Sorified

Not really, but I saw this word invention over on the blog that always wears a smile and I wanted to use it. Truth is I've been feeling pretty good, but I'm going to force myself to take a little bit of recovery. My training volume has been way up, despite numerous days off, but the intensity has been lacking. My efforts lack direction, so it's time to regroup.

Monday I went over to nearby West Bridgewater and ran the Christopher's Run 5k. It was windy and I knew I wouldn't feel like riding hard, and I needed a run, so this was the easiest way to make sure I didn't totally dog it. Obviously, going in with 300k of hilly riding in the two days prior, expectations were low. The race is promoted by a local club runner who also happens to do triathlons, and was thus stocked with a number of his athlete friends. The course was pretty flat. My intention was to go out easy and try for once to negative split. I think that I succeeded, but not according to the mile markers, which seemed to be way off. I headed out fifteen runners back, and hit the first mile in 6:18. This may have been correct, but the marker lay just past an intersection, where the true mile line may have been in the middle of. The second mile was surely my slowest, yet the split was 5:49. Something was fishy. I know I ran the last mile the fastest, as it was downhill and I even passed a guy, but this clicked off as 6:10, and I finished in 18:54. My average HR was only 155, as of course I was pretty cooked.

Watching the rest of the finishers was the day's highlight. At the early season races like the Raynham 15k and the Paddy Kelly, almost all the entrants are fairly serious club runners. Most are training for Boston or whatever. Now it's summertime 5k season. It's getting hard to find any other distance to race. All the locals come out and "run." Pretty funny. WeeBee has become a totally stereotypical bedroom suburb, and it showed. Dozens of 30-something women trying to look as milfy as possible running with big sunglasses, golf hats, and thin white tops. I guess nipple chafing is not such a big issue when it's only 5k. And of course, this brings out lots of hairy old guys running shirtless even though their torsos looked more 30-pack than 6-pack. Amusing. But gross just the same. You ain't in high school anymore dude.

Yesterday I'd probably have been dumb enough to go to Wompatuck, but I'm guessing it got canceled anyway by the afternoon thunderstorms. So I'm taking it easy this week. It's nice to have no pressure to train. Weird thing is, despite 45 hours in the past three weeks, my weight continues to climb. I'm almost back up to where I was last summer. Now I've got to think about the race schedule for the coming months. The cool weather has kept me running longer than usual. I'd like to give a good effort in a run or two with legs that haven't been par-boiled on the bike. Maybe I can hit one of the weeknight races that are coming up. I missed the boat on the Reggae Ramble, and all the rest of the races in that series filled up too. There are others. Who's going where? This coming Saturday I may hit the Rye-by-the-Sea duathlon. The following week I need to decide between the Balloon Festival and the Waterville TT. I may end up opting for the latter as there are road races every weekend for the next month, and the travel budget may dictate I skip at least one or two of them anyway. And I need some intensity. With crap like this to write, maybe a "rest week" from the blog would be a good idea... Thanks for reading.