He's back

Well, the last time I posted on my blog was back in August after my sort of anti-climatic race at Ironman Louisville. Essentially I went into the race feeling mentally and emotionally beat. My grandfather had passed two weeks before it and essentially all the stress of the last few years had sort of reached a breaking point. Since my hayday of blogging back in the 08 and 09 tri seasons, my posts have been fewer, mechanical, and have had sort of a negative twinge. So I could do a quick recap of what's happened in the from 2009 until now:

I've been left homeless three times.
Gotten myself into a committed relationship with a great girl.
Tried to get into a US Navy officer program.
Left the nest and gotten into a room to rent/house stay situation.
One my biggest motivators has passed on.
I've become a "coach" for some of the swimmers of my local Y's tri club.
I've become a board member of said tri club.
Suddenly found myself on the outside trying to get back into the insider tri scene.

The past few years have been hectic as I have a real 9-5er which sadly is not paying near what I thought it was going to be, so I'm finding myself debating what the next career plan should be. Likewise since I do have a lady in my life the next part of the plan is where am I heading. I know in the past I've thought about moving out west or out of the US, but when you bring someone into share your life sometimes there needs to be compromise, and you aren't able to drift as easily. Likewise on the career front I'm torn between what I should do. Do I continue in banking? Do I take a gamble on education? Do I go into sports medicine like I batted around a few years ago? I'm 26 I'm not getting any younger and when I'm looking to the future I know I don't want to be in Connecticut working an entry level job , being first responder to every family crisis that comes along, not that I hate my family but for the last few years it's just been sort of surviving crisis to crisis and it's just getting old. Likewise my racing has suffered because despite the fact that I did a 70.3 and a full Ironman last year, my training has sort of been going through the motions and not really pushing myself like I used to do. I mean in early 2011 I was really training hard and starting to get my groove back but as time has been going by I've found myself lacking for energy, skipping workouts and just sort of muddling through as I've been letting life get the better of me. I'm hoping 2012 will be a step back toward 2008 and 2009 where I was training well and was looking at the future with an sense of hopeful optimism instead of the fear and dread which have marked the last few years. So hopefully I'll have some more blog posts this year and I'll be able to get my lazy ass back into shape so I can compete for a Kona slot in 2013 and beyond. So a fresh slate has been made and a new beginning has dawned. Fuck the Mayans! Let kick this pig! Because the only Apocalypse that's occurring this year is the restructuring of the 25-29 Age group with my name moving back to the top of the list.

So Game on 2012.
R.D.

Ironman Louisville Race Report

Ironman Louisville turned out to be my hardest earned triathlon finish. The day started with high hopes and expectations and ended with gratitude for the volunteers and the ability to finish a race when I could have quit many times.

The swim went pretty well other than the news that one competitor had had a massive heart attack only 300 yards into the 2.4 mile swim. I managed to hold a pretty consistent pace and managed to swim a 59:47 not too slow but not as fast as I have done in other races.

The bike wasn’t too bad. I took the one “screaming down hill” at a pretty conservative pace although I kick myself now because I definitely could have taken a little more risk on it as the turns were gentle sweepers and the pavement quality was “bad for Kentucky” but pretty damn smooth by New England standards. The rest of the ride went pretty well. I would kick into the low ring on the climbs to try to save my legs for the run. I was hydrating well and had to stop to pee and adjust my aero bars at the 65 mile mark. I had decided to bring all my own hydration with me this go round as I had a bad experience with Powerbar ® Perform at Providence 70.3. So I used Gatorade to get me through the bike course and water and Clif shot bloks when I ran low. I did pop 3 salt tabs but since I had never used them in training I didn’t know how many to take and how often. I kept leap frogging with this chick Christine, know for her signature grey/ black cervelo and tri suit but electric pink heart rate strap. Things were going well at this point my legs felt good except for a slight cramp in my big toe on my left foot, but I figure it might have just been rubbing against my bike shoes. I hit T-2 in about 6:22. In T-2 I look down at my foot it wasn’t rubbing and I didn’t have any med tape. A volunteer offered to get me some but I figured I would be fine if I ran in socks. I peed and got sunscreen and took off on the run.

