I know I'm a week early, but I wanted to get my goals down on paper...or web :)
1 - Run 1,560 miles (30 miles per week)
2 - Run 1 race per month, including my first full marathon in the fall
3 - Really learn to knit, and make something from the Cables Untangled book
4 - Take Jack on more walks
5 - Continue to find ways to be the best wife I can
6 - Continue to find ways to maintain a positive attitude at work, even when everyone else is going nuts.
Monday, December 22, 2008
Rudolph's Revenge - 12/20/2008
Rudolph's Revenge 5k/10k was held Saturday the 20th at Chatfield Reservoir in Littleton. It was so nice to run a race close to home, the race was at 10, with packet pick up starting at 8:30, so I was able to sleep in til 7:45! I left our house around 8:45, got checked in and picked up my bib/tee shirt and sat in the car people-watching while waiting for the race to start. It was cold, but not as cold as it was during the week last week, the temperature was about 19 when the race started and 23 when I got in the car to head home.
The race is pretty casual, with an announcer saying "start" and everyone having the same start time (instead of more technical races where everyone crosses a mat to start their timing chip). According to my watch this added about 7 seconds to my official start time in which I was just waiting to get to the start line. The first mile of the race was a bit tight with people trying to spread out on the one side of the road we were using (traffic was not stopped around the reservoir, we even had to part the crowd at the starting line to let a car through!) and trying to avoid the patches of black ice leftover from the storms last week. I hit the one mile mark in 9:12 (!, not bad for training at a 10:42 pace lately!) and we started to climb. The first hill of the race was exactly half a mile long. It was an ugly climb, but all the incline work on the treadmill the last few weeks seemed to pay off as I started passing people on my way to the top.
The 5k runners turned around at the 1.5 mile mark and headed back toward the swim beach and Finish line. This is where the race started to get a little painful. I have been focusing so much on endurance and hills lately that it surprised me when the downhills started to hurt. It was a bit slick on the bike path and I didn't want to go full speed down the hills, and in turn got passed by slower runs who were trying to make up time on the downhills. There were lots of rolling hills the last 1.5 miles of the race and a lot of my energy was spent trying to get around the slower runners (they'd sprint down the hill then slow at the bottom of the next). I suppose that my confidence on wintry downhills will come back as my long-runs get longer this winter (that sounds really redundant :)).
Anyway, my final finishing time for the race was 29:42 (official) and 29:35 (per my watch), not blazing speed by any account and definitely slower than I was running this summer, but considering the hills/cold it wasn't bad at all! Today I checked the race results and ended up placing 9/23 in my age group, 53/180 overall for women and 134/307 in the overall 5k standings! I was then a little bummed to realize that I'll miss the January race because it's the same day as an alumni mentoring party - and since I have 2 mentees I shouldn't miss it!
On a side note, Chris' parents gave me a Bath and Body Works gift card for Christmas, and I decided to use it today. The BBW across the street from my office is having some fabulous sales right now and I got two aromatherapy roller-ball things, a giant bottle of bubble bath, a bottle of pillow spray, and a bottle of oil for our oil warmer for $24 ($17 before tax, the tax rate's insane down here!)! Ever the bargain hunter, I added up all the original prices when I got back to my desk and the grand total would have been $49!!
The race is pretty casual, with an announcer saying "start" and everyone having the same start time (instead of more technical races where everyone crosses a mat to start their timing chip). According to my watch this added about 7 seconds to my official start time in which I was just waiting to get to the start line. The first mile of the race was a bit tight with people trying to spread out on the one side of the road we were using (traffic was not stopped around the reservoir, we even had to part the crowd at the starting line to let a car through!) and trying to avoid the patches of black ice leftover from the storms last week. I hit the one mile mark in 9:12 (!, not bad for training at a 10:42 pace lately!) and we started to climb. The first hill of the race was exactly half a mile long. It was an ugly climb, but all the incline work on the treadmill the last few weeks seemed to pay off as I started passing people on my way to the top.
