The week in review lead up to the Nutmeg

Well Friday royally sucked for my family, my father and his former employer decided to part ways. Good news is hopefully the real estate market will be looking good especially with all the little brats getting ready to set foot on their own from College, as well as the fact that people are actually starting to look for homes and loans...gotta love the tanking fed for something...so in essence I think this summer might be good..at least I hope. After finding out that central is trying to peg me there for another $3000...I mean Semester, I might try to summer course it, but most likely will just throw down $300 for a couple of CLEP Exams for the 6 bull shit credits I'm going to need....I'm debating looking for a new position within the company hopefully one that will give me Saturdays off, but that might not materialize until September, especially due to the fact I have courses starting at 3:30... two days a week....I'll see how that goes..I'm just getting tired of getting yelled at by people who think they have money...and not really fulfilling my potential...so I might scour the weblisting for an upgrade. ...ok financial life..a mess as always..but will be getting better as soon as those stimuli packages show up....also the other reason I'm looking for a job with a higher pay grade...being a teller was great when the cash was flowing in and meeting my needs, now the needs have changed so I'm going to start looking for something that pays me what I'm worth...more than $20k a year....

Alright all the Friday Bull shit out of the way. I went for a 5 mile run and bumped into Angry. We shot the shit on why it is not a good idea to try to go drink for drink with a member of the British Commonwealth.

I have absolutely no memory of the night this picture was taken in St. Croix that's what I get for trying to out do a Scotsman.

Today, had the day off from work..gasp.... so I got in a nice 3000 yard work out. Main set 5x 100 on 1:25 10x 50 on :45 it was short but I wanted to get on the bike before I ran out of daylight. I hauled out to New Britain to pick up Bjoern only to find out he had just gotten back from doing a blazing 56mile (90k) ride out to Granby and back...he did it in 2:49 holy shit...this dude is ready for Switzerland.

I drove out to Middlebury and did my Easter Sunday loop with a twist. I started riding down Route 64 I had to stop twice, once to put my wheel on the other way so the sensor could collect data..the second was a bout 2 feet down the road when my chain popped, a result of a gear shift made as I was dicking around with the front wheel. I did the opening 4 miles of the Griskus sprint Tri Loop. Not to bad, but instead of going to the right and entering the 6 miles of agony , I went left on to Middle Rd. Turnpike...that spit me out onto route 6. I then turned left on to Route 6 and went up on to Route 47 ( part of the olympic Route.) I stayed on 47 and instead of going up on to 132 toward Bethlehem and the rolling hills of the Olympic Course ( did that last week...it was painful.) I went left onto Rte. 47 and followed it to Kettletown Rd. I went up the same route with Claire on Easter, rode a loop of Waramaug, finding out to my chagrin there was a head and cross wind at the lake. I stopped at the State Park to Pee. Now if I had been smart I would have refilled one of my waterbottles with tap water, from the summer bathrooms. ( yes Claire these ones have running water.)..but silly superbly hydrated with GU2O me shrugged it off thinking I could ration my last waterbottle for the remaining 25-30 miles...that and do I really want to catch cholera from water they probably pump in from the lake...

a new meaning to the term aero hydration.

So I set off for the remainder of my mystical voyage. After tearing through the depot, Kettletown and back down 47 at breakneck speed.

I turned left onto Route 6 hoping to ride the "not so long" distance to the Rte 61 interchange..in which I would just turn right climb a few hills from the Olympic Course and be back on the Sprint loop....I passed Flanders Road...shouldn't be too far I thought....man was I wrong.

Instead of being a nice semi flat half mile to mile stretch of Route 6 I endded up half way to Watertown ( 8 miles from Woodbury Center.)..also it was getting dark and there were a few little rollers in the mix...I finally spit out at the interchange about 3 to 4 miles later. Then it was onto the fun part. Anyone who has read my posts on the Griskus Tri or has ridden the Sprint Route knows the last 6 miles in undulating, culminating in a half mile gradual climb. Well the route up to those last few climbs on the Olympic Route is all up hill from Route 6. I finished my waterbottle, near the infamous cornstand where Angry tried to show off on the mother of all bricks last July.... I still had 4 miles and 3 climbs to go. The first climb isn't so bad. You gradually go up then you get a nice sweeping descent. Not bad. The second is more like a series of climbs you go up then back down through some high speed sections the you go up again to a 4 way stop. This 4 way stop is the beginning of the last climb. My legs were shot, my head was aching from lack of fluids. I kicked it into the low gears and tried to maintain 14mph ...I passed the last hill and the annoying smilely face markings on the road...I made it half way up then cracked like Ulrich on Alpe du Huez .. grinded up at 7 mph ...my legs were shot, and my body, despite the fact I had to piss for some odd reason...was craving fluids. I took the last descents at my usual 30-31 mph and got back to the car as it was starting to get difficult to see. Total distance 55miles..total time 3:26...average speed 15.9mph..kind of slow but for lack of hydration and brutal hills, I'll take it...next time around I'll have to get myself a tour style support vehicle, or carry the credit card with me so I can at the worst case senario get a bottle of water or gatorade..from one of the stores on the route.

I got home, ate and then remembered I've got a little half marathon in the morning. My legs don't feel too bad now..but as I said last week this is like a C-D priority race..the kind of event you do just for the T-shirt..as well as an organized hill workout. My goals going in: try to hold 8min. mile pace or as close to it as possible.The other a main thing is just to finish and then raid the post race food bins like I've just been released from the Gulag....If it's free I'll take it ( so yes Cranky I am a sample whore....but I'm also a broke college student so I have an excuse.). Well that's it for me I've got to hit the Hee- zay so I can haul some ass tomorrow.

I have no shame

R.D.