The run went according to plan for the first 10 miles. I was holding between 8-9 minute miles and was on pace to run yet another sub 4 hour marathon and finish in daylight like a rock star. Every aid station I was doing my usual ritual of taking coke, water, sponges, and ice. I was passing a lot of people and was feeling amazing. I passed Christine at the 6 mile mark and made a comment along the lines of “ Hi I’m Rob from CT you may remember from such horror films as “You again” and You again the sequel.” “ She laughed and made a comment that I was flying and at this point I was feeling pretty damn good. In the words of Macca “ The nice music was kicking in and I was dancing through the lava fields.” feeling a Kona slot might be within reach.

The big toe on my left foot started acting up around mile 9 with a pressurized ripping, pinching kind of pain. Like my toe nail was rubbing against the toe of my shoe. At mile 12 the pain became too much to run. I figured I would walk to the next aid station to patch my foot up and then I could continue my run and still keep my daylight finish streak alive. Well the next aid station didn’t have a first aid station so I figured walk to the turn around, get patched up and leave this two mile speed bump behind me. I had tried to run walk but I could only go maybe 100-200 feet before the pressure on the balls of my feet became too much. I grabbed my salt tabs from my special needs bag and wolfed down 3 of the five in my pack. On the turnaround I hit a pot hole and my feet still hurt the pressure on the big toe had spread to the big toe to my other foot. I took my shoes off and walked half a mile to the next aid station. It helped as it relieved the pressure. I stopped at the aid station after the turn around and asked for a band aid and some tape as my left toe hurt a lot worse than my right ( which was a manageable annoying throbbing instead of the “I think my toenail is going to explode out of the mesh at any second” kind of pain on my left toe. ) The volunteers at this aid station were wonderful. I munched down some pretzels as I patched my surprisingly not bloody toe. One of the volunteers noticed my socks were soaked from my sponge, ice, water, routine when I was going mach 1, so she gave me the socks off her feet and got me back on the road. I started feeling a little better and figured maybe I could run again. I picked it up and started to hit my stride again taking pretzels and coke at the aid stations. I was beginning to think that I might be able to salvage a 12:30 Ironman. After three miles I started feeling woozy and light headed like I was going to faint. Stopped at a port o let and peed: it was clear, no sodium I thought to myself. My foot felt a little better and I tried to run again, I got even more light headed and the road seemed to spin for a second. I slowed down and decided to walk to the aid station. I got to the aid station at about mile 19 and asked if they were giving out chicken broth. One of the volunteers nodded. I asked if I could sit for a bit. A couple of the Volunteers sat me down on the pavement and brought some of the broth over. I downed 6-7 cups of the stuff, as well as two cups of pretzels while I tried to get my bearings back. I must have been there for half an hour. The aid station captain came over and asked if I was on my first or second loop. I told him my second and he was like “you still have plenty of time to finish take what you need.” A passing athlete gave me a salt tab as I sucked it down with another cup of chicken broth. After a couple more minutes I stood up and started walking with another athlete. He gave me a salt tab and told me he was on his first loop. We walked for about half a mile before he started to run and began to haul ass so he could make the cut off. I continued to walk my marathon feeling like Rutger Beke in the 2007 Ironman, my feet hurt too much to run and at every aid station I was still peeing crystal clear. So I was taking Coke, Sports Drink and two cups of broth and pretzels. I continued to walk trying to run every so often for a few feet here and there, and occasionally stopping to stretch. Occasionally an athlete would come along side and we would chat for a while then they would start to jog or their walking pace would get faster than my waddle and they would disappear into the night. As the sun set I began to take it in stride. Joking with one guy, “The good thing about walking the marathon is I can actually enjoy the cookies.” I said at one aid station. One guy wearing a glow stick walked by “ Man I’m jealous I want one.” I said as he ran past with a chuckle. I tried to kick up my pace for a few hundred feet while I ran past the motivational mile. My legs still felt good but my feet felt like they were balloons full of fluid. It became clear that it was going to be a miracle to even run up the finish chute. But onward I went each mile ticking down as downtown came into sight. Athletes still came by one woman encouraged me to run with her. “my feet are too swollen” I told her. I came toward downtown and the crowds started to grow. Words of encouragement started to come from every direction. I made if to the last couple of corners. I started to jog and caught a couple of runners “I’ll back off and let you get some distance as I’m planning to log roll.” I told one lady “Thanks hun but I’m still on my first lap I was the last off the bike and they’re going to pull me off at the turnaround, but thanks for the heads up.” I jogged up the finish chute high fiving spectators on both sides of the barriers. 14:25- 14:30 it didn’t make a difference at this point I was going to finish. I dropped down and did a picture perfect log roll. I could now appreciate the sentiment of finishing the Ironman, of having the attitude of the finish is all that matters and that DNF was not an option. I could now appreciate what Jon Blais went through in his Ironman, going through tremendous pain most of it exponentially worse than mine to make it to the finish.

