Rudolph's Revenge 10k

Today I raced the last race of my fall training program, and it went well. I went in with very little expectation. I haven't been following a structured program since the Colder Boulder and my run yesterday felt slow and stiff. And I'm starting to feel like something has to go wrong during every race. Today my headphones crapped out on me and I didn't have music. It didn't bother me as much as I thought it would, though without music you get to hear everyone breathing around you.

I took the first mile easy, mostly messing around with my ipod, trying to verify it was indeed the headphones. I think this was key, not going out crazy like I did in the Colder Boulder. Then I tried to keep it smooth and easy for the 1st 5k. The course was hillier than I expected and there was a nasty little hill at the turn around point.

My mile splits ended up being 9:00, 8:56, 9:04, 8:58, 8:50, 8:55. My first 5k was 28:18 and the second was 27:15, which may be the first time in history that I've managed negative splits. I spent the last mile trying to catch a chick wearing a red footy sleeper and she out-sprinted me in the end. I might have told her, "Damn you" at the end. In a very friendly way. And even though we had timing chips, there wasn't a starting mat and I was a bit in the back (as usual). So my watch time was 55:33 (for 6.24 miles and an 8:54 pace) and my official time was 55:56 with a 9:02 pace. There were over 900 finishers in both the 5 and 10k and a mass start, you so can see how it would be hard to get a completely accurate time.

So next up is the Canyonlands 1/2 marathon on March 20th. It's a race I didn't even know I really wanted to do until I found out it was a lotto entry. And then of course I had to get in. I'll be racing with Becky, Laura and TriBabe Rachel in Moab, it's going to be a blast! In the meanwhile, I'm going to take the next 10 days off from running. Completely. And just the fact that it's freaking me out so much proves that it's time. When I come back in January, I can concentrate on the 1/2 training.

First Night of Hanukah

It feels like the kids have been counting down since before Halloween, but Hanukah is finally here.

We all lit our menorahs. I waited so long to take the picture that the little ones already had burned out.



I made latkes for dinner:



And in the interest of having as much junk food as possible in the house, I bought sufganiyot. They did not have jelly donuts at King's or Safeway, I had to drive all the way to LeMar's in Louisville for these jelly filled bismarks sufganiyot.



And just a friendly warning - eating 4 latkes, challah, 1/2 a sufganiyot and some pre-dinner gingerbread cookies may lead to some indigestion.

And then onto the real fun - presents!





Bionicles for all from Grandma. Thanks Grandma!



The boys put together their sets in a flash, then Alex read a Bionicle comic book before bed.

Winter Training II

After 2 days in a row on the treadmill, I was ready to run outside, even if it was only 19 degrees. This week and bought some YakTrax to assist me in my winter running. They are like car tire cables, but for your shoes:



And, as advertised, they worked very well on packed snow. It felt very nice to run when the trail looked like this:



Unfortunately, 3 of the 5 miles had new snow drifts (courtesy of the 100 mph gusts of wind the night before) and running in drifts is not easy, no matter what fancy foot gear you have. I plugged along went for a hour, though I posted my slowest run pace EVER, 12:07 minute miles. And you know what, it was still worth it to be outside in the beautiful sunshine.

This morning I did the 6:30 am master's class and it felt great to knock off over 2 miles of swimming before 8:00 am. Now I have all day to prepare for the first night of Hannukah.

Winter Training

I guess it's going to be one of those winters. At least, it's not off to a very warm start. We have been stuck with highs under 20 degrees for a week, with periodic snow. But fear not, the pool doesn't close. In fact, I know of at least 3 year round outdoor pools in Boulder.

I swam yesterday and it was fine. It was about 10 degrees, but as long as I didn't stop swimming, I was fine. Today, however, was a different story. The air temperature was a bit lower, probably 7 degrees. But (as I learned about half way through the workout) something happened to the water thermostat and the pool temperature was 76. It's normally kept around 82 in winter. To put 76 degrees in perspective, the USAT allows wetsuits up to 78 degrees. I was not wearing a wetsuit today.

