All in Good Fun

One of my favorite things about race day is actually the day before race day. OK, maybe the two days before race day. Sure, I try to get in some really light workouts and plenty hours of rest, but it’s the food that always wins me over.

Gnocchi, multigrain pilaf, brown rice, linguine, sweet potatoes, buckwheat pancakes, everything that’s just plain carbolicious! All carbs are welcome here. The carbier the better!

While the food gives me real energy for race day, I think it does me a good mental trick too. So, about halfway through tomorrow’s running leg, when I’m ready to call it a day, I’ll remind myself that I’ve eaten a week’s worth of spaghetti in the past 72 hours. How could I possibly not have the oomph to kick it on home with that in my tank? That burrito from the other day? That will makes miles 20-24 on the bike cake. And, well, the cake I’ll pick up at Corbo’s or Presti’s after the race tomorrow… that will just make it all worthwhile.

Everything that goes into race-day prep, though, seems worthwhile. Like my bike ride on Friday morning that ended fast with a flat tire! It was planned as a short ride—one last brick before Sunday—so I didn’t bring a patch kit or air pump.

Lucky for me, I was only three miles from home when my smooth ride felt bumpy. A nail popped the back tire and left me looking pretty awesome, running down some big streets in full cycling attire (it only took me about one mile to take off my helmet). I’m thinking I should start the bike-running phenomenon now!

I popped my bike in the trunk and took her to Eddy’s for a quick change. It feels pretty secure right now; if only my paranoia were in check. You know I’ll be wondering whether my tires are flat or if the road is just bumpy for 24 whole miles!

When I visited Mentor Headlands this afternoon for packet pick-up, I tried to ease my paranoia on another front: open water swimming. I’ve hit the open water as a triathlete a total of three times. And while I try to practice open-water techniques at the pool, I’m really going to hit the lake hard next year t\o get my head out of the worrying clouds.

To ease what’s been ailing my head since my disastrous Huntington showing, I thought I’d hit the beach today and just get cozy with my lake.

Erie, however, had other plans.

The waves were just plan crazy! My plan was to just run straight into the water, swim for 5-10 minutes and go home (where we’re still unpacking, nesting, moving) to chill. I made it about thigh-deep before the waves almost took me out. While I had a blast wave-diving when I was a kid, I wasn’t going to pick up any confidence points this way.

So, I just reminded myself that last year’s dip went well; this year would just be twice as long. I just hope the Coast Guard doesn’t have to yell at me again for swimming off course too far! Besides, Olympic swimming finals start tonight. And if that doesn’t give me a rise, I don’t know what will. Maybe this goody-bag Carb-boom! will do….

I Love My Bike

What’s perhaps not the best thing but one of the best things about getting a new bike as an adult? It’s like super Christmas… only better. I finally got my hands (and butt) on a road bike this weekend – a blue Trek 1000 WSD – and couldn’t stop riding it and waiting to ride, thinking about riding and wanting to ride it again.


For weeks I had been torn between this Trek and the Felt FW40. Something, though, spoke to me with this bike, and I haven’t been able to leave it since. In fact, I’ve kindly asked Neil to let me keep it in the house for now – I’m like a new parent, too afraid to let my baby get out of eyeshot lest someone come scoop him/her up because s/he is the best baby… bike in the world.

The purchase of (insert name here) was the crowning jewel on a pretty swell weekend. It’s no secret by now that I skipped my college reunion for greener pastures, but I did run through the thing on Friday shortly before meeting up with Monica.

Determined to hit 30 last week, I warmed up right after work with 5 miles by myself around University Heights. John Carroll’s reunion weekend has always been a gorgeous affair; it looked really nice at 9:00/mile in the blazing sun. The university neighborhood made for apt distraction on a strikingly warm day. It was so much warmer than normal that I was plagued by stitches whenever I wasn’t being distracted by something much more interesting. For a while, that is.

Then I met up with Monica and ran what had to be a time-warp 5-6 miles before meeting up with her hubby G. Sure we cruised some inclines at a normal hot-distance pace, but running with Monica always makes things fly by. Poor girl, though, had to listen to all my therapy venting… so, it may not have flown by for her just as well!

