Indeed, a very warm east coast weekend led to devastating results for some in Beantown, and even in the land of training it yielded some very tired legs and salty skin. I kicked off the weekend by running a little over an hour with 40 year old Kris on Friday, after which we celebrated with some Chipotle, and then a surprise party for him down in Fed Hill. Here, Zero and I discussed our plans for the weekend. It would be the most time I've spent with Mike in many months, and outside of IM training, one of the best we've gotten in.
We rolled out on Saturday morning for our standard Mt. Vista loop, and the conditions were awesome. We were cruising along, and ended up riding one of the quickest - if not the fastest - I've ever done that ride. It helped that we had some assistance from the traffic lights. 2 Fast, 2 Furious. After the ride, headed up to watch the track contingent crush the 1500m at the Hopkins/Loyola Invite, including a big PR for my roommate Ed (3:56.99). It was pretty warm at this point, and the sun was strong. I tried to get down to the pool before the night's activity, but my attempt was thwarted when I got there and realized I had forgotten my suit.
So I skipped it, which was fine, I was dehydrated and would have put myself in a further hole. I picked up Mike, and we headed the tiny trip up to Homewood for the TERPS vs Hopkins lacrosse game. A big game for both teams, and an awesome night for doing anything outside. It was PACKED. Lots of Terp fans, which was good, because the team was down 6-3 in the 2nd half. They stormed back, scoring 6 unanswered goals, and winning 9-6. Awesome. After the game we headed down to Fells, got some burgers at Kooper's, and headed home for another early morning.
Sunday I pedaled to Mike's, we threw the bikes on his whip, and cruised down to Columbia to watch Dustin and some other friends run the Clyde's 10k. It was overcast, and humid. The course is already hard enough, so it looked like a tough race. We jogged a few easy miles around during the race, and then headed over to Centennial Park, site of Columbia Tri, to ride a few hours with Chicken Tender. Due to a miscommunication, Andy was riding his new Green Monstah (not sure if he named his wheels yet, but his sweet new TT bike), so already Mike and I were at a slight disadvantage. The plan was to ride somewhere in the neighborhood of 60 miles out there, and not leaving until 10 meant it was already a little warm. Sun, again, very strong.
We departed and opted to not ride the course, instead heading out on an old route I used to ride with Scotty. It was a fast first hour before we eased up a little, and then when we hit Frederick Rd following Gravitron, Andy was psshhewww gone. We tried yelling up the road to tell him to turn, but alas, he did not hear. Nor did he look back, despite not knowing where we were going. We stopped, and finally he returned. Silly Andy. We corrected ourselves and were now onto Triadelphia Rd and the Son of Gravitron. Once back on the Columbia course, we did 2 times the lollipop, which sucked, and then rode home. It was just shy of 60 miles but I was done. Very hot, very dehydrated, very much out of water. Mike and I hit the RoFo for some drinks, and then he dropped me off.
I still had to swim, so I went down around 4:30, and somehow muddled through an hour of swimming before Alyssa got home from her weekend of running with the Rev3 Run Across America group.
Needless to say, when Monday proved to be even WARMER than the rest of the weekend, I watched the splits of my friends at Boston in agony. They were really struggling. A couple of DNFs, a few really slow times, but a few very good races too. So it wasn't all bad. I headed up to the radio show (more on that in a minute) and then got back down to Fed Hill for Monday's chill 6 miles. It was hot, and my legs were heavy.
In all, a cool weekend to get to kick it with Z, watch some races, get in some training. #goodtimes
The radio show - The Runaround on ESPN - is a radio show created and produced by my friends at Running Maryland, Greg and Brad. It's been on the air since mid-January, and is a weekly AM radio show about RUNNING. I had called in a few times, but recently was asked if I didn't mind coming in to guest host, so I've done it two of the last three weeks. Not only is it fun for me, but absolutely a great resource for runners. The guys do a great job with it, and have scored interviews with some world champions, like Chaunte Lowe, Ashton Eaton, and Jenny Simpson. It gets bigger each week, and it's in large part thanks to the main sponsor, Holabird Sports. I hope more sponsors start checking it out, because it's a huge audience. You can listen on Mondays from 5-6pm on ESPN1300 if you're in Maryland, or online at http://baltimore.cbslocal.com/station/espn-1300/
1 comment:
I did look back... once or twice.
Post a Comment