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Archive for March, 2010

Trail Running Love

Monday, March 29th, 2010

One of my Trakkers teammates, Jessi, had a great short post about trail running and I couldn’t agree more. I first got hooked on running with my high school cross country team and we would hit the trails at least twice a week. I think if we didn’t get off the roads and into the mud as much as we did, I don’t think I would have stuck with it through high school, let alone through college and now into this strange phase of “adult” life.

Wow, just imaging if my mom didn’t force me to pick a sport each season in high school so I didn’t just come home and sit on the couch all afternoon, this whole “journey to ironman” thing might never have happened.

Scary.

I was back home in Connecticut this weekend visiting the family and decided to hit some of the same trails I ran in high school that got me hooked on running.

Trakkers Trail Run

Saturday I did a short run around two loops while Sam and my mom were hiking. I met back up with them half way through the second loop to hike the rest of the way back to the car and catch up on life.

Good Times.

Sunday I had big plans of waking up just before dawn and running to a steep overlook (the pinnacle) and watch the sunrise, until some serious clouds put a major damper on that idea. Oh well… Some other time I guess.

Instead I waited a few hours for it to warm up and keep it safe.

First way point: An old quartz mine with tons of bright green moss and icicles hanging everywhere. None of the spring leaves have sprouted yet, so the green moss against all the brown practically made the trail glow. It was really cool.

Next stop: The Pinnacle

Almost to the top…

Overlooking half of Connecticut.

The best part of the run was that while my quads and lungs were screaming from the hills and completely drained me, the scenery kept giving me tons of motivation to keep pushing so I felt stronger at the finish than when I started. (my legs still might tell a different story, but my head felt great…)

Runners high? Musta been. I haven’t had one of those in a while…

And of course, the essential post-run recovery time with my nephew, Carter.

(Yes, I’m totally bribing you for blog comments with cute baby pictures.)

Tags: bee brook, cross country running, hidden valley preserve, trail running | Posted in Life, Running, Triathlon, Videos | 5 Comments »

Knee warmers, crocuses and red coats

Sunday, March 21st, 2010

Spring is here people!

The crocuses are sprouting in my front yard. The weather is warming up. Daylight savings time is here. I broke out the knee warmers and took my road bike off of the wall and out onto the road for the first time. After a winter of spending more time on the trainer than I ever have before, it feels strange cranking down on the pedals and bursting forward. Somehow my body forgot that bikes are actually meant to go anywhere at all, let alone FAST and not just spin endlessly in one place.

The first ride of the spring is always the most fun because it reminds me of why I spent all that time watching movies on Hulu over and over while it is snowing outside. Going fast is FUN.

I was also reminded of another sign of spring on my 30 mile ride this afternoon that is probably unique to the Boston area. The red coats.

I stopped to say hi and watch them pass along the trail and was greeted with a friendly “Loyal subject of the King I presume?”

I ride through Lexington and Concord a lot, so I see these guys out a lot throughout the summer. It made me smile knowing that if they are out, winter is DEFINITELY over.

And on a side note. I did another CompuTrainer time trial/fitness test this weekend. It was the same course last year’s TT at the Multisport World Expo, a 10k through central park. I thought I was in worse shape than last year since I’m not teaching quad-busting spin classes twice a week anymore, but was able to crank out the exact same wattage!

Last year: 283 watts

This year: 283 watts

Both years, I tasted puke and loved it.

Maybe I’m in better cycling shape than I thought…

Tags: multisport world expo, spring | Posted in Cycling, Spinning, Triathlon | 5 Comments »

Austin Trip Pictures

Wednesday, March 17th, 2010

The last week down in Austin was so crazy that I can barely remember everything. Instead, I’ll just tell the story in between what pictures I took over the last 5 days.

Here is the sunset over the Congress Ave bridge. I hung out under the bridge watching the bat colony swarm out as the sunset while chowing down on a burrito. The perfect ending to a long day.

One of my favorite things about Austin was the trail around Lady Bird Lake. There were people constantly out running, biking, walking their dogs or canoeing, kayaking or rowing down the lake. Loved the super athletic vibe all around town. “The fit shall inherit the earth.”

After another hard tempo run around the lake, my doggies were hurting pretty bad and I decided it was time to return back to my ice bath routine. Ice baths in a hotel room poses some special challenges, specifically obtaining said ice. It took at least eight, no lie, trips back and forth to the ice machine to fill up the bath tub. I was tempted to use a garbage can since it could hold at least twice as much ice, and would require half as many sketchy trips back and forth to the ice machine, but I decided to use my better judgment.

Man I sure missed that burning chill of frozen toes. I stuck it out for 5 minutes this time before I had to jump out and dethaw.

Later I met up with one of my Trakkers teammates, Doris, for the first time at a karaoke party. I have a tendency to be really introverted and antisocial sometimes, so the fact that we chatted and tossed back beers into the wee hours of the morning with someone I just met says a lot. She is one awesome chick. Plus, she can totally party harder than me. We even sent some late night tweets to try and get Michael and Amanda Lovato to come join us for a swim the next morning since we knew they were in town.

The next day was beautiful, so I took a stroll off to Barton Springs to check it out as planned. As I walked over, I ran into this HUGE kite fest and remember that Amanda had Tweeted about going there. (Yes, Doris and I turned into total Twitter stalkers). More harassing of the Lovatos continued, but our efforts were fruitless.

Relaxing on the side of Barton Springs. I’m pretty proud to say that I peer pressured Doris into joining me. She was even at a restaurant and chased after the waitress to cancel her order to rush off to join me for a dip. Margaritas can wait. Swimming with teammates in an awesome natural pool on a beautiful day wins every day.

I’m not sure why, but I think this picture is funny. It looks like this little kid is taunting me saying that he can swim faster than me or something.

And now I’ve made it back to Boston and am trying to get back into my normal routine. Goodbye Austin, you were a fun city, but this New Englander has some Ironman training to get to…

Tags: austin, sxsw, texas | Posted in Life, Triathlon | 3 Comments »

Running Lady Bird

Friday, March 12th, 2010

This morning I got up early before all the craziness of the conference started to knock out a run around the Lady Bird Lake trail right next to my hotel. I’m totally loving this weather and think it is hilarious that the locals are out wearing pants and long sleeve shirts.

I’m thinking that the northerners in town for the week are appreciating the 70 degree weather a lot more than the locals.

So what do I do? Take some stupid flexing pictures of myself in front of the Austin skyline.