Trek Week!

On Thursday, I'll head up to Boston for the carbo-loading dinner. Luckilly, I've been offerred a place to stay Thursday night (thanks, Scot and Amy!), so I don't have to foot the bill for a hotel room. Friday morning, bright and early will see us off and riding southwest towards NYC! I'm going to take it easy this coming week. I'm not going to run, but I'll go out for a few moderate rides. I think I'm in pretty good shape. I'm perhaps not in as good riding shape as last year, but I feel good nonetheless.

Speaking of riding and running, I ran 20 miles and rode about 80 miles this past week, including a great 50 mile ride yesterday and a 9 mile run today. The 30 mile ride I did the other day incorporated a bunch of climbing and my legs felt pretty good.

Now...on to fundraising...I'm struggling a bit. I've spoken with some other riders and many of them are having a harder time at it this year too. I need to make some follow-up calls this week and we'll see where things stand when I leave for the ride. We shall see...I have a feeling things will work out; I just need to get the word out and contact some more people. If you're reading this and haven't joined my ride, please do. Every dollar counts!

Wish me luck!

Update

It's been about 3 weeks since my last entry. In that time I've run 46 miles and ridden 163 miles. This includes a grueling 52.5 mile ride into the hills NW of where I live:

I had about 2,000 feet of climbing to do on that day. The climbing is fairly similar to that which we will do on the third day of the trek. In fact, the first 10 miles is the exact same first 10 miles of day 3. Not bad, if I do say so myself. There is less than 2 weeks left until we begin. This week, I need to really focus on putting in some miles on the bike and raising some more money. I'm going to call around to a few businesses/institutions in the area that might be interested and then spend some time next weekend knocking on doors. We'll see how it goes. Speaking of the trek, someone submitted the route to mapmyride. The elevation seems to be a little weird/off, but other than that, you can check to see if we'll be riding close to you by clicking on the map below:

Oh, and a small pic of what our Jersey will look like this year:

Catch up

I feel as if that's what I am always playing. Anyway...I have been working out. AND, I have actually managed to keep my training log on mapmyride/run updated. I just haven't managed to post the maps here. So...to catch up:

After my 7 mile run on June 7th, I had a week filled with 3 4.5 mile runs and a 38 mile ride. That brings me to this past week. It was a busy one:

- 2 mile run on Tuesday
- bike commute (33 miles total - 24 one way and 9 back) on Wednesday
- 6 mile run on Thurs
- 2 mile run on Friday (I was flying for my current fitness level: 13:54)
- I did a short, 25 minute easy spin on my bike on Saturday
- And then...today...I ran in the 29th Annual Branford Road Race. Here's the route and my time:

I was pretty happy with my time: 39:42. That's about a 7:40 average over 5 miles. I can deal with that. This October, though, when I take on the Festival City 10k in Stratford, Ontario, I will not be happy with anything above a 7 min/mile average. I have a long way to go until then, though. Right now I'm just hoping for some sun, so I can spend more time in the saddle.

Seven-Mile Sunday

Today's Sunday and Sunday=long run. Today's prescription, as you might have guessed from the title of the post: 7 mile run. I decided to incorporate some hills into my run (I really just wanted to get up to West Rock Ridge without driving). If you were to click through to see the elevation, you'd notice that I was running uphill for the first couple of miles (with about a half mile of that at 5/6% grade).



After my run, I showered, hung out and ate lunch, and then headed down to the New Haven Green. I was late getting down there and I was really just trying to size it up for future use. (good thing too, as I only talked to two people and only one of them took a card). I learned a couple of things, though: 1) I need to hang something that says ALS off my table, 2) I need to hit the festival circle...that is, I need to watch the list of greens with festivals and spin there, as there just wasn't any traffic, and 3) I've got to keep this kid away from the cowbell, as I think was scaring away potential donors:

Friday Run and Saturday Ride

On Friday I had a 5 mile tempo run scheduled. I decided to squeeze it in before work, so I could pick up my bike from REI on the way home. The run felt great. 5 miles at 8:30 average. Taking my warm-up mile into consideration, I'd guess that my average over the other four was around 8:00/mile. Still pretty slow when compared to the times I was posting 2 1/2 years ago (before injuring my foot), but I'm definitely happy about it right now:



I was really happy to have my bike back; it looked great. The bike mechanic cleaned the entire drivetrain, got rid of some corrosion on my bottom bracket, lectured me about keeping my bike cleaner, and replaced some brake pads/parts. I was so happy to have my bike back and clean that I set my alarm for 7 this morning (actually crawled out of bed on the weekend while the kids were still sleeping) and headed out for a ride on the coast (most of it was in town, actually, but there was a bit of coastal riding):



I have to admit: I'm a little upset with how my gears were shifting. My chain slipped out of gear a couple of times and, once or twice, it didn't immediately switch when I was asking it to. I'm wondering if it just needs a bit more lube (I used it incredibly sparingly). If the problem persists I'll have to run back up to Hartford to get the bike techs at REI to tweek it a bit...ugh.

