After skipping the last few races, I figured I'd jump in and do a 5k last weekend -part of San Diego's
Dirt Dog Series. I was a little worried because about three weeks ago after a 14 mile run and pushing the hills, my IT band flared up. It seemed like it went away, but the pain kept coming back on harder runs. So last week, I decided to rest up a little and see if it would feel better for this week. I only put in about 5 hours of training last week which included only one swim...Sucks, because our HOA pool turned off the heater, so needless to say I froze on my 5am swim. Time to finally jump into a
Masters program!
Race: Getting the kids ready and packed for races is always interesting. Amy and I always laugh about it, because we've done it so many times, but we always seem to push the time frame every single race. It's always quick out the door, quick on the drive and I barely make it to the start. One of the cool things about having kids is - it really puts racing and training into perspective. When I ran in high school and college there was so much inward thinking, it's all about me, I have to be ready for this race, I'm nervous for this race, I have to win this race...etc. Now, the only thing I worry about is forgetting Scarlett's choppie (her pacifier), which we did for this race---so we got to hear her ask for it all the way down! I love having my cheering squad every race.
I only had about 15 minutes to warm up, so I'm surging HARD up some hills to try and get my Heart Rate up before the start. I was getting some funny looks because I was pretty intense and it just looked like a weird thing to do before a race. It worked though, I recommend that to anyone that has little time to warm up, I felt ready come start time. I took my Garmin and Heart Rate Monitor off for the race because I just wanted to race off of feel. I get to the start and look over and see pro triathlete
Lesley Patterson to my right. Great...I'm gonna get "
chicked" today...Come to find out, a lot of triathletes do these races. We took off and the smell of Morley Field brings back a lot of memories of racing there a ton back in high school. The smell of the grass, the cool air and loud cheering I remember, all brought back great memories.
After the first mile I was leading the 2nd pack and feeling pretty good. The course ended up being pretty rocky so you had to watch your footing. I was a little worried that my IT band would flare up, but it was feeling fine. At about the 2 mile mark, sure enough -Leslie passes me and looks strong. I didn't even respond, she went on to finish in like 16:07 or something. I knew I was having a decent race though, because I saw Brandon Mills (pictured above) -another good local triathlete that is on BSK just ahead of me. For the most part I was moving forward most of the race passing people and only remember getting passed after mile 2 by a few. I ended up finishing strong and even had a little kick which gave me an over 30 PR.
7th in my AG
25th Overall
I was finally happy with a race. I improved over a minute off of my time from a month ago. I've been seeing a lot of gains lately in my workouts and I figured I'd be in the 16's sooner than later. I still feel like I have a lot room for improvement. I want to be in the 15's by the end of the year which I think will give me confidence coming off of the bike in next year's triathlons.
The next day I hammered a hilly 20 miles under an hour with
Blue Steel and felt great. I feel like some of these long rides are really giving me strength to ride hard with tired legs. Next week starts another tough two week training block and another race (an 8k) on Saturday at the school I used to run for CSUSM....I'm debating on riding my bike to the race (30 miles), racing the 8k and then riding back....That sounds pretty brutal though, we'll see. Until next time!
~Cheers
James
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