told me they saw pics of me from it and I was thinking it had to be from Joey playing photographer!

My blog needs updates…but I’ll get to it on a day that I don’t have a million other things to do.  For now all you need to know is that my newest goal is to run a 3:30 at Towpath.  (and not die doing XTERRA this year…)

Sunday was our SERC running club banquet and the Youngstown Half marathon.  Last year I did pretty well - finishing 10 min faster than the year prior.  I approached this year knowing that I would probably be slower due to the fact that it’s been difficult to get a regular running routine down since being laid off.  I know that doesn’t make any since at all, but it’s really hard when each week is different than the last.  I’m balancing an incredibly intensive course-load this semester - 3 classes that all require TONS of work outside of class.  Adding to that are random interviews, career fairs, networking events, etc. that require prep. time and travel time.  I never know what my schedule is going to be from week to week.  It makes it difficult to plan a regular workout schedule.  I’ve been putting tons of miles on my car driving back and forth to school, interviews, networking events, presentations, lectures, class group meetings, class interviews, and class presentations.  My time on the phone has also increased.  I had to increase my monthly minutes from 450 to 900 because I’ve been on the phone so much trying to nail down things for my class projects and getting tons of calls from recruiters who I wish would not bother me.

Side note on recruiters:  I hate you all.  You don’t care one micron about helping me find a career - you only care about getting your freakin’ money.  You are worthless and don’t understand software.  You mispronounce industry terms and don’t say acronyms correctly.  You are totally and completely without credibility or tact.  You are nothing but a poorly trained telemarketer who is lacking social skills and industry knowledge.

Anyway - needless to say I’m having issues staying focused on training.  Sunday at Youngstown I was reminded that I need to start putting more miles in.  I was only a few min. slower than last year - but I was really sore afterwords.  I’m still sore today - 2 days later.  My finish time was 1:47:13 (8:11 pace).  I’m not too terribly disappointed with this, but I would have like to have been faster or equal to my time last year.  In order to do that I need to run more - but I DREAD running by myself.  I just can’t do it.  I’ve only gotten better as a runner because of running with others.  Running alone is like running on the treadmill - I don’t like it one bit.  I used to religiously run Tue and Thurs with work friends at lunch.  I don’t have that anymore and boy do I miss it.  I can’t tell you how much I miss it.  It’s like a part of me is missing.  Ugh.

So here’s the good news:  It’s going to stay bright later now that the time has changed so I can start going to the track again Tue nights.  I’m planning on going tonight.  Bad news is that I’m moving out of Solon because I don’t have an income and my sister and I both don’t have jobs.  Solon is a great place to live if you’re a member of SERC because that’s where the Sunday runs are and we do track workouts at Solon High School.  What am I going to do in April when I don’t live there anymore?  I guess I’ll just enjoy these next weeks that I have while I still have them.  Hopefully I’ll get a job near solon so that I can at least still do track workouts after work without a long drive.  I know I won’t do them if I don’t have anyone to do them with.

Well kids, if you hadn’t heard this past Sunday I qualified for Boston for the first time!

Thanks to Elizabeth for catching this action photo!

I woke up early and had already had planned what I would have for breakfast - a turkey burger on a whole wheat bun with ketchup.  I know it sounds weird, but when I was training for the winter 50k earlier this year I had a turkey burger for breakfast and I had great energy and no stomach issues.  Todd and I both had our turkey burger breakfasts and were prepared for a good run!  One thing I’m going to have to change for the next marathon I do is that I will need to figure out what I can eat during the race.  The only nutrition I took in during the marathon was a swig of my stashed Heed at mile 15 and 2 salt tablets- one after about the first hour and a half and the second at about 2.5 hours.  I think this could have been the reason why I started to fade at mile 22…

My plan was to run just fast enough to qualify for Boston.  I didn’t want to risk running too fast and then bonking.  That meant that I needed to run a 3:40 at the slowest, 8:24 pace.  That was the plan for all 3 of us.

