Every Day I'm Shufflin'

Well, that sucked.

Seriously.  Not good.

The score is now Eagleman 2.5, Ryan 0.5.  I'll say I earned a half point in 2009 because I didn't have an epic failure, unlike 2008 and now 2011.  The trip to Cambridge began on Saturday with the diva-worthy temper tantrum I threw when my bike was not cooperating.  My fault for not having it ready to go before Saturday, but when I went to swap the brake pads (putting in the cork ones for the carbon rims), the front right would not go all the way in (twss) and, somewhere in the process, I f'd up the whole front brake.  Now it was late in the morning, and I was already sweating.  Alyssa and I met Pat's brother Tommy in Cambridge and by the time we were ready to ride, it was already 1pm.  On the way out for my 45 minute ride, I could tell something was wrong because it felt like I was pedaling through fudge.  When we were halfway out, I stopped and looked at the brake - and sho nuff it was completely up against the rim, impeding the smooth rotation of the wheel.  I was really frustrated now, and wanted to smash that piece of shit on the ground.  We arrived back at the cars, now almost 2pm, and went for a 20 minute run.  I felt pretty terrible, and the pace of 7:50ish reflected that. 

On our way to the transition area, we spotted Benda and Bob V, and fortunately Bob had both his entire toolset and the skills necessary to quickly adjust my brake.  Satisfied with the outcome, I threw the bike in transition, where I knew it was going to take a bath later that day.  Then we hopped in the water.  It was warm (they claimed 82, but I don't know if it was that warm) and real shallow.  The buoys looked close, but generally I think they're supposed to be about 200 meters or so apart.  If that's the case, you could stand well beyond the first buoy, and even at the second buoy it was only about 7 feet deep.  I swam to the second one and then came back.  We met up with Pat and Jackie and the five of us found our hotel.  Then it was time for dinner - but where to go?  I hate the Eastern Shore, at least that part of it, because it's filled with fast food and awful chains.  We opted to keep my terrible tradition of eating at Greene Turtle in Salisbury (25min away) where it was a) freezing cold inside and b) slow and not very delicious.  We scooped up some DQ on the way home and then kicked it in the room, getting ready for the next morning while watching I Love You, Man. 

We heard our neighbor's alarm go off at 4:15, so I didn't sleep very well after that, but I didn't "get up" until 5am.  Out the door just around 5:30 and off to park, we had to walk a little bit to get to transition so that served as my warmup.  This is the first time I think in the history of racing that I did not run a STEP before the race.  We watched the pros come out of the water and then I just didn't feel like running, and with my foot hurting, I figured I may as well not give it an opportunity to hurt.  The air temp was still somewhat cool, but the humidity was high.  And here's where the race report begins:

Swim

First pro out of the water was a little under 25 minutes.  Some were closer to 30, some were over.  It seemed that my pre-race (non-wetsuit) goal of 32:xx was not likely.  I've done this race three times now, and the start has moved...three times.  This time we entered via the boat ramp, and I guess one hour and five minutes after the pros went off, off we went.  I felt like I had a decent start, and the conditions were pretty good - good water temp and not too choppy.  By the first turn (a long way out), there were noticeably fewer orange caps around.  I was picking up a lot of the slow swimmers from earlier waves, and nobody from my wave had passed me since the first 200m.  I was pleased with my lines, and since I touched three buoys, I felt like I was swimming as straight as I could have.  By the time I turned in towards shore, I didn't see any orange - I was really just by myself.  When it became shallow, the race got weird.  I figured swimming is still faster, and more efficient, than trying to walk or dolphin dive for an extended period, but there were a number of people walking in seemingly as fast as I was swimming.  With maybe 75m to go, I started mixing in some dolphin diving before finally just giving up and wading in.  Out of the water in 34:45 (192 overall/33rd 30-34).

Bike

With no wetsuit to pull off, I figured I could have a speedy T1.  Nope.  I found my bike and just was not moving with any oomph.  I put on my glasses, then helmet, then number, and since I don't have a computer on my bike, I wanted to ride with my watch so I could keep track of when I should be doing various activities.  I ran out of transition and was surprised to see them allowing people to mount their bikes RIGHT THERE.  That seemed precarious, as that road is pretty narrow to start.  I hopped on the bike and started pedaling.  After the initial uphill, I had built enough momentum to get my feet in the shoes, and then as we turned onto the next road, I tightened them up.  I quickly found my groove and was easily moving past people.

