SalsMiles2

Sixty minute run beginning at 5am, work 10 hours, one hour pool swim.

Monday we "slept in", all the way to 8:30! At noon we were in the post office parking lot in Hemlock, NY prepping for a long, hilly 30+ mile bike ride. Would my 20 year old 12 speed Schwinn with the new tires and rims hold up? Would my 50 year old quads give out? Maybe I'm not the right person for her to be training with? What do I know about biking? Could Jan do the ride? Would we pop a tire or two, get chased and chewed by dogs, run over by trucks, or have to fight the wind for miles? Knowing we would have views of two Finger Lakes, Hemlock and Canadice, plus the gorgeous scenery along the way, provided motivation to begin our expedition. The roads really were good for biking, traffic for the most part wasn't a problem and the air temperature was nice. We set off, onto rt. 15A, uphill. Turning onto Stone Hill rd (notice a theme developing here), we kept chugging along. Question one? Has the state, county, town ever heard of freakin' road signs? How many times di...

Sunday morning we drove to Buffalo to cheer on Lou and Pete, competing in the 1/2 marathon, and Mike M. and Mike W. in the marathon . Lou ran a solid race, Pete finished 3rd in his age group, Mike M. ran a great time in 3:44, and Mike W., trying for a Boston Q. time, was on pace for 18 miles before cramps hit and he struggled in. It's always tough to try and meet a specific time goal no matter what your age. Boston standards are fair and challenging. You have to enjoy most of the training for the months prior to your qualifying race or what's the point? Race day comes and it's always a crap shoot on the weather, your health, and not knowing if you under or over trained. Did you peak just right? Is there some bug hidden in your body that only comes out after running 16 miles? As one who has qualified once and missed many times, I know too well the disappointment you can feel when the goal becomes out of reach during the race. Then you have to decide whether to begin the pro...

Jan ran 14 miles Friday morning, swam a mile, then we biked together for 21 miles after I got home from work. The wind was tough to ride against. Does the wind ever not blow in your face when biking? On Saturday Jan biked 10 miles with the Tri-College training group at Mendon Ponds. Then we hopped in the car and drove 85 miles to watch Byron-Bergen compete in the track sectionals. Two sections were competing at the same time, so the meet took forever. It was fun to watch some of the kids I had coached in years past compete in their last meet, as they are seniors now. The boys team finished in 2nd place, missing the title by just six points! Gillian Taylor, one of section V's best female racers, won the 1500m and 800m events.

Does that title even make sense? How do you have a day weekend? Anyhow, it promises to be an interesting four days of training and racing. Jan is on vacation Friday and so will spend the day running, swimming and biking. Saturday morning she will bike with the Tri-community college group from Fleet Feet at Mendon Ponds. From there we will quickly drive to Campbell, NY to watch the Byron-Bergen track team compete in sectionals. On Sunday we will drive to Buffalo to cheer on friends who are competing at the Buffalo Marathon and half-marathon. Two Mikes are running the 26.2 miles, with at least one going for a Boston Q time. Lou and the "ageless wonder" Pete, will race 13.1 miles. Monday should be a long bike ride, maybe around the Finger Lakes region?

In a previous post I talked about our emergency trip to Myrtle Beach to visit Jan's extremely ill father. After two weeks in a South Carolina hospital he recovered enough to have a son and daughter in-law bring him north. Dad is now in a rehabilitation center in Rochester for a few weeks. His progress there will determine what the next step is. Having Jan's Dad here means his three daughters and one of his three sons, plus in-laws and grandchildren can help. Thank you to everyone who expressed concern.

The Founding Father of Sal's running group, Mike W. was featured in the Rochester newspaper today. Mike and I started running together soon after meeting at one of our daughter's softball games. He was strutting around in a Boston marathon shirt and we agreed to meet for a run soon after. Our wives soon began training together, Fast Frank joined us within a year or so and the group grew from there. Fifteen years later we are still running together, albeit a bit slower.

Jan and Lou finished 2nd and 3rd in their respective age groups at Saturday's Spring Classic Duathlon. Weather wise it was a beautiful day, around 55 degrees at the start and not a cloud in the sky. Over 200 athletes competed in the Super Sprint and Formula 1 races. I had the honor of driving the lead vehicle for the bike legs, which is always a pretty neat job. After arriving back home, Jan hopped back on her bike and rode 10 miles with Eileen to the Brockport pool, swam a mile, then biked home. We finished off the day at a bookclub meeting, eating and drinking wine. Being junior partiers we were home and in bed snoring by 10:30pm. Jan took it easy on Sunday, riding 20 miles and running 8.

