All week I have been struggling on the run.  Actually, more accurately, I have been struggling on the last mile of my runs. I did three runs earlier this week.  8 miles, 6 miles and 5 miles.  The runs have all started out great, but after 7, 5, and 4 miles respectively, I fell apart.  The last mile of each run was over a minute slower than the rest of my miles.  While my average pace on each run was above average for me (7:45, 7:58, and 7:57), I finished each run mentally defeated because the last mile was so much slower than the rest of the run.

Today, however, was different.  I embarked on my weekly long run.  I set out with Jennie on the bike for 12 miles; my longest run since Steelhead.  It was only 80*F, but the humidity was 82% which meant I was dripping with sweat after the first mile.  I started out nice and easy.  The first 8 miles were between 8:30-8:40 min/mile.   After that, I picked it up a bit and finished the last 4 miles between 8:00-8:15.  So, not only did I get in my long run for the week, but I also was able to pick up the pace at the end without falling apart.  Redemption!

I think the biggest difference was having Jennie on the bike carrying water.  I went through about 32oz of water on the run stopping at every 1 or 2 mile mark along the way.  Even so, I was down a couple pounds when I got home so I chugged some more water and chocolate milk to refuel.

But that isn’t even the biggest news of the day.  The biggest news of the day is that Jennie did her first brick workout! After biking along with me for 12 miles, we went on a 1.5 mile run immediately afterwards.  So, now Jennie has felt the feeling in her legs that is a brick workout.  And not only that, but she is looking at getting her own RoadID.  She has a birthday coming up, so well have to see what happens.

In my opinion, she looks too good for having just done a brick workout.  At least I’ve never looked this good after a brick workout.  Come to think of it, I don’t look this good on a normal basis.

I generally look like a sweaty mess after my workouts.  In this case, I left a nice swass mark on the deck after I got up.  Yep, these clothes aren’t allowed inside until they have air dried.

Now, we are spending the day vegging out on couch and watching TV.  Jennie is currently engrossed in some Gilmore Girls reruns during which she has seen ice cream sundaes, fresh strawberries, hamburgers/fries, donuts, and baskets of fresh bread; all of which are leaving her with insane cravings.  It is only a matter of time before she starts baking…

Jennie and I attended our first Grand Rapids Beer Run tonight.  Don Kern, the race director for the Grand Rapids Marathon and all around kick ass dude, along with New Holland Brewing Company have been putting together a beer run once a month at local bars.  We weren’t able to make it to either of the first two events.  The third event though was only a mile away from our house and we didn’t have anything else on the calendar.

So, as soon as Jennie got home from work, we headed up to the Derby Station in Gaslight Village.  I couldn’t believe how many people were there!  The final count was 155 runners.  It cost $5 per runner, but half of the $5 was a donation to the American Diabetes Association.  The other half bought your first beer, covered the snacks, and entered you in a raffle.

After we “registered” it was time to take off.  We actually got a bit of a late start because we were the last people in line.  I headed off on a 4.5 mile route around the lake while Jennie went off on her own for 2 miles.  Because I had late start, I was motivated to catch as many people as I could.  The first two miles were spent catching people.  After that, it thinned out a bit and I spent the next half mile trying to catch up to a single guy in the distance.  When I reached him, we chatted a bit.  I recognized him from when I have run with the Grand Rapids Running Club in the past.  We pushed each other for the final mile or two.  I ended up finishing 4.56 miles in 32:23 for a 7:06 min/mile pace.  It was actually faster than I had planned on going, but that is what happens when I run in a group. 

Jennie had finished up her run shortly before I got back and was walking around Gaslight Village.  This was her first completely solo run (she had one half solo run a couple weeks ago).  I’m very proud of her – she is doing awesome!

After we chugged some water, we headed into the Derby Station for our beer.  We each got a glass of New Holland Mad Hatter IPA; absolutely delicious – Jennie (a non beer drinker) even drank about half a glass.  Then they started to put out appetizers which was a surprise to us.  The giant platter of nachos was my favorite.  I could have eaten the whole platter by myself.

Next up.  The raffle.  I totally wasn’t paying attention when they called my number.  Thankfully, Jennie’s ticket was number off of mine and she realized that I was the winner. I won a cool New Holland Brewing Company t-shirt!!!  As we left, everyone got a New Holland Brewing Company bottle opener.  All that for $5! 

Also, today I did a quick workout in the pool.  This was my first swim since Saturday.  I was really just testing out my sunburn to see how healed it was.  After doing a little warm up and feeling pretty good, I decided to do a 500 yard time trial.  The sprint tri on Saturday is a 500 yard swim and I wanted to get an idea of what to expect.  This was the first 500 yard time trial I have done in about 3 months.  Last time I did one, I clocked 8:1X.  Today, I knocked out a 7:46! My first time under 8 minutes for 500 yards!

All around, a great day!

Flashback to last week and you may remember that I ordered some replacement parts for my bike.  Well, they arrived and I thought I would take time last night to get them installed.  The installation went fairly well at first.  However, after I got the bike back together things didn’t seem quite right.  The bike wasn’t shifting very well – skipping gears and autoshifting.  After looking into it further, I realized that I ordered the wrong parts.  The parts I ordered weren’t compatible with my shifters.  So, my options were to order replacement parts again (about $50) or upgrade my shifters (about $300).  I decided to go with the $50 option and ordered the correct parts from Tree Fort Bikes.  So far, I have been very impressed with Tree Fort Bikes.  After I get the parts, I will hopefully do my first Vendor Review outlining my experience with them.

