Crap

Its been a crappy week, although I’ll concede that it flew by.

Monday, I ran with the Delco crew. I was feeling crappy, and luckily, the only people who showed for the run were some of the slower folks, and one or two guys recovering from some lung weekend runs, so banged out an easy three miles with them. Tuesday, I took a day off. Wednesday, I started feeling poop-ish as soon as I arrived at the office. I had a massive headache, and I felt that little tickle in the back of my throat that’s usually the early-warning of an oncoming cold. I bagged out of work early, went home, and slept for two hours. I then slept for another 8 hours going into Thursday. Yesterday, I felt fine, and I went to the Thursday night Delco run over at the Springfield Library. I was only one of three people in attendance. The other two guys are faster than me, and I was kind of regretted showing up. Luckily, Bill declared that he was doing a short three miler, and Steve usually takes it easy if he has no one to race. We kept the pace comfortable ~ 8:40 min/mi. Bill cut out around three miles; Steve and I did another mile and a half for a total of 4.5.

Today, I feel like crap again. Both Heather and I didnt sleep very well last night. I think I got four, maybe five hours of sleep. I felt fine going into the morning, and then I hit a wall around 2;00 this afternoon. I can feel that tickle again in my throat. I think I just need another good night of sleep. My knee has been giving my some pain in the last two days as well. I am not sure if this wet weather has anything to do with it. I have stretching (not as much as I should), and I havent been doing alot of miles.

I would like to get a long run in this weekend, even though the training plan outlines this week as a “scale-back” week – no long runs scheduled for the weekend. But that’s for sissies. I would like to get in at least 10 at a very minimum. Originally, I was thinking about heading over to the Springfield library tomorrow morning and running the 7.5 mile course with the 7:30 group, and adding in the “add-on” leg of about 2.5 miles for an even 10, and then following that up with the 9:00 three miler, for 13. I am hesitant to join the 7:30 group because they tend to push the pace a bit. I should know because I did a bunch of these Saturday morning runs last year when I was training for the Philly Marathon and we were moving petty good on a lot of those runs. The Running Club is doing a long run on Sunday morning down in the City, but I can’t make that due to a scheduling conflict.

It’s been nearly two weeks since I have been on the mountain bike. I am getting a little antsy. This is great and all that, but nothing beats the bike. I got a new (used) fork from Ebay, and I would like to get that on the bike this weekend. I went the used fork route because I am not prepared to install a new fork on a bike that isnt worth anything. I have put forks on my bike before on my own, and its not rocket science, but I think I might need a new headset, which is something I cant do on my own. A headset installation requires something called a head press. I dont own one of those, and I am not going to go out and buy one just to install one measly headset. If I determine that I need a new headset, I’ll run the bike over to my ship in Upper Darby and have Frank slap one in.

I normally go to a shop in Swarthmore. They are located less than three miles from me, and they do good work – sometimes. I used to go to a guy named Frank Havnoonian over in Upper Darby. Frank is an old schooler. I have been going to Frank off and on for nearly 15 years, starting way back when I was still living at home in Briarcliffe. before I got married, I lived in Upper Darby for a short spell, and I would frequent Frank’s shop since he was located less than two miles form my apartment complex. Frank has been around for ages. He was at one point the team mechanic for Team Saturday, back in the 80’s/90’s. Frank is great, and he’s cheap. Frank’s the go to guy. Not that I dont trust the shop in Swarthmore, but about two months ago, I brought the bike in for a bottom bracket and a headset adjustment. I am not convinced they did the headset adjustment properly. I am not going to take any chances – I am taking it to Frank. He’ll straighten sh*t out. There are two mechanics that I think work miracles- Frank Havnoonian and Rob V formerly of my old sponsor, Mainly Bikes. Rob got out of the wrenching biz when the shop closed and he now works for Jamis. He’s been my Jamis hookup for the last couple of years. Thats why Dom and I have ridden nothing but Jamis for the past ten years, and why most of the old crew rode Jamis or Yeti exclusively, Anyway, the fork install should be a fun little weekend project. Hopefully, this new (used) fork will solve the clanking problem I am having with the current setup. If the clanking is still there after I slap this thing in, then I know its the headset, which would confirm my suspicions that my shop half-a$$ed the adjustment.

Date: 8-24-2009
Scheduled Workout: 
Rest/ Cross Training

Actual Workout:
Easy run of 3.12 miles at a 9:20 pace

Course:
The Delco RRC Monday Night loop that meets the Ridley YMCA. Flat course, kind of boring, low traffic.

Workout Nutrition:
N/A

Post workout Eats:
I think I might have pigged out. Cannot remember.

Weight:
Not sure.

Comments:
Like I had mentioned above, I was a bit tired and I ran easy with some of the slower crew from the club. I got home and did my stretching routine. Knee was feeling great

Date: 8-25-2009
Scheduled Workout: 
Easy run; 5 miles @ 9:13 pace

Actual Workout:
Rest; I more or less swapped out Monday for Tuesday, although I didnt do the scheduled distance for Tuesday’s workout.

Date: 8-27-2009
Scheduled Workout: 
Easy 5 miles at 9:13

Actual Workout:
4.5 miles at 8:39 pace. I traded some distance for pace.

Course:
The Delco RRC Monday Night loop that meets the Ridley YMCA. Flat course, kind of boring, low traffic.

Workout Nutrition:
N/A

Post workout Eats:
I had a very late dinner. I had a turkey burger (no cheese); some sugar free pudding;

Weight:
Not sure.

Comments:
Like I had mentioned above, I was a bit tired and I ran easy with some of the slower crew from the club.

Date: 8-28-2009
Scheduled Workout: 
Rest

Actual Workout:
Rest; see above – I feel like crap

Wrap-up

Date: 8-22-2009
Scheduled Workout: 
Rest/ Cross Training

Actual Workout:
Long Run broken up into three pieces
1st Run: 4.5 miles in 40 minutes or so
2nd Run: 3.1 miles in 27 minutes
3rd Run: 2.5 Miles in 22 minutes

Course:
I did the first run while measuring a course with Tim for the DCCC 5k in September. I did the 2nd run on the same course, We ran the course to double check our measurements. I did the third run immediately after the 2nd run at Ridley Creek State Park.

Workout Nutrition:
I gulped down about six ounces of Gatorade between the first and second runs.

Post workout Eats:
Nothing. I had a bit of rot gut. I didnt eat too well the night before.

Weight:
Not sure.

Comments:
Tim called me Thursday or Friday and asked me to help him measure the course for a new 5k that I am timing at the Delaware County Community College. I decided that it would be best for me to do the long run scheduled for Sunday on Saturday.

Woke up to rain. Tim and I had decided that if there was no lighting on Saturday morning, we would go out and get the measuring out of the way. While there was no bolts flashing in the sky, it was HUMID, and that presented itself to be the first challenge of today’s run.

Measuring a course while running tends to be choppy. There’s a lot of starting and stopping to make marks on the ground, take measurements, etc. Getting into a rhythm is difficult. That was the second challenge of the run. And, as luck would have it, the third challenge manifested itself by means of hills, and lots of them. The DCCC course starts up hill, and ends uphill. We probably ran the long hill from the turn-around point of the course back to the finish at least five times.

After we got the course squared away, we ran the course continuously to double check the measurements. Mind you, none of these runs were at any sort of blistering pace – it was too humid and too hilly. The first two runs game me a grand total of 7.5 miles, and my goal for the day was 10. I couldnt stand running the DCCC for a third time just for the shear monotony, so, I hopped in the car and headed over to Ridley Creek which was a mere 5 minutes away.

