So, just before I woke up this morning, I was having a dream that we had a grizzly bear roaming around our yard. This is odd for two reasons: first, because we live in suburbia (rural suburbia, but suburbia nonetheless) and second, because we live in Florida and that's about as far as you can get from grizzly territory and still be in the U.S. I figure it's because we watched a show called Rogue Nature on The Discovery Channel the other night that happened to be about bears and that inspired the subject matter. It was a fairly strange dream and really vivid; when I got out of bed and went for my run, I was still halfway convinced that I was going to be bum-rushed by Shardik coming out of the trees on the side of the road or something.
The run this morning was ok, not bad, but not great. The weather was just ok, I had to cut the run short because I overslept a little and I just wasn't "feeling it" this morning. But, I got out and did it and that's what counts I suppose. We're just about getting to the time of year where it's warm and muggy out before sunup and I'm not looking forward to it too much. This is where the whole consistency thing comes in... if I can make sure that I'm training regularly and not missing any workouts, it'll be a habit by then and much easier to get up and go in the mornings. So far, so good.
The results from the Bolt Run haven't been posted yet. I'm not sure who to be mad at; CoolRunning or the race director. She emailed all the participants a few days ago and said that the results would be posted by Wednesday, but they're still not there. I'm not sure who is dragging their feet. Probably the website, I haven't been too impressed with their web dept there. The content is great, but updates don't appear to be regular and they have some broken links. Oh well, no use getting stressed over it, it's not like I was in any danger of placing or anything.
Well, I'm taking a day off today. My knee was sore before I even started stretching today, so I decided to take some Aleve, put a bag of frozen peas and carrots on it and take it easy. I think that I need to mix in some type of strength training, but it's difficult when you don't have any equipment. Dick's sporting goods just opened near us, so we stopped in to check it out the other night; I was looking at a set of those adjustable weight dumbbells and they were $350! Oh well, we've got no place to store them anyway.
I think that our next house is definitely going to have some space set aside that we can use as a "fitness center". It would be nice to be able to get a good workout and not have to leave the house or pay over-priced gym fees. The next best thing would be a gym at work, but that's not going to happen in our current facility. I doubt they'll put one in at our new facility either; even though it's the item most often inquired about/suggested. For some reason, leadership seems very reluctant to provide something like that. At the very least, I'm hoping for shower facilities. Then, I can maybe work in a run at lunch and perhaps also do some bike commuting.
From Google.com:
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This is too good to be true! It's too bad that we won't be able to take advantage of it due to the logistics of our home construction, but maybe the competition will bring our ISP prices down.
Today was a beautiful day for a race; mostly sunny, around 65° at the 8am start and low humidity. What a difference between a huge race like Gasparilla and a small race like this one. It seemed a little disorganized, but the start went off without a hitch. It wasn't chip timed, but the field for the 5k was so small that I crossed the start line within 5 seconds of the start.
The race begins right in front of the Ice Palace (I'm old school, I still can't bring myself to call it The St. Pete Times Forum), loops around the building under the plaza, hangs a left on Channelside Dr and heads out to Bayshore Blvd. You head out on Bayshore and the turn around point is a couple of kilometers along. Bayshore Blvd is always a great place for a run; you've got cool looking mansions on one side and a great view of Tampa Bay and downtown Tampa on the other.
I was able to accomplish my goal of sub 30 minutes. I finished in 28:37, almost 5 minutes faster than my last 5k time. I started out a bit fast I think, but settled into a good race pace in the first mile or so. It was a little difficult to figure out my pacing because I didn't know the course before hand and the splits weren't really marked. They did have volunteers calling out times as we ran past, but the guy at the 2 mile point was the only one that said what distance had been covered. Up to that point, I had no idea how I was doing in relation to my goal. I passed him at 18:16 or so and knew at that point, barring any injury, that I'd be able to meet my goal. It was also a bit of a psychological boost to know that I was 2/3 done with the race. I felt pretty good in the last 1.1 mile and it certainly helped that the last half block to the chute was a downhill slope.
All in all, it was a fun race and a different experience than a larger one. I'm very happy with my time and improvement; I can't wait for my next race. I just have to decide what distance I want to do and in which race to do it.
Well, tomorrow is race day. The 5k is at 8:30, so I'll need to get an early start. Even earlier than I planned, because I never received my race packet in the mail and I'll need to go to the registration table before the race to get my stuff. That's a little irritating, but what are ya gonna do, eh? I'm hoping to finish in under 30 minutes. I think that's definitely doable.
Africam.com | Popup Player
Got this link from a forum on Bicycling.com. Looks pretty cool, but it's night, so there's been no action so far.
Had a nice run this morning. My next 5k is coming up on Saturday so I'm taking it easy this week. Keeping the mileage down and taking them nice and easy. Other than that, it was completely uneventful. Getting my running more consistent is helping my back. It feels soooo much better than it has the last few weeks. I'm sure that it's the activity combined with all of the stretching.
Not much to this post, but it's more to get me updating consistently than anything else.
Getting ready for: 6th annual Bolt Run 5k in Downtown Tampa, 31 March 07
