Sunday, February 14, 2010

Catching up: Tri U Mah and Valentine's Day 5k

Tri U Mah, held on Sunday, February 7th, was the usual blast of fun that it is. There are usually a number of my friends that also do this event, and although this was true for 2010, we weren't all able to register for the same heat. Marcia, Nat and Cheryl got in a late morning heat and Gary and I got in to a 12:40 pm heat.

This actually worked out perfectly, because Gear West had their Gear West University the same day. This learning event was a w e s o m e.

For a $20.00 registration fee, participants could six lectures of their choosing. (There were 24 lectures in total, four each hour, so participants registered for the sessions they were interested in). They also threw in a group run, lunch and time to meet other multisports nuts.

Nat and I split the registration and the day. I went in the morning -- I attended a "How to Change your Tube" workshop, where I actually changed the tube on a bike. The BACK WHEEL even! This was awesome and the fear of a flat right out of me.

I also attended "Race Preparation", which covered info about things to do during training to get your to race day.

Nat went in the afternoon and got to attend a workshop on bike riding for women; real nutrition, and one other.

Great info; great speakers, great fun.

By the time Gary and I got to the University of Minnesota's Rec Center, our friends were wrapping up their run portion. They all looked very, very strong as they finished up their event.

Gary and I cheered them on a bit and then we went to get ready for our heat.

I covered .879 miles in my 30 minute swim. I was one length off from 2009. I blame the cold that I caught the Thursday before the event.

My bike was very strong, though. I covered 8.23 miles -- my 2009 total had been 6.63 miles. Maybe it was the fact that we got to watch video from Ironman Championships or maybe because I've been spending lots of time on my bike trainer. What ever it was, I cranked out better mileage. Hurrah

My run reached 2.90 for the 30 minutes. This was .20 better than 2009. I was hoping for slightly better, but... all in all, I was very happy.

I ended up covering 12.009 miles versus 10.224 (2009), which put me in 2nd place for my age group. So there are benefits to getting older.

My friends also had good results for the event. It was nice to chalk up the first event for 2010.

Unfortunately for me, I ended up with an infected big toe that reared up its ugly (pus) head on Monday. I had a toenail that split and I cut it off, thinking that I would save myself from snagging the split on my sock or some thing, which would be painful.

What I didn't count on was the nail piercing my skin, allowing bacteria to fester in to the wound, creating pus which was really, REALLY painful.

I went on antibiotics and didn't train much for the rest of this week. My toe is finally better, so I was able to finish out the week following my training plan.

The plan included running the Valentine's Day 5k. Hubby and I ran the 5K together. It was a very beautiful not-too-cold, no wind morning and we finished in fine form.

Hubby is really getting in to running and starting to enjoy it. This is a good thing, has he has registered for Chicago Marathon. (Yikes! -- he is going to ROCK!)

After the 5k, I still had another 50 minutes of running to get in and then today, I rode my bike for 2 hours while watching the Olympics.

You might say that I'm back in the training saddle.

5 comments:

Beth said...

Well, that was all good stuff! I went to the GWU last year and loved it. I would have gone back this year but we were busy. The indoor tri sounds like a lot of fun and you did awesome! Great that you had last year's numbers to compare to. You rocked the bike, the other stuff too, but the bike especially!

Sunshine said...

We ran the Valentine's around Lake Harriet several times.. sorry to miss it this year. What a great way to celebrate with a special person!

Don said...

I guess you ARE back to training! Good for you. Just thinking about that toe makes me cringe. Hope that's over for you.

Steve Stenzel said...

Nice job at the indoor triathlon! That's some great improvement!!

And I've been hearing great things about Gear West U. What a great event!

Badgergirl said...

Nice job on the indoor tri!