Hello!!! It may not be the normal time of year to talk about back to school, but today marks the first day of summer semester and my last semester of course work.
So it's back to balancing books, computers and training (oh and work, life, travel, etc)
Anyone else balancing work, grad school and an addiction to endurance sports? Balancing other things, family, home repairs….?
I really love trail running, and finding a new trail to run on is one of my favorite things in the world. I find trail running in Colorado very different than running on streets or paths with all the hills and technical sections. So I don't always get to spend time on the trails like I would like. If I have 20 miles on my schedule it my be too difficult for ME to do so on a trail (I know ultra runners do it all the time but I can't on top of Ironman training) but I do find anything less than 10 miles works and is a good hill workout. This past weekend, I had a shorter run on my schedule so I hopped on the internet and found a new trail not too far from our house. Matthew Winters Trail seemed like a good choice.
Everything is SO green right now!
The trail started out rolling and very runnabel
There were some deer along the trail
As we ran into the south parking lot we could have turned around and headed back the way we came or along the Dakota Ridge trail. We opted for Dakota Ridge, but if I could go back I would backtrack. Dakota Ridge trail is beautiful but not runnable for me, it was steep uphill on rocky terrain that often had stairs cut in. I really did enjoy the views, unfortunately our camera died halfway through so no pictures of the second part.
Do you enjoy trail running? Do you find it difficult to run as far?
So last week I wrote a post about paying the price for inconsistent training, how I missed key workouts and was going to have to drop to the half marathon. My coach suggested the switch and I agreed it was the SMART choice. I decided I was going to switch but was fairly grumpy about it and wasn’t really looking forward to racing the half. I ran the full in 2011 and loved it. Added to that was the lingering disappointment that I skipped last year’s marathon due to an injury while training for IMCDA.
On top of being grumpy about dropping to the half, I found out it would cost $20 to switch. I understand why they charge, it takes staff time to change people and they don’t want a bunch of people switching. But I had already paid for the more expensive race I didn’t want to pay more to do the half. The nail in the coffin was Cory telling me he still wanted to run the full (he had done a little less training than I had) and he thought I could do the full if I wanted. I was sold, and magically excited about the race again. I was excited to run a marathon, to get my second open marathon in the books and I really didn’t care what my time was. I knew with my shabby training that I was undertrained, there would be no PR and it would hurt but I was still happy to be there.
And I survived and had a lot of fun, ok, the last 10k sucked and hurt but doesn’t it always? I don’t care that I didn’t PR or run fast at all, it was an event and I had a really good time. My parents came out to cheer for us and seeing them at mile 21 really lifted my spirits, thanks mom and dad! I will write a race report later this week to talk about race details. For now I am trying to recover and be able to walk normally.
Hello form Moab! We are currently sitting in the hotel waiting for the rain to stop so we can head out for our longest ride of the weekend (80 something for me but with the late start might need to be cut to 66) it's very cold and currently snowing at the top of our ride, a few hard core triathletes that were going for 100+ miles today went for it in the rain but most of us are waiting it out. I am still recovering from being sick for two weeks so I am not going to take my chances.
The trip so far has been a little impeded by weather, we have had a cold wet spring so it's really no surprise. But Day 1 (Thursday) made for a sketchy drive through the mountains from Denver to Grand Junction where we had planned to ride about 36 miles on our way to Moab but it was very cold and talk of snow so we pushed on to Moab where we checked into the hotel and quickly got on our bikes to put some miles in. The ride was still chilly but we rode along the river into a canyon on some nice easy rollers.
After the ride we cleaned up and headed to dinner with Coach and a bunch of people from the team the food wasn't great but the company was stellar. Then it was quick to get to bed for an early morning at the pool.
Day two coming soon, but I wanted to clear a couple things up. I called this a training camp and while in my mind it is we are very fortunate that it is put on by our local tri club and is free to members, not a fancy expensive camp. Obviously we have to pay to drive out here and for the hotel (some people camp but that seems crazy to me). Our coach and club officers plan the entire weekend (workouts, reserving a pool, discount at the hotel, etc) for us for free. It's a nice perk of being part of a really awesome club. We also have access to some of our club sponsors like Cliff Bar produces, Sierra Nevada beer as well a massages and recovery pump boots.
I hope everyone had a great weekend, I can't believe it's Monday already. My weekend was jam packed with working, schooling, running and watching football. I didn't get to finishing up Christmas decorating like I had planned but something had to give. And my moms invitation of a yummy dinner and a football game was too tempting to pass up. And what are the holidays about if not family?!? Onto this week, it should be a little less hectic as I *think* I am done with my classes for the semester (one prof is really bad about communicating and is really confusing). As far as training this week is another big week for training:
What are your goals for this month?