My official marathon time was 6:50:30, 20 minutes slower than my bike split. My slowest ever for the distance. My official finish time was 14:28:04 my time in medical was roughly 1hour 45 minutes, and for once I didn’t make it back to the finish line to see the last people cross, but I did get to see and feel just how hard it is to make it to that finish line.

As for my future in Ironman I’m hoping in the next couple of weeks to get the cash together to make another assault on Louisville, I’ve got some unfinished business with that run course as I see it the course owes me a 3:45 marathon and a Kona slot, and this time I’m bringing my A-game…and a couple of bottles of salt tablets.

R.D.

Pat Griskus Olympic Race Report.

"I'm not dead yet."- Monty Python

Well ok I haven't posted in nearly three months and any following me is probably like "wait he still blogs?" when they see their status updates. But I am still kinda blogging and now I'm racing this season. Last Saturday I ran the Pat Griskus Olympic Tri at Lake Quassapaug in Middlebury, CT. The race is run out of Quassy Amusement Park at the same venue they run the Rev3 triathlons out of, granted on a slight easier course.

I guess the theme for this race could be new out look, new equipment, new teammates, same old course, bike split and dominating run. I arrived at Quassy at about 6:30 and caught some crap from one of my friends Scruffy from HEAT in that this year I was racing in Waterbury YMCA tri club gear. I'd been coaching their swimmers, training at their facility, and have been put on the board of the club so I had to represent.
This year in addition to new tri clothes I was racing in Pearl Izumi Streak II racing flats and had borrowed Alexei's Aero helmet to see if it was worth the investment, so today was also a test run of the gear I hoped to use in Louisville.
Last year I came into this race after a roller coaster May and June and this year I was a little more settled but still felt kind of unprepared as my training has been nowhere near what it had been in the "Glory Days" of 2008 and 2009. I set up my transition next to Sandra from the Y tri club and a few other of the White Orange and Teal Crew, and made my way down to the swim.

I met up with Neil, my protege from the Y tri club as we waited for Fog to clear off the lake. The race directors mentioned the litany of sponsors and Had Sister Maddona Budder ( yes she was racing here this year, weird I know but I guess Rev's not the only race in the state that can pull big names.) give the invocation and plug her newest book, as well as give us her memories of Pat Griskus, a Connecticut Native and the first amputee to complete the Hawaii Ironman, and was training for his third attempt when he was hit by a truck and killed in Kona in 1987. The Sprint race run every July since 1987 was renamed 1988 in his honor. Finally after about a half an hour and after a couple of chants from the uber bikers for a TT dualathon, the race crew announced a shortened swim. The first wave of men over 35 took off in the mist following a line of kayaks to the first buoy. I went off in the second wave and all the way out to the first buoy it was carnage as people get swimming of the tops of each other and the stragglers from the first wave and tried desperately to sight in the fog. The entire swim I was never really in a clear patch of water as I blowing by guys from the previous wave. I got out of the water in about 9 minutes and hit the mat for T-1 in 11:09 .