I settled into the aerobars and the first 8 miles went pretty quick.  I passed 10 miles in what looked to be about 24:30, and looked to have about 8 minutes in my pocket from when I went out a few weeks ago.  It then seemed like there was a little bit of a headwind on the way out to the refuge, which I expected, and I rolled through 20 miles in 48:45 I think.  My goal was to ride 2:15, which for some reason I thought was 25mph, because apparently I can't do math.  I used the calculation of 20mph = 3min/mi and 30mph = 2min/mi, so 25mph must be 2:30/mi.  I figured out during the ride that it was not correct, and in fact it was 2:24/mi.  So at 20 miles, I was about 45 seconds slower than 25mph pace.  Shoot. 

I had made the decision to only have my downtube water bottle cage, nothing else.  I figured I would just take something from every station and would be good.  Well, I didn't need anything at the first one, so I took a water bottle at the 2nd aid station (around an hour).  As we made the left in the refuge, it felt like we picked up a bit of a tailwind so I used it to my advantage.  I passed 30 miles in 1:12:30 I think, so I should have been on pace at this point.  I had a little Bento box with 4 Gu packets, and threw in some Gu Chomps, and originally had 6 S! Caps.  Well, the humidity had me feeling a little queasy, so I only ate the Chomps (I think there were 6 or 7 of them) and I had somehow lost 3 of the S! Caps so I could only take three. 

Shortly after 30 miles is where I came up on Pat, who must have swam well and was riding great.  I then passed OJ, who was of course just out for a swim and ride.  I hadn't seen many 30-34 people in a while, so it was good to see some people I knew.  I passed 40 at 1:35 and felt okay, but was becoming a little less comfortable in the aero position.  Note: as OJ and I discussed today, we definitely do not ride our TT bikes enough.  This is only the 6th time I've ridden it this year, which really means since July of 2009.  56 super flat miles take it out of you when all you do is pedal and crouch.

I passed Dorchester HS and made the left turn at 1:53, which was still about the same amount of time I was up on our ride from a few weeks ago, and that's when I started noticing the wind again.  Passing 50 in just a few seconds over 2 hours, I thought I could still get in inside of 2:15, but must have slowed down in the last few miles because I finished at 2:16:44 (24.57mph).  A 2 minute improvement from 2009, and what appeared to be 8th fastest ride in 30-34 (moved me into 11th off the bike).  Cool, but obviously the people that had ridden faster had also swam faster!  So now I have to run really fast, ha.

Run

T2 was also not particularly quick.  I had worn my one piece for the swim and bike, but I have trouble running in it for longer distances, so I unzipped the thing, pulled the top down and put on my old white tri top.  Much more comfortable.  I also put on socks and a hat.  The first couple of steps told me I was in for a long day.  Even in 2008 I at least ran the first quarter mile faster.  I figured I would run something in the 6:15-6:20 range for the first mile, and that the slowest I would run would be 6:30.  Imagine my surprise when I came through in 6:46.  Well, there goes that.  For a little while I held hopes that I just needed to control my faculties, but my left quad was seizing up.  Bad news.  I immediately slipped to nearly 7:30 miles, and then it only got worse.  When some of the girls I know started passing me (they had started 8min earlier, and I had passed them on the bike), I threw in the towel.  Out on the eternally long stretch of shittiness, I saw Matias out there killing it.  Adam Webber was having a great day (Matias had only passed him near the turnaround).  Chad was running well.  Jeremy Cornman, who, much like Columbia, had left T2 with me, was blazing.  It took everything I had to stay upright.  My fingers were tingling and I could feel that all-too-familiar feeling of electrolyte depletion. 

I was now walking...a lot, and stopping for no reason at all.  I hit the turnaround and shortly after, Pat passed me.  In that stupid little taint of a road around mile 10, OJ was riding next to me for a minute on his bike.  Two guys pass me and say "you know you'll get disqualified for that" - to which my snotty remark was "yeah his pacing my 10:30 miles is really an advantage."  F you.  So he took off and I went back to suffering.  A really old man cruised past me.  Then with 2.5 to go, you come up on this little neighborhood that always has a party.  Sometimes they have a slip-n-side, and I had always wanted to do it.  Well, no slip-n-slide this year, but they had Cornhole.  So I took one of the beanbags and on my first throw, tossed it right through the hole.  AWESOME.  They gave me high fives.  Then I got yelled at by a race official on a motorbike because I was on the wrong side of the road.  Again, F you.

