Still Building

Broke out the hammer and nails for this weekends training sessions... Started off with a pretty hard 54.5 mile ride Saturday with the Bike Stop guys. Those dudes can ride and really push the pace so there is no excuse not to be getting better by riding with them. Nice SW winds at about 20 mph so the trip south was brutal, but coming back the boys swung the hammer down hard and cooked along at a cool 36 mph. I just tried to hang on the last wheel totally enjoying the speed! I pealed off once we got close to home and the rest continued on... Jared and another Tim who is training for Ironman CDA put in a total of 103! Uh, Jared we have the Trolley Run on Sunday... Once I got back home it was a quick change of shoes and off for a short 15 minute transition run. Legs felt like stone the first 1/4 mile but came around after that. Really felt pretty decent.

• Bike: 54.5 miles, 3:05:20, 17.6 avg mph, 140 avg hr
• Run: 2.1 miles, 17:04, 8:08 avg pace, 153 avg hr

That was the hammer, now for the nails!

Sunday I met Jared (with 103 miles in his legs from Saturday) and Troy down at the start of the Trolley Run. 6,666 folks finished the race which is awesome considering it's only a 4 mile run. We did a short easy 2 mile warmup then got into our wave for the start. This race always reminds me of a mini Chicago marathon. It's so packed at the start and you're just shoulder to shoulder waiting for the gun. It was just crazy weaving through people the first half mile! But I made it through pretty well and was pretty please I was at 6:08 pace when I made the first turn... What?! 6:08?! Oh man too fast... Oh well, felt good so just tried to hold what I could and man did I feel myself fading from about 2.5 in to the finish!

Still finished with a PR of 25:43 and a 6:26 pace. Good for 15th in my age group out of 334 (192 out of 6,666) . I have to say I never thought I'd ever finish that high in this race. There are just a bunch of really fast runners that come do this race.

Jared finished just behind me at 26:39 and Troy just behind Jared at 27:20. Great race for us all considering we've been really only doing long slow stuff and only a couple speed workouts. Not to mention the long rides from Saturday.

We grabbed a quick snack at the finish then jogged easy back to the start and added another couple miles to get in 12 total. (actually 12.25) Great day and weekend of training.

• 2 mile warmup, 17:02
• 4 mile race, 25:43, 6:26 avg pace, 175 avg hr, OUCH!
• 6.25 miles, 57:03, 9:08 avg pace, 150 avg hr, that's more like it!
• 12.25 total miles

Day off tomorrow. Maybe a short run.....