Gulf Wind Track Club Grand Prix

Each year the Gulfwinds track Club which I run with has a points
series that they call the Grand Prix. They have age group categories
and an overall. Frankly I dont even look at the overall points, that
division is way out of my league. The age groups are fun to try and
get points in and this year I have been having some good luck going
after the age group points. First off you may ask what is in that pot
of gold at the end of the grand prix rainbow? Ha silly pride, thats
what you get a sweatshirt or a bag or something that says grandprix
winner on it anyou get to parade around in front of your friends in
it. And dont think that people dont pull these items out every chance
they get.
The best part about the grandprix is what it takes to win it.
Persistance and Consistance, see nobody ever runs all of the races.
Staying healthy all year for running is not common so the key being
able to race as much as the other guys or more. In most categories the
person who races the most wins the division. It is not all about
speed.
This season my running has gone poorly but I have had good days when
I need them and most important there have been lots of other guys to
get the flu have business trips etc and miss races so I have a strong
second place in my division.

Here is the tricky part. If somebody is better than you there is a
loophole. You hope that they run really well and place in the overall
top 5 and then they are removed from your category. That is my trump
card right now. The guy winning my category is very fast and if he
runs well the rest of the year he can be top 5 overall and I have a
shot at my age group

So finally about actually I ran a 10k Saturday and had a great race
41:15 on a very hilly course. I was third in my age group but most of
all I had a great race. Now there are no gp's for 2 months and I can
try to get these calfs healed up.

Inconsistent week

Overall I am not too happy with this week. Wednesday it rained messing things up for me because I could not bike ride.
Thursday my calf did not feel great while I ran but I did to a pretty good 8 mile run.
Friday I did nothing because I had a birthday party to oversee.
Saturday I volunteered at a track meet and by the time I tried to run in the evening my legs were sore so I bagged the run after 2 miles. Although I was only trying to run 3.5.
Sunday I went to go biking and I just could not ride. I was rolling along at 15mph and could not move the bike so I just turned around and went home. That really bummed me out because I intended to do a long ride. I was just not mentally there for the ride. Going back home was the right choice because I was not having fun but right now I sure wish I was out on the bike.

Oh well nothing I can do about it now.
Next week I get a week off of work. Boy do I need it.

Moving right along

Well as predicted Wednesday there were 25mph winds all day and it rained pretty hard in the evening when the bike ride would have been. The rain is not that big of a deal but a group ride in 25mph gusty wind is out of the question to me. This early in the season a lot of guys aren't used to the group ride and then you start blowing them around and you have a problem.

Thursday came in with terrific weather in the afternoon and I went for 8.5 miles in 1:11. My calf(the one I hurt in January) is still a little tight each time I run and I was worried about it yesterday. I was going with the logic that if it stays the same I will keep it up. If it starts to get sore I'll turn back. It never did get worse but it feels tight today. I have not been trying to run back to back days yet so I am hoping that it will be loose again Saturday or Sunday. I had been thinking I would try for 10 miles on Sunday but I think it may be a 3 mile day. Who knows things are unpredictable.

As far as the run went yesterday it was a good run. I chose a hilly course to get ready for next weeks 10k and my thighs were jello when I got done. I was happy with how strong I felt through out the run and feel like things are going ok. If I can just keep running for a while.

One Whole Week!!

Yep I have been running for a week with no problems!!!

That should not sound impressive to you. No it should sound very unimpressive but lately it is a big accomplishment form me.

I took Monday off after the hard weekend and then Tuesday went and ran my course at the Greenway that gives me a good feel for where my fitness is.

56 minutes is what I run when I am just starting to run after long periods of nothing.  53 minutes is a good time and very typical.  48 is what I do when I am real fit and do a tempo run.

