Race #1 of the Season: Saguaro Half-Marathon

Almost 13 months later, we finally got to race an actual, in-person race again.

(Okay, to be perfectly honest we probably could have before, but this is the one we signed up for that worked out. Wasn't just going to pick something to race for the sake of racing especially since, as you know if you've been following this here blog, my training has been CRAP.)

When Vacation Races came out with the Saguaro Half-Marathon, both of us automatically wanted to be in on it. We thought that, given Arizona, there'd be a high likelihood of it taking place. It was in Tucson, which duh, we both love, and bigger bonus, a late March date meant a shot at seeing a Rockies Spring Training game if those were a thing.

The possibility of the race got dicey for a while and we ended up getting shuffled to a Sunday race day as opposed to a Saturday race day (they split us up over two days). However, it did go on. And we got to go to Spring Training which meant our first live sporting event since sometime in 2019 which was also amazing.

Bib pick up was Friday and drive-thru style, but we were able to park and get out for the small expo, where we got this picture.

We're so happy.

Then, nothing until Sunday morning. We ended up chatting with one of Saturday's pacers in Waffle House while getting breakfast and got a lot of good info from him - mainly the course was a lot of uphill. Great. We didn't have time goals, though, so whatever.

We drove out to park at Old Tucson (RIP) and hung out in the car until it was time to queue up in our wave. And poop like four times, since pre-race nervous colon was on overdrive. 

Hanging out.

Gorgeous full moon spotted while walking to the queue area/"corrals."

Hanging out pre-race.

Photo-op sign.

7:25 or whatever rolled around and it was time to run. The first half mile or so was on the roads and then we popped into the trails (around Gates Pass in Tucson Mountain Park). The trails were hard-packed dirt (unless you were kinda in a wash in which case it was more sand) with rocks. Sometimes just straight rocks.

But we were RACING.

We were in a train of people that was pretty close together for probably the first mile, mile and a half, but we started naturally spreading out ... particularly as the trail started to climb. And climb. We had a couple miles, according to the ol' Garmin, that were only straight elevation gain with no loss. One also in the later miles. Greeeeeeat.

I think this was heading up to the mile 4 marker. As Paula Abdul would say, straight up.

Despite the climbing (and oh was it fairly brutal), we were still enjoying ourselves. In typical desert fashion, it got warm and it got warm quickly. I had my handheld that I was topping off/refilling at every aid station. I probably drank more in that half-marathon than I have in any other half I've run outside of a 70.3 (and even then ...). And I probably could have stood to ingest more salt (knew I should have brought an extra Skratch packet - started off with Skratch but I was drinking straight water by the end) given how poofy my hands got by the end.

Image credit Lucid Images. Still managed a jump mid-race! This was probably sometime before mile 6 since we were still on trail.

Sometime around the above photo we started chatting with one of the pacers who was hilarious and we were off and on with her over the next probably four miles. I think it was sometime around mile 6 (mile 6.5 maybe? I don't remember ...) that we popped off the trails and back on Kinney Road ... straight uphill toward the Desert Museum. So. Much. Climbing.

We finally got a little bit of a downhill reprieve when we made the left onto the McCain Loop (which I'd last been on in 2017 at SMASH camp when we time trialed it on our bikes ...). The downhill bits were nice, but as the road wound its way back toward the finish ... we also went into the wind. There was a nice good stretch at like mile 10 that we were literally running uphill into the wind. Go figure. Silly Tucson and its wind ...

I will say that it was really easy to go into my brain to focus on the race. I was actually surprised at how easy it was given how long I had exercised that part of my brain. Unintended COVID/social distancing/lockdown/whatever consequence? Guess I've been beefing up the mental toughness muscle over the last year without even realizing it. Hooray?

We had heard from multiple Saturday finishers that the course was long, and indeed, the ol' Garmin registered around 13.3. It was nice knowing that going in so I wasn't looking at the watch wondering why the hell I wasn't done yet.

Final Stats:
Time: 2:54:54.92
68/116 AG (F35-39)
450/857 gender
773/1291 overall

DONE. Plus bomb-ass medal.

Photo op sign got moved.

B and I ran together for most of the race - probably until the last mile or so when I finally pulled away. I crossed the line only around 20 seconds prior.

All things considered, for racing in the post-COVID (or is it just COVID?) era, it was a well-run race. I'd be willing to try another event by Vacation Races in the future, too, particularly if/when things ever go back to "normal".

I may actually consider this race again, too, but I may want to actually put in a good training cycle for it. And run rocky trails.