I saw OJ again sitting with pre-race fave, Chris Legh, on a lawn in the shade, with a mile to go.  I stopped and talked to them for a bit.  Then finished up.  My run was 1:58:54, one of the worst of the day, and all but 2 of the people I passed in my age group on the bike reclaimed their positions on me, and I finished at 31st in 30-34 and I guess 166th overall.  My final time was 4:54:04.  This was somehow slower than what I did at Hunterdon last September, with just three months of running and biking in my legs, on my road bike, on a really hard course.  Man, I suck.

Upon crossing the finish line, I was greeted by Cheese, Jen and Carly, who had made the long drive out to watch us.  Really nice of them.  Particularly since Cheese had raced that morning in Baltimore, and drove out immediately after.  I felt pretty terrible, and although I've never thrown up after a race, I thought I was going to.  I dry heaved a few times and then finally cooled down to the point where I was a little more normal.  Watched Alyssa come through (new PR - 5:05, previous EM best was 5:19) and then I went in the water for a few minutes with the brothers McLoughlin and OJ.  It was not cooling me off much.  I didn't care much for sticking around for awards, but good thing we did as Alyssa had earned a slot again for Clearwater (note: when I say Clearwater, I mean Las Vegas, but I am continuing to call it Clearwater because I like the sound of it better). 

A storm was about to roll through, so we packed up, including the belongings of Alyssa's friend, Andrew Hodges, who had finished well in the pro division.  We hit Wendy's in Easton on our way out, then got stuck in bridge traffic for a while as the storm of the century hit hard.  That night I had a fairly typical hiccup fit, and then Monday came.  No rest for the weary, this was Alyssa's birthday and coach Hillary had given her a tough swim workout.  Apparently on her athletes' birthdays she likes to give them 10k sets, but being the day after the race she had a kind heart and gave her 26x200 instead (for 26 years old).  I actually felt pretty awesome doing this swim, much better than I expected to feel.  My left quad was really tight from cramping the day before, so I didn't run.  Tuesday I got in the pool for a short set, Wednesday I swam a little longer again and then ran at night.  I felt surprisingly decent.  This morning I got in the pool again for another workout with Alyssa.  I love how the past four days have been incredibly nice, with low humidity and low mornings temps.  It couldn't have just arrived one day earlier?

So now it's time for some analysis:

1) Speedsuits work.  Looking at the swims of those I know who wore speedsuits, and those I know who didn't, I can unequivocally say that they work!  It should be pretty obvious, but I really didn't think the advantage would be that great.  But here's what I know: Benda swam about 25:45, wearing a Blue Seventy suit.  OJ admitted after the race that he wasn't really swimming that hard, finishing in 28:55, but even swimming very easy wouldn't come in 3 minutes behind Benda.  Meanwhile, Matias - who had an all-around great race - swam just one second behind OJ using an XTerra speedsuit.  Then I put it into context of Columbia.  Matias swam 19:13 there, while Pat swam 19:31.  I would have expected maybe 30 seconds or so between the two at EM.  Instead, Pat swam 31:20 with his tri top and shorts.  That's a pretty big gap, and at this level you wouldn't see an improvement like that (discounting bad days).  Pat lost time to others who he may normally outswim, but then my gap to Pat was about what I expected at 3:25.  Benda is a great swimmer, and I am clearly not, but I also shouldn't lose 9 minutes over 1.2 miles.  Maybe 7.  I am now going to have to get one of these things as Louisville is obviously non-wetsuit.

2) I need to spend more time on my TT bike.  Obviously after being hit by a car while on my previous TT bike, one can understand my apprehension and aversion to riding it on a regular basis.  I do not feel comfortable riding out of the city on it (at least not riding on the bars), and most of Baltimore County is simply just too hilly.  Most of our rides feature quite a bit of climbing, so I need to figure out a decent place to ride it.  But I noticed that I became less comfortable by the minute after about 90 minutes on it, and my neck and arms were quite sore after the ride.  A course like EM does not suit my fancy, as I hate pedaling (seriously, it sounds dumb but I hate pedaling).  Based on how some of the other guys rode, I wouldn't have expected to be as far back as I was.  I use them mostly as barometers as they are quite speedy on the bike.  Adam rode 2:12.  Matias was just under 2:15.  Chad rode 2:13.  Lucas didn't race this year but has gone 2:13.  These guys are among the strongest riders in the entire race, so at least I held my own, but when I'm already giving up minutes in the water, it doesn't leave me in a good position.

