I raced in an off-road duathlon this morning. The temperatures were in the low to mid 40’s. Most of my running has been on the treadmill, with very little outside. The little that I have done outside was in the summer when I could wear dri-fit shorts and a short-sleeve compression shirt. But it was too cold for me to wear these. So I bought some Under Armor Cold Gear compression leggings and compression top. I never had an opportunity to try them out, so I just crossed my fingers and hoped they worked out. I was hoping that I wouldn’t be cold, but also that I wouldn’t be too warm.
Well, they worked like a charm! They were comfortable. I wore some sweats over the Cold Gear while waiting for the start. A little bit before the start I stripped off the sweats, and waited. It was a little chilly. But as soon as I got running, I felt fine. I was also a little concerned that when I was biking, that the wind would chill me through the Cold Gear fabric, but I didn’t notice anything like that. I was very happy with the Under Armor Cold Gear. I am sure I will get more opportunities to use them for fall, and later spring bike rides.
I ran my first duathlon this morning. It was named Black Diamond Off-Road Duathlon. It was an off-road 2 mile run, off-road 10 mile bike, and another off-road 2 mile run.
I am tired!
The temperature was in the low to mid 40’s, so I wore Under Armor Cold Gear. I had a better/faster finishing time than I was expecting. I haven’t really been training for a duathlon. I competed more on whim thinking it might be fun. All my training has been to run the Las Vegas marathon. Long slow miles on my treadmill. But today’s running was much faster and on muddy hills much steeper than I am used to running on. And the downhills were slippery. I ran slower than I was capable of to keep from injuring myself. I ran the first 2 miles at an 8 something minute pace. My heart rate was in the mid 180’s.
I used ride a bike a lot, but that was like 15 years ago. I only recently bought a mountain bike, and have ridden it maybe half a dozen times. Most of the 10 mile bike ride was on cinder trails that used to be a railroad track bed. So it was long straight and pretty flat. But there was one nasty section that I think was a mile or a mile and a half long that was around this little lake that was soft mud! I felt like my bike had a flat tire! I kept looking to see if one of them was flat. That part was so long and hard. Occasionally my chain would jump a little bit trying to go into a different gear. I am guessing dirt or mud was getting into my gears. The next section was on a muddy trail that paralleled the railroad bed. This part wasn’t as bad. I was happy to get back to the cinder trail where I could just spin! I found that during the 10 mile bike ride, my seat post sank by about an inch. I need to get this problem solved. I have the clamp about as tight as I can get it. I rode the 10 miles at an average 13 something miles per hour pace. My heart seemed to stay around 176 for much of the bike ride.
We were told before the race that there was a no-pedal zone, and they gave the street intersections. Not being from Victor, I don’t know the local streets. They said it would be well marked. But when I was on the course, I didn’t see any signs for the no-pedal zone. Since very little of the course was on roads, I can only think it was on the down hil portion that ended with a gravel section and a sharp left turn. I coasted down the hill in a aerodynamic tuck. I saw they had spray paint on the gravel something that looked like “Use Brakes”. So I lightly applied my brakes, went around the corner into a slight uphill. So I started pedaling here. I hope I didn’t pedal in the no-pedal zone. They apparently should have had it marked better. I never saw any mention of the no-pedal zone in the race packet that I got. I might have done some more research to see where it was at before the race.
When I got off the bike, and tried to run, it felt like my quads were swollen, and my legs were stiff. I started wondering I would be able to run the 2 miles. And I was thinking my wife would have drive us home. But I managed to run much of it, and walk parts of it. I ran the last 2 miles at a 9 something minute pace. I just slogged through this second run, and didn’t lok at my heart rate monitor much.
Did I mention I am tired?
I managed to cross the finish line. I finished in 1:22 and some seconds. I saw the results posted, but didn’t write the numbers down. They will eventually post them on the web site.
