I'm still struggling with motivation and energy to get back into training post Grandma's, but I had a couple events this week that helped me get some quality mileage in. I also signed up for the
Ngede Challenge on August 9th. It is a 50k race that includes 2 running and 2 biking legs, so I will need to bring some fitness into that event if I want it to go well. My friend Erik Teig started this race 4 years ago and it has been fun to see it grow every year since. The mountain bike and trail run legs use the Balsam Branch ski trails, where I learned to cross country ski, and the road legs are on nice country roads. It is a unique event that benefits Ox Lake Bible Camp, and if you are looking for a race to do in August I highly recommend it.
The first event last week was the TNC invitational mile on Friday afternoon. Since I knew I would have to run fast I decided to do 400's on Tuesday to assess how my leg speed was. My plan was to do up to 10 x 400's at interval pace (around 68 seconds) or stop whenever my pace slipped above 70 seconds. I made it through 7 repeats before that happened. It was a tough workout on a hot day. Summer has definitely arrived in Minnesota. Coincidentally this was pretty much the exact same workout that Nichole had planned for Jeff that day, she was rather impressed with my workout guessing ability.
Nichole decided to do a seeded pursuit start for the mile based on predicted finishing time. My marathon time predicted 4:40 for me, a goal I thought would be painful but maybe possible to achieve. This meant that I started over a minute behind Nate, and some runners had already come through the lap before I even got going. I started too fast and came through the lap in 67. It didn't hurt as bad as I expected, but by the last couple laps my legs were feeling pretty flat and just not turning over well. Still, I ended up running a 4:46. While it wasn't good enough to hit my predicted time it is still a fairly respectable effort I feel, considering I did one speed workout that wasn't even all that fast to prepare for it.
Friday also happened to be cow appreciation day at Chick-fil-A so a merry herd of bovine headed up to the cities to get a free meal. As always the mad cow costumes were a big spectacle and many other diners and employees, and passers by stopped to take our picture. Mesa even got to wear her cow costume and come with. I'm not sure fast food is the best pre-race meal, but eating a free meal the night before a free race seemed fitting.
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| Our Herd headed to Chick-fil-A |
Saturday morning The Poraths and I headed up to Bayport for the
Lift Bridge Road Race. Renewal by Anderson offered Nichole some free entries a while back and then later extended the offer to everyone who signed up through their facebook page. Nate and I decided to race the 10 mile, and Nichole and several of her athletes were racing the 5k. The weather race morning was not pleasant racing weather. It was almost 80F and the humidity was above 95%. The air was just soggy, as was I by the time I got done warming up. I went through my usual pre race routine of wandering around watching other runners warm up to get a feel for who my competition might be. There were a couple Gustavus kids going through a full on warmup routine, one guy a few years older than me in racing flats, and a young kid in an orange jersey who looked like he was all business on his warmup.
I took an early lead and by the mile mark it was down to just me and orange jersey (his name was Blake I would later discover). My legs were feeling the mile from Friday (what, sore after running only a mile?) so I planned on taking the uphill section in control and picking it up on the downhill if I felt good. I let Blake take the lead and just sat on his shoulder trying not to work too hard. I tried a couple times to strike up a conversation, but he was focused on racing and having none of it. He got a bit of a gap on me climbing the steep hills around mile 4, but when the course turned back down hill I quickly caught and passed him. I got a decent gap by the bottom of the first long downhill and could hear him working to reel me back in. I figured I had the leg speed to win a close race, I had just run a sub 5:00 mile the day before after all, so I let him go back into the lead and just hung on his shoulder.
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| Lift Bridge 10 mile course profile |
I was wringing wet by this point in time and regretting my decision to wear a jersey, and to pin my number on it so I couldn't just remove it. I had a moment where I thought maybe I could unpin the number and pin it on my shorts so I could remove that saturated blue garment stuck to my front, but quickly decided that playing with pins, even safety pins, on my moving legs while running 5:45 mile pace was probably not a workable strategy. Blake threw in a couple good surges that I had to work to match, but he was never able to get a gap. When we turned a corner with about 1/2 mile to go he tried to make his move, but I was able to match it and cruise by him. I powered ahead and got some great cheering from the TNC gals on my way to the finish line. I finished in 58:38 winning by about 6 seconds, a small but comfortable margin.
I congratulated Blake when he crossed the line and then felt a bit guilty for making him do most of the work when I found out he had just graduated from High school and this was his first 10 mile race. Not too bad though, because he made me work pretty hard to get the win, so it was a well fought race.
Other fun stuff this week: I had a lot of CSA veggies to use up, so I just decided to roast them all. Since it just so happens that pizzas cook at the same temperature as roasting veggies I also threw in a pizza. I topped it with bok choy, garlic scapes, sun dried tomatoes, and beet greens. I was amused by the contrast of cheap frozen pizza topped with absolutely fresh, organic, CSA greens, so I put together a picture that I think captures the experience well. The pizza was delicious!
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| Taijitu Pizza |
I was also surprised to find this in my interoffice mailbox on Thursday.
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| I've got the Fever! |
I have no idea who sent it, but it immediately made me want to bust out the rollerskis and get training. Birkie Fever is very contagious, or at least I'm quite susceptible to it. Nate and I got a good rollerski in Sunday. I remembered my V2 technique cues fairly well, but my open field still needs work. I held a V2 all the way up Dog hill, which I'm pretty proud of. A year ago I would not have been strong enough to do that.
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