Janet, Bridget and I started off together, but Bridget was recovering from bronchitis so she didn’t do as well as she could have so after the first few miles it was Janet and I.  Wow were we consistent and Elizabeth was right - the first miles felt SO easy - it was incredible, my legs felt so fresh and I didn’t even feel like I was running, or walking even.  Even though I felt good I knew better than to try to pick it up - I forced myself to go at the planned pace, which Janet and I decided should be somewhere between 8:10 - 8:24.  The first half marathon was a piece of cake and as we made the turn around point at about mile 20 I still felt decent.  At least good enough that I knew that I would be able to keep running at my planned pace of no slower than 8:24.  The weirdest thing happened around mile 22, though.  I walked through the aid station to drink some water and then my dumb legs didn’t want to start running again!  I was tired and knew I had to start running soon because Janet was getting further and further away and I didn’t want to run alone especially when I was so spent.  I forced myself to pick it back up and got back to my pace, but wasn’t able to catch Janet or the posse of people that was running with Mel.  The one guy (I can’t remember his name) was so awesome, though, he slowed down and waited for me to catch up to him and was so encouraging!

When I got to mile 26 I looked at my watch and saw 3:37 and knew I only had 3 min to run .2 of a mile so I was cutting it close, but I made it!  My final time was 3:38 and I even managed to get 3rd place in my age group.  (Mel beat me by 2 seconds at the very end!!  Way to go, girl - I didn’t even realize I had caught back up!)  I got this cool little picture of the towpath as a prize.  I love stuff like that.

I am so happy that I had Janet to run with.  She basically talked the whole time and it made the miles go by so easily and quickly.  I really loved the course and the volunteers.  The weather was perfect and afterwords we just hung out and chit-chatted.  My legs were sore and I was tired but definitely didn’t feel awful.

Here are the splits!

1    8:18
2    8:13
3    8:16
4    8:20
5    8:18
6    8:16
7    8:12
8    8:11
9    8:13
10  8:13
11  8:15
12  8:12
13  8:08
14  8:14
15  8:11
16  8:24
17  8:15
18  8:17
19  8:12
20  8:16
21  8:20
22  8:18
23  8:14
24  8:25
25  8:28
26  8:20
.2   3:23

Total time:  3:38
Pace:  8:18

Boston, here I come!

The past few days have been action-packed and full of fun.  Here’s a quick review:

My weekend started on Thursday night because I decided to take Friday off of work.  I got out of class and took my time getting home and when I got home I stayed up later than usual laying around and watching episodes of The Office that I’ve rented on Netflix.  I slept in on Friday and got some errands done and then around 7pm got ready for my own personal ’spider walk’ with Todd.  Todd does a spider walk for the public every year, but I had to miss it this year because of class, so Todd promised me my own personal spider walk.  I decided to invite Joe F. from work and his family since they didn’t get to make it either.  We had a fun time wandering around the park in the dark and finding spiders:

This one is an Argiope that is actually pretty common.  Elizabeth took this picture today, but we found it on Friday during our walk.  It’s so fat!  We even got to see it poop!  I didn’t even know spiders pooped!  LOL!  Friday night ended pretty early because Todd and I had to get up super early (4:30 a.m.!!!) for the Akron Marathon.  Todd did the full marathon and I was part of an all female 5-person relay team - Five Fast Femme-Fatale Freaks.  I was hoping for our team to come in top 3 (we got 2nd place last year).  I had the 3rd leg - a 10k - and I was hoping for around 7-min miles.  For some reason I wasn’t thinking strait and Janet got there earlier than I was expecting so I had to hurry up and drop my stuff and sprint to the relay exchange point.  (Seems to be a common theme for me this year…)  Anyway - my 10k went pretty well.  I was hoping to be sub 7 pace, but it wasn’t happening and I ended up with a 7:04 pace - which IS a new PR for me!  We took 2nd place female team overall and celebrated by hanging out in the awesome weather and drinking the free beer.  Todd looked awesome at the finish and had negative splits the 2nd half.  (I Think his time was 3:27 - and he felt great and didn’t even try).

I’m finishing up this post 2 weeks late but stay tuned for the Tow Path marathon recap coming soon!!!!!

