Running the Streets

     My sinus infection worsened after Cross the Way #3. I may have felt good beforehand, but the infection was definitely not gone. It was a tough few days full of sniffing and coughing. Of course, the weather was warm. I probably shouldn't have ridden all week, but I just couldn't resist. It was just too warm to pass up. I got drizzled on most days, but I got in some slow 2.5 hour rides to at least keep the legs going while not making my sickness worse. My GPS finally croaked this week. I thought my repair had worked, but apparently it was just temporary. I guess the impact with a tree was just too much for it in the end.

     I got to feeling better by the end of the week, just in time for Rudolph's Red Nose Run 5K in Nashville on Friday night. This is always one of the best events we attend all year. There's big crowds, a nice course, and fast runners. With it being on a Friday night, that always means getting there by 6pm is a challenge. It's sort of a race before the race for us. I got off work a little late, which made it even harder for us to make it on time. Traffic was a total nightmare with over 1400 runners trying to get in to park at LP Field. Keith and Misty were there so they were nice enough to grab the race packets for me and Shannon. We had just enough time to pin on numbers and lace up the timing chips before the start. We had a whole minute to warm-up as we ran to the start line from the car.

     The crowd at the start was huge. They tried to get the faster people up front, but it didn't work. It drives me crazy how many walkers and children were on the first few rows. I was shooting for under 23 minutes, but had to start 200 people back. The gun went off and we started to walk through the start chute. It took about 45 seconds to walk up to the actual start line. Even then, it was a few more steps before I actually began to jog. I was so thankful for chip timing so that my race time didn't start until I crossed the line instead of when the gun went off.

     It was a mess the first few hundred meters. People were walking and others were trotting. I weaved my way through groups of 8-10 year olds and past strollers. I am all for having all types of runners at a race, but I think it is disrespectful to fast runners for you to start in front of them when you have no intention of running fast...or even of running at all. Come on man!

     I finally got into the clear about 1/4 mile in. The race usually starts on the west side of LP Field and crosses the Woodland Street Bridge immediately taking you into downtown. After a quick out-and-back through downtown Nashville, we always finished with a lap of LP Field. This year we began on the east side of LP Field, doing half a lap around the field before crossing the bridge into downtown. That meant just a half-lap left after returning back over the bridge at the end. That gave us a flat start and flat finish. I liked how it spread things out before the first hill. I was still in traffic and weaving around, but it wasn't slowing me down too much. Now the concern became not going too hard since I didn't get in a warm-up.

     I paced myself well, picking up my heart rate right to the point of getting chest ache, but not delving too far into chest pain. I found myself just off the back of a big group as we began the first descent down 2nd Ave. I basically fell with my feet underneath me all the way down the hill. I was totally out of control and am still not sure how I managed to move my legs fast enough to keep them under me. I not only caught the group ahead, I went straight through the group and off the front. There was another little pack ahead of me as we turned onto Broadway and started climbing again. I also caught this group, but only passed a few people. The hill killed me and I had to back off my pace. Our group split into pieces as we reached the top, which was the halfway point. I got there in 10:53 and started down the hill again. I saw Shannon running up Broadway as I trotted my way down.

     2nd Ave was now uphill and I suffered like a dog up it. I held my position, but it was tough. I was drooling and had snot hanging out my nose like a savage. The sickness was hurting my breathing a little, but did not make me cough like I had expected. At the top of the hill, I mustered up enough breath to at least blow the snot off my face. I then started gaining on a group ahead of me. I passed 4 people as we descended the Woodland Street Bridge. One passed me back once the road flattened out as we circled LP Field.

     The finish was so close! I dug deep to hold my spot, then opened up my sprint the last 200 meters, gaining a few more spots in the process. My time was under my goal of 23 minutes, as I clocked a 22:01 on the line. That was good enough for 5th in the Male 25-29 class and 51st overall out of 1492 runners. That was a 7:07 average pace per mile. Shannon had a great run. She hasn't run as much this year, but still ran a smooth 33:32 to take 64th out of 162 in the Female 25-29 class. That was just 8 seconds slower than she finished last year with a lot less training this time around. That just shows you how much riding has helped her cardio.

    Afterwards, we grabbed some bagels and bars in between rounds of mini-cramps. I had some spasm, but never fully cramped up. That's the hardest I've run in quite a while, especially with no warm-up. Keith and Misty walked the course since Misty is pregnant. She's due in January so running wasn't happening this year for her. The Nashville Christmas Parade follows the run. We watched the fireworks that kick off the parade, but didn't hang around for the parade itself. Instead, we went to Springfield and had dinner at The Depot, courtesy of Keith and Misty as payment for our house-sitting services. Thanks guys!

Fireworks over Nashville that signal the start of the Christmas Parade

     The day after the run brought some real soreness. Hooray for delayed onset muscle soreness! We had a lazy day. Rain kept me from riding outside. We had two kids from church, Tessa and Shelby, over for making gingerbread houses. Tessa has been sick and started to feel bad again so she had to go home. Shannon and I then finished her house for her. It turned into a gingerbread farm, complete with a pond and animals. It was funny because I didn't want to make anything with the gingerbread, but by the end of the day I was sitting there for 3 hours making a snowman out of vanilla wafers and a duck out of tootsie rolls.

Nilla Wafers for the roof shingles

Gingerbread farm

It was a little kid's dream on our kitchen table

A farm is not complete without a pond and duck

My snowman

    It has rained the  past few days and it has let us discover a secret about our new house. The basement floods. Our landlord mentioned it "gets damp" down there with heavy rain. I wouldn't call an inch of water standing across almost the entire basement floor "damp."I was able to brush out all the water, but not before some of my tools and boxes got soaked. It's raining again as I right this so I'm guessing I'll be brushing out more water again tonight. Yipee.

     I've been working with several soccer players at work. It's a lot of fun to work with athletes, both through their rehab back from an injury and afterwards when they just need training to become a better athlete. I haven't mentioned the glute training in a while, but I'm using it quite a bit at work. I still want to do some more on myself to compare to last year, but only as time permits. I can tell my glutes are way stronger than they were a year ago and I definitely use them more on the bike and also with running. I want to develop more programs in the future that focuses on athletes. I wouldn't mind getting into some coaching. The off-season sure is a good time to get my USAC coaching license...

Soccer training at work. I love getting paid to play soccer!