3) Nutrition, nutrition, nutrition.  My buddy Matias, amateur winner and 8th place overall, had a great race, going 4:05.  That's ridiculous.  He was kind enough to share his race report, including his nutritional intake.  He used smart, even splits to get the win, and clocked I think the third fastest run of the day behind Richie Cunningham and one other pro.  He consumed an ideal amount of calories throughout the bike, and was able to run fine off the bike.  Meanwhile, I consumed probably 300 calories total throughout the day, and paid for it dearly.  This is the same thing that happened in 2008.  In 2009, interestingly, I ate a little more and ran "okay" (1:31).  I don't know why I keep thinking that my body can go without food or water in these long races, but I keep doing it and keep paying for it.  If I'm going to make it through Louisville and have any kind of a good day, I need to really make this a focus. 

Believe it or not, despite my horrendous runs at these longer races, I actually race pretty smart.  I swim and ride aerobically, and try to leave legs for the run. I just don't do anything else smart, like drink water or consume calories or take in enough salt.  It's getting old, but I have no one to blame but myself.  It's clearly frustrating when you have a race like EM on the calendar for a year, and spend the better part of 6 months training for it, only to have it be a real shitty day.  You spent money on the race, hotel, all your gear, etc, and spend time (which is really more valuable), so it makes it look like a real bad investment after the fact.  And as we approach the halfway mark for the year, I realize my year has barely started.  I have 3 more tri's before Louisville, and then at least another two in between Louisville and Arizona.  Those, plus two 5 milers, an 8k, a 10k, another road mile and probably two track meets, then maybe a half marathon in September. 

I'm heading up to NJ tonight for Father's Day and to race one of my favorite races, the George Sheehan Classic 5 Miler.  Once upon a time this race attracted foreign talent to the tune of a 23:05 winning time.  If you placed in the top 100 it was a big deal.  Unfortunately, the race moved from August to June, they took away the money and thus the talent, and now if you break 30 minutes you'll probably finish in the top 30.  It's kind of sad.  But I love this race and I get to run with my brother and sister, and see a bunch of friends from the old days.  My best time here is a pedestrian 28:49, so if I get my legs under me by Saturday, I'd like to give it a go and see if I can go under that.  Considering Peachtree is just 2.5 weeks away, it will be a good test of my running legs. 

A final note about Eagleman, and then I'll stop (for real) is that I'm still impressed with my bike split, considering how hard I've had to work over the past two years to get back there.  EM was the last race I did before getting hurt and I'm glad to see that despite a knee that has severely restricted range of motion and a tremendous imbalance in power in my legs, I can still ride with some gusto.  And as I was waiting around while they were announcing Clearwater spots, I noticed one Brian Boyle being called up.  You may remember him from Kona coverage a few years ago, a young guy who was nearly killed in a car accident, and decided that in his second chance he wanted to do the Ironman.  His first ever tri was Annapolis (2007) and then a month later he went to Hawaii.  He made it, but it hurt.  He caught the bug, though, and started doing Eagleman.  He has a swimming background, and really got his bike going (fyi, his bike split was a full minute faster than mine at 2:15:40, that's nuts).  This year he finished well enough in his 25-29 age group to earn a rolldown slot, and he was super psyched, celebrating with his family after they announced his name.  It was a great sight to see someone so excited to just be alive, to earn the chance to compete against the world's best.  As I was packing my things in transition, I ran into him so we chatted for a minute.  He really does remind us what it's all about.

Oh, and as a postcript, at least I didn't get SUNBURNED.  I put on sunscreen prior to the swim start, and only my shoulders took in a little sun.  I feel great about this one minor area of improvement.

A Whisper of Love, A Whisper of Hate

I have put it off for way too long, so this will be my race report for Columbia, as well as the week since the race.

