Speedwork & PRs

Last week:
Monday - 6 miles running morning, 16 miles riding after work (easy ride)
Tuesday - 6 miles running morning, speed work after work (1 min 27 sec - new fast time for 400m)
Wednesday - rest
Thursday - 6 miles running morning, 23 miles riding after work (hard ride)
Friday - rest

Friday night I was still discussing the plan for Saturday.  Should I do a long run, or go test out speedwork and do a 5K??  Knowing that I have an Adventure Race (Sept. 25) and a marathon (Oct. 10) I should probably go with the long run, but...sometimes you have a need to see your speed.  I decided I would rearrange my long runs completely:
Aug. 28th - Lamar 5K race and bike ride
Sept. 4th - 23 miles +
Sept. 11th - MS 150 bike ride Columbia
Sept. 18th - 14 - 16 miles
Sept. 25th - Berryman Adventure Race
Oct. 2nd - 10-12 miles
Oct. 10th - Mother Road Marathon

We shall see how long this schedule lasts before I feel the need to modify it again.

So, back to this weekend.  Brady dropped my bike and I off at the Lamar 5K/10K.  I signed up for the 5K to see if speed work has really sped me up at this distance.  He headed back home to get his bike and ride back (30 miles).  We started a bit late at 7:45am.  My legs felt tired and sluggish to begin with and my hopes of a PR were dwindling till I hit the 1 mile marker and heard the 7:45 called out.  That meant I could still beat my 24:24 PR time.  I'm not sure what my other splits were, but my official finish time was 23:40.  This is exciting enough, but my Garmin has me at 3.1 miles and 23:25.  Regardless, my new PR is 23:40 and I'm very happy about it.  I think Brady's already thinking of me breaking 23, but right now I just want to enjoy this new PR.  :-)
After the awards (1st place in my age division and either 3rd or 4th overall female) I put on bike shorts and met Brady for the ride home. 
We did the proper biker thing and stopped by Cooky's for lunch - yummy.  With that slight detour it was 44 miles home.  So, 5K + 44 miles bike - that should make up for some sort of long run right??  ;-)

Putting in my time if not distance

So, I was supposed to do 20 mile run pre-lake weekend.  Staying up a little late combined with fatigue caused me to rethink this.  I did my research and found some trails by Lake of the Ozarks that I could get a Saturday run in.  Got up around 7:00am on Saturday, geared up and Brady took me to the trail head.  I'd found a 16.5 mile loop that I planned to hit.  Although my goal was to run for 3 hours and 20 minutes.  I didn't have Garmin with me and trails are a little harder than roads so I decided to go with a time goal.  Shortly after Brady left I realized that the trail I was on was not going to cut it (there wasn't much of a trail and it was flooded).  I tried two other off shoots of the same trail with basically the same results.  I decided to hit roads for a bit and to find some other trails.  The hills were crazy, but I plodded up and down until I found Fawn's Ridge Trail - and wow, what a good name.  I saw no less than 10 deer. 

 It was a nice gravel trail that was easy running.  It was only a couple miles long, but at the end there was the start to another trail - the Lakeview.  

Again, the name said it all.  It was a dirt and rock trail, but in decent shape.  Some areas were a little hard to run because they were narrow and it was a steep ledge, but I just slowed down a bit and enjoyed it.  This trail was around 5 miles long.  Once I finished it I decided I better head back to the first trail head to meet up with Brady for the last 30 minutes of my run.  So, roads again.  By this time it was a little hotter, but I plodded on.  He was there waiting for me and had found one more off shoot of the initial trail that we headed down.  I let him lead the way to take a break from the cobwebs!!  We basically went out and back 10 minutes and called it good.  

Can you see the full cobweb???

