Going out on top

Not out of running, just the year. I had my last race of the year on the 18th. A local-ish 10k. I had two goals going into the event: 1. sub-40 2. win. I knew these were both lofty goals given it was my first 10k race, but with the year I've had I really didn't care how lofty they were.

The event is a multi-distance footrace. There was a marathon, half marathon, 10 mile, 10k, 5k and 1 mile race. All of them started at the same time. Still, the field was pretty small (pic below). I went sans watch. Since I had a time goal, I knew I would just keep looking at it. I decided it would be better to just run. Race conditions were almost perfect. Partly cloudy, sun, a little wind and mid 30's. If the wind were gone and it was 5 deg warmer, it would have been perfect.

And you know I had to rock the pink shorts!

I went out in 2nd (of all the runners, pic of me and the 1st runner). About a half a mile in, another runner and myself started to switch off between breaking the wind and drafting. We continued this until the turn around (out and back course). The last 5k killed me. With out the other runner to trade off with, I was in the wind the entire time. It helped that the course was mostly flat (one very small hill, more of a bump really). It was also nice to hear people saying "wow" and one guy who said "damn he's fast" as I went by the 5k runners/walkers.

Rounding the final corner, I knew I was in first (goal #2, check). My time was 41:03. Not quite what I was shooting for but in all it was a great race. I'm still super stoked that I actually won a race. Not my age group but out right won a race :) I couldn't think of a better way to end my racing year!

Race Weekend

What better way to get ready for finals than to run back-to-back races?

Yesterday I competed in a Virtual Half Marathon. A bunch of my friends from RWOL decided to run a half marathon race. I chose a course with a lot of rolling hills and a couple of bigger uphills. I held a pretty strong pace from the start and died on the final uphill to my apartment. My time, 1:29:41, was my second fastest half marathon! Splits: 6:38, 6:51, 6:51, 6:55, 6:48, 6:41, 6:49, 6:42, 6:47, 6:44, 6:58, 7:03, 7:10, :42.

Today I ran in a local 5K with my running club. Again, I went out strong and slowed to finish. I wasn't sure what was left in my legs after yesterday, but I had a lot more left than I thought. Unofficial time is 19:00, just 2 seconds shy of my PR! Splits: 5:51, 6:10, 6:14, :44.

So, on back-to-back days I ran my second best time at two different distances. I'll take it! Makes me really excited to see what I can do in my first 10K in two weeks.

Also, Super-Mega-Ultra-Rockstar-Bigups to my friend marathonmaiden who rocked the Dallas White Rock Marathon this morning in 3:09:26, 8th place woman!

Its December?

What the hell? November went by crazy fast. It was one busy month. Lots of school work and family stuff/holidays and wedding planning. Oh, and this whole running business. That is why this blog is here.

School is almost finished...for the quarter. Can't wait. Holidays are half over and I'll be in my hometown for the second half so that will make things easier. Wedding planning is stressful but fun. The day after Thanksgiving, the Kid and I (yes, I call my fiancee Kid. Not sure when I started doing that. I know I picked it up from my grandpa since he use to call my grandma Kid) went to the caterer to try some appetizers and pick out place settings and such. Right now I'm compiling a massive list of addresses so we can mail out save-the-date cards. So far, we're up to 7 states and 2 countries!

I feel good and bad about my running in November. On the plus side, my easy pace has sped up a lot. Well, my prescribed "easy" pace hasn't changed but it feels easier to run faster. Does that make sense?
The part I feel bad about it my mileage, a sad 110 miles. I'll chalk it up to getting back from the marathon. Now that I've got about 4 weeks of 30ish mpw, I'm definitely gonna kick it up to 40mpw. My goal is to get up to 50mpw with a 15 mile LR by mid January. That should set me up nicely for Boston training!

Speaking of Boston training, for those who have ran it, what advice can you give me about hill training? I assume repeats once or twice a week plus having hills in my LR should be good.

Today's run was great! I did 6 miles with the last 3 @ 7:12, 7:02 and 6:36!  I plan on 7 or 8 miler in the morning, then taking an SRD Friday since this weekend is my first double-race. I've got a HM on Saturday and a 5k on Sunday with my club. Oh, and then I'll have two weeks before my debut 10K. I'll probably post more about that sometime this week.

Thats all for now friends. I've got to go do some homework thats due tomorrow.