Columbia

In the 10 years I've been around for this race, I can only remember two times it being even remotely nice.  2001 wasn't bad, and 2008 was nice.  Every other year has been cold, rainy, or cold and rainy.  When the weather prognosticators indicated that this year the conditions were going to be better than perfect, I couldn't even believe it.  I didn't want to say anything that would jinx it, because I've seen it be nice the day before the race, only to dilapidate on Sunday morning.  Saturday I headed down to Columbia and did all the pre-race mumbo jumbo that has become second nature for the event, and ran a quick lake loop with Ben and Prada.  Our first mile was just under 8 minutes and I thought man, I better run faster than that tomorrow.  While most of Baltimore partied for Preakness, I settled into bed just before 11pm, with a 4am wakeup call for Sunday morning.

I awoke to the most ideal conditions of all time.  The air was warm, comfortable enough to go to the race in just a t-shirt and shorts, and there was no wind.  I mean none.  While waiting in the line to get into the park, all the trees and bushes were still.  It was almost too perfect.  I got my stuff settled and it's always a fun morning in the Open Wave because it's all the dudes I train with and see on a pretty regular basis, mixed in with some guys I only see at races.  Like a May reunion of pretty great athletes. 

I went for my warmup and was thoroughly warmed up within seconds, as I came back dripping.  I got into my wetsuit, opting for the Orca 3.8 that I had just picked up the week prior.  I was hesitant at first, because I didn't like the way it felt, but it didn't seem to be a problem for me on Sunday.  Just my swimming was.  The water was warm, and particularly warm within the confines of the suit.  The gun sounded and off in a flash went all the sharks.  I may have been one of the last off the line.  My goggles were allowing in a little too much water and I started freaking out about getting pink eye, so I stopped briefly on two occasions to adjust them.  I thought I was swimming good lines, but I knew I was way in the back.  I was really disappointed to see 22:57 on the clock when I got out of the water.  This was at least a minute slower than I was really looking to swim, and put me in a severe disadvantage heading onto the bike.

I got on the bike and immediately started picking up a bunch of chicks who outswam me.  I then passed a few guys, and time was going by pretty quickly.  I didn't feel great climbing, but I didn't feel tired.  I picked up Pat as we made our way back home from the big traffic circle and then it was a few miles of just myself before I saw another athlete up ahead.  I caught up to him on 108, and passed him briefly before sitting up to stretch out my back before heading onto the run.  My bike split was 1:04:40, which is just 4 seconds faster than I went in 2008.  At first I was pleased when I realized it, but I'll elaborate on why I'm not as psyched about it now.

Heading onto the run with the other athlete, he completely took off and my legs refused to match the pace.  I hit the first mile in 6:23 - maybe my slowest first mile there ever - and knew I was in for a rough day.  I hit the same split for mile 2, which is about where Pat re-passed me.  Climbing up and out of the park and into the neighborhood was just not pretty, and my splits were getting slower.  I was dejected, but my body simply wasn't going to respond to anything.  CTR passed me around mile 4 and looked like he was cooking.  I came back up the wall and down onto the lake, which at least allowed me to get excited about finishing.  I saw a bunch of my friends who had made the early trip out to Columbia to watch and was pumped as I crossed the line, but sad when I saw the 2:11:38 on the clock. 

Not my worst, but far from my best.

In 2008 I went 2:08:40.  2009 was 2:11:00.  I legitimately thought I could swim around 22, ride under 1:03 and run under 38, which would have been a 2:05 and change day.  I guess I just didn't have it.  And I was excited about my ride until I saw the splits and saw just how fast everyone else had gone - it seems as if most people have stepped up their cycling skills because 3 years ago that was the 13th best split of the day and this year it was around the 30th.  Andrew Yoder took 2 minutes out of Chris Lieto's 56:30 course record en route to a bike course and overall course record.  My 2:11:38 was only good enough for 42nd on the day.  Occasional training partner Ben W. had what I think was the fastest amateur bike split of the day at 1:02:30, and went just under 2:06.  Pretty insane considering he just recorded a 9:55 IM St. George two weeks ago.  Pat PR'd, CTR PR'd, just about everyone I know had really, really good days.  That's what made the race tough for me to swallow, because I appear to be the only one that's on the opposite end of improvement.   My run split (40:58) was 3 minutes slower than I thought I could go (and the slowest I've run there), but even if I had done that, I would have only gone 2:08:40. 

