Go, you chicken fat, go away!

Congratulations to everyone who ran the Top of Utah Marathon yesterday.  TOU was my first marathon so it's very special to me.  Not really though.  I stunk it up and never want to go back.  But there were some impressive performances.  Predog was the first local boy to cross the line and allie was the first female.

Predog is a beast!

Somebody wants her baba...

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Day 77 P90X - X Stretch - The tendons in my left foot are hurting.  It also seems like there's a touch of PF.  Hope it feels better soon.

I wanted to get some fast miles in this morning, but not too fast and not too many.  I have the Open Mile tomorrow.  I hope I can break 6 minutes or come close.

Time - 14:33 (avg. pace 7:17)

Splits - 7:29, 7:04

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Day 78 P90X - Chest, Shoulers, & Triceps/Ab Ripper X - This is a tough workout.  Maybe because you only do it 5 times throughout the entire 90 days, and your body doesn't adjust to it.  I don't have to do it anymore, and I won't miss it.  I made sure to push it harder than last time.  And I took it up a notch with Ab Ripper X by doing all my Leg Climbers without arms.  Just straight up and touch my toes.  There is a six pack underneath a couple of layers of fat in there somewhere.

A new post high school PR!  I'm pretty excited even though I feel like I've been put on one of those conveyor belts in the cartoons where the giant glove punches you, then you get chopped up into a dozen pieces, then the iron roller with the spikes flattens out and pulverizes what's left of you.

All day I've been thinking about how I opened my big mouth and told everyone I was shooting for a sub 6.  I've been thinking about what excuses I could give for not making it; too hot, too windy, not enough mileage lately, not enough speed work, Garmin's not calibrated correctly.  But on the other hand I really felt like it was in me.  So I decided to go with MichelleL's advice and just take off like a rabbit.

The way this race works is they line everybody up on the Scottsdale Community College track.  You run a little over four times around to get your mile in.  Ten minutes after the last person comes in, you run another one.  I brought my son with me.  He's in cross country but due to reasons we don't quite understand, he's not eligible to run.  Anyway, he wanted to do it, and I wanted to see what he could do.

I saw some familiar faces and knew there were some fast people there.  Perfect.  That's why I come to these, to race against good competition.  I lined up a row back in lane 3.  That made me have to run in the second lane up until right before the second curve where I saw an opening and took it.  From there on I don't remember passing anyone or being passed.  They called out the first lap as 1:25.   Nice.  I started out hard and then slowed up a hair.  I felt like I could maintain this pace for another 3 laps.  The next lap was 2:55.  Okay.  I'm still under my goal pace.  I'm running strong, but I'm starting to feel it.  The next lap was 4:30.  All I need is another 1:30, and I've already done that twice.  I consciously picked it up.  At this point a guy started coming up on my shoulder.  I thought he would pass me but as we hit the straight away with the wind at our backs I just opened up my stride.  With 200 meters to go I began my kick.  Coming out of the curve I could see the clock and saw that I had about 20 seconds to go.  Maybe allie was right with her 5:55 prediction.  I kept running hard, and I kept seeing seconds tick off it.  Slow down clock!  I might not make it.  I have to not only cross the starting line, but run the little extra because the track is short.  Well, I made it!  5:57!  (Actually Garmin has me at 5:47 because it measured the distance as 1.03 miles.)  However, I'll go with 5:57 (official results) because it's my fault for running in the 2nd lane.

I was pretty excited, but I had to see where AJ was at.  I was surprised that he was kind of far back.  He came in at 7:16.  I know he can run faster than that.  I think his knee was bothering him.  Oh well.  I told him since I made my goal of a sub 6, that I would take the next mile easy.  When we lined up I stood one row back in the first lane.  Nobody came to step in front of me.  This is dumb, I thought.  The guy that started us told us that if we didn't beat our first mile time he would stand us at the 40-yard line and throw javelins at us.  Then he put us to our mark.  All righty then.  I moved up to the front (so unworthy of me.)  Set.  Go.  I took off way slower than the first one.  I made the comment, "Looks like I'll be dodging javelins on the 40."  My second mile was a lazy 6:54.  This time Garmin measured it 1.00 even.  Must be because I had the pole position.  I did lap my son, too.  The funny thing was when he crossed the finish line on his third lap they handed him his popsicle stick with his finish place number on it, so he stopped. 

