GOOD RUN

Sunday's long run was perfect. Tony and I ran a different route nice and flat along the river. The weather was perfect as was our pace. We ran nice and easy for the first 5 miles then began to pick up the pace as we headed back finishing with our last mile at 6:57. The thing that we both thought was cool was that we went out and ran 10 miles like it was nothing.

1ST CENTURY RIDE

Well I did it, or I should say we did it. Jeff and I rode our 1st century. We both had set that as goal at the beginning of the year and yesterday we did it. We started at about 0745 at the Rose Lake trailhead on the Trail of the Couer D' Alenes. This is a converted railroad grade, so it is very flat. The only hill is a 3% grade that is 7 miles long. That hill started at about mile 27 for us. We took a couple of short breaks one at 34 miles, another at 53 mile. At the 53 mile point I thought there was no way I was going to be able to to it. My thighs were burning in a way that I had never experienced before. I think this was due to a few factors, one was that my 10 mile run on sunday had been pretty tough for me and I did not follow my normal recovery routine. The other big factor is that I have not been spending enough time on the bike and to this point this year the longest ride had been 48 miles. At the 68 mile point we took a longer lunch break and accessed the situation. Jeff felt good and was willing to go for it. I on the other hand was not as eager to push on. But I did feel tha I could go maybe 6 miles out then back and that would give us 80 miles. And I started using analogy with the 100 miles representing a 100% grade ie A+ and that we, 68 miles had a D+ and that was not good enough. But I rationalize, that if we made to 80 that would be a B and that was good enough. So we started out, but when we got tot the 6 mile point I felt ok so we kept going. Then got into the A catagory and by then we just had to go for it. And when we turn around we were cranking along really well. In the end it turned out that the last 30 miles were some of our strongest miles. Total ride time 5 hr 47 min 7 sec. average 17 mph. It was king of funny my bike computer actually had us at 98.88 miles and jeff's had us at 101.5 so we split the difference and called it an even 100. As I write this my knees are a littke sore and my legs in general feel like they did something but all in all I feel good. I must say the Serotta is the sweetest bike. I do want to make a couple of tweaks to my aerobars I think I bent over to much because my neck is killing me. Next goal,100 miles with some hills.

WHAT A DIFFERENCE A WEEK MAKES

Today I ran the same route as last weeks race. This week was 5 min slower. Now I'm not sure if that's because I worked all night prior to today's run or if this was a train run not a race or some combo??? I know that a big deal today was that I had some issues with my shoes that caused me some foot problems. But the thing I do know is that after last weeks run I felt great ready to keep going. Today, I was done. I felt like I was working real hard just to maintain. I should get my new shoes on Tues. hopefully they will help.

NICE LITTLE BRICK

Today was a nice little brick. Started with a 20 mile ride really trying to keep cadence above 90,which by the way is hard for me. This was followed by a nice 3.3 mile trail run through the woods back to the house. The first 1/2 mile was a little sluggish as usual but the legs cam around. finished in 27:26 which is fine for me at this point.

SUNDAE SUNDAY

Today I ran my 1st Sundae Sunday. This is annual 10 mile race in Spokane. Nice coarse, perfect temp all in all good run. At the 2nd mile there is a pretty good down hill probably drops 145 ft in 1/2 mile. then when gain it all back and then some in the 9th mile. Final time 1:17:45 so 7:46 miles. The thing that bums me out was that I was at 8 miles at 1:01:10 so that last hill really spanked me. Especially considering I sprinted the 1/4 mile. Jayne did great considering it was her longest run ever. she was able to manage 9:09/mile to finish in 1:31:25.

LONGEST RUN

Well another first for me. Yesterdays long run was way morethan I bargained for. The plan was to run 16. However, because of the route we choose I ended up running 18. Now I did not set any speed records here bacically I just survived. Up to about 10 miles we were holding about a 9 min/mile pace which was ok because this was going to be a very long run for both of us. Tony was going for 20 and 16 for me. We were very lucky to have the help of my girlfriend Jayne, who was riding her roadbike and was are mobile aid station. We each started with about 30 ozs. of gatoraid and 2 gu's each. At about 10 miles Jayne brought us full bottles and another gu. Then again at about 14-15 miles another bottle. I think Tony took another gu as well but I did not. By this time I was running pretty slow and was pretty much in survival mode. It took all of my focus to keep running,if my started to wander my technique would start to falter and then my knees would start to hurt or my hips. But if I stayed focused and concentrated on each and every step then it was bearable. I hope that this will get better as I do more of these longer runs. Can't wait for the new shoes to get here because my feet were killing me. And I grew a blister on the arch of my right foot that started at about 10 miles that ended up being about the size of a quarter. All in all I think it was a fair effort 4 miles farther than my previous longest run, but considerably slower. oh well!