Last weekend, I had the opportunity to run in the Zilker Relays with a friend.
We went for two legs each as we had some trouble forming a last minute team.
We ended up finishing in 1:07:03 which isn’t that bad… I ran about 15:30 on average… meh…
Category “fit”
Hood to Coast 2010
By Chris Aniszczyk
This year I had the opportunity to participate in the Hood to Coast 2010 relay, that starts in beautiful Mt. Hood and ends at the beach in Seaside, Oregon.
I’m always a fan of doing relay races so I was ready to conquer the 197 miles. I started out with Leg 5 which wasn’t that bad…
…besides the hill climb in the end… but I ended up running it in 43:00 which isn’t that bad. After that, Leg 17 was up which was nice and flat 5.69 miles… it was a night run and I cruised in at 38:46 feeling pretty good.
A bit sore, but still good. My last leg was 29 and it was 6.11 miles full of terrible…
… the first 3.5 miles were essentially up hill with a nice steep grade climb to finish things off. After that, the downhill was probably the most enjoyable running I had the whole relay… I felt like I was floating. On average, I ran about a 7 minute mile pace the whole relay which isn’t bad given the status of my injured ankle. I think once my ankle recovers I’ll be back to my 6 minute mile pace. In the end, my team ended up finishing in 26 hours and 11 minutes (faster than last year!) which put is at 181th out of 1023 teams and in the 54th Open Men’s division.
‘Til next year where sub 26 hours should be in our future!
Capt’n Karls 2010: The Falls
By Chris Aniszczyk
Last weekend, I experienced Capt’n Karls The Falls in beautiful Pedernales Falls State Park.
The best way I can describe the course is that it was freakn’ hot outside… it was about 105F during the day and cooled down a bit in the evening… but it was definitely toasty. I also sprained my ankle pretty bad about half way through the course which wasn’t that fun… this is me smiling just about before it got dark and my ankle slipped on some rocks…
I initially planned to do the full 60km but settled for 30km after spraining my ankle and due to the heat. I finished in about 3:25 which is slow for me… I normally would have finished under 3 hours but hey, you don’t always have your best days. This week, I’m looking to heal up and get ready for next weekend’s XTerra half marathon trail race!
San Diego Rock n’ Roll Half Marathon 2010
By Chris Aniszczyk
Last weekend I head the pleasure of running the San Diego Rock n’ Roll Half Marathon with some buddies. The weather was gorgeous, the 6:15am half marathon start time, not so much.
I believe there were about 40,000 runners doing the race. It’s always nice to know when you start in corral 1 and turn around and just see a wave of people behind you (I think there were about 40 corrals total).
I somehow managed to have a great run given the little training I’ve been doing as of late. I think my results mostly have to do with me doing CrossFit and heat acclimatization runs during the hottest part of the day in Austin. Anyways, I managed to cross the finish line at Sea World in 1:28:05 which is a new half marathon PR for me! When I first started the race, I was chilling with the 1:30 pace group but after a few miles, I felt pretty good and picked up my pace. The course was mostly flat with some hills and some surprising highway running! My results ended up putting me 65th out of 13561 runners overall and 11th out of 601 runners in my age group. My splits were as follows…
5K: 20:54
6.3M: 42:35
11M: 1:16:07
I’m looking at doing sub 1:25 next, it should be easily reachable if I start doing more track workouts. On a side note, I got to spend some time in La Jolla, CA after the race which was nice. There’s nothing like a little post-race brunching and noshing in La Jolla. On top of that, it managed to bring back some great and interesting memories from last year. But alas, life’s too short for regrets, right?
Real Ale Ride 2010
By Chris Aniszczyk
Yesterday, I had the opportunity to cycle the Real Ale Ride 2010 with friends.
The ride takes place in beautiful Blanco, TX which makes for picture perfect Texas hill country cycling. What I did forget about Blanco is that the terrain is pretty hilly. There were several times throughout the ride where you saw signs about steep grade ahead… they weren’t lying. In the end, we went for the 65 mile route and finished in under 4 hours.
