I Back...and Up and Down.

After spending some time off in St. Louis for the Thanksgiving Holiday, I'm back. I didn't rest on my laurels while in "The Lou".

I competed in the Chesterfield Turkey Trot 5K and got close to my PR. Only 9 seconds off! Dang it!!! It was a really big turn-out as there were over 2,000 people there on a chilly Thanksgiving Day morning. I felt pretty good throughout the race. There were plenty of hills which I didn't have to encounter before in any other event. I felt so good that when I saw the finish line I picked up the pace. I saw someone to the left of me out of the corner of my eye and saw her pick up the pace as well. Being the competitive person that I am, that made me want to speed up. I saw her speed up. I sped up more. And she sped up. Now I didn't know this person, but she didn't want me to beat her and vice-versa.

So with about 200 metres remaining, I just went full sprint (but within control) with no looking back. I've no idea where she ended up, if she beat me to the finish line or what, but I felt totally AWESOME that I was able to sprint like that. I had so much adrenaline pumping after that sprint I felt I could have gone another mile at that pace.

I ended up finishing in the bottom half of my age group, but at least in the top half overall. The race was fun and it also served as my normally scheduled run on Fridays. Because of the holiday, our travel schedule, and the 5K event, I ended up with one less run for the week which was okay, but boy, did I end up paying for it on my long run!

So I gave myself a day off on Friday for a long run on Saturday. I was scheduled to do 8 miles that day so I mapped a 4 mile route to a certain point and then planned to run back.

Well, I couldn't even tell you how many hills there were. It felt like there were more hills in the first 3 miles than there were flats. There was a serious downward slope that I had shuffle down and I knew that on the way back I had to go up that hill. I think there were at least 5 or 6 hills in that first 4 mile leg but I was powering through them. I've never trained with hills, mainly because I live in a very flat area.

On the way back I encountered that dreaded monster of a hill that I went down during the first 4 miles. I took a short walking break before the climb to build up the energy to actually make it all the way up at a running pace. Mind you, I had just run about 6 miles at this point so my body and my legs had taken a pounding on those hills up until this point. This hill was probably a 30 to 40 degree twisty slope that was about 300 to 350 metres long.

I powered up that hill. The Pose method went out the door for that hill. With about 50 metres to go I could feel my legs burn and it felt like I had burned through whatever energy was left in my legs. I had to take another walking break when I reached the top. After that climb, the remaining 3 hills were going to be nothing in comparison, and everything was feeling fine afterwards.

If anything, the weekend was awesome because I had encountered and conquered some things that I hadn't had to deal with before.

1. Hills during a 5K, plus with plenty of gas to spare at the end for a full-out sprint.
2. Big-time hills during an 8 mile run. I wish there were more hills around here because I could use the extra training with hills because they were actually fun! I say that now, but if I had to do a lot of hills every week, I probably wouldn't be saying that.

Trotting like a turkey

Today was the first sub-freezing run for me this year. I had a couple of layers on, running tights, gloves and a hat. It didn't feel like I was sweating that much but when I got back home, I was just DRENCHED. The tights felt alright. They're still a bit of an acquired taste but they also add a bit of extra support around my knee which has been feeling kinda wonky lately.

The cold air actually feels great when running since I tend to get warmed up pretty quick and the extra heat that I'm giving off makes a bit difficult to run in when it's warmer. I suppose I ought to move back to Canada if I want to have more cold days than warm! :)

Today was also my last run day before my 5K on Thursday at the Chesterfield Turkey Trot near St. Louis, MO. We knew awhile back we were going to be in St. Louis for Thanksgiving and I was going to miss out on similar events going on in the DFW area, so I went searching for any similar turkey trots going on in St. Louis. There weren't that many, but the one in Chesterfield isn't too far away and it's early enough that it's not going to disrupt any Thanksgiving activities.

So I have my running gear packed for a couple of runs while away. I'm doing one less run for the week so that I can accommodate a 5K event and a long run on Saturday. It ought to be significantly colder in St. Louis than in Dallas so I'm anticipating that's going to work to my benefit.

The 5K will be my last event before the culmination of the past year of running: The Dallas White Rock Half Marathon in mid-December. I'm weary of doing too much during the 5K and pushing too hard for the event because I don't want to injure myself before the half-marathon. After next week, I'll be tapering, so it's going to be difficult for me to keep my runs under control as well....I'm just way too competitive for my own good sometimes.