It’s true. It just is.
I haven’t been bitten by the off road bug (and choose not to pay for a second bike)…until now. This trail makes me want to buy a fat tire, learn to ride it, and move to Utah! The Rush soundtrack brought back fond memories of high school, too. Thanks Fatty.
Here’s a link to his post with the video.
So how was your lunch yesterday?
We did it and had fun doing it! This is my longest ride ever. Next time I hope to be more ready, but finishing was the goal.
Everyone on our two relay teams finished their legs in good shape. The swimmers, my wife Emily and our friend Ashley (girlfriend of our marathoner, Wallace), are seriously hard core. The sea nettles were out in force in the Choptank River this year. They swam through the nettle goo for over an hour. You guys rock! After that performance, there was no way I was NOT going to finish my piddly little bike leg!
While they went off to shower, nap, lunch, nap, get lemonades, and wait some more Greg and I pedaled. He finished strong in 6hrs 20min despite taking a tumble at mile 52 that left his elbow and shoulder with less skin and more blood than when he started. (Who’s hard core?) I finished in 6hrs 55min and was ready to get off the bike. The wind was out in force, as usual in the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, and I was very thankful the last ten miles were downwind. My legs and hips were tired, in fact I’ve never felt so fried, but the hardest part was the neck and shoulders. A lot of fidgeting kept me going most of the time, but the last twenty miles there was no such thing as any kind of comfortable position.
Wallace and Dan finished healthily despite running the last 90 minutes or more in the rain and the dark. You guys rock!
Greg already wants to do the full Ultra distance next year. I’m going to reserve judgement until I’m sure my decision isn’t endorphin-driven.
With ChesapeakeMan looming close, even though we’re just doing the ride, I needed a long ride to have some confidence I could finish all 112 miles. Greg and I rode one full loop of the course, which should help a lot on race day. It felt good, it was a nice day and we had fun.
A lot of firsts on this one:
Andréa had the good idea to ride to Chesapeake Beach, she’s ridden down once before, but we didn’t want to do the 60 miles it would be from my house. We met in Galesville (the little parking lot next to Pirate’s Cove is a great launching point) and rode down. I expected flatter but the hills along the coast give some good views of the Bay. We stopped and had coffee in North Beach. It’s a nice ride and the roads are mostly low-volume and comfortable. We only got one screamer and one close swerver. I felt pretty good and it was a great day to be riding.
We were lucky enough to vacation in France this year. We spent a few days in Paris and a few days with friends. They are in a tiny town in the southwest called Sos. It’s a 4.5 hour ride from Paris on the 190mph TGV train, and then an hour drive from Agen. It really is in the middle of nowhere…and it’s wonderful.
I got in a couple runs and it was a great way to see the scenery. They were sightseeing runs more than training runs. One hilly and one flat; the narrow roads were all mine.
Highlights included:
We were amazed at the number of runners we saw in Paris! I was hoping for an early morning, pre-crowds, run around Notre Dame and along the Seine but it didn’t work out.
Beautiful, still, foggy morning.
It feels good to run long again! It’s been almost a year since I started having foot pain on long runs. I ended up bagging that marathon and a half Ironman later in the summer. I was bummin’.
Tim and I had a good hour this morning and I’m feeling good after it. My 10k PR, at the Camp Letts turkey trot, is only 2 minutes faster.
This is my first long run since losing 10 pounds and boy does it make a difference! Even at my fittest, long runs were usually over 10-min miles. I’m way less fit now but the mass reduction lets me keep up with Tim in the 9:15-9:40 range much easier! (He’s still waay faster. He PR’d in the 10k last year under 8 min/mile.)
