Kathleen Neitert Race for Hope 7.5 miles

This race is only 20 mins from my house so I always seem to take my time to get there and for some reason it really messes with my normally planned routine. I didn’t pre register this time since I know I have enough time to get there and this being a small race I know it wasn’t going to be an issue, also there was also the not knowing of what was going to happen with Burning River 100 since I was working an aid station.

I got to the race site with 10 mins to spare, register and put my stuff back in my car, the main bathroom was locked but they had a porta potty which I decided not to use since I could smell it without being close to it.

The race started promptly or maybe a few minutes off while they wait for the rest of the restroom people and they change the start location so both the 5k and 7.5 races can finish in the same location. I wish they change the order of the race and have us do the loop around the lake first just to get it over with, it is so hard to run that loop after all the hill rollers and also you are passing people that are already finished and eating apples while you still have over a mile to go.

Once the race start, I caught up with Niall (60 year old male runner) and we ran together for the first 4 miles, the plan for this is to go all out and also not die at mile 3-5 where most of the big rollers are, also inch closer to a 1 hour finish time. This is a really small race so not to many people to run with, I ran with Niall but he eventually pulled back, it was really hot and humid so I did stop at each aid station and got water.

I was able to maintain a good pace but try as I may I could not catch the girl in front of me and with less than a mile to go a bubble twenty something year old bounce by me, I was huffing and puffing she seems fresh and there was no chasing her since I was spent.

All in all not a bad race will probably continue to do it with the hope of breaking 1 hour on this course. Main course really never change, just start and finish location.

Time 1:11:35 (new course PB and I guess a PR since this is the only 7.5 mile race I run)

Overall 24/38

Female 9/15

Age group 2/4

The Good and the Bad

The good thing about biking to work from the transit center is that I get my cross training in regardless of how tired I am the bad thing is regardless of how tired I am I have to ride my bike to/from work from/to the transit center. There are 2 little hills in both direction and with my limited biking skills they are killing me just because I really have no idea what gear to shift to so I basically stay in the same gear from start to finish. Every time I have attempted to shift gear I have dropped my chain.

Feeling much better this week and training is going great, my husband even started strength training so I have been working out with him in the evening, the one thing I need to address is my recovery and overall nutrition just feel like I am not properly fueling my body so need to figure out what to do.

Xterra Mohican 19k Race

Wasn't sure I was going to do this race but in the end very glad I did, very beautiful course even though it is very hilly I had a blast.

Woke up at 5am, got dressed and took care of business, unfortunately my stomach wasn't cooperating I guess it was a bad idea to combine African food and pizza last night, all I could stomach was Pepto bismol so I made my peanut butter sandwich to go and left the house by 5:45am. It took about 1hour 45 mins due to a missed turn but got with plenty of time to get things done, saw only Elizabeth from Indianapolis before the race start then finally saw Lee and Gabe at the start.

The race director talked about the course marking which worked out really well, yellow flag should be on your right if going in the right direction, didn't get lost at all even though this was my first time on this trail.

We were off promptly at 8am, went through the parking lot and some grassy section to get to the woods which was mostly single file so it was important to get ahead. The first hill was incredible, you really couldn't stand straight without fear of falling backwards

and just when you thought you were done climbing there was another hill

and another one

 and another one

We ran by the covered bridge

Went over the love log there was no way I was going under, was too afraid I won't be able to get up.

I didn't really fall during this race which was a surprise but stepped on a branch wrong at mile 3 and did some thing to my left ankle then at mile 6 tripped on a branch was able to catch my self but pulled my right calf I stopped a bit to knee the knot out and decided it was going to be too painful and will take too long to walk so I resume running after walking for about a minute the pain didn't get any worse so I was fine.

This was a very hilly course and my game plan was just to come off the hill running because if I die after every hill I wasn't going to make the time goal of running under 2:30, the plan worked perfectly and that was the only reason why I was able to finish as planned. Weather was perfect for this race, the trail was quite over grown especially the section by the river, talking about the section by the river, the trail was so narrow and technical I was just praying not to fall in.

I passes one guy with less than a quarter mile to go and he wasn't very happy, and I finished ahead of my 3 guys that have been chasing me through out the series.

Next race

Tomorrow is the next race is the xterra series, when I signed up for this series it was with the mind set that I wasn't going to go to this one due to distance and degree of difficulty. Right now I am going to be driving almost 2 hours to run for 2 plus hours on a very nasty hilly course and drive 2 hours back but I really do not have a reason not to do it.

Yesterday, after I posted on my blog it occurred to me that I may be getting sick, since my sister-in-law was sick before we got there I must have picked up what ever she had so pulling out my trusty Emergen C

I went on a regiment of a packet every 2 hours for a total of 3 packets before going to bed, woke up this morning feeling much better and got in a quick 5k skipped the strength workout, since I haven't done any all week just felt it wasn't a good time to start.

Need to get to bed early since I have to be out of the house by 5:30am to get to the location without having to panic or stress, I will properly take my time coming back and also pack the compression sock to speed recovery.

I have been using Gatorade G Series Recover 03 after races and I have to say I am pretty impressive, since all my races are inserted into my training plan bouncing back to continue training has been very important and this since be doing the trick, also using after hard runs. They are on the expensive as much as $2.49 when not found on sale but really well worth it and still cheaper than most speciality coffee.

They now have the G series Fit which I haven't tried yet not sure the different between the 2 actually 3 since there is also a Pro version but Motion Traxx my favorite running companion has a couple of workout mixes for them with some of my favorite fitness instructors check it out here a great way to add more to your routine for cross training.

Getting Back

After spending the long holiday weekend in Chicago with my inlaws and the rest of my husband's clan that came in for my sister-laws 50th birthday as far away as Nigeria, I only ran Saturday (10 miler) but then felt like I was missing too much by going to bed early in order to be able to wake up early to get my run in before the day started, so I ended up not running Sunday and Monday but did a lot of dancing and walking around.
Got back home Monday night and when Tuesday morning rolled around I was extremely fatigue so gave myself another day off but with an 11 miler trail race with ridiculous hill coming up on Saturday, I know I needed to get my mojo back fast, Wednesday I managed 2 miles before calling it a day just wasn't into it, but again I had a vision of the big a$$ hill at Mohican really need my mojo back.
Today with Motion Traxx The Climb level 1 I had a goal of running a 10k regardless how slow I go, run, walk just get it done, well survived, my fatigue is really not in my legs just a total body feeling so not sure what is really going on. Mojo still not back but at least it is attempting to.