Sitting in the car for 10 minutes didnt my legs any favors. I hadnt stiffened up pretty good by the time I got to the Park. But, being the trooper that I am, I persevered and ran an out and back 2.5 miles. I hit for the cycle and got my 10 miles in, disjointed as it was. 10 miles is 10 miles. I ran into some of the Delco folks at the end of my run, as they were finishing up the weekly 9:00 run at Ridley. Moving on to Sunday:

Date: 8-22-2009
Scheduled Workout: 
Rest/ Cross Training

Actual Workout:
Recovery Run; 3.0 miles at 8:25 pace

Course:
Delco Road Running Club’s Springfield Library three mile course

Workout Nutrition:
N/A

Post workout Eats:
N/A. Went out to a breakfast boo-foo a couple of hours later

Weight:
Not sure

Comments:
I did the long run the day prior, and my legs were feeling stiffy, so I figured a nice recovery run would help shake out some of the lactic acid from my lower half.

Sunday proved to be a nicer day than Saturday but still humid. About 7 of us met up for the run, and I went out with three other guys who are much faster than I am. Our pace started out slow, but within a half mile, we settled into an 8:30-ish pace. I was a bit surprised how good I felt, which I am assuming is more of a function of the fact that I split yesterday’s run into smaller pieces, which gave my legs more of an opportunity to recover in between runs. I finished up Sundays run of 3 miles with an average pace of 8:25. Granted, it was a bit faster than what a typical recovery run pace should be, but it was a good quality run none the less.

So, the grand total for the week is a little over 23 miles, and I managed to hit all of the major food groups. I got my long run in, my speedwork, and my tempo run. That came at a small sacrifice – I didnt get any mountain biking in at all this week. Weather had a big factor, as well as my wacky work schedule.

Today is a scheduled rest day, but I think I am going to try and bang out a slow run after work.

Weekend Jones

I hate it when people use “TGIF” to describe Fridays. Its gives me a shiver reminiscent of the dreadful work environment in the movie Office Space. But, Ill admit that TGIF. There, I said it. It’s been a wacky week. I put some boo-koo time in this weekend, so I am taking advantage of our company’s “Summer Hours” Friday half day. I managed to drag my @ss out of bed this morning to run, but I had slight case of the trots, so I bagged it and sat on the couch until I had to leave for work. So I am going to give it another shot this afternoon lunch. I think I might stay in the city and run up and down Kelly Drive.The training plan is calling for an easy day today, short run, 3 miles. It has me scheduled for a rest day tomorrow (HA!) and then an 8 miler on Sunday. I’d like to try and sneak a MTB ride in somewhere, but I dont want to kill my legs if I am going to try and bang out a longer run on Saturday. I would actually like to push the distance closer to 10 miles. It’s supposed to be cool on Sunday with isolated T-storms. Good running weather, and I am going to head to Ridley and run the loop there, which is flat, relative to the course I have been running through Brookhaven, Media and Swarthmore.

I had an observation yesterday that made me chuckle in a semi-sadistic way. As I was sitting in Suburban Station waiting for the arrival of my train, I happened to notice an inordinate amount of obese women wearing running shoes. They wear the running shoes to help alleviate pressure on their feet. Here’s an idea: loose weight. I can draw a parallel to some of my own experiences that are near and dear to my heart: cycling. There is a subset of cyclist’s known as “weight weenies.” Weight Weenies are on a never ending questio to adorn their bikes with the lightest components on the market. In cycling, light = expensive. I’ll admit that the majority of the weight weenies are in great shape, good riders, probably racers, and are consequently looking for anything that will give them an advantage. It’s the small minority of weight weenies who arent in great shape, perhaps slightly on the sticky side, that mystify me. Here’s a guy who is 5’9”, probably bucking 220, 230, and he’s worried about finding a set of titanium pedals that weight 129 grams. Dude, loose weight. 400 grams is a pound. You just shaved half a pound on your ride by purchasing a pair of $150 pedals that functionally perform the same way the less expensive, heavier set of pedals of the same model. Save the $150 and loose 5lbs. It makes a work of difference. People can spend their money any way they want. I jus think its comical when I see a big dude on a 22lb mountain bike. There is a point of diminishing returns for the heavier rider. You can only out so much weight on a pair of wheels that weight 1500 grams. Those wheels are put under a lot of torsional stress that causes them to flex. The flexing is very noticeable in cornering. Enough flex will cause the bike to drift. You drift too much taking a tight turn at 15 mph on an MTB and you stand a good chance of loosing your wheel, flying off the trail, and hitting a tree with enough force to knock you silly. Additionally, putting a heavy load on a pair of light wheels increases the propensity of wheel failure. Heavy riders arent necessarily known for riding with finesse – they beat the crap out of their rides, further increasing the There are wheels on the market that specially crafted for the “Clydesdale” rider – heavier walled rims, thicker gauge spokes, perhaps a specific spoke lacing pattern (36 holes versus 32), etc. Light is good. Light is expensive. Much light comes at a trade off- durability and strength. Besides, you put a 220lb guy on a 22lb pound and he’ll still get out-climbed 90% of the time. Its not the ride, its the engine (although in all fairness, having a sweet ride certainly helps).

I am now on the way home. I wound up staying in the office for more or less a full day. We had a staff meeting around lunchtime, and after the meeting was over, I chatted with the CEO and CFO for a good while. I am on the fence about running. We had pizza at the meeting, and I wound up shoveling down five slices. Needless to say, running would probably not me in my best interest, at least for another hour. It’s not looking terribly inviting outside right now – looks like it might storm. I guess I am going to the gym if I do decide to run. Truth be told, I havent been to the gym in ages. I have been spoiling myself with all of the outdoor running that I have been doing in the recent weeks. The prospect of treadmilling it right now isnt all that appealing. I am very sleepy. The belly full of pizza isnt helping. I think I am going to take a nap.

So much to say and it’s probably not all that interesting.

This week has been a blur. I put in three 12-hour days in a row at the office. I havent had much time to add to this, so I am going to start with yesterday and work backwards. I did manage to drop another couple of pounds – I am down 13 lbs. Granted, I thought I would have been further along at this point, but I will take what I can get.

Date: 8-19-2009
Scheduled Workout: 
Rest/ Cross Training

Actual Workout:
Temp Run; 3.83 miles; splits are as follows:
Mile 1: 6:44 pace
Mile 2: 8:28 pace (recover)
Mile 3: 7:19 pace
Mile 4: 9:50 (cooldown)

Course:
Delco Road Running Club’s Wednesday night course. It starts and ends at the small church behind the Swarthmore College Running Track. It’s relatively flat with some small hills here and there. Low traffic.

Workout Nutrition:
N/A

Post workout Eats:
A bottle of no-cal Powerade immediately after the run. I got home and ate a quarter of a small Italian hoagie with some mac and cheese and a Klondike bar (hehe)

Weight:
176 as of Tuesday August 18th

Comments:
I did speedwork the day before, and I didnt feel great on that particular workout. However, when I run with this group, I get the same type of motivation to move faster, as I do when I race, albeit on a smaller scale. There is usually a group of faster people that go out and run some silly pace ahead of the smaller groups that are running various slower paces. I try to keep with the fast group for as a long as I can.