Sunday was the Portage Lakes Triathlon - after ‘resting’ all week (6 days without running because of ITB issues) I decided that I could go ahead and let myself do a triathlon - after all, the run was only 6.2 miles. I haven’t biked since GCT (a month ago) and I seriously cannot remember the last time I swam - it was well over a month ago (swim was canceled at GCT). So - basically I was going into this in a fairly unprepared state. Whatever, I knew it was a fun race so I was just ready to go out and have a good time. I talked Todd into doing the Duathlon, which he wasn’t training for; so we both were just going to have fun.

Todd started the duathlon about 30 min before my swim wave start, so I got to see him take off - my dad was there too, taking video of the entire thing. Todd looked strong and I figured he would probably place in his age group even without training. After we watched all of the duathletes start, my dad and I headed down to the lake to watch the first swim waves start. My wave was one of the last ones - all of the Olympic distance women started at the same time. There were about 30 of us - not too many, but enough that it would be crowded in the water at the start. I should have started in the front, but I let a lot of people stand in front of me and when they started us I was stuck behind a ton of people kicking me. Aargh! I hate that! It is the weirdest thing because you have all these arms and legs everywhere and you are trying not to get kicked but at the same time keep track of where the next buoy is so that you don’t get off course - OH - and there was seaweed EVERYWHERE!!! It kept getting caught in-between my fingers and in my nose-plug string. It was hilarious! I almost laughed out loud because I was thinking about telling Todd that there were barnacles - I guess I don’t even know what a barnacle is, but I know that the name is funny and that’s the first word that came in my head while I was swimming. So anyway - I was dodging barnacles (seaweed) and lots of appendages and it just really got my rhythm off. Needless to say my swim time was not that great - towards the 2nd loop of the swim it finally thinned out enough that I was able to get into a better rhythm, but by that time there wasn’t enough distance for me to really make up enough time. Oh well, I didn’t drown.

Coming out of the swim I felt strong and I was able to get into transition area rather quickly. All swiftness on my part faded (as usual) in transition. My dad was there in transition video taping me - so I was able to see FIRST HAND how freakin’ slow I am in transition!!!! I will have to see if I can edit out that part of the video and post it - I am so slow - putting on my shoes and socks, and my gloves and helmet…like - I feel like I’m being sort-of fast when I’m doing it, but watching it I look like I’m going in slow motion! It’s like I don’t know what to do next - I definitely need to practice if I want to get serious. To add to the long transition was the fact that I couldn’t find my dumb bike - the rows were super crowded and they were labeled with letters rather than numbers, and I couldn’t remember if they were in alphabetical order from the entrance or exit.

The bike was pretty uneventful, except for the fact that it was raining lightly, which made the road slick and made me afraid of falling. I went back and forth with this lady for a while - she was faster on the flats and downhills and I was faster on the up-hills, so we kept passing each other. Finally she got in front of me at the end and I never did catch back up to her. I decided I would rather live and let her pass me than die from slipping on wet pavement and getting hit by a car. (The roads were pretty empty, though, which was good). My bike to run transition was no better than swim to bike - not sure what the hold up was but comparing my time to other people it was embarrassingly much slower. Again - I felt strong starting the run - it was almost like my legs were getting let out of a cage after being pent up. I was talking and cheering people on the entire time - I saw Todd at about the 3 mile mark and he told me there was a girl ahead and to pass her, which I of course did. He told me I looked strong - I felt great! Unfortunately, around mile 3 my dumb knee started to feel weird - but I still felt good - it didn’t seem to hinder my performance any - but it was still very depressing to feel a dull pain with every step. I was still running great, though, passing quite a few people - I got passed by a few guys, but that’s it. The pain wasn’t enough to slow me down or cause me to change my running (at least I don’t think it did); but just the presence of it probably messed me up psychologically. I had my eye on the lady that passed me on the bike, and I think I could have passed her had I been more mentally strong. After the knee pain I decided to maintain my pace, rather than pick it up and risk possibly hurting myself, so I didn’t catch her. I finished with a 2:33, which at the time I thought was a 2:57 because I was going on the finish clock time - duh - my wave started a half hour AFTER they started the clock! I took 3rd in my age group, and Todd took 2nd in his - so we both got cute little medals!

