#11

Melissa's 22km is booked and added to the list of 2011 races for me. And the process went much easier this year. I got in, I registered, I booked my hotel, I got out, all in 15 minutes. The 22 sold out before 10:30 and the 10km was full by noon. This is an extremely popular race and I love doing it, despite the hills, wind, having to pass the finish line with 7-8km left, hills and wind! It's just so beautiful, I forget about all the rest.

I decided to run tonight, and after seeing no one from the 5-hr group (I think 6 of the 40 registered for clinic showed up tonight), prepared to head out alone. I ended up with company though, as a girl from the 5km clinic wanted to see "if she could run 10km" just because. Please bear in mind, she hasn't run anything further than 5km, it's -18C with a -29C windchill and the paths were icy and slick with fresh snow. And I really was trying to hit tempo pace...which I didn't do so bad. All in all, my overall average was 7:39 (fastest to date) and I did hit a good 7:07 pace for a couple of the klicks. I wasn't consistent though, which I need to work on, but dang it was COLD!!

Came back soaked to the skin, so changed into dry gear and headed for a pint. Just one tonight, and now I am home and so ready to crawl into bed. I am beat...hoping the beer and 10km hard run will do their magic and I'll drop off immediately after hitting the pillow.

Side note: after all the talk about heart rate, I decided to see what my resting rate really is, so I strapped on the monitor, started the Garmin (set it for a 6-hr "run") and went to sleep. Woke up with the average number at 61 (yay, but not quite at peak yet - should be closer to 50) but somehow managed to clock 2.25km in my sleep!!! Maybe I dream like a dog...I'm going to strap on again tonight, just to see if I go running in my sleep! Intriguing.

Later,