Nuun Year Dash!

We woke up to snow this morning. The weather forecast called for a dusting to an inch, but we ended up getting enough snow to cover the roads and cancel school in the area. 

Buddy made sure to warm his nose up by the fire. It's actually already noticeably warmer in the house with the new insulation, and it isn't even all in yet!

Nuun hosted a virtual race this weekend, and I signed up to run the 10k. All the official goodies arrived last week. They don't skimp on the swag!

I planned on running my race today, since we have a 5k on Sunday, so I waited for the roads to clear and hit the pavement.

I wasn't sure what kind of pace to expect since I had a cold all week (and haven't raced in a couple of months). I kept my watch on distance and just focused on running harder than I would for a regular training run. That plan seemed to work well, sometimes I get frustrated when I check my pace too often, but I felt strong and ended up being pleasantly surprised when I uploaded my run.

10k in 55:42, an 8:57 pace.

I celebrated with a double dose of watermelon Nuun with a dash of vitamin c powder, because I like it a little sour.

The insulation guys started putting up drywall today! It's hard to see because there aren't lights in the room yet, but look, walls!

The plumber is coming this weekend to get the heat hooked up in the addition, and then the rest of the drywall will get installed next week. It's exciting to see so much progress!

Marathon Training Week 2

I'm still here! I've been alternately really busy and relaxing, neither of which was really conducive to blogging.

We spent the long weekend up at the lake house with Tom's family for the 4th of July. The water in the lake was warmer than when we were up there in May, so we had a lot of fun tubing. Tom even convinced me to try kneeboarding - it's hard! It was fun once I actually made it up to my knees, but it took a few tries!

So here's a look at my second week of marathon training - it sort of veered off course...

Monday: Cross training. Check it out - I actually did Piyo! The amount of pain I was in is evidence that I really need to cross train more often.

Tuesday: 3 miles. Done and done. I ran around the neighborhood at a pretty leisurely 9:55 pace.

Wednesday: 6 miles. Ok, so here's where things got tricky. Wednesday was supposed to be 6 miles and Thursday was supposed to be 3, but we were leaving for the lake house on Thursday afternoon, so instead I ran 9.25 miles (10:05 pace) on Wednesday and took a rest day on Thursday. It was hot and hilly around the neighborhood, but I managed to run all the hills. I was also smart and carried water with me.

Thursday: 3 miles. Like I said, not so much with the running on Thursday. A lot of time in the car instead.

Friday: Rest day. We spent a lot of time out on the lake, tubing and just cruising and enjoying the sunshine.

Saturday: 6 mile pace run. Nuun  put on a virtual run for its ambassadors/team Nuun over the weekend, it lined up perfectly to help motivate me to run while we were in vacation mode. So on Saturday morning I headed out for a 10k on the hilly roads around the lake house. Why are there hills everywhere I go?

It was decently warm and disgustingly buggy (one flew in my mouth - not ok), but I kept telling myself it was supposed to be a race, so I managed to finish my 10k in 55:43, an 8:58 pace! I'm pretty happy with that.

Sunday: 6 miles. Yeah...that didn't happen. I wasn't on the ball enough to run before we left the lake house, and it was after 10pm by the time we got home. Oh well.

I tried this InstaBoost from my RunnerBox the other day. It's basically energy pop rocks. Buddy was not a fan of the sound.

He's so cute.

Are you training for anything right now?

Trail Race Recap

Saturday morning I was up bright and early to head to the Blue Mountain Reservation for a trail race.

 I rode up with one of my weekend running buddies and we got there with more than enough time to check in and pick up our bibs. The race was so small, we probably would have been fine showing up about 15 minutes before the start.

I don't know the official number of runners, but there was a 5k and a 10k that were capped at 150 between them. I would guess the actual number was somewhere closer to 75 or 80 runners.

We spent a good 10 minutes watching a guy try to fix the start/finish line banner after the wind snapped one of the zip ties that was holding it up. It was a very complicated fix that involved a picnic table, two sticks and some rope. It was pretty entertaining.

The race started a few minutes late to allow some stragglers to get their bibs, and then we were off through the muddy start line. The trails were really beautiful, but definitely more trail-like than most of us are used to. There were loose rocks, tree roots, a couple of very steep climbs (and descents), and lots of mud and water. The man in charge declared that it was "the cheapest mud run you'll ever find."

The course was a 5k loop, so those of us running the 10k ran the loop twice. I'm not a huge fan of running the same hills more than once, but it was generally a fun course.

There were plenty of post-race snacks and drinks, though the promised REI branded swag turned out to be a pair of shoe laces and some lip balm. I don't know that I would call that swag, but with a registration fee of $15, I guess I can't complain.

I started my watch at our official "everyone count down from 10" start and stopped it a few yards after the finish line. It came up with 5.85 miles in 58:00. The clock at the finish was right about at 1:00:00, so I'm not really sure what time to claim. It wasn't chip timed, and who knows how accurate their course measurement was (and there weren't mile markers).

It's ok though, the point was to run a fun race someplace new. You can't really compare trail race times to normal race times anyway, we were all running a minute and a half to two minutes slower than our usual pace.

My shoes may be dry by now, but they could definitely use a run through the rain to clean up a bit.

I spent Saturday night babysitting. The three year old I was watching told me I was bad at puzzles. Thanks kid.

Today was amazing weather. It was sunny and warm! We finally brought the cushions up for the patio furniture, and Buddy and I had a nice morning lounging on the back deck.

I just finished reading Wild. It was pretty good, though I never had a hard time putting it down. I want to see how the movie turned out, I've heard mixed reviews.

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Race Prep and Lounging with Buddy

Happy Friday!

I was a lazy slob this afternoon. I planned on doing a little PiYo, but ended up being randomly really exhausted, so I lounged with Buddy instead. He was pretty happy.

 He was sleeping like this for a while this afternoon. With his eyes open. Creepy dog.

I laid out running clothes for my trail race tomorrow before I even bothered to check the weather. That seems like a good idea, right? I did check the weather after the fact and I don't think I'll make any changes. 

It's strange for me, but I know pretty much nothing about this race tomorrow. It is being put on by REI's Outdoor School, and I've seen a basic course map, but that's about all I know. Usually I do a lot of research before a race, but since this is a "just for fun" race (and it's a 10k), I'm not too worried about it. 

Several of my weekend running buddies are also running tomorrow, and there's a club meet up at the Peekskill Brewery after the race, so it should be a fun morning!

Buddy is very excited for me, can't you tell?

Any exciting weekend plans?