Is Winter Over Yet?

Winter has just about come and gone. We have changed the clocks and the first official day of spring is today. I have to admit that this winter has been motivationally challenging. Last year at this time, I had just spent the entire winter training for a 50K trail race. I was up early every day, running long trail runs with friends, doing hill repeats, speed work, easy runs, and tempo efforts. I had lots of early season fitness as I usually do after a winter of consistent training. 

This year has been different for sure. I have been less enthusiastic about braving the cold weather, and doing a lot less running. In fact, I have felt like Homer. However, I have increased the number of strength training sessions I manage to get in, so I am doing a little more strength and core historically speaking. And, I have been riding my bike like crazy. I estimate that in the last month alone, I have biked about 420 miles. But overall, I am doing less these days, taking more rest, and trying to find a balance between couch potato and epic over achiever. Historically I am a "go big, or go home" kind of person in just about everything I do. One of my goals is to figure out a sustainable workout regimen that keeps the fun, offers interesting challenges, but also allows me to have time for other things. Right now, I am suspended somewhere in between lazy and consistent. 

I did start out the year running a bit. Despite not really training much, I did the First Day 5K on January 1st, the Snowy Owl 10 mile trail race the following weekend, and the Frostbite 15K the following weekend. All of that running without the requisite training did cause a few niggles and issues with various body parts including a little bit of a knee problem. So, now I am mostly riding my bike and trying to rehab the knee. I am hoping that I will be well enough to run the Monument Ave 10K coming up in mid April.

My next big event is the Cap2Cap bike ride along the Capital Trail. I signed up for two days. My plan is to ride from my house down to the trail on the first day, May 12th, and then complete the entire trail from Richmond to Jamestown and back. Since I am adding some mileage from my house, I am looking at a 110 mile day on the bike. I anticipate riding mostly alone on that day.

Since I signed up for both days, I will do the same ride on Saturday, May 13th. I am hoping I will be able to meet up with some friends and share some mileage and some laughs. Or maybe we just hammer. 🔨

So, who is up for some riding? 

RiverRock Bust the Banks Half Marathon Trail Run

 

It was a hot and humid day on Sunday in RVA. The annual Riverrock festival was back in downtown Richmond along and through the James River park system and the other open spaces surrounding the River. I have done many of the Riverrock events over the years and always have a great time. This year, I stuck to just one event, the "Bust the Banks" half marathon trail race. 

Of course, simply driving down there and racing does not jive with my preferred activity parameter of "no driving". So instead, I got up at 5 AM and left about 5:53 on my bike with backpack full of all my running gear which included my hydration pack. For this hot day, I had 2 liters of water in my bladder. Thankfully, a friend of mine agreed to let me stop over at his house and store my bike and bike gear. I then did a short run down to the venue.

Here are some details for the first two segments of my day of human powered movement.

Ride to Jon's house
https://strava.app.link/bK83zx7Weqb

Run to venue
https://strava.app.link/tw4fMgdXeqb

I arrived at the venue about 10 minutes before go time. I had a chance to quickly take care of business in the porta john before getting into the starting corral. It was indeed hot so, while I was up front at the start, I planned to take it easy. In addition to the heat, I had not really been training that much and had run one 5 miler in the last couple of weeks. That plus a few bike workouts was the extent of my exercise leading up to the race. 

The trails were fantastic and I had a great time racing! I paced myself well I think and managed to have lots of energy for the final part of the race on the Northbank trails. It was really a glorious day to be out on the trails, sharing my effort with strangers and thanking all the volunteers as I passed by. In the end, I knew I had done fairly well but later when I got home, I discovered I had come in second of 17 in my age group, M50-59. Not too shabby!

Bust the Banks Half Marathon
https://strava.app.link/YNaXXGgXeqb