T-1 went kind of slow as I had no body glide and struggled to get my right foot free from my wetsuit. I got on the bike pretty quickly and began pedaling like a madman. As expected I did lose a few spots on the opening run out of the park, and on the steep descent at mile 3. I was a little shocked to see Neil's Cervelo P-1 going flying by me so effortlessly. For the first time in my racing career I felt that on of my athletes might actually beat me. I started to make up ground in the hills, pushing higher cadence than power this year, and it seemed like my months of spin classes were paying off until about mile 10 and three steady climbs back to back to back. By the summit of the second climb my heart was beating faster than a jack rabbit's on cocaine, I backed off on the pace and put it into an even easier gear, trying to get my heart rate back to normal. Luckily there was a descent after the third climb so I just coasted for it feathering the brakes a bit so I could make the Sharp right hander at the bottom. Weekeepeemee Rd, had actually been repaved this year but I still took it cautious and got passed. They did the reroute up Crane Hollow Rd, and it's steep ass hill and other than nearly getting taken out by a few serpenting cyclists on this hill the rest of the ride was pretty uneventful. I did pass Ken, "The CT Cookie Monster" Schultz on the last climb of the course something which never happens, but apparently it was because his body was still recovering from the Rev3 Revolution Challenge in which he race both the Rev Oly and Rev Half two weeks ago on brutally hilly courses. I finished the bike in 1:16:29 30 seconds faster than last year so I guess the Aero Helmet may have had something to do with it, or the spin classes or both.

T-2 was also a little slower than normal as I tried to squeeze my feet into my new racing flats. I took off in just trying to get back the plethora of spots I lost on the bike, which was a lot more than usual as the short swim put the uber bikers in closer proximity. I passed Ken again on the hill and just tried to turn over as fast as I could, last year I had felt flat on the first loop of the run this year I was flying as I tried to see how far back I was to Neil. By the turn around I had a gauge, less than a minute and although he was looking strong, I knew that I was about a minute faster on the 10k, it might be Ken Glah vs. Pauli Kiru at the finish line but I knew I had it in my legs to catch him. Scruffy made a comment that he was coming to catch me as I spotted him less than a minute behind on the turnaround. I knew I needed to increase the tempo so I hit the Nos on the flat, and grinding up the hill for the first time. The pain of my efforts became clear when I had to slowdown and rub out a side stich at the top of the hill. I jogged lightly for about 200 feet and then kicked up the pace again. "Must catch Neil." I thought to myself. I spotted him at the turn around about 30-45 seconds in front "He's mine." The catch was almost like Crowie's passing Chris Lieto in the 2009 Ironman I came along side stood neck and neck for a bit then was gone. As I came up from behind I noticed he was wearing a new set of Peral Izumi's "Damn Obi Wan has taught you well." I said as I went by. We laughed, and then I continued my onslaught on this run course. I had felt my bike had been too slow and I was taking it out on this 10k, because if you bike like a bitch you better run like a rockstar. I noticed by the turnaround I opened 30 sec. on Neil and Scruffy was a further 2 min. back. As I ran past I gave Scruffs a razing for his comments on the Previous loop. "What happended to catching me dude?" " How dare you negative split." or something like that he shouted back. I made my way up the hill a lot stronger on this loop than the previous with no cramps, and managed to cross the tape in 2:11:43 my 10k Split was a 41:50 only 4 seconds slower than last years.

Overall I was in 110th place part of which I chalk up to the short swim, the other to the stacked field at this race. I was 8th in my Age Group, Neil was 9th less than 2 minutes behind. Overall except for some blistering on my heels from the new flats the equipment worked out well, and I was glad to see my fitness level seemed up to snuff. My next race is in two weeks at Ironman Providence 70.3 and that will be a better test of my preparedness for Ironman, as well as my re-entrance into long haul Tri.

Happy Training
R.D.

Learning how to ride like a roadie?