Coming up: tomorrow I'll do a 7 mile run early in the morning. Then, in the afternoon, I'm going to head on down to the New Haven green and set up my bike trainer and a table filled with info about the trek/donating. Hopefully I won't get kicked of the green and it'll bring in some cash for ALS TDI.

Ride Safely!

4◊ALS Awareness

After officially announcing Lou Gehrig's retirement from baseball on June 21, 1939, the Yankees celebrated his career on July 4th 1939. (he would die less than two years later - at 10:10pm on June 2, 1941 - of complications resulting from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis). The Iron Horse had played in 2,130 games straight before benching himself in Detroit on May 2 of that year. At just 35, Gehrig's play had diminished drastically, and suddenly. So much so, in fact, that sports writer James Kahn noted:

"I have watched him closely and this is what I have seen: I have seen him time a ball perfectly, swing on it as hard as he can, meet it squarely - and drive a soft, looping fly over the infield.... He is meeting the ball, time after time, and it isn't going anywhere."

The festivities on July 4th, 1939, took place on the diamond in front of over 60,000 fans at Yankee stadium. Members of the 1927 Yankees World Championship team, aka "Murderers' Row" returned, the Yankees retired his number, and Babe Ruth famously bear-hugged his estranged friend. After remarks by Ruth, Lou Gehrig took to the podium to deliver his farewell speech (video excerpt and full text below).

This coming July 4th will mark the 70th anniversary of the day. To commemorate this event, Major League Baseball has joined with ALS TDI and three other major non-profit organizations to raise money and awareness to help find a cure for ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease). Please help MLB, ALS TDI, the Tristatetrek, and me work towards a cure/treatments for ALS by joining my ride and contributing money to ALS TDI!

"Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about the bad break I got. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth. I have been in ballparks for seventeen years and have never received anything but kindness and encouragement from you fans.

"Look at these grand men. Which of you wouldn't consider it the highlight of his career just to associate with them for even one day? Sure, I'm lucky. Who wouldn't consider it an honor to have known Jacob Ruppert? Also, the builder of baseball's greatest empire, Ed Barrow? To have spent six years with that wonderful little fellow, Miller Huggins? Then to have spent the next nine years with that outstanding leader, that smart student of psychology, the best manager in baseball today, Joe McCarthy?

"Sure, I'm lucky. When the New York Giants, a team you would give your right arm to beat, and vice versa, sends you a gift - that's something. When everybody down to the groundskeepers and those boys in white coats remember you with trophies - that's something.

"When you have a wonderful mother-in-law who takes sides with you in squabbles with her own daughter - that's something. When you have a father and a mother who work all their lives so you can have an education and build your body - it's a blessing. When you have a wife who has been a tower of strength and shown more courage than you dreamed existed - that's the finest I know.

"So I close in saying that I might have been given a bad break, but I've got an awful lot to live for. Thank you."

— Lou Gehrig at Yankee Stadium, July 4, 1939

Catching up

So, yeah...I've fallen a bit behind. I have been working out, though...just not as much as I was supposed to. The day after my last post - Monday, May 25 - I injured my foot playing with Milo in the backyard. I thought I was going to have to see a doctor for it and even worried about long term training issues. It feels better now...not completely, but better. I took lots of anti-inflammatories and skipped one workout/postponed another. Okay...onto what I've actually done in the last week:

On Friday, I did a speed workout on the treadmill at school. I ran for 50 mins total. If I remember correctly, I did 1.5 miles of a warm-up run at 9 1/2 min mile pace, then alternated repeatedly between 800 meters (1/2 mile) at 6 min/mile pace and 400 meters (1/4 mile) at 9 min/mile pace, and then finished with about 1.5 miles slow down.

Saturday morning found me climbing on my bike. My speed was slower than I would have liked, but my legs were tired and I spent the last 2/3 of the ride trying to increase my horrible average from the first 1/3 (which had me climbing about 850 feet in 12 miles). The ride felt great, though, and I'm itching to make the jump (from running and riding to primarily riding). As soon as I get my bike worked on! Saturday's route:

On Sunday, I was back in West Rock Ridge State Park, running the mountain bike trails. Same route as last week...a couple of minutes faster despite my tired legs:

Monday I rested and today I had a lame, 2 miler scheduled:

So...tomorrow is a rest/xt day. I think I might try to get a ride in before heading to the dentist. While I'm at the dentist, Jill will be taking my bike up to REI to get some work done on it. I'm hoping to have it back by Friday...and then I can resume bike commuting, which should really start to build the miles in saddle. 'till next time.

