travels, races, and other musings

I'm so proud of where I am as a runner these days. I really never thought I would be able to run as fast as I did yesterday. It was a tougher course than I was mentally prepared for and there were several times where I really had to put mind over matter and just push through. The end result was that I made my aggressive goal. I really wanted to come in under 1 hour and I did. The time on my GPS when I stopped it read 59:01 and my official chip time was even better at 58:44. (There are always a few seconds of disorientation on my part at the end of a race where I remember to hit the stop button.) Roger also set a personal best in the 5k yesterday, so I'm pleased for him as well. My splits definitely reflect the course, but I'm pleased that even with a HUGE uphill for the entire second mile, I kept pretty well on pace. When I was between mile markers 2 and 3, I seriously thought the hill would never end (heading southbound on South Congress between Riverside and Oltorf ...

A 10k PR I ran a race this morning. I hadn't really planned on it, but I knew there was going to be one and I went back and forth about doing it. Yesterday morning when I got up and saw 8 miles on my training plan, I assessed my body and it told me it didn't want to go 8 miles. So I decided 6.2 miles fast would even out to 8 slow so I headed down to Run Tex and registered for the race. We did a really short (5 miles) and easy bike ride yesterday to spin my legs out a bit. This morning I woke up several times: 4 AM, 5 AM, 6 AM, of course, going back to sleep at 6:15 so that my alarm could go off at 6:30. Luckily, with Daylight Saving Time ending, it was actually just about my regular time to get up. My stomach was feeling weird and I was a little concerned. I ate my normal pre-race breakfast (small bowl of Rice Krispies with a tiny bit of soy milk, half an apple with the peel removed, and a small glass of juice) and headed out. I arrived at the race site and did a warm up ...

Yesterday was not my best race ever. It was hot, the humidity was near 100% (though it never rained), the course was very hilly, and I had just gotten over a cold. Even so, I only finished 4 minutes over my previous 10k time so all in all it wasn't awful. My shins were bothering me a bit and the weather was so oppressive that I walked a lot of the race but I finished in 1:16:50 at a 12:22 minute mile. I had some glitches with my technical stuff. My GPS was acting up a bit - it was cloudy and so it thought I was inside. It finally got going, but it was already about a quarter mile into the race before it started keeping track. Then there was a little matter with my iPod shuffle. For some reason, it would only play the same two songs over and over. :( I ran the entire race (well, except for the first 10 minutes or so while I listened to those first two songs) without music. I was going to start training without music and wean myself off the thing since I can't wear it for t...

My First 10k I made it through my first 10k yesterday. My original estimation was 1 hour and 15 minutes and I made it in 1 hour, 12 minutes, 37 seconds, which I'm very happy with. I actually don't have all that much to say about the race. Basically I just kept running! I tried to run fairly conservatively so that I would ensure I had enough energy to make it through the whole 6 miles. Between mile 4 and 5 I had a strange burst of energy and ran quite quickly for a few minutes, which felt really good. At the end, when I came towards the finish, I ran as fast as I could and gave that last bit of energy to a sprint. Here are my split times using my GPS watch. I tried to hit it right at the mile markers, but you'll see some are slightly off (in particular, I got distracted at the water stop at mile 2). Mile 1: 1.01 miles in 10:23 minutes, 10:19/mi average Mile 2: 1.09 miles in 12:46 minutes, 11:41/mi average Mile 3: .93 miles in 11:18 minutes, 12:12/mi average Mile 4...