Well, for years I've struggled with the bike. Part of it's been mental, part of it's been my riding style and part of it has been my training. This year I seemed to have gotten a hold on 2 of the 3. The mental part always takes me a bit. If I'm unsure of a route or where a decent is going to take me I tend to ride ultra conservative, but once I figure out what I'm doing things fall into place. So on my second outdoor ride a loop of the Waterbury Ymca's suffer/hammer route with Alexei I wasn't surprised he was kicking the shit out of me on decents and crossing intersections. But there was one area where I was shocked, the climbs and the flats. Normally I tend to be a power rider. I usually push insanely tough gears, and crank out massive watts generating a world of hurt for my lower back, hams, glutes and calves. This year with all the indoor rides and actually showing up to spin classes on a regular basis I noticed a change in my riding style. I suddenly began to be able to push high cadence and noticed I was actually carrying a fair amount of speed. Now one reason I used to be a power rider was I figured that if I was going 100RPM in an easy gear I was going to be spinning a long at 15MPH quite literally spinning my wheels and going nowhere. Sunday's ride changed that. As Alexei and I cruised along Route 6 in Southbury ( after a few wrong turns.) I noticed that I was not in the biggest gear I could push but I was crusing along a 20mph with moderate effort. Likewise I noticed that I was actually able to launch sustainable efforts on the climbs and that I was able to give Alexei ( who is normally a much better cyclist than I am.) a good challenge to the top of some of the moderate climbs. What do I credit for this success? The sufferfest spin videos and classes run by the Y tri club. Every Tuesday we would ride one of these tough little workouts that would show snippets of pro-tours and would set a workout based on the race we were following. We simulated the climb up Alpe Du Huez, going into a break at the Tour de Sussie, TT riding the World Championship course, to the carefully crafted Sufferfest Videos. But one thing I noticed about the sufferfest videos was they preped us to ride like roadies, rather than tri geeks. John Hirsch had commented on his blog about how triathletes are not groomed to constantly push themseleves to the red line and recover and then make continual red line and recovery efforts like cyclists. Indeed in tri, the main goal is to hold a steady quick pace that won't thrash your legs too badly for the run. Sufferfest didn't work us like that. We were constantly put through over/unders, attacks, tempo riding, responding to attacks. essentially we were in roadie school. Part of me wonders: could my bike leg improve if I do a couple of surges strategically placed in the ride? In my ride with Alexei I held back a little on the decents and some of the straights focusing on good effort and strong cadence, taking a couple of tempo pulls at the front. I attacked on the climbs and noticed that for most of them I was either neck and neck or passing Alexei. Whether this was because he was worn from pulling or I had sandbagged a little./ planned my ride to have a stronger second half, or just picked the right times to kick it up, it felt good. So I'm wondering if this season maybe the year I'm actually able to put all three legs together and have a breakout. I'm definitely planning on keeping spin classes as part of my training regiment. While outdoor riding is great and makes the long ride more enjoyable. I think a good quality seesion indoors once a week might help me keep focus on good form and strength. So I'm going to see where this takes me because the results have been looking promising so far.

R.D.

First outdoor ride and What gives BAA?

