January in Review

It’s been a bit since I’ve had anything noteworthy to write about.  Although my MacBook’s hard drive going belly up certainly didn’t help any.  Still need to figure how I’m going to get the last couple years worth of photos off of the old hard drive.   I’ll just give a one month update on how the year is going so far.

Running

This month has been all about running.  I only missed one day of running this month.  Amazingly, I ran no races this month.  Volunteering at the Houston Marathon with Team RWB was a great experience despite temperatures in the low 40's and rain. I did manage to log 218 miles.  Longest run was 16 miles, shortest run was 3 miles, and 8 runs over 10 miles.  Good enough for third place in the HTRex 2013 Challenge.  I’ll make up for the lack of racing next month as I prep for my first sub 1:40 half-marathon attempt.  Hope to run the Ghirardelli Chocolate Run 15K and the ConocoPhillips Rodeo Run 10K at a low 7:30ish pace.  I am really looking forward to running the Chocolate Run with my little sister.  With all the racing and tapering for the Woodlands Half my mileage will be quite a bit lower this month.  I’m shooting for 150 or so miles.  I signed up for the TransRockies race (gulp).  Right now I’m in the three day solo run, with an option to do the second three days.  Hopefully, I can find a partner and switch over to the six day team run.  May do the MS150 again this year, but it is the weekend after the 50K which has me a bit nervous.

Vacations

Nothing new to report.  I may have the opportunity to go to Japan around Thanksgiving.  I need to book my plans for my other vacations and be done with it.

Work

Nothing to report here.  I still show up, they still pay me.

Personal Development

Started four separate books but didn’t finish any of them.  Flatland is a really good book, but it’s not light reading despite being super thin.  I have not signed up for salsa lessons yet.  More than likely it will be on the back burner until after the 50K.  We had a surprisingly great improv show at ComedySportz.  My expectations were low, but my team pulled it out and won the match.  Next show will probably be a farewell show (at the White Swan?)  for Joe as he’s moving to LA at the first of March. 

Social

This has probably been the most dramatic change.  With the exception of the Foam Party, which was a blast, I really didn’t go out much.  It's odd to be rooting for not having any dates.  Although to be fair I have been sort of (casually?) dating this woman since the end of October, but that's over now.  I held to my plan and have started doing more things with a core group of new/old friends.  It really has been nice.

Next up Camping/Volunteering at the Rocky Raccoon 100 Mile Trail Run this weekend.

Jingle Bell 5 Miler Race Report

We'll take a break from the Bachelorette show for our regularly scheduled programming. I signed up for the Jingle Bell 5 Miler competitive run based on the suggestion of my friend Devleena. It worked out that the start of the race was a 5K from where I live. Liz and I decided to make this race part of our weekend long run. We would run to the race, run the race and run back home, for a total of about just over 11 miles. Normally we would run a race as a race, do our best effort and move on. However, Liz is training for her first marathon and I'm training to finally break 6 hours in a trail 50K (31 miles) so we both have a reason to keep our mileage high.

The Jingle Bell run is an anomaly. Most races start early in the morning, but the Jingle Bell starts at 1pm. What amazes me is how a few hours difference in start time drastically changes my pre-race rituals. Normally I wake up have a small breakfast and push my legs, lungs, and mental focus to the limit. With a later start time I have to have a real meal and worry about cramping if I eat too much. The other big problem with afternoon or later start times is I have no problem going out the night before. If a race starts at 7am I have to be there by 6 which usually means I need to be up about 5 to eat, get ready, and drive to the race. With a 1pm start time I can roll in at 2am, make a late night snack, and still not need to set an alarm. So when Dev was having potluck night at her place how could I resist.

Liz and I meet up at noon to run down to the race. Neither of us is feeling our best for different reasons. Of course this is when I find out my Garmin is fried. I never run with a watch except for races. I like knowing my mile splits and it helps with the mental focus. Without mile splits I'm not sure how I'm going to keep my focus and hit my time goals. We get to the YMCA building downtown and start looking for Dev, the Icehouse Runners, and several of our other friends that are running this race. We meet up with several people we know and socialize before the run. I'm starting to get plugged back into the Houston race scene and these races are a great way to keep in touch with those I can't run with regularly.

