Travel Week, CO Race

Monday

bootcamp
Today was "full body day", and was the most satisfying class so far. Not only did we have more variations in exercises, but there was also a second instructor, who was a much better personality fit for me. If he were going to be leading the morning classes, would probably stick around. Unfortunately, he's only doing evening classes...

Today's class had three major strikes against it:
1) It started late (and ran late) I am a total stickler for punctuality. This is non-negotiable for me, especially when I have something to do immediately afterwards. 
2) I was encouraged to use a weight that I felt was too heavy for me to keep form with... again. This is a safety concern in my mind. 
3) One participant wasn't moving between exercises and we were all made to do extra jumping jacks as punishment. I dislike group consequences for individual actions, and am NOT motivated by someone telling me I'm not making my workout count.

...and, with that, we've decided not to return. 


Tuesday
Scheduled: 6-8mi recovery run
Did: 3.26 @ 8:46/mi + 3.17 @ 8:48/mi = 10KTuesday

I came home from work yesterday feeling sick, and opted to sleep in this morning, rather than pushing myself to wake up at the usual 4:30 for our group 10KTuesday run. That was a good call, since I felt nauseous and congested off and on all morning. By lunch, I was feeling about 85%. Since I had an appointment about a 5K away from the house (and was working from home), I decided to run there and back to knock out 10KTuesday.

The run was hot and sunny. I’m not used to running in almost 70 degrees in the sunshine. The only time that happens on a regular basis is during the latter half of longer training seasons’ Saturday LSD runs. Still, I knocked out a pretty awesome pace, and one that felt surprisingly comfortable. I’m always amazed by how much faster I seem to naturally run when I’ve been awake and moving around for a few hours versus rolling out of bed and landing in stride on the pavement.

Unfortunately, “doing it for the hashtag” was NOT the right call for my body. By 2pm, I felt completely blergh again, and had to miss chorus rehearsal.

Wednesday

Did: nada

Sick + long day at work. The only thing of note from today was that I think I may have twisted my ankle walking back from getting some takeout for lunch. :/

Thursday

Did: naga

Sick again, and definitely did something to my ankle yesterday. Today was the worst.

Friday

Did: nothing

I had hoped to do a quick run with B this morning before leaving for the weekend, but 1) being sick and 2) needing to get up at 5am to work for a few hours before departing scrapped those plans.

When we arrived in Denver, I felt even worse. Not only was I still sick with whatever has taken me down this week, but my head was pounding, appetite gone, and nausea intermittent thanks to altitude sickness.

Saturday

Did: skiing, 7mi walking

So much for our weekend ski trip getaway… I was in bad shape this morning and, thanks to Dr Google, was able to confidently self-diagnose altitude sickness. The worst thing for it, of course, would be going up any higher into the mountains (especially since the ski place we’d chosen was actually one of the highest ski resorts in the area).

We ended up having a good time, despite the initial disappointment. When I was finally able to get out of bed, we spent the day walking around the town, reuniting with some college friends who live in the area, and, of course, getting to bed early.

Sunday

Did: 0.32mi warm-up, 5K in 25:12, over 20K steps for the day

Jer and I have a life goal of running a race in every state. We’ve pretty much knocked out all the easily driveable states (Indiana and West Virginia are the closest ones unchecked right now), so, of course we had to do a race while we were in Colorado. I’d found a suuuuuuuuper small local race online that ended up being absolutely perfect.

Hola, Rocky Mountains!

I was pretty nervous going into this race. While I had zero ambitions for a solid finish time, I had three things that worried me:

1) my ankle- it hadn’t bothered me much yesterday, but I still noticed it a little and hadn’t tried to run at all…. Would it hold up?

2) I haven’t RUN at all since Tuesday. I could look back at my ultimate spreadsheet of ultimate running history, but I’m pretty certain this is the longest I’ve gone without running since I had my baby over a year ago?

3) Altitude. After being SO SICK on Friday, would my body even allow me to run at all up here? Would I get a half mile in and have to stop and walk?

All signs pointed to a “hey, if I can finish this thing under 30 min, that’ll be a success” kind of race.

Weather was cold, but comfortable. Jerry and I arrived a little after 8am (when bib pickup started) for a 9am race (11am our time, which was kind of weird), grabbed our bibs, and decided to walk part of the course to warm-up and scout it out a little. “Scouting” the course wasn’t for race strategy, though; it was to determine how snow/ice-covered it was and if I needed to be in my trail shoes. lol.

Race Start/Finish

The course was along a wide sidewalk through a park. While there was a little snow on the grass, I was pleased and surprised to see the entire path was cleared. Way to go, City of Denver (they really do have a HUGE active community)!

I wasn’t planning on warming up, but when Jerry took off to do so, I figured it couldn’t hurt to figure out if I was able to run BEFORE the gun went off. I did a little over a quarter mile. I had a bit of soreness in my ankle to start, but attributed that to not using it much this past week. It went away quickly, and I decided I would be able to run the race, just at whatever my body decided was an “easy pace” for today.

...but then the race started and I realized I was in position to get a top three overall finish, so I asked a liiiiiiiiiiiittle more of my body that I'd planned. 

The first half mile felt fine. I was clocking around a low-8, which should have been a comfortable pace for this sort of distance, except I was running a mile above sea level. My arms and legs felt cold, but I felt hot. It took me a minute to realize that was the oxygen deprivation manifesting. 

I ran the first mile or so with the woman who ended up taking third overall female. It was nice to have some "company", even though we didn't talk. At one point, the female leader stopped to tie her shoe and we both thought we might catch her, but she resumed her 7:45 pace just as we were coming upon her. Shortly after, there was a bit of a downhill, and I solidified my second place. 

Since the course was a simple out-and-back, I was able to see Jerry on his return trip. Probably the coolest thing about this race was the two of us flashing each other two fingers, and acknowledging that each of us was currently sitting second in our gender. :D

halfway U-turn 

The back half of the course was the hardest for me. I haven't had a race that was controlled by cardio in a really long time. Not only was this cardio-controlled, but it was also a different type of cardio. I had the systems in place to get my blood around my body, and they were well-trained, but not for the environment I was in. I could tell I was physically limited and that I didn't want to go any faster (or any further), but the "why" was a completely new sensation. 

Oh, look! Garmin actually has an appropriate elevation scale out here.

This was the first race where I've also actually checked back over my shoulder in the last 800m to see if I could hold position. I did NOT want to go any faster, but, if I'd seen another woman behind me, I would have tried to hold second place. Fortunately, third place wasn't even in view when I snuck a glance. 

Good thing, too. I had ZERO kick going into the finish line.
ZERO.

I was SO done when I crossed the finish line. Jerry tried to hug me and I pushed him away (second time this month that's happened at the finish line, lol), and then reached back out for him a few paces later for support.

sweet "podium" pics
fun fact: 3rd Male and 1st Female are also a married couple

Great picture for our states map :)
Also, race bling is definitely the BEST souvenir we could have brought home from our trip. 

Weeeee :D