Here are my splits:

Swim 1500 meters - 28:08
T1 - 3:37
Bike - 40K - 1:11:31 (20.8 mph)
T2 - 2:12
Run - 10K - 48:06 (7:46 pace/mile)

Total time: 2:33:35
3rd Place in my age group.

I guess I’m happy with this - considering all of the circumstances. Now I need to figure out what the heck is going on with my knee (almost 100% sure it’s ITB). I see the Dr. tomorrow - stay tuned!

I’ve been meaning to give a more detailed recap of the greater cleveland half ironman that I did last week. First of all - the day started EARLY - I had to wake up at 4 am. in order to get there in time to get all of my stuff ready in transition (transition area closed at 6:45). Well, no sooner do I get my bike out of my car then some guy walks by and tells me that they canceled the swim. What? Ugh…darn it. That means it’s not going to be a triathlon! Oh well, can’t blame them that the lake was choppy and they didn’t want us to drown. So I find out that we’re going to do a 1.2 mile run instead, which means that I want to warm up before the start. Scheduled start for the 1/2 iron was moved up to 7:30, so Janet and I decided to do a warmup beforehand. On our way back to the start all of these people start running towards us - but it wasn’t 7:30 yet - so I thought did they just start the guys first? Nope. They started the race early. So Janet and I sprint back to the start and then turn around and run after everyone else. I would guess we were about 3 min. behind at this point. So I get to my bike stuff and there is Steve right next to my stuff - I thought I only had girls next to me, but maybe he squeezed in after I had already had my stuff setup - nope - he just went to the wrong row. Although it sure was funny seeing his giant running shoes sitting there with my stuff. So I get on my bike and Janet flies out of transition ahead of me. I’m thinking - I’ll just try to keep her in site on the bike, because there is no way I’m in as good of biking shape as she is. Then not even 500 ft. out of the transition area there she is off of her bike. I thought she had fallen or something - but no, she got a flat tire already!!! I felt SO bad for her. What a way to start the bike. So I just go off by myself, trying to get into a rhythm. It never happened. The bike was VERY tough for me for some reason. After 30 miles I was just done. I knew exactly how many miles I had to go because I had on my garmin (actually had it on run mode so I was getting an alert every mile…) so I was fully aware of how many more miles I had to go. I was SO tired and not only did my shoulders hurt which always happens on the bike, but my hamstrings were not happy AT ALL. Finally the bike was over at pretty much exactly 56 miles according to Garmin, and I headed back to transition area. I stood there for a few min trying to stretch out my neck and then I switched shoes and headed out for 13.1 miles of bliss!

Why do I look like I’m scared?!?!

Wouldn’t you know it - there was Elizabeth and Melissa out cheering us on. Those girls ROCK. I was pretty tired when I first saw Elizabeth, but I tried to look like I wasn’t. She was cheering and screaming like crazy and I was super happy that she was out there. She ran with me for about 1/2 a mile and then said she would see me later because she was afraid that she would get in trouble for running with me. I said ok, and just tried to keep a pace that didn’t feel like it would kill me. The majority of the race was me trying not to think about the fact that I had to run 13.1 miles. Going from bike to run is NOT EASY. It’s definitely a feeling that you have to get used to, and since I had done a total of 0 brick workouts in preparation for this race, I was NOT used to it. I just kept on trotting along - and then Elizabeth caught up with me and ran with me, which helped me A LOT because she was talking. I can’t really remember all of what she was talking about, but it was nice to have her running with me. It made it easier for sure. I got a side stitch and she walked with me, and was very encouraging the whole time telling me she was impressed that I wasn’t complaining. (I just learned to keep it inside - trust me I was in pain.) We saw Janet and I only had about 3 miles left, so Elizabeth went out with her and I finished up the rest on my own. I think final finish time was 5:04 - OMG - I just checked online and they have posted splits - and how completely AWFUL - because of the early start that Janet and I missed, my first 1.2 miles took me 10:43!!!!! That is absolutely hilarious!!! Janet and I had our garmins on and I think the first mile was ~6:40 for us. Oh well. So I’m going to say that my time was exactly 5 hours for this triathlon.

