The season thus far

I really do suck at this blogging thing.
Instead of fretting about I'm just going to move on. Here's a brief synopsis of the last few races I have done.


Birkie ~ Feb 23, 2013. 3:59.39.1
This race went surprisingly well for the lack of training I did. I started off training well in Dec, and then, do to lack of snow in January, I rarely skied. Then I managed to get out a half dozen times in Feb before the race. It was a very slow year due to about 5-8 inches of free snow over night. I opted to get my skis waxed by Gear West and they were crazy fast! I was flying by people all over. I will be getting my skis waxed by them in the future.
I felt great throughout, although I was cramping really bad pretty much from 25k till the end. And I FINALLY get to move up a wave! Wave 4 here I come! I beat the cut off by about a minute, the last few years I've missed moving up by about the same time so I'm very happy! Maybe 2014 will be the year I can get my act together and train seriously enough to get in wave 2. We shall see.
Another funny note, my TC marathon time (3.59.36) is almost exactly the same as my Birkie time.

Lake Johanna 4 mile ~ March 23, 2013. 33:01
After the Birkie I decided to sign up for the MDRA Spring Series races. This was a series of 6 races between March and May. This was all before mother nature decided that Minnesota wasn't getting a spring this year. Oh well, c'est la vie. Luckily my friend donated us their treadmill since it rarely got any use at their house. It got plenty of use between March and today, let me tell you. Without it I would have been screwed.
So anyways, I hadn't done any running outside or any speed work so I wasn't really sure how this race would go. I just wanted to go out and run fast and have fun. It was a cold day (30s) but no snow on the road and sunny. I actually felt awesome and ran faster than I've run in awhile. Just over 8 minute mile pace. I was pumped!
The second spring series race was suppose to be the MDRA 7 mile the next weekend but I skipped it. The week before we were all really sick and both the girls had strep throat, it was pouring when I woke up to get ready for the race so I opted to stay in bed. I'm happy about that decision!

Fred Kurz 10 mile ~ April 13, 2013. 1:39.29
3rd race in the series. Winter still isn't over. It snowed 5 inches a few days before this race. And since it's run on the Luce Line trail in Wayzata which isn't plowed it was going to be a slow and snowy day. It was 30s and overcast for the race. Which isn't horrible but not ideal. I actually felt pretty good considering this was my longest run this year. I probably could have gone even faster but it was really hard to get good footing, there was a trampled down snow path on the trail but that also meant that it was pretty much ice. I wish I had cleats! I really wanted to look around at all the ponds and beautiful houses along the trail but had to only focus on my feet which was kind of sad. I'm glad I did it, I had fun!

MDRA Mudball (SNOWBALL) Classic 4 mile ~ April 21, 2013. 38:34
Again mother nature is relentless. It snowed another 4-6 inches a few days before the race. This race is on the trails in Theodore Wirth park. Which usually means mud in April, well this year it meant SNOW, mud, cold water, ice, etc. Awesome, thanks. They shortened the course because apparently parts of the original course was under water. So it ended up being about 3.5 miles. From my time you can see that it was SLOW. I felt like I was running as hard as I could but it's a hilly course and near impossible to get your footing. I'd love to run this race another year when there isn't snow covering the whole course. It was a cold morning (27)  but at least it didn't rain as expected. I had a blast though.

I'm really enjoying these MDRA races and I'm happy I signed up for the spring series to try some new races and to get myself motivated to train.

What's up next?
Cinco du Mayo Duathlon May 4
Moms Day 5 km May 11
Mississippi 10 mile May 26
Liberty Tri running relay team member half marathon June 8
Tough Mudder July 21
Skirt Sports 5 km July 28 

I need to pick one or two tris to do as well. I'm running out of weekends in the summer though.