Solo the Pooh-Pooh and the Blustery Day

I heard you missed me, I'm back! No post for two days, so I need to get going so Zoo will have something to plagurize. Monday, no training, slept in before work and then went for a massage after. I guess I didn't really need one, as the usual "good pain" just wasn't so intense. That's ok though.

Tuesday morning I went out for my typical morning run around the woods and the sheep pasture. With the Canton Fall Classic 10K coming up this Sunday, and since I'm fully recovered from the duathlon last weekend, I tried to run a good pace over my bread and butter loop, which is somewhere around 4.5 miles, maybe a hair more. Right away, my legs felt great (well duh, just had a massage) but I was sucking wind, or so it seemed. Passing the first time check (which is around a mile out) in 7:20, I thought OK, not so bad. For the rest of the run though, my HR hovered in high zone 3 and low zone 4, with my PE quite high and me feeling noticeably winded. I ended the loop in 34:15.

Now, my training this fall has been pretty haphazard. I haven't really had a plan or goal since way back in August. This time of year I'm just transitioning to running and off season training, and trying to milk my fitness as long as possible. The two duathlons were my main events, meaning only that I made sure I stayed rested for a day or two prior to each. Well, the fitness milking may have reached the bottom of the udder. First, at Gloucester two weeks ago, I finished behind Zoo. Next, on Saturday, Gewilli drops me on Big Blue, a climb he has never seen before. Now, I'm sucking wind while running 7:30's on fresh legs. Anybody home? Sure, I had dropped my chain at Gloucester, and Gewilli was taking pace from my girlfriend, but it just might be time to start a little hard training if I want to enter any more contests this year.

Undaunted, today I decided to start up with some Special High Intensity Training (S.H.I.T.). My pathetic little 30 minutes zone 1 spins on the trainer just aren't cutting it. After a grueling four hours at the keyboard, I headed out on the Slim Chance for a lunch ride, where howling winds and swirling leaves awaited me on the October roads. Clad in just (XL yet somehow still too short) knickers and LS team jersey, the chill in the air motivated me to crank it up and forge into the wind with my head and shoulders down (unlike my losing sprint at Sunapee). I sorta TT'd over toward Moose Hill in Sharon, and got the HR all the way up to zone 5C on the little climb leading into the center. Ditto on the Moose itself, and I kept it rolling over the crest and back toward Wolomolopog Street for the tailwind home. Clunk. WTF?

My right cleat had other ideas, and three of four screws had fallen out. Slipping my foot out of the stuck to the pedal shoe, I was forced to stop. I borrowed a screw from the left foot and refastened the cleat, heading back at a more sedate pace so as not to rip the bottom of the shoe out. Oh well. Got in an hour twenty.

So yeah, I guess I'm rested and need to train with some feeling, at least for the next few weeks. At Canton I'm planning to do double duty and race the 'cross after the 10k, and then next weekend we have double Verge races at Farmington and Noho. Then it looks like the UNH and Putney races on Veteran's day weekend, Lowell after that, and then some running race on Thanksgiving. Of course, I must avenge my losses to Zoo and Gewilli. Now it's off to practice my dance moves in front of the mirror, just in case Meg ever shows up with a video camera and a forty of OE 800. And oh yeah, screw the Tigers. I know we're an AL city, and I learned baseball watching Gibson and St. Louis crush the Impossible Dream in '67, but I still appreciate NL-style play and was always an Ozzie Smith fan. Besides, the Detroit fans showed zero class at player introductions on opening night, and Rogers is a friggin' meathead. Go Cardinals! Thanks for reading.