Durbin Classic

My left foot has been bothering me all week, but yesterday I decided to test it and test my speed.  Jess, Chuck, and I met Jonathon and Ian for the Durbin Classic 5k.  It was about 34 degrees with a slight breeze from the south which just made it feel colder.  I had noticed in the past that the winning times for the 5k were just faster than 20 minutes, so I had planned to run somewhere around 21 - 21:30 and come in the top 3 or 4.

What pre-race jitters?

I made my way to the front of the group and started right behind a group of guys and about 10 kids under the age of 15.  I figured out right away, with the race being for the benefit of the Durbin Elementary School, that these kids were going to go out hard and have fun.  And I was right.  Gotta give them credit - many of them stayed up there for the first half to 3/4 miles.

About that time, four of us guys took off.  The race had both a 5k and 10k and I had no idea who was running which race.  The overall leader took off - he must have been running just over 6 minute mile pace.  After a mile or so, I made my way up to second place after running the first mile in 6:26.  Then the breeze kicked me.

My second mile dropped to almost 6:40 and I was sucking that cold air hard.  Just after the second mile marker, someone passed me and I could tell another guy was on his way.  That was about the time I could see the school and the race finish in the distance and it set in that nobody else was going to pass me.

I kept the second place guy in my sights and then made my move in the last quarter mile.  With just a couple hundred meters to go, I passed him and strided out to the finish.  It was at that point that I found out the guy who was in overall first was running the 10k - which meant I had just won the 5k in 20:27!

Striding hard to the finish

I went back to the course and cheered everyone else along.  I saw Jess and Chuck coming down the road.  I ran with Jess the last little bit, and while trying to provide inspiration to help her to the finish line, she essentially told me off.  She told me she had nothing left in the tank.  However, what she didn't know until later was that she had ran some of that second mile at a pace faster than she has done before (thanks Chuck!) so it made sense.  When all was said and done, she had actually ran a new PR in a time of 31:54!

Jess and me after the race

Not too bad for either of us, considering we only got about 5.5 hours of sleep after staying up for the entire IU game the night before.

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Damn Ankle

This has been a pissy week for me.  Last Thursday, I woke early and nailed 2 mile repeats.  Completely kicked my butt, but felt good.  After work, I met Jess and we did a "Brew Mile".  Think about it - for $5 you get to participate in a 1 mile run / walk and then afterwards get a free beer!  A pure genius came up with this idea!  Maybe someone can come up with a 2 mile fun run and you would get TWO beers afterwards.  Or maybe....

Anyway, I didn't run Friday but Jess and I hit the gym on Saturday.  I struggled through 4 easy miles.  My left ankle felt weak and sore on the outside by the ankle joint.  I spent the afternoon icing it and relaxing.

Due to a busy week, and wanting to play it safe, I took a few days off.  Outside of getting my 10,000 daily steps (damn Fitbit...) and volleyball on Tuesday, I did nothing.  It was somewhat glorious, but I also felt very lazy and anxious.

Thursday finally rolled around, and we hit the gym.  I tested it with just over 3 easy miles.  A little sore, but maybe I was just being overly nervous and careful due to not wanting to make it worse.  Regardless, I got through it, no issues afterwards, and have been nursing it all day today.

Tomorrow, Jess and I have a 5k with many of our friends.  That will be the real test.  I plan to do some easy jogging warm up to get it ready and then see what it can do.  I am shooting for somewhere around 21 or 21:30 tomorrow so we'll see how it goes.

Oh, also over the last week I have done Pilates twice with Jess at gym - once Sunday, and once this morning.  My abs have hurt from both days!  We'll see how that factors into tomorrow's adventure.

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Selection Sunday and Running Ramblings

Today is a big day if you like college basketball - we are about 4 hours away from Selection Sunday announcements.  Being a fan of the Indiana Hoosiers, I am keeping my fingers crossed that we get a 4 seed in the Midwest, but time will tell.  All I can say is that this year's tournament is going to be a blast.  There are a couple teams right now playing as well as anyone, but really there are 15-20 teams that have a chance of winning it all.  I believe my brackets will be toast by the evening games on Thursday.

Jess has been creating a revolution with LA Fitness to get Sunday kids club hours at our location (if you are a LA Fitness member, please call the Noblesville, IN location at 317-774-0900 and tell them you want Sunday kids club hours!).  It would be nice to be able to do some of the classes on Sundays, but having children makes that difficult.  Today we split up the morning - I got to the gym right as it opened at 8 am and got 10 miles in on the treadmill, and Jess brought the girls at 9:30 to trade off so she could go to a Pilates class.  It worked, but that lost hour from the time change last night is really taking its toll on me as the day goes on.  My foot felt weak early on, but after ten minutes of running it felt fine and the rest of the run was no problem.  Think I may have to be a little more proactive with my foot stretching and warming up.

