Confession

Forgive me, Blogfather, for I have slacked.

It has been 10 days since my last post. In that time, I have run slightly over 10 miles.

The reasons why are personally important, but do not lessen my transgressions. Compounding my lack of mileage has been a complete and total disregard for the type and quantity of fuel which I have put into the temple that is my body, including, but not limited to, Taco Cabana fajita salad; barbecue chicken, sausage, beans, slaw, and bacon/potato salad; Whataburger; and sizzling beef fajitas.

I request absolution.

My son, you have attempted to squander the training and hard work which you have done so far this year. After a good result at Bluff Point, you should have built on that base and continued in the way that leads to a smaller waist, larger lungs, and wide-open arteries.

As penance, you must perform 2 hours in sneakers in meditation on St. Sebastian; one hour in homage to the Madonna del Ghisallo; and one hour performing the rite of St. Adjutor. This penance must be complete by Sunday.

Now go in peace, my son, and slack no more.

Italian Giro Coverage, complete w/ Theme Song

Now, by all means, I hope that everyone in the US reading this heads out and pays for OLN’s webcast of the Giro, then sends OLN a nasty message about needing to support Macs (Since serious cyclists are more intelligent than average folks, and hence more likely to use a superior computing platform – vis, a Mac).

However, if you want to see a polished version of the Giro, click on over to Rai, who, I’m guessing, is the Italian Network carrying over the race. Select “Sport” in the left hand column, then “88th Giro”, then “Si Gira” (or any of the content in the right panel”, and lastly any of the stages. Sit back, turn up your speakers, and wait for the theme to begin. It’s followed by programming. I don’t speak Italian, but having taken French and Spanish, I can pick out enough to make fun to watch.

Proof of Concept

There’s not much more to be said about the Bluff Point Trail Race from Friday. I ran hard and finished without too much left in the tank. Could I have gone harder? Yes – there’s this guy in a blue shirt that passed me at about the 4 mile point who I trailed until the last water stop, but then let go who I think I really could have caught. Oh, and the high-school cross country runner who passed me right before the last water stop. But, I can’t be upset – I met my goals, met the Running Chicks, and had a great evening.

And it turns out I did tweak my left ankle on the absolute last bit of bedrock at about mile 3.5. Jake was down hopping on the bed at 7:01, just like every Saturday morning (He’s such a great kid – he’s got a wake-up time, just like he’s got a bed-time, and won’t get out of bed until his digital clock says “seven-oh-oh”. Though some mornings about 6:45 we hear a thump-thump-thump over to the bathroom, a flush, and some playing in the faucet as he washes his hands, gets a drink, gets another drink, etc. Then, he’ll sit and play quietly until 7, at which time he’s down the stairs like a shot.) I pretended to talk to him until the baby woke up, and about fell over when I put weight on it. It got better, though.

Saturday was complete and total rest. I went through the annual ritual of “Crap, new rock – let’s go get a new mower blade” thanks to frost heave. AND we had folks over for burgers and s’mores, courtesy of the trees I dropped last weekend. Mmmmmmm, s’mores. It was downright cold Saturday evening – everyone was huddled around the fire. Which is interesting with small children. Especially when they’re fascinated with new categories – “what will burn” and “what daddy will freak out over before I can see if it will burn”.

Today – I got the virtual elbow in the ribs from my wife (I was in the foyer with the baby and a runny nose) when the preacher mentioned how he was at peace with his 5 year old bike even though there were shinier ones out there. (Little does she know – I do still like my bike). Legs were feeling better, so after Jake and Melissa got back from a youth orchestra thing (she’s trying to get him the music bug, mostly by keeping him as far away from me as possible when I sing), I hitched up the trailer to the MTB and dragged Jake and Nate to downtown. We went and picked up a new helmet for Jake, gave his old one to Nate, and pitched the lid that was on its fourth baby. Then, we went to see the drawbridge, and to play on the playground downtown. Rock on.

Ride back was good. There’s still the one hill near the house which is absolutely brutal, but I managed to drag the trailer up, with two kids, and with the front deraileur unable to move the chain out of the center sprocket. Yeah, baby, I’ve got legs. Stats: Who cares? Probably about 5 miles each way, about 30 minutes each way.

Bluff Point Trail Race

Will post more later, but wanted to get the following blowing through the ether:

1. The Running Chicks, Dianna and April-Anne, are both as gracious, witty, intelligent, and lovely in real life as they are in cyberspace.
2. Dianna is, in fact, famous. But I’ll let her tell that story.
3. It was cloudy and cold before the race started. When we found April-Anne, the sun broke through, and the skies cleared up throughout the entire race. When it was time to go, it got cloudy again. Freaky.
4. I (pretty much) met both of my goals for the race. On section by the tracks between loops, where there was two way traffic, I only got passed by one guy, the eventual race winner, before I started the second loop. AND, I finished in under an hour, which completely rocked.
5. Thanks to being a Gen X’r and growing up in a world where nothing is spoken without a twinge of sarcasm, when TRCWTOH said “Hey, Speed Demon” at the beginning of the race, I thought I was going too slow through traffic. SO, I saw an opening, zipped through, and after about 30 seconds looked back to make sure TRC’s were following. They weren’t, and I suddenly felt rude.
6. I ran the rest of the race in fear that I’d bonk, or slow up, and get passed by them, and get laughed at for being a jerk.
7. (That wouldn’t have happened. See comment 1)
8. No one noticed my post-race hiccups.
9. Clam Chowder is not a good pre-race lunch.
10. Jeff – be advised, there was a spectacular sunset waiting at the end of the race.

