Hardware and other validation

SUCH a great week. I had four very exciting achievements in the last several days and my confidence is peaked. Watch it crash down completely in time, but for now, we celebrate. Here's the weekly summary -the workouts of celebration are in bold and astrixeed as to not be missed. Behold!

Monday: Strength Training
Some weights with Zach at the gym. I did 200 crunches and was sooooore the next day!

Tuesday: Run
8.0 miles/1:10:30/8:49 average pace
Springwater run

Tuesday: Swim
2150 yards/1:00
Masters

Wednesday: Bike
1:00/Spin class
With Alisa! New random instructor was actually pretty good. Except he made the mistake of assuming the was the hardest-core person in the room, and that pissed me off. Ya, you teach spin class, congratulations. By the way, is this supposed to be hard? Ass.

Wednesday: Run
4.5 miles/40:10/8:55 average pace
Didn't manage to link up with Deana again so I made a point to run as easy as possible on my own (usually keep a great recovery pace when I run with Deana) and this run really did feel effortless. It was raining and I forgot how much I enjoy running in the rain. Good thing, huh?

Wednesday: Swim ****
1:20/3500 yards
Big volume day in masters including lots of fast intervals. Then I stayed 20 minutes after class and swam another 1000 yards and could have stayed until they closed the pool. This was my longest swim session ever!!

Thursday: Bike ****
23.9 miles/16.6 MPH
Springwater trail out-and-back with a nice headwind half the time. This is my fastest training ride ever!!

Friday: Run
4.0 miles/36:31/9:08 average pace
Nothing notable about this run, besides that I was slightly drunk. Went to Emily's final dress fitting and had celebratory champagne and appetizers after because it's the best week of her life. The run was a bit painful and I nearly crapped myself. It was totally worth it.

Saturday: Bike ****
62.5 miles/3:48:38/16.4 MPH
Sauvie Island ride with Zach. We waited until about 11:00 to start because it was raining and predicted to clear, which it did. We saw Alisa and her husband a few miles in, they were finishing up and looking good. This was an awesome ride. My legs were feeling it but I kept a good pace and pulled Zach along the whole day. Finished really strong and was very excited to see my time. When did I get so fast on the bike?!!?

Sunday: Run ****
14.2 miles/2:06:28/8:54 average pace
Timberline Half Marathon

Mini Race Report:

This was really just a training run for me since I'm in the middle of a high volume stretch and don't really want to spend any time recovering. Zach was excited about this race and we signed up months ago, but his knee has been bothering him so he didn't even run. He was cool about it though and drove up with me early this morning and spent the morning taking photos and cheering all the runners on.

It was shockingly cold up there- about 40 degrees at the start! I am glad I thought to check that before we left the house. I threw in my arm warmers and encouraged Zach to grab a jacket. It ended up only warming up to about 55 degrees by early afternoon. Brr! Very comfortable for running though.

The course was all singletrack and while it wasn't very hilly it was rocky and root-y and twisty and hard. Also we were at about 3500 ft elevation which I noticed a little, especially on the few short climbs.

I figured I could run about 9:00 pace pretty comfortably and based on that I projected I would finish in about 2:07. The start was interesting- they had one person start every few seconds to space us out on the trail. Everyone seemed to seed themselves appropriately and there was actually only minimal passing over the entire race.

Turns out I ran almost exactly my projected time but it was WAY harder than I anticipated! I felt like I was running half marathon pace the whole time. I was flying. It was awesome! I started off strong and kept it up for the whole race. I led a group of runners for a few miles early on- it was kind of annoying having someone literally breathing down my neck but it definitely kept me moving. The first half of the course was way more technical and my pace reflects that fact. The rest of the race was a lot smoother and faster and slightly quieter- I only got passed a couple times toward the end. I was surprised to see Zach a few times - he drove down and found me at three points in the last half of the race (pics below). I was feeling really tired but having fun.

I finished in 2:06:28 which was slightly faster than I had predicted. Yay! We stood around chatting with the other runners- it was a really friendly group of people. One guy who finished just after me had run the full marathon the day before! (it's a two-day series) Wow.

After a few minutes Zach went and checked the results and came back and told me I took 1st in my age group! So we stuck around for awards. It was cool hearing them call my name. I don't think I've ever been first before?! I got a cool medal that says "1st" !! :)

We hit up a delicious deli in Timberline for lunch before we drove home. It was the best sandwich I've had in Oregon I swear. The bad news? I got stung by a mother effing BEE! I haven't been stung by a bee since I was a kid and I forgot how freaking painful it is. I was initially scared- we had *just* heard about a guy who had to be life-flighted out from the race yesterday because he was stung and had an unknown allergy. :( But alas, I am fine. I called my parents to tell them about my race, ask if I was allergic, and listen to my dad tell me an awesome home remedy for painful stings (see final pic and caption below). They are the best parents! :)

Here are my splits from the race from the Garmin:

1- 839
2- 935
3- 923
4- 911
5- 856
6- 839
7- 854
8- 835
9- 858
10- 832
11- 842
12- 858
13- 945
14- 844
last 0.13 according to Garmin- 0:54


official finish time: 2:06:28 (8:54 pace)
1/35 age group (25-29)
10/221 females
43/318 overall


Well that's my report. Now here are my totals for this amazing week:

swim: 3:20 (7950 yards)
bike: 6:15 (87.4 miles + 1 spin class)
run: 4:30 (30.7 miles)

total training time: 14:05



Some pics from today's race:

Race morning:

Immediately after the start:

Starting area after I was already off and running:

Pic Zach took while I was running:

Mile 9.5 or so:

Mile 11.5 or so:

About a mile to go (I had just passed both those guys, fyi):

The finish:

Getting my AG Medal (I was really hoping for a podium and bouquet of flowers, but I forgive you)

Gross foot picture: This is a paste of meat tenderizer and water on my bee sting. Words of wisdom straight from my father's mouth and you don't doubt a born-and-raised Montanan on things of this nature. Especially when he's your dad.