We swung back toward her neighborhood and picked up Monica’s Hubby G for the last three miles. All was going swell – I was still running strong after 10-11 miles, the sun eased on us and the Heights had all kinds of front-door and landscaping ideas for me to spy – until the stupid stitch attacked.

M and G were kind enough to wait for me to stretch and walk it off. It came and went. But by the end of the run it was really nagging and I just wanted to finish the full 14. By 13.95, however, it stopped me in my tracks. I waved M and G to finish while I wallowed in my stitchiness. It sucked… but it did ease up the second I stopped running.

Guilt ridden by the last .05, I ran the last stretch up and down my driveway when I arrived home. So, mark down 14 miles for Friday!

By Saturday morning, I was surprisingly fresh and ready for my next adventure: the new bike. Rumor had it that Eddy’s Bike Shop was holding a summer sale, and I was all about it. It was, though, decision time in the bike arena. Trek or Felt?

I was ready to hit every Eddy’s in the area for the right bike. There was something about the sole Trek 1000 WSD at the Willoughby Hills store that caught my heart. I tried it on for size, tested it around the lot, had it fitted in a million different ways, and viola! It was mine.

I stuck with cages on the pedals – I’m so not ready for clip-in yet – and am always used to the motion of getting in and out on the roll. Neil helped me pack the bike into my car (it’s just the right size to fit without dismantling anything!); we drove home; and I rode wild.

On Saturday I rode was about 7-8 miles around Euclid at speeds impossible on my hybrid. Even if I’m probably still a little pokey cyclist-wise. I hopped off the 30-minute ride and right onto the road for a 3.3-mile run around the neighborhood for a suitable first brick of the season.

You can imagine that riding was all I could think about as I slept into Sunday. I woke up around 8 a.m. ready to roll! I threw on some clothes that yelled “I don’t bike often at all,” nearly forgot my helmet and pedaled away. While I had my heart set on riding the 11.5 side-road miles to work, I changed my mind halfway out of fear of the unknown. I hadn’t take my phone and thoughts of flats and crashes distracted me from an awesome ride.

So, I turned around and rode all around Euclid for a really decent 16-mile journey at an average 16 mph.

What amazed me most? I hopped off the bike and ran 4+ miles (that puts the week’s total a little more than 30!) for brick #2 like it was nothing. In the hot sun. Who's ready for tri-season?

The only pain I felt was leftover butt aches from the previous day’s ride and no ill-effects on my legs. I was a little upset at first how easy the piece of equipment made cycling – and, therefore, how big a difference an external piece of equipment makes on triathlon – but got over the reality and smiled at my new ride.

Next on the list? Gloves and biking shorts. My butt bones are still aching today (while my body doesn’t feel like I rode at all – Lance’s next challenge should be the Alps on a hybrid) and my hands/arms felt more pain than the rest of me. With all that in place, I might not have to hate cycling after all!

More importantly: what should the bike be named? S/he is a 47-inch women’s design road bike in a mist-duo blue. Black handlebars and a smooth ride. What should s/he be called? Neil suggested Mortimer or Penelope; I came up with Mellow Janey and Secretariat. What do you think?

Can I Please Ride a Stationary Bike in the Triathlon?

Rain, rain, go away! Take a day off and come back on Wednesday. Geez!

Instead of running the Perfect 10-Miler on Sunday, Neil and I headed out to the baseball fields next to our apartment and started building an ark. So, pair up and come over!

Actually, near early evening I had had enough of sitting around waiting for a break in the rain. I jumped in my [new] car, which had trouble starting and needs a new battery, and was about to head to the rec. center track when the universe gave me a break. It stopped raining. Without hesitation, I jumped out of the car and started my 5-mile run for Sunday.

It was drizzling when I started running and only picked up 2-3 times for a few minutes during the workout. Only after I went inside did it start to truly pour. Good thing it was a quickee!

I was still pretty jazzed from Saturday’s race, which pretty much canceled out the rain discomfort. I took out the first two miles with stretched legs and a steady pace around 9:00/mile. For the second two miles, I tried to pick up the pace while maintaining control of myself. It was steady again at 8:35/mile. Then I cooled down with around a 9:00 mile.

