Romeo Uncle November November India November Golf

Delta Victor[ia] reminded me of all the fun Clare, Mike, and I had writing everything in NATO phonetic alphabet over the holidays last year.

Yesterday: did a ~40 minute run with Steve Z and Mike Hicks. Running with other people rocks.

Today: ran the 5k bay out-and-back, then lifted legs in the hotel gym.

Delta Victoria

Did the same ~5k run to the west bay this morning, lifted after in the hotel gym.

Victoria!

Ran maybe 5k with Pilki before dinner along the waterfront. It's great to see him (and many other old friends).

PDR

1h34m57s by my (crappy) Polar watch. It didn't feel great.

Now back to my regularly scheduled bike riding.

Ready, by default

Ran a sunset AM loop. Legs felt fresh. Not quite the can't-hold-em-back fresh that one usually gets during a taper, but fresh enough to give a mental boost for Sunday. I guess I'm ready. (I guess I'll find out if I'm really ready in a couple of days.)

Ride + Run

S is back from AK! Met her for a mid-afternoon spin. About an hour (burbs, then Rock Creek Rd [?], which I love, then Manayunk).

I know I should be tapering, but I have all this extra energy... so I ran an AM loop. I figure there can't be any harm in that. I'll do something light tomorrow and just strides on Saturday.

A Ride

Slept in way too late so only had time for about an hour of riding. Rode over Strawberry Mansion, then up Bryn Mawr Ave, made the turn off to Rock Creek and came back via Manayunk. 19.x miles in 1h4m.

Workouts of an old man

Birthday evening: snuck in 3mi @ Pottruck and lifted before dinner at Prive.

Today morning: played a couple of games of squash with fellow Eph and new PLClub member Brent.

Today evening: was gonna bike S's Gladwyne route, but fell asleep for 2hrs when I got home and when I woke up it was dark. Ran an AM loop instead (probably better--I told Max I'd lead a Gladwyne ride tomorrow morning, so I should save my legs). Found some new gears on the way home. Maybe PDR won't be a disaster after all.

Birthday

Started the day right with a 6.15am spin with Penn boys. Around 1h45m of fast riding in/around W Fairmount Park. Just over 30 miles.

Ambler

Rode out beyond Ambler. There are farms! And cows! A lovely ride, even on a hot, sticky day. 50 miles on the nose in something a little under 3hrs. Feeling stronger every day...

Gladwynne

Rode S's fun, hilly route (Balligomingo goodness). Back from Conshy on the bike path. Under 2hrs, 34mi.

Conshy

Rode with Penn boys in the pouring rain (which tapered off) on Freedom Valley, roughly. I wanted to GO today but there was a slow dude and we kept having to stop to regroup. Met a friend of Dai's who just started PennMed (and had a sweet[!] LOOK 595. So jealous. That is my dream bike.) It's really a small world.

Oh, and I crashed on the turn down into Manayunk. Was talking with a guy about the soap box at 20mph and not paying attention and my front wheel went out on the turn off Umbria. It was a slow slide to the ground so I didn't bang myself hard, but I got a little road rash on my hip and elbow. I'm a little embarrassed that I can't seem to ride with Penn w/o some sort of incident. Sigh.

Montgomery Loop

Did a hilly (for Philly), roughly hour-long run. Felt surprisingly good (my quads were aching from lifting two days ago).

Conshy

Rode the Freedom Valley Loop, roughly.

Pottruck

I was not going to buy a gym membership, but I caved. 4mi treadmill run, then lifted legs. I have not done this in a while: my hamstrings are much stronger than they used to be (surprise!) but my quads and glutes... not so much.

End-week, Week-end

Friday: Ran Black Rd, back via Lansdowne / Lemon Hill. I think this is around 7.

Saturday: Hungover from parties at Kuzman's and S's. Just ran an AM loop.

Sunday: Rode ~65mi down below Ridley Creek Park to meet S. Was running late on the way out and forgot to bring food... and experienced one of the worst bonks of my life on MLK (I got all dizzy and lightheaded... don't remember much after Strawberry Mansion.)

Monday: Frantically getting ready for Wadler's visit and thesis proposal defense. Wanted to run a Strawberry Mansion loop but only had time for Sweetbriar / Lemon Hill.

Note the lack of a long run. Probability of me doing NYC gets smaller each week... and I really don't care. Riding my bike is too much fun.

Mid-week

Wednesday: did a nice hard Montgomery Loop. Legs felt fresh after not running for a few days.

Thursday: Rode this morning with a few Penn boys (and got another flat! time for new tires, I think). Ran this evening to the Art Museum and back.

Conshy

It ended up being a solo spin to Conshy. Really nice to ride on legs that were not aching from a 20 miler.

Valley Forge

Rode with a mixture of Philly college teams out to Valley Forge. Got a flat about 3 miles in, but a couple of nice kids from Temple waited for me and then paced (dragged?) me back to the group just past Manayunk. Tried to hang with the big boys on the way home, but dropped back after a few miles -- legs had zero pop (I am not used to riding so fast, especially on a 20 miler the day before). That kind of sucked, but it was still the most fun I've had in a while. Something around 48 miles all together?

I'm going biking with S tomorrow instead of running. Make of that what you will (among several things you could infer: my NYC bib is in serious jeopardy.)