Last night, I went out with a group of five. The pace kicked into the low 8’s almost immediately. By the middle of the first mile, we were doing low 7’s and sub 7’s. I felt good. Actually, I felt great. There were about7 of us in our group. About midway through the 2nd mile, the heat started kicking in, and I heard two people in a our group say that were backing off. I got caught between them, and four guys who split off ahead of us and we’re pushing low 7’s. I decided to back off a bit as well. By the 3rd mile, our group started pushing again, and we were averaging the mid 7’s. I decided to cut the course short and do the short course instead of the normal 5 mile course. I started by cool down midway through my last mile. By this point, the four fast guys had put significant time on us, and they were no where in sight. Three of us broke off and headed back to the start/ finish.

It was hot, but no where as hot as it’s been the last couple of days. However, when I got back to the car, I was in bad enough shape that I had to sit in my car with the air on for a couple of minutes. I got home, ate and then stretched

My knee felt great and I think that’s part of the reason I ran so well. I have been ona fairly consistent stretching routine over the past few days to try and loosen up the IT Band, and I guess it’s working

The schedule called for a rest day or cross training. Normally, I would have gone mountain biking with Dom and Mike. My rear wheel on my bike sh*t the bed over the weekend and I had to drop it off at the shop. It was ready for pickup on Monday, but with the late hours I put in at the office this week, I hadn’t had any time to get it. I guess it was a blessing in disguise because I had a great run instead.

Date: 8-18-2009
Scheduled Workout: 
Easy Run, 9:13 pace for three miles

Actual Workout: 
Speedwork; 3 miles. I kinda made this one up as I went along

Course
I did my short Brookhaven out and back course along Rt. 352. Starts uphill, ends downhill.

Workout Nutrition:
Nothing.

Post workout Eats:
Nothing immediately after the run, but when I arrived at the office an our later, I ate a Slimfast bar (the poor man’s recovery bar).

Weight:
176 as of Tuesday August 18th

Comments:
I had a crappy run the day before (read below – next entry), so I felt the need to redeem myself with some kind of hard effort. I was out on the road at 5:15 am. I did a half mile warmup at 9:05. For the first interval, I pushed a 7:15 for a half mile, followed by another half mile recovery at 9:25. The next interval was a mile at 7 flat, but in all fairness I was going slightly downhill for a good portion of the interval. I cooled down the last half mile with a 10:44 jog. All in all, not a bad workout, but I wished I could pushed that first interval to a full mile instead of a half. The uphill start doesnt do me any favors. I got home and did a good ten minutes of stretching. Knee felt good.

Date: 8-17-2009
Scheduled Workout: 
Easy Run, 9:13 pace for three miles

Actual Workout: 
Easy run for 2 miles. Blah.

Course:
I did my short Brookhaven out and back course along Rt. 352. Starts uphill, ends downhill. I didnt make it the whole distance

Workout Nutrition:
Nothing.

Post workout Eats:
Cant remember

Weight:
------

Comments:
I ran at 12:00 in the afternoon (I work from home on Mondays). It was HOT- too hot. About a mile in, I was suffering and my heart rate monitor was throwing back some numbers that told me that enough was enough. I wasnt pushing a hard pace, but my HR was pinging in the high 170’s/ low 180’s which is WAY too high for that kind of pace. I decided to cut the run short and head home.

As for the rest of the weekend….

Sunday, I rested. It was hot. I did a 7 miler on Saturday (I wanted to go a bit further but the heat got to me). The course for Saturday had me climbing up towards Media for the first three miles. I ran through Media, and back down towards home. Around 5 miles, I was in deep crap. The heat and the hills we’re killing me. The last mile was awful. I stopped short on 352 at exactly 7 miles. Regardless, I average 9:15 for this run, which is exactly the pace that I was scheduled to run for that distance, so I cant complain too much I guess.

Friday, I did an MTB ride with Mike and Dom on the trails behind Swarthmore College. It was a good ride, very hot, and it wasnt a balls to the wall pace. The trails back there aren’t really the type that are conducive to hammering. The trails are kind of disjointed, and quite frankly, they kinda start to suck when you get a couple of miles in, so much to the point that riding back the same way on them is not very preferable. As a matter of fact, we took the roads hone on the way back to the College.

So, taking stock of my present situation – do I think I will be ready to run the Philly Distance Run in September?  It depends on how you define “ready.” Yes, I will be ready to run and complete 13.1 miles. No, I will not be running anything close to the pace I ran two years ago, which was 8:00 min/mile. I could barely run that pace for 4 miles last night. I do not think 4 weeks is enough training time to make up that big of a gap in fitness. That’s not to say I wont try. At this point, I would be happy with an 8:30 or faster. I probably could do an 8:20 steady over 13.1 miles – maybe some 8’s here and there. It all depends. I usually surprise myself on race day with respect to pacing. Anything is possible. More now than ever its key to stay on track with the training plan. Fortunately, the temperature should be a hell of a lot more moderate on race day. If I remember correctly, when I ran the race two years ago, it was chilly enough at the start that I had to wear the patented “Frank Durso Ghetto arm warmers.”

I was reading an article in Runner’s World, the subject of which is the effect of ambient temperature on running paces. The article used marathon finishing times as context. I dont recall the exact finishing times, but the heat effects were dramatic. A 3 hour finisher in 50 degree weather would run almost 30 minutes slower in 80 degree weather, or something like that. This is not an unknown phenomenon – it’s one of the main reasons most marathons are held in early spring and in the fall – to take advantage of the moderate temperatures. So, I guess I am compelled to ask myself, if I could run an 8 minute mile average over 4 miles on a slightly rolling course in 90 degree heat, could I run 13.1 miles on a flat course in 60 degree weather? One could argue that it’s like comparing apples to oranges. One good run is not enough to frame out a situation. I could go out tonight and run really sh*ty. You get the point.

EZ

Date: 8-11-2009
Scheduled Workout: 
Easy Run, 3 miles, 9:13 pace

Actual Workout:
Easy Run, 3.5 miles, 9:26 min pace

Course:
Delco Road Running Club’s Tuesday Night Springfield course, which starts and ends at the Springfield Library

Workout Nutrition:
Half a bottle of regular Gatorade before the run.

Post workout Eats:
Half a bottle of regular Gatorade, chip steak with cheese (no roll), small slice of cheese cake my wife made, and a beer.

Weight:
Last weigh in was 178 on Thursday, August 6th

Comments:
Early on in the run, our collective group broke into two separate groups. I got stuck between the two groups; I wasnt fast enough to stay with the lead group but the slower group was, well, too slow. About half-way through, I laid up and I ran with Terry, who is coming back from an injury, and I did his pace, which as you can see, was much slower than what my plan called for.

The training plan does not have any scheduled for any running today, so, the draft plan as of now is to hit the mountain bike with Dom and Mike after work, weather permitting. It’s cloudy right now, and the forecast is calling for scattered showers this morning and then scattered t-storms in the afternoon.

Mike mentioned this nifty word jumble in his blog called Wordle. You tell Wordle where your blog is located, and it makes a word jumble with the most commonly used terms in your blog entries. Click on it to make it bigger.

Do you see any patterns? :)

Like the New Title?

I got up at 6 and I was immediately greeted by the sound of my phone “blowing up” as the kids say these days. When you wake up for a group ride or a race and your phone is going apesh*t, that’s not a good sign. It means that someone is bailing, or the weather is crappy. A silent phone is a good sign.