I look like I’m sleeping - that’s how tired I was…

Looking at my splits - I’m pretty happy with my performance, and no wonder I was in so much pain on the bike - my speed was 18.7 mph! That’s pretty fast for me. I’m also happy with my transition times, which aren’t that great in general, but for me they are good compared to what they usually are (I think at Steelhead one of my transition times was like 7 min…tee hee). So here are my splits (GCT - sorry I complained that you didn’t have splits - I guess it just took you a little longer to post them to your website):

Greater Cleveland Half Iron Triathlon 2008

Run 1.2 miles (swim replacement): 10:43 (really it was probably ~7 min)
T1: 1:39
Bike 56 miles: 2:59:37 / 18.7 mph
T2: 2:17
Run 13.1 miles: 1:50:19 / 8:25 pace

Finish Time: 5:04:35

Here’s a link to the online results.

Now onto some more fun stuff - the Twilight Trail Run! Elizabeth, Melissa, Janet and I all did this one last year and had a complete blast, so of course we decided to do it again. This year Elizabeth and I returned as team Two Trail Freaks confident we would take first.

Two Trail Freaks took FIRST PLACE again, baby!!!! (Yes - that IS sweat.)

Actually, Elizabeth was confident for 1st place, I was a little worried since, oh, you know, she’s WAY faster than me!!! So I was nervous that I would cause us to loose - but not too nervous since Elizabeth was sore from an upper-body workout so if she tried to beat me up I could easily take her. Hahahaha.

We did about 15 min. of warming up and then headed over to the start to watch all the old people go first. (This race is unique in that they do staggered start based on gender and age.) Our team started with the 18-39 women group. I could have started earlier since they had me down as 46 years old - but I decided that would be cheating and started with my real age group. They started us and immediately Elizabeth was out in front - I stayed with her for about 1/4 mile and then settled into a pace that I was able to keep relatively comfortably. The first mile has a nice big hill and Janet caught me on it and passed me (I’m just not good on hills). Once we got to the top I caught her and we stayed with each other the whole time. I was sure she was going to pass me at any moment but I just tried to keep a consistent pace so that I could have my final kick at the end. This race is so awesome because it’s all on the bridal trails at N. Chagrin Reservation. There is one really steep up-hill and several rolling hills with one steep down-hill. The big down-hill is near Squire’s Castle and my toe was killing me as I flew down it - I kept thinking of how lovely my black toe was going to look after this! Janet stayed right on my back the whole time! I was sure I would loose her on the downs because I have gotten pretty good at them, but she was right next to me the entire time pushing me to keep my pace and not slack even though I was getting tired. I knew we were close after Squire’s Castle, because it’s where we warmed up, so I picked it up a little bit - not realizing they were going to make us do a big loop in the grass at the end! I am VERY disappointed that this dumb guy flew past me at the end and I didn’t have anything left to race him. Darn it! If there is one thing that I will not stand for is some guy beating me with only a few hundred feet left in the race and I just didn’t have anything left at that point. Blah. I think my finish time was 37:00 exactly based on garmin, which is a 7:26 pace. I wish I would have been a little faster than that, but at least it’s faster than last year’s time. Janet finished right behind me, maybe one or two seconds behind. It was great that we pushed each other, because I really think I would have slowed down if she wouldn’t have been running with me. Elizabeth is screaming to us from the finish something about ‘I already chugged a beer!!’ So I finish and the guy hands me a beer and I’m like - man do I love this race! In came Melissa and Laura and Bridget and all the rest of our buds. I think Janet even cheered for peanut as Laura was finishing! (Laura is a super fast hard-core runner who is pregnant and she calls the baby ‘peanut’). Todd of course did great and finished in 33 min. probably not even trying to run hard and stopping to gather spiders and walking half of it. (I’m exaggerating here, but it sure seems like he barely tries and still runs super fast!!)

Don’t I look glamorous?! Elizabeth said to take a ‘funny’ pic. too bad I was the only one who posed like a FREAK!

