Mile time trials May 18, July 13 and Aug 10

 Anchorage Running Club has been offering monthly mile time trials since May. This was a great way to check speed and fitness throughout the season. 

May 18-

I had just flown in from Bethel the night before and this was my first time in spikes since 2020! That said, it was also suddenly HOT like near 70 F hot when just two weeks ago I had woken up to SNOW in the yard! Somehow I had managed to put down my best mile since 2014! My goal was to keep trying to improve. I actually had not raced a mile since the Moscow indoor series in December of 2018!

July 13-

This one was not as good-4 seconds off May but this was also the time that left hammy started giving me crap and I didn't want to exacerbate the situation. I ran evenly, but just a bit slower than in May. Also, I was not surprised that speed was down as I had been upping the volume in July. 

August 10-

Apparently, four days was enough to recover from that double. I failed to mention that after the double i did a "cool down" enough to squeak in a 30k for the day. After that, I began to cut the volume to begin prepping my legs for upcoming stuff. This produced my best mile since my indoor heyday in Moscow in 2013/2014 cutting 4 seconds from the time in May. I had the irritation of little kid interference in the last 200 though that our group did not know was going to suddenly just decide to use the track during our time trial. So annoying.....

Alaska Distance Classic Double Up 6 August

 I was happy to be able to do this one in person again. Last year, I literally missed it by a day because I had to fly back to work. I won the double in 2019. This is the one where you run the 5 then head to the start of the 10 shortly after. Both the 5k and 10k are scored separately then they tally your overall time for the double up. A couple days after the half, that damn left hammy developed a bruise. Oddly enough, I iced the crap out of it after the race and it slowly began to quit bothering me. I actually did a 35k training run the following weekend with no issues other than an ugly backside.  After that, I went dipnetting and camped out for 5 days and caught a lot of reds to fill the freezer. I just did easy 15 k runs those days and that left leg settled down completely. Whew. 

My ugly ass leg and long run that featured fresh bear scat!

I had planned to run the 5 easy because I still had to run the 10. Again, I was treating this as a long interval workout FYI. I started out in 4th and by the 2nd km had eeked up to 2nd. OH crap! I'm going to have to actually bust my butt because now I'm going for top 3! I had put a decent chunk of real estate between the 3rd and 4th place ladies. Well.....with about 800 to go, I knew they were starting to go loke hell behind me so I just kept plugging away damned if I was going to give up my spot. Top 3 go on gun time not chip time and I ended up in a dogfight to the finish. I finished 2nd,(first masters) 3rd was just over a second back 4th was actually7 seconds back on gun time but only a second behind us on chip time. That was just too close!

Now onto the 10-

I thought I was really going to pay for this. I had cut a minute from my 2019 5k and the 5 and 10 are not on fast courses. The 10 is definitely not fast because it's got a few mild rollers and a couple km of trail around the lake. I went out sane and after the 1st km eeked up to 2nd overall again. Knowing the ladies behind could kick, I just opened that gap as widely as I could during the 10. By 4k, I still only had about 20 seconds, but by the time I hit the dirt section by the lake, I was alone and just had to hold my position. The 10 turned out to be easier because I just got away and stayed away. I ended up cutting nearly 3 minutes from my 2019 time as well. 2nd in the 10 2nd in the double first masters and hammy no longer an issue.

                                        ALL THE PROOF YOU NEED I'M NOT A MORNING PERSON!

                                      Awards-overall 2nd in the 5 and 10 top masters 5 and 10(busy day)

Skinny Raven Half 17 July

 WET WET WET

Usually, this one is hot and sunny. Right after the fist week of July, things went from drought to record WET. This one was a soaker. My left hammy had been acting up off and on over the last week too. Ice and rest seemed to have taken care of it. I noticed it was grumpy about a week earlier when I was doing a track workout. My goal was not to further aggravate it here ,but I needed this half as a good barometer run and workout for other upcoming things that were on the table. I was going to have to decide very soon what exactly would be on or off the table the rest of the season and which direction I would take my training. I had officially hit that fork in the road. 

I ran pretty even throughout moving up throughout the way eventually ending up 5th/1st masters.Sure, I could have easily won the 10k after seeing the times, but I needed this tempo race to really see where I was endurance wise. I managed to cut a minute off of last year's time rivaling my 2015 performance here despite that nagging left hammy. In 2015, I had just flown in from Moscow and ran this one still tired from that. 

Masters 10K July6

 This one was another scorcher with temps sunny and low 70s for the evening start. I was hoping to post a decent time, but just wasn't feeling it in the heat. This was actually my first bad time of the season, and sure, I won overall, but my time was over two minutes off from just a few weeks ago. I would just call it a bleh day performance wise. 

Running Free loop-hour xc run 23 June

 This was the run to cap off a very hot and busy June. This used to be the 4 miler which has been a virtual event the last 2 years. It helps the running program at the women's correctional center. Covid restrictions kept us from using the 4 mile course that loops around the prison yard where the inmates used to cheer on the runners as we went by. We could pick from either 20 40 or 60 minutes of seeing how many loops we could rack up. The loops were just under 400m on and open field near UAA by Goose Lake. I opted for the 60 because it was time to start thinking about longer workouts, tempo runs, training as I shift to some longer races later in the season. In the 60 minutes the overall man and woman who went the furthest got a nice gift box from Chugach Chocolates and gift cards from Wild Scoops-YUM

Leonid and I both won the 60 minute finishing just under 9 miles. I've really enjoyed doing this one over the years. I missed in 2019 because it was moved from late July to late June and I was in Moscow  by then.

Mayors 5 Miler 18 June

This event has a marathon , half, and 5 miler. It's one of the biggest running events in the state. I opted for the 5 miler in order to keep my speed sharp and because I was raceing an hour run in just 5 days. Doing the half would be pushing the recovery envelope on being able to fully recover for that. 

Unlike last year, it was warm and sunny for this one and no bears messed with the runners. The 5 miler was an out and back finishing up the hill that we deal with at the Skinny Raven Half in July. I went out pretty easy and just before the 3k had passed all the other women. At the turnaround, I latched on to a group of guys that pulled me down to 3:55 ish per km and I thought...oh dear....I'm going to pay dearly for this on that last 900m climb to the finish. I did not and eeked in under 32 minutes on a course where that final hill can eat up to 30 seconds. It didn't seem to bother me and I managed a win.