Meltdown

Happy Valentine's Day. If you are fortunate enough to have a Valentine in your life, tell him/her how much they mean to you. Give 'em a hug. :-)

My 8-day old fresh flowers from Trader Joe's are still looking great. What a bargain. I just love flowers.

There was a meltdown yesterday. Big time. And that resulted in extremely slippery running conditions this morning. Probably the worst running that I'd experienced this winter. The problem with the refreeze is that it's pretty thin and in some cases hard to detect until it's too late. I was SO close to going down on the bottom of Folwell Drive. Somehow I regained my balance and continued. It took about 40 minutes instead of the usual 20 to get to the Y. Then I lifted and swam for an hour before running home.

Evening workout: I was thinking about going to the TriRochester bike workout at Rochester Cycling and Fitness but decided against it. But I did print it off and ride it at home. I LOVED it! The hour went extremely fast and I liked mixing it up and really pushing it. Here's a sample:

08:00 – 14:00 (Big – 23) 4X1 Min Hard, 30 secs easy. 1st Minute, Big 23 - 100 cadence, 2nd minute Big 19 - 95 cadence, 3rd Minute Big 17 – 95 cadence, 4th minute Big 15 Standing.
14:00-18:00 (Big - 17) Steady building to 85% effort.
18:00 – 20:00 – (Small – 15) Easy
20:00 – 34:00 – (Big – 23) 2 X 6 Mins 2 mins rest between – 1st 2 Mins – 100 cadence or higher, 2nd
2 mins shift down 4-5 gears and drop to 70-80 cadence, 3rd 2 mins same as first. Build to 85-90% effort in the set.
34:00 – 37:00 – (Small – 15) Easy
37:00 – 48:00 - (Big - 19) 4x2min 1 min rest.

I'm going to start doing to start doing these every week, either at home or at the store.  Tomorrow I think I'll go to the track. Probably in the AM when it's quiet.

A couple of notes from Lace-Up:

• Congratulations to Millie Suk who ran a 4-minute half marathon P.R.!!
• I ran the 5K. Time was 23:33 :-( But the course was long. I had 3.22 miles, Steve Roelofs had 3.21 and Tom Woo had 3.25. We'll call it 3.23. Given that, my pace was 7:16.2/mile and 5K time would have been 22:54. Better, but not great. I have a LOT of work to do. Stats: 2nd female finished, first in the old lady age group (F50-59).
• Here's the link to a story that KTTC did on Lace-Up.
• One of my plates of cookies (banana walnut chocolate chip) didn't have any bids on it. So I bid the minimum amount ($4) and ended up buying them. So, I donated them, bought them back and then gave them to the River Runners from their trip home. What I really wanted was the cute heart plate Kristin bought. :-)

• Dan Strain's little boy, William, won a $50 gift card from Running Room for being a volunteer at Lace-Up. Maybe he'll let dad spend it. :-)
• I must have been tired when I got home Sunday. I tried to open the garage door with my phone.
• Kristin bought my blueberry pie. She said that it was a big hit at home and that's the first time she can remember him having dessert two days in a row. Made me happy.
• I bought my friend Mary's cherry pie. I've had many of them through the years and I was DETERMINED to get it. I did.

• My friend Willie from the Y requested a dozen cookies in exchange for a donation to Lace-Up. He was VERY generous. Thank you, Willie.

I promise I'll do a more comprehensive Lace-Up post tomorrow. Really. I will. It's almost 11:00 now and I really must get to bed.

So ... sweet slumber.