Friday, October 27, 2017

Race #10 of the Season: Hoofin' it through the Hollows 5K

... the second race involved in me racing to fitness. Sort of.

This race was weird in that it was a Saturday evening. Happily, Brandon was able to run it with me. He doesn't do costumes (boo), but I like to ... but I didn't have much opportunity to really find something good to run in ... so I went as a color-flipped candy corn.

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BU toque, race shirt, Skirt Sports skirt. Candy corn should be white-orange-yellow, but you make do with what you have.

Easy peasy. To fulfill my Team SFQ requirements ... team arm warmers and socks. Love it. Plus the black worked well with the costume.

What Brandon really liked about this race is that we ran into a whole lot of old Run CO friends - Scott, Lisa (okay, so Lisa's Skirt now too), and Leanne. The camaraderie is one of the things I know he really misses and one reason why he hasn't liked running as much. Running is a very solitary sport, but it can also be really social as well, and he's missed the social aspect.

We had really no goals in this race but to run together, so run together we did.

Since I ran with my phone, however, and I wasn't taking this all that seriously, I did take a selfie mid-race with Lisa as we passed her.

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This race was totally low key (and cheap! Like $40 for the two of us! More if we wanted race shirts ... which we passed on.), but it was fun, too. A little lollipop loop on the Highline Canal with jack o' lantern mile markers. Nice touch. There were a lot of people in costume, too. Two that stand out were Carl Spackler (from Caddyshack) and a woman who wore red sweats with little brown balls and white yarn clumps ... spaghetti and meatballs. Totally creative.

Despite mile one being the longest ever, it wasn't too terrible of a result.

Final Stats:
Time: 31:46
15/53 AG (F30-39)
49/176 gender
117/291 overall

I didn't enjoy the post-race food (because I don't like s'mores), but Brandon was all over that.

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Still, nice and fun. Probably would do again.

Next up on the 5K extravaganza tour of the fall is the Eerie Erie tomorrow, where I should run into a few people I know as well. Brandon's out of town, though, so I'll be flying solo. Back next week with how that went!

Wednesday, October 11, 2017

Race #9 of the Season: Avalanche 5K

For starters, I really do hesitate to call this a race, for the following reasons:

- It was a good .3 miles short.
- It wasn't officially timed.
- It was crap.

Okay, so that third point is really just me.

As I mentioned in my last post, I'm choosing to race my way to fitness. I chose the Avs 5K for the medal (which was plastic crap) and for the hockey ticket ... of which I will be able to use for maybe a period of the game, as I have to pick up B from the airport that night. In short ... the race was a waste of money.

Especially because it was 2.8 miles. They said it was short - more like 3 miles as opposed to 3.1 - but they must not have measured the course by the tangents since I ran those like a boss and came up with 2.79 miles on the ol' Garmin.

And since it wasn't officially timed ... I go with 2.79 mi in 28:20 for a 10:09 pace. I went out faster than I wanted - flat course, ideal weather - but, as it goes, the lungs could hold nothing. I paced the run like poop ... which was not one of my goals, but whatever.

I did take pictures, and play around on Instagram stories, so I get to add those in to the post. Yay?

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Camera pic. Bibs were given to you at check-in. Probably could have asked for a different number and gotten it. Again, no timing, so that's why.

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Wore an Avs jersey for the race, because why the hell not. Clearly I took this seriously. #soaero.

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Team requirements - race in SMASH. But I love this hat, so it wasn't an issue. I also had on SMASH socks *and* top, but that got hidden by the jersey and my other layer.

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Crap medal and Garmin data. Also shows SMASH socks.

Friday, October 6, 2017

Racing to Fitness

If you follow along to the changes around here, you might have noticed that I added a lot more races onto that sidebar. A stupid amount.

Nothing terribly long - nothing more than a 5K (probably - see to be determined turkey day race) - and mostly nothing less. 

There's a reason for this. When I wrote that blog post Wednesday I was full of optimism ... but as things are (already) going, the execution is a bit tricky. So ... I'm going with the possibly ill-advised (but previously somewhat successful - see late-spring/early-summer 2014) strategy of essentially racing my way back into some sort of fitness. If I have to run a lot - and run in theory fast - my run fitness should start coming back into something resembling respectable. At least that's the goal.

I start it off tomorrow with the Avs 5K ... which I'm pretty much only doing for the medal. The course looks shit (basically looping the parking lot at Pepsi Center) and the weather probably will be as well. Okay, so I also get a hockey ticket with it, but who knows if B and I will use it. I regret not having my inline skates by this point because I would have much rather just skated the three miles. Maybe next year.

I'm also running this one by myself. I wrote down goals for this race (ha, "goals"), but mostly, this is probably the benchmark for the next few months. May Colder Boulder be quicker than whatever tomorrow will be.

Loose Goals for the Avs 5K:
- Steady first mile. I tend to go out too fast a lot. Don't think it'll be a problem here.
- Steadily increase speed. We'll see if I can manage this. 
- Pace it ... or balls out and hold on! This depends entirely on my lungs on if they want to let my legs try to extract speed out of themselves. I'm not holding my breath.


Wednesday, October 4, 2017

September Round-Up

Also known as the beginning of the glorious offseason ...

Swimming: 5000m (3.1 mi)
Cycling: 102.77 mi
Running: 18.25 mi
Lifting: 15 sessions (3:32)
Other: one curling session (:30), one elliptical session (:20), one hike (:45), one stretch session (:09), five walks (7:15), two yoga sessions (:32)

Clearly a lighter month, but I had a baby taper going into Santa Cruz and then decided to enjoy an offseason ... greatly aided by a nasty cold that took me out for several days. Then, when I got better, it was very little swim/bike/run related activity - I got on the elliptical for the first time in who knows how long! And I actually enjoyed it! - to try and actually take some time off.

Now that it's October, I'm trying to slowly get back into a routine, and one that includes s/b/r because I do NOT want to lose everything like ALWAYS. Not a lot of distance, mind you, but decent frequency. 

Running is a slightly different story, though, and one that I'll go into a bit more detail with a bit later this week.