7:09AM: ~55 miles in ~4 hours. (part 1, 2) Got together with several friends, and rode from Franklin Lakes down to Denville and back. Awesome, awesome ride, with a group of people who more closely match my skill level. It continues to surprise me to see how strong I am on the climbs, to a certain point. After that point, it's even more surprising to see how week I suddenly get.
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| Sunday's Long Ride |
Monday, June 18 - Bear Mountain Run
6:23PM: 8.23 miles w/1122' gain in 1:26 (10:30) - ascent time 50:00.Thought I'd take advantage of the cool weather and run a route that I've not been on in over a year - Bear Mountain's Perkins Drive. The four mile ascent gains about 1100 feet with a continuous uphill, only offering less-steep portions as breaks. It's an awesome workout. I knew my PR on the ascent to be about 58 minutes, and with hill training lacking lately, I wasn't expecting much from this run. I frankly would have been happy to run an hour. I surprised myself by running almost exactly 50 minutes from the carousel to the summit boulder. Maintained sub-12 minute miles on everything but the steepest sections. Reached the top feeling invigorated and I honestly felt like I could have continued another 4 miles/1100 feet. Of course, I was reminded on the way down the the hardest part of this route isn't the ascent but the descent - four miles of continuous bone-crushing downhill running is really good training, but it beats the hell out of me. Streak 538.
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| Bear Mountain Run-Up |
5:35AM: 1750yards in an hour. "The return to the pool," as this was called, and after my string of successes I had forgotten just how mediocre I am compared to my tri club friends, especially without the aid and buoyancy of the wet suit. We did a few intervals and things, but over all I struggled to keep up with the speed demons. I wonder how much I was affected my the run from Monday.
7:20AM: 1.03 treadmill miles in 10:01 (9:44). A quick mile on the treadmill at work, where I definitely felt the effects of the run from Monday. Streak 539.
Wednesday, June 20 - Bike
5:34AM: 17.84 miles in 57:47 (18.52MPH). On the longest day of the year, you can beat the heat by starting early - but can't beat the sun (it was already light out at 4:45am), and you can't beat the humidity. At 5:31AM it was 67.4ºF, but the humidity was 95%, giving us a dew point of 65.9ºF. And sunny. Without wind. And I am particularly vulnerable to heat and especially humidity. And with the mild weather lately, I am far from acclimatized. I say all of that to say this: I got dropped on the tri course. My time, despite being by second-best ever, was 4 minutes slower than Saturday's race, and I just had no legs on the hills. Normally I can keep up with the skinnies, but not today. Kim, by the way, is awesome for hanging with me while I was sucking the moisture-saturated wind.
6:36AM: 1.28 miles in 12:10 (9:31).For obvious reasons, I bagged the run. By 6:52AM the humidity had not gone down at all, and temp and dew point had both gone up 4ºF. Plus the sun was much higher in the sky. So I ran out a half-mile and back. Streak 540.
12:20PM: Hertz Fitness Center Bootcamp. I tried to take it easy, but bootcamp takes no prisoners. 40 minutes.
Thursday, June 21 - Track
5:42AM: 4.25 miles in 48:01 (11:18). "I ended up with 4 miles at about 50K pace, and then curled up into a dark corner, in a fetal position, with a dozen fans and ACs blowing directly on me, sobbing." Well, Track was the plan. I woke up, checked the weather, and saw that it was already 78º with a 70º dew point. Got there at 5:30 to find that I was alone. Farted around, took my time, and finally started at about 5:45. Super-slow. I was really struggling, even at 11 minutes per mile. Was going to bag it at a mile or two, until I saw Jim running up to the track! Having a running partner was just the kicker I needed to continue. In fact it was so good running with him that I almost forgot about the weather. Streak 541.
Friday, June 22 - Medium
4:59AM: 8.56 miles in 1:27:10 (10:12). Too short to be a long run; too long (and too slow) to be a tempo run - this run can best be described as "medium." Actually, it was a good acclimatization run. The heat wave technically hadn't broken yet and the humidity still sky-high, but with an extra-early start, two days of adaptation, clouds that kept the solar radiation low, and most of all an awesome running partner (thanks Mare!), this 90-minute sweat-fest went by quickly and relatively comfortably relative to Thursday and especially Wednesday. Also, since I'm a little behind the 8-ball this month with the 100-miles-in-every-month goal, getting 8.5 in on a weekday was nice. Still, the afternoon thunderstorms were a welcome relief. I was on my drive home from work, and saw the outdoor temps according to my car's thermometer dropped from 88º to 68º in about 20 minutes. Streak 542.
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| Friday Run with Mare |
8:20AM: 7.32 miles in 1:23:35 (11:26). I'm not ashamed to say I slept in - After 4:something AM wake-up calls Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, AND Friday, I decided that a 6AM 100K ride - that I'd have to start at 5AM for reasons I won't go into here - wasn't happening. So instead, I stayed in bed until - get this - 6:55AM! Then, shortly after 8AM, I started a 1-hour run, that ended up longer than an hour. I thought I'd throw in a couple of hills. 20 minutes in I thought to myself, "gee it's taking me a long time to warm up." 45 minutes in, I said, "I guess I won't get warm at all today." Had to walk a couple of miles of this 7.5 miler, which is also something I'm not ashamed of. They can't all be great runs. Streak 543.
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| Saturday's Run |
Bike: 71 mi
Run: 31.8 mi
Swim: 1 mi
Totals for the year:
Bike: 528.9 mi
Run: 816.7 mi
Swim: 44,735 yd
