Shuffle

Shuffling along.  March has been a rough month training wise.  The weather has been great, but schedules have changed, both family and work, and it's just been harder to get things done consistently. 
Saturday was Shamrock Shuffle.  10k with 1,100 of my bestest buds all decked out in green.  Nice day for a race, if you are use to running under full sunshine and in temps of the upper 70's.  I'm not, it's March, in Wisconsin, shouldn't be this warm.

I do have pictures from this run, I'll upload them later, but I have to write this now, while I still have the motivation to do so.

Plan for the race was simple. Easy on the way out, hit the turn around at 25:00 (~8 min/miles), then push on the way back.  After running Bock Run two weeks ago at 7:37/mile I figured this was a pretty conservative plan.

The issues with my plan showed early.  Holding 8:00 miles wasn't happening easily.  The first mile was congested, but after that I just didn't have much go in the legs.  Throw the heat factor in there (I don't run well in heat) and it was rough.  I hit the turn around at 25:49, I'm sure it was past the half way point, but I don't know just how far. 

My plan to put the pedal to the floor on te way back ended up closer to a "hold on for dear life" struggle.  Around the 3.5 mile mark I took my shirt off.  My apologies to any and all that may have been blinded by the glare off my March belly.  But it was warm enough to warrant it, I have not sweat that much in a long long time.

The remaining miles are sort of a blur.  Attempted to keep pace with a tie-dye shirt for the last two plus.  Kept her in my site for the most part, but couldn't exactly keep up.

Crossed the line at 49:38.  8:00/mile pace.  Happy with it.  3:41 faster than my last 10k back on Thanksgiving day. 

199/1102 overall
148/418 men
44/107 age group

I'm rethinking my plan to race often in prep for Ironman.  On one hand, it's nice to have frequent short term goals to work towards, on the other hand, it really screws up the consistent training needed for Ironman.  Post Bock Run my legs were toast for a good two or three days.  I don't feel quite as bad post Shuffle, but last weeks training was definitely compromised, as I didn't want to come into the race on completely trashed legs, and I'm sure it'll be a day or two before all feels normal again.

So the week before, week after compromised.  Not sure it's worth it.  Was going to run a half marathon at the end of the month.  If I had to choose today, it'd definitely be off the table.  We'll see.