Weekly Log 23-Jul-12 to 29-Jul-12

Monday:  0

Tuesday:
4 miles.  Stonington Fun Runs.  Arrived too late for a warm-up.  Ran with Mike B (20:08, 6:27 pace), followed by a short cooldown along the water, and get-together on the docks.  Always a good time.

Wednesday:
8 paltry miles.  My plans for a morning real bike ride followed by a medium run were dashed by a 4AM call from the on-call support person at work looking for help, that then consumed my next 3 hours.  Arggh!  I was irritable all day long.  Managed to sneak in a short ride late afternoon to try to reduce my irritability.
4 miles.  Westerly Fun Runs, Week 6.  This one was truly cathartic, and I forgot about life for a while (hey, isn't that a line from a song?  Billy Joel?).  18:10, 5:50 pace. This was my fastest run on this course ever.  A gaggle of teens blew by me as usual at the start, and after the dust settled, there were two:  a 19-year old from NY, and a 14-year old from western MA (probably a young Tom B).  The 19-year old was clearly much faster than me, but the 14-year old and I traded positions several times all the way to the end; I was impressed with his stamina.
Observations:  1) This was the second week in a row that newcomers remarked after the run that they felt the course was really hilly.  Hilly, really?  There is one short hill; you go down it, you go up it.  2) My average fun run time last year was 18:57, this year to date 18:24 (not that I'm a data geek or anything).  Making me wonder about the possibility of a sub-18 this summer or fall or even a run at my 17:51 PR.  We'll see ...

Thursday:
4 miles.  Work unexpectedly started at 2:30AM for me today.  I love my job, I love my job, I love my job.  Fortunately I had the problem diagnosed, resolved, and far enough long by 4:50AM to turn it over to others, get off the phone and computer, and get the running shoes on.  Tom Harvey / Shore loop.  Didn't go nearly as far as I wanted before I had to come back and catch the train to Beantown, but hopefully the short run and pyschedelic purple sunrise (or was that just sleep deprivation?) will help with the stress and irritability factor during the daily grind ahead of me today.

Friday:
Slept from 9PM - 7:30AM, 10.5 hours!  Guess I needed it.  A new day, a new attitude.  Really excited about this weekend.  Running the Blessing tonight with Matthew.  Had thought about going for my 62:43 PR, but running with Matthew is the right thing to do and it will be a good father-son experience at one of my favorite races each year (my 10th consecutive tonight).  It's fun to listen to Matthew strategize - a fellow runner 1 year older from Curtis Corner MS that he met at track meets this year also ran Blessing last year, usually beats Matthew at meets by a hair, and he ran 1:30:xx, 9:05 pace.  But Matthew asked me to pace him for 8:00/mile tonight - we'll see what happens.
15 miles.  Avondale, Watch Hill, Misquamicut, Weekapaug.  Passed some guy in Watch Hill that then sped up to catch me.  Weird.  Hammered it on Ocean View Highway and also Atlantic, where I was able to keep it at 23mph.  The guy drafted me the whole way from Watch Hill to Weekapaug.  What gives, or is that standard biking etiquette?  [0:53, avg 18mph, max 29mph]
11 miles.  Blessing of the Fleet, Narragansett.  Very cool and proud Dad moment. 

Race finish:  tired, but successful

 Matthew killed it:  he was looking for 80, and ended up 77:21.  7:44 pace, 341 out of 2,642 total.  30 minute rain delay as we got soaked outside.  Mile 5 was slowest at 8:09, otherwise all miles were sub 8, as low as 7:32.  I was Matthew's pit crew as I would stop and go back for water and ice for him, then sprint ahead to bring it to him. 
He said he was getting tired on the back half of the course, but just kept plowing away.  At the 8-mile mark on a short downhill after the high school, Matthew barreled downhill passing scads of runners.  What's up with that?  "Dad, it's just easier for me to run fast downhill."  Yep, that's my boy.
The whole course we heard "Look at that kid go", "Go #102", or "Dude, how old are you?" (he's 12).  He was unfairly in age group 1-19, but when we put the results in Excel and filtered out 13 and under, yep, he came in first for 13 and under.  He was thrilled to see kids from southern RI that he met at track meets behind his time.


Post-race:  Awesome finish, great experience

Huge kudos to Justin for going sub-60!

Saturday:
4 miles.  Watch Hill Rd, Mastuxet, Tom Harvey.  Thighs raw and chafed from running 10-miles in rain-drenched shorts last night.  Hopefully will clear up before Crabman tomorrow morning.

Sunday:
0.25 miles.  Crabman Sprint Triathlon, South Kingstown.  Separate write-up shortly.  Preliminary results showed Mark got 2nd in his age group, and I took a 4th, but then they canceled the awards ceremony because they said a number of the results were wrong.  Kept checking back online, but results still not posted a day later - frustrating!
11 miles.
3.1 miles.
Weekly totals:
Run:  31 miles
Bike:  34 miles
Swim:  0.25 miles

Week in review:  Clearly the highlight for me was running the Blessing with Matthew on Friday, and vicariously soaking in his feat.  Really cool, he said he wanted to run it with me again next year but was also conscious that he wanted an opportunity for me to try for a PR.  Long time away, we'll see. 
Week upcoming:  Another great race weekend is on tap, this time a triple-header:  1) Saturday morning 50th Annual Ocean Beach/John Kelley 11.6 mile road race in New London (manning WTAC water stop only for me), 2) Saturday afternoon Block Island Triathlon, 3) Sunday morning Run 4 Kerri 4-miler in South Kingstown.
BI Tri sold out months ago, but if any interested in helping out at the Kelley race or running as part of a WTAC team at Kerri, come join us!