Week in review - Alumni run and massive training

Well, I was perusing the web today and popped over to Bold's site and found his edition of "the good, the bad and the ugly" again as it was a Monday morning yesterday. (Yeah, I'm always kind of late when keeping on top of those things...)

But the section of his 'da Republic of Bolder' report labeled 'the bad' struck me as pretty significant. It rang true as they say. Here is a little excerpt:

THE BAD

The days are long, and the nights are getting shorter.

Yesterday, in review:

slept, got up, ate, ran over a mountain and back half-mary style, ate, slept, rode my bike over a mountain and back olympic style, ate, slept, ran beside a mountain and back dog-tired style, slept for 9 hours which didn't seem like long enough.

I believe in everything in moderation.

Moderation has left the building my peoples.

Left.the.building.

I agree with him. We both were crazy enough to sign up for Ironman Florida and from the looks of it we are both trying very hard to throw in massive amounts of mileage before the big dance in November (which is less than 70 days away I might add...)

This past weekend was like that for me too, maybe not as severe being that there are not too many mountains here in NY as there are on the left coast. But still, I see Bold's pain in knowing that moderation has left the building.

Saturday morning, I woke up at 4:45am. Strapped on a headlamp, got the bike all set up and climbed on it to ride down to Letchworth State Park (about a 45 mile trip) by 8am to run in the SUNY Geneseo Alumni race there. I was in the saddle at 5:15am and rolling down the back roads trying not to get hit by cars while en route.

I get down to the "Grand Canyon of the East" state park and roll in to meet the rest of the alum's and the newbie's on the XC team. Now mind you, I dropped out of college running because my grades were so bad and I was in danger of failing out of school. (I graduated, yes....but if I would have ran all four years, that probably would not have been the case...) So the last 2 years of my college career I majored in beer and darts and had a minor in Business Administration. I was also pushing the envelope of about 195lbs...

Right now after months of training for IM Florida, I am happy to say I am under 155lbs and some people at the Alumni Race didn't really recognize me. Nice. Anyway, I just biked 45 miles to the park, and strapped on the old Nike XC spikes and warmed up with most of the Alum's who are either really fast now (some are going to the olympic trials) or have gained some weight and like their booze (not that there is anything wrong with that!)

So needless to say when the 4 mile race went out and I saw the leaders hit the one mile mark in 5:05, I knew this was going to be fast. I crossed in 6:05 and held that pace until the end and came in with a 24:07. Apparently the course was long, and I would have loved to have broken 24 and held sub-6 minute miles, but I still knew I needed to cycle home and get some sleep. As an aside, Jeff Beck was the winner in just over 20 minutes and I was like 18th overall... I was never really speedy in college, but these guys ALWAYS blew me away. It's great to see so much talent in one place. Good times.

So I strapped on the cycling shoes again and began to pedal out of the Genesee Valley and back to home. My legs were smoked... I made it home in one piece and slept for an hour before tending to some last minute preparations for a buddy's bachelor party. (Which I can't reveal any details of here, because we all know...what happens at a bachelors party, stays at a bachelors party...standard 'dude law'...)

The next day I awoke in a drunken stupor (again my folks, "moderation has left the building" - I work hard, I play hard...) at 11am, said goodbye to the friends who were on my couch and realized I needed to do a 15 mile run today. I'm not lying when I say this was one of the worst runs in my life. I don't know if I was still drunk, or if it was cause I was "hanging over" so bad, or if it was the long bike ride and fast racing yesterday, but I was hurting. (again, moderation has left the building) Well, long story short (too late) I finished it and crashed that night. It rounded out the week at just over 13 hours of training and this week is the last week of building before a short rest week after Labor Day. Looking forward to the rest...then one last four week build and then my friends, its taper time.

Bold was right, moderation is gone. It's all about the miles now. Good luck to all who are training for whatever and I'll see you out on the roads. Cheers.