Play Time

Running for me was an evolution, not something that I started all at once. It started with walking on the treadmill which gradually turned into running for a minute or two followed by more walking. That finally evolved into solid running on the treadmill and it took quite a while for that to become running outside. It wasn’t until after my second marathon that I even considered myself a “runner” as opposed to “someone who runs” for exercise.

Triathlons had a different genesis. Mike had done triathlons two summers ago and I thought that the biking and swimming looked like a lot of fun. The bikes were super cool, and while I’m not a fast swimmer, I’ve always been confident in the water and I thought lake swimming would be an adventure. I figured that racing would give me an excuse to add swimming and biking to my life and would encourage me to get out the door. Triathlon training really did start on a specific day the following summer and after my first race I was a “triathlete.” With running I tend to get caught up with goal times and “A” races. With triathlons, the races are just the impetus to make sure I fit in fun time on the bike and in the water.

By the fun standard, this week has been a success. I have my first race in two weeks and I’ve been playing around plenty… er… I mean training hard. My kids are getting big enough that I’ve been able to include them in some of my activities and that makes it extra fun. Last post I talked about taking my son swimming. This last week I was able to take my daughter out for a bike ride. Does it count as a training ride if you eat lunch in the middle? Maybe it doesn’t but it is a lot of fun. We started at the trail head in Wayzata and biked 7 miles to the Minnetonka Drive-in. Here we are waiting for our food:

It was awesome! We sat outside at a picnic table and they brought out delicious cheeseburgers and french fries. So it wasn’t even healthy food. Even better! Katy brought a couple friends along as it’s much cooler for a teen to do something with friends as opposed to just mom. We rode back and got the bikes loaded up just as it started to sprinkle. Perfect timing.

I’ve also been able to run with friends, take a more “serious” 30mile bike ride with a friend and Brady, and do some more swimming at the lake. So before my first race of the season, I’m declaring myself a success at triathlon training. I signed up to race so that I would get out and have fun and that’s exactly what I’ve been doing.

In the running arena, I have a 10K on Sunday. It’s a hilly course and the forecast is for rain and heat. Given a choice, I would take the rain but it sounds like I may get both. I’m hoping that I’ll feel better than I did at the half marathon a month ago because that terrible. If I feel better, then I will say that the two weeks that I cut back were worth it. I ran this race in 2008 and my time was 57:02. There is no way I can come close to that time. That would be be a 9:10 average pace. I haven’t logged a single mile close to that pace in the last 18 months, so a PR is out of the question. I would say that I would be happy with 1:02:00. That would be a 10 minute pace which would be good for me given the hills and that the course is bound to be a little long.

After this race it will be two weeks of solid burgers and fries training for Door County. I’m thinking that when it gets time to train for the New York City Marathon I will have to fit in a run to the drive-in. I guess I will need to arrange a ride home because I don’t think running 7 miles after a greasy burger and fries will be as easy as biking it was.