Mad Monday

Ughh, still so busy with too much to do.

So just a brief update before I get too far behind...

Friday, was a nice easy day of swimming at 2000 meters so I could be fresh for Saturday's Reindeer Run.

The Reindeer Run would be the first 5K I have done in at least a year and a half or so.  Prior to that I had done soooo many 5K and while I would get darn close with lots of 20:10s, 20:15s, 20:20s, I had never broke the magic sub 20 number that I so badly wanted.  This was to be the race!  It is a nice flat course and I thought I was ready.

Now normally I would have skipped it but my regular running speed session partner, CV, had a birthday on Friday and so the plan was to celebrate it by running the 5K and having breakfast afterwards, so I was in!  The morning was brisk in the mid 20s and a slight breeze out of the south....thankfully the course was mainly east /west so it would be pretty much a non-issue!

I showed up bright and early and after some joking around with GP and her super awesome coat, CV and I headed out for a warm up and some strides.  A bathroom trip and 2.5 miles later, we were lined up at the start and we were off.

Now my thought was CV was a little faster than me.  I was thinking I would just try to stick close to her and hope I did not blow up!  I started to the right and after the first turn CV came into site and I moved in closer to her.  I was feeling pretty good and was just trying to focus on running tall and thinking about my breathing.  As we came up to the first mile I heard the guy yell 6:10 a second or 2 before I approached.  Perfect.  I knew 6:25 was the magic number so I was nicely in range and still felt ok.

About a quarter mile down from there, I felt my first sign of slight discomfort and toyed with the idea of letting CV go, afraid if I kept this pace up, I might blow-up.  However I forced myself to stay dialed into her pace thinking we have done most of the same workouts and trying to convince myself I could do it....just another run trying to keep up with her!  Mile 2 had several turns which forced the pace to slow a bit but corners seemed to help me keep close.  Finally we hit mile 2 and all I could think was hold on.  It was a long straight away back.  I heard the voice of an old friend (NR) cheer me on and I just plugged on now loudly sucking air.  The lights near the finish line looked oh so far away.  My lungs were gasping but my legs were not building the lactic acid that they have in many of the past races so that was good.  I got a nice rise from the loud cheers of EH and NC out on the course, screaming their heads off!

As we made the final turn into the chute, I hung on to finish in 19:18 (~6:12 pace) , 2 seconds behind birthday girl and training partner CV!  CV ended as 2nd overall female and I was 3rd overall female!!!  Woot!   I think we even managed to run a pretty even race! Could not have been much happier....well maybe a little had I broke 19.  Haha....it really is never enough!

CV and I then went for round 2 of the course, albeit a little slower for our cool down and then we all headed to breakfast and had a lot of coffee and laughs...great day!

Sunday was super awesome too.  Hit the Run for Regis Familiarization Run.  I took sis out there for her first real trail run.  What a trooper!  She handled those 13 miles hanging super tough at a very respectable pace and I even think she enjoyed it!

This morning I finally got my butt on the bike for a bunch of 90 sec intervals.  Bike fitness feels low which is not all that surprising, given how much I have been biking or rather not biking!  I totally missed my swim today as the snow led to a 1.5 hour commute even at the wee hour of a 5:30AM departure.  Ugghh!  Wonder how long the commute home and back in tomorrow will take as it is supposed to keep coming.  Had a good 10 inches of snow when I left the house this morning!


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