Saturday, May 19th is the Rochester Spring Classic Duathlon , sponsored by Fleet Feet and Yellowjacket Racing . Jan will be racing the formula 1 distance, 2 mile run/10m bike/1 mile run/10m bike/2 mile run. The race begins at 8:30am.

Last night was Old Fogey night at the pool as most of the students have gone home and instruction hasn't begun for the children learning to swim. It was nice as Lou, Eileen, Mike, Jan and myself each had our own lane. A couple of times I tried to race Jan (she didn't know I was racing her, she was just doing her normal training pace). I touched the wall, expecting to see Jan next to me, only to see her 3 body lengths away going in the other direction! So much for swimmies making me faster.

An hour of swimming at the Brockport pool last night, followed by an hour of running Thursday morning at 5am, helped Jan get back on track and feel like she was training again. Issues still remain with her father, but hopefully those will get worked out over the next few days.

Unexpected life events can quickly take over the best laid training plans. A phone call out of the blue stuns you and routine days rapidly change. Jan's father, who spends winters in Myrtle Beach, became ill and hospitalized a few days before planning to head north for the summer. We received the phone call Wednesday around 11am, left work by 1:00, went home and threw things in our suitcases, filled the car with gas, and headed out by 3pm. We made it to Dad's hospital room at 7am after driving through the night. He looked terrible, had lost twenty pounds since Christmas, but was still alive, if barely. The combination of a bacterial infection, not eating properly, an irregular heart beat, a bleeding ulcer, among other problems, just wiped Dad out. Friday was deemed a successful day when Dad took three steps in a walker with two people helping. He also ate some ice cream and drank some juice, the first non-i.v. nutrients in several days. Saturday saw a few more encouraging signs...

I think a lot of people get into biking and du's or tri's because they like the shirts. I know, this sounds ridiculous, but study this awhile with an open mind. Attend a running event and you might see some blues, yellows, pinks, black and green colors being worn. Now go to a du or tri. Despite the fact everyone runs at some point, they ride their bikes in bright, striped shirts with zigs and zags of multicolors, with endurance drink or bar logos and Greg Lemond or Lance Armstrong's name somewhere on the shirt. The really fancy ones have pockets in the back for holding food, some probably have their own coffee maker sewn in for a quick espresso during the long ride. The shirts aren't cheap either. The come with sweat and stain resistence fibers only Spidey-Man used to wear. There are research labs coming up with new materials just to make the rider slip through the wind .0001 mph faster. When spectating at your next race, study the riders, you too will be amazed. Is it ...

Years ago when our daughters were younger, Jan and/or I would take them to soccer, softball, horseback riding or tennis lessons. If we weren't coaching it seemed natural to stay around during practice, watch, wait, sometimes reading a book or being really weird and running around the perimeters of the fields ourselves (it was a great way to fit in our own workout, but still "be" there). So Saturday, too tired from my own run and biking with Jan 10 miles to the Brockport pool, I found myself once again on the sideline, watching and waiting. This time the wait was not for a daughter, but for Jan, as she added 90 minutes of swimming to her 150 minutes of running and 20 mile total bike ride. In a strange way the episode brought back a lot of memories. Oh, and I was also reading a book, Mitch Albom's, " For One More Day ", which, being about a father greatly influencing his son on playing baseball and mother/father/daughter/son relationships, seemed s...

The first step in completing a triathlon is to be, or become, an organized person. Jan typically runs Wednesday morning and swims at night, sandwiching work in-between. Tuesday night she needs to lay out clothes for the morning run in another room (don't wake the sleeping bear). The swimsuit, sandals, towel, cap, goggles have to be found, cleaned, placed in a bag for the pool. The alarm clock needs to be set. The next morning, after running, showering and dressing, Jan takes food for lunch. She doesn't really make a lunch, just bags up carrots, celery, takes water, a granola bar and some yogurt. A glass of juice and cup of coffee seems good enough for her breakfast. Jan then works 9-10 hours, comes home in a rush, grabs the swimming bag, puts her contacts on while I'm driving (if I'm thrashing in the pool that night), and off we go. After swimming we grab a Subway sub or have a quick microwaveable meal (it's now about 8:30pm). Eat, get ready for bed, and prepare for...