Monday, April 19, 2010

Another local 5k and some fun riding.

Another fun filled weekend. Friday, Aimee and I had massages scheduled for 5pm though Aimee was rear ended by an older couple from NJ on 495 who proceeded to continue driving and ignoring Aimee who was following/flashing lights/etc... at them for the next few miles. Information written down and police called reporting the hit and run and 5:01 she walks into the massage shop. Ah well, a guess thats a decent way to follow up a minor car accident... Right?

Aimee's stiff neck the next morning kept her home while I went and ran in a local 5k being held down around Greenbelt Lake. Unfortunately I found out the Turkey Trot course was not quite 5k distance, missing maybe one or two tenths, so my sub-twenty minute 5k still eludes me! This race on the other hand was a USATF certified 5k course. I ran in my Montrail Mountain Masochists, since they were pretty much the only option I had around and definitely felt like I was running in some clunkers. Could also feel some lingering hot spots from the BRR race, namely my heal and pinky on my right foot.

Other then that I felt alright; not super speedy or fresh but not necessarily sluggish. I started out around 6th or 7th after one guy went out hard for his spectating daughter and wife to see him lead the way to the lake followed by some other front runners. I managed to keep my cool early there and run a more comfortable pace to the lake where I quickly caught and passed the folks who jumped the start. Worked into 4th which I held up until about a mile to go when I caught a fellow Runner's World Forum guy, Josh who was running in his VFF's! I really only caught him because his legs were starting to wear down, this being his longest VFF run to date.

From there I held on to the finish in 3rd for a 20:15 finishing time. Amazingly, this small race had nice tech shirts for all participants AND top 3 + age group prizes! I won a free personal trainer session for my third though we were all jealous of the overall winner who earned a free pair of shoes for his efforts! Wow! I really hope these guys managed to make a little money of their fundraiser for the Greenbelt Nursery School!

After the race I headed down to Rosaryville for a couple hours of trail work followed by a post work ride with Eric B during which I found myself pretty spent. I barely ate anything during the day so when 7pm rolled around Aimee and I began an emergency dinner prep as I was crashing hard.

Sunday I met Darren, Pooch, Tyler and Jamie for some spirited laps at Fountainhead as preparatory riding for the 12 Hours of Lodi Farms in 2 weeks. First lap I rode 32x18 (mostly because I showed up late) and swapped out to a 32x20 for the second. Thinking I'll probably at least start Lodi with a 32x18 since I felt like I spun out too much at FH on the 20 and climbed everything just fine on the 18. Considering FH has much tougher hills then the Lodi course I should be good to go on the 18, though we'll see if I find myself needing to spin up faster out of the tight turns found throughout Lodi.

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