Since my 10 miler...

This post was written 4/23/11...

Since my little 10 miler, I've run once and it wasn't that pretty. My legs felt like lead until I was about 15 minutes into the run. I was supposed to run a 5K last night, but it rained here and was cold and I wimped out. Instead, I have been spinning three times a week and doing other cross training (i.e. elliptical, a little biking, walking, and badminton). My punishment, I mean alternative, for not running last night was to wake up and go to an 1 1/2 hour spin class this morning. The teacher ended the class a little early so we spun hard for about an hour or so (1:08:14) to be exact. The spin teacher on Sat. morning is different than my normal spin instructor. He (Mr. Sat) teaches in order to make you a good cyclist as in outdoor cycling...there's little music and his pushes range from 10 minutes to 20 minutes. I usually don't take his class, but I have gone the past two Saturdays and, I have to admit, I am enjoying it. This morning we did speedwork first and then did some strength, but more strength combined with speed. I am not a speedy person, but I'm sure it's good for me to spin over 110 rpm.

The internet is good for two things...

signing up for a 10 miler and porn. Yep, that's what the neon-colored sign read that a guy was holding on the side of the road during my 10 mile race today. My thought: "Really, that's all you got? You spend the time to make a sign and that's the best you could do?" Let me back up...the first time I passed the sign I thought it read something else about standing up for 10 miles, but on my second time past the sign, I read it correctly. Anyways, the signs that say "Go Mom!" or "Run, Dad, Run!" are more uplifting than that sign. Or my favorite: "In 1 mile you can QUIT running!" Yep, that's my favorite.

HW, CR and I ran the GW Parkway Classic this morning. I swear, the only reason I do these races these days is to be with those girls. It's my first race of some distance since taking last year off from running. I ran a 5K last summer and a 5 mile race at Thanksgiving, but that was it for running races in 2010. It showed...I didn't train properly (my longest run was 7 miles) and I lost steam about mile 7.5 or so. The first 6 miles we were keeping a steady pace, but I ended up walking about a total of a mile to save my legs, so overall my time was a little under 12:00 minute miles...my slowest 10 miles ever. Overall, though, this was a good race that I had been wanting to do for a long time. It starts on the Mt. Vernon hill and ends in Old Town. It's a lot of downhill and a straight course. Plus, there's some nice scenery along the Potomac River. So, I'm happy with how things went.

Until I take off a little weight or just fall absolutely back in love with running, I may just stick to 10Ks (6.2 miles) from here on out. I am still doing my spinning class despite having lots of travel last fall for my job. I did a metric century bike ride (65 miles) in October so that was my big fitness accomplishment for fall 2010 (not to mention the 40 and 50 mile training rides that went along with it). I am looking forward to getting back on the bike now that good weather is here.

My most proud fitness accomplishment in 2010 was climbing Mt. Fuji in Japan at the end of July. It was one of the most mentally and physically difficult things I have ever done. I had never summited a mountain of that height and I was a bit cocky thinking it would be easy since it's only around 12,500 ft. Boy, was I wrong. I was ill-prepared for the amount of time it would take in order to ward off the altitude sickness and how regularly I needed to eat to sustain my energy. I doubted myself several times along the way and I didn't think I was going to reach the top, but I didn't want to go back down either. Even our Japanese friends with us didn't think I was going to make it...but I did. My first summit!

So, after an interesting 2010 and my first race in 2011, I'm sitting here resting my legs and thinking about what's next...