So they did the awards and Two Trail Freaks took FIRST female team! Sweet! We each got a certificate for any pair of Saucony running shoes that we want! How cool is that? This race is awesome. They have a cheap entry ($20); great stuff (headlamp and do-rag); great prizes; great food and beer; great well-marked course; and a great cause. Anyone reading this MUST do this race next year!

Todd took the last brownie but was so kind as to share it with me… OINK - OINK!!

Ok - that wraps up the last two races I have done.  Now it’s time to get serious with my Towpath marathon training.  I want to qualify for Boston!

Yesterday I decided to do a trail race, not really as a race, but more of a training run. Bridget was doing it and Todd thought it would be fun, too. E-Speed and Daisy joined and even Barb was there! It was awesome to have so many of the SERC running girls (and Todd) represented!

Before even starting I was sweaty and overheated, so I knew it was a smart move to treat this as a training run and not push myself too hard. Besides, I was going at a pretty hard effort biking to and from work yesterday, so I was still a little tired. (Oh - and eating Mexican food and drinking a huge margarita at 9 pm the night before didn’t help much either!!) Daisy and Bridget had the same idea, but of course E-Speed was out to win it! First 500 feet of the race she was out of site. Daisy and I stayed together talking for about the first 3 miles and then I started to say something to her and she wasn’t behind me anymore…she basically biked a century the day before so her legs were more shot than mine. I figured I would just stick with these other 4 girls in front of me for a while - but even their pace was a bit slow for me so I ended up passing them. It was cute because this one girl and I kept going back and forth between who was in front. I would pass her on the flats and downhills and she would pass me on the up-hills (I walked all of the up-hills). Then at the first 5 mile mark (and the 5-mile finish) she picked up her pace and passed me on the flat part on the grass and I realized that she wasn’t even doing the 10-miler. Darn it. There went my running partner. So I was pretty much alone for the 2nd 5-mile loop. It was boring because there wasn’t anyone around for a while. Eventually I got to some guys but I passed them, then I passed a couple more girls and some more guys. It was fun passing people! I guess they all started out too fast or they just weren’t used to trail running. Even though my pace was relaxed I was starting to get really hot and tired the last 2 miles and was looking forward to finishing. I walked the entire grassy hill part because I was SOOOOOO HOT and sweat was just dripping off of my face and chin and my stomach was a bit icky from the Mexican food. Even with walking so much no one passed me…I was hoping someone would catch up to me so I didn’t have to run alone…it’s really boring running alone. About 1/4 of a mile to the finish I passed 2 girls but I don’t think they were doing the 10-miler (to be politically correct I will leave it at that). So I finished at 1:36:06. Todd and E-Speed had been done for over 10 minutes!! I felt good, though, and I was really glad I didn’t try to kill myself. Daisy and I even managed to place in our age group! Technically I got 5th, but because 1st and 2nd were overall finishers I got 3rd! Woo Hoo!!!

Next weekend is the Buckeye 50k, Winking Lizard, and the XTerra triathlon - I’m going to have a lot of posting to do! (I’m not doing the 50k, but Todd, Daisy, E-Speed, Barb, and a ton of others are - I’ll be cheering them on and taking pictures)

A sweaty freak excited to have placed in her age group!

Elevation, grade, and speed vs. time

Today I made a last minute decision to do the Blossom Time 5.25 mile run in Chagrin Falls.  Todd and I did it last year and it’s fun because afterwords you can pig out at all of the vendors selling things like elephant ears and french fries - you know - just what you need to clog up your arteries after a fast run!  I got 3rd place in my age group last year with a 39:14 and I figured I could do about the same this year.  (That’s about a 7:28 pace).  It was really hot last year, though, and this year it was nice and cool - plus I’m down a few pounds from last year so I guessed I would be a bit faster.

