Training in Montana

4 TM miles this morning at the Y. Typical start up: (2% incline) .5 at 10:00, 1.5 at 8:57, 1 at 8:18, then I finished with a 5K warmup and did 1 at 6:30. That was pretty tough. Legs should recover fully by Thursday morning at 9. Should be perfect weather.

5 TM miles at the Y. My oldest son, freshman in High School, had basketball tryouts at 6 this morning so I got to the Y an hour or more earlier than normal. I was going to do 6 but my legs were feeling tired and because of Thursday's 5K I cut it short. My son starts driving December 10th so that should free up my mornings for longer runs. Looking forward to it.

Current forecast has Thursday's high at 39 degrees with no precipitation. That means it will be chilly at 9 am, probably 25 degrees, but I can handle that. It was looking to be a high of 45 which would mean temps in the 30s which would be a little better. I'd love to wear shorts, singlet, and arm warmers with no hat but it's looking like tights, long-sleeve tech shirt, hat, and gloves. I just don't want to overheat as I plan to redline my HR.

3 TM miles this morning at the Y.

I'm thankful for the ability to run. And for friends and family. And for lots of other good stuff in my life, including this blog. I am blessed.

Run Turkey Run 5K this morning. About 24 degrees at the start, but only a slight breeze. Warmed up 2 miles on the course, and I'm so glad I did. I ran this last year but I forgot how far we went before turning around. This course starts in downtown, goes through streets with the old houses in town, then turns and comes back. While warming up I wore two pairs pants, 3 shirts and a jacket. After getting warm I ditched the pants and put on shorts, and went with a short sleeve tech shirt and a long sleeve half zip tech shirt, thin cotton gloves, and a thin tech warm hat. Perfect.

The start is downtown and from last year I learned that GPS signal goes out from the "tall" buildings (4-5 stories) so I tried to just pick a good pace. That is tough to do while surrounded by kids and other slower runners. After a few blocks we turn and ditch downtown and head into the neighborhood. I was able to maintain a better pace, but it was too slow. At the first mile I picked it up a bit but was still struggling to keep it lower. All the way I was picking people off left & right. That is sooooo fun! Love it. The third mile I knew I had a lot of gas in the tank so I put the pedal down as much as I could. We got back into downtown and two right turns were coming up. Everyone turned on a street that seemed early, but whatever. I upped my speed at the turn, then on the last turn I upped it again. I had a good push to the end and was shocked when I saw 19:0x on the clock. WOW! I really went way faster than I thought. Amazing. Then I heard a few people say "too bad the course was short." What the??? Checked the watch, and 2.98 on the watch. We all turned one street too early. I talked to the winner and he said the cyclist leading him caused the mix up. He turned early, the leader followed, then everybody followed after which makes sense. I was moving that last 1/2 mile so I think I would've had a good time. Based on a 3 mile race and a time of 19:06, my pace is 6:22 which equals a 19:48 5K. Major bummer that I couldn't get an official 5K time. There are so few flat 5Ks in Billings that I don't get this chance very often.

Had a great time, then an hour after the 5K started I did the 1 mile race (the official RRCA Montana championship mile race...but nobody really showed up). The clock had me at 5:46 and 6th place overall, 1st place in age division. Nobody ran the 1 mile, obviously, but I'll take it. In the 5K I finished 25th out of 2019 finishers, and the 1 mile 6th out of 418. Not too shabby for an old guy, but clearly the high school cross country kids sat this one out.

After reflecting for a few days, and thinking how I felt after my 5:46 mile, I know I can do so much more with the 5K. At the end I didn't feel close to puking my guts out or feeling like I would fall over, and from everything I've seen, that's what a proper 5K is supposed to feel like. Shoot, I didn't even feel like that after the mile. I need to learn how to race. There are only a handful of 5Ks in Billings all year, so it's tough to learn how, but I'm hopeful.

Happy Thanksgiving blog buddies!

Splits: 6:37, 6:32, 6:11. 

4 TM miles at the Y this morning. Legs are surprisingly sore from yesterday's effort. I guess some lactic acid build up from going at speeds I don't normally see, plus a lack of a cool down from either the 5K or the 1 mile. Lessons learned.

Tough to get the legs going this morning. Ran 1 mile at 10:00 pace, then walked for 5+ minutes, then a couple ladies took the 2 treadmills next to me, to walk (use the track if you're just going to walk!) and talk. How incredibly annoying. It got my juices flowing so I upped the tempo so the mill would drown them out. That plus the increased effort caused me to focus on the TV and running and I successfully avoided their lame conversations (Who needs to hear about some 3rd party woman's hysterectomy at the gym? Nobody, that's who.).

After running I did curls, triceps, and bench, 3X10. Felt good.