The week in review

I've been bad. I haven't updated, but its been a bit of a crazy week.

Last weekend I was able to get in a couple decent runs, including one just over 2 hours. I did a bike/run brick of 55 miles/6 miles.

Wednesday was the Chase Corporate Challenge. The race itself was a complete cluster. Terrible, terrible organization and execution. I managed to run a 22:18, which was a 6:22/mile average. That's definitely the fastest race pace I've ever run in any race.

I'm looking forward to a weekend of running, riding, and swimming. The cervelo should be done soon, which I'm also pretty excited about!

RATW - Recap

3,000 miles.
7 days, 1 hour, 15 minutes, 5 seconds.
92,694 calories burned.
$5,300 raised so far.

It was a long, long week. Riding for 3 hours a day was the easy part. The rest of my week entailed getting up at 3:50 am each morning and working from 9:30-8:15ish every day. I even decided to throw a half marathon into the mix. I was fatigued and dragging for 7 full days, but I wouldn't change it if I could.

The ride was quite surreal at times. After the first 20 minutes or so of riding, Shane would be sleeping soundly as I pedaled away on the computrainer. Each day, I watched the city wake up from behind a glass window. It was as if the outside world was the store window display I was looking at, rather than the opposite. Watching the city wake up was a really cool experience. People walked by. Some were curious, some gave thumbs up or waved. Others stood and watched a little too long--creepy. Then there were the people who had to be stereotypical New Yorkers. They walked by and didn't acknowledge that anything was even going on.

Saturday was probably my favorite of the days, simply because of the craziness of it all. I had an adjusted shift from 4-7 am, rode 56 miles, jumped on a train, and went to run the Brooklyn Half. The running felt way too easy. I cruised through to a 1:36:xx finish without really even trying too hard. I thought sunday would be rough, but I knocked out 54 miles without much trouble. Monday started out rough, but ended up being my best day of riding. Tuesday, I was rewarded with a day of soft-pedaling. I only had to hold about 14.5 mile per hour pace, which resulted in an easy 37 mile day.

The finale was pretty low-key, yet very fitting. JC finished up to a smattering of cheers and applause from a small crowd of customers, fellow riders, a few friends, and store employees. The group of riders posed for pictures both inside and outside of the store, and surprisingly, we were able to amass all 8 riders in the middle of a work day.

It was pretty amazing that we pulled this off over the course of a week without any major injuries and not a single person showing up late for their shift. I'd like to thank each and every person who came by and supported not just me, but any rider. The gatorade, mt. dews, food, gels and such were great, but the important part was your physical presence. It was an amazing pick-me-up, especially for those of us who rode through the night and early morning.

Thanks to JC and Shane for organizing and overseeing the event. I know you guys were running on fumes. Thanks to my teammates who pedaled the other 21 hours of the day. Thanks to all for the donations. And most of all, thanks to JC for inviting me to be a part of the team.

Five Years Ago Today...

We mounted our bicycles and began an epic journey to Alaska.

RATW Update

Sorry for the lack of updates on race across the window, but I've been tired. I'm currently about 30 miles into day #5. Yes, I'm typing this on my blackberry while riding.

I've gotten at least 50 miles in every day, including a 56 miler yesterday which I capped off with the brooklyn half marathon. I ran a 1:36:xx to finish off 2/3 of a half ironman.

I can't wait to finish up this last 80 minutes and then go back to bed!

RATW - Day 1

I've been up since 4 am and I'm completely exhausted. I've been ingesting a steady supply of caffeine, but it seems to only be keeping me from passing out, not giving me any energy.

After taking off most of last week (although I did run 1.5 mile repeats up Gore Mountain on saturday), I jumped head first into Race Across the Window. We started yesterday at 11 am, but since my shift is from 5-8 am, I didn't have my first ride until this morning. I got up at 4, packed my backpack and rode through the darkness from Brooklyn to JackRabbit in Manhattan. When I got there, the store was completely dark save the lights in the front window. Shane was furiously pedaling shirtless in an empty store.

He let me in and while I readied for the my turn, he finished off his shift on the bike. After a quick calibration, I was off and riding. Shane stretched and showered while I clicked of the first of my miles. Just under and hour into my ride, I looked out the window to my left and saw Bev's smiling face. We let her in the store and she quickly volunteered to go get food for me and coffee for Shane. She returned with a couple bacon, egg, and cheese breakfast sandwiches and a Mt. Dew. I quickly ate half the sandwich and started ingesting the sweet sugar and caffeine.

Bev kept me entertained, while I tried to ignore the fatigue in my legs. Killer showed up to bring Shane more coffee and chat with us. I waved to several passersby as they stopped to read the info on RATW and watch me pedal. Roz showed up a short time later with cupcakes, but unfortunately I had already met my quota for sugar and didn't really want one. Roz snapped some pictures and then I finished my shift mashing the pedals.

I ended up logging a little over 50 miles and averaged 18.5 mph. The first couple hours weren't too bad, but after that, things started getting uncomfortable. Hopefully wearing better shorts tomorrow will relieve some of the pain.

A HUGE thanks to Bev, Roz, and Killer for coming by this morning. It really helped get me through. Tomorrow I do it all over again...

It hurts so good

I'm sore. Ridiculously sore. I'm in pain. I'm hobbling.

And I'm loving every minute of it.

I have an entire year to think about Boston. By the time it actually comes around, I might explode from sheer giddiness. Saturday I was just another marathoner. Yesterday, I became a Boston Qualifier.

BOSTON BOUND!

3:05:17, 28th overall, and 7th in my AG. I'll type up a race report later, but here are my splits:

Mile 1: 7:13
Mile 2: 6:59
Mile 3: 7:00
Mile 4: 7:19
Mile 5: 7:04
Mile 6: 7:15
Mile 7: 7:09
Mile 8: 7:03
Mile 9: 6:14
Mile 10: 6:42
Mile 11: 7:04
Mile 12: 7:13
Mile 13: 7:19
Mile 14: 7:09
Mile 15: 7:08
Mile 16: 6:53
Mile 17: 6:58
Mile 18: 6:53
Mile 19: 7:05
Mile 20: 7:02
Mile 21: 7:01
Mile 22: 7:11
Mile 23: 7:18
Mile 24: 7:15
Mile 25: 7:02
Mile 26: 7:08
Mile .2: 1:27

I was fairly consistent with my pacing. You can see where the hills were (both up and down). Although miles 16, 17, and 18 weren't anything super steep. I like seeing strong miles late in the race.

Almost Finished

Taper Tuesday

4.5 relatively easy miles tonight.

I'm going absolutely crazy. I need to run this race now. The taper is killing me. I'm just ready to run...5 more days of doing very little. I'm ridiculously antsy.

The good news is, the weather is looking better. Right now the forecast is a low of 44 and a high of 64. I just hope it stays that way.

Coach Cane and I discussed a strategy for the race last night. If I stick to it and do what I think I can, Scott will be a very happy person come sunday afternoon.

Hiking at the Delaware Water Gap

Today I took a group out to the DWG for one of my last trips for AS. It was the first time I'd been out there hiking since last fall. The weather was perfect and I had a good group, which always makes things more enjoyable. We went up the usual red dot trail to Mt. Tammany and then wound our way back down the blue trail. Instead of returning following the stream, we turned and retraced the route back up to Mt. Tammany and down the red dot trail. Not a lot of wildlife, but we did come across a large snake (probably a rat snake) that was laying on the side of the trail. I think the total mileage for the day was somewhere between 7 and 8 miles. Not too bad.