SHAZZAM! What A Weekend!!!

What an amazing weekend! Not to mention a huge training weekend. Kelsey and I rode for 3 hours on Saturday. On the trainers, unfortunately, but when we met up it was still a bit chilly out. The trainer said 70 km. Not bad. I was doing 10/5’s and felt pretty good for the most part. Towards the end it was getting harder as I was trying to keep my speed up around 28 km/h during the 10 minute sections.

Once in a while I would utter an ‘OUCH!’ and Kelsey would laugh. Gotta love when your buddy laughs at your pain! Just another reason she’s my friend. LOL. It was a ton more fun being on the trainer and having a buddy there. I even let her have music on!! No reason she had to follow my ‘no tv and no music’ rule. Plus, during the breaks we were chit chatting. Although I did notice in the last hour it got quieter; I think we were both getting a bit pooped.

After the trainer session we headed out for a run. What a gorgeous day it turned out to be!! By the time we headed out it was sunny and warm. YAY! We had a great ½ hour run. I enjoyed showing Kelsey a bit of my neighborhood and where I train.

Sunday was time for the Policeman’s Half Marathon. I have to admit, I’ve never done a three hour training ride the day before a friggin half marathon! I wanted to get a ride in though and this race wasn’t a goal race or anything.

I drove to the race this morning with Richelle. We were stoked that it was so nice outside. My plan for today was to run, and that was it. I figured I would just go by feel, if my legs felt good, I’d run as fast as they would take me. An easy plan really.

It’s funny, because for a while I really didn’t feel like doing this race. I even said if the shirts were ugly I wouldn’t do it. (Cause you can’t wear a shirt when you don’t do the race!). Low and behold, the shirts were ugly, but by then I decided I wanted to do this. I almost felt like I had to do this. I’m not sure why.

By the morning of the race I was excited about doing it. It was going to be nice out and it’s a great course really. When we’d got to the race, I met up with a ton of people I knew. It reminded why I love being involved in running and triathlon – what a great community!

At the start of the race I had met up with my good friend Sean, who had gotten me involved in running three years ago. Last year we ran this race together in my attempt to break 2 hours. This year both of us were just running it to run it. So when the ‘gun’ went off, we ran!

I hadn’t seen Sean in a long time, so for the first bit we chatted and got caught up on life, work and his family. Shortly after our friend Jenny caught up with us. It was then the three musketeers. Although we were running together, we still did our own thing.

I felt great during the run. Not to mention totally surprised that my legs felt this good after my bike yesterday. I had picked up my pace at about the 12 km mark and kept going.

We made it down to the Weaslehead, although it was pretty icy down there. The police were there to slow everyone down and I even saw one dude wipe out. Yikes! The tiptoeing around the ice gave me a bit of a break and then I was off again. I had no idea what my pace was at that point. I had seen that I was at the 0:57 minutes at the 10 km mark. I just can’t calculate pace on the run though, so I by the time I hit the 15 km mark and the hill out of Weaslehead I had no idea how I was doing and really, I didn’t care. All I knew is I felt like the wind, so I kept running like that.

They had a group of bagpipers at the top of the hill – it was so awesome! Tickled the Scotswoman in me, that’s for sure.

The last few kilometers of the run were challenging, but I was in a groove. Finally I was at the school, I rounded the corner and saw the Finish Line sign. YAY! I crossed the mat and shut my watch off. That’s when I noticed it….I’d had a personal best run!! Kelsey was there cheering on the finishers so I ran up to her with gave her a hug and was practically yelling ‘I PR’d!!’. I was on cloud nine.

I went into this race with the attitude that I was just going run by feel and have a great time. Not expectations, no worrying about the outcome. Sure enough I had a great surprise at the end of it! Oh and later on I realized I had run my first negative split. It really can’t get better than that…or could it?!

Get this - after the run, Richelle, Lisa, Kelsey, Dr. Phil and I went for a 57 km bike ride!!! Seriously, never in my entire life would I have thought that I could ride 3 hours on one day, run a PR in a half marathon the next day, then friggin ride for 57 km after the half marathon. INSANE!!! We did the Horse Creek loop and it was brilliant. I felt great, but was pretty slow on the uphills. Gee, I wonder why?! I couldn’t keep up with the gang once we hit the hills, but they were sweet and stopped for me at the stop signs. Normally, I’d say keep going, but today I appreciated it. I had tried to keep up for while, just so I could draft! Alas, I’d lose them after a bit.

Seriously, I had a smile from ear to ear the entire ride. Even the mega headwind on the way back didn’t bother me. I was just happy to be out there and riding. In fact, I had the Peanuts theme song going through my head most of the way (cause it’s really hard to do the Snoopy Happy Dance while on the bike).

Man, I’m on a major endorphin high right now. What a great friggin weekend! I got to bike and run the whole time IN THE SUNSHINE, hang out with my buds and see some friends who have been absent from my life and whom I’ve truly missed. Life is damn good!

Peace out my friends.