10k best

My training called for a 10k time trial so I registered for a 10k road race in estacada.  I had zero expectations for this race.  I just showed up and raced it hard.  I was very happy with the results.  I finished in 35:59!  This put me 5th overall and 1st in my age group.  Can you believe I ran 6.2 miles holding under 5:50 per mile pace!  I cannot.  I am very happy with my running results as of late.  Also had a very tough 4000 yard swim workout today.  I am tired.  Good night.

Good week, sore foot, 10k and Livestrong

I have had another solid week of training.  The focus has turned from high volume low intensity  to higher intesity tougher workouts.  My swim and run are getting noticably stronger every week.  I am sure my bike is too, I just don’t notice it as much.  I have been battling a sore foot caused from running in flip flops for a 1/4 mile from swim to transition at escape from the gorge, but it seems to be getting better, and does not seem to affect my running. 

Speaking of running, I will be running my first 10k road race this Saturday.   I am looking forward to it, as I have no and I mean zero expectations about how I will do.  I am just going to run it as hard as I can and hope to have fun.  not much different than how I hope to run every race, but its refreshing not to have any expectations.

Finally, the Livestrong ride is coming up on September 30th, I have been limited to 70 miles instead of 100 by my coach, but thats fine by me.  I am really looking forward to this event again.  I am still hoping to raise more money for this cause, so if you would like to support me in this please go to  http://portland07.livestrong.org/aleckalleckson

Escape from the Gorge Race Report

I was sick this week, but felt like I had recovered enough to race.

 

This race was in the Columbia Gorge at Cascade Locks.  It is an Escape to Alcatraz series race (Alcatraz qualifier) so it is set up just like Escape from Alcatraz, 1.5 mile swim with a ¼ mile run to transition, 18 mile hillier than hell bike, and an 8 mile rolling hill run. 

The wind was nasty,  20-30 mph from the east.  The swells and chop on the river were pretty bad, and the kayakers refused to go out 1.5 miles, so they ended up taking a mile off the swim making it a half mile and killing a nice advantage for me.  We swam downstream and with the wind so it was a nice fast swim regardless of the waves.  I was out of the water in under 10 minutes, stripped my wetsuit and made the run to transition put on helmet glasses etc and off on the bike.  Total Swim and T1 time 12:57.  I was in about 4^th position.

I got out quickly on the bike and passed the 3 in front of me, and battled the wind for the first half of the race.  There were some ridiculous hills in this race climbing almost 2000 feet, but luckily I have been climbing very well lately.  I pushed hard on the bike trying to get as big of a lead as I could because this was now a runner’s race, and a runner I am not.  My HR was pretty high, (about 188 climbing) and I was starting to feel the affects of being sick this week. The good thing about steep and long climbs (steep enough that many were walking/running there bikes up hill) is that you have a nice fun downhill.  I hit 46.4 mph as my max speed, and stayed aero!  This is big for me as high speeds have scared the crap out of me since my crash last year.  I took what I thought was a nice lead into t2, although I was not feeling well and was dreading this run.  Oh yea they also took 3.5 miles off the bike that was heading dead into the wind (I think this was pretty weak of them) so the total bike was 14.5 miles.  Bike time 43:44,  1^st off the bike.

As I left transition I had to vomit, so I leaned forward and let it go.  Not much to let go, but it did not taste good.  Anyway I was not feeling this run as it was constant rolling hills, but kept my pace steady and kept on keeping on.  Threw up a bit more at mile 1.  At mile 2 I got passed, then passed again at about mile 3.  I was not keeping track of my pace, and figured I must have been moving pretty slow to give up my lead that fast.  My legs were not tired, but I was breathing pretty hard.  Shortly after mile 3 we had to climb 3 flights of stairs and I was passed by two more guys. I was glad to see the turn around at mile 4, and told myself all I have to do is run home.  I held my pace and no one else passed me.  I was spent at the finish line.  I really thought that I had a bad run, but was shocked to see my run split of 51:59, 6:29/mile.  This was not slow for me at all, I just got passed by some fast flipping runners, and turns out two of them were on relay teams.  So final results show 1:50.30 1^st age group, 3^rd overall.  Got a slot to Alcatraz.

So my race turned out to be pretty good considering I thought I had a bad race.  Gives me a lot of confidence in my training as Clearwater nears.

Did I push it too far or was it inevitable?

My wife and son had been sick all last week; I still had a pretty high volume training week, although a bit lighter than the previous 3 weeks.  Friday night I only slept 4 hours as AJ was up and Elee was sick, I had a 3500 yard swim, 4 hour ride, and 30 minute steady run scheduled for Saturday.  I was up at 3:00 am with AJ and did not want to go back to sleep because I knew I would not get up for my swim at 6:30.  My swim went well, and I was off to meet a group for a ride.  I had planned on going a bit longer than 4 hours but kind of expected the ride to be 80 miles.  We went 103 miles in 5 hours and 40 minutes of riding.  I was pretty beat on the ride home, and could tell my body was fighting something.  I got home drank a recovery/ protein drink and slammed some Vitamin C.  No luck, within an hour my head was plugged and I felt like crap.   So did I just try to push the envelope too far or was this coming no matter what I did?Anyway I slept 12 hours on Saturday night, and did nothing on Sunday, slept 9.5 on Sunday night, and did an hour light ride and a light 5k run on Monday.  I am feeling a bit better but my head is still plugged.   I am not real sure how this will affect my training  this week or my race on Sunday.   This race is not all that important to me so if I am not 90% I probably won’t go.  Because I will probably race  near the top of my HR zones for over two hours, there is no sense in risking a set back.