I know this is the longest entry/mile race report ever, but this is a historic, monumental, breakthrough moment for me.  I would never have thought I would see another mile within the 5's from me.  Especially when I weighed over 250 lbs. three and a half years ago.  Just goes to show what hard work can do for you.  I feel blessed that I am healthy enough to run and that my family supports me.  Sub 5 now?  Well, let's not get too overzealous.

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Day 79 P90X - Plyometrics X - The race was at 6:30pm.  I got home and ate dinner.  Then I did a little blogging, a little facebooking, and generally just procrastinated doing my P90X workout.  I finally started it a little after 11pm.  There's a lot of jumping in Plyometrics X.  Because I was feeling sore from the race, I didn't BRING IT like I usually do.  But I imagine I worked as hard as I did when I first started.

Day 80 P90X - Back and Biceps/Ab Ripper X - Another evening of refereeing basketball.  I am sore tonight.  But look on the bright side.  In 11 days I'll be a P90X graduate.  Woot woot!

Day 81 P90X - Yoga X - I had another late night.  Finished up just a bit after midnight.  I don't kick things anymore when I do this workout.  I am calm of mind and body.

Because of the late night last night, I didn't have time to go far.  That's okay because I feel a slight twinge in my hamstring again.  I think it should be fine.  So I took Ginger and ran around the block twice.

Time - 10:28 (avg. pace 9:21)

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Day 82 P90X - Legs and Back/Ab Ripper X - I can kiss this workout goodbye and good riddance.  Haha!  It's a tough one.  176 pull-ups!  I won't have the arm strength in the morning to put a shirt on.  Maybe it'll be a good time to wax.

This morning I had plans to meet with two of my friends, Ox and Cox, to go for a swim, bike, and run.  I set my alarm for 4am but forgot to turn it on.  What a dope!  I was supposed to be at Jared's (Cox) at 5am.  I woke up at 5:30am.  I texted him and he said just to join us for the bike and run. 

I drove over to Lake Saguaro and actually got there before they started to swim but decided not to join them.  That gave me an opportunity to PAS.  Jared had his wet suit on and finished before Ox.  Neither Jared nor I realized that Ox was doing this serious as a time trial for his upcoming triathlon, so we didn't see when he took off. 

Jared was kind enough to let me ride his wife's road bike since I haven't fixed my back wheel yet.  I also borrowed a helmet from him since Ginger has chewed up both of mine recently.  It was an aweome helmet, pink with flowers. 

As we left the parking lot and hit the first hill I still hadn't figured out how to work the gears on Michelle's bike.  I ended up having to jump off and push it to the top.  Once I reached the top I was good and got into a nice rhythm.  Now Jared was way ahead of me and Ox still way ahead of him.

Between mile 1 and 2 was the fastest.  I averaged 31.3 mph and maxed out at 35.5 mph.  It was freaking awesome.  I was out in the middle of the street and didn't know or care if any cars were behind me.  There was, but the speed limit was 35mph anyway.  There were a lot of cyclists out this morning.  This is a favorite area for them because of the hills.  I made sure to yell good morning at them in my most manly voice so they wouldn't think I was a fruit for wearing a girl's helmet. 

I finally figured out how to shift correctly on the hills.  The plan was to go 13 miles.  At mile 11.2 I hit the really big hill.  I shifted to the lowest gear, but the chain still kept slipping.  So I jumped off and started pushing again.  Then I saw Ox running down the hill.  So I rode for about 11.5 miles.  Then I ran with him down the hill a while until I jumped on the bike and rode down to his parents who loaded the bike up, and I continued running with him.

The original plan was just for me to pace him in the run, but when I told Jared about it he wanted to come along.  Then he talked me into joining them for all of it.  Anyway, Ox wanted me to pace him at an 8 min/mile.  He was going about 7:40 average.  I only saw Garmin hit 8:00 once.  He should do pretty good in his tri.  So after 1.5 miles we were done.  I turned around to run Jared in.  He was half a mile back.  I got 2.5 miles running in.  It was pretty fun despite me almost ruining it for them.

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Day 83 P90X - Kenpo X - So much sweat.  The horror.