Once again I have been slacking off and not posting anything. I didn't even get around to writing up a race report for the Boston's Run To Remember half marathon! I decided to run it on the spur of the moment after the marathon bombings and they extended the rate for an extra month. A nice way to show some support and I haven't done a half in ages. So here's the report in super summary mode:
It was snowing when I left for the race at like 4:30 AM. I wish I was kidding. There is a secret bathroom in the hotel that I camped out at until it was just time to start warming up. Even if you waterboard me I will never reveal the location of this bathroom, I consider it a state secret at this point. Out in the cold, ready to go, the politicians start 15 minutes of speeches. Fuuuuuuuckkkk.
Off we go and along with the start there goes my idea of running a "conservative" pace. Again. Mile 2, damn, gotta pee. Run run run!! Wheeeee!!! Mile 5ish, here comes the leader! Woo woo! And teh second place guy, um, somewhere; where the hell is the next guy? Oh there he is, 30 seconds behind. Damn that guy was fast. Mile 7, gotta pee. Damn. Ruuuuuunnnnnnnn.............
Mile 11, go time. Hammer down and I am flying! I want to hurl but I'm going so fast I can't stop. As I am virtually sprinting across the finish line the announcer calls my name and town (I do love that part) and I give a wave to the crowd. Many Gatorades and a free loaf of bread later I limp my way to the truck which seemed to have been parked way closer that morning. Numbers: 1:35:27 time, 7:17 pace, 291 overall. So yeah, a nice "conservative" race. Whoops.
Since then training for the Tri has continued. I thought I was doing alright but a hard look at myself has revealed that I was kidding myself. I haven't lost squat for weight (damn you E.L. Fudges!) and I've been struggling on the runs. Biking has been decent but a recent indoor threshold test left me less than impressed. Swimming has been ok but my criteria for swimming has been 1. don't drown and 2. try to do 1600 yards in less than 35 minutes. So far number 1 has been a rousing success and number 2 is accomplished more often than not.
One area that has been going great is my bricks, as few as they have been. This past weekend I did 40 miles on the bike and then did a quick transition into a three mile run and the end result was quite encouraging. I find that I am actually running much faster off the bike than it feels and my pace is 20-30 seconds per mile faster than I would normally run. Not bad.
But, disaster has struck recently. Ok, not really a "disaster" per se. I got really sick Sunday with what I thought was dehydration but I am now convinced it was more like food poisoning. It was pretty awful and hasn't really left yet. I did a 7 miler today which would be polite to call a disaster and spent the better part of an hour afterwards shivering and watching the color drain out of my fingers. So that has slowed my training down a bit. Hopefully this will pass soon because I ain't got time to be sick.