But I, and the other 8 intrepid swimmers survived. I didn't really warm up until I ran 30 minutes on the treadmill, that got the juices flowing again.

First Open Riding Session

Now that I've been taking a class at the velodrome, I've developed some mad track skills - enough so that I was certified last week to ride outside of class. That means that my instructor thinks that I'm not a danger to myself or others. Jeremy and I took advantage of our brief break during Sunday school to ride at the track. The first 45 minutes went pretty well. I mostly rode with Jeremy and his teammate Stephan. We kept a nice pace line and then did some fast laps. About when Jeremy had to leave to pick up the kids, a couple new riders showed up, Alan McCormack and his wife. Don't know who Alan is? I didn't either, but then Jeremy told me that he's an old school pro, rode in the '80 in the Coors Classic, did the Tour de France. Won the pro criterium champion ship LAST YEAR. Not the master's division - the regular pro.



Needless to say, when he got on the track, the pace picked up a bit. I was in the middle of a take-a-lap (when you drop down the the sprinters lane and have to ride really fast to catch up to the pace line again) when he got on our pace line and I never could catch up again. I eventually pulled up and caught on the slow way and spent the next 7 minutes trying to stay on the new pace line. And it was super hard. I took a water break and tried again, but only stayed on a few minute more. Thankfully my hour was up by then so I could leave with dignity.

So today I learned that riding 1 hour a week is probably not keeping my bike fitness up and also, that riding with pros is hard. And, also riding with 50 year old men is hard too (even the non-pros).

And I've realized I've been talking about the velodrome for a while, but haven't really explained what it is. It's this track:



And here's a little video about riding on it. It's a little dramatic, but you'll get the picture: http://www.boulderindoorcycling.com/BIC_video.htm

Colder Boulder

The Colder Boulder was my "A" race this fall, the cummulation of my 8 week training program, and also an apt description of the weather this week. This whole week I've not been feeling on top of my game. On Tuesday, my workout was 15 seconds sprints. The last time I did them I was running around a 5:00/mile pace, and this week it was more of a 6:00/mile with the same perceived effort. It was harder to tell how my easy Wednesday run went, as it was freezing and snowing and slippery, so I was naturally slower but my velodrome class felt harder too. I took Thursday off, then did a treadmill workout on Friday. I was supposed to be doing 400 repeats, which seemed treacherous on icy streets but doable (if not boring) inside.

This morning, we had a bit of a heat wave. It's been about 5 degrees this week in the morning, today it was a balmy 19:



Becky and I posing like we did for the Bolder Boulder 6 months ago.



We did manage to get to the race on time today. I KNEW it would help being 2 miles away. We did a 10 minute warm up jog to the start line and I had time to go to the bathroom, do some running drills and some warm-up sprints.

The race itself was hard. Well, the first mile was pretty easy, it was mostly down hill. I saw my fastest mile time yet, 7:57. Which is exciting, but not how I planned on racing today. I was actually shooting for negative splits, but I ended up with 7:57, 9:11 (I swear this mile was straight up hill) and 8:50. My final time was 26:46, one second off my Brighton time. And I would have gotten that last second if I hadn't been following a girl ahead of me who made a wrong turn and didn't go down the finish chute. I didn't come close to meeting my goal of 26:23, which would be an 8:30 pace.

Becky ran the wave that started 10 minutes after mine so I had some time to get my wonderful camera phone ready. She's in the green shirt, about to take out the small girl who literally stopped at the finish mat:



Becky did an awesome job, getting a PR and going under 29 minutes.

And now, I have a pause in my training. I need to make some goals and re-evaluate what the next 8 weeks will bring. Running is still my weakness by far, so I'll probably do another running block. I could even see training for a late spring half marathon, but I don't think there are any races in Colorado. Stay tuned...