Thursday, May 29, 2014

April and May 2014

After 70.3 NOLA I decided to go back to short racing for a while. I like the 70.3 (and think it will be my best distance someday), but I really love speed! So...I decided to put together a string of some shorter stuff.

Litchfield Spring Duathlon
2nd OA

6 days after NOLA I was on the start line of a 2 mile run/12 mile bike/2 mile run. I knew I was not fully recovered, but I love a good duathlon, so I could not pass it up. I also made the decision to be aggressive on the first run to and see what happened.

I was first onto the bike. I was in the lead until mile 5 or so, then Randy Murdick came flying by me like I was in slow motion. He's known for being a great biker, so I was just hoping to stay close for run #2. I was passed again by another guy. We ended up going off course and adding about 3/4 mile to the course. Randy was too far gone as I came off the bike in 4th. I ran my way back to 2nd with a mediocre run. It was a fun event and I would go do it again!

Try Tri SIUe - 1st OA
Short stuff hurts! I went into the race wanting to just focus on doing the small things correctly: quick transitions, no dropped bottles, no wrong turns, etc. The course is a simple pool swim, out and back bike/run. I had a good swim (4th), solid bike (4th), and okay run (1st) to pull off the OA win. This was my first time winning a tri with more than 75 people in it.


North Central College Gregory Invite
May 15 (5k), May 16 (1500m)

My running had been feeling a little "off" for a while, so I decided to race a couple short things on the track. Thursday we drove up to Naperville for the 5000m. I ran 16:06 and felt pretty good about it...I had forgotten how much the 5k can hurt. The next day so raced the 1500m. I was nowhere near my PR, but I ran a pretty evenly paced 1500m, so I was happy to have a consistent race. I ran 4:14.

Rockford 10k

They were offering prize money to the top 3 in the 10k and half marathon, so I decided to try and go win some grocery money. I had no idea who was in the race, I just wanted to go have a solid day. I still felt like I was in a rut, but I was determined to break out of it. I took the lead early and never really looked back. There are a couple out and back sections, so a couple miles in so decided to pus the pace and open up the gap even more. I knew I was running faster than I should be, but I wanted to give myself a cushion if I blew up. The last 2 miles were into the wind, and tr last mile is ahead hal uphill..I was starting to feel it. I ended up hanging on for the win and $100.

Streator Family YMCA Memorial Day 5k
Should I have raced 2 days in a row? Probably not...but what fun is it doing what you're supposed to do? This race got ugly quickly. I had planned on going out in 2nd until the turnaround, then trying to take the lead. I hadn't realized Matt Morse was in the race.. My first 1/2 mile was 2:24 and he already had a couple seconds gap in me. The 2nd half of this race is also hilly/uphill. It made for a long last mile haha. I took second place as Matt continued his domination in the Illinois Valley!

So what have I learned over the past few weeks? I'm not sure. I do know that it has been a lot of fun and I am liking forward go many more races.
So yeah, that is what has been going on in with me. Thanks for reading and hopefully I'll see ya out there!