December 24, 2012

Christmas Eve was the first workout here in Washington. It sure is nice being at sea level, compared to being at over 4,000 feet in elevation when running. The conditions were fair, a little chilly and it drizzled a little, nothing new for Bremerton. My training called for a 3 mile time trial run, as fast as I could. I had spent the previous day trying to map out a course that was going to be fairly simple to run, as Bremerton has a lot of hills. It was my brother Mike that had recommended the course that I ended up running. Mike even came with me on the run, which helped me a ton, as he really pushed me even though he probably didn't know it. 

The course took us along Petersville Rd, up Riddell, along Perry Ave., up Sheridan to Snider Ave. I calculated the course to be a 5k, so that I could get an idea of how long it would take me to run it, and see if I could improve upon my last 5k. This course still had some decent hills, but it felt good all the same. I had to walk a few times, as my heart rate really climbed on some of the hills and my legs got really heavy for a stretch as well. I was really happy to see after we finished that I had shaved off over 5 minutes from my last 5k run. I still need to work on my pace, as the average pace was a 12:15 minute mile and my goal for the Half Ironman is 10:00 minute miles.

Again, I have to thank my brother Mike, as I know that there were times along the run that I would have started walking, but I wanted to try to keep up with him. It was such an easy run for him, as he is such a natural runner compared to me, so it was very nice to have a running partner.