Cursed Realm of the Faceless Ghost

My goal was to break 20 minutes this morning, so my time of 18:51 was a success. The funny thing is that a part of me is disappointed. I'm not new to endurance sports, and I'm used to being on the sharp end of things, so finishing nearly three minutes behind the race winner kind of annoys me. Obviously, I've only been running regularly for two weeks. And the last couple of months have pretty much been off months with very little structure (or volume) to my training. But I know that I could be running much faster than I am, even though  it's unrealistic to expect to do so so soon. Sometimes I get impatient.

My only real problem with today's race has to do with my choice of breakfast--Grape Nuts. Talk about a boneheaded mistake. I know better than to eat right before running, especially before a hard effort. And I also know that a 5K doesn't require much in the way of stored energy. But I didn't like the idea of running at 10:00 having not eaten since the night before, so I set my alarm for 6:30, ate some breakfast, and then went back to sleep for an hour. Normally, three hours is plenty of time to digest a meal, but Grape Nuts are about as digestible as lead. As I was warming up I could feel my breakfast sitting in my stomach like a brick, and I knew I was in trouble.

I went out too hot from the start, but I felt okay for a little more than a mile, after which I felt like I was going to poop, puke, or both. As you can imagine, I started going backwards pretty soon after that. From that point on, all I could do was settle into a manageable pace and hope that everything stayed in my stomach.That's no way to race, but I've learned my lesson, and I won't repeat the mistake.

Not only did I met my goal, my wife, Catherine, met hers, so we count this morning as a success. Next up is the 10K. My goal for that race is be able to run at today's pace or better, so I'd better stick with the training.

I spent the afternoon assembling bookshelves for our new apartment, and in the evening I went skiing at Mountain Dell. Conditions were good, and because I didn't start skiing till after 8:00, I had the place to myself. Me, my iPod, and a (disappointingly obscure) full moon made for an incredibly relaxing workout. I skied 4 laps on the Main+Mitten loop (total of about 8.5 miles) in a little less than an hour, and then I picked up a pizza on my way home to finish off a pretty decent day.