Scheduling Whoops and Other Randoms

The Pool
Holy crap - Sean went swimming this week! Ahhh!! How did it go? Well, lets just say I leafed back through some old DC swimming workouts and all I can do is shake my head in shame. The workout, if you want to call it that, was simply 1000 yds, broken up into painfully awkward 100 yard sets. I saved myself the embarrassment by not even bringing a watch, let-alone timing myself. Of course, I might actually have to learn how to do a serviceable flip-turn since this pool is only 25 yds versus that wondrous 50 meter beauty DC had.

My Big Mouth
Seems content to ingest every piece of deep-fried, sugar-coated, caffeine-riddle object that passes before it. I started tracking my (lack of) healthy eating habits about 1 1/2 months ago and things have just gone spiraling out of control. Heh, not good! The perk, if you will, is that I am not gaining any weight just yet, but I'm surely digging myself a hole. Given I'm between serious races, the only excuse I can come up with is that I'm enjoying the downtime a little too much (have you seen my healthy-eating calendar??... yikes).

A Sliiiiiiiiight Miscalculation
Knowing I've been eating like crap lately, I figured I would have all of next week to transition back into a much more serious mindset before marathon training starts the following week. Trouble is, marathon training actually starts THIS week! :o) Hooray!! So, it looks like I'll have to get my crap together a lot sooner than expected. Perhaps this is the kick in the pants I needed.

Marathon Training Thoughts
Maybe I'll write more once I officially kick off the training, but for now, here are some quick thoughts. It'd be great to get through with an 8:00 min/mile average. Of course, at this point that is quite a lofty goal. That aside, this will be a big test for my knee and I hope that I can do the right thing to keep shit healthy. With work-ambition overtaking my life for the past couple of months, I'm also a little nervous about rebalancing things properly, which may very well mean morning runs. Then again, that's not such a bad thing given the higher summer temps.

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2011 Tour of the Donkeys

I'm hoping this becomes a tradition, which I very much think it might. Last Fall, myself and two friends went on a touring-style bike ride from Albany, NY to Boston, MA. Total mileage was only about 170-180, but split up across 1 full day and two partial days. The goal isn't to throttle ourselves, but more-so the chance for a bunch of guys to go for a ride through the back-roads of the country, all the while enjoying some good food + beer along the way.

The latest addition of our ride took us from Albany, NY to NYC via a route along the Hudson River. The legs were in running shape, but definitely not cycling shape. Never-the-less, I knew that my running fitness would far exceed the cycling fitness of the other two guys so I wasn't that worried at all. All in all this trip was great timing b/c it fell between my major races (half-marathon and full marathon!). We just hit the Spring greening across upstate NY too, but by only about a week or so. Everything was blooming!

Here's a slathering of photos to help paint the picture of our trip. Enjoy!

My bike.

Our typical roadways out in the country.

Awesome bookstore / bar.

Southern Tier beer, out of NY of course!

Trespassing for an amazing view.

Damn good regional beer.

Our overnight accommodations.

Frank Gehry building at Bard College.

Loving the stone walls that flanked the roads for much of the ride.

View of the Hudson River from a nunnery, of all places!

The unsettlingly large bones of some deceased animal.

Student views from Marist College.

The Poughkeepsie pedestrian bridge over the Hudson River.

A pack of donkeys.

Chicken hot-dog with a thai peanut-sauce, green onions and lime iced-tea.

Taking a break along the Hudson River.

Refueling. Duh.

Unintentional shot I found on my camera.

My future home (castle) on the hill.

Trying to out-run the weather at Bear Mountain bridge.

Thinking we found the beginning of the trail into NYC...

Hmm, not as glamorous as I thought, but still looks good...

Err, not bad.. but still good.

Wait a minute...

Wood chips?? WTF!! (No punctures, either!)

Ahhh... finally!!

Cool little pergola structure along the trail.

A VERY pedestrian friendly cross-walk.

Awesome stop-lights.

Yep... he took a header trying to dodge a rollerblader and is now having his wounds dressed on the river-front.

We're soliciting options for our next ride. The three of us currently live in Boston, MA and Albany, NY. The most feasible option right now is a tour of the Finger Lakes region of Syracuse, NY. Basically, we would ride our bikes around massive lakes stopping to taste wine every so often. Sounds like a great way to stay hydrated!

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RACE REPORT - Albany YMCA 5k

Here is my race report in email form, as sent to a friend:

I raced this morning at a local 5K put on by the YMCA which took place at Washington Park, located a mere two blocks from my doorstep. I did a recon run of the course on Thursday and found that it was considerably more hilly than I had originally anticipated. In fact, I only made it through 2 miles of the recon run and called it a day out of frustration (and perhaps tired legs from the previous day's bike workout). Never-the-less, I raced this morning.

To back up a bit, about a month ago, my wife's co-worker, an Ohio State alum and overly cocky goatee-ridden man, also signed up to run the race. He asked me how fast I thought I could run it in and I threw out 7:30 min/mile averages (although my current PR stood at a 7:42 min/mile). He said that's about where he was at too and the race was officially "on" from there. I had nailed a few 7:24 min/mile averages in training leading up to the race so I felt good, but not confident that I had anything close to a win wrapped up by ANY means.

Fast forward to race-morning and I meet up with him at the park and exchange pleasantries. He's dressed in his scarlet and gray and me in my U of M tech shirt. I notice he isn't wearing a watch so I offer to pace for us both since I had on my Garmin Forerunner 305. He agrees, but says he'd love to shoot for finishing the 5K in 22:00, or less!!.. I didn't want to show my hand so I just said "sounds good" and went from there. 

The course map. My house is just less than 2 blocks away!

Other than the fact that the race course was FULL of rolling hills, it was relatively uneventful until about 0.5 miles remaining, all the while maintaining an unbelievable 7:00 min/mile pace. Around that point, mr. OSU started to drop off the back ever so slightly. The elastic stretched to about 20 feet, but didn't break... and then I heard him start to heave and gallop back towards me. At that point, I knew what I had to do. I waited until he was almost back up near my shoulder and then just as he got close.. I BOLTED! The elastic snapped!! I heard the sound of gargled frustration as he faded behind me. It was 0.25 miles to the finish line and I sprinted home uncontested.

Official time: 20:56  (11th out of 125 or so)

Here is the data from my Garmin Forerunner 305

 My wife said the guy was super bashful at work the following Monday morning, but still said he wants a rematch (because he didn't realize I had already run a half-marathon this year and perhaps that gave me a secret advantage..?). To his credit, I don't see myself getting anywhere near that time without having him to race against. I guess this means I'll have to find a flatter course and then invite him for a rematch. Unfortunately, I don't see a convenient 5K in my future until after the marathon. Never-the-less, I do want to say that it was really nice to actually race someone as opposed to just competing against myself for the best time. Hurray for my overwhelming sense of competitiveness!

* * * * * *

There ya go! Another PR in the books for 2011! Stay tuned for my post on a recent bike-touring trip, fondly referred to as the 2011 Tour of the Donkeys!

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Cycling Trip - Albany, NY to NYC

Today's plans - Albany to NYC via bike.

Ready... GO!!

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