Sometimes it's just not your day, and it seemed like I blew a perfect opportunity because the conditions were truly spectacular.  Maybe I've conditioned myself to expect shitty weather and I would have performed better in it.  Maybe because I can actually somewhat ride my bike again (unlike last year when my bike splits were slow in the few races I did) it's taking something out of my run. 

I was of course excited to see such a competitive race, and great days for my friends, but I won't lie and say I wasn't bummed about my day.  The important thing for me was to not focus on the bad day, instead put it behind and try to look forward to Eagleman and the rest of the summer. 

Post Race

I took it appropriately easy on Monday and Tuesday, and attempted to go out to Wednesday Night Ride.  Somehow I wound up on the front for almost the first 15 minutes of the ride, and when a few of the Kelly pros decided to heat it up, I got shot out the back.  Again, not pretty, and it was no fun riding for 75 minutes then by myself.  But, at least I was able to just ride my pace, because my legs were still clearly not recovered.  I took it easy Thursday in advance of my favorite weekend of the year:

Memorial Day

This weekend is the focal point of my spring.  In 2008 I met Joe Liberto and Nick Zohdi out in Cambridge to ride the Eagleman course.  It was my first time out there, and while I am a strong cyclist, I am not a power cyclist, so the relentlessly flat roads of Cambridge threw me off.  You just have to pedal...so...much.  You can never stop pedaling out there.  We reprised the ride in 2009, this time adding OJ and Double K (Nick wasn't there).  We had a good workout and I went out to modest success two weeks later at EM (2:18 bike split). 

This year was primed for an insane day.  Benda was in, David Lee was in, OJ, Pat, Zero - all in.  Double K was coming out and then brought 3 dudes with him.  All told there were 10 of us, all reasonably quick dudes riding time trial bikes.  It was seriously like the Postal train of the old Tour days.  It was an Eagleman kind of day out there, hot and sunny.  There is no shade on the EM course.  After 33 minutes of warming up we hit an hour of hard riding.  I figured we could have everyone ride a minute on the front and that way each person would get about 6 pulls in the hour, and we would be able to keep the pace high.  Mission Accomplished, we took a few minute break before doing another 20 hard minutes to Dorchester HS.  Aided by a tailwind, we averaged 30mph for this section (the headwind on the way out was very, very unfriendly) and all told had 80 minutes of really solid work.  We cooled down back to the transition area and got ready for a run.

The goal of this run was to do 2 miles at race pace, then a mile easy, another mile hard and a mile easy cooldown.  I was hoping that I could run 6:10 pace, but wasn't sure if I could or not.  We start out and it feels hard - really hard.  It's now 12:30 and the temp is near 90.  The sun is unforgiving.  Pat is out front, and as we get closer to the mile I realize we are running pretty fast.  Pat hits 5:30 and I come through at 5:38.  Uh-oh.  I obviously have no business running that fast, as I won't touch a mile under 6 in this race, but at this point I'm committed, so I slow only to a 5:48 second mile (11:26).  We jog easy for a couple of minutes before running hard from mile 2 back down to mile 1.  I kept this effort more in check and was surprised it was a 5:43.  An easy mile around 7:20 back to the car and my 5 mile brick was done in 32 minutes.  We all slipped into the Choptank to cool off, and it felt good to be done.  For the ride we were under 2:28 (22.5mph or something in that range I think) and 5 miles under 6:30 pace meant that a hard effort had been done.

It was time to drive back home now and rest up for Saturday. 

"Fucking May 28th" - OJ Keller

Saturday morning was significantly cooler, which was nice to start our ride.  The larger group we thought we might have had dwindled to just be me, OJ and Benda, with Alyssa joining us for a little over an hour.  We headed out from Meadowbrook just after 8am and rode north, uphill, to do the Lineboro ride.  I was looking to ride as easy as possible until we made it to at least Lineboro, but we pretty quickly assumed a little paceline and the effort was not tremendously easy.  We covered 18.5 miles in our first hour, and then after Alyssa left us, we brought our average up to 19.1, then in just a 4 mile stretch of Lineboro Rd were at 19.6.  We kept the intensity and I didn't know how long I would last.  Through 3.5 hours we were at 20.5mph. 

