Rice Street Mile (PR Mile) then another PR mile today 7/30/12 at CF!

I decided to sign up for this after an upsetting Chisago Half Ironman race (more mentally then physically). I tried to got a friend to sign up but she couldn't make it, so I decided I am going to go for it and see what I've got when it comes to speed. I did the Nicollet Mall road mile last year on a wim in about a 6:03 pace, and this was my first official road race, and first time doing the Rice Street Mile. I didn't have a lot of expectation going into the race coming off the half on Sunday, which was good. I warmed up with the MN red group which was fun since I hadn't run with them in a long time. 3mile warm up was good with some strides. The mile started off fast, and that initial 400 was a shock to the system. I tried to hold back a bit, my first 800 was a 2:48. I finished fairly strong passed a girl or two for a PR of 5:37 per my watch, but 5:40 chip time. 6th overall. The hill at the end up, then down was a really nice way to finish. I was really happy with my time. A huge booster, and I'm so glad I decided to sign up. Sometimes you just have to go for it, even if alone. Then today 7/30/2012, CF WOD PR mile 5:18 but the course was .96, so figure about 5:31, this time around I was coughing for a long time, but wow another PR mile, I will take it! =) Huge improvement from past year.

Chisago Halfiron 7/22/12

I don't even know where to begin...

This was a struggle pretty much from the beginning, but definitely the run challenged me more mentally then I can really remember in a long time. Chisago is a pretty chaotic race, but Kim and I got there early enough and I knew exactly where my bike spot was which made it a lot less stressful.

My legs were feeling a little heavy on the warm up run, but I didn't think too much of it. The swim was wetsuit legal which was a surprise since it has been so hot lately and I was swimming a lot with no wetsuit.

Swim went pretty smoothly I thought, I was getting pretty tired with my arms about 3/4 of the way, but nothing too out of the ordinary. I got my goggles knocked off a bit, but I had them underneath the swim cap which was good.

Bike was when it got rough. Lots of head wind, no speedometer (forgot to put it on the day before), and just plain tired legs. I tried not to exert too much but felt like if I slowed down anymore I'd barely be going over 20mph, so I pushed even with the wind, and maybe payed for it on the run.

The run was brutal, probably started at about mile 7. After seeing that I pretty much had no chance of breaking 5hrs, I sort of gave up. I still kept trying to keep a good mental attitude, but I was tired, hot, and physically drained. I guess I pretty much just gave up mentally and everything went downhill from there. I finished, but had never felt so fatigued (the below picture captures the "pain cave" very well). This almost felt as hard the the IM today. I guess everyone has a bad race, and sometimes there is really no reason or explanation. It is what it is...

Results: 38:07. (1:58) T1 1:45 02:44:15.4 (20.4) T2 1:24.8 Run 01:45:16.6 (8:02) Total 05:10:50.6 10th OA, 1st AG.

Minneman Sprint 6/30/2012 (A WIENER!)

I love, love, love this race. It's short and flat, and there are always so many people I know. This year was no different, accept there was a Oly course also. The Oly was essentially two loops of the Sprint, but since they had to make the Oly official the sprint was a bit longer compared to last year. No major issues before the race, but just a few during the race. Got to warm up with a few friends, and was feeling fairly fresh. The temps have been really high lately (in the 90s), and I wasn't sure if the swim would be wetsuit legal, but it somehow was. The swim went fairly well, except that it was pretty shallow, and I don't know how to dolphin dive so that made it a bit interesting. Also when I came out of the water a ref tapped me and said "do you want this" it was my chip!!! No idea when and how it came off, but thank god he gave it to me, oops! Bike went well, I was using the disc wheels for the third time this year. I decided to go with the disc instead of the 808 because I remember this course being flat and not very windy. Using the disc was a good choice! I came in about 5th out of the water and into T2 in 2nd place after the bole. Both Greta and I went a bit off course, and had to turn around which was yet another thing that hasn't happened to me along with the chip incident. Run also went fairly well. I was sitting in second and could see April in front, I tried to pick up the pace and was able to get ahead a little after the turn around. When we did the turn around I was a little but not too surprised to see Jenny Wilcox very close. I knew Jenny was an amazing runner, and we came out of the water together and I never saw her on the bike. So within about 1 to 2min after that Jenny made her move and went in front of me. I thought to myself, I am going to try to hang with her and if I feel there is no way, then I'll back off. To my total surprise I was ok hanging with Jenny, so I thought I'm going to stay right next to her and try to make my move when we get closer. I was being very conservative because I didn't want to totally blow out, so the race came to the end where me and Jenny were sprinting to the finish and I was able to hold on to first place by ONLY one sec!!! It was the most epic finish I've ever been apart of, and it was awesome! I was hunched over a bit at the finish, Jenny pushed me hard. It was great! Both Jenny and I did go slightly off course until Gabe yelled at me straight, straight! Thank you Gabe =) Lots of little things happening this race, chip, going a bit off course on the bike, then the run just slightly. I was able to come out with a win though and it felt good to pull through. Jenny and everyone else in the sprint and Oly did awesome! It was a hot, hot day too! It was really fun to race with so many people I knew! Cool down was with Kort which was nice because I was trying to do a longer cool down and she had to do a 6mile cool down, perfect! Results: 13:40 (1:34) T1 1:42 34:49 (22.9) t21:08 19:48 (6:23) Total 1:11:04