Kinetic Follow up and Dominion Riverrock

Forty six out of sixty six. That was my age group standings for the Kinetic Half Triathlon. I probably could have gone slightly harder on the run but the person in 45th place was 10 minutes faster than me so it would not have done any good as far as standings go. I am very happy with my performance despite all those folks finishing ahead of me. I feel like I am making progress and learning what I can do with my body.

After the race, it was back to training. Pool workout Monday, hill workout Tuesday, rain out Wednesday, rest Thursday and Friday, and then onto Saturday morning's 50 mile bike ride in 3 hours followed by a 20 minute t-run. Afterwards, I refueled, had a little nap and then went downtown for the Dominion Riverrock 10K Trail Race. I was going to take it easy but found myself at the beginning of my wave when the gun went off so I felt obligated to run off the front.

The scramble is not like most 10Ks. It is my no means flat and includes stairs, the "Mayan Ruins," and lots of trails with roots, rocks, mud, etc. During the first 2 to 3 miles, I rolled my right ankle pretty hard. The guy behind me yelped and said, "ouch!" I just kept running. I knew if I stopped, it would stiffen up and that would be the end of the race. I had to run a little more carefully and could not make the wild leaps down embankments that I had been doing up until that point.

At one point I looked at much watch and I had already gone 4+ miles. Dang, I was almost done. From the beginning of my wave, the two guys that started out with me ran away from me. Besides them, I was passed by only one person. Trail running seems to be my thing. In the end, I ran a 48:49 over a challenging course. I ended up 25th in my age group out of 130 and 156th out of 858 overall. Not too bad especially considering the 50 mile bike ride from earlier in the day.

My ankle is doing pretty well. I manged a Monday ride/t-run and completed Tuesday track practice without too much difficulty. My years of soccer have taught me how to tape up my ankles when necessary. In high school, it seemed like I was taping both ankles nearly every game. After track, I iced and kept my foot elevated but really I had very little pain or swelling.

So now the question is, "What's next?" Besides a sprint triathlon at the end of June, I have not signed up for any more races. I am toying with the Beach to Battleship Full at the end of October and if I do that race, I will likely have to throw in a B Half leading up to the full.  Doing a full ironman distance race is a big commitment and right now, I am not sure if I want to make the leap. There is a sprint triathlon at VA Beach in September that also might be fun. For now, I am going to keep training as if I am doing the B2B and will likely decide next month.

Thanks for reading. Comments appreciated.