And that's how I saved $35

I've had a few races on the schedule this fall, but I haven't actually signed up for any yet, and today was a perfect example as to why. Two months ago, I planned on doing the Panicking Poultry 5k today, then coming back in 3 weeks and getting a faster time in the Colder Boulder. But the weather had other plans and decided to snow 8". Now, I'll be as hard-core as I need to be, but I'm not going to pay $35 to get timed in a sub-optimal race. And oh yeah, the race wasn't canceled either.

I also wanted to race today because one year ago was when my running officially fell apart. One year ago I had thought of training for that half marathon and I kept getting more and more sore and was doing a ton of physical therapy and nothing was helping. I backed out of the half marathon but thought I could at least run the Panicking Poultry. Not so, I posted an official time of 32:xx and limped like an old lady for a week afterwards. In hindsight, I know that the medicine (accutane) that I was taking was responsible for most of the pain, but I did also have issues with my hip flexors that didn't get really resolved until I changed my running form in April. And so my other reason for running again this year was to prove to myself that not only am I heathly, but I'm improving too.

Instead, I went to the gym and ran on the treadmill for 55 minutes. And it was not very much fun. I did a warm up at 5.3 mph and then tried to run 40 minutes at 6.5 mph. I only made it 20 minutes, then did another 10 at 6.2 and finally called it quits and cooled down for 10 minutes. The treadmill is not my friend. I think I need to reexamine my outside running stagedy - I wouldn't have paid $35 to run outside today but in hindsight it would have been fine to run for free in the slush.

I still want to keep up the periodic racing this fall and into the winter, so the Brighton Turkey Trot next weekend might be a possibility too. I'll decide on Friday - or possibly even Saturday morning - on that one. You never know when you might get the swine flu.

Week in Review:

Swimming: 7800 yards
Biking: 1 hour at the track
Running: 17.66 miles (for you, Becky)

Total: 9:12