A new PB!

Sunday January 20^th was the second of the three part race series of 10k indoor races this winter.  The first of the three was done in Sherbrooke in December with the disappointing finish of 1 hour 12 minutes.

Sunday morning I got up at 5:55am and Alana and I made our way up to Ottawa.  I felt more prepared this time and was going into it slightly nervous, but confident that I would pull out a better end result than I was able to in Sherbrooke.  And if lucky, I was hoping to scrape a seconds off of my personal best time of 1:10:52 for a 10k.

The race took place at the Louis-Riel dome in Ottawa on a 400 meter track, which means in order to complete the 10k we were required to do 25 laps.  I felt strong and the results from the increase in my training paid off big time.  Not only did I complete the race, I left there with a new PB (personal best) of 1:06:40 - more than four minutes off my last PB.

Alana completed her 10k with a new PB as well and we left the arena on cloud nine.  Then there was the drive home. ...

This was taken when we could actually see a little bit of what was going on around us.  We survived the entire drive home even though there were moments of intense fear whilst in the middle of complete white out conditions on the highway.

The next and final race of the indoor 10k series is on Sunday January 27th.  I hope to be able to hit the same finish time.  Fingers crossed.

Gasp!!!!!

It is done.  Panic has officially set in. Triathlon registration completed.

Hit the indoor track with Valerie and Alana on Friday as promised and was able to push through 8k (40 laps) in just under 55 minutes.  I felt pretty strong throughout and am feeling a little more comfortable with the idea of doing another 10k in Ottawa on January 20^th.  Of course this is just the beginning of 2013, and I still have lots of training to do in order to hit my goals this year.

• Ottawa Race weekend 10k (May 2013) – complete in under 1h05
• 5k Circuit Endurance (2013) – break through the 30 minute barrier and finish in 29:59 (or faster)
• Be more awesome

Also, in an attempt to do some general health improvements I have started to try and find some delicious vegetarian recipes to add to the repertoire.   Last night I made some Tofu Parmigiana and promised myself that if it was good I would have Valerie and Brendan over for some tofu deliciousness.

 

 

Everyone enjoyed it.  Nathaniel dubbed the dish "Cheese Thing in the Oven part II" and devoured every bite.  Since it was a hit, I guess Valerie and Brendan will be receiving a dinner invitation from me soon.

With all the excitement of Christmas and the holidays my blog entries have left something to be desired. 

First off, let’s go back in time to December 15^th which was the date of the Indoor 10k race in Sherbrooke.  I was really looking forward to the event itself.  It sounded like a lot of fun, I had never run on a track before but was fairly confident that without the outdoor elements to contend with I would be able to easily complete the 10k distance, and perhaps be able to leave with a new personal best time.  Unfortunately that’s not how reality works.  The reality of the matter is that although I had been doing a lot of cross training (biking, swimming and weights) I hadn’t put enough running miles in to my workout schedule.  The lack of preparation combined with a far too aggressive starting pace was my doom.  In retrospect I had a good time, but had you asked at the finish line of the 10k race if I had a good time I would have likely grumbled under my breathe that it was horrible.   My 10k finish time was 1:12:27.88, which isn’t all bad, but I felt like it was a struggle to finish and I know I am capable of doing better. I just know it.

The good news is that I have already committed to two more 10k indoor JogX races in January.   On December 23^rd Valerie and I signed up at an indoor track with Alana and we did a little training.  I completed 8k in around 56 minutes (I forgot to stop my watch) and the plan is to go again this Friday.  Preparation is going to be the key and I definitely want to leave Ottawa 10k feeling good about my performance. I also want to be able to break that damn 30 minute mark for the 5k’s this year. I want to see some serious time improvements in 2013.

Treadmill time tonight, then track time on Friday.