Mad Monday Update 3/9

Another week of training under the belt and this one included some outside bicycling! (LOUD CHEERS!)

I just did not get in the running miles I had hoped but did manage to get in some more bicycling. I got a feeling that with the weather coming around this may be more prevalent.

Saturday I met two other couples for a ride out into the valley. While it was not raining at the start, 15 minutes later, it started sprinkling and 30 minutes in, the heaven's opened up. Lightning crashed close by and it was tough to see as we started down Truxell hill into the valley. After turning around, we did have to take a stop at Applachian Outfitters to wait out the worst of it. After the brief stop, soaked to the bone we rode through the valley on a chilly, wet, yet enjoyable ride!

Sunday was another wet one at the Youngstown half marathon. I had planned to get in more miles on the day but I totally woosed out and stayed dry as long as possible and skipped my warm up. My plan for that race was to run a moderate paced training run. Wet and shivering, I started off on my plan and all went pretty smoothly. My garmin was not working so I was not sure where I was time wise but I just rolled with a pretty comfortable moderate pace. I had to stop and tie my shoe 3 times which cost some time and finally that third time I pulled off my gloves and made sure I double knotted it good! So annoying!

Now for those of you that may not know this course is insanely hilly! I was heading up the hills very conservatively as I knew I was borderline needing to stop for the bathroom and was hoping I could keep that in check until after the race (yes, my Saturday night bar food dinner was not ideal!). In general though, what I would lose on the ups, I would get back on the downs in terms of where I was to other runners. I picked it up a bit the last uphill mile to run down one female and then after that sprint, I proceeded to have some breathing issues post race and needed a minute of walking around before letting them take my chip off. In the end, I think I met the goal of a decent effort and ended up claiming a second place AG award. (Huge props to my pal, Espeed, who ran a silly awesome time on that course with a 1:32!)

In other news, my running club, Southeast Running Club, had our annual banquet Sunday night. First off I cannot say enough about this group of runners. They are definitely a competitve bunch who have helped push each other to be some of the areas finest. Our club is so fortunate to have one of our members, Robert, that owns Primo Vino in Little Italy, who open his restaurant up to us for the banquet and provides us some fantastic Italian food. At the banquet, I was shocked and quite honored to get the Ruta award for the Club's Female Runner of the year which is based on races and club service.

Mon 3/2- 6.5 mile easy run with the girls at lunch
Tues 3/3- 2 hours indoor Cycling Glass
Wed 3/4 - 4 miles ran treadmill (included 6 X 400's at 6:00 pace, was going to do 800's but just not feeling so fresh)
Thurs 3/5 - 6.5 miles with girls at lunch
Fri 3/6 - 1000 meter swim (WAKE UP CALL THAT I NEED TO GET BACK TO SWIMMING REGULARILY), 2.5 hours riding at Rays Mtn Bike Park
Sat 3/7 - 44 mile outside ride! (Rainy!)
Sun 3/8 - Youngstown half marathon, 1:44:51 (7:59 pace)

Weekly Mileage
Ran-30 Miles
Biked - 74 road, 10 mtn
Swam - 1000 meters