Well Thursday I had an odd day off as part of my quarterly schedule. This week I was off Thursday, working Friday and Saturday and then off Sunday to go back in on Monday. But my quirky hours aside Thursday proved to be a good day to be out of the office. There were clear skies, temperatures hovering around 70 and a bike with a brand new chain and cassette chilling in the garage, my plan for the day was clear. I was riding and it was not going to be a trainer session. I spent about 20 minutes in the morning digging the end of one of my draw strings out of the waist band of my tri shorts, then packed The Bitch Stomper into my Subaru and made the now much shorter ride from Waterbury out to Middlebury to do some loops of the Pat Griskus Tri course. While part of me wanted to be adventurous and go and do my 50 mile Quassy to Waramaug route, I hadn't ridden outdoors in nearly six months and after this years brutal winter the roads were going to be pitted and most likely sand covered, so I stuck to the easy 10 mile loop through some "gentle rolling hills" and farm land. The first mile I was greeted by something that seemed missing on the trainer: a crosswind while going down hill at 30 mph no less. For a second I had to relearn how to handle a bike, as I felt the rear wheel going a little sideways and my bike being pushed to the right, just tried to go with it pushing left just enough to keep the Stomper from going off the road. The roads weren't too bad, there were only two rough spots, the bottom of the "s" curve and the right hander on to Tomilson road still had some grit which required me to coast at a lower speed than normal, but for the most part things went pretty smooth. The sufferfest spin Dvd's really helped this winter in that I focused more on climbing with a strong cadence rather than mashing heavy gears and I noticed that I was able to hold a larger gear than last season on the final climb at mile nine and I didn't need to get out of the saddle. Overall my speed wasn't too far off from normal either I averaged 16.2 mph for 20 miles. Not bad for sitting on an exercise bike all winter. I decided that since it was a georgous day to tack on a nice 8 mile run as a brick. My legs felt a little heavy as I tackled the opening 8 miles of the Rev3 Half run course. By the time I hit the dirt road portion of White Deer Rocks my legs had found their stride granted they still felt a little tight. I know if I want to do Rev3 and if I want to do well I'm going to need to work on running after hard climbing rides. All in all the run didn't go to badly as I popped my usual day dream of one day winning Kona and amuzed myself with the idea of one day being able to race pro. Ok yes I know that reallistically that neither may never happen but if it gives me the strength to push a little harder on a long training run then damn it I'm not going to knock it. And my time for the run was 1:12, not Crowie killing fast but good for the first brick of the season. And speaking of running, the Boston Marathon is coming up on Monday. So good luck to Mary the Iron Matron in the Patriots' Day classsic, and while I'm on the note of the Boston Marathon, what gives with the new qualifying standard? I had been surfing the HEAT forum and heard that the Boston Athletic Association ( BAA) had just lowered the time standards for the 2013 running of the Boston Marathon and put in bonuses for faster runners in 2012 ( ie the faster you run the earlier you get to register.) I'm not really opposed to the fast kids getting to sign up first, that's fair because hey if you run a 2:12 marathon you should be running in Boston, but did they have to make the time standard for guys under 35 3:05, I mean 3:10 was just starting to seem within grasp. Hell my girlfriend's mom even works in Hopkinton and she lives like 2 seconds away so I will even have a place to crash when I eventually qualify. If my Kona dream fell through this year I would try making a good attempt at a Beantown slot at the Hartford Marathon, but now it seems like that I might have to start training with Ryan Hall to even have a prayer at running Boston before I turn 35, granted even 3:05 doesn't sound that bad, but that's still 16 minutes I have to drop from my current PR but now it has to be 3:05:00 or under you don't even get the 59 seconds you used to. I mean I know it's Boston and it's a big deal but come on BAA , I think us New Englanders should get a break, I mean it's not like we're in Kenya or Cali where we have beautiful 50+ degree weather and mountains to train in all winter to prep for our qualifier and then the race, I think a New England winter is worth an extra 5 minutes because otherwise all your going to have is a bunch of college track kids, Kenyans, Ethiopians, and dudes from Cali towing the line in Boston, and I mean come on the Californians have the Frisco, Big Sur and LA marathons let us have NYC and Boston...please, pretty please? Well that's my two cents, happy training all R.D.

9 mile run of death and other training tales.

Well this week I've been able to get three back to back days of training so I'm starting to re-establish a pattern. Monday I went for a 9.45 mile run Tuesday some lifting and the sufferfest bike intervals and yesterday my first swim since Saturday, while it's not the ideal plan, I am coming back from a crash and burn week and some harder early season trianing than I've done in the past two years.

On Monday my 9 miler could be know as a run of death for two reasons, hills and traffic. Adjusting to life back in Waterbury has been a little bit of a change because for the past 5 years I've had established running routes out in Wolcott, 2 days a week do the 8 mile loop, on the long days I had a 12, 15, and 20+ mile loop set up. At my new place one of my dabblings has been to try to set up new routes that aren't going to get me killed by traffic or lead me into "da hood". While Bunker Hill is not "Da Hood" it does have traffic, dogs, uneven sidewalks, pot holes and some areas of questionable character. Likewise it has Hills and I don't mean the gentle rolling type. While Bunker Hill Ave. is a long gradual climb some of the surrounding side streets can have some nasty little or in some cases big climbs.

On Monday my goal was to run from my house to Holy Cross High School and run part of one of my old High School training loops before looping back home. Only problem with this was I would have to cross West Main Street/ Chase Parkway in Waterbury, which is a busy drag as it connects the West Side with Downtown and there are three highway exits within 2 miles of each other on this stretch. I started my run down Bunker Hill Ave which was pretty tame, there are plenty of sidewalks and crosswalks, as long as you paid attention to traffic you were fine. I cut up a Deleware Ave and another side road which took me up a pretty nasty hill, and left debating if leaving the fuel belt at home was a wise idea. i cut down a few more side streets and got a nice down hill run to West Main Street and as I saw the packs of cars lining up at one of the exits. Running at rush hour wasn't my most brilliant idea.

