a sucker for compliments

A's blog made me smile, what a sweet guy MOST of the time. i'm really glad he liked our gift!

it was hard to stick w/ cm's training schedule since i was off two days, but friday i managed to do the 90 minute ride (w/ 5x10 race pace) followed by 30 min run (15 mins at 10k pace, 15 easy). cm had written "NO MASHING" for the race pace segment, so a neon "NO MASHING" sign kept blinking in my head. for now, race pace and no mashing seem like an oxymoron. then during fast part of the run, i was pleased to be able to run stronger than before, but had to stop after 15 mins out of a huge urge to go to the bathroom. isn't that funny when that happens?

saturday i was still full of energy-- i guess taking rest days really pumps you up! that and the bread pudding & ice cream sundae from famous dave's-- so i did a 1:30 run along the watchung area. cm had written up a really fun 3700m swim but the bridgewater and hillsborough Y's both didn't have free lanes. i was pretty impatient and called maija, "quick, both Y's are closed so i have 1 1/2 hours to go biking before getting ready for the wedding. what do i do??" so i went for a 1:15 ride, 3 concentric circles in hillsborough b/c i kept making right turns to avoid crossing the street.

then the super hot ride on sunday to watch team KB2 and their nearly professional photographer sb. G and maija did a fantastic job, as did sb who was running around sweating and looking as if he had just finished a swim. i will never forget how towards the end of her ride, G had her race face, which broke into a smile when she saw me cheering for her, then switched back into her race face. our ride was only 25 miles there and back but i haven't done more than 25 miles since... i don't remember, our last century ride a few months ago? i was getting really hot (and therefore cranky) on our way back but was determined to keep the cadences up. i figure i have had plenty of training on mashing so there is no need for that. A was such a gentleman, always checking if i was ok and checking behind him to make sure i was not too far behind. i need to catch up w/ him one day! this sunday is a century ride, and i hope to use it as a 100-mile practice in high cadence and no mashing.

the workout for this week is to try cm's workout for me from last week, but since we have a long ride on sunday i'll do maija's fun long swim on saturday and do a medium run on friday. i only had time for a 1:30 bike w/ high candences yesterday, and then did last week's track workout and columbia swim today. i had been dreading the track workout all week, and wrote sb's times on my hands, hoping that i wouldn't sweat it off. thankfully, i only had time for the 5, 4, 3x400 (so i'll need to figure out my workout schedule again to allow for more track workout time). as i was running i was picturing sb pulling away from me. agh!
5x400 sb's time 8:50.. my time 8:51 (i think) woo hoo!
4x400 sb's time 6:57.. my time 7:01 he's pulling away
3x400 sb's time 5:05..my time 5:14. how does he do it?!!

by the 3rd 400 of each set i started to feel sick but kept going. i noticed that i forget to swallow the saliva that is pooling in my mouth when i'm concentrating on running. does that ever happen to you guys?? i remember when i was starting to feel bad, thinking, "well at least you're not walking in cow poop in england w/ bad ankles and a heavy backpack." that did make me feel better.