Well the last month has had its ups and downs and while I’m sad
to see triathlon season wrapping up, I am also pretty happy to shifting my
focus back to the run. Triathlons were great for training and the
competitions were very challenging and a lot of fun but at the end of the day running
is really what I enjoy most. I will incorporate
swimming and biking into my cross training and spend a good portion of time on
the bike trainer during the winter months to get a good start of next season.
My focus from here through November is my first BQ attempt in
the Madison Marathon in November. I
starting increasing my mileage again earlier August and am already back up over
60 miles per week so I’m feeling good about the base I have going in the next 8
weeks of training. I will cut back on
racing the next couple months and pretty much only incorporate longer races
into my training (Quad Cities and Benefit Classic ½ marathons in Sept and a 50K
in October). I still need to finalize an
actual plan but I’m loosely following my spring marathon plan just going to
speed up the pace and slightly increase my long runs.
Monticello Sprint
Tri
This was a fun event but I definitely had a rough time in
parts. The water was very warm and I
chose to swim without a wetsuit which backfired big time as we got hung up
around one of the course cones and I was trampled by the more buoyant competitors. I ended up finishing much slower on the
swimming portion during the race compared to my normal training pace which was
very disappointing. I made up some time
on the bike and did decently well but it was a hillier course than I had
anticipated and I was not able to average over 20mph which was my goal time…
overall I was pretty happy with the bike portion as I have a very little bike
experience. The run was my best event
as it should have been, I finished 5th overall with my time and
passed a dozen competitors over the 3 mile stretch… I was a little surprised to
find the course was all off road and very bumpy, it really took away from the
pace I was shooting for but I was still very happy as I finished well compared to
the competition. I finished 16th
overall and 4th in my division…
I was a little disappointed I missed 3rd place by 12 seconds
considering my rough swim but I am very driven to work hard during the winter
to improve my times for next year. I
have setup my “running lab” with a bike training so I can continue to work on
my biking throughout the offseason whenever possible.
Mines of Spain ½ Marathon
(1:42:45)
This was probably one of the best times I’ve had in a race
period! 13.1 miles in what has become my
favorite place to run in the tristate area.
This is a fairly small event put on our local trail running group and
some good running buddies of mine… they capped out at 200 people which was
perfect for the trails and had a 5K, 10K and ½ marathon course. You couldn’t have gotten a better day or
group of people, it was just a blast.
Running the trails I’ve gone over hundreds of times before was even more
fun as this time I was letting loose and really having a great time pushing myself.
The whole race flew by in what felt like
a much shorter distance than what we covered… I finished at a 1:42:45 in 6th
place overall but wasn’t really concerned with place or time on this one. The after party was great with a potluck with
all sorts of goodies including beer and bacon.
Alzheimer’s 5K
(18:05)
I had a fun time at Alzheimer’s this year and knocked off 52
seconds from last years’ time. I was slightly
disappointed that I did not break 18 minutes that that was all my own
fault. I had really pushed myself hard
the week of this race and thought I could still overcome the fatigue by pushing
myself, unfortunately I was not as mentally tough during this race as I could
have been and I really did not drive myself as hard as I should have at the
end. I finished in 2nd
overall behind a very fast runner that I knew I could not keep up with, I was
also about a minute ahead of 3rd place, so I found myself in this
void where it did matter very much place-wise whether I pushed hard or not so I
eased up where I should have cracked down.
It was an important lesson and I think it was a sign that I needed a
break from racing… it is hard to push yourself to the limit every week; when
you never take a break from racing they can start to become just another
speedwork session. All that being said I
was still OK with the time and happy to get 1st in my division and 2nd
overall.