And that completed my first full week on a training plan. Not only have I felt more motivated to run because of the plan in itself (if I have something solid and written down, my guilt will never let me leave it undone), but because it offers me the variety that I was too running dense to realize I needed… or at least how to incorporate it.

This first week was pretty simple: about 20 miles total. But it’s helping me kick and scratch my way back to the 25-30 miles I was completing pre-sciatica June.

So, I’m sticking to that plan and have establish a pretty good strategy (for now) for swimming. What’s next? Cycling and diet.

On the cycling front: I took lunch to cycle 12 miles across vaulting and plunging hills on a stationary bike. It’s wholly different than real cycling (especially since it only took 30 minutes for me to ride the 12 miles… we all know that’s not accurate!), but it helps with my general muscle groups and reinforces the idea that I need to constantly pedal.

Sounds silly, doesn’t it? I’m hoping that and a new bike frame (to go with the racing tires that have been sitting in my dining room since… April?) might get me out of the cycling dungeon in future triathlons!

Now, when I say diet, I don’t mean it in the trendy sense. I’ve been a lifelong healthy eater and fish-a-vegetarian (I just don’t dig meat texture, it’s not an ethical thing—sorry!), but I think everyone needs a little training-diet-introspection. For instance, I hadn’t realized until recently how lacking I was in protein and other bit vital to rebuilding my body. Ouch!

For the next several weeks, I’m going to keep track of what I’m eating, how much and when. It’s a process I’ve regularly undertaken for most of my life (a habit I picked up from my dad, haha), but one that I can use to understand what foods affect my training and performances, when it’s best to eat and how much. Right now my eating habits are almost always based on general good judgment, but nothing targeted. We’ll see how it goes.

But I’m not going to lie to you: having cupcakes in your diet is not a bad thing. Did you see how well I ran (for me) on Saturday?

And Onto the Next!

I gave myself a whole three hours to get over my Hall of Fame 5-Miler performance... and then I registered for the Greater Cleveland Triathlon and the Akron Women's Super Sprint Triathlon on Sunday night.

Registration for the Perfect 10-Miler and the Portage Lakes Triathlon will have to wait. I still need to experience how post-triathlon feels to me!

With those two events looming, I thought it was about time I start riding my bike already. So, I woke up at 6:30 a.m. (much to Neil's dismay) on Tuesday, had a healthy bowl of Flax Plus Raisin Bran with blueberries, packed my riding backpack and cycled to work.

I went through the usual self-cursing during the first four miles of uphill, more uphill and still uphill, and then took a different route to Kent State where I was actually afforded a bike path!

What I didn't get was too much peace of mind: I've had this sneaking suspicion that my back tire is flat. I tried to patch the whole, but found none. And while my tire always ends up low after a few days in the garage, it was just fine this morning. But I rode all day with the fear I'd be low-riding at any minute!

After I pushed through the uphill torture and meandered down the bike lane, I thought I was almost at work. But it was then that I realized that Tuesday would be the day of wishful thinking. First, I swore that I was farther down the road every time I turned a corner, and then I was repeatedly confident that I had just ridden over the "big hill on Fairchild" everyone had been talking about. Until I was at the foot of it.

It was a MONSTER hill! Granted, I'm remarkably awful at cycling right now and probably won't think the same way in a few months... but it was HUGE! By my uninformed and spatially challenged perceptions, it had to be a 30 percent grade. Ahh! I felt like I was in San Francisco.

It was about nine miles into my ride, my legs were pooped and the raisin bran had been burned by mile six. I switched into one of my lowest gears and took the first eighth of the hill pedal-by-pedal. I huffed, I puffed and I nearly blew myself down.

Then I gave in: I hopped off my bike and power-walked my bike up the hill. And even the walk was difficult. It made me realize, however, how my legs will feel when they're exhausted from the bike ride. (Please: no photos of me next Sunday when I kick off into that final 5K!)

It also made my appreciate (read: love) the downhill that followed. Unfortunately, I was riding on the sidewalk where the would-be crosswalks didn't have ramped or smooth edges to them. Just curbs. And that just doesn't feel great when you're flying downhill at 20-25 mph.

