All it takes is all you've got

My sister and her family are in town so I took her on the single track trail around Standley Lake, she rode my Mt. Bike while I ran.  My legs still felt pretty dead from Saturday.  Averaged 7:47 pace.  

My sister rode my Mt. Bike while I ran again.  I took her up on the dog park trail.  It is somewhat hilly and uneven.  We had to hoist the bike and step over the Emergency Do Not Cross tape to get to the trail.  The sign said that the prarie dogs and rabbits are suffering from the Plague, so the "authorities" don't want people walking their dogs up there so as to not spread the plague to the dog population, I assume.  I didn't see any prarie dogs or rabbits the whole run.  Maybe they all died.  I did see one field mouse.  He must have had one of those itty bitty mouse sized pandemic masks.  Lucky him!  And we also saw one coyote.  He looked hungry.

10.5 miles, 7:43 average.

Legs feel a little better, maybe I'll try to do some pick-ups tomorrow. 

Warmed up for 20 minutes and then did a 5X4X3X2X1 fartlek

As I was doing the workout I realized that I did an accelerated fartlek last week with only 1 minute rest in between each pick-up.  I guess it has been too long since I've don regular Farteks.  Last weeks was more like a tempo.  Today I did equal rest in between each pick up and was able to push it pretty hard.  

My Mom comes into town today just as my sister and her family leave.  I asked my Mom to support me on a 20 miler tomorrow and she was like, "I don't know if I can ride my bike 20 miles!?!  That will be the longest I have ever gone!!"  I am confident she can do it though.  She is fit and thin and has been biking a couple of times a week ever since we bought her a new bike for Christmas.  Besides, what better way to celebrate turning 60 than to ride your bike further than you have ever ridden?!!  That is actually the reason for her visit, she just turned 60 last week, I am turning 28 on Friday, and my Mom's sister who lives in Littleton turns 65 on Sunday.  So we're all going out to dinner together Thursday night to celebrate our birthdays. 

I also decided today based on how good (recovered) I feel that I'm going to do a 10K on Saturday.   It is a pretty easy, flat course starting and finishing at the City Park (on the same trail where I do a lot of my long runs).  The race is in conjuction with the Westminster City Fair.  Unfortunately Aaron will not be able to join me because he has the opportunity to be our friend, Eric's photography assistant at the Leadville 100 on Saturday.  Eric is an awesome photragher and got his biggest job ever as one of the only 3 photographers hired to cover the race and he needs Aaron to come help him identify cyclists that he is supposed to be capturing and carry gear and what not.  Lance Armstrong and a few other big names will be racing and I'm sure Aaron and Eric will have a blast rubbing shoulders with the elite.  SO I asked Mom if she could bring the kids over to watch the finish of MY race on Saturday and then we can stay and let the kids play in the bouncy houses and do any other fun fair activities.  

What a FUN week!! 

Ran 20 while my Mom biked next to me.  She carried the camel back with gu, granola bars, gatorade, ect.  I decided I actually like eating something with a little more sustenence on long runs when I stop to eat anyway.  I had this yummy fruit/nut bar with all sorts of good fat and protein along with the carbs and it stuck with me longer and tasted yummier than just eating a bunch of gu.  I did have one gu too.  And lots of water and gatorade.  

I mostly just listened to Mom chatter and gave my two cents where I could, but really enjoyed having the company.  Mom really enjoyed the long ride too.   We had nice cloud cover and I didn't even bother putting my sunglasses on.  Perfect weather!

7:10 ave. 

Took it easy today.  Just needed to shake out the ol' legs so I can race tomorrow.  Mom rode next to me again and when we got back we realized we had locked oursleves out since we had left out of the garage and not unlocked the front door.  I knocked a couple of times because usually Aaron and/or the kids are awake by 7:30 but the only one who came to the door was my 1 year old, Ali.  She was standing up peering through the glass on the side of door mumbling her baby talk "Yagodubidaboo! Mamabagabaloo!" in an effort to tell me that Dad and the other kids were still asleep.  I remembered that the back door was unlocked so we came in that way.  Apparently Aaron had let Ali out of her crib 45 minutes earlier and fallen back to sleep (in an effort to catch up from his 2 a.m. night the other night).  My three year old was awake too, just getting changed in her room.  These little ones pretty much take care of themselves, ya know.

Ran a small out and back trail race this morning, the Holy Cow 10K in conjuction with the Westminster City Fair. 

Ran from my house, 5 miles to city park to warm up and get a few extra miles.  7:25 ave.

Registered for the race and ate a gu and some water.  Did a couple strides and potty visits. 

Race start was a little disorganized.  The police officer who was leading the race on his bike was still talking to the guys he thought would be the leaders to tell him he was leading the race and ask if we had any questions.  Suddenly some guy over a megaphone says "Ready GO!" And we weren't even in start position rather 5 or 10 feet behind the line chatting and shaking out our legs.  We all went anyway and laughed about it.

Mile 1:  5:52  Pretty flat, no other woman really stayed with me at all, so I knew it would be a race to beat as many guys as I could.

Mile 2:   5:53  A few rollers, but overall pretty flat.  Ran around a few diferent guys as we were trying to get into our own grooves.

Mile 3: 5:51 Felt good, little downhill

Mile 4: 6:02  Took a sip of water at the turn-around.  Gradual uphill after the turn-around. Realized that there were only 4 guys ahead of me and the next woman behind was about a minute back.

Mile 5: 6:10 Headwind and a few rollers.  Caught another guy.

Mile 6: 6:03 Pretty flat, getting pretty tired.

Final .2:  5:50 pace, finished strong.

Garmin said average pace was 5:58 and total elevation change was around 700 up and down, so definitely not a flat course. 

Was pretty happy about the fact that only 3 guys beat me.  Obviously it wasn't a super competitvie race.  2nd place woman was a minute behind.  I got a trophy and a $100 gift certificate at Road Runner Sports!  Yeah!  New shoes!

Took the kids to the fair afterwards and they had a blast in the bouncy house and slide.  Good times!