Anyway, after today I have now logged roughly 54 miles for the month.  In January and February I averaged around 83 miles per month, so I am way ahead of where I was the first two months of the year and all I can see is a big ole' "100 miles" waiting ahead.  I am also now 24 miles ahead of my pace for 1000 for the year.  I figured as the weather turned nicer, and once I started getting longer weekend runs, that the mileage would increase.  Still gotta keep the focus, understanding that I am very lazy in November and December, so I have to rack up the miles while I can before then.

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Sunday Runday ... and Pain Day

I finally caved.  Jess has wanted me to join her for a Pilates class at LA Fitness for as long as I can remember.  Typically, she does a class on Thursday's and Saturday's and that gives me a chance to spend an hour on the treadmill.  Seeing a tire around my midsection, I have realized I need to work on my core, so when she found a class on the schedule for today, I told her I would join her.

Ok - I told her I would join her a couple days ago.  Then we decided that last night we would grill out and play some board games with friends.  That also included having a few beers, and staying up about 3 hours past our normal bed time.  And to top that off, I still woke up about 6 AM this morning.  Needless to say, I was not as excited about the 9:45 class this morning when she reminded me about it.  But I sucked it up and off we went.

I found out that my legs are in great shape.  Not overly surprising, since I run races all year long.  But I also found out I probably have the worst abdominal muscles of anyone that was present in class.  And that included all the senior citizen ladies that were in there.  Yeah, my abs are like jelly, and will probably be pretty pissed off at me tomorrow morning.  But, in all fairness, I did like the class.  And I probably will try to incorporate it into my routine.  I realized there is a lot that a class like that offers the could help my running long term.

We still got out for a long run this afternoon.  Even with a 12 mph wind, we nailed down 10 miles of me running while Jess rode the bike next to me.  I had planned on it being an easy run, but that didn't end up happening.  Thanks to analytical tools on Strava, I found out that I spent over half of the run in my "tempo" speed range.  

Speaking of Strava, I got my first "premium" training program email today.  It let me know that tomorrow is a rest day and I have no workout scheduled.  Kind of defeats the purpose of the email, but whatever.  I am excited to have a day of no exercise - I'm sure I will need a rest day as I slither down the stairway in the morning in pain.

Left, right, repeat

February Blues?

After two months, my training log is consistent workouts but lower miles than I would like to have at this moment.  In January, I had 14 run entries covering 88 miles.  After my run tonight, I ended February with 16 runs covering 83 miles.  That puts me at 171 miles YTD, which means I am currently 7 miles ahead of pace to break 1,000 miles for the year.

That last sentence makes me happy.  My goal from day one has been to top the century mark for the year.  Last year, I finished somewhere around 750 miles and felt that 1,000 was a pretty good leap but something within reason.  It's nice to be on pace for it, but I also fear the fact that my November and December months typically suck pretty badly when it comes to mileage.

While I am happy to be ahead of pace, I'm also kind of disappointed right now.  Had you told me on January 1st that through two months I would have 30 runs I would have figured it would have totaled somewhere closer to 200 miles.  My runs have been consistently in the 5-7 mile range each time out, but I really don't have any distance to speak of yet.  Hopefully over the next couple weekends I can log a 10 miler.

Yesterday was a first for me, and one that I will remember for a long time.  It was probably my best 2 mile run ever.  With the weather being nice (although extremely windy), Jess and I planned to run a couple easy miles while the girls (ages 8 and 5) rode their bikes next to us.  I figured it would be a slow go, especially with the wind, but we did 2 miles at about a 11:55 / mile average pace!  Granted, we had to have a stop at the playground, but with that being Annabell's first bike ride on a "big girl's bike" I was extremely surprised and happy that we managed that distance at that pace.  I foresee that type of activity happening a few more times over the summer.

My legs feel like jelly tonight.  Feeling rested, I decided to nail some Yasso 800's this evening on the treadmill.  After my warm up, I clocked 5 x half miler at 8.5 mph with a short recovery jog between each set.  That was my first speed workout in a while, and couple that with the gym being roughly the temperature of the sun's surface, I was exhausted afterwards.  But it's done, in the books, and I'm happy about it.

I have an easy run planned for tomorrow, then volleyball game at 9:30 (yikes), then some miles Thursday, Friday, and Saturday this week.  March hopefully will have a spike in miles.

Left, right, repeat!