Saturday morning was a long run, 21 miles including my run over to meet the Poraths and their friend Brooke. It actually went pretty well, although the last couple miles when I was carrying a jar of maple syrup did get a little long. Still, with a long workout out of the way before noon and someone else cooking me waffles the day was off to a great start. I loaded up the boat and headed to the cities to meet Krystal for some rollerski adventures, paddling, and nightlife. We also stopped at the co-op a couple times for green juice (or peanut butter banana smoothie in my case) and salmon for supper, a meal I've been craving for a while. We headed to the Finn so I could pick up some rollerski ferrules and Krystal could try out rollersking after reading about it in a book. KJ was working and was gracious enough to lend us some boots and poles to go along with the rollerskis. Krystal made some decent progress for a beginner to skating as we tooled around the parking lot. Then we headed to the chain of lakes for some leisurely paddling, singing, and general discussion of life the world and everything. Then it was back home to make some supper before biking downtown and hitting up the club (Crave) to meet up with Elizabeth and friends.
I haven't been to a club in years, so it was like coming into it with a fresh perspective. The dancing wasn't half bad, far better than the music, and it was fun to hang out under the open air, even if it is in the middle of the city and everything smelled overpoweringly of cologne. Afterwards it did take my hearing took a while to come back completely, since Elizabeth and friends like to be right by the speakers.
The next morning we went out for coffee, and by that I mean I biked along and hung out while Krystal drank coffee, then went to Brits to see if we could catch some of the Olympic marathon. Unfortunately all that was on was wrestling and team rhythmic gymnastics.
Monday I went to the Twins game with Jeff, Gar, and David. As Jeff and I were biking over to meet Gar someone started yelling our name, and low and behold it was Annie Bunio out to eat at Brits before heading to the game. We sat down to have a drink with her and her dad. So I ended up hanging out at Brits 2 days in a row when I have only been there maybe 2 times in my life before last weekend. It was fun to catch up to Bunio a bit, any chance to see her before she heads back to Africa is good. The game was fun, the Twins got a big win over Detroit, and I got back to my car to find a banana with my name on it hanging out the window.
Tuesday morning was a workout with Nate, Nicole, and Brian. A total of 50 minutes of tempo work with pretty short recovery. We didn't quite hit our target paces, but all in all not a bad way to start a morning. I seem to have more energy after these morning workouts, but I have to be careful to keep up on my sleep on other nights.
Friday I joined Nicole for 2x 4 miles MP (6:00) 1 mile tempo (5:40) that we nailed. Not only that but it really just felt fantastic to be running, almost joyful even. The legs, abs, and lungs hurt like they are supposed to on a hard run, not painful, just that growing fatigue that lets you know your body is having to work at this. Despite that we just seemed to sail down the road. I don't check my watch during workouts, I listen to my body and what I can make of of Nicole's effort level and just go with how things feel. I have enough practice running at a variety of speeds that this frequently works. We absolutely crushed this workout. The pain point, where it turns from hard and fun to a struggle to hold things together never really came. We finished our last tempo mile under 5:40, and then it felt really good to just walk for a little bit. I wish every workout could go this way, but sadly that can't be the case.
Another action packed weekend followed, beginning with some swimming and a pizza party to welcome Emily back to the cities for the few days she'll be around before leaving on a camping trip with some girl scouts. There was lots of tasty food and glow in the dark frisbee. Then we went to Jeffy's and slept out on his mosquito free porch, although not a lot of sleeping was done on my part.
Saturday we did yoga, made waffles, and watched Dr. Horrible before biking down to Afton to ride more bikes in a day a bit fraught with trouble, both people and their machines. David broke a spoke before we even took off, then when we got to Afton Gar made a sharp turn that I didn't see and I T-boned directly into his front wheel. Luckily a bit of spoke work was able to compensate for both of these problems and keep us on our way. There is a Cat. 4 climb in Afton that we hit pretty early in the ride, and that turned out to be nearly the end of Christina. It certainly didn't help that while most of us were on road bikes she was on a hybrid with a loose front tire that was causing some significant brake rub. Poor route planning on my part, to put the big hills at the beginning. This fractured the group a bit, with David and Krystal riding on ahead and me jumping up to join them after getting Christina's tire secured. We hit a couple extra hills then met Gar and Jeff who said Christina was hurting pretty bad and they were heading back to the cars. The three of us remaining decided to see a bit more of the route and also provided a chance for David and Krystal to try out some fixed gear fun times. Neither fell or had trouble unclipping, so a great success overall. Then we headed over to a nearby church for pulled pork, corn on the cob, and other goodness, along with singing by Fixie Paul and his troupe. If it was a bit awkward being introduced to a new and loud singing style while being the only ones there wandering around in spandex the size of our group at least helped mitigate the awkwardness a bit. Then some of us biked back to Jeffy's, and David got a flat a few miles from his house, shortly after re-entering South St. Paul actually, a frequent source of trouble for David's bike.
I drove Krystal home and slept on the floor at her place, then we made a trip to the co-op to find supplies for fruit pizza. After a good breakfast I was on my way back to Jeffy's just in time for... Breakfast! This time it was a good sized omlette at a nearby burger joint. Then we did a bit of shopping and I was on my way home to crash and catch up on some sleeping.
Monday there was a going away party for Bunio at Elena's new house, including taco's and ice cream cake. Jeffy and I ducked out for a bit of rollerskiing and then ate some pretty good food. It was fun to catch up to some camp folks and hang out with Annie and Jallie a bit.
Tuesday morning was supposed to be a bit of an early morning, but it turned out to be a lot of an early morning. I got a phone call at about 4:15 that there was machine trouble, so I went in to work and got the machine going just in time to run over to the middle school for 7x mile repeats. No breakfast or preparation time makes for a rough workout, and I just wasn't feeling the pace. We were not too slow, maybe 5-8 seconds off on most of the repeats, but it just didn't feel fluid. Not the best last hard workout before racing this weekend, but I know it was just one data point, and the Ngede challenge on Saturday will be a chance to prove out my fitness. I feel like I haven't been on the bike as much this year, so we'll see how well I hold my own, but I'm as ready as I'm going to get I guess.
Next post will come after Ngede challenge, and maybe after the weddings the next weekend, and maybe much later the way things have been going lately...
Craig Cardinal's training/racing/adventure blog.