In addition to the chirping and buzzing of my phone, I could also hear another faint sound in the background – the sound of rain. A quick glance out the window only confirmed that which my ears had first suspected.

A long story made short: it was raining. Hard. And the forecast for the rest of the day called for more rain. So while I was sleeping, the boyz  were calling me to tell me the obvious: aint no one riding in this weather.

I was disappointed. I spend a fair amount of time the day prior getting the bike cleaned up. I installed a new brake line for the rear wheel and got all of my kit together. I have a particular setup that I use on the bike for races. I dont like to carry a Camelback when I race. I wear one only when I do my normal rides. For racing, I prefer to be as minimalistic as possible. I carry a spare tube, tire irons, mini-tool, and a CO2 Gun. I keep all of the tools in a small saddle bag, with the exception of a spare CO2 quickshot, which I keep taped to to the seat post, and the spare tube, which I keep tucked into the space between the saddlebag and the saddle. By keeping all of this stuff on the bike, I keep the rear pockets of my jersey free for gels and food. So anyway I got all of that setup on Saturday, plus some other miscellaneous maintenance items.

But, no racing for me.

So, I have changed the name of the blog, and I’ll admit that its a bit tongue in cheek. I am going to use this blog, from this point forward, to document my training for the upcoming weeks for the PRD. The format will be as outlined:

Date: 8-9-2009
Scheduled Workout:
Long Run, 7 miles, 9:13 pace

Actual Workout:
Long Run, 10.5 miles, 9:00 min pace

Course:
Start and end at my house, circuit through Brookhaven, Wallingford into Swartmore. 10 minute break in Swarthmore, return to home via different route. Lots of hills!!!!

Workout Nutrition:
Ran with two large Fuel Belt bottles of plain water; drank both (one up, one back). One GU gel at 50 minutes; another 30 minutes later

Post workout Eats:
Slimfast powdered mix, one scoop, with 1c of 2% Milk

Weight:
Last weigh in was 178 on Thursday, August 6th

Comments:
I hadnt run in four days, so I wanted to get a longer than scheduled run in. It was extremely humid- near 100%.

I am going to do this every day from this point forward. So, in keeping up, today’s (Monday) entry should be:

Date: 8-10-2009
Scheduled Workout:
Rest/ Cross Training

Actual Workout:
Nothing. The plan said rest, so I rested

Weight:
N/A

Comments:
I was not as sore as I thought I was going to be, for not having run in nearly a week, let alone running 10 hilly miles in 100% humidity. I would like to have done a recovery run or maybe a light spin, but what can you do.

In other news, I do not think the 24 hour mountain bike is going to happen. I would really only want to do it as part of a four man team. Three people are cutting it close. Lou cannot do it – the kid’s baptism is the same weekend. Mike is going to Vegas. That leaves me and Dom. It’s no big deal. There is serious talk of doing the French Creek Fling Adventure Race on October 11th. More on that later.

Backlog

Written Friday/ Saturday

By the time you read this, you will notice that there are two blog entries right behind this that I wrote earlier in the week, that I never uploaded. Happy Reading!

I have decided to race on Sunday at Neshaminy. I am only going to do the Beginner class. I was on the fence about the race earlier in the week, but I had a good ride Wednesday with Mike and Dom, and it was enough to convince me to throw my hat into the ring

I cant shake this pain in my side. It’s definitely a strain of some sort. It feels like its sort of in-between my hip and lower back. I no doubt believe that is a result of Wednesday’s ride. It’s nagging enough that I bagged running yesterday and today. I’ll probably do a little something in the morning tomorrow – light run or something. I do not want to aggravate it before Sunday’s race.

Finally, The First Annual Wife’s Away 5k and BBQ is over!!!! The weather was miserable when I woke yesterday, and the forecast called for showers on and off for the rest of the day. However, the clouds cleared up in the mid afternoon and we have absolutely beautiful weather for the race.

I started marking the course with our patented crushed lime technique around 5:30. Amazingly, I didnt get any gruff from any of the neighbors. I did have a slight scare about 10 minutes before the start of the race. A Brookhaven cop rolled down my street very slowly and immediately I began to think that a neighbor called the cops when they say me painting arrows on the course. But the cop just rolled on by, even though there were 20 people congregating outside of my house with ole finishing chute setup in the street. Whew. I should have asked him if he wanted to lead the runners out with his lights and sirens on :)

I had about 15 people in last nights race. My wife, Tim, Alex, Buggsy*, McCaff**, Gregg, Kristen***, Andrew****, Dave, Cecile, Elizabeth, Joey K, Brian, Dom*****, Tom B and his Greg. I think I got them all. Its a shame that we had to bag it this weekend past. I had alot of people on the guest list that couldnt make it. They missed out on a good time. Everyone who ran loved the course I laid out and thought it was very well marked. It was a tiny bit long at 3.15 miles, but I really wanted the start and finish in front of my house, and I don’t think anyone really cared anyway. I was a bit disappointed that only three people from my running club attended. I figured I would get more participation from them. They’re an odd group, that running club of mine. They hardly support or attend the Pickle Runs. Weird.

I had plenty of food and beer. Everyone was really generous and we had dogs, burgers, watermelon, homemade fried chicken, cookies, veggie burgers,tons of beer, turkey burgers, and all kinds of chips. Elizabeth brought a box of homemade Italian creampuffs from South Philly. We had just enough food – no leftovers. And everyone got a T-shirt in their respective correct size (I had ordered some random sizes with no real rhyme or reason). The “after-party” raged on until a little after 10. My girls had a great time playing with Uncle Dom and Uncle Speedy (thats what they call McCaff), and I think everyone loved the silly prizes that I gave out. Pictures of the first overall Male and Female award winners are on the way.

This fall, I think we’re going to do another silly race called “The Pickles and Beer.” It will probably be another invite-only race. Tim is going to have it at his house. Our first-ever Pickle Run was at Tim’s house about 2 years ago (maybe 3) so we’re going back to where it all started. Sounds like we’re going to do these small private races at least twice a year.

I started this blog entry this morning, on the train on the way into work. I am finishing it on the way home, and it’s now 11:05 pm. Any train after 10:00 pm on a weekend is affectionately know as “The Crazy Train.” At this time of night, the R3 becomes a virtual “who’s who” of mental illness. It’s one step below riding a Greyhound Bus. This particular train is especially fun tonight because there was a Phillies game, and as such we have an unusually large volume of passengers. As a matter of fact, there is a nice young gentleman adorned in full Phillies attire, seated about two rows ahead of me, who appears to be in some advanced state of inebriation, and as such, he is especially loud. I would never be one to judge on first appearances, but he doesnt exactly look like he will be tendered a membership to MENSA anytime in the near future.

I went out with boys tonight to Chima, a Brazilian Steakhouse in Philly. All you can eat meat. After the meal, we walked around the city for about 45 minutes to work off dinner. At point in the evening, I had to leave the table in order to go outside and get some air. I figure I have about 5 pounds of meat settling to the bottom of my stomach. Nice.

* Buggs showed up 11 minutes late, but still ran the whole course, and was kind enough to bring a huge pan of homemade fried chicken that his wife made

**McCaff ran with Baba (my little one) in the stroller and still clocked 22 minutes

*** Kristen is friggen three months preggo

****Andrew brough his three kids who rode the course with him while he ran

***** Dom didnt actually run- he was my “lead cyclist” on the course.

I am tired, my stomach hurts and its raining. Wah

Here I am again- 5:45 am. Only today, I am friggen tired. I only got about 5 hours of sleep, which normally is workable. However, last evening, I did a long (for me) mountain bike ride with Mike and Dom at Brandywine. I think I needed a bit more rest after that ride. My stomach is killing me as well. My running plans calls for 5 miles of speed work today. I think I am going to bag it and rest up.