My personal highlight of the race was devouring a delicious ice cream cookie by KoolKones…
So good! I hope these cookies appear at other races in Austin!
Travel Tip: Airline Meals
By Chris Aniszczyk
Awhile ago, I blogged about my advice for when it comes to traveling since I’ve done quite a bit in my lifetime so far. I had a friend approach me recently complaining that he’s put on about 20 pounds since he started a consulting job a few months ago. He wanted some advice how I manage my diet when I travel. Well, there’s the typical advice that you try to order anything that has fish as the main course as that comes with healthier items generally. The other bit of advice I have is that when you’re eating airline meals, contact the airline in advance and modify your meal profile to say that you don’t eat gluten or have some type of gluten allergy.
This will make your meals significantly healthier. I find that my meals now come with fruit and other healthier items than starchy gluten-related things. On top of that, you get the extra laugh of looking at the plane attendants reactions while you chug a beer on the flight (I’m sorry, gluten-free beer is disgusting still… if you find a good one let me know).
Hope this helps and enjoy traveling!
Daisy 5K 2010
By Chris Aniszczyk
This morning I had the opportunity to run the Daisy 5K hosted by Austin Runners Club (ARC).
After two weeks of travel, I’m at least happy to report I can run a sub 20 minute 5K. I ended up finishing in 19:45 and finished third in my age group. That’s about 90 seconds away from my PR so I have a lot to do to get back on the running wagon. On top of that, I signed up for three 60K trial races in the Austin area. I’m looking forward to training seriously again now that my travel is going to die down quite a bit. Anyways, kudos to ARC for another superbly organized race.
Running in Mainz and Jetlag
By Chris Aniszczyk
I had the pleasure of arriving on time in Mainz, Germany yesterday morning.
One of the things I’ve learned over the years via all my travel is that the best way to fight jetlag is to exercise once you get to your destination. I don’t think there’s a large body of scientific evidence, but from personal experience I find that exercise does something to my body’s circadian rhythm that lessens the pain of jetlag. So the first thing I did when I got off the plane was to take advantage of Mainz and its picturesque trail that hugs the Rhine…
On a side note, a few of us went to a Chinese restaurant last night (I know, sacrilegious in Germany) and I was amused by my fortune cookie treasure…
You’re a winner! Thanks for the reminder…
Fredericksburg Wildflower 10K 2010
By Chris Aniszczyk
Yesterday, a few friends and I had the opportunity to run in the Wildflower 10K in beautiful Fredericksburg, Texas.
Fredericksburg is a bit weird in a way that it’s this little bed and breakfast community in Texas with a German flair. German immigrants left their mark permanently on the city via all the beer gardens and the Texas German language. Anyways, the weather was near perfect and the blue skies definitely helped the mood…
My goal was to finish the 10K in sub 40 minutes but I fell slightly short of that goal. I started the race a bit slow to give my knee a bit of a break but I ended up finishing in about 42 minutes averaging a 6:45/mile pace with zero knee pain. It was nice to learn that I ended up winning my age group with a time like that, woooo!
All in all, well organized race and I’m happy my knee is back to normal.
XTERRA Muleshoe 22K Trail Race 2010
By Chris Aniszczyk
Today I had the opportunity to take part in the XTERRA Muleshoe 22K Trail Race.
My right knee held up pretty well and I managed to finish in ~1:53 which is a decent time coming off my knee injury. I could of easily ran the race 10-15 minutes faster if I pushed myself a bit. I didn’t push myself until the last two miles which was too late to catch up to the head of the pack. Anyways, after I finished I went straight to the free beer to medicate a bit…
What I didn’t expect after three beers was participating in a Gatorade chugging contest for a pair of trail shoes…
It was a complete failure on my part… I tasted defeat and it tasted like Gatorade…
Race Revolutions did a great job hosting the event.
I will be better prepared for the drinking contest next time.