Castlewood Park 10m Trail Race

This past Sat. I did my second trail race ever. My first one was about a couple of years ago when I did one of the X-Terra series, that race was a 5k I think.

The one I did on Sat 2/28 was at Castlewood Park in Ballwin, MO. it was put together by Big River Running Company.
(nice face huh? that's my: "I'm gonna sprint!" face) ===>

The race started at 10am, it was a cold morning (in the low 30s but it definitely felt colder) but I was fine as soon as we started. The course was harder than I thought it would be. Of course running on a trail is completely different than road running... you have to be totally aware about where you step because there are roots and rocks hiding underneath the leafs. This trail is used a lot by mountain bikers and you could tell, there were a lot of MB tracks on the ground, and that was a pin because it was very uneven and easy to twist your ankle, which i did a few times. Each time I did I would drop myself with it and that seemed to work, I never had to stop because it wasn't too bad. Lots of hills, up hills.. down hills.... and at the end.. a nice little river to cross.... it was actually kind of fun to go through it. I didn't care to run the last .3 or so with soaked shoes and socks. If it would have been anything longer than a mile I probably wouldn't have done it.

By mile 4ish I fell.... I missed a root and went down, luckily I fell on a bunch of leafs... I pretty much bounced back up and kept running. It could have been a lot worse because there were parts where we ran on gravel, rocky areas and steep hills. At mile 5 the S. Louis Tri Club (which I belong to) had a water station.... felt nice to have some agua, Gatorade and a GU (I forgot to bring my own gel) and of course seeing some of the tri club peeps, cheering and all.

Finished at 1hr 18min. Not bad for a trail race. When I went to the organizers' website to check official results they had a disclaimer stating: "For safety reasons we made a few changes to the course over the last month. These changes gave us an official race distance of 9.2 miles" Doesn't have any additional info on it....

Now the crazy thing about this whole story is... at the finish line they had NO WATER!!!!....... (crickets)


WTF... what race doesn't have water at the end???? not even a 1 mile race! I mean, we just ran 10 miles - or 9.2 - They only had those 180 energy drinks. I couldn't believe it! Everybody was asking each other, where's the water?? do you know where is the water? water??? nada.... no water! I mean, c'mon! picture this: you go, run a 10 mile trail race, finish and someone hands you a Red Bull.... yeah... pretty wild eh? Disappointing. At least the race t-shirt is cool :)

P

I hate you Old Man Winter!

I am SO done with the winter.... can't ride outdoors, it's hard and COLD (and sometimes dangerous) to run out there and most of all I keep getting sick... dammit!!!

I am fighting this nasty cold right now which has forced me to stop training for 4 days in a row. Plus my family has been pretty sick too. So if one doesn't get it, the other one will and the one who didn't get it initially might get it because the other one has it!! (I just read that again and I was like.. wtf!) Anyway, you get the point.

Thing is too, St. Louis weather can be very unpredictable.. one day is in the 70s and the very next day it'll drop 40 degrees and it's in the 30s! So yeah, no wonder why people get sick. Wherever you go, grocery store, work, any store in general you hear -or see- people coughing the freaking lungs off. Oh, and we're getting some snow tonight... great!

Ok, I guess I bitched enough... but unfortunately I don't have much else to say at this point. At least it's Friday. Tomorrow I'm getting back into the training mood and I'm excited, it's crazy how training becomes part of you eh?. I'm scheduled to do a reverse brick, which I've never done, but I think should be cool. 30min moderate run, immediately followed by 1hr spinning class. Coach wants me to do this in order for me to become a better and stronger biker.... so anything that will improve my weakest leg, I'll try! Sunday I'm doing a recovery run and a swim.

Enjoy your weekend amigos!

PC

Valentine's boy...

...yup, that's me... kinda cheesy I know but I was born on this very day. On the other hand it's sorta cool because people remember :)

It's funny how you have a birthday and the first thing you think it's: "Oh shoot, I'm in a different age group now" In my case, one of (if not THE) hardest: 35 - 39 Oh well, I guess another reason to push myself even more.... right!

