Thursday, May 22, 2008

Just a Training Run in La Jolla? April 27, 2008

Yes and here we go again for another beautiful run in paradise. Living in the North County San Diego area for 4 years in the 1980's and early 1990's was at that point in my life one of the best decisions I had ever made. But I live in the desert now, 2 hours from La Jolla, California.

Suzanne and I came down early in the afternoon before the race to check in for Sunday's La Jolla 1/2 Marathon starting at the Del Mar Fairgrounds and finishing in La Jolla. This is really a big event brining in nearly 5,000 athletes but the organization is really grass roots without too much stuff going on at the expo the day before. Seeing old friends, eating some great food, watching the blood sugar the day before the race, and trying not to get too excited were the tasks at hand during the check in.

Peter and Nate from Insulindependence.org joined us for some good pasta and drink during the expo dinner. And while we were sitting there having a few good laughs, Suzanne had to point out a most beautiful FJ Cruiser Toyota, one I had not seen before. Little did I know she had determined I was going to be an owner of one of these Trail Teams special edition FJ's in the next couple of weeks. Wow was I stoked about getting one of those bad boys. I haven't had it in the air yet but running the FJ in the dunes where we live in the desert is sure a great time.

Back to the race: I started out with a 120 blood sugar in the morning. Bought a grand slam breakfast at Denny's and started eating it 50 minutes befoe the race. Joined with a 4 unit regular shot and starting the race with a 185 blood sugar was right on the mark.

I ran this race as a training run because the next weekend was Wildflower 1/2 Ironman Triathlon so I had to make this just a paced out tempo run. During the week I kept the hard efforts under control because of the race the previous weekend. This was really a smart move but for me this is usually hard to do. I love to put in hard efforts but on tired legs the efforts don't amount to too much gain. Where's the line on gains and efforts put in to make gains is my forever asked question. How hard, how frequently, how much? What a toil this is in getting faster.

I ran the 13.1 mile race in 1:36 finishing 12th in age group which had 300 runners, 79th overall, 1:31 won the age group, and I was just cruising without too hard of an effort. If I had really pushed it I would have won the age group putting in 30 to 40 seconds per mile faster time. It's fun to be in great shape and not have that diabetes bite you in the legs during hard pacing.

Finishing this hilly course and feeling well was awesome fun. But, later the next weekend there would be some fatique in the legs I had not counted on at Wildflower. Oh well! Life must go on.

Cheers, Mr. Bill