Today is the rescheduled Wife’s Away 5k and guess what? It’s raining again, although the forecast says that the sun should be making an appearance later this afternoon.

Yesterday’s ride took us nearly an hour and a half. It marked the first time that I have ridden that long on the mountain bike in quite some time. The trails were a bit sloppy in some parts – leftovers from the deluge of rain from this weekend past, but overall, the trail conditions were good, but boy was it humid. I was absolutely drenched by the time I made it back to my car around 7:40.

When I ride the trails, I am a lunatic. It’s not that I do stupid sh*t on the bike, like riding the thing off massive drop offs. It’s more of the fact that I yell and scream like an idiot when I am climbing a really technical piece of trail that tests my physical limits, when I am bombing down a rocky descent and the bike is bouncing all over the place, and I am hanging on for dear life, trying to find the best line, floating the bike over rocks and roots… Asks Mike – he’ll you how annoying I get.

I may be a sh*tty roadie, but I can hold my own on the mountain, relative to Mike and Dom. Granted, near the end of the ride, I had the bright idea of riding one last hill, and by the time I got half way up, I was done. Kaput. I had nothing left. That’s the fundemental difference between me, and Mike & Dom. They have the ability to keep going because they have better cycling fitness than me, because they do so much road riding. Most if not all of the pro mountain bikers do the majority of their training on a road bike. Granted, they also do a fair amount of training on the trails, to hone their bike handling skills, but the fitness benefits of road biking are second to none. My road biking days are over anyway – I have to give the loaner road bike back to Tim tomorrow.

I have had some concerns about my mountain bike as of late, with respect to its condition. The bike is nearly 11 years old. Its a 3rd generation carbon fiber Trek Y bike. Back in the day, the Trek “Y” design – which is a monoque carbon fiber frame design – was revolutionary for full-suspension cross-country (“XC”) bikes, and to this day, there are still a lot of Trek “Y” bike devotees who swear by the design. I have come across websites strictly devoted to the Trek “Y” bike. The “Y” bike is also extremely lightweight compared to some of the full suspension bikes on the market. My bike weighs in at 25lbs. Most of the full sussers now are in the high 20’s/ low 30’s. That’s more of a function of the fact that the newer bikes sport more of a four-bar suspension linkage, which adds significant weight to the frame. There’s a line of full suspension bikes marketed as “all mountain” which sport beefier, gusseted frames. Those types of bikes are marketed to the riders who arent necessarily concerned about weight, but more concerned about beating the ever-living sh*t out of their bikes. The “all-mountain” bike is really a hybrid of a cross-country bike and a downhill bike. The amount of *travel on an all-mountain is significantly more than a standard XC full-suspension bike but less than a downhill bike. Quite frankly, I am an old-school guy who doesnt really see the need for a bike with 6 inches of front and rear travel. My “Y” setup is typical of older full-suspension XC designs – 2” of rear travel and 3 or 4” of front travel – enough to smooth out the bumps on most XC trails.

Disc brakes have also become the norm, whereas my bike still sports standard side-pull “V” brakes. The disc setup adds a bit of weight as well, although I will admit that I did upgrade the front wheel with a disc brake. Granted, there are exceptions to the rule. Most of the manufacturers produce a line of high-end, lightweight full suspension bikes that are starting to clock in at the low end of the 20lb weight range, which traditionally was the domain of the carbon fiber hardtail bikes. As a matter of fact, most of the pro’s – who had traditionally eschewed fully suspension bikes as too heavy to competitively race cross country – have adopted fully suspension bikes as their rig-of-choice.

Anyway, the point of all this is that my bike might be near the end of it’s useful life. My front fork is making this awful clanking noise. While its not so bad as to effect the quality of my riding, the clanking is disconcerting and I can feel some sort of movement in the fork that coincides with the clanking. It could be something wrong with the fork itself, or it could something wrong with the way the fork is mounted on the bike. I have had the bike looked at by my shop- specifically, the “headset” which is mechanism by which the fork moves attaches to and moves relative to the frame. They didnt appear to find anything wrong with the headset, which lends me to believe that its the fork. I am contemplating getting a seocnd opinion from a guy in Upper Darby who is more or less the “guru” of bike mechanics in Delaware County. I have been going to Frank for close to 15 years, although within the last five years or so, since I moved to Brookhaven, getting to his shop is difficult because of where he is located. However, if there is anything wrong with the fork, headset, etc, Frank will find it, and he wont charge me an arm and leg.

* The term “travel” is the measurement of the amount of vertical movement expressed in inches or millimeters for a suspension fork or rear shock. Most shocks and forks now sport some sort of mechanism to “lock out” the suspension – essentially, making the fork static or the rear shock “static” for climbing. Suspension designs by their nature tend to “bob” when a rider is climbing, and locking out suspension is a way to counteract this phenomenon, by transferring more of a rider’s power to the pedals and the drivetrain.

Rise and Shine

5:45 am and I am sitting on the train on the way to the office.

I got into this habit of going to work at the @ss crack of dawn when I was still under the employ of Siemens. If one wanted to get any significant work done, one would have to come into the office well before the masses. The routine was fairly simple. Arrive at the office at 5:00 am (or earlier). Work on emails, estimates, paperwork, etc until 8:00 am or so, spend of the rest of the day on sales calls, customer visits, etc, then return to the office or go home. A lot of us would come back to the office  in the late afternoon because, similar to the early morning hours, one could get a significant amount of work done after everyone has left for the day. Granted, these hours made for some long days, but in Sales, you chart your own course to success. I would see some of the guys in the office at 4:00 am and stay until well past 6:00 pm.

What I had come to appreciate from that experience was the amount of work that can be completed in the absence of distraction. It’s a lesson that was lost when I worked for Toll, when, near the end of my tenure, there was not enough work to keep me busy in the course of a normal eight-hour work day, let alone enough work to support an early morning arrival. Just for the record, lest anyone think I was mailing it in while at Toll, my last year of employment coincided with the onset of the downfall of the housing market. I was on the cusp of what would come to be a massive layoff that would happen in waves over the next six months. I proceeded to make my exit prior to that. When I started at Toll, my group, Engineering, had 15 engineers and architects (who supported the engineers). There are now 2 engineers. I figure that I would have gone within the first three months after I had left. My boss went in/ around that time frame and I presume that I would have followed him not soon after.

So, as of late, I have been arriving at the office around 7 and in some cases, like today, earlier. About a month ago I did a stint of about four days where I was in as early as 4:45 am. My company gives each employee the opportunity to do something called “Summer Hours” which is a format that many other companies have adopted. The employee works four nine-hour days, and then takes a half day on Friday. I do not participate in the program. The point of me coming in early is to get more work done. Taking a half day on Friday seems like a waste of those hours. I will admit, however, that I have left early for the day on occasion because I have come into the office early, but that’s the exception, not the rule.

One of the things that I have been omitting from my various blog entries is my knee issues. As mentioned in previous entries, I have had knee pain for the last 10 months. I had gone through physical therapy with an ART specialist, to no avail. I took time off, to no avail. Since nothing seemed to have worked, and the pain is annoying at best, I decided to “run through it.”