They call for the competitive runners to line up so I make my way to the starting line. I'm way in the back. When the gun goes off it takes at least a full minute to cross the starting mat. The first mile is pure fun run hell. I have to weave in an out of walkers and others that should have been much further back. I hit the first mile mark in 8:22, I figure at least a minute to hit the start line so my first mile is probably 7:20ish. My plan was to run about a 7:30ish pace, a bit fast but not too bad. I hit mile 2 in 16:30 so about an 8 minute pace, not good. It's in the low 80's and I'm already dieing 2 miles in. Mentally I'm done at this point and I'm searching for reasons not to walk the aid stations. I realize I've backed off to my everyday fast pace when I hit mile 3 and they say 8:10 pace (with the minute to the start line probably 7:50ish pace). At this point I figure I'll just coast in with a comfortably hard pace. I hit mile 4 to see the people who are suppose to be giving the splits pack up and walk toward the start. The odd thing is I'm constantly passing people without anyone passing me. Had I started where I should have I would be running by myself with the top runners. With as bad as I'm feeling and running today, I know I'm pretty far up in the standings.  I enter downtown and kick it into high gear passing a number of people. This is when I realize I was just being lazy on this run.  I had no problem picking up the pace for the final half mile or so.  The clock says just over 40 minutes (official time 39:34) as I cross the finish line. Not my best run, but a good speed workout all the same.

Checking the standings I finished 84^thoverall (out of 1041 finishers), 17th (out of 110) in my age group, and at a 7:53 pace. Much slower than I should have run, and much slower than recent runs of longer distances.  Overall it was a tough run for me, but also after this week I needed to block out daily life and focus on a run for some mental rejuvenation.

Liz and I talk with a few friends and head back out for the 5K home after a bit of rest. After 11+ miles we're both wiped. We head out to dinner after cleaning up for a night of fun. I don't have a race coming up soon which is a bit of an oddity for me. Back to the Bachelorette show....

Color Run 5K Race Report

Back in July Rebecca, Liz and I were discussing races we would like to do when the Color Run came up.  Generally I avoid the gimmicky 5Ks as they tend to be way overpriced.  I can do a 5K easy run out my front door at no cost anytime I want.   I’ve had several friends who have run this in the past and said how much fun they had.  When Rebecca suggested we get a team together and wear tutus I was hooked.  Team “Coloring Outside the Lines” was born. 

We all meet up at Minute Maid Park about 8:15 in the morning.  Introductions are made and new friendships are formed.  Of course then it starts raining.  The rain didn’t last long or this could have quickly turned into the world’s largest wet t-shirt contest (10,000 people all wearing white shirts).   Does Guinness have a world record for that?

Before

The race starts in waves every couple of minutes starting at 9 and going until 9:45.  Since this isn’t a race we decided to all run together which was a great choice.  Off we go to the first color station, blue.  Only one in our group had previously run a Color Run and knew what she was getting into.  I was glad I used a bandana to cover my mouth, but still ended up with a gritty feeling in my mouth.   Rinse and repeat each 1K.  We stopped along the way for lots of pictures. 

Looking back at the "Blue" zone

The post-race party was fun but that was mainly because of our group making it fun for our group.  We took even more pictures, danced to the music, and got our goodies at all the tables.  Overall this was a fun social run.  I would highly recommend if you do one of these type of races to do it as a team.  The bigger the better.  This was definitely a social activity not a race, but that’s great too.  

Just in case you didn't get enough color during the run.

After shot

Car dealership getting creative to get your info

 Notes:

• Parking at packet pickup sucked and so did traffic around the Galleria.  Next time a packet pickup is in that area, go first thing in the morning.
• I love races at Minute Maid Park.  Parking is never an issue as they open up the stadium parking.
• Need some eye protection the next time I do one of these.  My contacts came out yellow.
• Liz’s idea of using the dry cleaners bags as car seat covers was brilliant!
• The color washed off me and out of the clothes much easier than expected.  My white shirt is white again. No bleach needed.
• Need a mohawk wig for the next one, and maybe some other flair.

Next up was supposed to be the HMSA Classical 25K, but my sisters decided that was going to be family vacation weekend since I was the only one that needed to cancel something.  Time to sugar up my nephews and hand them back over to mom and dad.  Yep, I'm that uncle!

Getting Started

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A couple friends and I were talking and they mentioned I should blog about some of the craziness that is my new single life.  I'm outgoing, generally up for anything, and have a wide range of interests.  If you didn't do something to make a fool of yourself today, you probably didn't do anything interesting.  Of course, once you start writing things down that's when life is bound to settle down.  We shall see.

Today is as good as any day to start with this.  It also helps that yesterday was my first run in six weeks due to a minor stress fracture in my right foot.   When you go from ultra training to zero running I found you lose your mind a bit.  It really sucked to not make the Hog’s Hunt 50K, but it was the right decision to not push it.  My triumphant return to ultrarunning will have to wait until the Rocky Raccoon 50K in the fall.

5 Things I learned during my time off

1. I hate the gym, but there is no denying that I need to be making it a habit.
2. You inevitably have the nicest running weather all year when you can not run.
3. My diet goes to shit when I’m not working out regularly. 
4. Yoga has shown me just how inflexible I’ve become.
5. It’s really hard resisting signing up for races.

Goals for May

•  Cut out soft drinks.  (Running on 5 hours of sleep, I'll be lucky to make the day)
• Average 3 weights workouts, yoga sessions, and runs each week. 
• Get at least one 10 miler in.