I went to bed last night semi very frustrated that my bike was going to be out of commission until the new parts arrive.  I couldn’t even put back on the old parts because I didn’t have the correct pin for the original chain.  This morning was supposed to be a 1:15/20 minute brick workout too.  Being dedicated stubborn, I decided that I was going to try and ride my bike any ways.  It is technically rideable and shouldn’t do any damage to the bike to ride it as is.  However, I found that it was nearly impossible to ride comfortably.  Every time I would get into a groove, the bike would auto shift up or down a gear.  The auto shifting made it nearly impossible to climb because the harder I pushed, the more it wanted to slip gears.  So, after a single lap (6 miles) around the lake, I head back home frustrated and disappointed.  I could have still gone out for the run portion of the workout, but I was too pissed to even think about at the time.

Flash forward to the afternoon.  I just finished up a day long work meeting and needed to get out.  I was really itching to run.  So, I headed out in hopes of doing a long-ish run.  I ended up with a great 10 mile run at an 8:00 min/mile pace.  I felt great the entire way and didn’t feel like I was pushing hard at all.  In hindsight, this long of a run probably wasn’t a great idea with a the River Bank Run 25k looming on Saturday, but mentally, I needed to get a solid workout in.  Besides the River Bank Run is a C race at best for me this year.  I’m treating like a long training run rather than a race and am not looking to set any land speed records or anything.

So, what started off as a day with a failed workout, turned into a mental victory with a long run.  All in all, a great day in the end.  Tomorrow is an easy day with just a swim followed by race day on Saturday.  Time to rest.

Today was the annual Irish Jig 5k.  The Irish Jig is a big local race – nearly 3500 runners.  To ease congestion, they split it up into separate men’s and women’s races.  Thankfully the weather cooperated by going from 60F and sunny to 30F, snowy, and windy.  Absolutely wonderful racing weather.  *end sarcasm*   Typical Michigan weather.  Tease us with nice weather and then go back to the same old crap. 

I was not planning on racing today and taking it easy.  I have been overdoing it over the past week and it was catching up on me.  I am supposed to be tapering, but because the weather was so nice all week, I found myself sneaking out on an extra bike ride or squeezing in a couple extra miles.  Unfortunately, when I got to the race, I got too much into the race mindset and wound up running too hard.

I went out strong on the first mile.  Despite being only about 15 yards from the front runners, I still found myself passing people out of the gate an weaving back and forth.  Things spread out a bit on the second mile, however, the 2nd mile was all up hill and into the wind.  I was really hurting after 2 miles, but with only a 1 mile left, I continued to push on.  With the wind at my back and headed back down hill, I picked the pace up a bit.

I finished in 20:28 which is about 1:30 faster than I was planning on running today.  Factoring in the weather and how tired my legs were, I am happy with how I did.  My splits ended up being 6:28, 6:53, 6:32, which shows how much the wind and hill affected me.

Now that I am done, my hamstring has completely tightened up on me.  So, it looks like I will be spending plenty of time with the foam roller and ice pack while I watch March Madness this weekend.  It has been a great tournament this year.  Just watched #1 Kansas get upset by Northern Iowa.  It completely screwed up my bracket (I had Kansas winning the whole thing), but it was a great game.

Official Results

Today wasn’t a particularly bad day by any means.  But, for some reason, I was feeling very pet-peevey on my run today.  Maybe it was just because I was busy at work and had a lot of pent up stress.  So, I thought I would share some of my pet peeves of the day.

#1 Dogs Walking Their Owners

I am a dog person.  I have nothing against dogs.  I like dogs.  But it bugs the hell out of me when someone is out letting their dog walk them. The dog is walking wherever they want and the owner has no control over them.  I’m more afraid of the leash than the dog.  All it takes is the owner not paying attention and the dog to switch sides of the sidewalk and you have yourself a readymade trip hazard.  Today, my favorite was a woman standing in the middle of the sidewalk while her two English bulldogs were each standing on opposite sides of the sidewalk inspecting the bushes.  The only way around her (without trudging through the mud) was to jump in the street.  Ugh.

#2 Large Groups of Teenage Girls

Ever notice the smell when running past a group of teenage girls?  It is worse than walking past The Body Shop.  I think I would rather run behind a car puffing out exhaust fumes.  Yuck!

#3 Unnecessary Bike Paths

The lake that I run around (Reeds Lake) is in the process of adding a bike path around a portion of it.  To do this, they are tearing out a couple hundred trees and relocating wetlands.  It is totally unnecessary.  The entire road around the lake is a 25 mph residential road with wide shoulders on both sides of the road.  Not only that, but it is very lightly traveled.  On my run today, I only saw 5 cars during the 5+ miles I was on Reeds Lake Blvd.  During the portion of the run that was alongside where the bike path is going, I didn’t see a single car.  Another problem with the bike path is that they don’t plow the path in the winter.  So, as soon as we get snow again, everyone ends up walking on the shoulder any ways.

Ok, I am done ranting now.  I will get off my soapbox.

On a positive note, I set a new best time for my 8 mile course.  1:00:36 for 8.04 miles.  I am getting closer and closer to getting under the 1 hour mark.  My fastest previous time for the course was 1:00:50 back in November.  So, despite my pet peeves, I had a pretty good run.