Freeze Your Gizzard 5k Report And I Spun! Span? Spinned?

I haven't blogged in forever! I'm in that weird have nothing to train for therefore must have nothing of interest to say place. I'm pretty sure that was one of my awful run on sentences. See what I mean? I Should just step away from the keyboard.

Anyhoo. I have been attending my new favorite strength training class ever Tuesday and Thursday without fail. I still love it. Every class brings a new challenge followed by a new kind of sore. And I went one step further into - gasp - gym rat mode....I took a spinning class!! I know! What the hell!? I've heard they are kick ass and always thought I'd try it out, some day, but much like my fear of running stores, I was just plain scared. Well. I marched right in there like I knew what I was doing and hopped on the bike! And then I nearly fell off the damn thing because apparently whoever spun (span?) before me was 7 feet tall and liked to lean forward. Fortunately, the instructor is the same woman that teaches the strength training class (which only proves that I'm still a giant chicken shit of the unknown and only really went because I knew I'd like the instructor) and she, while cracking up, helped me adjust the seat.

The class is 50 minutes followed by a quick 10 minute ab workout. It was crazy! I really liked it....um, kind of....and I'm sure I'll go back. The only problem is that it's just one more thing that is taking me away from running. Since I'm in that weird nothing to train for place, I'm not all that worried that I'm not running as much but realistically, I know I'll need to get better about getting the miles in if I'm going to run a spring half marathon. I know, I know....what about Shamrock?! I'm still thinking. And thinking. I just don't know if I'm there yet. The time and dedication that it takes to train for a marathon is just something that I don't know if I have yet. Maybe when my youngest is in 1st grade and I have more time, I'll do it. I really think that the very fact that I'm having to think this much about it means I'm not ready. I want to give the training the respect and time it deserves so I'll probably wait. Letting people talk me into it is just not right. The last time I let people talk me into something I didn't want to do, I was hung over for 3 days.

On to the Freeze Your Gizzard 5k report! Ugh. Blah. Awful. Burrrrr. Wind. This is a run that I was really looking forward to. When I ran it last November, I was still so new to the whole running thing so I was thinking this would be a great "look how far you've come!" moment for me. Truth is, it pretty much sucked. It was so damn cold and windy. It was one of those runs where within the first 5 minutes, I was questioning why the hell I was doing it. I was panting and my toes were numb and I was just cranky. Yeah. Could I whine a bit more? Well sure I can!

For some reason they decided not to have advanced packet pick up this year which meant a crazy long line the morning of. When I finally got to the front of the line, they had no record of me. Swell. So I had to fill out paper work and get a new number and a shirt tossed at me and it just was annoying. As a result of that, my toes were totally numb, my mental state was screwed and the race started about 15 minutes late.

When we finally got started, I was panting (as I mentioned) and when we rounded that first corner, the wind hit us big time (and in case you think I'm exaggerating, here is what the race write-up dude said on Run Washington: "...the day was unseasonably cool and very windy..." See?!). I was wearing a baseball hat, something I never do, and I spent way too much time and energy pushing it down on my head. Very distracting. I was trying to pace myself but I was having a heck of a time because of the panting. And I know it's stupid to do, but I had my Austin 5k time in my head and really wanted to beat that. I was feeling like if I didn't, then I failed. I'm guessing that this is what happens to people that race a lot and I have to say, it kind of sucks. Austin was hilly but it was a road race and the temperature was perfect and there were no winds. This race was cross country, it was 20-something-degrees and windy as hell. See? Told you I could whine more.

Lets just be done with it, shall we? I finally crossed the finish line and thought I'd never catch my breath. I headed to my car for my coat and another pair of pants then hooked up with a couple of people I know from the running group. They all were able to find their times on the finish board, I was not. Sigh. I got home, checked Run Washington, still no results (I should say that they finally showed up so kudos to whoever found my time and applied it to the proper last minute non-registered but really registered runner).

So all in all, it was a pretty frustrating experience. I felt like I had a shitty run and vowed to never run the Gizzard again.

That was until about 2 days ago. I know what I did wrong (hello moron, warm-up perhaps??) and I know the weather in November is totally unpredictable (only a week before it was 75 degrees!) but I still love that run. I love that it was one of my first races and I love that it's off road and I love that everyone that shows up looks so stinking happy to be out there freezing and I love that I'll do it every year for as long as I live in this town because routine and predictability is something I thrive on people!

On a totally different, non-running note, Beyonce, or should I say Sasha Fierce (ha!) was on The Today Show this morning. My kids watched it because the absolutely love live music of any kind (patting myself on the back here - my husband and I are huge music lovers and have been taking them to various live music shows since they were babies...oh, no worries, not Metallica or anything!). They were getting all into it and dancing around the room, blah, blah, blah. Fast forward to bedtime tonight. My oldest says to me, "Remember Sasha Fierce this morning? I hope she is on again tomorrow morning, she was good!" Totally cracked me up.

And on that note, Happy, Happy, Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!