Thursday, June 28, 2012

Summer Update - 5K and 2 Crits

It's been a while....

I'm back from vacation and busy with summer. It is amazing how quickly time flies.  So much to do and so little time. Even without a regular job, I still seem to manage to have a crazy long to do list.  And it seems that working out and doing chores never seems to match up well. As I talk with my friends about this... we seem to be thankful that there has been no rain lately... no grass to cut. Otherwise our houses would look like abandoned meth labs.  Its just crazy. Finding a balance is tough.

I ran my first 5k race this year - although it wasn't official (I didn't offiically sign up). I just went over to Northwestern (which I can see from my house) and ran the Northwestern 5k (which runs nearly past my house on the roads I run on...lol). So I just got a new to me used Garmin 405... pretty cool thing here. Shows time, pace, distance and pretty much anything you wanted to know (except the next lotto numbers). Now this was the first run with it.... and my 3rd run all year.. before the start I had a 5.1 whopping miles all year long. That's bad. The theory was no running before Mt Mitchell - no shin splints, sore kness - nothing. No runnning, no risk.  I digress.... back to the run. We all took off and headed out Nancy Dutton drive, turning on Penny pike and then on to Dredge road. Yeah Dredge... hold on - stopping a flashback from high school where you had to meet someone out there for an afterschool fight...... ok - better now. Part way down Dredge you turned around at the water stop and headed back the same way and finished on the school track.  As I ran... .I didn't think it was hard.. it wasn't painful. I just questioned it. Why run... biking is so much more fun. My feet can't coast.....  I hope there are no Strava segments on here or this is going to be ugly.  ANYWAYS... as I headed back, everyone went straight in to the track to the finish. I turned and went up towards the middle school and ran around there until I hit my 3.1 miles. Finish time was 28:43 - a new personal record for me. Not super fast by any means, but with the training I was happy. Headed over to the official finish now to watch and cheer on the rest of the runners. It was a good time. Next year I will preregister for it and be ready.

Enough about running. This last weekend was the Tour d'Burg in Miamisburg. Criterium racing. A .6 mile loop with 6 corners in it. Tight, Fast and Crazy on a road bike in a group of riders.  My kind of thing. Big Dave ran this race and it was hosted by Team Dayton Cycling. Very nice event, and everyone was super friendly.  I did the Cat 4/5 race first - race for 40 minutes and see how many laps you can get in. I stuck with the main pack until about 5 laps to go (right around 30 min mark - even though I had been feeling it for the last 6 minutes...lol) So I fell back into the straggling line of hangers on... all trying to get back on the pack and not get dropped and lapped. I think there was approx 60 racers in the race to start.  With about 4 laps to go I passed a United Dairy Famer rider and he jumped on my wheel. Alright - someone to work with so we don't get passed by the main pack. I led 2 laps and he just road there. I swung to the left, nothing... he followed. I slowed the pace from 23mpg to 19mph and he stayed there... ok- he is going to stay in my draft until the end and rip past me fresh as a daisy... yeah right. I decided then to hit the next corner and start pounding again... leave him. I ramp up the speed and I'm back up to 24mph... next corner still on the gas.... on the front straight and I look back... I have about 15 yards on the guy... Sweet.. just need to hold it for a couple more laps. Next I hear the lead group vehicle coming around... I'm going to get lapped. The Tour d'Burg car goes by me and points and tells me pull out - so I'm not in the way. DANG! The dude that messed with me kept me from finishing. I should have just kept going and I would have finished on the lead lap. Live and learn. My next race is about an hour away - the Masters Race (means old guys). But before that - Freddy brought his bike for a kids race. One hot lap for the kids. I got him lined up and road off to watch. Freddy told me afterwards one of the other dad's told his kid before the race that he better win or he was going to take his Xbox away from him.... Nice..... Anyway, Freddy took off and did Great. I think he maybe got 5th out of like 13-14 kids. He finished with a smile on his face and that is all that matters!  My next race was coming up and the heat was going up.... I think the computer averaged 100 degrees for that race. It was hot. It started and the pace wasn't as bad as the earlier race... or at least it didn't seem so.... but long story short... about 6 min from the end and I was dragging off the main field again. This time I didn't let up. I kept working. I finished the entire race without being pulled. Nice.  The results - ended up 8th in my first race (even being pulled out), and in the Masters I was 12th.  Not too bad.

I know my blog gets wordy... boring... drawn out... but when I hear from others who read it, it does make me feel good. I was never a writer in school and this shows I'm sure. But I do find it relaxing. I hope that others enjoy it. I know some posts are better than others and this one wasn't great - just felt like I needed to get something going as it has been too long. But I promise if you stick with me I will improve and get better. Thank you for your support!

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