City Evening

Well folks, sorry for the long delay in posting... It's been over a week since my last "real" post and I have to say, life has felt just a little bit weird without sending out the blog updates periodically.

As it turns out, last week the Clark Kent side of my life had me down in The Big Apple for a little bit of business. Of course, a full week away from the hum-drum Grind of my usual routine is always a welcome treat, but being three weeks away from my first A-race - it was certainly a challenge to keep things going along. For those who just haven't had a good story or two to sit down and enjoy their dark roast with over the past week, I thought I'd back-track a bit and provide a catchup of sorts.

Last weekend was a real pisser in terms of weather. It was cold and rainy pretty much all day Friday and Saturday here in the Northeast, yet the schedule had me on the bike for around about 4 hours of good riding on Saturday, followed by a stab at a half-marathon at near-race pace on Sunday. On any given (normal) weekend in June, this would be a delight, but given the weather I was facing... Well, it wasn't. Saturday turned out to be a marathon on the trainer, as I rode indoors to stay dry - first to the stimulus of Hostel, then to that of Wolf Creek.* Few things put you in the right mood like the feel of a couple of good 'B' horror movies and the sound of rain pouring outside whilst spinning away. It really wasn't all that bad, and I wound up with 3 solid hours on the trainer with several good work pieces.

*Yeah. Liz refuses to watch anything that in any way resembles a horror movie with me. So such quality films are strictly reserved for long (solo) trainer sessions. Fair enough ;-)

Sunday wasn't a wash at all - so to speak. Though it was threatening to pour in the morning, the clouds held their weight and kept things cool and dry throughout the rest of the day. And so with tired legs, I went about a half-marathon at zone 2 pace. Here, I tried out my race-day nutrition, and focused on really "feeling" my pace throughout the run. At the end of the day, I crossed the 13.1 mile mark at around about 1:40, with plenty of gas left in the tank. Perfect. Afterwards, I did another 5k or so with Liz to cool down and to take in the glory of hitting my target pace over the half-mary.

After a thorough bit of stretching and core work, I packed my bags for New York City where I'd be spending the rest of my week. Along with the usual stuff, I also packed up my clunker bike, my trainer, and my myriad of running shoes - determined not to lose training while away from home. Yup - there's nothing like traveling with Joe.