OK, so that’s a lot closer to being a full race report than I’d anticipated. Wow. In any case, this was probably the best “race” I’ve done. Granted, I don’t race a lot, but it was nice to achieve goals.

I’m majorly sore, though – I think that I might have overtrained in the last week, with a tough ride Sunday, epic run Monday, pretty decent run Wednesday, and an all-out effort tonight. There might be something to the taper thing. Maybe I’ll try it next time. Not helping was the roll my left ankle took on quite literally the very last bit of granite in the rocky section. The ankle twinged, and my knee started aching, and I very nearly considered abandoning. But, I slowed up for about a half mile or so; things felt better, so I trundled on. I’m gonna hate life in the morning.

The race had the best start ever. We were all milling about the starting line, and the race director got up to give the usual pre-race speech – you know, be safe, etc, and so on. Then, about the time he should have said “OK, now let’s line up to start”, he said “On your mark, get set, go!”, and 95% of us said “Wha? For real?” and started running. Good times, and kind of funny.

In any case, it was great seeing others from the RBF in real-life. Now I’m off to hit the Advil.

Five Easy Miles

(Didn’t think I’d be writing that a couple of months ago.)

(Heck, Tuesday morning, I didn’t think I’d be writing that anytime soon)

Stopped by Bluff Point on my way from bathtime to “back to work”. Figured I’d just take an easy jog along the second loop of the race course, do what would be about 3.5 or so with the little extra to get from the start/finish to where the first loop lets out. No map again, but after staring at it Monday Night, it’s now burned into my head.

And the second loop is that easy. No real hills of which to speak. The part I’d skipped turns out to be darn pretty, in my opinion, too. There’s more along the tracks, true. But then it heads up to the Haley Farm parking lot through a wide-open field along a backwater from the sound. Probably because New England is pretty much completely wooded these days, actual acres of open space that aren’t parking lots are pretty spectacular.

Rather than head back over the railroad bridge, though, I figured I’d take the wrong turn again to see how tough it would be to get back to the entrance to the park. Not tough at all. There was a semi-paved trail (as in it’d been paved maybe 10 years ago) almost all the way back, then a short jaunt on roads to the park. Figure it added maybe a half to a whole mile. I was comletely electronics-free tonight. Not even a watch.

Took Tuesday off. Smart idea; I was sore something fierce. Today, I felt fine. After jogging tonight, I’m almost wishing I’d really pushed – my legs feel let down, and my lungs are wondering when they’re going to get a chance to work again. And since I’m saying this in public, I’m sure to bonk on Friday, and wander in at about 1:40 or so…

Reasons to love the Giro:
1. The Giro Theme Song – If y’all haven’t plopped down $6 for access to OLN’s video feed, do it. The Giro Theme Song starts at about 6 minutes in – big band horns, guy singin’ in Italian “El Grande Giro, El Grande Giro” the something about first one to arrive, I guess. I need to find time and figure out how to rip this to an MP3.
2. Today Danilo DiLuca, the guy wearing the Pink Jersey (leader of the Giro, not yellow like the Frogs) got dropped, and rather than sitting up, the peleton tried to leave him behind. Yeah, baby. Were this le Tour, there’d be whining and crying about that not being sporting.
3. Sprints – The last kilometer of many of the stages have finished twists, turns, and hills – completely thrilling sprints. And no-one’s whining. Plus, it seems like most of the good sprinters today are either Italian or Australian, so there seems to be even a little more gusto.
4. Podium Girls.
5. The computerized course map and weather forecast – provided by the Italian Air Force.
6. Again, the music in the video feed is the greatest – either European Big Band, or really cheezy EuroPop. Makes me want to head up to Logan and stow away.
7. Italians are just that much cooler than everyone else in Europe. So cool, in fact, they don’t have to make a big deal about it at all.
8. Mario Cipollini. Yes, I know he’s not racing. Yes, he is, indeed, that cool.
9. Fassa Bortolo, for at least keeping the idea of a great Italian leadout train alive. Yes, they’re having a rough Giro. but, I still catch my breath when I see them form up near the end of a stage. Plus, like Johan’s been all-over, they’re riding the insanely sweet new Cannondales.
10. That Cunego and Simoni both ride on the same team. All that’s lacking is a fat lady and a score by Puccini.

If I hit the $123 million Powerball tonight, I’m dropping everything, and jumping on my bike to see if I can ride my 32 year old butt into cycling shape. An American’s got to win this thing sooner or later (which may be part of its charm)…