Running Chick

We were constantly on the go this weekend, which didn't leave me with much time for blogging. Once again, it's time to play catch-up.

Saturday was the Copperman Triathlon. James picked me up at 5:30 and dropped me off at the head of the Burma Road so I could start my 8-mile run. My grand plan was to run the Burma-Manganese Road to Copper Harbor (about 4.75 miles) and then pick up the remaining 3-ish miles running around downtown. So, after James went careening, crashing and crunching rally-style down the road to supposedly "..scare off any bears so they won't eat you...", off I went and immediately encountered a fork in the road. This was a tri-directional fork because I had three choices - left, right, or straight. I didn't remember that from any maps so I chose right. BZZZZT wrong choice! Unfortunately, it took me three miles to decide that I was absolutley not on the Burma Road. Then had to double back to get to my starting point. Fortunately my little gps watch has a navigation feature on it which tracked my route into the bush and all I had to do was keep an eye on it to get out. Once I got back on the road, I was at the six mile point and it's almost exactly two miles to downdown Copper Harbor from the Burma Road. So, despite my major navigational snafoo, I was able to complete my 8-miles.

Once I pulled my track off of my gps, I was able to see where I made my mistake. I definitley should have taken the fork to the left.

I've now discovered a neat little feature which allows me to create a route and upload it to my watch. While it doesn't give turn-by-turn directions, it does provide a navigational route line to follow. Too bad I didn't think of this before Saturday. Bah.

I made it to the start of the race with 30 minutes to spare. Josh showed up shortly after that and we cheered James and my high school pal Tina (Hi Tina!) on. Tina ended up winning the women's division (YAY!!) and James was much improved over last year. Here's some photos and videos of the race: 2008 Copperman After a short post-race party at Zik's we headed to the KBC for more celebrating, dinner and shopping for a new swimsuit for Josh.

The Otter River Pneumatic Yachting Club's Fifth Annual Gala and Regatta was on tap for Sunday. Since the afternoon was going to be filled with massive quantities of beer and food, I decided to create a calorie deficit and ride out to James's house. I was able to maintain an average speed of 17 mph to Chassell, which dropped once I started to hit the hills. In all, I was able to cover the 25-ish miles in an hour and fourty-five minutes. I guess that's pretty good - I think it worked out to an overall average speed of around 15 mph. We had a great time tubing. It seemed like the river was faster this year compared to others. We had four newbies on the trip who didn't have proper tubing equipment and their rafts looked like swiss cheese when we were done. I think all the newbies have experiences like that. I certainly did, and the following year I got a proper tube. Live and learn.

That's it!

I have not been feeling very bloggy the past few days so my runs have gone undocumented. Time to fix that.

On Monday, the day after my half-century bike ride, I had a short two-miler scheduled. I was a little wary of this run because of above-mentioned ride and previously mentioned ankle sprain. I am happy to report that neither was a factor. My ankle, although still a bit tender, was fine as long as I ran on a flat or right-sloping surface. Running on a right-sloping surface meant I had to run with traffic, which is a no-no. Oh well, I gotta do what I gotta do.

Yesterday, I had seven miles on my schedule. I'd rate that run as a solid meh. The first four miles were okay, I was maintaining my 10:15 or less pace per minute, but then I quickly started to realize that I did not eat enough carbs before my run to sustain my pace and soon I was feeling very doggy. I did bring some supplements with me, but since I was already running on empty (ha ha, that's so retarded), it only gave me about a 10 minute burst. I struggled through the last few miles. My pace per minute doesn't reflect how crappy I felt, but I really had to dig deep in order to maintain it. I felt really crappy the rest of the night and slept right through my alarm this morning. I still feel like I need another two hours of sleep, which I'm hoping to catch up on tonight.

Since my weekday runs are starting to rival weekend long runs in length, it's time to start experimenting with food during the day. I think I'll head to the Co-op after work to restock on Pemmican bars.

Next up, an eight miler on Saturday. I'll probably run in Copper Harbor while waiting for the Copperman Triathlon to start. James has entered again this year and we're heading up to cheer him on. Since I'm an early bird (...unlike some people I know who are coming up later in the morning so they can sleep in ... ahem), I'll ride up with James at seriously-early-o'clock and get my run in before the event starts at 9:00. I've just got to figure out a decent route. I'm thinking I'll have James drop me off at the Burma Road and run that to Lake Manganese Road then head toward the end of 41. About five miles of that is running through the woods, good thing I picked up some pepper spray to ward off the bears.

And finally, Sunday marks the Otter River Pneumatic Yachting Club's Fifth Annual Gala and Regatta. Beer, burgers, tubing and lighting James's lawn on fire. Summer is officially here!

Miles, that is. That's how far I rode on my bike today.

The first leg of my journey took me to Laurium via M-203 & Calumet Waterworks Road. Aside from the enormous hill on Waterworks Road, the ride to Laurium was pretty easy. I think my odometer was right around 25 miles when I pulled into Josh's driveway.

I hung out at Josh's place for about 45 minutes before heading back home. I was going to take US-41 back, but didn't want to fight with the traffic, so I decided to take M-203. Lucky me, the wind shifted and was directly in my face and blowing hard. To say that my ride back sucked would be an understatement. My legs were on fire from the moment I left Laurium and by the time I arrived at McLain's Park, they were spent. Great, only 15 miles back to my house. I took a 15 minute break at the park and headed back out. More leg misery.

I got back to Houghton with 46 miles on the odometer and was within .5 miles of my house when my inner sadist took over and I decided it would be cool if I hit 50 miles on this ride. So, off I went to add another four miles to my ride. I promised myself that as soon as my odometer hit 50, I was getting off the bike and walking no matter how far I was from my house. I hit 50 about 25 feet from my driveway.

I have no idea how my legs are going to feel tomorrow. It's a good thing my scheduled two-mile run is supposed to be slow and easy because that's probably about all I'll be able to manage.