But being the type of adapter I am I decided I would run down Chase Parkway past the last I-84 exit, then shoot down Straits Turnpike into Watertown and go up the backside of Bunker Hill into Waterbury. The only problem Straits Turnpike is a major State Road, and after I had risked life and limb in a narrow shoulder on Chase Parkway, the one on Straits Turnpike wasn't much bigger. For a good two mile stretch I had cars whizzing by at 60mph ( afterall we all know that the speed limit of 45mph is the minimum right? yes I'm guilty of this too.) less than a foot away from me. I traversed the boondock section of Straits turnpike I kept trying to tell myself good things about this section is it was realatively flat and it was a residential as the minivans sored past, followed by a BMW, followed by some kid in a rice burner trying to set a state speed record. There were some moments my thoughts flashed back to one of my training partners, I'll just call him B. B had been a pretty decent runners in the 70's and 80's One night after a swim session I noticed and odd scar on his leg and the fact that he sort of limped. when I asked him about it he was like "yeah about ten- fifteen years ago a car hit me from behind when I was out on a training run, completely shattered my leg they had to put a steel rod in and when they went to remove it they would have had to rebrake the bone that grew around it so they just left it in." It was a sobering thought that wasn't helping as I was running with traffic, knowing at any moment I could be subject to "death by Honda" I mean come on if you have to die on a run it should be something bad ass like "I finished the Boston Marathon at 90 then had the BIG ONE" or "I ran out of fluids at Badwater" not "yeah some teeny bopper was looking for her Ke$hia CD and plowed her civic into me."

After about a couple of miles it turned into a commercial drag with Car Delaerships on either side, a few shopping plazas and sidewalks. Except for dodging the stop and shop rush, things went smoother from here, until I turned the corner to go up the Hill. The backside of Bunker Hill is a nice little climb and from Straits Turnpike to the Waterbury City line it's covered by sidewalk then back to dodging traffic for half a mile, then the nice little right hand turn at Our Lady of Loretto Church, and up the hill back home. seeing the outline of the hill was kinda intimidating but once you strat grinding it out it's not so bad. From here the run uneventful except for the fact I was thirsty as hell. Next time I do anything close to 10 miles I'm brinign the fuel belt. I managed to churn up the climbs at a pretty good rate, and finished my run in about 1:22. I don't think I'll be doing this loop again but it wasn't too bad of a workout.

The last two days I was indoors for bike training and the swim so I'm hoping to get out for my first outdoor ride today, at the very least I'll be running. Well that's it from me I'm burning daylight.

Happy Training

R.D.

So much for training...

Well this week was supposed to be the start of hardcore training week and it started out well with a 13 mile run on Monday. My run went pretty well as I cruised down the REV3 half course in Middlebury. Granted I did take a wrong turn on Christian road and ran past the front of the Timex factory instead of behind it. I felt strong on the run and better than on some of my shorter runs as I brought my fuel belt with me so I was able to hydrate a little. But I have had no workouts since. Tuesday I came home and slept and just couldn't drag myself to the Y to swim. Yesterday I drove my mom out to Newport so my planned workouts for the afternoon were scrapped. I didn't get in until 1am, so an early morning workout was out of the question. I came home and passed out until 7:30 . While part of me believes my body may need rest and I should just write off tonight another part of me is thinking about setting up the trainer and hopping on for an hour to get my legs in shape for the Ironman. The down side is I don't have a DVD player in the basement so if the trainer does come out it's going to be a mental toughness ride for sure with no movies to dull the monotony. But most likely I'm just going to toss up today as another rest day and get in the pool tomorrow and Saturday and possibly break out the bike for a quick 20 miler on Saturday morning after the swim. I know I need to start training harder I'm not sure if I should get up earlier and try to get at least a quick run or swim in before work so that way I guaranteed at least one workout if I'm beat after work. All I know is I need to get workouts if i'm to have any chance to finish let alone qualify for Kona. RD I still haven't forked over much in the way of equipment as I'm adjusting to budgeting rent into the equation.