Drippin’ History April 22, 2007
Posted by anton in : Training , add a comment
Didn’t quite know what title to give this entry…so I thought about and decided on what’s above.
Yesterday my long ride covered ninety-two miles of the C & O Canal with side trips to get in some hills. Just a beautiful day…out early to beat the coming crowds as this is the first weekend in ages that the weather has been good. Todays race started at Mt.Vernon
Riding up the towpath can be dull and has been know to elicit screams of agony from the endless miles without much change in view…sad.
There is too much to see, to feel, to imagine.
Other than wildlife (turkeys, hawks, and eagle and the dreaded Homo Erectus BoyScouticus) there can be times when there doesn’t seem to be much there. I remember my mom yelling at me after I got into trouble in elementary school…”Get your head out of the clouds! You won’t amount to anything!” If I had, workouts like this weekends would have been…well, maybe I wouldn’t have been able to get through them.
The ghosts of the Delaware line the rivers shores…long before the Europeans came. The Irish Miners and Italian Masons who died by the hundreds to build the canal…The Navies from Newcastle who built the railroad that runs the same way…
White’s Ferry…Jubal Early who attacked Washington City while Lincoln watched…The wounded and scared crossing the Potomac in the driving rain leaving behind 23,000 dead and wounded after Antietam…Clara Barton, with a lantern, walking amoung the dead and wounded…John Brown walking on the towpath and crossing the river in hopes of freeing those in bondage, Stonewall and the foot cavalry in an all night march….The Irish Brigade…echos of a war that still haven’t died.
It was a great ride and while I rode alone…I never really am…the ghosts of the dead speak to us if we listen.
Went to Georges Place (Mt. Vernon) this Morning for a workout and a race…The GW Parkway 10 miler…a great, little known race.
Got to the start about 6:30 and with plenty of time to kill and knowing 10 miles wouldn’t cut it today…starting at 7, I got in an easy 5 miler…at the first step of which I groaned…oh today was going to br FUN! (sarcasm) The legs really feeling the effect of yesterdays ride and run. Got back to the start in time for the gun…or rather the claxon. and off we went…the parkway a riot of color and not just from the runners…trees in bloom, flowers, flashing police lights, the works….I love this race…much better than the Cherry Blossom 10 which is all rep and no bite…and way more than the Army 10 which is WAY too packed with a bijillion folks. But…it still doesn’t beat Garden of the Gods or Annapolis 10. Ran mid range…A bit slow actually…about 8:30 pace which is far below my normal (PR on this course 1:13…today, 1:25). But it wasn’t about that…
Rest week coming up…which means about 10 hours of workouts instead of 18…Wahooa!
RoY G Biv April 12, 2007
Posted by anton in : Observations , 1 comment so farRed. Orange. Yellow. Green. Blue. Indigo. Violet.
There are days training when it is the last bloody thing you want to do.
I didn’t want to run this afternoon but sort of forced myself out the door.
Several miles into the run I felt like crap and wanted to turn around.
A thunderstorm was blowing in and I wanted to turn around.
The rain came and the temps dropped and I wanted to turn around.
Soaked to the bone and muddy and wondering how in the hell I was ever going to get through Ironman let alone the Double Ironman in October.
Out of the woods and across the dam at the lake…and I stop dead in my tracks…
There against the dark sky were two rainbows…
The top one was nice, going the whole Spectrum.
The bottom one…was…one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen.
It went red,orange,yellow,green,blue,indigo,violet,red, orange,yellow…and on and on. The whole spectrum repeating almost four times.
Both ends anchored in the water of the lake at my feet.
People crossing the dam in cars stopped…got out..and we just watched..no one spoke. Transfixed.
the next thirty minutes home found me skipping and splashing and tearing through the mud…my nine year old self,alive again.
That’s life. Sometimes you want to turn around because things just suck…but you keep going and you are led to one of life’s special moments.
It’s the razors edge all athletes tread…do I push on? Do I turn around? Only a moment. It can change your life.
Tempus fugit April 1, 2007
Posted by anton in : Training , add a commentI go to sleep on, say, a Tuesday…and wake up and it’s two weeks later. Tempus Fugit. (For the non-Latin speakers that’s a hard “g”)
Time flies… It flies in the pool on the road and running trails…
Today is the end of week 8 in my IMLP training, a build week, where I’m just slapping in the miles, building in miles of capiliaries to shunt blood from one place to another in a hurry. This next week coming is a “recovery week” although when I look at the schedule it’s only a few hours shorter than this week. Missed a swim this week but feel really good about the others…biking is going well and the running is …ok. I’d like a few more miles. There is a link to my training log on the right. Yesterday’s ride was just wicked…64 miles on the C&O canal towpath. Try pushing a 30 pound mountain bike up a dirt road for that long with no hills, which means no breaks. No complaints though…trees are blooming and birds are going nuts and I didn’t have to deal with any Boy Scout troops on bicycles who fly all over the place and are a threat to any in their path. Makes my 16 pound Giant road bike seem like nothing when I ride it…
Blew out the wet suit this week…a big old tear up the arm,not on a seam. I’ll glue it and use it for practice…but my baby,bless her, takes a look at it and says…”Why don’t you go treat yourself to a new suit…you’ve got Ironman coming and you don’t need the worry of a marginal suit.”…sweet!
Have a few days off this week as school will be closed, so I’ll use those days to best advantage and then take a day or two “off” over the Easter weekend and enjoy a brief visit to the beach.
After the recovery week the next few weeks will be up around 20 hours worth of workouts Yikes!
Sounds like alot…but it pales in comparison to what is coming down the road…
Tempus fugit…Time flies. Time is funny, it is the one thing we have plenty of but we can run out of at any moment.
In my next post I’ll talk a little about time and limits and pushing them.
Was supposed to race the Virginia Duathlon today….but really the training right now just seemed more important and anyway…it’s so short!