With all of the uphills, downhills, flat lands, lights and stops, the ~10-mile ride took me an hour into work and then 58 minutes back. I was aiming for 50 minutes on the way home, but it didn't happen.

I don't have a handle yet whether I'm just a bloody slow cyclist, my route is excessively hilly or the stops/lights stall my progress more than I realized. If it's not one of the latter two, I'm going to be dead last in the triathlon... aren't I? I know people who can run faster than that. Sigh. At least I don't have to worry that riding a hybrid bike (instead of a tri-bike) will hurt my success too much. From the looks of it, I might just need to pick up a Vespa.

Other than the bike commute, I also pedaled to the rec. center, where I swam a quick 1,800-yard workout, including:

• 300 yards free warm-up
• 1,300 yards free
• 200 yards IM cool down

A rather speedy girl was swimming at the pool today (she was one of those major leg-slapping flip-turners), and on any other day, I would have loved the push. Finally, a formidable competitor! Only I was less than formidable today. I was already a bit creaky and exhausted before the morning ride, and I could feel my tiredness and weakness throughout my arms and legs in the pool. Perhaps it was just the tiring past week, Monday's weight training or power yoga... it's just a rare occurrence. So, I'll use it as an exercise in my own control and ability to swim for myself.

I might not be as successful next time ;-)

Neil's running tip of the day: if you want to increase your pace, just run faster.

When Neil and I were discussing my pace before Sunday's 5-miler, I admitted that I had a pacing problem and have had difficulty reaching my pacing goals. So, Neil gave me some key advice: if I'm behind pace, just run faster;-) I guess I should have followed his advice! But I'll keep it in my for the future.

Not a Bad Way to Start Off the Week

But first, the weekend: Neil played some stellar bocce in a tournament on Friday and Saturday, continuing his reign as the best non-Italian bocce player this side of Murray Hill.

He and his teammates are neophytes to the hard-surface circuit, but were able to kick the bocce butts of guys with names like Dino, Lillo and Vince. They fell in a later round, however, to guys like Giuseppe, Paulo and Bruno. High five, Neil & co.!

So, while the man was bocceing, I was plugging away at the thesis-related readings that will rule my summer (but it’s good stuff!). On Saturday, I took my reading on the road for a 20-mile roundtrip to and from Starbucks in Kent. And the ride is fully satisfying in roundtrip: It’s pretty much all up hill on the way into Kent, which means it’s mostly downhill on the way home. But that also means it’s one of those rides in which you start swearing at yourself about what a bad idea it was to take a “relaxing ride” to Kent with all of these hills in the way!

I followed up the ride with about 2-3 hours of yoga and another several hours of meditation, which I’ve taken to doing for the past couple months (and much more in the past two weeks). I’ve recently been in touch with a college friend who is a zahzen meditation practitioner. When I told him about my sciatic pain, he recommended some serious meditation to unthink the pain away (apparently that’s much easier when it’s a nerve pain rather than an actual injury).

And, oddly enough, I think the relaxation, concentration and breathing (between the yoga and meditation) have finally helped. Granted, my more “conservative” friends might not believe me, but it really wasn’t any sort of miracle. Meditation has been known to help your brain handle pain. In fact, when I was more practiced in meditation I was much less a wuss than I am now (but not remotely in as good of shape)!

So, what did I do on Sunday morning? I tried running, as planned. It started off with a very brisk walk—about 14-15 minutes a mile for a little over 2 miles. While it wasn’t quite power-walking, I was quite on the move. I focused on stretching my legs for long, healthy strides that used my entire foot to push along; took deep, cleansing breaths; moved my arms with an aggressive from-the-shoulders running swing. And I was fine.

Once I felt warmed, I thought I would give myself a jog. On the first several strides, I felt a little discomfort from my sciatic nerve, but nothing that would make me cry in the future. My s-l-o-w jog started with strides that were minuscule and arms held tightly into my body before I relaxed and ran a slow, stretched stride with, again, focus on my foot placement. Heel, ball, toe; heel ball, toe (which was difficult to enforce in the mind of someone who took ballet).