I am happy to report that the pain has not gotten worse, but it hasnt gotten better, which would be expected, since I am not doing anything proactively to remedy the situation. I am running in a new pair of shoes, and I have noticed that the pain does not seem to be as intense when running. A good pair of shoes goes along way. Additionally, as I run, the knee gets “warmed up” and the pain usually disappears (for the most part) once I get into the heart of the run.

Originally, I was diagnosed with patella tendonitis and/ or patella sublexation. Patella sublexation is the dislocation of the tracking of the knee cap within its “groove” in the knee joint. Originally, the pain was directly on top of my knee cap. For whatever reason, the pain has now migrated to the outside of my knee cap. My research indicates that the location of the pain is indicative of iliotibial band syndrome. You can google it, or accept my brief and more than likely flawed explanation. The iliotibial band is a tendon that passes just on the outside of the thigh and connects just below the knee. When the band becomes tight, it tends to pull the knee out of alignment and rubs against the outside of the knee, hence the pain. With any type of inflammation injury, warming up the muscle loosens up the tightness, which subseqnr

Its a fairly common runners injury. Most people recommend RICE: Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation. Rest means no running. Oi. There are numerous stretching and exercise protocols that can also help with the syndrome, and I am going to explore those. I will not stop running. I’ll see what the next step is after the PRD.

The Race that never was

I had to cancel the “Wife’s Away 5k” again.

Sunday morning, race day, I got up early to cut the lawn, which hadnt been cut in weeks. It was a dreary, cloudy morning, and I could tell by the patches of dampness on the street that it had rained over night. Cutting wet grass, especially long grass, really sucks, but I had no choice. I get the damn thing cut and as I about to trim my weeds in the backyard, it down ours. The down pour turned into an electrical storm. All this was happening around 11:00 am.

I checked accuweather.com, and the hourly forecast for the remainder of the day didnt look promising. I was faced with a hard decision: scrub the race, or hope the weather clears and soldier on. I conferred with Tim, and we both decided to err on the side of caution and bag it. I then spent the next hour in a frantic rush to get the cancellation email out to all the runners. I was surprised by how little email traffic I received that morning asking about the status of of the race. I did get a few text messages as well.

As luck would have it, the rains subsided around 1:00. I decided t stay close to home for the remainder of the afternoon, in the event that some folks didn’t get the cancellation email. Amazingly, 3:00 came and went and I didn’t have one knock at the door. I figured at least someone would show up. By the time 4:00 rolled around, it was sunny. Quite frankly, I think I made the right decision. With the ground being so wet, I would have had people tracking grass in and out of my house.

The race is re-scheduled for this Thursday night, 7:00 pm. Scheduling  the race on a weekend really limits the amount of potential people that will be able to attend, but the weekend upcoming is fairly jammed up, so its now or never. I have actually received a surprising amount of RSVP’s – I think at least count I was up to 15 folks. I’ll have to bag out of work early on Thursday, so I can get home and paint the course, and do some additional prep work. If I get 20 people, I will be happy, since the original attendance for Sunday was floating around 25 people, give or take a handful of “maybe’s.”

I have started training for the Philly Distance Run. I need something to shoot for- something that will provide some structure and motivation. Last week, I was in that weird funk. I had no motivation to do anything. Its very easy to make excuses NOT to do something if there isn’t any type of goal associated with it. So, I got my rather abbreviated training plan from Runners World, and week #1 started last Thursday.

Yesterday, I did a nice 7 miler. The training plan had this long run originally scheduled for Sunday, but the three hour ride the day before really took the oomph out of my legs, so I rested on Sunday, and did the long run yesterday. It wall worked out because Saturday was scheduled as a rest day, with the option of doing some cross training. I am not sure if a three hour bike ride is what the training plan had in mind for cross training. In reality, appropriate cross training for this plan is probably something on the order of an hour’s bike ride, perhaps some time on the elliptical machine, etc.

The training plan called for a 7 mile run at an easy 9:13 pace. I hit the nail just about on the head with a 9:08 average pace. The course I ran was one the new “loop” course that I came up with about two weeks ago (I got lost the first time out). If I do it counter-clockwise from my house, it’s fairly downhill on the last part of the run. If I do it clockwise, then I get the sharp end of the stick – hills for the first part of the run. So yesterday’s little trek was the clockwise version. I work from home on Monday’s, which gives me a lot of leash in terms of my schedule. I got up early and did a fair amount of work, and then went out for the run around 10:00. I was surprised how hot it was while I was out there. I figured it would be a bit on the cooler side, since it was mid-morning. I had to stop three times. The first time I stopped was at the top of the longest hill of the run. This hill is a ball breaker. You climb for a quarter mile, level off, and then climb again for another half a mile. When I got to the top I was blitzed. I had to stop again at 352 so I could cross the street without getting hit by car. I stopped somewhere else but I cant recall where.

The training plan called for a  shorter, easy run today. I got up this morning at 4:50 am, and I could tell from the minute that I walked out the door that easy or not, this run was going to suck. But, it was only three miles, and it was supposed to be run at a 9:13 pace. I did my traditional out and back course up 352, which is uphill on the way out, and downhill on the way back. My overall average time was 8:50, but that’s only because the backhalf is downhill, and I pick up a fair amount of speed whether I like it or not. I had some kind of weird side stitch for the first half of the run, and I stopped at the 1.5 mile mark and stretched. The side stitch disappeared on the way back, but I wasnt really pushing it since I was cruising downhill.

The plan calls for a rest/ cross training day for tomorrow. There is some conversation between me, Mike and Dom with regards to a road ride tomorrow night, or a mountain bike ride. I think we’re all planning to do a mountain bike race on Sunday up in Neshaminy. The race is part of the Mid-Atlantic Super Series (“MASS”). I have done this course 2 or 3 times in the past, although its been a few years since the last time I raced it. I am opting to do the beginner class. Its two loops of 5.5 miles. Sport, the next class up, is three loops. Not only is it longer, but it’s faster. I used to be a “middle of the pack” Sport Racer, and that was when I was in mountain bike shape. Since I havent done a lot of mountain bike racing, and I am trying to stay healthy for PRD, I am erring on the side of caution with respect to Sunday. It will be good to get out there and race. My original intention way back in the spring was to race a fair amount of the events in the MASS series, but illness and a hectic race timing schedule put the kibash on that plan.

There is also some talk about a few of us doing a 24 hour mountain bike race at the end of August in New Jersey. AS of now, it sounds like me, Mike and Dom are interested, and I have yet to broach the subject with Lou.

The format of the race is simple. Each 4 or 5 man team has to complete as many laps as they can in a 24 hour period. I was talking to one of the other Drexel Alums who has raced this event in the past. One lap should take about an hour. So, that means that for a 4 man team, each us will do 6 laps, with three hour breaks in between laps.  Thats a fair amount of recovery time between laps.

Since this is a 24 hour race, alot of the racing will be happening at night. None of us have lights, but luckily, I have “connections.” One of the Drexel Cycling Alum works for Princeton Tech, and he’ll be at the event in a promo tent. He told me to stop by the night before and he’ll hook me up with a set of lights. I also have two other Alums who will throw in some loaner lights as well. I do not want to drop $300 dollars for a lighting system for one race.

