Race Week

So it's always a taper week before a race. And that's what I've been doing. This has been a different/crazy week for me as well.

This week started off with Tuesday. Tuesday, Steph and I got home around 11:30 from her book club meeting, and I had planned to shave my legs. Yes, shave my legs. There are a few reasons for this: 1. They look HOT! 2. Swimming will be a breeze. 3. When/If I crash on the bike, they need to shave the area anyway, and the hairlessness will help cut down possible infection as well. I will tell you though, without any hair, they sure do look good. Here are my pictures from the event.

Before the shaving:


This next one is during. After getting the majority of the hair with my buzzer, I took my razor, and got the rest. You can't see much in this picture, but there is alot of stubble. Shown here:


Now, the great part. The finish:


Yes, it's a little red, but what do you expect for the first time. It also took me about 45 minutes. yeah, you read that right. But now, it's a piece of cake. The next time, it only took about 10. Nice!

My boss is also a "leg shaver", and he scheduled a lunch on Thursday to get people from work together to show off my legs. He called it "David's coming out party." Needless to say, i wasn't excited about the name. And, just as I thought, people were disappointed, as they thought it would be something more. Although, they did seem to like the legs!

Stephanie and I are in Atlanta this weekend. We flew out on Friday morning, and will be leaving Sunday night. I am running the ING Georgia Half Marathon on Sunday with my father-in-law and a bunch of Coke employees. Although, I think they will be running behind me! :-)

Today we went and visited Atlanta. We got to see his office, and some of Atlanta. We went to an incredible fast food restaurant. It was called Varsity, and they had incredible Chili Cheese Dogs. After that, we went to what is called the World of Coke. It was filled with old and new signs and advertisements, and even how Coke came to be. I enjoyed it very much. They also had a room where you could taste different sodas, Coke branded obviously, from around the world. I got to drink Mellow Yellow again, which was great. They had some very strange drinks though as well.

Overall, it was a great day, and it's off to bed for me to rest up for the race.

Another week down

So it's been a week since my last post, and to be honest, not much has happened. I've just been running. It is taper week, as the ING Georgia Half Marathon is Sunday. I can't wait. This is one of my key races this year. My goal being 1:45, which should be manageable with my current fitness level. I am very excited for this race, and will be my first time in Atlanta as well.

My next goal race this year is the Happy Valley Fun Run. It is a small 10K race, that I plan on finishing quite fast. My goal for this race will be 42:00, and I plan on finishing in the top 5 overall.

In other news, I have officially registered for the 2009 Chicago Marathon. This will be my end of the year goal, as it is October 11th. Great excuse to stay in shape, and I get to see the family as well.

In other news, I have made the decision to shave my legs. This decision came based on two things: 1. My legs will look better and 2. If/when I crash on the bike, this will decrease infection, and they shave the area anyway. There is also the myth that "it makes you more aerodynamic", but that is not one of my reasons, and I'm not sure I believe that.

That's it for this week. Not much happening, but enough to report on. Have a great week, and I'll be reporting on my race this weekend.

The race was a success

So rather than catching everyone up with what has been happening, i've decided to just start at yesterday's race. To make it easy, the last week i've been running :-). Also, one quick note, I went on my first bike ride of the year on Friday afternoon. I got the bike shorts out, and the Lance Armstrong USPS jersey (left) for my ride. I grabbed a water bottle, filled it up, grabbed the bike shoes, and helmet, and off I went. Took me a minute to get used to the clips again, and the shifting. After that, I felt slow and fat. It has been a while since i've been on the bike, and hills that I remember being easier, were not any easier, but much harder. I'll be looking forward to getting my bike health back come spring.

Before the race, i helped film a commercial for a local running store. It is the same store that I do the GFLF activities with. We were asked if we wanted to volunteer and help out, so I thought what the heck. So we did some filming before the race, at the start line. The idea of the commercial was a group of us wearing our gear, and out from the back of a pack, a naked (he wasn't naked, but wearing skin colored shorts) guy came walking up. I started stretching and whatever, and we were to react to him. Needless to say, I almost died laughing. He was not wearing shoes, socks, shirt, pants, or a hat. Nothing! It was raining and cold, and I just couldn't help but laugh histarically. Then they would have a slogan pop up saying, don't be left in the cold or be prepared, come to Fit Right NW for your running apparel.... blah blah blah. Not sure what they decided, but I'm stoked to see how it's going to look. I'm going to ask when it's going to be aired, and i'll to record it and throw it on Youtube for everyone to see my pretty mug on TV.



