St Pete Beach Classic 10K

Let me just say that this race is done extremely well. Spoke with Wendy, the race director, and she is a really nice person. Normally, I do a half marathon in January but they were on the same weekend this year and I chose to do the 10K because I love this race. I chose well as we had nice foggy, calm conditions on Saturday morning while Sunday morning (for the half marathon) was cold, windy and plain ick! Most know how much I hate the cold! So I dragged the Dane out with me for the 10K. To back up a bit, the last day in Maui, we ran a five miler and I had some pain in my right lower leg, didn't think much of it. It has continued to bother me so I haven't really run all week. I'm not quite sure what it is but it's becoming quite bothersome and I may have to see someone to get diagnosed. Anyhow, I was already signed up for the 10K so decided to warm up and see how the leg was. Injury pain seems to totally subside with racing, weird. I did run every day in December and felt my run fitness was ok but took it a little too hard in Maui so I didn't know how tired I would be from that. Gun goes off and six women take off and I am stuck in no man's land - I was afraid of going out to hard not having any speed or tempo work of any sort for several months, good decision. Went out in 6:3x and stayed there for a couple miles. I passed the Dane in the second mile, he wasn't having a good day. Nonetheless, the 10K household trophy is mine! I was also doing a lactate threshold test and had to run the second 5K as solid as possible. I really kind of died the last couple miles and barely squeeked under 42 min (although I think official result shows me at 42 even). Anyway, I only ran the second 5K about 17 seconds slower than the first which I thought was pretty good for me at this point. I won Masters and got nice swag for that! I also got my lactate threshold tested and now can plan my run program. I do need to solve this injury and hope I can do that without missing too much. We did sign up for St Croix 70.3 in May instead of doing Florida 70.3 which I have done every year since it started in '04. St Croix is a very tough course and will definitely be a challenge but I'm looking forward to it. All build up this year is for Kona and getting stronger for that. St Croix will give me some good feedback! Cheers.

Fun in Maui

Only two days left in Maui, enough to make you want to throw a tantrum just to stay. We have had an awesome week. It stopped raining which was really huge. It rained every day when we arrived then stopped a few days ago. We went deep water fishing on Monday, a trip which began waking up at 1 am to catch the boat leaving at 3 am. It was well worth it (as was the puking I did from sea sickness). I caught, with the Dane's help, a humongous Bigeye Ahi tuna, had to be over 40 pounds. It was a blast, see pics. We ate sushimi from our catch for dinner last night and it was the best ever. We went surfing yesterday, took lessons again just to refresh ourselves since we haven't surfed since our lesson in Kona. It was fun also but I'm really sore. We going to rent surf boards today and do a half day. Still training, riding and running. Haven't been swimming because the bay we like to swim in is packed with snorkelers. That's alright, I'll catch back up. Hope I don't break my ass today! Cheers.

Epic rides in Maui

Whew, we did an epic ride a couple days ago. The sun was shining and the hills were steep. I'll post some pics but they don't even begin to demonstrate some of the climbs. We rode over the north hills to the other side of the island with some of the most beautiful scenery I've ever seen. Wound our way back thru Wailuku town then to Maalea where the tradewinds are ferocious, to say the least. It was super fun. To show how difficult it was, it took us nearly 5 hours to go 62 miles - crazy. It was scary and fun at the same time. The road got really narrow, the winds were howling and the descents were super scary. Other than that, have been getting some really good runs in too, I love running here! Going to the Mercedes Golf thing today then hopefully to the beach - I'm still just as pale now as when I arrived. The weather hasn't been great but hopefully will improve.
Cheers!