March Round Up

 Okay, here's already the tl;dr version of March - it was pretty shitty. Read on if you want a few more details.

Swimming: 2200m (1.37 mi)
Cycling: 27.38 mi
Running: 32.61 mi
Lifting: 16 sessions (4:03)
Other: one hike (1:50), two days skiing (4:45), one stint snow shoveling (:45)

I swam twice. I got on my bike three times. Run numbers look marginally decent, but over a third of those came in one race (yes, the Saguaro Half did take place. Yes, I meant to blog about it Wednesday. Yes, you'll actually get to read about it next week).

I'm still attempting to keep up with a strength program, even if it's not daily. It's basically me catching up on three days' worth of stuff in one day. And then that's all I do.

The hike came in Tucson. Skiing was a bit rougher to get out for since B is actually back on a normal schedule again. The snow shoveling ... well, we got like two feet mid-month so shoveling that was a hell of a workout so I counted it. And my old, late-30s self definitely felt it for a few days afterward, so there's that.

I'm hoping (like always) that April will be better, but currently, that seems to not be the case. We'll see.

February Round Up

At the end of January's post, I said that I hoped February would be a bit better.

It wasn't. At all. Read on ...

Swimming: 2700m (1.68 mi)
Cycling: 35.67 mi
Running: 15.7 mi
Lifting: 17 sessions (4:19)
Other: three days skiing (5:30)

If I'm being completely honest with myself, I've felt off for a few months now. Definitely for this whole year, but potentially even as far back as November. I have no idea what it is or why it is, but, well, it is.

It could be the uncertainty that still exists in terms of racing and everything.

It could be the fact that we're nearing a year of all this bullshit (I regret nothing on that term, btw).

It could be that I just lost any and all reasons to do this stuff.

I'd say it's depression, but if it is, it's not like any depression I've ever dealt with before. A workout depression, for sure. The Saguaro Half still looks like it's going to take place at the end of March and while I know I can still probably finish it, right now it's looking like it'll be pretty fucking ugly.

And yet ... caring enough to get out the door is extremely difficult. To even try. It feels like 2018, but I don't feel like I have a legitimate reason for it to feel like 2018. And I'm really fucking sick of blaming everything on this stupid pandemic, even though that's probably the logical reason behind it. Collective group trauma or something. And that some people can get through it due to their more Type-A nature (that I definitely do not have).

I don't know. Maybe I'm just bitching. Maybe I should continue to take it as it comes and quit stressing over it.

Maybe ... maybe I just don't know anymore.

January Round Up

I'm going to be flat out honest - in terms of Januarys, this one sucked.

Read on ...

Swimming: 12000m (7.46 mi)
Cycling: 52.55 mi
Running: 37.73 mi
Lifting: 20 sessions (4:11)
Other: three hikes (2:50), three days skiing (8:00), one walk (1:00), two sessions yoga (:22)

Swimming, though I definitely missed some sessions, wasn't too bad. I got over my 10k. Some days I feel like I'm doing well in the pool; some days I don't. Fairly standard.

The bike was a huge disappointment. I am having issues getting on my bike right now and I am not exactly sure why. Something to figure out for sure.

Running wasn't bad, but definitely not where it probably should have been. Of course.

While strength seems low in terms of sessions, I actually did do each of the daily workouts ... I just doubled (or tripled ...) them up on some days.

I did get in some other stuff too which was nice, and I'm not going to discount that.

*****

Usually, January is a great month of starting new and fresh and motivated and it just wasn't for me. It was for the first few days, but it fell off and it fell of quickly. I'm not sure if it's just a lot of residual stress and fatigue from gestures broadly ~*everything*~ or maybe a little bit of "what's the point" when there's seemingly no end in sight to our current situation or what, but that's what it was. Hopefully February can be a little better.

2021 Goals

 It might be a bit presumptuous to do goals for this year given how last year went, but eh, screw it. Let's be optimistic.

Swim:
- bare minimum 150k in the pool (preferably 200k)(so depends on pools)
- back to my 10k/mo
    - this averages out to be about 2500-3k/week
- in the summer, get out for an OWS every three weeks (minimum)
- back up to 5k in the water (... pool time dependent, obvi.)

