I came into this race off a good 6 week break from structured training. Honestly I did not want to do this race because I knew I wasn’t in race form, but I was signed up so I was just going to have fun and see what happens. The weather was perfect! Except for the wind. I ran the first half of the 5k trying to stay in the lead pack of 3 then fell off the pace (lack of training) and got through that in 18 mins. Got onto the bike with 3 people ahead of me. Passed one guy real quick and struggled to keep a pace I’ve come to expect from myself. My cycling legs were just not there (lack of training). I got off the bike with 2 people ahead of me. Ran the last 5k trying to stay ahead and not get passed. Finished 3 overall. I was happy with the race considering my Lack of Training. It was a good end to the race year.
Thanksgiving!!!
I drove up to Northern Virginia and picked up my sister from the DC bus station at 3am. Thursday we spent the day hanging out will all the family. We had our traditional Turkey Bowl game, which seems to get bigger and bigger every year (just picture 25 people running around in circles for an hour). After that we had Thanksgiving dinner (props to Margie & Hank) and played games for the rest of the night. Friday we all had a huge brunch thanks to Eileen and Thom. Then we went to the gym to exercise off some of the "unhealthy" food I ate.
Saturday morning I was able to get in a 40 mile bike ride. It was super windy and my coldest ride of the fall so far. After riding about 20 miles, I’m in a very country redneck area (as usual) and I came up to a dog laying in the middle of the road howling in pain (not usual). I couldn’t believe I saw a few hillbillies drive by and not stop to help. I jumped off my bike immediately and ran to the closest house to tell them the situation. At first it didn’t seem like they were going to do anything about it, but then a woman started sprinting out the house with her kids. Yeah it was their dog. At first I thought okay they will just take it to the vet for surgery, then I realized where I was, and just knew there was no way they were going to pay for the dog to have surgery. That was tough to see. Not the best start to the morning, but it felt good to finally get a ride in. After that I headed to the Shenandoah National Park to hike Sugarloaf Trail with everyone.
Sunday, me and Christi left early in the morning to hike Old Rag Mountain for the first time. The weather was perfect. We parked on the lower lot and walked up to a trail thinking it was Old Rag. We hiked that trail for a hour before we determined it was NOT Old Rag, so we speed walked back to the start and eventually found the Old Rag Trail. That first hike was awesome! and I’m glad we did it, probably one of my favorites in the area. Onto the real hike... The first 45 minutes were uneventful just hiking up and up. The next hour was spent rock climbing. It was the best time I’ve had on a hike. We made it to the top and had a bite to eat took in the view and then took the full loop back down. After hitting the main fire road trail we jogged the last 3 miles or so down. Someone commented "I hope you didn’t run up as well"... which I thought was funny because that is something I would totally do for fun. So we ended up doing the Old Rag loop in about 3 hours contrary to what was said to be at least a 5 hour hike. Christi had to leave at a certain time so we were in a rush to get back. Going on that first hike threw off our timing. Next time I hike Old Rag I’ll enjoy it more and probably go off for more rock climbing adventures.
Next post I’ll try to give an update on my training and 2010 sponsors and races.
Here are a few of the pictures from the weekend..
No comments:
Post a Comment