We went straight back to the condo, put on swim suits and took a dip - it felt great, although a little cold to my fatigued body.  Sunday became a must needed rest day!  :-)  

Faster, faster, faster

It's Thursday and I'm 3 runs in this week.  Monday 4 miles with Brooke, Tuesday 6.5 miles with Brooke and Debbie and yesterday speedwork with Brady, Stevie, & Beth - awesome to have great running friends!!  :-)

So, the first two were great because the weather was cooler and I got to catch up with my CRC groupies.  ;-)

Speedwork was great because we all survived.  10 X 200 - let me just say a big collective OUCH.  I managed to stay rather consistent even though a tiny bit slower than I felt I should be.  My times looked something like this:  39sec, 40sec, 40sec, 41sec, 41sec, 40sec, 40sec, 41sec, 40sec, 40sec.  I think that's around a 5:30min/mile pace, but don't quote me on that.  We did walk a 200 in between each one, and even a 400 between a couple.  It wasn't terribly hot, but still hot enough to make my knees sweat.  I felt pretty good until we got to the last 2 or 3 then I had a serious burning in my chest, but I worked through it - as did my other compadres.  Overall, it was a good night.  The only fault was being too tired to cook so we went out to dinner!  ;-)

Tonight is the Thursday night road ride.  Then tomorrow I am taking off work so that I can get my 20 mile run in before we go to the lake this weekend.  I'm hoping both go well.  :-O

Running - England and back

Well, not literally I guess.  I ran here, then in England, and now back here.  It was not my best showing for a business trip exercise regiment, nor was it my worst.  My daily runs were few and far between.  I blame jet lag, working long days, standing/walking all day, and just a little lazy for the sparseness of my runs.  But, the area I usually falter the most on my work travel that extends over weekends, the LONG run, I rocked.  Luckily there was a great area of trails right behind our hotel and I got Saturday off.

We went to bed at a decent hour on Friday night, up at 8am and headed out.  One of the guys traveling with me was due for a 12 miler so we sat out together.  He wanted to end up back at the hotel at 6 miles, but I ignored him and plowed into new territory until we hit the 5 mile mark then wound our way back to the hotel at mile 9 for a quick drink and for me an orange (my only substance of the day - I was ill-prepared at best since I didn't really think I'd get a long run in).  We did a quick 1-1/2 mile out and back to get him to 12 then I took off into some more new territory to finish up at 16.5.  It was great.  The weather (in the high 50's) was so nice compared to the heat of MO this summer.  The trails were gravel and windy with views of lakes, birds, horses, people walking dogs, and all kinds of interesting foliage.  After I finished up I showered and we headed out to find food - this was about a 3 mile walk so we were ravenous when we got there.  Luckily they were still serving food.  We had a pint while we waited (of Banks) which was very tasty and even a little filling.  Then she brought out the main courses - I had cajun chicken breast with salad and vegetables (which our waitress said was weird - b/c I didn't get a starch).  Regardless it was a dynamite meal.  Just what I needed, about 2 hours after I needed it, but it worked!

I returned to the US on Saturday afternoon and took Sunday off from jet lag, etc.  This morning I got up and ran with Brooke - was a great visit and enjoyable run.  We plan to do it again tomorrow.  I miss the trails, but it's still really nice to be home.

Start August off Right

Thursday's ride went well for me.  We worked as a group on the way out then it's every man for himself on Reinmiller and I was able to keep up the pace and felt really good.  I felt so good in fact I was able to be convinced to eat at Casa Montez with the Lowden's post-ride in all my sweaty, spandexy glory!  :-O

Friday, I had a good run with Brooke.  Looking back now I can't remember for sure how far I went - thinking it was a 5 miler, but I need to verify.  Friday night was wine tasting and Saturday was a semi day off.  We did do some climbing, but since I can only do it for 15 or 20 minutes before my arms feel like falling off I can't really count that yet.

Sunday I wanted to get a long run in, but I was tired and slept in a bit.  I still got in 9 (4 with Brooke - yeah!!), but was hoping for 12.  I think the 70 mile ride we did directly following the run made up for it!!!   Just found out that we went a little slow on the way out (27.16 miles @ 13.7 mph).  But, on the way back we kicked it up (43.03 miles @ 21.05mph).  Total of 70.2 miles @ average of 17.43mph.  Pretty sweet.   The increase was because we had a slower rider on the way out and we are a no person left behind kind of groupy.  ;-)
Also, the bomb-diggity food we had at Cookie's in Golden City (that was the 27.16 mile mark).  However, note to self - coconut cream pie and upper 90 temps while riding do not sit well on the belly!