I persisted in fitting my workouts in this week regardless of a schedule packed with work, chauffeuring, social gatherings, power holiday shopping and my first race since the summer. As I was running the first few miles of the HOT CHOCOLATE RUN yesterday on a very brisk AZ morning (perfect for warm clothing and a cup of steamy hot chocolate), I thought to myself....."why do we (us athletes) keep signing up for these events, why do we pay money to do something that we can do for free in our backyard and why do we do it over and over again". This was one of those races that you could consider a party and another smart business plan...motivating people to run using "CHOCOLATE".
People sign up for races for motivation to train, peer pressure, personal goals, to spice up their social life, or to help raise money for charity. I was influenced by all of these for this race as a friend asked me to sign up, it would be motivation to work on my running (my slowest of the 3 disciplines) and it was a good cause (Ronald McDonald House which houses families of children receiving medical care)......not to mention the great sweatshirt, mug and chocolate all for 70 dollars.
I am not usually attracted to big races with lots of people but for the reasons mentioned above I decided to try this one out. When I signed up my plan was to be prepared for running 9.3 miles by being well over the distance. Somehow I got in the first corral and when the gun went off, I knew to hold myself back as I had not run 9 miles in over a month or two, let alone run faster then an 11 or 12 minute pace. So I hung in the back and was happy to be close to a 10 plus min mile for the first 3 miles. I knew this might not last for too long, but I felt ok. I even had a girl drafting me (not even kidding, she ran directly behind me on my rear, I finally warned her I may be stopping), but we were friends by the end of the race because I kept saving her place every time she stopped at the aide stations and would catch up to me. I started having some cramping and tightness in my legs around mile 3 so I started taking some electrolytes and shortening my stride. So much for a negative split as I slowed down a little bit over the 2nd 3 miles. I even tried chocolate and gatorade at the 6 mile mark for a boost (No better time to test this out then on a hot choc run). And finally over the last 3 miles my engine really struggled to maintain forward momentum. I contemplated where I was and were I needed to go to be able to run a marathon at the end of an Ironman in less than 300 days. I knew I was not really ready for this distance and was thinking how I probably should not run the half marathon I am signed up for next weekend. But for the reasons stated above, I will probably show up and gather more baseline data. It is fascinating how much slower I am in running then I used to be before I turned triathlete, but it really is not apples to apples.
Results: 1:36:38 ave pace 10:23 mph, 63 out of 132 in age group and 690 female out of 1330
Next weekend, I will probably go out a little bit slower, like a 10:15 to 10:30 pace and see if I can maintain that versus slowing down every 3 miles. Oh and a little training might help too. I sometimes wonder what it would be like to be just a runner again. Would I be faster again? I will probably never know the answer to that question as I like "Tri-ing" too much to go back in time.
This week I juggled 3 bike workouts (1 session on rollers, 16 mile ride, 26 mile ride), 2 swim workouts, and 3 runs (1 hr, 30 min, and 15K). Slowly learning to juggle everything that life throws at me.
I am looking forward to a trip to Seattle over Christmas and reading my 3 new triathlon books by Joe Friel, "Going Long", "Your Best Triathlon", and "Triathlon Bible". I will turn off all my technology and get a lot of reading in to move forward on the next journey to Ironman, Part 2.
Keep Calm and Juggle On!
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