 

Yesterday I ran 52:30 and had to stop once for about 30 seconds to mess with my shoe.  I was a bit surprised because normally I need a drink of water at the halfway point and a short moment to regroup. Yesterday however I just kept right on going the whole way.  I felt really sluggish at the beginning which was not surprising after how fried I was after Sunday’s effort.  By the end though I was flowing pretty good and thinking about how I need some new music on my mp3 player not about running. 

I really am feeling good about things right now and sure hope they continue to improve.  

 

Normally tonight would be a bike night but it is forecast to storm pretty good so it may be a good night for just working on my Canoe.  I hope to ride though.

Long Bike Ride

Sunday as planned I went bike riding with a bunch of my triathlete buddies. Wow what a hard ride. They were not screwing around at all and I did not have my A game. I was tired and sore from riding and racing the day before and had trouble with the hills on this ride which is usually my strong point. Problem was there were a ton of hills. Long hills that you can lose a lot of time on. Bottle that up with problem 2 is that it was quite windy and everybody but me had aero bars so after getting over the top of a hill if I was not on somebodies wheel I was in trouble.

I really only faltered once that mattered and I got dropped really good. I was alone for miles. Fortunately I had a heart monitor and a speedometer so I could see that I was riding fairly well I was just getting killed by faster riders. I can live with that I knew they were more fit than me. Once we regrouped I played it very conservative and sucked wheels the rest of the day. We also had a tailwind the rest of the ride so they did not have such a huge advantage on me as they had earlier so I did not get dropped anymore.

It was a really good ride though, beautiful weather nice and hard and a great course. I am looking forward to riding that course again when I am riding a little better. When I got home I was wrecked, absolutely worn out and lethargic the rest of the day. I think I was in bed by 9:30.

After the ride as seems to be a tradition with these guys we ran about 2.5 miles. Just a couple of slow laps around a big field where the ride starts. They seem to think there is a good reason for it so I figure why not.


For the week that gives me
2.5,3,2,3.5 = 11 hours on the bike
5,6.5,4,2.5 = 18 miles running

Good Saturday

I woke up this morning with nothing to do so I went over to run a 5k
for th hell of it.
Probably not a good idea but I never claimed to have any sense. It
was a pretty tough course that I have run before. Lots of corners lots
of little up hills and down hills. Not a pr course but I was not
worried about a pr. I settled into a good first mile pace and hit the
first mile which is mostly downhill in 6:15. From there I figure if I
could go 6:30 the rest of the way it would be a good day. I did just
that and was happy with the race. I was 13 overall with a 19:51 and
got a trophy for second in my age group. Nice to bring home the
hardware.

They had a good pancake breakfast after the race which made waiting
around for an hour for a trophy go faster.

Later in the afternoon I got bored and went for a 2 hour bike ride on
my cross bike nice and relaxed not trying to ride hard

Running in a flooded swamp

Yep thats what I said Running in a flooded swamp. I went last night to run in a wildlife management area near my house that I run in all the time and was pretty surprised to find it was flooded in places. This was only surprising because the heavy rain was a while ago not just the day before and I have been there since the heavy rain. It is funny how safe a place can seem when it is all dry and then when all of that swamp water is connected you can become certain that an alligator is going to eat you. This is not irrational fear. There are alligators in this area. Lots of them. They don't eat people often but I don't want to be first either.

Anyway back to the run I got to the flooded area and did not want to turn around so I tip toed through the water. The next flooded place was deeper but I was committed. The 3rd place I had gone too far to turn back but it was almost knee deep. I could not really even see the bottom as I started across. But I made it without getting eaten. I ended up with about 6.25 or 6.5 miles and it took 53 minutes. I felt a little tight in my right achilles area towards the end but attribute that to the long week and the fact that something always hurts.

Today will be totally off.
Saturday I will try to run an hour again
Sunday I plan to bike 60 with a bunch of triathletes

Bike riding

Last night was the first Wednesday bike ride for the summer. I have been going out to these for over 20 years and probably will for 20 more years. Some years I am ready and some years I am absolutely not ready. This year I was somewhere in the middle.

