Weekly Recap & mini Race Report
I also have my goals for next week.
May 18-24
Monday: Easy 3 miles
FAIL! Kind of! I took a rest day for no good reason other than it was hot – but I made it up the next day
Tuesday: 60 minute bike ride
I ran 3.5 miles in the AM to make up for Monday’s skipped run. In the evening, the architect & I tooled around our neighborhood on the bikes. He helped me practice my shifting & turning skills. We ended up at about 10 miles total.
Wednesday: AM swim; PM trail run
I did my AM swim, but traffic was so bad, that I couldn’t get to the trail to meet my friend for our run, so I went home & sulked.
Thursday: yoga
I ran 4.5 miles in the morning to partially make up for skipping my Wednesday run. It was hard. I did, of course, go to yoga – and it was awesome. I FINALLY hit Crow pose (for a half second, but still! yay!) and then I went home & drank all the beers in North Portland.
Friday: Easy 5 miles; swim
Due to the fact that I was hurting from my 8 miles of running this week, and listening to the advice of some, I took Friday off altogether. I did some weeding, finished putting my new grill together, and planted the rest of my garden.
Saturday: 60 minute bike ride
Again, no exercise – I bruised my tailbone in a small falling down incident on Thursday, so did not want to sit on a bike seat. Instead, I dug up my yard for 2 hours in my continuing quest to eliminate all of the grass in my yard. The architect thwarted me by finishing our beautimous trellis and the planting grass behind it.
Sunday: 20K trail race (I will post later this week about my trail race goals).
I chose not to post about my race goals, because the way I was feeling late in the week, I realized that I did not have too many goals. My #1 goal was to finish the 20K & not feel like I felt post- half marathon. I tried to treat the race as just another long run, only with uncommonly good support (seriously – best race support ever). I averaged about 13 minute miles over the 12.4 mile course (that had 935′ in elevation gain). I finished not last and I felt good at the end. And then, I had a Coke! and it was good. The Cheetah, who also did the race, finished about 10-15 minutes before me, which is only remarkable because she ran an extra couple of miles AND was still in line for the porta-potty when the race started. She is a machine!
Other – push-ups at least TWICE! Weights – TWICE! Abs – THREE TIMES!
I did my pushups twice & abs once. I did nothing else, but I did work on an at-home weights program that I will implement in the next week.
And now, for the mini-race report.
The race started at Lower Macleay Park in NW Portland. The first (and last) 1.4 K were on Lower Macleay Trail, and most of the rest was on Wildwood Trail (although the turnaround involved running up the Firelane 1 Connecter which was a very steep .1 K, and then .1 K on the fireline before turning around).
I tried really hard to just keep a steady pace & not get upset when people passed me. I think I succeeded – although a lot of people passed me. Almost everyone in fact. It was so beautiful today, and most of the race I was by myself on the trails – which was kinda nice.
The aid station at 9.9 K was FANTASTIC! They had fruit, and gels, and cookies, candy, salt, just about everything you’d want. I had two cookie pieces & 1 payday piece & 2 glasses of water before turning around.
The out & back trail was kind of nice, because a) you had an idea of what to expect & b) it was definitely a LOT more downhill on the way back!
I think I was only passed by 2 people on the way back – including the Cheetah.
At the finish line, I grabbed a coke & a piece of a Poptart, 2 handfuls of peanut M&Ms, and a bowl of chili! After I finished my coke, I had a diet coke (n0 reason to get carried away just because I just burned 1000 calories running) & then headed home. The shirts are awfully cute – but pretty girly! I’m not seeing too many of the men wearing theirs about town. 🙂
Overall, although I had some pain durning running (right arch, both knees, right hip flexor), I felt pretty strong at the finish line. I was pretty glad to be done, but am not sapped of energy like I was after the Hippie Chick half.
I enjoyed the race so much that I think I’d recommend it over the Hippie Chick any time – and will probably do that instead of the Hippie Chick next year.
Friday night I was in a grouchy mood & was bitching to the architect that I was going to quit running because it was too hard, and it hurt my body (although not as much as falling off a stool at one’s neighbors’ home & bruising your tailbone, not that I’ve done that) and that I was just going to get fat again, because exercise was stupid.
I think it’s safe to say that urge has passed. I guess I’m still a runner!
I hope you’re enjoying your weekend – I know I am!
And now – time for that post-race beer!
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