After 1.3 miles I was passing my apartment and decided to stop for the day. The good thing was that I didn’t hurt at all—the first time in two whole weeks—and I wasn’t tired from the walk-jog. So, I may not have lost all of my fitness after all.

Again, I went inside and did more yoga before relaxing for most of the day and eating every kind of summertime fruit that ever existed. In fact, watermelon and rainier cherries may now be extinct because I ate them ALL!

All that fruit, however, was not for naught: I used the leftover energy (and an extra chocolate energy bar) to pedal my way into work this morning. And it was awesome!

I work a little more than 10 miles from home and have long wished I could bike to work (I complain too often that I don’t live/work in a place where I can either take public transportation or ride my bike, so I’ve decided to stop being an obstacle to myself and at least make one thing happen!). After yoga this morning, I just packed up my work clothes into a backpack and just rushed out the door before I could change my mind.

What a beautiful morning! It was even a little chilly for the first half of the ride, but the constant uphills for the first six miles warmed me up a bit. This ride is pretty much the same as the route to Starbucks, so I’m really looking forward to the easier ride home. But I cannot explain how satisfying it was to get into working knowing that I had a) started my week/day off with a great bike ride; b) saved about a half gallon of gas; c) will save another half on the way home; and d) earned myself some serious cupcake action for the Fourth of July!

It wasn’t the easiest ride (I was cursing myself half way through), but I figure it will get easier as I get into better cycling shape. Just think how far I came with running! And let’s just say I’m relieved the ride home is easier than the ride here. Downhill sounds so nice right now!

And Now Back to Our Regularly Scheduled Programming

It’s been a week and a half since my last run, and in that time I’ve reinstated a serious yoga addiction and started an anti-inflammatory regiment for what turned out to be a problem with my sciatic nerve.

Neil and I went for a fun bike ride on Sunday with friends (we rode from mid-Stow to Hudson for lunch at Aladdin’s and, of course, treats at Main Street Cupcakes—I had to introduce new people!), which only left me mildly uncomfortable by Monday morning. The pedaling-while-seated action wasn’t bad at all on my lower back, but standing to pedal up hills and hitting some too-big bumps didn’t make my 6:30 a.m. yoga routine easy. But I’m back in the game!

So, the plan is to feel out the rest of the week and (fingers crossed) go for a very light run on Sunday morning. I’ve been doing plenty of walking, and I’m hoping that the combination of yoga, stretching, other exercises, regular heat and anti-inflammatory meds will enable me to get back on the road.

I swear for someone who believes the only roadblocks in life are oneself, I sure do hold myself up with my stupid injuries. But I won’t let it get me down: I’ll just think of myself like a car. Replace a few things that are broken and I’ll be as good as new.

And once I’m at least back at it, I’d really like to make my way to Cleveland Clinic whose optimal running program includes gait analysis, strength and flexibility testing, injury assessment and a conditioning program among other things. More than anything, I’d like to hear what they had to say (and recommend) about my running-on-the-outside-of-my-left-foot problem and how to correct it.

At least I know how I started running on the outside of my foot: when I began running in early 2006, I was kicking it with a pair of 1992 Nike running shoes that I wore for my brief track stint in middle school. It never dawned on me that a super-crappy pair of shoes could so badly damage my foot. They had absolutely no support (and now that I’ve been running with good shoes for the past year, I try those suckers on and don’t wonder at all why it took me a while to really get into running) and left me limping with some on-the-verge-of-serious foot/tendon/spirit problems.

The pain was primarily on the inner part of my foot, so I started walking/running on the outside to alleviate it. And here I am over a year and some later recovering from my recovery method. (No wonder people have coaches! It might behoove me to keep someone around to help me make semi-decent running decisions for once!) But the moral, kids, is that healthy shoes help keep your feet healthy.


Today: either a walk or bike ride at lunch, yoga in the evening, and perhaps another walk with Neil after that. I’m going to slowly increase the speed on my walks and test out the pressure and impact on my left side. Two weeks off shouldn’t be the end of my running fitness as I know it…. Right? I haven’t taken off this much time since I started, so I’m a light anxious about my fate, but eager to get going. Again.