I ate a donut and got a 10 minute masssage. Then I ate a banana, and drank some water. They were supposed to have pizza coming. I waited for a while, but decided that I just wanted to go home. I still wanted pizza. I got home, ate whatever I could find. We had no bread, so I put some canned tuna in a bowl with a little mayo, and ate it with a spoon.
I hosed the mud off of my bike. My shoes are still caked with mud. I took a hot bath then slept for a couple hours.
I am tired. I may have mentioned that though.
First Marathons: Personal Encounters With The 26.2-Mile Monster by Gail Waesche Kislevitz
SUMMARY: A collection of people’s stories about their first marathons. Some are great, most are good, a few are a little slow. Overall, I enjoyed it.
With my own first marathon quickly approaching, I thought this would be an interesting read. The editor collected stories from a variety of people about their own first marathons, and published them in this book. Some of the stories are funny, others are more serious. Some of the people you may have heard of such as author Erich Segal, and well known runner Bill Rogers. Others are just everyday people that you have never heard of. If you are thinking about running your first marathon, I know you will enjoy this book. I think even people have have run many marathons will enjoy this book.
Conributers are Kim Ahrens, Rick Bachmann, Tory Baucum, Bill Begg, Leah Begg, Ellen Bellicchi, Richard Bellicchi, Heidi L. Winslow Butts, Ileta Coley, Ted Corbitt, Toshiko d’Elia, Lauren Fessenden, Wayne Gibbons, Tina Gordon, Scott Greeley, Rob Hemmel, Donna Isaacson, Marion Irvine, Roger Jones, John Joseph Kelley, Thomas King, Gail Waesche Kislevitz, Nina Kuscsik, Paul Mbugua, Jim Miller, Mike Roam, Bill Rodgers, Erich Segal, Matthew Shafner, Larry Smith, Ray Steffen, Allan Steinfeld, Dick Traum, Jeff Blackwell Vlaun, Grete Waitz, Shan Worthington, Sandy Zanchi.
Read more…
I was scheduled to run 8 miles tonight. It was supposed to start and end with an easy run, and in the middle go to slightly faster than marathon pace. I am still playing with so many running philosophies to see what works. I mixed and matched tonight. John L. Parker has you mixing easy runs and hard runs. So I made tonight a hard run, though I didn’t keep it above 85% ala Parker. I used some Jeff Galloway philosophy by mixing some walking breaks. I started off slow, and quickly sped up to 7mph (8:34 minute miles). Then every 5th minute I dropped the speed to 4mph (15 minute miles) and walked. So I had the faster speeds down to 6.5 mph, then down to 6mph (10 minute miles). I managed to complete the 8 miles in 85 minutes. I think it was the fastest that I have run on the treadmill for any distance. I was excited when I multiplied it out and figured that if I had continued that pace I would have run a 4:40 marathon…that’s a big if. But then I thought about how that it also worked out to a 2:20 half marathon. 2:20? That’s about the same as the 2:21 half marathon I ran last month. But then I never ran this fast on the treadmill before the half marathon. My runs were all much slower. So I will continue to mix some of these faster runs, and hopefully build my speed. Who knows what I will be able to do in December. I am looking forward to my 18 mile run on Sunday. Though I will NOT be running it at this pace. The schedule says a easy pace, 2 minutes slower than marathon pace.
I am still pretty happy with my run tonight. My legs feel pretty good.
I just got an email at my work about the Cystic Fibrosis Stair Climb in march. The email suggested doing it as a team building event, and pitting various departments against each other. Of course it also be a fund raiser. They were suggesting 2 person or 4 person teams. The email also said that if you are feeling brave you can compete as an individual. This stair climb challenge is to climb 19 floors. I am pretty sure I can do that without too much difficulty. I could even spend time training for it, as the training will be useful for when I climb Mt Rainier next year. And all the miles I am running weekly I am sure will be helpful as well.
It’ll be fun, and a good workout. Well…being only 19 floors, I guess it will make a decent warmup. And I can even raise money for Cystic Fibrosis.