I sucked on my run big time today. 16 miles quickly turned into 13 1/2. How can 6 minutes and 11 seconds of all-out the day before take it out of you like that. I had no idea.
Maybe next weekend.
P.S. For those of you interested in the crazy track workouts, wait until you see the one my friend E sent me! Tuesday is the big day... and yes, I will have my shoes on this time. :)
I keep meaning to post a picture of the newest addition to our house. No we are NOT having a baby. I am referring to Mr KT's 2 month old tattoo.
It is a wooden cross with a medicine wheel around it making it look a little Celtic. I think it turned out great. He said it peeled a couple of times but it was never really that uncomfortable. He asked me if I was going to go along when he got it done and I told him I would come take his picture. He told me that was so not cool and so I stayed home. LOL!
I would be willing to bet he's already thinking about a second one, but what do I know.
I ran The Omaha Mile this morning. It is a fast one mile race in downtown Omaha. Most of the course is downhill with a little tiny bump in the middle. You start at 19th and Capitol and run down Capitol St. You take a left on 10th street and run past the Qwest Center to the finish. It is fast and furious. A bunch of kids races to start with and then Master's Women, Master's Men, Open Women 39 and under, Open Men 39 and under, Elite Women, and then Elite Men. Dang those last two groups can freaking fly. Amazing. I believe that the winning elite male ran 3:57:something and the second place elite male was also under 4 minutes. Wow.
My time...
6:11:49
19 seconds under what I was hoping to run.
Good enough for 3rd place overall in the open women division and 2nd in my age group. As I was about at 2/3 of a mile I thought to myself, all those long runs were definitely not training you for this. But I have to admit that the track workouts probably helped.
Not bad. Not bad at all. Next year? I would love to go sub 6.
So... I learned that when you run 3 miles barefoot, your feet are sore the next day. Not sore, like the skin hurts, not sore like injured, but sore like somebody put spacers between all the bones in your forefoot and is slowly cranking them apart. Like maybe all those muscles and tendons and ligaments in there had to really work to hold that foot together last night without the help of a shoe. Like maybe every time the foot stepped down it spread apart more than it does in the uber-expensive, cushy, supportive running shoes normally found on that foot.
So, last week was hit or miss for workouts. I spent Wed-Sat in Lincoln for a Child Passenger Safety Class (who knew there was so much to learn about car seats). I stayed with my parents and had a really nice time. My mom and dad are wonderful and as my mother-in-law would say, "home is where your mom is."
One note of kudos to my momma, she is now a published poet which is very, very cool.
Anywho, like I said, workouts were hit or miss. I got in a few runs and an ok swim and that left me to do my longest run to date on Sunday. I had registered for the Corporate Cup through work several weeks ago. This is a good sized race in downtown Omaha where it is fairly flat. Thousands of people run or walk the 10K or the 2 mile. It takes forever to get over the starting line. You get the idea.
I decided to incorporate the 10K into my long run. I got up early and got myself organized which was somewhat of a challenge this morning. I ran the 5-ish miles to the race through the ghetto. It was pretty quiet and a very decent "commute" with some consistent hills. I then checked in with my organization and headed to the starting line (or as close as I was going to get). You definitely see some very strange things at races this size. For instance, around mile 5 there was some guy sitting by himself on the corner playing his clarinet. Really, the clarinet? How bizarre. He was just rocking out by himself with his favorite woodwind. There were also a few lone cheerleaders and several of the Omaha Beef (?) players. Maybe some sort of indoor football team? I don't really even know.
Anywho, finished up the race, grabbed a bottle of water and half a nutrigrain bar and headed out to run home. I ran back a different route which ended up being a bit of a pain with the traffic lights and pulled into my driveway right on time. I grabbed some water and two little doggies and headed back out for the last 4 miles. I learned that you should not run miles 17-20 of your long run with two Brittanys with fresh legs. Ouch. Anywho, we got through it and then I sat in an ice bath for about 10 minutes. I love to cold soak and would recomend it to anyone.
I then did a track workout on Tuesday. The actual workout was 3x1 mile repeats. My feet and legs were too beat up for this but I did 1 mile warm up, and then 2x 20, 40, 60, 80, 100 yds on the football field barefoot. I then did all of that again and warmed down with 3/4 of a mile. My arches are pretty tired but it felt good to run like a kid again. Aw, smile.
Other than that, just gearing up for the Omaha 1 mile run on Saturday. Should be a good time.
And for my brother, who requested more pics of the babies, here is one of Kona cuddling with her puppy.
Two open water swims in three days? Is this some kind of strange parallel universe? Yeah, that's right, two. Unfortunately it is now September and so I am a little late due to triathlon season being, well, pretty much over. Anywho, I swam with two buddies on Monday (I love having a day off.) We went to a local "private" lake and swam for about 25 minutes. A was way faster than me, just like he is in the pool. E was just slightly slower but hung right in there. We swam, played a little frisbee and then had a little lunch. It was hot and beautiful and summer.
Wednesday, a gal that I have been long riding with called and wanted to open water swim at that same lake. Her brother lives there and she wanted to meet me after work. We met about 6:30 pm. It was a beautiful fall day, about 63 degrees. It had only been cooler for a day or so and the water was still warm. The air temp definitely wasn't but it really was no big deal. I have vowed never to complain about water temps after my 1.2 mile dip in Lake Michigan. Now that was chilly. Anywho, we got it and swam for 30 minutes straight. We swam a giant square. I have no idea how far we went but it felt awesome. The sun was starting to sink behind the trees, the water was fairly calm. Arms were cool out of the water but the water was not cold. As we swam out we came across 3 or 4 guys swimming as well. The funniest part about it was they were in full wetsuits. Now, there is nothing wrong with a full wetsuit but think about it... the only skin that had showing was their feet, hands, and faces. Both of us were in two piece swimsuits with very little covered relatively speaking. We were flying compared to them and their kayaker. I watched them stroke slowly by as Lisa and I flew past. Those boys totally got chicked. I love it.
