Week of October 17-2010

The legs seemed to be coming around this week. I got a little more bike time in this week. Early mornings are a product of my youth. All the years and years of early saturday mornings to car pool to Toronto to hit the ice for practice, or the summer soccer travel teams has my clock static. The trend of early am efforts is not a trend but for me part of my day.

The highlight of my week (besides finding some new sweet trails at the Winnie Castle with a friend) is running the Kelly mann Memorial 5K in Nashua NH to help fund Bridges center for domestic violence. The story of Kelly is horrific. The community drive to raise awareness is evident.

Ker' and the girls again offered to watch yet another 5k on Saturday. This would make # 5 in 6 weeks back running. After a 4+ year hiatus from running I had now raced five 5k's in 6 weeks. Let alone the legs are not even under me yet, the muscles still are soft, it feels good to run.

The 5K was a local race in Nashua, NH. After registering I found a nice place to warm up around the middle school in the trails. I was cold. 40 degrees was the start temp. It was my first race in long sleeves and a solid warm up outfit of many layers. I found some familiar faces at this race. Ken Kalil was a friend I raced with on Whirlaway. He was warming up banging out striders. A few other young HS kids looked pretty fit.

Grabbing Kenny at the line I asked what he wanted to run. Zonkers, he had not been running and said he just wanted to break 20. I had been running in the low to mid 18's so figured I should pace with Kenny and see how it would turn out.

After a few announcements and the opportunity to hear about Kelly Mann we were off. It didn't take a /4 mile to realize it was me and a high school kid and a 1/4 mile gap t Kenny's group. The lead out was a mountain biker. At the 3/4 mile I put in a few surges and began to pull away.

1 mile marker was not legit. Had me at 6:30 and aprox 11 seconds on the young buck on my heels. Mile 2 had me at 11;58. Mile 2-3 was a blur. It was cold, I am not in running shape and was feeling so slow. There were gradual climbs from 2-3. At mile 3 it was an uphill gradual finish. I was slow....but somehow I was alone to win the race.

I crossed in 18:52 by my watch or 18:56 by the timer. My first 5k in win in 5 years and it was cold, I was slow. After a few minutes to cool down I managed to grab some post race food with the kids. No payouts, no money, but a trophy, medal and a great cause.

Monday - Run 6.73 miles trail run in 1:03 with Zen

Tuesday - Bike 30 miles easy AR

Wednesday - Ride 23 miles

Thursday - Run 5 miles Winie Kinnie Castle

Friday - Mountain BIke 11.5 miles Winnie Castle

Saturday - Race 5K Kelly Mann Memorial 5K 18:52 (polar)

1st Place overall & 1st place M 30-39

40 degree at start - cold run - felt slow

Mileage - 8 total

Ride - 3 miles CX with Ella - worked on drills for Ella

Sunday - Run 12 miles (time - 90 minutes) - @7:30 pace

Londonderry Trails run - felt very good

Total Run - 32 miles

Bike Time - 70 miles