Police Half RR

My race report starts on Saturday. I had a long ride to do, couldn't do it outside as it was raining/snowing so I hit up the trainer. It's really hard to change mentally from an outdoor ride to a indoor trainer ride.I did eventually get onto the bike, and broke it up into a 3 hour ride and a 2 hour one after. With a short change my shirt/fill water bottles break. I didn't quite make it 5 hours, my legs got really grumpy at the 4 hour markand soon after I got off the trainer. I just couldn't go any further. The quads were super sore and then it I switched from long ride mode to recovery mode, we still have a half marathon to run this weekend!!! So I marched upstairswith a couple trays of ice, cranked open the cold water into the tub. It took me three attempts to get into the water minus the ice. Good thing Lisa couldn't hear me wimpering like a little girl!! ha ha So after a few attemptslots of groaning, some bad words, and a lot of teeth gritting I got in(that sounds so bad). Hmmm that's not too bad so I grabbed the ice and dumped them both in. Still not too bad, once you're in adding the ice gradually drops the temp so it's not as bad. So I sat there for 15min. Have you guys ever tried this? Hardest thing ever, but most helpful ever!!!! I knew this and figured this was my only chance at some decent running legs for tomorrow.

Sunday I woke up bright and early. For once Lisa actually slept through my alarm, usually she hears it before I do. She was signed up for the 5k so she would not just be spectating, but also running. She did awesome by the way and managed to run 3/4 of it!!! So we got there with plenty of time to spare, I found Curtis, saw a couple of other friends, didn't see Dan(sorry Dan). The start was right in front of the doors this year. Hardly had time to cool offbefore the gun. Away we went, Curtis took off and I lost sight of him till maybe a 1/4 mile in. It took me awhile to get into my pace, I made sure to ease into it. After maybe a mile and a bit I caught Curtis, we said a few words, butsurprisingly not much. Even while running side by side(we've run probably a million miles like this) somtimes there just isn't much to say. Eventually I moved on and set my sights on the people in front of me. I hit 5k in 20:45 and eventually 10k in around 42. Kept checking my pace/hr/effort and I was dead on. The running temp was perfect and only a tiny bit of snow on the course at one spot. I only took in a mouth full of water/gaterade at each station. When I could manage the math I saw 6:45 average which is right where I wanted to be. Just ahead of the 90min pace barrier. I had the Garmin there but don't use the pace feature so I still had to do the math in my head. The pacing I find bounces around too much. I gradually picked up the pace(at least the effort) probably right till the 10k mark, then just held it. At about9 miles we hit the bigger hill by weaselhead park. I timed it perfectly cause I had just caught 3-4 runners, I really needed the mental boost there so I just tucked behind them. So I shifted down the effort slightly, it really helped to tuck inliterally RIGHT on their heels. I found myself crowding them, I guess they felt it too cause they parted and I accellerated through the group over the top of the hill. After a gravel section there is a long slow downhill false flat. I thought for sure one or two of them would get me back but they never did. In fact out of the tons that I passed I don't think one single person passed me during the race. You'd think maybe that I started outtoo far back? But my first mile was well under 7 so it didn't slow me down at all. I felt strong the whole race, not till maybe the last 3-4 km and especially the last 2k where I really wished to just be done already. Thenwe hit the last straight away heading across crowchild and that was probably the hardest spot mentally. I saw the one mile to go sign and looked one last time at the watch, hmmmm 7:35 I think I had to run the last mile providedI don't have a meltdown the sub 90 should be mine!! I eased back on the throttle a touch, but turned on the gas again as I approached the college(finish line). I caught another group of runners and tucked in behind them as we roundedthe corner to enter the school campus, here's where we hit the head wind and I latched onto the group. I tried picking it up here but then I felt the urge to vomit so I just held the pace. I think I ended up beating all of these guysjust cause I started out behind them and the chip virtually placed me ahead of them. :P How's that for cheap eh? Crossed the finish line and in about 30seconds start my coughing ritual. This time it's so bad I started rhetching/dry heaving, all that came up was a mouth full of gaterade I had earlier. But after a few tries it seemed to help ease the coughing. It's like a coughing fit I do, attack of some sort, it's not pretty. Kind of embarrassing. Lisa wouldn'teven come near me, can you blame her? Felt the heavy quads from the ride the day before, but other than that the ice bath really worked!! And this is the first time I've ever broken 90 min on that course(probably done it 6 times)!!! So I was pretty happy, no pictures because my photographer(wife) did the 5k. She was so worried about being last and she wasn't even close to that!! So all in all a good day for the Penner Clan,

DP