On Saturday we traveled to Claredon, VA in order to race a 5 k (sweetie did a 10k, first faster run after Ironman). The course of that race has to be illegal in terms of getting WR under your belt but still I wasn't able to perform as fast as I wanted to. I finished at 16:41. To be honest after 4k I wasn't at all sure that I'm able to finish the race by running. The first 3k (9:26) were faster than my legs could handle and I started to pay the dues almost immediately thereafter...
On Sunday and yesterday I found myself running on trails which was a nice option for running on concrete. My legs are still hurting for speeding on Saturday. Next up is a Workout Wednesday with HCS crew and then a 4 miler on Sunday.
All of sudden the race weekend was here. On Saturday we drove down to Philly, had a lunch/dinner with a HCS crew and focused on Sunday's race. The weather was great as Jason promised and so the race was all about keeping the right pace during the first miles.
The final workout (3200'800+1600'400+4x400'200) on Tuesday with HCS guys was a success, but still I wasn't mentally so sure about how the run will go. So it was even more important to take it easy until the 10km was done. And this plan was well conducted - sort of. At 5k I was too fast, at 10k on the right pace and then at 15k slightly behind the plan. Fortunately, since we ran the course to the opposite direction in comparison to 2008 and 2009, the last 4 miles felt quite easy to complete after we turned away from the bridge. Keeping the pace up was a task, but when the finishing time was 1 second below my goal (1:17:00), I should be happy. And I am.
Mark PRd by over 3 minutes and closed 70 minutes and Carlos cut his PR by couple seconds. Moreover, I'm sure that Jorge ran a serious PR in addition to which Jason finished the race after running first the Reach the Beach relay. I might assume this to be a successful race weekend for us all.
It's been awhile but at the same time being back here feels like we haven't been away at all. Wednesday's trail run with the guys was hot and humid. I think that I kicked Mt. Nasty's butt but at the end she had her revenge. It actually continued on Saturday's Bagel Run.
Saturday's muggy weather made me scared about Philly's conditions. Hopefully the current morning weather is present also on 16th...
Last weekend I participated in a road race (Midnight Run Helsinki, 9.000 runners) which started late in the evening. Around this time of year it's completely dark outside already at 21 PM and during that time Helsinki provided the saddest conditions: cool, windy and extremely rainy weather.
At the start legs felt much better than they did during the whole week after the adventure race. I started by following the leaders but realized soon after that I don't have the guts to push the pace in the dark on the slippery streets. After almost breaking my ankle I decided to cool off. My body did this only couple kms after this decision. Still, I'm pretty happy with the result.
Next morning I joined a different breed of endurance athletes with my good friends and Trek. The event, Tour de Helsinki, was a 140 km bike ride around the capital area. It was extremely nice, easy and scary experience. I saw way too many crashes and piles of bloody cyclists so I was pretty happy with hitting the finishing line in one piece. After the restricted pace (first 11 km 2.500 cyclists were following the pace of the leading car) I was able to ride at 36.5 kmh pace which was better than I expected.
Now I'm sitting in our temporary home in Columbia, MD. Feeling tired and happy.
Sweetie's Ironman was a huge success. She broke the plan by 55 minutes and finished with a time of 10:35. Thereafter, during the week I had to join the local triathlon club and decided that I will relearn to swim.
I was able to return to training routine only on Thursday when I did 15 km tempo run at HRM moderated pace. It went really well and felt even better.
On Saturday I participated in an adventure race with Mr. Saarinen. It was a blast even if I killed my Samsumg Galaxy during the first quest checkpoint comprising crossing a lake by swimming and pushing the bikes on a raft. I had in a sealable plastic bag but the bag was not sealed.
The race itself was almost 6 hrs long since after a succesfull orienteering leg we started biking like maniacs but on a wrong road. That caused us an extra 12 km out and back which equals (according to Garmin) 28 minutes. Moreover that excessive biking enhanced the energy deprivation which finally hit me around 4.5 hrs - half an hour before the last leg of the race. First cramps arrived already around 3 hrs.
This week after Boston has been tough. Older body needs more to adjust between time zones. Much more than I have used to. Similarly, relatively low amount of hours in sleep during the conference did its job, too.
After running only ez runs I dared to run faster on Wednesday morning. And that was a great choice, at 6:15 AM I was kicking asphalt during 4x2km'2min. workout (pace accelerated from 5:30 to 5:15). Today I missed my run totally due to traveling and....yes... eating. I just ate too much.
Now I'm in Kalmar, Sweden. Sweetie will participate in her first Ironman race tomorrow morning. That's serious business...
Long runs: 1 Decent workouts: 2 Ez runs in muggy weather: 3 Hours slept before 2nd hard workout and morning presentation: 4 Average hours slept per night: 5 Total minutes of streching: 0 Number of trees hit while running: 1 Number of scars caused by hitting a tree: 1 Hours travelled to get to Boston and back: 32 Number of healthy meals: 0 Number of possibilities to watch Olympics without add-on stories, non-related interviews or commercials: 0 Visits to Harvard Club House: 1 Visits to Boston Marathon's finish line: 5 Needed more cowbell: 0 times
As a sportsfan I'm about to make a huge mistake. I'm heading to the US during Olympics and this is especially harmful since track and field begins on Friday.
In Finland I could enjoy live all the events from tv without commercials or odd add-on stories (ref. 2008 when Samuel Wanjiru was making history, NBC had guts to show spectators a lovely story of that Irish priest who messed up earlier Olympic marathon), and still I'm bound to miss many interesting races.
Oh how tough life is...
Tomorrow is time for WOW and then I have planned a steady state / tempo run on Saturday morning on the banks of Charles River.
Ps. Don't tell Mark that I'm burned out because of last weekend's fulfillment of stupidity.
Today began with an early bird 10 km race. It started at 5:30 AM and as always I started like old times (=read too fast) and thereafter the pace died pretty soon. I was able to recharge my batteries around 6k and finished about 30 seconds better time than week ago.
Like this would not been enough, I joined a group of triathletes on their long run in the afternoon. These endeavours resulted 27+ miles. Tomorrow morning I gotta bike around 70 miles to meet the family. Awesome!
