A week home – a reprieve from the recent business travel buzz. I was sharing with someone this week that it is not so much the act of travel that is a challenge. Frankly it is an easy target to bitch about the travel and gripe about things like TSA. It is really not bad. Being away from home however and not tending to that … that is the challenge.
It was good to be home in Colorado this week. KZ came home from ISU for break.
She made it a point to sit me down and get me to watch Stranger Things with me. She had already seen it with friends back in Ames, but she wanted my butt in the seat to watch it. It is certainly enjoyable … it effectively hits on so many of those 80 themes and movies folks like me enjoyed as a kid: some Stephen King, E.T., Poltergeist, Goonies … toss in a bit of the retro D&D … good stuff.
I got in some running but the highlight of my week in that regard was the Thanksgiving Day 5K over in Louisville. It is a free 5k, so there is no official timing or results, but it still runs fairly competitive. Given the lack of any faster work in my recent history, I was seriously doubting if a sub 20 was in the cards.
I lined up about 10 rows back with the Eagles XC women and coach Greg, and we shared some pre-race laughs. The girls had just done a workout the day before so they would run together fairly easy. There were also other former Eagles out and it was nice to catch up, share some holiday smiles and a few light hearted jabs.
Once the race went, I quickly recalled why as a younger man, I made it a point to never be more than a row or two back from the start. Even though we may have been only 5-10 yards behind the start line, it took some 10-15 seconds to pass it. I started my watch at the threshold but even after the start it was a bit of a bob and weave affair to get going. It all settled down after about a minute of course, but it felt like way more than that.
Here’s a thing that is positive for me about not being particularly race fit: I tend to run my races a bit more appropriate for that fitness. In other words, when I am in pretty good shape, I am more likely to botch a race by going out too fast in the opening half mile. However when I am off game a bit, it is as if I know better and hold back more to my abilities. I passed the opening mile in 6:05 – and given the 20 minute thought in my head I was wondering if I was looking at a pending blow up. The second mile was slightly uphill and upwind, and the pace slowed as we climbed to the course high point – 6:22. I was passing folks fairly consistently and only being passed by a couple of people. At two miles the course turned back towards the race finish and downhill, and I managed the fastest mile of the race for me in 5:55. There was no real kick in me over the last 300 yards in sight of the finish banner but I managed a sub 19 with an 18:44. The course may have been a tad short, so it could even be a 19 low if I am honest. Garmin tracked me 6:07 pace for whatever the distance was.
That is certainly not great but considering my expectations, the amount of travel I have had (along with less than stellar diet and beverage intake), and not touching any miles at six anything pace in a long time … it is pretty good for me. It had me realize for the millionth time that few things motivate me to perform as much as getting out there and performing. Competition is a grand motivator for me, even if my most competitive days are past.
The rest of the week was easy jogging – although on Saturday, riding a bit of Thursday motivation, I got in a handful of 500m intervals at 5:20 pace (1:40). My legs were still a bit burdened with the effort from Thursday but it felt good to get a bit of rolling in.
Other news in the week – it was a fun Thanksgiving. While I was still busy with work at home for the front of the week, it seems that this time of year always starts to drive a bit of greater contemplation for me. It was good to have some family and friends and perhaps that encourages that.
JZ got his wisdom teeth removed, and with that we learned that he and Percocet don’t go well together. Later in the week we did a little celebration (a couple days early) for his 17th birthday.
There was a fair amount of anxiety within the Eagle XC camp as we had to sit until Saturday to learn if the team had been awarded an at-large bid to the NXN meet. I was pretty doubtful at first, putting odds at 20 percent but as the week marched on and I listened to Parker, read the Milesplit break downs I was increasingly encouraged. We learned Saturday night that the women had indeed earned their second trip to the big meet in Portland.
Sunday I headed to MSP. With Portland in the mix, I might have just packed a bag for the next ten days.
75+ miles on the week, with showing some hope on a couple of quicker runs in the mid week.
I found this video to be good this week where we were considering “thanks.” Dennis gets a bit rich on the “preaching” but the message is solid.
Lots of good podcasts listened to this week but in particular I found the Jocko podcast 100 to be very very good (101 is solid is well).
