Rodes 10k PLUS First Outdoor Bike Ride

I've said it before and I'll say it again, the Rodes 10k is probably my favorite 10k for no particular reason. Maybe because it was my first 10k, possibly because it's a mostly-flat race, or maybe it's just the good home-town feel of running through the City and Highland's, but I've always loved this race and this route and yesterday was no exception. Once again, I got to the race around 7:10 and sat in the car watching the cluster of traffic move in for the late-comers. I met up with Jennifer at 7:45, and we headed to the start line. It was a gorgeous day for a run - Sunny and 43 degrees at the start. After 10 years of running I think I've finally learned how to dress appropriately, and never felt particularly cold nor overheated on the race. I didn't necessarily have a strategy going into the run, but I did tell Jennifer just before the start that I wanted to try to PR. I had done an 8-miler the Saturday before, and felt mostly good through the first five miles of that. I think we ended up averaging 10:46/mile, but it was also 98% humidity and we had only one water stop, so that probably contributed to my less-than-stellar performance. Regardless, I took off with the gun and started the Garmin at the line. I didn't necessarily check my pace very often, but after getting up the first small incline I fell into a pretty good pace and just kept going. I think I walked about 10-15 seconds during the first water stop, but the remainder of the course I ran the whole way - not even taking a break for water, although I never felt that I needed it, either. Nothing in particular happened that's important to write here - I remember telling myself to just take it easy, don't go out too hard and risk bonking near the end. I felt REALLY good throughout the entire race - never tired, winded, or feeling that my cardio was giving me a hard way to go. I remember thinking that the Orange Theory Classes were really paying off, and have never regretted sticking with that program since May 2014. I crossed the 6 mile marker and noticed that I had a few minutes to spare in order to make a PR before crossing the finish line. I started to speed it up a bit and that's when my heart REALLY started to go at it. I looked down and saw that I was running an 8:50 pace - way too fast for me. I slowed down SLIGHTLY, knowing that even if I averaged a 10 min. mile for this last little bit I would have myself a PR. I crossed the finish with an official time of 1:00:54 - a 20 second PR (hey, 3 seconds per mile is 3 seconds per mile, right?) My splits were: 9:48, 10:03, 9:50, 9:38, 9:35, 9:31 and 2:29 for the last 2.9 (by my watch) mile. Now... onto my first outdoor ride of the season, which took place the following day: I met Ericka and Jennifer out at 11:00 a.m. to start a beautiful, sunny-once-again workout. We headed down 3rd street to River Road for a total of 20 miles out-and-back. There was a horrible headwind the ENTIRE WAY OUT. At one point I was leading the pack and saw that my MPH just kept getting slower and slower. I thought, "If this is the way I preform for IMLOU, I'm screwed." 8 miles out I had to take a little break and pulled over into a vacant lot. Jennifer was apparently thinking some of the same things I was, as she said she had been yelling for some time for us to slow down. Unfortunately, neither Ericka or I heard, and we peddled away leaving our little friend to bring up the rear. Despite this, we took off again for the last 2 miles before heading back towards downtown. The tailwind was more-than-obvious as Jennifer made me aware of the 18.5 MPH we were now doing. I'm not sure if I was just ready to take it back home, had finally gotten my sea-legs or what, but I was definitely feeling it for the last 10 miles. The ride home was definitely faster than the ride out, which is why I was more than a little disappointed to see that our average speed was only 13.3 :( for the whole ride. Considering I don't remember doing less than 13.7 on the way out, and we got up to near 19 MPH for probably 3 miles going back, it was a bit of a bummer. Of course, we did get caught by quite a few lights on Third Street headed back to Ericka's, so that could explain a lot of it. Either way, it was a great ride with a great couple of ladies and I'm looking forward to riding some more in the coming months. Now that we've gotten this first ride out of the way, I need to get the tri bike out for a little practice ride before I really take that out for any distance. Getting used to the aero bars, the handling of a carbon bike, and the different clips are my only real concerns. But...considering I spent the kind of money I did for the darn thing, and am hoping to give myself every bit of advantage I can come race season, I need to just suck it up and get on out!