The 5k runners turned around at the 1.5 mile mark and headed back toward the swim beach and Finish line. This is where the race started to get a little painful. I have been focusing so much on endurance and hills lately that it surprised me when the downhills started to hurt. It was a bit slick on the bike path and I didn't want to go full speed down the hills, and in turn got passed by slower runs who were trying to make up time on the downhills. There were lots of rolling hills the last 1.5 miles of the race and a lot of my energy was spent trying to get around the slower runners (they'd sprint down the hill then slow at the bottom of the next). I suppose that my confidence on wintry downhills will come back as my long-runs get longer this winter (that sounds really redundant :)).
Anyway, my final finishing time for the race was 29:42 (official) and 29:35 (per my watch), not blazing speed by any account and definitely slower than I was running this summer, but considering the hills/cold it wasn't bad at all! Today I checked the race results and ended up placing 9/23 in my age group, 53/180 overall for women and 134/307 in the overall 5k standings! I was then a little bummed to realize that I'll miss the January race because it's the same day as an alumni mentoring party - and since I have 2 mentees I shouldn't miss it!
On a side note, Chris' parents gave me a Bath and Body Works gift card for Christmas, and I decided to use it today. The BBW across the street from my office is having some fabulous sales right now and I got two aromatherapy roller-ball things, a giant bottle of bubble bath, a bottle of pillow spray, and a bottle of oil for our oil warmer for $24 ($17 before tax, the tax rate's insane down here!)! Ever the bargain hunter, I added up all the original prices when I got back to my desk and the grand total would have been $49!!
Monday, December 15, 2008
It's been a while...
It's been quite a while since I posted, and I've been feeling introspective lately with the holidays and new year approaching...so I'm back!
Running lately has been going well, the weather has not been helping though. Yesterday was a 5 miler, the actual temperature was 1 degree when I left the house, and the windchill was -21...but I finished my hilly long run and treated myself with a nice hot shower and a long nap in our fleece sheets. I have a 5k coming up this weekend, it's at a reservoir near our house so it's a treat to not have to get up super early for a race. I'm very much looking forward to it and am aiming for the 25 minute range. Not blazing fast, but a "post-college" PR nonetheless!
In the same series I will be running a 5M race in January and a 10M race in February. I'm hoping to run the 25k at Greenland Trail this year and hopefully my first marathon in the late summer/fall. I can't believe I'll be 25 by then!! Time flies...
Some additional running goals for 2009 are to run 1,560 miles (30 miles per week), run 1 race per month, and keep contributing to the 100,000 mile challenge.
On a more personal note, I've having a lot of dialogue with Chris lately about our plans for the future, my heart is set on living a childfree life or adopting a child someday and have been dealing with the emotional issues that coming to that conclusion have brought up. Does that make me less of a woman, less considerate, more selfish? Chris is also on the same bandwagon, but what if one day he changes his mind and I can't bring myself to join him? It seems that everyone around me is trying to conceive or expecting a baby and I suppose I just feel a little left out. It's definitely put my desire for another dog into overdrive though...see, I'm compassionate!!
On a lighter note - there are 6.5 working days left until my Christmas vacation, can't wait!!
Running lately has been going well, the weather has not been helping though. Yesterday was a 5 miler, the actual temperature was 1 degree when I left the house, and the windchill was -21...but I finished my hilly long run and treated myself with a nice hot shower and a long nap in our fleece sheets. I have a 5k coming up this weekend, it's at a reservoir near our house so it's a treat to not have to get up super early for a race. I'm very much looking forward to it and am aiming for the 25 minute range. Not blazing fast, but a "post-college" PR nonetheless!
In the same series I will be running a 5M race in January and a 10M race in February. I'm hoping to run the 25k at Greenland Trail this year and hopefully my first marathon in the late summer/fall. I can't believe I'll be 25 by then!! Time flies...
Some additional running goals for 2009 are to run 1,560 miles (30 miles per week), run 1 race per month, and keep contributing to the 100,000 mile challenge.
On a more personal note, I've having a lot of dialogue with Chris lately about our plans for the future, my heart is set on living a childfree life or adopting a child someday and have been dealing with the emotional issues that coming to that conclusion have brought up. Does that make me less of a woman, less considerate, more selfish? Chris is also on the same bandwagon, but what if one day he changes his mind and I can't bring myself to join him? It seems that everyone around me is trying to conceive or expecting a baby and I suppose I just feel a little left out. It's definitely put my desire for another dog into overdrive though...see, I'm compassionate!!
On a lighter note - there are 6.5 working days left until my Christmas vacation, can't wait!!
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