Happy Easter and the Virtual Jelly Bean 10k

Wishing all of you a happy Easter! Easter is a little different around here this year. We are not doing the usual family brunch so it feels kind of funny. We are however having dinner to celebrate my son's 17th birthday which is tomorrow. He is being honored tomorrow night at an awards ceremony at the 40th Annual Jefferson Foundation High School Art Exhibition at the Arvada Center.. It features more than 400 works from 23 different Jefferson County High Schools, Josh has been told he has taken 2nd place in his division, as well as having another photo displayed. One of the girls in his class has taken 3rd place and his teacher is having a solo exhibition! This is his award winning photograph! Have I said recently how proud I am of him?

Jelly Bean 10k

So I signed on to do the Jelly Bean Virtual race this week and opted for the 10k distance. I enjoy running on holidays for some reason..I think it makes me feel less guilty about the food I partake in so I had decided to do the race Easter morning. It's a good think I had committed to it too or I would probably have backed out. It's overcast and about 35 degrees this morning. Thankfully though it was dry. My nutrition for the last few days has not been good...ok the last week for sure (see cupcake post)

I can't help myself...I LOVE jelly beans!

I couldn't run without the jelly beans...this actually isn't the first time I've run on Easter and used jelly beans for a boost. :) So I set out and miles 1 and 2 just kind of sucked. Everything felt hard my legs felt heavy. Thinking maybe my legs are tired from the 1:30 bike trainer session yesterday.
1 11m 22s
2 11m 00s
By the start of mile 3 legs felt a little better and I was warming up. Gloves came off and I'm stating to feel better ...a few jelly beans at the 3 mile mark and head up a hill on mile 4
3 11m 13s
4 11m 40s
Going up the hill I start to get tired again...but soon I'm headed downhill and feeling better again. A few more jelly beans at mile 5 and I start to think my time is pretty good and even though this isn't a "real" race I could maybe have my fastest 10k time ever. So hit mile 6 pretty hard I don't even look at my time because I just don't want to know, I just keep going until I see 6.2 miles and I'm pretty much giving it all I got at this point. I really feel like I could not have gone much farther especially at this pace but lucky for me I don't have to I'm done!
5 10m 57s
6 10m 31s
7 02m 04s
Total 6.2 miles 1:08:47 11:05 average! I killed my previous 10k times! (Previous race times were from 1:14 to 1:18) So I'm pretty happy with that, no I'm really happy with that! Thanks so much to Jess at Run with Jess for putting this together. It was fabulous fun and just the kick I needed to get me out there this morning! Now I'm going to have to rethink doing the Boulder Boulder again this year and see if I can get a "real" PR.

Who wouldn't run for cupcakes!?!?!?

Jason over at Cook Train Eat Race along with Christel at Silly Girl Running are hosting a virtual race. There will be drawings for cupcakes....you must check it out! I plan on doing the full as it will help keep me on track with my 1/2 training.

Let's see in another news training this week has gone pretty good. I got in 3 bikes and 3 runs but only one swim. Always a challenge to get those in.

Running- did speedwork on Wednesday 3 x 1600 @ 10:20 (I thought it said 10:15)
10:09
10:12
10:13
Nailed it and remember I'm slow so that is blazin' for me! It was good. Long run this week 9 miles felt a little rough in spots, I'll blame the hills that were at the start, but I got it done and am glad that this next week is a rest week on my 1/2 marathon plan.

Bike-all trainer miles..I was hoping for nicer weather this weekend as I wanted to get out and ride. Oh who am I kidding, it was in the 40's and dry I could have done it I just have this block when it comes to riding outside under 60 degrees. Maybe because I don't really have the necessary gear for riding in the cold although I know I could make do with what I have.

Swim-the single one I did, unless I get my butt over to the pool today, felt pretty good. It seems like just when I get in a groove though I need to turn around, I don't do flip turns and I don't think that would make much difference any way you still lose your rhythm with them. I'm really going to have to make the effort to get to the pool more often even if I only do 30 minutes as opposed to the 60 the plan calls for.