Run, Run, Run, Run, Run, Cycle, Cycle Too

You ever have one of those days at work, where all morning is spent just treading water, dragging against what seems to be an unsurmountable obstacle? The kind of day where nothing gets done? Today was absolutely not one of those days.

What it was, however, was nasty, grey, and chilly at 6 AM when I was headed across the bridge. Blew off running, took a shower, and headed to the office.

About 10, the gloom burned off, and it turned into one of the beautiful days that occur all too frequently during the summer, and are few and far between during the winter. I headed over to get a haircut in the afternoon with Steve, and coming out of the barber shop, I could feel my legs twitch. Rather than heading back to the office, I hit the gym, changed, grabbed the iPod and hit the road.

Dunno. I felt good, straight up good for the first time in a while. Headed out all the way along the shoreline, then turned around and headed back, rather than cutting the corner and making the loop back. Probably 5 miles or so.

The PS, though, is that I was set for a loop when I hit the house. Ouch. So I took off Friday

Despite having waited until just before going to bed to ride last night, I was up at the crack of dawn to hit the road today. Figured that sprints were still somewhat important, so I did the same run as last Tuesday: 1 mile warmup, 1.5 miles on the track with four 1/8 mile sprints, and about a 1.5 mile cooldown.

Ouch.

Dunno if I didn’t have enough water between last night and this morning, but I was dragging the whole trip. My heart rate spiked after the last sprint, and didn’t come back down into the “target range” until I stopped running altogether.

There’s a lot of work to be done.

Wake up this morning and it’s pouring. Real cats and dogs pouring. The wuss in me wins out, and Tuesday sprints are canx’d in favor of staying in bed.

It nagged at me all day, so finally, after the boy was in bed, and the baby was well on his way, I broke out the bike and rollers, and knocked off 20 minutes while watching the Blues Brothers. I have seen the light.

And we’re going the wrong way.

186

Admittedly, this week wasn’t the best as far as eating, and I’m a day down, having taken off from running today for a day of vacation, but it’s not quite like I’ve been sitting on my rump. Hiked at Bluff Point both Saturday (4 miles) and Sunday (2 miles), and yard work all three days.

The runs and rides are feeling better, so I’m not panicked at this point, but I’ll be much happier when the pounds and inches start coming off again. My hope is that I won’t get to the 175 level I’ve hit every time I’ve lost weight in the past decade and stall, but we’ll have to see.

I’m pretty down on Lance Armstrong ever since he ditched Kristen and the boys to hang out with a half rated, over the hill pop star. But, he still knows how to make sure that the pedals keep going around, and how to keep the meat side up and the rubber side down in the mountains. Although I may have to pull for someone else in the Tour, what with me being somewhat bound to becoming a yankee now. Plus, the guy’s pretty hard-core, what with finishing last year’s tour with a broken collarbone.

Anyhoo, I broke out the old Cannondale and pounded out a couple of miles this morning. 10 to be exact. The ride was great, wrapped up in about 34 minutes, which is quicker than the 15 MPH I’ve been averaging for the last year or so, but climbing completely blew. I’ve got no lungs for it. Within about 30 seconds of starting up a hill, I’m in distress. But there’s not a whole lot of choice here; hills are a fact of life. Plus, what does not kill me makes me stronger.

Love the bike.

Was working at the Connecticut office, so I figured I’d try out our membership at the Mystic YMCA. Another nasty misty day. 35 minutes or so, not quite 4 miles.

Ended the day by heading to Boston with Jake and a couple of folks from the office to catch the Red Sox game. Tons of walking, most with the boy on my shoulders.

Ah yes.

Tuesday Sprints. I suppose that calling them sprints is better than calling it “speed work”. Being as a sprint implies all-out effort, which I can do, and “speed work” implies speed, which I do not do.

In any case, good day’s run. It’s a mile to the track, did six laps total with four eighth mile repeats, then the scenic route back to the gym for a total of about 3.7 miles.

Well, maybe just mist.

Thunderstorms rolled through New England last night. I’ve always loved big storms, the smell of ozone in the air as they roll in, and the sudden drop in temperature while big raindrops are falling close to home. We heard the thunder start while we were finishing supper, and Jake and I went outside to make sure we had the yard cleaned up. He was throwing toys into his box, and I was throwing down grass seed on newly raked and weeded soil. Dunno if it’s going to take, but we’ll see.

This morning was Weigh-In Monday: 185 lbs, strangely unchanged from 1 January. I’m feeling better as I run, but haven’t started to see any changes around the waist yet. Still about 30 lbs to go to my “ideal” BMI. BTW, I haven’t been down to my “ideal” since I hit 140 after 13 weeks of being chased around Pensacola by the United States Marine Corps a decade ago.

This morning’s run felt good. I’ve gone back to using a heart rate monitor (Nashbar’s cheap one), mostly to prevent overexertion. I dunno that “preventing overexertion” is the track I should be taking (see above comment on essentially stagnant weight loss since 1 January), but I’m willing to try. My other initiative this week is to start keeping track of what I eat, and then trying to do an energy balance. If goesouts is greater than goesins, the pounds ought to start falling off. The difficulty is in tracking what I huff down accurately.

I went ahead and extended this morning. 35 minutes, my guess is about 3.75 miles, all the way around most of the base perimiter. Didn’t get attacked by geese this time, but saw tons of goslings again. Not so many seagulls though; could the resident Canadas be pushing the gulls out of prime habitat?

Like I said, the run was good. I’m gradually stretching back into the zone in which I get the huge runner’s high; hopefully it will start working backwards, and I’ll get the high earlier in the day’s run.

Insanely beautiful day today. Absolutely crazy beautiful.

So I slipped on the shoes and shorts before jumping in the car for the ride home, and cranked out a run. My bright idea was that I’d run out easy for 11 minutes, then turn around and pick up the pace for the way home. Really stretch it out to see if I could drop 2 minutes off the leg time and get in in 20 minutes.

Off I go. Highlight of the run was not getting attacked by geese this time, but was seeing the new cadets arrive at NAPS. Nothing like a little standard issue “orientation” to bring back memories of Drill Instructor Staff Sergeant Hyler, United States Marine Corps, and get my left foot hitting the ground. (ran a 9:30 mile and a half after 4 months with him) Warmed my heart.

I turn around in front of the NAPS building, and “kick it into high gear”. Truthfully, I felt great on the way back, until my heart rate pegged about 1/2 mile away from the car. Slowed down a little bit, but figured out I’d still cut a minute or so off based on perceived effort and that this side of the run was more downhill.

So what did the clock tell me? 21:45. Dropped a whopping 15 seconds on the trip back in.

Sigh.

Despite cribbing a running-centric title from the VU, running isn’t my only love.

Cycling I dig, too, and about this time of year, that means I’m into the Giro d’Italia. Cipo’s out after a pretty nasty crash, but it’s still three weeks of footage of rolling hills and guys who can push a bike way, way too fast.

Last night – OLN’s taped coverage and the rollers, while the baby slept on the futon in the basement.