36 and still kickin'

A 5k? Really? You're Writing about a 5k? Yup! So I've never really focused on it, but I've always wanted to break 20 minutes at a 5k run. Ever since one attempt at the end of high school I've been between 20 and 21 minutes. Even as close as 20:03 once. Of course given that I only do 5k's once every 3 or 4 years I shouldn't be surprised I guess. Earlier this year I entered one at the last second with "The Phillips", but that one got cancelled due to ice storms around here. Then came the Bun Run. Up until last week I had never even thought about it, but my coach told me about it and said it would be a good "test of fitness" and "fun". I also recruited another of my friends (Mike Ray) to do it as well and with coach and friends on board I decided to take one more shot at Mr. 20 mins. Only this time he went down hard :)

The Course: Beforehand I looked at the course maps and the course was pretty flat, but it did have two small hills that would definitely slow me down. One at the beginning, but the bigger of the two at about 2.5 miles in (a tough point in the race). The day itself ended up being a little warm and humid, but the biggest factor was that it was windy and it was going to be a headwind from the 1.5 mile point to 3 miles.

Despite going for breaking 20 mins I didn't really have any expectations since I hadn't done any hardcore training in 4 weeks. So I had a goal pace of 6:20 min/miles that I was pretty sure I could keep for the first mile, but after that I really didn't know.

The Race: It was great to meet up with Jenn, Matt, Daniel, Chris and Mike before the race to do our warm-up and just generally chat and help everyone relax. Even for this 5k I was getting butterfly's and my stomach was acting weird right up until the gun went off. You'd think after all these years that would stop, but at least for me, it still happens every race, even the small ones.

The first mile I just tried to keep an easy fast pace. At Mile 1 I was at a 6:25 min/mile and knew I was off my goal already so I started pushing more. It also happened to be on a downhill which helped allow me to speed up a bit. Turns out that I did the next mile in 6:12 and decided to just try to hang on to that for the last mile. It helped that there was someone that resisted my pass on the last hill and started to try to repass me. I pushed harder and managed to keep him at bay. I found out later from Mike that this was "The Phillips" run nemesis, so Shawn, that one was for you!

The whole last 1.5 miles were painful, but coming across the last flat 1/3 of a mile I knew I had it if I could just keep it and that was the longest and most painful 2 minutes I think I've ever run. Anybody else find that bridge super long on the way back in?!

I hit the finish line in 19:24 and must have sped up at the end 'cause I ended up averaging 6:13's. It seriously took me 5 minutes of hanging on to the edge of the fence past the finishing chute to regain my breath, but after that I was all smiles. I'm still revelling in this small victory. After my last race I needed something like this to get my spirits up again and having my fastest 5k race now and being able to run faster than I did even in high school was definitely the ticket.

Now it's time to put the training hammer down and get ready for Boulder 70.3. I'm super motivated now though and ready for my next PR :)

Polar Cowboy

Galveston 70.3 2011 - Terrible, but Tolerable

I don't know where to start with this post so I'll probably just start rambling and hopefully some sense can be made out of it. Two weeks ago was the Memorial Hermann 70.3 Texas, or as I like to just call "Galveston". Despite having a great coach (thanks Shawn!) and training group (PAC), training leading up to the race was not what I wanted it to be with an injury that kept me sidelined until mid December, getting sick for 2 weeks and taking a week off for snowboarding (which I don't regret at all :)). So I really only had 8-10 weeks to lead up to it. Despite that I didn't feel too bad going into this race and thought I could still pull off a decent race. Unfortunately I was wrong.

I've analyzed this race so many times now that my brain hurts more than a slurpee freeze. So I'll try to boil it down to the highlights. My swim was decent and about what I had planned to do (33:09, 1:44/100m pace). It was on the bike that things started going wrong. It was pretty windy and about 45 minutes in my right hamstring started tiring and hurting something fierce. I forced myself to finish out the ride at an ok pace though and am pretty proud of that even if my time wasn't great (2:44:37, 20.4mph). Looking back, I probably overdid the bike and that was partially the reason I fell apart on the run.

Doing ok after the swim - In Pain on the bike

The bright side was that it was specific to the bike and on the run it went away. But then at about mile 4 of the run I started bonking in the heat and humidity of that day and then at mile 6 my stomach completely cramped up (from having too much salt I think, but no cramps!)and that finished me physically and mentally. My energy never came back and I had to start walking the aid stations and shuffling/jogging in between. The result was the slowest time I've posted since 2007 (2:02:46, 9:22min/mile). Despite this I'm proud of having stuck it out and finishing when all I wanted to do was just sit down and call it a day (Final time: 5:24:23). You get a really good sense of appreciation for the pros that still got the same kinds of times as if the wind wasn't there and there was no heat or humidity.

Yup, that's exactly how I felt :) - Very glad to be done, 5:24 total time

There's three good things that came out of the trip and race though and like this great post from Linsey Corbin goes on to say, it's best to focus on the positives sometimes. One was that I had some great friends there to enjoy the trip with, race with (my wife Chris and friend Mike Irwin) and cheer me on even when it was obvious that I was not doing so great. Mray, Jray, Maddy, Blake and Alisia were there cheering me on the whole race (including even from way out on Mile 20 on the bike! and again near mile 40 from a truck). There's nothing like doing a race and having your friends there to cheer you on. Thanks all!

The reason Galveston was still fun! Thanks all!

The second positive thing was that I learned what too much salt intake can do to you (stomach cramps) and how much too much salt is in a race. Electrolytes and salt have been an issue for me the last 2 years and this is the first time I took too much as opposed to not enough. It's hard to find that stuff out when training, so that'll be useful to know. Of course, I still have to find what the right amount is, but I'm that much closer now.

The third is that I got a trip to the beach with my wife and friends! I only wish I could have enjoyed it longer.

Boulder 70.3 is the next race on the agenda in August. I plan to enjoy the rest of April and have already planned a bunch of things (skeet shooting, motocrossing, remote control car'ing and video gaming). I'll jump back into things in May with a vengeance that only a bad race can instill in you. No matter how it goes in Boulder though I plan to enjoy it and hold on to the positives. Thanks once again to all my friends for having made a terrible race still tolerable :)