Thanksgiving Bullet Points

Bullet Points!

~Happy Thanksgiving! So this was the first year I can remember that I did not eat turkey. I've been doing some information gathering on factory farming and how 99% our meat is produced and it's unsettling to say the least. I buried my head in the sand for quite a long time on this issue but having been exposed to it recently, I am no longer able to ignore it. Maybe I'll write more about this in a future blog but for now I'll just say that it is indeed a possibility to have a nice Thanksgiving without eating turkey. :)

~In my opinion, Turkey Trots are one of the best parts about the holiday! We have one here that is 10 miles. You show up, donate $5, write your estimated time on a popsicle stick that you carry with you while you run, then turn it in at the finish line. If you're within 20" of your estimated time then you might win a prize. It's super fun b/c you can run whatever effort you want- it's not about being fast as much as it is about knowing yourself... No watches/GPS/electronics on the run... Every year someone guesses pretty much exactly to the second which is a combination of luck and smarts of course. I was the closest I've ever been to guessing correctly at 27" off. I was probably dead on at ~mile 8 but then I saw a friend of mine up ahead... we were together at the start then he ran ahead... then I caught him around mile 6 or so then he busted his ass up Diamond Head toward the end and passed me back... I've been pretty much walking every hill in training (hello MAF training) so no surprise I couldn't go with him on the hill... but then on the downhill he was coming back to me and I sensed I might catch him again, which I did, in the finish chute! So fun. BUT then I was 27" faster than I'd guessed I'd be so I'm thinking had I not been so competitive I might have actually been spot on. Live and learn! In the end, I think the prize was a turkey and if you read my first bullet point then you'd see I didn't want a turkey anyway. But bragging rights are always awesome. Lol.

~A couple of my local athletes ran a Turkey Chase 5K... small neighborhood Navy event (they are both Navy) and one of them dressed up as a turkey and got a head start and then tried to not get caught. So this year Gene was the turkey and apparently when he found out Patrick was racing as well Gene insisted on a  2' head start vs the customary 1' (Patrick is fast!). Interestingly, Gene set a 5K PR while wearing a turkey costume- and didn't get caught! I cannot believe no pictures have surfaced of this- I would love to see those- but Patrick was out there running ~5:35 pace after Ironman training all summer (read: NOT speed work) then a 2 week break. Impressive, no?

~So I'm planning on running the Honolulu Marathon in 2 weeks. Based on my pace and perceived effort at the Turkey Trot, I'm going to go out on a limb and say my marathon is not going to be very fast! Breaking News: 5 weeks is not enough time to adequately train for a marathon! It's been ~3 weeks that I've been back running so far (so I have 2 weeks left but not really b/c I'm not going to run much that week prior so really I have 1 week left to 'train'), and while it's going as well as it could be going, when you're essentially starting from scratch fitness, well, 5 weeks is just not enough time to get into real marathon shape. Essentially all I've been able to do is the base work that focuses solely on aerobic fitness... In my world this must come first! I'm taking the big picture into account here and with Cabo as my main goal (in 16 weeks! Holy Crap.) I'm not ready to really do muscular endurance stuff yet and obviously don't have time to bring that in prior to Honolulu... so that's fine. I did a 20 miler last week and while it was slow, I finished it just fine and wasn't super tired at the end... so I'm confident I can finish anyway- likely without hurting myself too much. Since I'm not in PR shape, I don't think I'll do anything other than jog it for fun. Are marathons ever fun? I'm going to try to make this one fun! More on my methods of making that happen later. :)

~So with that thinking on the marathon, I've started to bring more biking back into the picture. It's funny- when I'm not riding a lot I don't ever really feel great on my bike, so consequently I don't really love biking (same could be said for swimming and running). But this week I rode 4x for a total of like 180 miles so that was a decent week and the love is starting to come back. I was more motivated today than I've been in a while and consequently had my longest training day since Canada (75 mi w/5 run). And I didn't feel like death at the end! Yay for small victories! I was thinking today that for the first time in a while, I can envision actually being FIT and strong again. Little by little it is coming back so I just keep chipping away and seeing/feeling the progress is motivating. I feel like I'm on the right path anyway. And I genuinely like Ironman training. Today was the first day that felt like Ironman training to me. :)

~In other good news, Kelly got that spot to Kona last week in AZ! Super stoked for her! And check out this picture of Keith at the finish last week. Has there ever been a better Ironman finish photo?? Apparently this is what an 80' PR feels like. :)