Tropical Storm Danny

This feels essentially like a "Noreaster" - buckets of rain all morning. I used the wet morning to take Elena beer/grocery shopping. We ended up picking Fuller's ESB and HB Hefeweizen. Elena says to the lady at the counter "Big beer is for grown-ups and little beer for the kids, right?" Damn Straight Kido!! Well, at least the "big beer for grown-ups" part.

Did my 10 miles home yesterday in light rain. Actually perfect running weather. The mileage was probably a little over 10 (10.1 or 10.2) - and it took 1:27:30. Felt like a long time. The legs felt horrible last night - but feel pretty good today. Wednsday I did a run/swim with Bruce down at Shenny - only 4 "lengths" - which was fine since the water was pretty choppy. Thursday I did my first run in my new Asics 2140s. Every part of my legs/feet didn't like this run: sore quads, achillies and rubbing on the feet - but the run was so short (4.1 miles) that I didn't get any blisters. Needless to say - I switched back the the Brooks for the 10 miler yesterday and will use them again tomorrow (7 miler) before I try again to break them in Monday.

Misquamicut Beach Run

Today I loaded up the kids, picked up the wife and headed to Misquamicut for 3 mile beach run. We stopped and picked up a Ventrano's pizza on the way and made it there by 5:00. I was hoping earlier - but the kids were just there Saturday for the hurricane bill mega waves. Unfortunately for the run, the waves softened up the beach for much of the run making it feel like running through quick sand (ok, i've never run through quick sand - but that's what I imagine it must feel like). It seems as though most of my runs have had some sort of lame excuse - but the truth is that's only 1/2 of it. Even with the quick sand - I made the 1.5 mile turn at 10:45, but needed another 12 minutes to do the last half. Last year I did the run in 20:18 and dropped to 22:45 this year. That's fine. I can live with that. We had a great time and that's what is important.

A Lot Going On.

So my talk came and went on Monday afternoon and I enjoyed the rest of the conference before heading back up to CT on the Amtrak Wednesday. Although it's always great to come home and see the kids I can't say it's lovely hear. The humidity has been awful and our house is going to be a sweat box later today. Add to that my wife's a bit nervous going back to work and our kids have started all day daycare for the first time ever - so I'm back home - but home is a bit out of whack. Nothing horrible - just a little difficult. I'm hoping the weather can at least moderate a little this weekend. If nothing else, I (along with 1/2 of New England) would like to get over to RI and check out our monster waves.

Training has been brutal. Week 3 and I'm already struggling. I resisted the urge to run Tuesday, slept in instead - and then did a ~8.5 miler (1 hour 15 minutes) Wednesday morning. The conditions were awful - so I was up and out by 6:15. I headed over to the Jefferson Memorial (again) before looping back up toward the Wash-monument, then over into Virginia. I made it all the way past the Pentagon before turning back. A great run - I'm glad I got in some distance that morning, because I was sure as shit not going to get it in the PM hours these last 2 days. I went out yesterday (3.8) and today (3.7) for short/sweltering/miserable runs. Should have went swimming today. The good news is I'm at 20 miles - with my Sunday run still to come - so I should top off at 25-26 for the week. Next Monday, I'll try to get over to Westerley for the Charlie Stavros Beach Run - one of the best of the year (and free!). Then it's some easy miles until a 10 miler next Friday - hopefully the humidity will go down a bit - otherwise I may very well drop dead.

Maryland and D.C.

So last Wednesday we loaded up the kids and headed to Maryland for a few days, before I moved on (Saturday) to D.C. The kids enjoyed swimming and visiting the Rising Sun Zoo and we all had a great time at the Bel Air BBQ fest and the Havre de Grace art fair.

Of course, the travel made it a little more difficult to pile up the miles, but I still managed: 5.6 miles running Monday, a 3.8 mile run/0.5 mile swim on Tuesday, and 4 mile run along the Ma and Pa trail in Bel Air on Friday. My longest run of last week was a 6 miler about the Washington Mall yesterday morning - which took well over 50 minutes. It was hot and disgusting as well. That gave me a grand 19.4 miles running last week - which isn't horrible considering the travel.

This morning I started week 3 of Marathon training with a short 4 miler down to the Jefferson Memorial. I'll probably take tomorrow off, before trying my long run Wednesday morning down around that same way. Today's jog was just as disgusting - but at least I had a lot more company - as it seems many hundreds of people jog around D.C. during weekday - but not weekends (only tourists like myself then).

Summer Sunday

Yesterday the neighborhood (which has been unusually well organized this year - which I credit the women for - since the men have trouble scheduling 3 hours a year to do the fantasy football draft) met up at Lake Compounce - a somewhat local and underrated family amusement park near Bristol CT. It is, in fact, across the street from ESPN's headquarters. Lake Compounce is interesting in that they feature a lot of fairly unique rides - a few of them highlighted by this timely GeekDad write-up, as well as a pretty nice waterpark. The kids had a great time - I don't think I've ever seen my 3-year old daughter as excited as she was exiting the kiddie coaster yelling "zoom, zoom!!" Pretty cool.

The down side was the nearly continuous 7 hours standing/walking about following the mornings 5.7 mile run through Noank. The legs felt it today. Nevertheless, I continued today (the start of week 2!) with a humid 5.6 miles about work. I'll need to go again tomorrow before travels start on Wednesday.

16 Candle Salute.

I was saddened to learn that John Hughes died yesterday of a heart attack at the all to early age of 58. I was a pretty nerdy 12-13 year old, on the cusp of high school myself during Hughes' hot streak of movies - and would have trouble today finding 3 movies that define that age/time better than "the Breakfast Club", "Weird Science" and "Sixteen Candles". These movies made such an impression - that I still feel like I'm watching "older kids" when I see the Breakfast Club on TV - because I was still looking up in age at them the first time I watched it. I can only hope my own children have such wonderful/enjoyable/impactful movies during their own pre-teen/teenage years.

Of course, nothing like a too soon celeb-heart attack to get you motivated to run: did 8.75 miles home on Thursday. It felt great - we're having this fall-like weather that makes running a pure joy - no wonder I hated it growing up in Arizona. I biked in Friday out of necessity - since my car was still at work. Total mileage so far: 14 running and over 45 on the bike (+11 x-training miles). This marked my first week of marathon training - and I'm now officially signed up for Philly. Off to a great start.

Live every week like it's Shark Week.

I've managed 2 round trips on my bike the last 2 days - totaling about 40 miles over 3 hours. The weather's been very hot, so the biking is easier than running. Unfortunately, no swimming yet - and maybe that's a good thing during "Shark Week". Tomorrow will be my long run - about 9 miles from work to home.

Camp Out Weekend.

This weekend was camping out at Island Campgrounds at Pattagansett Lake in East Lyme CT. The neighbors were nice enough to pretty much plan/do everything. The girls were great and really enjoyed the swimming and smores - and sleeping under the stars. I, of course, love waking up smelling like dirty underpants.


I officially started my Marathon training today - a simple 5.3 mile run that I've done dozens - if not hundreds of times. The heat was moderate - but the 100% humidity made it feel like running in a sauna. Even though I need to get running miles in, I think I'm going to do biking the next 2 days and then do my long run Thursday.