Chaire Herodikos Selymbriaios!

Biked to Cape Cod: 104 miles. Seat bolt broke off at mi 72, thus 32 mi standing up.

Early ride: Nickerson State Park on Cape to Plymouth, commuter rail home, ~60 mi.

60 mi from Plymouth to Nickerson. Found little attic apartment south of Wellfleet on the cape for the summer.

30-ish mi on bicycle -- stunning sunset at Cahoon Hollow. 

55 mi ride, on old bike with ~100 lb panniers, 4.5 hrs. Not race speeds!

A little shinsplint action from all the biking.

Bike accident last night! Irony filled - a day after returning from Cape, was rolling down an alley @ ca. 3mph and just lost my balance, bike landed on hand, minor fracture. In a half cast for 3 weeks, shouldn't interfere with running says doc. But exams and appointments ate up running time this morning. 25 min cross training on the elliptical, will try to get out this eve for a bit.

Fresh Pond via Alewife, brandishing my splint! Bruise on the right kneecap is tender when it flexes no trouble when planting. Took it slow around 9 min miles. Seemed to be a bit of swelling/inflammation by the end but nothing too terrible. Took three advil and no complaints. Will ice this pm.

Beautiful morning, sunshine after rain, got hot towards noon. 

Alewife-Fresh Pond-River-Central Square and home via Cedar St. Nothing unusual, nice morning. Knee still a bit sore but more localized I think to the site of the impact. I"m off the bike this weekend, so looking forward to getting some miles in. Legs feel pretty good all things considered.

Got out a bit late in the morning. Hottish by noon, went down two water bottles, had to refill at the Gulf station. Legs a bit tired by the end. On the upside, knee is fine.

Wore a watch for the first time in a while. Did the Fresh Pond circuit from Boston St. in about 1:03. Legs are close to feeling good again, but wind is definitely lacking. Guessing around 1:36-1:37 this weekend.

Hot hot hot hot. Got up to over 95 today. Would have get  more miles, but had to meet my sister at 8 this morning and was up late last night preparing the house for my mother arriving tomorrow and then commencement on Thursday.  After the Tufts hill found a shade tree to stretch at and watered it not insignificantly. Forehead dripping all over the sidewalk...

This was on the treadmill, but I ran hard so I will count it. Already by 7:00 was 80 or so, too hot for my comfort, so I went to the gym. I find it hard to go for more than this "distance" on the treadmill, there's nothing to hold your interest. Just as well, though - I want to keep running every day, but with the half this weekend my miles will be higher than they have been. In any case, ran most of this at  9mph/6:40 pace and felt good during and after.

I officially graduated today, in a bizarre red robe - or "dress," as my French friend called it - with a hood, three stripes on either arm, and a velvet cap. The dissertation has been in since October, and writing it often seemed to me like a race. I guess you could call this the parade. My family was there. It was sweet, even if I was slow enough finishing that I didn't know any of the other graduates.

The run this morning was slow too, but also sweet. Didn't push too hard. Just ran very easy. Nice weather at last, sun peeking through clouds, 70ish, pleasant.  Off to Pittsfield Sunday then to the Cape!

Nice morning.

I wasn't expecting a particularly impressive time - but undercut my low expectations. Have only been running seriously again since mid-April and the idea here was simply to use this as a training run, completing a 47-mile week, but had been aiming for about 1:37. Many basic things went haywire. Had to get up at 4:30am to drive out to Tanglewood in time to pick up the race packet and had been intending to go to bed early but couldn't fall asleep until 12:30 or so. Ate dinner (spaghetti and tomato sauce) very late. It was a beautiful course but there turned out to be no prize money so the field was small with not very skilled runners -- the competition push was more or less absent. Finally, a very hilly course, which is all to the good.

 Started out according to plan at 7:15 or so and intended to stay in the 7:20-7:30 range the whole race. By mile 6 though I was in real gastrointestinal distress. Spaghetti's revenge. Took a two minute pit stop, which helped a bit, but then tried to make the time up too fast and not only got into a bad heart rate/breathing pattern but brought on a recurrence of  the stomach problem.  The upshot was an 8:05 mile and then an 8:30 mile, which was all she wrote. Started feeling good again around mile 8, but by that time was three or four minutes back of the lead pack and didn't get the usual boost from being around stronger runners. Tootled along at 7:25 and didn't really make up any more time. The last two miles were largely uphill.

Anyway, as a training run it was good, but as a race -- not sore at all, meaning presumably that I left a lot out there. Will try to get over 50 this week including the mileage from today.  

Picked up some samples of Generation UCAN, which Meb seems to be endorsing. Interested in it more as a way of regulating my blood sugar at night but we'll see if it has any performance benefit. If anyone else is using it I'd be interested to hear about their experience.

Will dig up the Garmin and post splits for archival purposes at some point. Not sure if there's a course elevation map. It was the inaugural run of this race. Well organized I thought.

Postscript -- Splits:

1 - 7:10 (went out too fast)

2- 7:43 (paid for it)

3- 7:22

4- 7:17

5- 7:44 (kind of gassed)

6- 7:37

7- 7:31

8- 8:06 (gassed)

9- 8:28 (really gassed)

10- 7:34 (catching my breath, but it's all old guys back here)

11- 7:24

12- 7:36

13- 7:35

13.1 - :53 (wheeeee... half-full tank)

Out on the Cape! Did a quick one before moving in, along Seaview Drive in Wellfleet. Beautiful morning.