3 Hour Tour

F*** land I'm on a motherf***ing boat - "I'm on a Boat"

It's felt like I've been on a boat since the rain started on Wednesday. Asides from a little respite on Friday afternoon, it's been wet and overcast and there is a feeling of malaise.

After about a week of no running following Boston, I got back into it this week with just a shade under 40 miles. I felt worse each day that I ran throughout the week, which is rarely a good sign. Tuesday I thought I would try my hand at the workout, which was a good one: 3x(1600 at tempo pace/200 jog; 800 at 5k pace/400 jog; 400 at mile pace/5min). The goal for me was 5:40-5:45 for the mile, and I ran 5:41. But my legs felt like garbage and I figured there was no point in making them feel worse, so I stopped.

The two highlights of the week were on the bike. I rode 50 on Thursday with OJ, and after the two big days from the previous weekend, I was feeling much stronger. We kept the tempo high and I was glad to have a good ride and also not get rained on.

Saturday's plan was a shorter ride than I normally do on the weekend, but we were doing intervals so any longer would have been tough. Zero joined us for what became his longest ride ever. The weather was not super cooperative, as we started our intervals on Mountain Rd - into the wind and rain, and for a few miles the road was grated and devastating on the bung to ride.

Nevertheless, we had a great workout, with timed intervals of 5-10-15-15-10-5 minutes in the middle of the ride. And while I was tired toward the end, we charged up the hills of Charles St in Towson and made it home with 63ish miles. Seems pretty paltry compared to last weekend, but I need a few more efforts like this before I'm ready to really get after it.

Sunday was the shittiest day of the week. I crashed at BrenJun's and planned on running back to Canton in the morning to watch some friends run the Making Tracks for Celiac 5k/10k, which started at 9. Around 8:50 I finally decided to start walk/running over there, which is probably about 3 miles away. It was miserable, and I was just shuffling along with my backpack, getting soaked. Just over the bridge by Pier 5 I heard someone shout my name out - it was my cousin, who was on her run. She and I ran together back to where I was headed for the race. I got there and it was 9:20 or something, so I had just missed a few of my friends finish. I then sat there and waited for the awards with them, which took until 11.

The rain picked up and the temperature dropped, so there was to be no riding for me. I was contemplating going to the pool, but didn't want to leave the house, so I called it a day.

The good news was that results from the team's efforts over the weekend were awesome!

This week I'm going to begin ramping up some harder efforts. I've got the Kinetic Sprint Tri this Sunday, hard to believe tri season is here. Last year it was 3 weekends earlier, but the weather forecast is probably the same. It was 55 degrees and POURING last year, the worst rain I've ever competed in. If it does the same this year I'm going to be pretty ticked.

But first I have the Alumni Mile down in College Park this Thursday night. I'm excited to go back and see some of the old teammates. The race is part of a twilight/last chance meet, so the competition for the real events will be pretty good. I'm just hoping to break 5.