Fun Announcement and My First "Podium" Finish!

I am happy to announce (you bloggers get it the most) that I have been selected by Marathon Bar for sponsorship! Thats right I am a sponsored athlete! I was selected because I am active with racing and I can market the bar to other athletes. All I have to do is keep doing what I am doing. The best I can with what Ive got!!! My duties will be to rock Marathon Bar gear at all my races. Mention them in my blog and facebook and provide write ups. I will receive a box soon and I will share what they send me!!

I was scheduled for a softball tournament that got cancelled on Saturday. What to do next? I wonder if there is a 5k or may be there is a 10k? Well my streak of PR's continues. This one though I admit by default since it is the first 10K I have ran without a swim or bike attached. The Run in the Sun 10K is the race I found the day before. Got signed in late and didnt even look at race course at all. AT ALL. Small mistake. LOL. I found out after that this is the longest running 10K in Nevada and supposedly the hardest. Yeah afffter. The first mile is relatively flat and the street we are running on is just going up, up, and up. I was shooting for a negative split and to have the last 2 miles at 5K pace or better. For me that is 8's. Here is how the miles went:

8:38 was shooting for 9:00-9:15

10:12 (up)

10:06 (up and up)

11:06 9 (it was more energy efficient to walk this steep hill)

7:42 (down and down!!)

8:24

7:15 for the 0.2....for a grand total of:

57:52.........VDOT says the best I can do was 50:00. I wanted to get as close as I can to that. They way I started and the way I finished I wonder if I can do that. The hills were ridiculous. Nonetheless, I stuck to my guns and I didnt let my leg fatigue stop me. I finished first in the Clydesdale division. I am not sure if that is podium worthy but I was the fastest out of 4 other guys in my division. If I ran with my age group I would have been 6th out of 10, I think. Not bad considering the hills. Oh and the wife won her category too! We swept the big runners categories! This is the second time she has won the phily division. I am still not sure how I feel about these categories but I figure you better dance with who brought you. Will I ever run as fast as a guy who is 50 pounds lighter than me? Ill keep shooting for that. Here is how my week went:

Monday: Softball, push-ups

Tuesday-Easy 3 mile run, softball

Wednesday: 1000 m swim. 250 meter splits are: 6:25, 6:24, 6:23, 6:33, and total 25:47. I didnt look at the splits until just now and wow consistent. I felt slow. They are slow but how remarkably similar. It was the first swim since Rage. Then why would it be there? Push-ups.

Thursday: 4.2 mile Hill run. This is a run that I repeat often. It is 2 miles up and 2 miles down. My new PR 41:56. I have beat the time the last 3 times I do it by a minute or more. Seems like the speed is coming.

Friday-Push-ups

Saturday-10K

Sunday-Bike/run brick. 12.19 miles at a 16 mph pace (med pace). Transition in 3:56, then a 3 mile run in 29:59. I tried to push the first mile and was there at 8:30ish pace but then couldnt hold it together. I wanted to out too fast and then see if I could hold on with biking legs. I think the more I push that the better my legs transitioning to running will be.

Today (monday)-When I was looking at my schedule this week I thought since I had the day off from work that a long bike ride was in order. But I am pooped. I needed a day off. Then we decided to go fishing in St. George. I am going to be in St. George without my bike? May be I can still ride. We decide to fish at Quail Creek, some 20 miles or so from Sand Hollow. Sand Hollow is where they swim for IM St. George. Hmmmmm....Now I am going to BE on race course. I looked at maps and planned out a bike. I thought I could ride one loop on the 2 loop IMSG. From where we were it would have 60 plus miles. Supposedly EPIC. I would have been the only one riding and I thought it would be too much. Besides I needed a day off and time to spend with family. Lets just say I previewed all those areas. I would definitely consider a race in St George that swim sand hollow. I enjoyed my day without training. Quote:

“Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength.”

Arnold Schwarzenegger

It has been nice to have some success lately. I will keep pounding away and what else I can succeed at.