Sunday, June 12, 2011

I beat the time lapse rain

The forecast looked like rain all weekend, so I gave up on the thought of going for a bike ride. I still had hopes of getting out for a run. Other than my leg exercises I've been a slug since Wed yoga.

This morning started cloudy and then gradually got nicer. But at some point I noticed clouds were building off to the west, and figured I'd better get off my butt and run if I was going to. So I did. Stretched and did my leg exercises in a sort of perfunctory way, since I was thinking of the run.

Out and it felt great! I ended up running an hour, but no idea how far I ran. The first 5.5 K was 39:40 running fairly easy, breathing in control but not singing an opera or anything. My legs felt good. My heart rate was consistently higher than I'd have liked, and didn't recover even when I slowed down for the last 10 minutes. That was sort of depressing, actually, barely plodding along, hardly breathing, and yet my heart was pounding away. With any luck that will improve as I get more regular about running.

My buddy Cath had a great result at the Boise 70.3, going about 5:17, which is good for a trip to the 70.3 Championships. And my buddy David, in what I think is his first half IM, went 6:15 or so, which is a super result! He was actually my manager a few years ago at a company that neither of work for anymore. I take my hat off to him for the changes he's made in his life, what with dropping a ton of weight, and taking up triathlon, while maintaining a family, work, and social life balance.

Often we hear about the people that win their age group, (hi Katie doing Escape from Alcatraz!) but I think it's equally important to celebrate the accomplishments of the people in the pack, and at the back of the pack. And not just because that's where I am. All of these people have put in the hours training, and hope to have a good day on the race course. Some have mechanical or other failures, and that's too bad.

What's important to remember is that everybody is out there trying, and most are pushing themselves into uncharted territory. They are trying to balance all the conditions of the day while meeting the needs of their body for an extremely strenuous day. They are all champs, and deserve to have their achievements recognized.

While I was out for the run I set up my iPhone with a new toy. I've always liked time-lapse photography, and recently downloaded an app that does that. It's called iTimelapse, and it's free at the moment. I wish I'd had it when I did my decorating the Christmas tree video last year. Here's what the clouds were doing on my run. Oh, ignore the couple seconds of me making coffee at the beginning, I hadn't figured things out. This is a photo every 10 seconds.



That set of clouds passed with barely a spatter of rain, and now another set of clouds are building. I've got the camera running again. This is fun! If it's good I'll post that too.

1 comment:

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