Sunday, August 31, 2008

Race Report plus this and that..

My weekend started with a 50 mile bike ride yesterday with my Outlaw friends. I have decided to somewhat abandoned Mark Allen (sorry Mark-you are still my hero, I promise) to train for IMAZ. I am including some speed work in my new regimen. Yesterday was one of those days. My HR was probably hovering in the 140s (I turned it off midway)..Even though I was the last one up the hill, I wasn't as painfully slow and behind as I have been in the past. Now this new "throwing caution to the wind as far as my HR is concerned" may backfire but it is sure way more fun to ride with my friends and my ego is happier.

Today's workout continued as H and I decided to run the New Mexico Half Marathon as part of our IM training. The day was perfect as far as the weather was concerned. In the 60s, cool, cloudy yet was a bit humid for these parts. I sweated, alot and felt a bit like I was in Texas or something with the mugginess. I awoke early to give Geekgirl a lift down to the marathon starting line, which was just a jaunt down the street at 5:30 AM. She was very awake and perky at this hour, I was impressed. I came back home and drug the rest of my running attire on and stumbled out the door at 6:00 to ride with our friends to the half start line. We got there just as athletes were lining up for the start. I went to to bathroom twice, then off we went-downhill. I felt really groggy still and my legs were hurting from the beginning mostly from the ride yesterday. I complained alot about my legs hurting until after taking 2 Advil, I shut up and just kept the Mantra in my head I'm a runner, I'm a runner! We passed a bunch of people or rather passed the same folks several times, I am not quite sure...

You know those times when you just say screw it! I'll do this today and just deal with the consequences tomorrow! Kind of like how I use to drink and party. I don't practice that behavior anymore, however yesterday I did this on 2 fronts; One-the bike ride up hills. Two-eating Mexican food. Now I am one who needs to practically eat nothing solid the day before a race and certainly not any roughage...Well, today I paid on both accounts. We ran a pretty good pace once I got out of the fog after the first couple of miles. H, bless his heart was committed to staying together although I know he could have run faster without me and my half a dozen bathroom stops. Ah yes, speaking of bathrooms a word about the porta potties on the course-oh there were NO porta potties! The RD will hear from me on this one. Anyway, not to be too graphic but there are alot of bushes on this course, thank goodness because I utilized plenty of them. After each stop, then I would run as fast as I could until the next aid station or potty stop. This is basically how we ran the half marathon today. When we ran, we probably ran 10 min miles (not bad for me). With the stops and all, we ended up with a time of 2:24-11 min. mile average. I am pretty proud of that considering my PR for a half marathon is 2:19 and that was 5 years ago. It was mostly downhill, which helped. Now if I could only translate that times two to have a 4:45 hr marathon at the end of an Ironman, then I am a star!!

Tonite, I am sore, tired, have been laying around all day watching Hurricane Gustav news. My fascination with hurricanes is just plain weird. I am happy to report that Louisiana seems to have it all together this time and I feel for those poor people who haven't even recovered from the last big one 3 years ago..


Tomorrow morning rounds out our training weekend with a 2.4 mile swim at Cochiti Lake, once again with our Outlaw Triathlon Club, who seem to love suffering as much as we do! The friendship and coffee afterwards is sure fun though!

9 comments:

LBTEPA said...

What a cool weekend! Well done on the HM (especially after the Mexican food). I am sure you will get the benefits of the speed training in your IM - even if only bc you have become fearless!

Anonymous said...

Great job on the half mary, woman! It was humid, huh! And, what was up with the lack of porta-potties along the course?? I kept expecting them at certain miles but nada! (glad I found a bush before the sun came up)

Yes, I too was impressed and jealous of Misty's perkiness that early. I was more of a Debbie Downer at 5:30 am!

Unknown said...

good job on the half mary!

Marci said...

Congrats on your new Half Marathon PR! Way to go :)

Herself, the GeekGirl said...

Thanks so much again for the caretaking! Hey trust me, my newjunkie stuff is way more weird. Ask me some time.

IronWaddler said...

I would for sure complain about the potties. I would have been in the bushes also.

Great time and training.

Anonymous said...

hey...just wanted to say my "Debbie Downer" reference was not meant to sound like I meant you (Debi) - cuz you are never a downer :D

(you probably know it's a character on SNL)

Kelly said...

Great race! We'll have to come down and train with you all sometime. I do get a little jealous of all the good training partners you have:-)

I used to have much bigger facination with hurricanes when I lived in Ohio. Would watch the coverage all day too. Not so much here in Vegas, I mostly feel like we are on a planet far, far away from the real world!

Susi said...

sounds like you had some amazing revelations this weekend! i love that you decided just to ride for fun. cause if it ain't fun - why do it?!

too funny about the lack of porta potties. well, funny in hindsight. tee hee. great job on gettin er done!!