my makeup may be flaking

XC race at Woodland park: split into masters (combined), open women, and open men. As I was waiting for the masters race to start, some guy walking his dog asked if it was a high school race and he was suprised when I said it was adults. In most places adult XC is not really a thing, but among the fast runners in the area it's seems to be the most important thing. It's like the WA version of a half marathon down a canyon.

After my relatively poor showing in the 8k version of this course, I didn't have very high expectations. I set a tentative goal of just running the same pace as I did in the 8k but for an extra 2k loop, which would be just under 37.

The start of this race is down a really steep grass hill with poor footing and I was quickly close to the back of the race (there were 60 people). After about 500m we hit a nice downhill stretch and I caught up to Sheridan and Spencer. Hit the first 1k in 3:20 (downhill) and it felt pretty easy. I started to moveup as we climbed the hill back towards the start. 2k in 7:00.

On the second time down the steep hill I started to feel a little sick to my stomach which really kept me from pushing. After that I felt like I ran the rest of the race in cruise control. Spencer got away from me and Sheridan and I worked together. Someone in the back of my mind I knew that I could push a lot harder, but I was worried I was gonna vomit.

Sheridan and I picked off two guys and got passed by one over the final 4 loops but otherwise it stayed pretty much the same. It was a fun race, however, and I think that next year I will do more XC races. In fact, I have two more short ones that I'm going to do this winter.

AM 10.4 miles in 65:02 (6:16 pace). Had to detour off the ship canal trail as a large fire had burned a couple of the warehouses. This made the normally flat run a little hillier. Was also feeling a little flat with the XC race only two days before. Wore my new Kinvaras and am not sure what to think of them, they seem a little clunkier than I'm used to, similar to my GoRun rides which I wore in the marathon. A good shoe for longer runs I think.

Splits of 10:00 (6:15 pace), 9:52 (6:10), 8:15 (6:09), 8:11 (6:06), 10:11 (6:22), 10:14 (6:24), 8:17 (6:11)

AM 12.2 Bounce workout

I had high hopes for this workout as I feel like my basic speed has improved a ton in the last couple of weeks. Started off slow with a 5:38 1600. Then decided to lose the shirt and things got better from there. Capped off with a 2:35.7 800 and 73.8 400 neither of which felt like I was pushing too hard. Feeling pretty confident now about my upcoming 5k.

D=Dirt, A=Altiude (4500ft), E=Evening

One loop of Green Lake and some drills/strides prerace.