Last hard day before Patriot

Well yesterday I was supposed to do a hard bike / run brick. Sadly my legs didn't handle the crash course in hill work as well as I would have liked. So I took the rest of the night off, good thing too because we had a huge thunderstorm roll through. So today I went long, since I'm staying at my grandfather's place to some severe water damage ( part of the reason my attitude been well not the greatest, I lost some mementos from my youth but it at least will give me an excuse to toss some of the things I could part with away.) my normal runs have had an extra 2 miles tacked on. My 4 miler to the high school became my 6 miler to the high school, my 8 mile hill workout became my 10 mile hill work out...etc. In any case I decided I needed at least one more long run before the Patriot so after Mass this morning I strapped on my sneakers and went for my cross town route. The run began as always with a new uphill section, then my harrowing crossing of the main road. I passed the town beach full to the brim, it was somewhat hot and humid, I need to improve in this type of weather so it helped. As I ran up toward the middle school I was thankful for the shade, Meriden rd. on the other side of town tends to have very little shade and I ended up using up one of my fuel belt bottles on this stretch. The third leg of the run took me down what I guess could be called the lack of Safety Section on route 322, cars own the road here, I have ridden this stretch on my bike been up against the guardrail and still gotten honked at to move over. Running it is no less perilous, granted it's a lot easier to go off road while running than it is on the Stomper. But irregardless, once you pass the golf course the terrain gets interesting and your legs may not forgive you. After about a mile of running on asphalt, gravel, uneven sholder, crushed rock and grass, a smooth even shoulder reappeared. I managed to catch a break from a guy on a harley at a four way stop and began my ascent to the center of town. The heat and humidity was sucking and as if the divine was reading my thoughts a quick torrential shower came down on me. The deluge and resulting sprinkles lasted about 15 min. as I made it through the center of town and past the high school. I managed my usual dart and bobb across Route 69 and then made my way up Beach rd. Through my old neighborhood and made it to my parent's place. I chilled there for a bit before had dinner with the whole fam and then made my way back home with gramps. The run took me 2:07.07 not record breaking but enough to boost my confidence a little. Most of my training this week will revlove around the pool, I might get a couple of rides and runs in but for the most part I need to get my swim in stomping shape. Upon looking at Claire's training logs, she should be blazing on the bike this weekend. Angry will be racing again this season, hopefully kikcing ass, and working soft tissue in the week following. So all in all I hoping to have a good weekend "up the pike" , I should be sorted out enough in August that I would be able to race Park City and hopefully Nutmegman, also within the next 2 weeks Alex will give me the go /no-go on buying the road bike, so all in all things are starting to look up a little bit.

R.D.