So, race report. Yesterday was the 31st Annual Portland Shamrock Run, and it was a wet and cold one. It was in the low-mid 40's and raining. To say the least, not the best weather. And to top it off, the wind was not helping. It seemed that no matter what way we were running, we managed to get a head wind. The course starts on the waterfront, and goes up towards terwilliger. It is a short climb and it's about 2 miles to the terwilliger hill. Once you hit terwilliger, that's the main hill of the race. And it's rough. It's steep and lasts forever, or so it seems. It's probably about 1.5-2 miles to the top, of nothing but climbing. But once you hit the top, it's all downhill for another 1.5-2 miles. Then it's flat, with a slight decline all the way to the finish.

I ran this race with a friend from work, Tim VanWinkle. He is probably a half-step below me as far as running fitness, but I think I showed him his full potential. I set a goal of 1:16:00 for this race, and told Tim that. I knew we had to push the hill, so that's what I did. Although, I had to keep looking back to make sure Tim was there. I would look back, and it seemed that each time I did, he got further and further away. We met at the top, where I walked an aid station to get some water, and he looked tired. I asked him if he was ok, and he said "it's downhill now!" And boy was it. We cranked the downhill, no more than a 7:15 pace. And the uphill, I don't think we once went over 9 min/mile. Once we got to the last 2 miles of the race, we still had 17 minutes to beat my goal. I told Tim that all we had to do was avg less than an 8:30 pace to beat my goal, and he pushed it. He romped the flat all the way to the finish, pulling me with him. To be honest, I probably would have let up near the end, but Tim hit it hard. Good thing too, because we came in at 1:15:44, beating my goal! And at the finish line waiting was Stephanie, Angie (my mother-in-law) and Tim (my brother-in-law.) It is always great to give them a high five as I'm crossing the finish line. Thanks again guys!

Overall, it was a great race, but the weather could have been better. I definitely know now that I'm ready for my half-marathon in 2 weeks, and that I can hit my goal of 1:45:00 for the half.

It's been a while, and plenty to report on.....

Well, it's been well over a week since my last post. I got back from Chicago, and sorry to say, I didn't get a minute of running in while there. It was a bummer, but the time was well spent with my family. Overall a good trip, except for the weather. Max temp was around 24 degrees, and it snowed.

I got home Monday night, and was completely exhausted, considering no run on Tuesday. Wednesday was the normal GFLF track workout, and it felt great to get some miles in. We did 6x600m repeats at comfortably hard pace (6-7 on a scale to 10, shouldn't be able to have a conversation at this pace), followed by 200m easy jog after each set. After all 6 sets, we did 6x100m sprints/fast (8-9, not all out, but close). Each was followed by a 100m walk. I felt good after the workout, so went and ran a few more laps around the track to get some more distance in. Thursday and friday were both off/lazy days. Saturday again was my GFLF long run day. I put in 12 miles on Leif Erickson trail. For anyone who has not run on that trail, it's pretty up and down the entire time, not much flat. The good news is though that my knee is feeling fantastic. I've been stretching it like crazy, and that seems to be working. I've realized now that this injury was my wake up call to make sure that I make time to stretch after my run.

Sunday was a busy day around the house, getting stuff cleaned up and bringing stuff over to goodwill. Steph and I were both exhausted, so no workout for me.

Monday is my normal off day, and my in-laws are in town, so I spent the night with them. Tuesday, my father-in-law and I went for a morning run. We took his dog, miranda, out with us. She seemed to keep up and enjoy it when there was a car to chase. She did very well though, and made it all 4 miles. I took my father-in-law out on my hill route, that starts with a very agressive up hill, and eventually turns into a less aggressive downhill. I love the route, because it really forces you to get up the hills to get in your miles because the hills are so long.

This morning was another run with my father-in-law and his dog. We took my normal 4 mile route, up and down sunnyside, which a little rolling, but has enough flats to keep it consistent. I did that route alot when training for my 10k's, because of the hills.

Sorry I've been so lazy, but will continue to report my progress. Race schedule is starting to fill up as well. I have the shamrock run in 1.5 weeks, followed by the ING Atlanta Half Marathon 2 weeks later. Then the following weekend, I will be pacing the 8:30 group at the Race for the Roses. I'll keep you posted on any more races, but so far, that is what i've got.