Regaining My Training Legs

Under most circumstances, getting caught in the rain isn’t the worst thing that can happen on run. But after Saturday’s run-in with the sidewalk, I felt a little wary of inclement weather and opted to renew my confidence on the long-neglected track at the rec. center.

And, you know, it really wasn’t bad.

I ran a mile to the rec. center, 6.13 miles on the track and then another mile back to work. The day’s 8+ miles put me at 59.1 miles with two weeks remaining in my run to 100 miles goal. I have been targeting the century mark since April, and it appears I might actually make it this time (knock on wood). At this point I am 12.5 miles ahead of my target… so, at least I have some wiggle room in case of emergency.

Today’s run, however, was all about getting my confidence back. I know most people need to retrieve their confidence from memories of a bad race or a bout with injury or illness. Well, I had to get it back from the concrete on the corner of Kent Road and OH-91.

Although I ran on Saturday night, in my pre-Cavs ritual, it wasn’t a comfortable run at all. I was uneasy, scared and wholly unfocused—I didn’t know whether to worry more about unfriendly cars or uneven sidewalks—at that was just a little over two miles. So, I started out slow.

I almost forgot how easy it is to run on the track. No hills, no wind, no godforsaken heat and humidity! Not mention the even and friendly surface. And after an 8:59 warm-up mile, I aimed to build a touch of speed for each mile because it was going to be a short run on such simple terrain.

I picked up mile two to 8:47 and three at 8:40. I wasn’t even winded after an 8:37 fourth mile or 8:30 fifth. So, I came cruising in at 8:00 for the last mile and then cooled down for a few laps for a 53-minute run.

Also: I am most happy to report that my knees have been quite awesome. Despite the Saturday scare and weekend soreness, they have really felt great when running the past couple weeks. All it took was a little doctor scare! My left knee is still scabby and sore to the touch from the fall, but feels great in my stride. (My left arm, however, is a different story: after landing, flipping and skidding on my upper arm and shoulder, weight training and swimming will take some slower getting used to… I’ll see how it feels in the pool tomorrow).

The one-mile runs to and from the rec. center were nice bookends to the workout. It was a little awkward to jog with a tote bag (and trying not to sweat too badly on the way back because I had already showered), but I made it work. It was better than wasting gas to drive across campus… and only took a few extra minutes.

Next on my list of ways to integrate training into my work day: packing my bike. I would like to start bringing my bike to work. I’m not yet in cycling shape to make the ride to work (correction: I’m not in shape to make the ride to work and then actually want to pedal home at 5 p.m.), but it would be nice to have my bike to ride to places like the rec. center or anywhere else wind-blown helmet hair might be appropriate. It just breaks my heart when I have to drive somewhere, and I’d really like an alternative when there just isn’t enough time to walk.

Now, if only I could get my wheels on and off without a big, dramatic and greasy scene, I would be all set.

Running, Cycling and Eating: What Else are Long Weekends For?

While the weekend started off with a soggy early-out Friday afternoon, I finally made my way to Eddy’s bike shop after work to get a tire patch kit and chat about tri-bikes.

Bike guy Josh and I toured the road bikes et al., and after a storewide discussion about how serious a triathlete I was and where I “hoped to finish” (How do you answer a question like that? Granted, I know I’ll never be a world-class athlete and that my competitive spirit can only push me so far… but I always hope to finish first. Where I know I’ll actually finish is a different story) ended up at a Trek 7.5 FX, which happens to be the 2007 version of my 2006 bike. So, if nothing else, I walked away feeling like I was on the right track.

But I also walked away with more GU and took down the Lemon Sublime variety on my Saturday-morning 12.4-mile run around Kent and Stow. It was a better flavor than my first spin with strawberry-banana (which wasn’t really bad) and I chased it with water from a trusty fountain I spotted on my run, so I think I benefited from its effects.

And I couldn’t have taken it at a better time. I was at the furthest point from my house, in an area with absolutely no cover and headed into the all-uphill portion of my run when the skies opened up on me. If you were in NEOhio on Saturday, you may have noticed some evil-looking clouds looming over certain parts of the region. And I was under them. Totally Eeyore style.

