Fast and furious

No, not me unfortunately. Well, furious, maybe, but certainly not fast.

The truth was glaringly apparent yesterday, as I did a little workout with my friend Nat. We decided enough of our usual 'pussy-footing around' workouts and went for a little speed work by running pickups last night.

Did a little warm up (also at a pace that was faster than current-usual). Then we did six one-minute pickups with some longer recover pieces in-between.

YIKES.

I could feel every single lb of stored winter (okay, SPRING) weight that I've packed on. Nat really got ahead of me on the pickups, which was fine and depressing at the same time.

Proved to me -- again -- that I have got to get it back together and get in to training. Not having fun, but training. (Not that training isn't fun.... it's just hard.)

This also applies to biking and swimming.

We have a whole, huge Posse of people that are training for some tris this summer. None of us joined a formal training program this year, for one reason or another.

For one, most are waaaaay to expensive. For another, we can't find one that any of us really love any more. Most of us really, really, really miss having a training group. The one that we were all so heavily involved with evolved in to a really not-very-fun place to be, which is just a shame.

I really envy the bloggers that I follow who have great tri or running training groups.

Our group is pretty good about getting together and getting workouts in. Truth be told, though, we are all a little bit on the "let's just take it easy" side.

I need someone like Jillian from Biggest Loser yelling at me to do "MORE! FASTER! STRONGER, HARDER!"and to "PUT THE FORK DOWN for chissake!"

Anyway, I digress:

The Posse got together for a bike ride last Sunday. We were out for about 2 hours. Great company, great back on the bike, great trail. Except for Nat, who got a flat tire.

In any event, fun (but slow) ride.

As far as the furious thing... well, that is a topic for another post.

The Gang's All Here.. (was there...)

Yesterday was one of the best weather day's we've had all spring.

FINALLY warm and sunny. We've had some rain, so plants were green and blooming.

My running pals and I got together early for an easy 5-mile run.

It was the first time, in a long, long time, that we were all togther in one place: Nat, Mary, Marcia, Cheryl, Gary and I trotted along the Downtown Train, over to Cedar Lake, then to Lake of the Isles and back.

It was marvelous.

Far GO!

.

Fargo 1/2 was last Saturday.

I had lots of fear and anxiety about the race.

I've resembled a slug for most of the winter -- swimming a bit here and there; running about once per week; spinning about twice per month.

Not really sure WHY I've been such an unmotivated individual, but that was what it was....

My friends Mary, Nat and Marcia, who were all signed up for the race too, were also less interested in training this time around. (Marcia was the most dedicated of all of us, with Mary close behind....)

But, time moved ever forward, as it is known to do, and POOF, there we were last Friday, in Fargo, North Dakota, picking up race numbers and fearing the worst:

Cold temperatures, wind that would knock you to your knees, cold temps and a weather prediction for rain and snow. In May.

None of us were very excited to run in the rain, wind and cold. We had lots of excuses that we were going to pull out of the bag in the morning to allow ourselves to NOT run.

BUT!

We woke up and the sun was peaking out from the clouds. The winds were minimal at best. Rain? What rain?

It was cloudy, but other than that, a perfect day for a run in North Dakota. The temps were in the high 40s, the pavement dry.

The crowd support fantastic, the bands and music along the course engaging.

We all started together and stuck together for most of the race. We did get a little split up from about mile 7 to 12, but then each of us ran together again.

The last mile, Marcia kicked it in to HIGH gear and took off. She looked very strong and just gave it her all. (Shows you what training does, huh?)

Mary and I crossed the line together and Nat came in just slightly after all of us.

I think we were all really happy to have this one in the bag.

I was most happy that for parts of the race, I felt like a runner again. This was a happy reminder of what I love about participating in races and actually doing the training
So, my alarm is set for 5:15 am so I can get to my Master's swim class at 6:00 am.

My first outdoor tri is 4-weeks away!