Riding from home to do the ride and back again give about 50 miles so it is a long ride. The group part of the ride is very fast.  Several of the guys last night who have been racing the last 6 or 8 weeks said they have not gone this fast in a race all year.  I was glad to hear it because it sure felt fast to me.  I have been riding but just alone so hitting the group speed was going to be a shock to the system no matter what.  Fortunately for me I can feel the progress on a single ride. My body relaxes, I get comfortable pedaling faster and by the end of the ride I am a better rider.

The only thing I think I was lacking last night was top end speed. I could do the hills just fine, I had the endurance and I was fine going fast. It was just when we hit 30 or more I was short on high end speed/power.  No worries that comes from going fast and doing this ride you always go fast. 

It was nice seeing some of the kids from last year who would get dropped each week have now grown and are doing the whole ride in the group and riding up front.  Next year they will be super heroes.

 

I plan to run today, after last nights ride and the fact that I am just coming back it will be a pretty easy run.

 

Can’t remember if I wrote about it but I ran Tuesday for 45 minutes and it felt good. I have not been sore since the run so my hopes are up.  I would like to get back into the groove asap. I need it mentally and physicall.

What has been going on since Feb 25

Well as you can guess not much running has been going on at all but things are not all bad.

I took a lot of time off trying to get this inner thigh thing to go away. Boy it is debilitating.

There are body parts that can be sore and it does not bother you too much and then there are others that get sore and you just can’t do anything.

 

I went and ran on the 25^th for ½ an hour and everything felt ok but then the next day I was having some stomach trouble and stayed home from work and at some point late in the day thought I would go for a short run.  I had to stop after 10 minutes. Not good.

 

That weekend I had a Grand Prix 5k on Saturday and a ½ marathon in Seaside Florida scheduled.  I was quite certain that the ½ was impossible so I decided to just do the 5k easy and if it was at all possible I would do the ½ with my wife.

 

I ran a 21:22 - 5k which was quicker than I needed but still relaxed. No pain at all and I was fairly happy with it.  The next day for the ½ I warmed up for about 3 minutes and could feel pain so I just changed back to my sweats and watched the race.  I did run the last mile with my wife and her friend who did a good job in the race.  That was my wife’s 3^rd ½ marathon.

 

If you recall I said I had stomach problems on the 26^th and missed work, well they got worse and really kicked my butt for a couple of weeks there.  I did not get over them until about the 10^th of March so I was not able to bike or run or anything.  I tried to do a short bike rid on the 7^th and had to go back home quick. I had gotten really weak.  Finally on the 9^th it was like somebody flipped a switch and I felt great again.

 

On Monday I went biking for 2.5 hours

Tuesday I ran again easy for 45 minutes

 

I am feeling positive about the run and hope that when I try to run again Thursday that there will be no pain.  The stomach bug really did give me a lot of rest and time to recover and I am hoping this is all behind me.

At this point I am a little disgusted with the way my year has gone. I started off in great shape and have just been floundering while I loose fitness but there is just nothing I can do about it now but look forward.  The latest issue I consider my fault and a dumb mistake but the calf problem was a shock.  I would love for things to get back on track now and stay smooth sailing for a while.

 

Over the next month or 2 I have a fairly important race the 29^th of March that is a Grand Prix race it is a hilly 10k that I can just try to do a decent time. I will only have 2.5 weeks to get ready for it.  After that I go to Disney for a week for Spring Break. Followed immediately by a big cycling weekend that is 100 miles 2 days in a row.  If all of that goes well there is Nashville to consider.  I entered that marathon when I was feeling good.  I sent them an email asking to be put in the ½ marathon instead but have not heard back from them. They say on their site that it is not a problem and that I met the deadline.  So I could be up in Nasheville on April 26^th running a ½.

 

Toss in some 5k’s that are pretty fun that I would like to do if I feel good on March 15 and April 12 and you have a busy damn schedule.

 

Sometime in there I have to finish the Canoe too.