…but not fast times.

Tuesday night I ran in the Horizon Prairie View Citizen’s/Coach’s race at Addenbrooke Park. Hands down the best cross-country race I’ve ever run in. Super low-key, no timing chips just race numbers with perforated tags. The race featured 5 water jumps — all in the last mile! They were way too wide to jump across and varied in depth so I never had any idea how deep the water was I was launching myself into. I bit it a couple times and clawed my way out of the muddy banks. So much fun! I wore spikes, which was misery for the first mile which had a lot of cement, but definitely helped in that last mile.

As for the race itself, per usual I went out too hard and died a slow and painful death. Unfortunately it takes more than 8 runs in a month to be able to go out in 5:55 and hold that pace. But it really didn’t matter, I was there for the water jumps! I was the second female across the line in a blazing 22:15!! I think that’s my slowest 5k ever, but that’s fine.

It was great to be in the high school XC meet atmosphere. I miss course maps like this:

Notice all the course features!

I wish I had some photos from the race, they would definitely be humorous, but I don’t.

I HIGHLY RECOMMEND this race. Just come out and do it, and know that your $30 entry fee goes straight to the Horizon Prairie View XC team. Oscar Ponce was there (Running with the Buffaloes star), but so were kids’ parents finishing in 45 minutes. A great way to spend a Tuesday evening.

In prep for the XC race next week I decided that yesterday would be a good day to do a little workout.  It was cold, raining, and by the time I got home it was getting dark.  It was perfect.  As luck would have it, I was able to recover my training log from my junior year of college.  I had it on Blogger and now have conveniently imported it into this blog, so if you’re ever so inclined you can read all about my deep, dark, past (like..my summer 2005 swim training - honestly didn’t remember swimming even this much, accounts from my second trip to CO to visit Jordan,  my first multisport race, and much much more!  sadly I wasn’t too into providing any details or anecdotes, so it’s pretty much just my training with little fluff.  the log ends abruptly, because I quite obviously get injured…this happens several times.)

I knew I wanted to do the boil, simmer, boil workout, but I couldn’t remember how it went.  Thankfully, I found it here.  You can’t have a bad day running when you’re boil, simmer, boiling.  It’s impossible.  There’s no distance to worry about.  Just boil for X amount of minutes, simmer for X amount, and boil again.  Boils are at race pace, and simmers are around tempo - not hard, not easy.

Last night I headed to my favorite trail and boiled for 5, simmered for 4, and boiled for 5 again.  After running easy for 4 minutes I did it again.  It’s a little different than the original BSB workout, but variations are definitely allowed.  The workout went very well and I’m surprised with how good running feels.  Next week the “race” is totally just for fun but it’s exciting to be preparing for something different…even if preparing consists all of 8-10 runs haha

As you can probably tell, I’ve been very nostalgic for XC lately, which is funny b/c I was never too fond of it.  I really liked the concept of it, but never ran well during the fall.  It was firmly implanted in my head that I couldn’t run any distance beyond the 800.  Now that I’ve run 2 decent marathons I know that isn’t true, but still fall into that mindset all the time…like every time I have to run a 10k after biking and swimming.  Someday I’ll get back into the whole running thing, but that’s a ways off.  I’m enjoying the little bit I’m able to do now, because come October 1st I’ll be drenched in the most chlorinated water you can imagine for many hours a day.  I’ve got some big plans.  …but for now, I’m going to keep on simmering.

Next time you’re racking your brain for a running workout to change up the routine, try out the boil simmer boil, and the best part: you don’t have to adjust your times for altitude!  Cooking joke! AaaYO!!!!