To do night riding, you really need a high powered set of lights. You cannot mountain bike at night with a dinky “commuter light.” Back in the day, Dom and I did a fair amount of night riding on the trails. We both had a ten watt helmet-mounted light, plus a dual lamp system mounted to the handlebars. Each lamp was ten watts; one lamp was beam-focused and the other lamp was flood-spread. The theory was that your beam light would give you a lot of downrange vision. The flood would provide a good peripheral spread of light, and the headlamp would move where your eyes moved. With just the bar mounted lights, if you were about to make a turn, theoretically, your eyes and head would be looking into the turn while your headlights would still be pointing straight, since the bike would still be traveling in a straight line prior to turning. Without a helmet mounted light, you would essentially be riding into the corner blind. I hope that doesnt sound too confusing.

These lighting systems were high-intensity incandescent based systems – basically, an MR16 type track light lamp. Ten watts doenst sound very powerful; if you have track lights in your house, odds are that you probably have 10 or 20 watt MR16 lamps. Go stare at them for five seconds, and you’ll get a sense as to how powerful those little lamps can be. Its like staring into the sun.

You were lucky if you got 2 hours of light from the dual lamp system assuming you were running both lamps all the time. With a little clever power management, you could squeeze another half hour out of the system. The batteries were lead-acid bricks that, both lighting systems combined, probably clocked in around 5lbs of dead weight.

The newer lighting systems are mostly xeon and LED based. They put out a tremendous amount of light, and the batteries arent nearly as heavy as the old systems. The output time is tremendous, but so is the cost, relative to what I paid for my lights way back when.

Riding at night should be a hoot, since I havent done it in ages, and its one of those types of skills that should be practiced (and at least  attempted) before race. Something as simple as changing a tire in the dark takes on a whole new level of skill. You would be amazed how much we take for granted riding during the day. The lighting systems tend to cast eerie shadows on the trails, making normal trail obstacles like roots, rocks, etc, incrementally harder to ride than normal, because depth perception and peripheral vision are all out of whack. Fun Stuff. But it’s like the movie Bloodsport (or was it Kickboxer?) when Jean Claude Van Dam looses his eye sight, but his other skills become acutely aware. If you can ride well at night, then in theory, you should have better trail awareness during your normal day rides, because you are paying closer attention to the trail at night.

Same goes for my old single speed. Year before last, when I still had my singlespeed mountain bike, I was told early on that my appreciation for braking and momentum would improve. On a geared bike, its very easy to over-power a line or turn, brake hard while in the turn, and then immediately apply power out of the turn. On a single speed its critical to take advantage of momentum, especially on hills, because when the climb gets tough, there are no other gears to switch too. So the more speed and momentum you can carry into the hill, the better chance you have of making it. When you think about it, there is a tremendous amount of energy being wasted if your rocketing into a corner way too fast, hard breaking, and then immediately sprinting out of the corner. Its like running as fast you can, stopping, and then sprinting (from a dead stop). Riding a single speed taught me alot about taking a good line into a corner to avoid over cooking the turn (and subsequently over-braking). It taught about the flow of a corner. Additionally, I noticed that with no gearing, I had less to think about. I could focus my mental energy elsewhere.

I climb like a lead weight

I rode the “Dog Daze” Century today, although in all fairness, I only did a half of the century. The Brandywine Valley Bike Club puts this ride together, and they offered a choice of a 27, 50, 77 and 100 mile ride. Dom, Mike and I opted to do the 50. Well, I opted to do the 50. Those two did the extra 27 after the first 50. I went home. 50 was enough for me. Official Ride Report:

This whole Dog Daze ride came about because earlier in the week, genius Mile had this bright idea of riding the Wilderness 101 MTB Race up at State College. The Wilderness 101 is a 101 mile mountain bike race. For most average human beings, that’s about 12 hours on the bike. Sunday past, Mike raced at the Summer Sizzler in NJ, and banged up his wrist. Friday, Mike did a mountain bike ride at Brandywine, and made the decision that the wrist would be enough of a problem that riding 12 hours would be tough. Um, riding 12 hours would be tough enough, with or without a band wrist. As I told Mike, a bad wrist is the least of your problems in a 101 mile mountain bike race. Training, or lack there-of, would be the bigger problem.

FYI if you want to skip the rest of this and get right to the Ride Report, scroll to the bottom

Mike is a tough SOB. Go read his blog. The kid did a trail marathon with no training while he was recovering from cancer. Could he do a 101 mountain ride without the proper training? That’s one question I would have a hard time answering. This is what I told Mike a couple of days prior, when he came to me for advice:

• The first two hours – no problem. We do MTB rides close to or exceeding two hours or more (although I have yet do one over an hour this year). And you have to assume that the pace would be more relaxed than what we normally do on our rides
• Three hours: If you can do two, you can do three
• Four hours: now you’re getting slightly tired. You're not hitting the hills with same “snap” as you did in the first two hours. You feel your back getting twingy
• Five to Six Hours: Welcome to the pain cave. Your back is sore. You arms and shoulders are tired. You’re having some difficulty riding over small trail obstacles.
• Seven hours: You get your second wind, and things are starting to look brighter. Your getting into a groove.
• Eight to Nine Hours: you realize that you still have four more hours of riding. Add that mental strain to the pain in the rest of your body, and the prospect of four more hours doesn’t seem like its going to be “fun.” And anything resembling “speed” left two hours ago
• Ten hours: You cant ride more than 2-3 minutes without having to stretch on the bike. Your arm and shoulders are burning. You have slow to a near stop to get the bike over a log. You’re probably stopping to stretch with increasing frequency. You might have to start walking hills that would normally not even cause you to change gears.

I am stopping at ten hours because quite frankly, from a physiological and psychological standpoint, I do not know what the expectation would be for performance. Now bear in mind, I am putting this entire conversation into the context that there has been no real “training” leading up to this type of event. General riding doesn’t really translate well to an endurance event. I wouldn’t run for an hour per day, 4 days a week, for two months and then try to run a marathon. Mike would, but he’s a nut.

Could I ride for 12 hours without the training? Assuming the answer would be yes (by some miracle of god), it would not be fun. It would be pain. It would be a suffer first of the highest order. I am at the point that I do not need an event to “prove” that I that I can push my body to the limits of physical pain and achievement. I think I had mentioned in a previous post, to me, at this point in my life, it’s all about the “experience” of the event. For example, Dom and I have had this idea about doing a team 24 hour mountain bike ride. We have already convinced Mike to do it. Anyway, to me, the point of doing a 24 hour mountain bike race is the “experience” of the race itself. It’s all about the “team” – hanging out, busting balls, suffering together. There would be no reason for me to show up, alone, and do the event. I have nothing to prove to myself. I have nothing to prove to anyone. And quite frankly doing something alone, even a simple ride, doesn’t hold a candle to doing it with some friends. That’s not to say that I won’t ride alone, or go to a race alone, but the thought of doing something so outrageous as a 100 mile mountain bike race alone simply does not pencil for me. Yeah it would be great to walk away from it and pat myself on the shoulder for the fact that I completed such a crazy event, but it would be even better to have some peeps doing it with me.

The marathon was an anomaly. Quite frankly, any idiot who can follow a training plan, and who has been running for at least a year, can do a marathon. The marathon has become such a “watered-down” event- look at the shear numbers of people who complete a marathon on a yearly basis; the numbers are staggering. So, from my perspective, completing the marathon really isnt that big of a deal. For me, at the time, it was just another race to “check off” on my list of races –5k, 10k, half-marathon, etc. I wanted to “bat for the cycle” but I had no desire to do an ultra-marathon or anything like that. I think most people (like me) think the natural order of race progression is 5k, 10k, 15k, half-marathon, and marathon. But for some, the list keeps going, and that’s fine, but its not for me.

