Rudolph 5K and Weekly Wrap-Up

Brentwood Christmas tree lighting

Monday: eight 30-second sprints on the elliptical at the CSY in the morning; work; walk on the River Park trails; 5 minutes of work in the afternoon; Brentwood tree lighting ceremony and Ravenwood concert

Tuesday: ride at T's in the AM (I increased my watts 1% for the whole workout and shifted into one harder gear for the first 21 minutes; results: just the workout I was looking for [not too hard but more challenging than last week]); work; Jacob's Ladder (500-ft time: 5:01; this is HARD!)/elliptical/step mill, then 5 minutes extreme slow in the afternoon.

Wednesday: altitude drop legs and front delt in the AM (the best workout I've had in a couple weeks); work; run in the afternoon. I probably should have mapped out my planned route before starting, but I didn't. I was thinking about doing maybe 6 and ended up with 13.1 in 1:47:28 with no water, gu, etc. And I'm pretty sure that's a half PR for me (at least it is from the races I've recorded). After I started, I knew it would be more than 8, and once I hit 8 I decided to tack on whatever necessary to make it to 13.1. And I did, even though it meant running past my apartment. Success.

Wednesday half

Thursday: tried to sleep in a failed, so I spent some time on the foam roller before work; at lunch at Panera with some coworkers; rode at T's. I stayed the whole class at 222W and in my normal gear. Surprisingly, it was not any more difficult that Tuesday, and in some ways it felt easier.

Friday sunrise

Friday: watched a beautiful sunrise. Sigh. Worked. Had lunch with some coworkers. Hiked with Kat. Did some Christmas shopping. Ran (terribly) the Nashville Rudolph 5K. Actually, it wasn't completely awful. Last year I didn't even finish the race, so this year was an improvement. Plus I ran the first 2 miles in 15 min. It was the last mile that was sad.

I found a friend and chatted with her, and then I stayed downtown for the Christmas parade.

Fireworks after the race before the parade

My favorite float - the Boy Scouts were carrying
this, and it looked like a mattress from a distance

Saturday I got to enjoy the morning Christmas shopping for the kids of a new friend Lenis with more new friends Daniel and Ashley. After wrapping the presents, I spent an hour on the trainer before a long lunch/dinner with Will. After church I decided it was time to wrap presents and put up a few Christmas decorations.

Christmas presents for my sister's family 

My little tree

Sunday I learned how to mount and dismount a cross bike. Now to race a cross race.... We had a team ride that the rain held off for, but because it had been raining there was a bunch of debris on the road - which meant lots of flat tires. AJ, Anna, Kat, Parri, Shannon, Valerie, and I rode about 35 miles in FOREVER because we had to stop 3 times to fix flats. But it was a beautiful day and a perfect ride otherwise.

Parri, Kat, and Anna working on Parri's tire

Parri and me on her tire again...the stem and hand pump
broke, so we had to use another tube and CO₂ cartridges