Ride safely!

Sick kids

So yeah...it's their fault that I haven't posted. They've been incredibly sick...so sick, in fact, that my three-year-old son took his second nap in about a year and a half. I did, however, manage to sneak out of the house for a ride Wednesday morning:

a 5 mile (3 of which were a tempo run) run on Thursday:

and today I finished the most enjoyable run that I've done in about 2 1/2 years. It was a slow 6 miler that I did on some mountain bike trails in West Rock Ridge State Park. It was fantastic. Up and down. Over fallen trees. Across planks and bridges. Over/through mud puddles. From rock to rock. It's why/how I originally fell in love with running and it was brilliant. Anyway...enough of my raving. I couldn't put together a map on map-my-run, because the trails are under too dense of tree cover, but if you check the trail map, you can follow my route south from the beginning of the red trail. I took the white trail when it broke off to the west from the red. When the white rejoins the red, I turned back and retraced my steps. Again...awsome.

Reminder: if you haven't joined my ride...please do. Let's help ALS TDI get some real work done on ALS this year!

'till next time, ride safely!

Back at it

I went out of town (to Pittsburgh) last weekend. Since I was driving home on Sunday, I didn't get to do last week's long run (5miles). I did, however, play Vikingball before leaving the 'burgh. Awesome.

Anyway...so I got a bit of a, non-traditional, workout on Sunday and was back to running today(it would have been a 5k had I not gotten lost):

4.5 Miles

Foot soreness rears itself once again. Ugh. It wasn't bad, though, and by the end of the run the soreness was gone. Hopefully it was nothing. We shall see, I guess.

Today's route around Lake Wintergreen:

3-mile Tuesday

Today I started the fourth week of a 10k running regime. My general workout plan for the trek is to continue to focus on this running regime for the next few weeks (provided that my foot/ankle/achilles holds up), continue to add bike rides on a couple of my rest/x-training days every week, watch some initial pounds drop off, and then switch more fully to cycling in June . My reasoning might not be completely sound, but I really think that the whole body workout that running gives is more effective (especially when I take into consideration the time I need to put into both) and although I really need to get some miles in on the bike, past riding/running experience tells me that I am able to ramp up the riding miles fairly quickly if I'm in good cardio/muscular shape. So...that's how I've rationalized sticking to the running program for a bit longer (I'm also quite happy that I've been running for over 3 weeks and my foot still feels pretty good...first time that's happened in over 2 1/2 years).

Anyway...today's run:

Thanks for checking in on me. Cheers!

Moo!

Minicards, that is. I just ordered some to pass out for fundraising purposes. Image (thanks to doodleandhoob!):

On the back it says:

Become a part of my ride by donating:
http://www.active.com/donate/Trek2009/PGavin
More information on ALS TDI and the Tri-State Trek:
http://www.als.net/
http://www.tristatetrek.com/
Follow my training:

http://bikemeback.blogspot.com

Pretty snazzy, in my opinion. Now I just need to get out and hand them to people who are interested in helping.

4.5 miles at Lake Wintergreen

Today's workout was a long, slow run. I'm up to 4 miles for my long run. When I got to the turn around, I was certain that I'd made a mistake when I planned the route. The "two miles" had gone by too easily and fast...so I continued on. Finally, when I reached the confluence of a couple of trails, I decided that I'd turn back, check the time at the car, and continue on, if necessary.

The run back seemed a bit longer than the out and I was certain before getting home and checking that I had indeed run 4 miles (4.5 to be more precise). It was fantastic, though. The picture to the left doesn't do the trail justice. Next time we take a walk there, I'll get some better shots. This pic, though, will have to do for the time being.

Check the route below, if you're interested. Bike ride tomorrow perhaps. I don't have anything scheduled, though, until my run on Tuesday. Cheers!

into shape, that is

Welcome! 

I've started this blog for a couple of reasons. The first, and most immediate, reason is that I wanted a place online to collect my thoughts, experiences, and documents relating to my participation in this year's Tri-State Trek. Secondly, I wanted a visual, easily-accessible method to track my journey back into shape. I once told Jill that I was going to be in the best shape of my life by age 35. From about September, 2005-August, 2006, at age 30-31, I was running about 30 miles/week, had gotten to the lightest I'd been since 10th grade, was generally happy with the shape I had gotten back into, and was excited about the prospect of spending the next 4 years tinkering with my running routine and coasting into 35 easily in the best shape of my life. August, 2006, though, brought an achiles/arch injury that dearailed my running regime. I'm just back up to 10 miles/week (a slow, slow, slow 10 miles/week), but I worry about my right foot every time it strikes the ground (and I'm still 40 lbs heavier than I was in 2005/2006). So, although I'll post my running workouts, this blog is about biking back into shape. It's happening, damnit!

Today's ride: