Off to a Good Week

Last week wrapped up with a great National Backyard Camp-out - which was my girls (3 and 5) first ever night under the stars (or, in our case, the clouds). We had a great night with our neighbors Saturday and the girls slept in the tent with no problems. I think they're ready for a real campout.

I made it out for another 4.7 mile loop with F.David on Monday and then did the bike into/from work today - another 18 miles round trip. I gotta say, the biking felt much better than last week. The morning ride in still feels difficult - I don't think it helps that I'm getting out the door late - so the whole ride feels rushed. I'll have to work on that. Bonus: I think the Sound water is warm enough to start swimming - should have my first of the season this week!

Extra Run

Got in an extra run this morning. About four miles with lots of hills. Brings up my running mileage to 13 for the week to go with 38 miles (9.5 eq miles) and 3 hours of biking. That's about 4 hours and 45 minutes of training. That's good because a 35 mile week running will take me about 5 hours - so I want to get use to putting in about 4-5 hours/week this summer before I take my shot at Philly.

More Biking

Biked in and back from work again today. Felt better. Hopefully these will get easier. 3 hours total of biking this week. Good news - the weather doesn't suck.

Rainy Run

Made it out earlier today for a rainy day run. The weather was actually perfect - light rain and pretty cool the whole way through. I managed the same 4.75 mile loop I did Monday in the exact same time 36:30 - although it felt like a much harder effort. My legs feel sore - probably in large part to yesterday's bike. I'm hoping they'll feel better tomorrow.

Biking In

Very hard bike ride to and from work today. Fortunately, I didn't have my watch heading in - so I have no idea how long it took - felt very difficult though. Weather still sucks. Hopefully it'll be getting better soon.

Solcistace Weekend.

Ahhh summer. Almost anyway. It's still hovering in the high 60s here. Yesterday I went to Abbott's for Lobster and Beer with people from work, then went Kayaking for a few hours out at Bluff Point, and finished the day off with some ball room dancing with my lovely wife. Today, I woke up late and the kids and I biked over to Cutler middle school for the start of the Tour d'Noank - which I mercifully couldn't run do to my daddy daycare duties. With some time to myself before lunch today, I headed over to the decidedly less-hilly Fitch high track and did some intervals - a reverse ladder: 1600, 1200, 800, 400 and 200. I ran the mile balls out - and did it in 6:16 - a little slower than my pace for the last few years - but it wasn't a race - so not too surprising I suppose. I knew I couldn't finish the workout running at that intensity - so I slowed the pace for the 1200 - finsishin in 5:12 (6:56 pace). Finishing off: 3:16 (6:32) 800, 1:32 (6:08) 400 and 0:42 (5:36) 200. Gotta love the 200s. I don't have many more intervalls planned - but I may try and do about 20 200s as a workout later in the summer (if it ever shows).

For the week - a little over 15 miles running and a little under 5 'eq miles' biking - so about 20 miles overall.

Weather in Connecticut

It certainly isn't getting easier finding nice days to run/bike. I biked home yesterday for the first time on my new Trek, and I'll be biking in soon. I'll probably run today at lunch as well - but Thursday? Not sure about Thursday or Friday...

Update: biked in - 44:30 vs. 45:00 yesterday - but I did ~10 home yesterday and ~9 in today - so faster going than coming. Also ran 5.3 today at lunch. Weather was great, but the legs were sore from the bike. Nevertheless - a pretty good day.

Saturday's the Tour 'd Noank - a difficult hilly race that I normally avoid - but it's close to my house and Larry may run. We'll see.

Beginning of Summer Training

So today was my first post-Spring season run - an easy 5 miler with a coworker. We did the normal route - including both Avery Point and Jupiter Point loops - but stopped a bit early and walked it in (cramping issue, not me). I felt good - although we kept the pace slow and easy. That's pretty much going to be the case most of the summer - except for maybe a few track sessions and fun runs. I'm really hoping to get on the bike tomorrow and start biking it into work. I figure 2 bike rides and 2 runs per week until the water warms up and then add some open water swims. I'll be training for a triathlon - but probably won't be doing one. As goals go, there isn't much to be gained by doing a tri, but I do think it's good conditioning heading into fall. So that should tie me over until early August when I'll start the beginning phase of marathon training.

JP Morgan Corporate Challenge

Yesterday was the JP Morgan Chase Corporate Challenge in Central Park. I haven't faired well in this event in past years and this year was no exception. I ran a 25:35, a 7:16 min/mile pace over the 3.5 mile course. Putting that in perspective, that's about one minute slower than last year (a much hotter day) and 2 minutes slower than the fall Championship. I think being sick earlier in the week had something to do with it - but it's disappointing nonetheless. It was one of those races where, during the run, I was questioning why I want to do races - similar to the Niantic Bay 1/2 a few years ago.

A little Bronchitis

Maybe acute asthma or something. That's apparently what I may have. Makes sense with the coughing. The nurse practitioner gave me the kitchen sink: Albuterol, Nasonex and a Z-pack (just in case). Hopefully I'll be in better shape come Thursday. Anyhow, I still went out today: 5.2 miles in 40 minutes: 7:41 pace. Not bad for being sick. I'm still thinking I'm going to be hurting on Thursday - even if I'm feeling better - my race shape has come and gone.

Allergies

So allergies have been killing me lately, as detailed on my last post. I skipped my planned killer interval session earlier in the week, but made it out with Larry and did the Sneaker's Mile course (without the mile pickup) yesterday: about 6.2 miles at a slowwww pace (52:36 - 8:30s). I tried to keep it easy, but wanted to get my legs some work before slipping into summer Tri mode. In addition to keeping me not running, the allergies are also keeping me from some killer beers. Damn things!

Hopefully I'll get out for intervals tomorrow or this weekend - as I don't want to totally give up on next weeks JP Morgan Qualifier. I'm starting to heavily consider my fall running goals - which may include the Philly Marathon in November. Mainly because I want to work in some extra miles - and that's a pretty good way of aiming for it.