The temperature had risen a little, and unfortunately back on York Rd, where we would have around 30 miles back to MB, we faced one of the stiffest headwinds I've ever seen.  It had picked up significantly from the morning wind.  OJ's favorite new phrase is "every man for himself", which seems to be a feature of every ride now.  His plan was to go as hard as his body would allow for the 12ish miles to Hereford.  This would be no easy task into the wind, especially with now 120 hard miles in the last 24 hours already in the legs. 

OJ and Benda took off, leaving me in their dust.  I was pissed, mostly because there was nothing I could do about it.  But as I kept them in sight I noticed a few things.  One, when Benda was in front, the pace slowed a little.  Two, when they were out of the saddle to climb, I was gaining ground.  So I used my smarts and made big efforts to catch them, finally reeling them back in.  It was no small feat.  But, upon catching them, I was promptly dispatched again.  This time, I knew I would be okay, though, because I was riding the hills well.  And soon enough, we had made it through Hereford.

It gets no easier from there, however, and when we finally got back to Timonium, it started raining randomly.  Really annoying.  We made it back to the pool in just under 5 hours, which for 96ish miles is quite fast, meaning our average had only slipped a mile per hour over the last two hours into the wind and hills.  I was shocked.  Unfortunately for me I still had to ride home 8 or 9 miles.  Bleh.  I got into the pool in the afternoon but could only muster 2000 very slow meters. 

Went to see Hangover 2 on Saturday night (disappointing) and then Sunday woke up to spectate the McVETs 5k/10k.  I felt like garbage so I opted to not ride that morning, and instead I swam about 2400m.  It was all I could do.  I picked up Alyssa and Brennan and we made our way two hours to Winchester VA to visit Ben and Kendra and do the Loudoun Street Mile on Monday.  When we got to Winchester, I ran 6 miles with Ben.  It was 5pm and 95 degrees, and I thought I was going to die.  It was the worst I've felt in a long time.

Then I started to feel worse.  I am really allergic to cats and dogs, and particularly when a house is carpeted, I seem to really struggle.  Both of this factors were leading me to feel awful at Ben's.  I tossed and turned at night after taking some Claritin (thanks Kendra) but woke up and didn't feel much better.  My legs were cooked and the sunburn I endured Friday and then again Saturday was not feeling good.  Unfortunately for me, it was race time.

"Cultimation" - OJ Keller

On Friday, OJ uttered these words, which I believe were intended to mean "culmination".  Still, this is our new word for the week.  Monday was the cultimation of a long weekend.  I don't know how I used to do so much more on Memorial Day Weekend, I guess I just don't have what I used to pre-injury!  After warming up, I felt no better, and knew it was going to be a rough day.  The nice thing about a mile race is it's only a mile, the worst I would do would maybe be 6 minutes of running.  The mean thing about a mile is how often you want to drop out, and then you think it's only a mile, how is it possible that I feel so bad? 

The first 350m was downhill, and then there was a short uphill to the quarter mile followed by about 500m of steady incline, then dropped down to the 3/4 mile and it was flat for the last quarter.  I got out in 73 which was already slow and hard, and then ran a 79 uphill quarter.  While it was slow, I passed at least 15 people in this time.  The downhill mile was placed so that it didn't really help me run any faster, but it was helping me not run any slower.  77.3 for that quarter and then I just gritted it and tried to hold on for one more quarter (77.1) and finished in 5:07.  The amazing thing was how stacked this race was.  Ben was 16th with a 4:42, Brennan 25th with a 4:53 and I was 36th.  Moise Joseph won in 4:06, negative splitting the race like it should be done.  On our cooldown I realized I had met him at Alan and Julia Webb's wedding, which was pretty funny. 

I now felt like complete death and we had to drive home 2 hours.  Alyssa and I were going to go to the Terps vs UVA Lacrosse National Championship game, but as we got back to Baltimore and it was 100 degrees and I thought I was going to die, we opted to watch inside.  My health has deteriorated ever since, and last night was particularly rough as our house is a piece of shit and the air conditioning doesn't work.  We told our landlord about this last Tuesday and it is scheduled to be fixed finally today.  I realized there are plenty of people in this world without A/C, but 95 degrees in the house is just too much.  I sweated all night as I again tossed and turned in my bed.  The fever I was running did not appreciate the temperature. 

I can't remember being sick yet this year, and this one has hit me hard.  The good thing is that it's this week, not next week, and that I'm within two weeks of EM so I don't have any workout objectives.  I need to focus on feeling better and allowing my body to absorb the good work from this weekend.