Bike:
- bare minimum 2k (mileage)
    - means 150-175/mo on average
        - minimum 125/mo
        - 30-40 mi/week
- to complete:
    - Lemmon climb IF FEASIBLE
    - Peak-to-Peak loop
    - Carter Lake ride

Run:
- bare minimum 500 mi
    - means 40 mi/mo
    - 10 mi/week
- do a track workout every three weeks in the summer
- aim for:
    - sub-29:00 5K
    - sub-2:20 half

Other:
- schedule the daily, but can do other strength (not gonna lie, getting a bit bored)
- yoga once a week
- stretch more on the regular
- add in more non-SBR still

Always:
- stay healthy and happy

70.3:
- swim
    - keep it sub-:50
    - sub-:48 if possible
- bike
    - sub-3:20
    - sub-3:17 if possible
- run
    - sub-2:45
    - sub-2:40 if possible
- ultimate hope: sub-7:00

Some of the run-only goals aren't super ambitious, but it's getting back to what I could do once upon a time. I want goals this year that are manageable and not too scary ... just in case it ends up being a shitshow again. I know the swim ones could tank hard, but even with not a lot of swimming last year, I managed over 100k ... and I know I could have done more than that even when pools re-opened.

Here's to 2021. May it be more athlete-friendly than last year.

December and 2020 Round Up

December ended up being a bit rougher than I originally planned. Hearing that the half we were sort of training for was cancelled threw a wrench in things and affected us more than I think we expected. After a week or two of not a lot of movement, things got better. Read on ...

Swimming: 9000m (5.59 mi)
Cycling: 120.28 mi
Running: 37.52 mi
Lifting: 31 sessions (5:14)
Other: one hike (1:20), one day skiing (2:00)

I probably could have done better in trying to hit 10k for the month in swimming, but eh.

My goal for the month was to hit 100 miles on the bike and I DID THAT. I do have the Stomp the Trainer 500 to thank for that - Tarsh of Stomp the Pedal took the Rapha Festive 500 and brought it indoors and while I knew there was no way I could hit 500km in 8 days (12.24-31), I could try to get in as much as I could. I ended up with just over 140km which tbh I'm really happy with. Plus it got me back on my bike, so that was a very good thing.

The run ... ended up getting better, even though it was way lower than it should have been. Oops.

What about 2020 goals?

Embrace the hill.
Ha, nope. I can blame COVID on this one. And the horrible wildfire season. I don't even think I rode up in Boulder this year due to circumstances and there aren't that many serious hills down by me. So really, I'm chalking this one up to the year being the year that it was. And I'm okay with this.

Drop my swim times.
... you know, I actually did start doing this a tiny bit near the end of the year. If I really focus on form and push myself, it does work. Who'd've thunk it? I mean, I still need to put in a lot more work, but given the fact that I wasn't able to swim for a good chunk of this year? I'm happy things didn't regress.

Keep working on my run.
My run is actually sort of starting to come around, so I think the consistency that I've been putting in with my run training (I've pretty much stuck with the running every other day thing for over two years now) is slowly starting to pay off. 

Lean out.
A little. Weight's stayed stable (which is a win as far as I'm concerned), but I am starting to see more muscle definition, particularly in places I haven't seen it before. So hooray to that.

Stay healthy and happy.
Done. Especially given everything that was thrown at us this year, the fact that I managed these two things is a MASSIVE win.

2020, you weren't my favorite year, but I've definitely had shittier in terms of working out. You made me appreciate swimming like never before by taking it away from me. You made me thankful for the trail system near my house. You made me thankful to live in Colorado, a state that didn't prevent me from working out outside during the worst of it in the spring. You helped me focus a bit more on strength.

I'm still glad to see you gone, though.

November Round Up

 Another month down. Not much else to say there. Let's see how it went, shall we?

Swimming: 12100m (7.52 mi)
Cycling: 50.27 mi
Running: 59.54 mi
Strength: 30 sessions (5:29)
Other: two hikes (2:14)

I started getting back in the pool regularly again (ending out the month with a few three swim weeks) and it's becoming noticeable. I'm starting to focus on form a bit more and, what do you know, it actually works. I've seen some faster times (for me) again so I guess that's paying off and I guess that's something I'm going to continue working on.

The bike continues to be a disappointment. My swim went back to decent once I started giving myself specific workouts again so I'm going to do the same thing with the bike (or at least parameters of how much I should ride that day). My mini goal is to ride at least 100 miles in December. 

Running is continuing to go pretty well. The race we're in theory training for might not happen (registration still isn't open yet they have a date for it ...), but we're hoping that if it doesn't, there will be something local-ish we can substitute in its place. Hopefully.

The other disappointment this month (besides the bike) was the lack of other. Hoping that changes despite the weather and cold!

Also obviously sticking with the daily since it seems to be working. Consistency over time, man.