The same vibe holds true for my blackbelt. My goal was not to become a 5th level Grand-dragon – I wanted to get to the blackbelt level and that was the goal- the blackbelt is essentially the “marathon” of martial arts – with enough years of practice and discipline, you’ll eventually get to the blackbelt level. But it takes an extraordinary amount of time, energy and patience to get to the really advanced level of martial arts, and that type of dedication is only for a very small minority of martial artists.

Taking it one step further, I can make the same argument about the multisport events that I have done. I have done the sprint level stuff, but does that mean I want to do an Ironman? I give huge props to the people who can endure that type of physical activity. Its just not for me.

The fact of the matter is, I know what I am capable of. I know that deep down inside, with the right amount of dedication, training, and discipline, I could do a 101 mile mountain bike race without killing myself in the process. But why would I want to? To me, that’s the bigger question. Pain is fun but only to a certain extent. I like it small, controlled doses. I’ll be honest, and maybe I am a puss, but the pain involved with the MS150 is just about the level that I could put up with. Anything more than that, I start wondering what I could be doing with the time that I am spending sitting on this bike, sitting in the pain cave. Playing with my kids? Yes. Gimme a nice two hour mountain bike ride, and I am happy camper. Sitting on a bike in the middle of Jersey for four hours in 90 degree weather pushing my legs as hard as I can just to try and stay on the back? Not so much fun. And besides, I am all about getting fast and being fast, but I dont race the bike anymore. At least with running, I race occasionally, so I have an added motivation to try and stay in semi-fast shape. The incremental amount of pain between doing a ride at an 19 mph average versus a 24 mph average doesn't seem to pencil sometimes. I am getting stupid-fast for what reason? I dont race the bike. I dont do crits. I do road races. I dont do tri’s anymore…

What also makes it even harder for me to think about doing some event thats on the edge of the envelope is the training itself. I found very easily that the training required to do the marathon was very rigid. Same with mountain bike racing when I was really into that. Training for a singular event lends no time for other things (which explains why I was attracted do multipsort- the training is very diverse). If I want to get fast on the bike, that means I have to ride. All the time. Very little time for running. That sucks. I’ll take the trade-off – loose some speed and keep my sanity. That’s what makes Mike and Dom such good cyclists – that’s all they do. I dont know if I am ready to make the sacrifice of giving up the variety that I have been accustomed to.

OK, now for the ride report. So, I haven’t done a road ride longer than 20 miles in the month that I have the loaner road bike, so to say that I was woefully unprepared for this ride wouldn’t be an exaggeration. But I have done many, many long rides in the past, so it’s not like the prospect of doing 50 is a crazy idea. However, its sort of crazy when you take into account my lack of training, coupled with the fact that I am riding with two clowns who are in superb shape, and who are both great climbers, and then add in the fact the course is very hilly. Most of my previous riding experience, even the longer rides, are mostly flat at places like the Valley Forge Trail, which is flat as a pancake. And the cherry on top is that I am not a good climber. As a matter of fact, historically, I am an awful climber.

The ride started out easy enough – we were cruising on the easy side to get warmed up, and the prescribed course started with a really nice downhill that seemed to last forever. Mike and Dom were taking it easy on me, and I think they were also keeping things in check only because we had a long ride ahead of us, so there is no sense in blowing a gasket early.

As the ride progressed, the hills came. At first, they were not bad- short little rollers. For every hill we climbed, we had a nice downhill on the back side. I wasnt staying with Mike and Dom on the hills, but I wasnt getting woefully dropped, and in most cases, I was able to re-group on the descents. On the flats, I was ok. I was not taking any front pulls, but as long as I stayed with those two, I was ok, and we did a fair amount of passing other rides as we flew along some of the twisty Chester County Roads.

Then the real hills started. Long, slow doozies. I wound up getting split from Mike and Dom, and I jumped on with two folks on time trial bikes who had been drafting on our wheels for a good while. It was only fair that I let them drag my ass up the hills.

The last hill before the first rest stop at the 20 mile mark was the killer for me. I had done some passing leading up to that hill, but at the base of it, I happened to glance up at it, and I knew I was in for trouble. I was soon out of gears, and alot of the folks I had passed earlier were starting to overtake me and pass me. At one point, I got passed by a dude on an old steel Harry Havnoonien road bike with a pannier rack. He passed me like I was standing still.

I got split from Mike and Dom at some point not to far out of the rest stop. I caught with a group of about 8 people (including two WCCC triathletes that I had just met at the rest stop). I jumped in with them, and we were doing a nice paceline. We were moving along pretty well, and our speed was somewhere in the 20-23 range. I was tucked in near the back, and I was feeling ok, so I figured that I would stick with them as long as I could (or as long as I could manage to not have to take a pull at the front).

As luck would have it, we caught up with another group that was pacelining, and I could see Mike and Dom tucked in with them. We were now riding a double paceline with that group, and my group was actually staring to pull through. I knew that when I passed Mike he would shit his pants, since he probably figured I was way behind him and Dom. So as I slowly pulled up next to him, I made a noise at him and he started cracking up. He yelled “one of these things doesnt fit!!!” and he couldnt have been more correct.

Anyway, we hit a traffic light, and both groups stopped, and when we started off again, our two groups joined up and quickly formed up another combined paceline. This is when I got into trouble. I was ahead of Mike but behind Dom. The pace of the combined group was faster than the pace of my original group, and after about ten minutes, I knew that if I kept this up, I would be kaput, and I would be in real trouble when it was my turn to pull. So I made the decision to pull out of the line. That was the last I saw Mike and Dom.

I wasnt too worried. I was more then halfway through the ride, and there were tons of folks on the road, so I knew I could hook up with another group of folks. There were a TON of WCCC’ers out there and this would be a good opportunity to meets some folks.

Not too soon after I left the group, I started to hear this weird noise from the front wheel. I pulled over and quickly determined that my front brake caliper had shift and one of the brake pads was pinned against the rim. I tried releasing some of the tightness on the cable, as well as some other odds and ends, but nothing helped. Another rider event stopped and lent me a mini-tool and I tied to center the calipers with the centering screw. Zilch.

I’ll be honestly, the rubbing wasnt all that big of a deal, but the psychological effect drove me crazy. There’s nothing more agitating than thinking something  on the bike is making you go slower than you already are. I was at mile 30, and I had ten miles to the next rest stop. I figured I would get there, see if I could borrow some tools from someone, fix the friggen thing and finish up. In the meantime, I had no front brake. WTF.

I get to the rest stop, and by shear luck, the SAG wagon was there, and the mechanic lent me a couple of allen wrenches. It turns out that the caliper bolt that fastens the caliper to the frame was loose. It took me about ten minutes to get it fixed, and I was off.

The rest of the ride was uneventful. I felt very good, and rode alone for most of the ride, and I was doing a decent pace (for me). I met one other guy out there, and we rode together a bit before he shot away from me on a climb, like I was standing still. I finished up the 50 milers, and I was ready to ho home. It was hot as a motherf*cer out there. Mike and Dom did another 27 and they had left way before I managed to get my sorry @ss into the finish.

The ride was a nice way to end my brief foray into road riding. I am giving the bike back to Tim tomorrow. I checked my exercise log, and I managed to put 160 miles on the bike in the short time that I had it.