Training in Montana

4 miles from home. Recovery run, legs felt rough after Saturday and all of last week. Nice and cold, 54F, from last night's cold front and rain.

AP: 9:33

Noon: Boot Camp at the Y. Guest instructor and she wasn't Lindsay-beastly, but definitely different from our normal crazy lady/awesome instructor. I'll be sore tomorrow, especially upper body. I figure I'll do 4 miles on Mondays then Boot Camp and hopefully that will be enough cross training. Maybe I need to mix it up more than that and do cycling on Wednesdays? We'll see. 

6 miles from home, a bit earlier than normal as I needed to drop off my daughter early for youth camp. Woke at 5:15, out the door at 5:30, and gorgeous morning. Sunrise at 6:05, and I caught it on camera, and in a new spot as typically I'm on the out route, but this time was on the return. Beautiful. Felt pretty good once I warmed up. Excited to race on Saturday.

AP: 8:41 

4.5 miles at Noon from the Y on the last few miles of the 5 mile course for Saturday. It was 80 or so, and I ran 2 miles up a steep hill, turned and bombed down the hill. At least I learned what not to do - I went way too fast down that section and was in the 5:30-6:00 range, which is way too fast for these legs right now. I then hit flat, slowed down quite a bit, then missed a turn as I wasn't paying attention. At that point I put the brakes on and walked a little bit, ran most of the rest of the course, but quit early as my legs were shot. I'll do some slow miles tomorrow and Friday and legs should be rested for Saturday morning.

AP: doesn't matter

Didn't want to wake up or run, but finally got out the door. Was planning on 4 miles, but I and my legs weren't feeling it, so I cut it short at 1.5 and turned around.

AP: no idea, don't care, but slow

4 hot miles at Noon to stretch out my legs. Slow pace, glad I brought water.

Small race in Billings. 5 & 2 mile, but seems the 5 mile attracted most serious runners. My A goal was to break 35:00, and I accomplished that but just barely. I am not in 5-6.2 mile racing shape, and without 600 feet of elevation drop I would not have met my goal. Happy with the result, and with my racing tactics as I’ve learned by reading so many race reports on this blog: hold steady, run your race, don’t give it all too early, then give it all you’ve got and when you’re seeing stars, hope the finish line is very close. All those happened today.

Now on to continuing to train for the sake of training, which is just fine with me. I like to run as it keeps me sane.

Blow by blow for posterity's sake. I was tired last night and got to bed just after 11. However, I woke up at 3:00 am as a bug bite on my right foot was itching just like the night before. At this point I was up for a while. Tried to sleep on the couch and as I was drifting off at 4:10 I gasped: I hadn't remembered to get my packet, and it was at the bank where I work, but in the lobby, where I don't have access. I quickly sent an email to someone who could help me, but I doubt she checked her work emails over the weekend, let alone by 6 am on a Saturday. 8 am race time, bus to the start would leave at 7:15. Slept for a bit, woke up 5 minutes before the 6 am alarm. Got dressed, grabbed my stuff, and got to my work just after 6:30. I then had a massive brain fart and couldn't remember my code to get in the door. I tried 3 times and couldn't get in. What the what? I've worked in this building 13 years. Went back to the truck and finally figured it out. Got in the building, and saw a sign to call Security with questions. Called and a regular guy came over, let me into the bank lobby, and I found my packet. Phew! Headed over to the Y, right near the finish, and dropped my stuff off so I could change after the race. Got to the finish line and waited for a bit for the (short) bus to show up. Pushed my way onto the bus and rode standing at the very back to the start line. Went for a warmup jog of maybe 1 mile and only saw 1 other person warming up; it was my son's former classmate and runner for University of Minnesota. He won by a mile and beat last year's time by 2:30 minutes. Got to the start line, turned on the GPS, and got ready. My goal in this 5 mile race was to be just under a 7 minute mile and be less than 35 minutes. Race started and I was at the front and was quickly passed by 15 or so people. First 2 miles are mostly flat, with a slight downhill. I looked at my watch often and stayed just below 7:00 most of the time. A couple people were ahead of me and I wanted to reel them in but told myself to hold off, run my race, and if I catch them at the end, I catch them. Just after 2 miles the huge downhill starts. I could easily run a 5 minute mile pace on this stretch, but as I found out Wednesday, if I do that it destroys my legs, so I held back. Those in front of me gapped me by quite a ways, but I stayed at a 6:37-40 pace most of the way down. Turned onto a mostly flat road for a couple blocks. and two guys about my age passed me. I stayed close to them, ran my pace, and passed them not long after that. After 1/2 mile we turned into a park and followed the path for a bit then came out on the other side of the park. It was less than 1 mile left and I was doing well and feeling pretty good. 1/4 mile later the short hill hits. I've run up this hill dozens and dozens of time, and it helped greatly today. I ran up it fiercely, 7:16 pace and I think I dropped some people here. After the top, a turn East for a short stretch, then the final 1/2 mile stretch to the finish. I started picking up the effort (hopefully the pace but I don't know). It was tough and I thought I heard footsteps, so I kept going and going. I was struggling to keep going, but I kept going and upped my effort. I saw the finish and as I got closer I saw 34:xx and knew I had my goal if I could continue on. Just before crossing I was nearly to the point of seeing stars. I think another 0.1 mile and that might have happened. Finished just under my goal, grabbed some water, and walked around the block. After the walk I felt a bit better. Got my time printed out, found a co-worker and asked her to grab my age division prize as I needed to leave. Grabbed a Dilly bar, banana, oranges, granola bars, more water, and headed to the Y to change. Good race, nice to hit my goal. I haven't done too many shorter races, so it was fun for me to finally hit a goal I wanted.