Tahoe Relays

This past weekend I headed up North to see my girlfriend Mo and to join her at the Tahoe Relays. I arrived in Oakland on Thursday and then made my way up to beautiful Lake Tahoe on Friday. Thanks to Tamara Torlakson we stayed in a slick cabin that slept something crazy like 14 people and had a hot tub on a third floor balcony.

The race began Saturday morning at 7:00 and meanders around the shore counter clockwise. I was scheduled to be the fourth and longest leg of 12.3 miles. Because I had been nursing a sore Achilles over the last month, and had run very little leading up to the race, I was thinking of taking a shorter leg. As the race got going, I started to get pretty excited and I told our team that I could handle all 12.3 miles.

Excited to race!

I got a little excited with the first couple of miles and ran some 5:40 miles before slowing down to well over 6:00 up a pretty good hill. I finally settled in with a good pace and ended up averaging 5:50 miles. I was really surprised that I was able to run that quick, and especially happy my Achilles woes seem to finally be gone — it felt great before, during and after. However, that is not to say I felt good the next day. Walking down stairs the next day was all but impossible. Quads and glutes  were screaming!

Now I am back home, recovered, and back to training. Running is still progressing slowly, but is going well. I am starting to increase my time in the saddle as well, but where I really need the work is swimming. I have started to swim with the Conejo Valley Multisport Masters club. Swimming with a group and a great coach, like Nancy Kirkpatrick-Reno, is what I need to do to take my swimming to new levels.

I have a race coming up in one week, the Breath of Life in Ventura. I am the defending champion, so pressure will be on (especially from my training partner, Chris Baird). More on that to come.

3 Responses to “Tahoe Relays”

1. Randy says:

   June 20, 2011 at 8:44 am

   I have run the Tahoe relay several times, leg #4 also and #6- big hill at the end (handed off to Tracy Smith who ran the last leg.)

   The best of luck in a week!
2. PD says:

   June 21, 2011 at 2:56 pm

   Leg #6 definitely looked to be the toughest. So much elevation gain! I would love to do the race again, so maybe I will get to try that leg some day.
3. 2011 In Review « RunPD says:

   January 21, 2012 at 2:58 pm

   [...] Murray of Triathlon Training Series. Before things got too serious, I had some fun racing in the Tahoe Relays and spending time with friends back in Simi doing stuff like [...]