It was the first time I had run through torrential rain and super-high winds while training. Luckily it was only a thunderstorm with minimal lightning. Once I got past the ridiculousness of the situation (i.e., not being able to see, breathe or step without a flood of water getting in the way), I pushed through the hills and maintained an 8:46/mile pace over three and a half miles.

As you may have guessed, the rain stopped as soon as I hit flat land… but that was when the chafing began! I think I have full t-shirt and cropped pants-shaped chafing wherever possible. It almost looks like reverse sunburn. Perhaps next time I head out into a cloudy day, I’ll think about less abrasive-when-wet clothes, huh?

Saturday, however, was just the beginning. Not only did I stay on track with my 25-miles-a-week target (the subset of my 100-miles in four weeks goal) with 3.42 miles on Sunday and 2.02 miles on Monday (26.17 miles for the week), but Neil and I hit the trails on our wheels too!

On Sunday we cycled around our neighborhood after a messy time with getting my tire properly mounted on my bike. And then we rode about 10.25 miles through Stow and Hudson for our longest ride this year. Neil was awesome and has become quite the active man these days. I knew the weather would hook him!

My legs and I still have plenty of warming up to do with the cycling motion, but today’s longer ride gave me hope for the future of brick workouts. Although I waited a few hours between cycling and running today (more out of laziness than inability), I felt that I could have run a while after the ride. That’s good news!

Speaking of good news: the Cavaliers pulled one off in the series! For those who didn’t know me last season, I spent the second round of the playoffs writing smack mail to Dan Wetzel, who seems to hate the Cavs almost as much as Charles Barkley. I don’t talk sports smack (well, not until the results are in), but I’m happy with whatever we can get.

Although I’d like to think that my fixing the flat on my bike, LeBron, helped the real LBJ play like a king. Joe warned that it might happen, so I’m really doing my part to bring a championship to Cleveland.

(One quick confession: to reward myself, I picked up a bunch of Main Street Cupcakes on Sunday morning. Neil stuck to his favorite, chocolate lava, and I had some red velvet and a new treat: Half Baked. It's vanilla cupcake with chocolate chips filled with chocolate chip cookie dough and topped with buttercream frosting. Sigh. It was an experience. I also uploaded my latest photos to Flickr, if you would care to see Portland and New York.)

I Wish I Were Lance Armstrong

I have become notorious for my enthusiasm-based decision-making. Whether it’s attaching myself to projects twice my size at work or registering for four graduate classes in one semester, I’m pretty good at overextending myself and expecting the best.

And in most cases I push through the difficult portion, get everything done and look back with pride. Hence the reason I’m targeting the Ironman! But today I failed—because of poor planning, bad timing and even worse shape.

After yesterday’s 10-mile run, I felt motivated to get moving on my warm-season training schedule. So, I woke up early this morning, ate a bowl of oatmeal, packed my swimming bag, hopped on my bike and headed for the rec. center at Kent State. But as I traversed the same hills I thought were cake yesterday, oh how I wished I were Lance Armstrong!

Between the tiredness in my legs (which I did not feel when I left; darned enthusiasm!) and what actually did turn out to be my poor cycling shape, I was showering in lactic acid by mile three. I was about two-fifths of the way to the rec. center when I hit a hill that just stopped me in my tracks. I had overdone it. Realizing that I probably wouldn’t have anything left to swim when I biked the rest of the way, I turned around and rode back home. In shame.

On the bright side, I did get an hour of good, hard, hilly cycling this morning, and a fair assessment of what kind of shape I’m in. It’s just a good thing that my first triathlon isn’t until August. And I thought running was going to be the difficult part. Pshaw! Plus, I don't have my afternoon class tomorrow and can make up my swimming then.

But if I couldn't be Lance Armstrong, I think I would be Peyton Manning. Not only does he have a Super Bowl ring and half the sponsorships in the Western world, he's also one funny guy and was on SNL last night. I love/hate people who are so diversely talented. I didn't actually catch the show, but read the recap and caught the Web videos. Check out his United Way spoof. Viewer discretion is advised.