I met up with E-speed and did an easy warmup and realized that it was definitely a good decision to wear a tank top rather than a shirt.  Even though it was cold the sun made it pretty hot and I was already sweaty when we lined up at the start.  I got a bit behind the faster-looking guys and started off the first mile easier than I wanted to - mostly because I was dodging people.  First mile according to Mr. Garmin was 6:42 - not too bad considering it was all freakin uphill!  I met up with Steve from Vertical Runner and he mentioned that he was still recovering from the Cleveland Marathon - duh! - that race SUCKS!  He pulled away and I just tried to keep E-speed in sight - since I knew as long as I could see her that meant I was going fast.  :)  The second mile was marked early according to my Garmin - but I was also slower (uphill again).   Finally at about 2.5 miles it started going downhill.  There was this lady who looked like she was right out of the 80’s and she had this shaggy hair-do - all down.  (How do people run with their hair down?  I can’t stand it in my face!!)  She was about 10 sec ahead of me and so was this other super skinny lady wearing pink shorts.  I kept them both in site but figured it would be tough to pass them since they were both slowly getting farther ahead.  I think a little before the 4th mile I passed a girl in Vertical Runner attire who was very polite and then Eileen passed me - I didn’t even realize it was her at first.  Right around the 4th mile this high school girl came right up next to me and I was feeling good so we both picked it up a bit.  She was not gonna let me go!  She stayed right with me - we picked up the pace to ~6:30 and I was starting to get tired.  She would NOT let me get ahead of her - we passed Steve and then Eileen and then the 80’s looking chick - and then I decided to let her go.  I know!!!  Not my typical style - as I let her go right when we passed the 5 mile marker - so we only had .25 to go!!!  Aarrgh.  I just didn’t have anything left - and I kind of wanted her to beat me in a way - she was young - had a 2008 Senior t-shirt on - I figured it would probably feel really good for her to beat me.  Plus - I was more interested in passing the 80’s lady, so after I saw we passed her I sort of decided that was my goal so I was done.  Now that I’m thinking about it I shouldn’t have let her beat me.  Oh well.  I still beat my time from last year by over 3 min.

Here are the splits according to my Garmin:

mile 1: 6:42
mile 2: 7:10
mile 3: 6:47
mile 4: 6:57
mile 5: 6:43

Total time 35:55 - aprox. 6:51 pace.  1st place age group.

E-speed had an incredible race and crushed it coming in 5th OVERALL.  Todd did pretty well also and probably just missed getting an age-group award. 

 Sunday was the Mom’s 5k that one of the SERC ladies puts on every year.  I went into it hoping to get a PR, which I think would be anything under 21 min.  I was pretty sure that I could come close to having right under a 7-min pace, but ya never know - especially since the last time I was on the track it took me 6:30 to do my mile and that was ONE mile at max. effort.  (That was without dinner and going on 3 hours of sleep though…)

I did an easy warmup w/ some other runner friends (There were TONS of SERC runners there - way to represent, SERC!) and then lined up for the start right behind the fast people.  We started with the ring of a bell and off we went.  I was being careful not to go out too fast, since I wasn’t sure what a ‘normal’ 5k pace should feel like.  Oh, and of course I forgot my watch - AGAIN!  The first mile was 6:30.  I felt pretty good and figured I could probably hold that pace.  There was a lady in front of me and I was trying to stay with her. (I later found out she was in her 40’s!)   Mile 2 was 12:50 -I still felt pretty good and was excited that I was probably going to be under 21:00.  The last mile seemed tougher than the first 2, but I tried to maintain a consistent pace.  As we got to the track for some reason I was thinking we had to do 2 laps - so I didn’t do my usual off the hook kick until I rounded the track and saw that duh, it was just one partial lap!  I finished with a 20:27 - 6:35 pace.  It was good enough to get me 3rd in my age group, and since first and second place went to girls on the Vertical Runner team (congrats to an INCREDIBLE time, E-speed!!), I think that’s pretty sweet!  I’m also psyched because I wasn’t going all out - so next 5k I do I’ll know to push a bit harder!  Congrats to all of the SERC people who ran.  We sure are a group of FREAKS!

Training recap from last week

Mon: 4 miles 8 min pace at lunch, “Run for the Border” Cinco de Mayo race ~4 miles < 7 min pace
Tue: 2 miles easy
Wed: rest
Thurs: 4.5 miles medium pace during lunch
Fri: Cycling class 45 min - tough
Sat: 7 mile trail run
Sun: Mom’s 5k race - 3rd age group - 20:27

Totals:
run: 25 miles
bike: 12 miles
swim: none