Happy Fourth of July!!

The lead runners of last year's Firecracker 5K run in Shreveport.

My weight is down to 163 pounds (yay!). I was at 173 back in March. I'm finally making some inroads to making me light enough to climb some hills! I think my "real" weight right now is 165-166 but I'm getting there. Wish my stomach would disappear...If I can get down to 160 and keep the strength, I think I'll be okay.

Last night Tim and I did some speed workouts on our time trial bikes. Only an hour of intervals at a constant speed above 26 mph and I was wiped. I think Tim was, too, but he also had a hamstring problem in his left leg to deal with. The guy's still strong as heck.

This morning I did the 5:50 am ride and only four of us showed up for this fourth of July roll down the parkway. Mike and I were doing the Firecracker 5K run later and we kept the pace around a 22-23 mph effort to save what little power we have. Got home with only an hour before the run and took Farley out for a walk. No shower...what would be the point? Had some yogurt, changed into my running gear and took off to pound my legs some more.

The Firecracker 5K has been going on in Shreveport for about 24 years and I've run it about half of those times. The first 101 men and 60 women get glass mugs as prizes. The extra mug for the men is to symbolize those runners we've known who are no longer with us and to show that we haven't forgotten them. That mug is for them. I've gotten 5-6 mugs over the years and my best time here is a 20:22 for the 3.1 miles.

When I got there I told some of the guys that I planned a 23-24 minute run since I hadn't been doing much after the last duathlon a month ago. No pressure to get a mug and I was going to enjoy myself! However, if I felt I was running well, I would push it some. We started (FINALLY, after all the pre-race music and such) and I spent the first 300-400 meters crowded by dozens of runners around me (about 2,500 do this run). Finally broke into some open space and started passing people, including many I knew. I had a good pace going and decided to keep it up, passing groups of people at a time. I think I only had 6 folks pass me the entire run. When I got to the 2-mile clock I realized I was going at a 6:55/mile clip and kept it up, but that last mile with the heat and humidity was wearing on me a lot. I crossed the line with a time of 21:32, way better than I expected. Immediately I had to sit down in the grass and sweat...sitting had never felt so good! Someone handed me a cold bottle of water and I downed that sucker quick. Got up and ate some cookies, drank a cup of Coke, visited a bit, then headed home.

I'm going to do some restin' the rest of the day...tomorrow is a long ride.