This morning I ran a local 5 miler race, the 'Ghisallo Frosty Five Run'. It was cold (low 30s, probably felt like in the 20s) and windy. According to my Garmin I finished at 35min 34sec... 6 seconds slower than last years. I didn't think about checking my previous year's time and try to beat it... typical me... oh well. Not that I have been working on speed at all, been focusing on my IM base-training right now, so I'm still happy with today's race.

After the race my lovely wife, a friend and I went to have breakfast. After that my friend left and wifey and I went to REI to get my b-day present, a bike rack. Ended up getting the THULE 594 Side Arm:



Cool eh?

I also grabbed some bike gloves and tights.

Training is still going great. Coach makes training fun, it's not repetitive or monotonous at all.
Gonna try to get out in the bike tomorrow, it'll be the first time outdoors since September!!!

Hope everyone is having an awesome Valentine's... enjoy!

PC

Base Training

Been working on my base training for about a month and it's been great!

The swims are pretty good and different workouts make them fun; trainer has been good as well... I find riding on the trainer a bit boring sometimes, but I've been doing mix workouts which make it better plus I watch movies while I ride... not sure I could do them with out a TV down there (basement). Running has been great, no complains there... especially since the weather is getting better. Tried my new Motion All-Weather Newtons and freaking love them, they feel awesome!

My great friend and now Coach Sam has agreed to help me with my training, she's basically training me and it's been working excellent! She has kicked my arse a couple of times but at the end of the day I feel good about each training session. She truly is a fantastic Coach, very knowledgeable and FUN. I am curious as to how my tris are going to go this season and of course how I'll do at IM Lou. (Thanks Sammy!! :) )

Racing-wise I'm doing a 5 mile race on Feb. 14 and then on Feb.28 I'm gonna do a 10 mile trail race. Next month I'm racing the St. Patrick's Day 5 mile race on Mar. 14. Some fun races until tri season which I can hardly wait for. My first tri (I think) will be Tri Zou (formerly known as Race for Sight) in Columbia, MO... It's a nice sprint tri (440 yard swim – 14 mile bike – 3 mile run) I did last year and enjoyed it.

Back to the US and back to training

Vacation was AWESOME.... had a fantastic time with the familia and it was nice to be there for Xmas and New Years. It was hard to say good bye and leave them all but it was time.

Back now and started to train right away. It's been good and I feel great!

Started doing runs outside, yesterday it was really nice, in the 50s and sunny but this Sun is going to be in the 20s and I need to a get 60 min run in. Don't like running in the cold too much, even though it could be a lot colder so I might as well take advantage of the double 'still double digit'. Been on the bike/trainer... those can get boring but some people I know are going to do some group trainer work outs, that should be fun. Swimming is fine, no worries there.

Started working on good nutrition as well and I think that is going well.

Need to read the blogs I follow, I feel kinda disconnected with my blogger amigos.
Hope everybody is training hard and eating well.... like me... j/k.

PC

FELIZ AÑO NUEVO from Ecuador!

Which means (for the ones who don't know): Happy New Year!
I am having a fabulous time in my home time Cuenca. :)

Been running a few times and man, it's a lot harder here (at about 9,000 feet sea-level). My nephew became my running partner. We did a litle 4.5 mile race and he kicked my arse....lol
He trains track and field and he has a lot of potential.
We're doing a 10K race tomorrow morning and I bet he'll place in his age group.

I just wanna take this opportunity to wish you all a fantastic 2009 and best luck training and racing!

PC

Quick update

Training has been going real nice. Lifting has been good, spinning always is fun, picked up on running as well and I swam this week... it was the first time I went swimming since September (Cancun 70.3)!! Felt awesome though.

Can't believe I'm leaving to Ecuador a week from tomorrow... I can't hardly wait!

This weekend my wife and I are running a 5K race, it's called "Fun in the Freeway". They closed one of the highways here to fix it and before they re-open it (this Monday) they let them have a 5k race. Should be good times, and according to accuweather.com it'll be in high 40s.

Not a whole lot more to report at the moment.

PC