"It" (AKA "Speed")

It seems that gone are the days of going for an easy four mile run and averaging 7:45/mile pace. I don't know where my "speed" went, but it seems to be gone. I don't know if the summer heat has ripped it from my sole or maybe the soaking humidity has washed it all away. Maybe my soon to be 38 year old body is finally putting the brakes on. What ever it is, I need to find "it"....and quick! Of course I am assuming that I do in fact have "it".

I was always active when I was young, playing soccer, lacrosse and any other sport that my friends were playing. I probably started running when I was 10 or 11 years old, tagging along with my father when he would go out for a two or three mile run. As I got older, I always ran as a means of staying in shape for lacrosse and soccer, never anything more than that. I recall before a lacrosse practice in college we had to do a two mile run for time and I was able to run it in 11:58, breaking the 6:00/mile barrier and coming in second or third overall on my team. So I know that the "it" was there.

Flash forward to the past few years....I am unofficially retired from playing lacrosse. I tried a soccer comeback this year and promptly pulled my groin muscle 30 minutes into my first game (I unofficially retired from soccer the next day). I have embraced running and triathlons these past nine years or so. I have run five marathons (four NYC and one in the Poconos), a couple half marathons, numerous 5Ks and 5 mile races along with about six triathlons (four sprint, one olympic, one half iron). I even joined a running club three years ago as a way to stay in shape during the winter months (Bucks County Roadrunners) In my running club I manage to usually finish in the top 15-20% of all races. In most 5K's and 5-mile races I am always around the top 10% of finishers. That kind of shows that "it" is still lingering around and can be found on various occassions.

I don't know, I am kind of hoping that sometime in the next few weeks when the weather cools off a bit and the humidity gets below 90%, "it" will come out and befriend me again. Until then I am going to have to just dream about "it" and do my best to manufacture it on my own.

Now for my training....which I will keep brief:

Monday
I had to get back into the water, especially following my shark attack, er....jellyfish attack. I went to the pool after work and met up with my wife and kids. I was so excited to see how determined my 6 yr. old is to learn how to swim so she can take the deep water test (so she can go off the diving board in the 12' deep pool). Once they left I went to the lap pool and did a straight 1,000 yard swim, the first time I have done a non-stop long swim since my half-ironman distance last September. It went pretty well, although I was averaging about 1:58/100yds towards the end. I think the final time was around 19:25.

Tuesday
I wanted to do a four or five mile run, but the guys I run with at work ended up making me cut it short....3.85 miles. At least it was a hilly run that made me a work a bit. We did it in 32:39 (8:29/mile). I think the temp yesterday for our run was around 88F and the humidity was probably around 90%....of course it doesn't help that were were running at noon.

I met the family at the pool again, but this time I did my swim before they got there. I did a 500 yard warm-up (1:42, 1:43, 1:44, 1:52, 1:52) and then 500 yards straight (9:28) and then a final 500 yards straight, with the last 200 yds with a pull buoy (9:09). Total: 1,500 yards in 27:48. I feel like I am getting much better in the water. I keep thinking about how much better I am going to be at swimming once I actually start doing it on a consistant basis through the fall, winter and spring....look out world!!!

Wednesday
Ran with my friend Chris at lunch and it was another hot one out there, 92F and yes it was friggin' humid. It felt like we were going at a decent clip but our time didn't reflect that. We did 4.45 miles in 38:28 (8:39/mile). I made the mistake of throwing in a pretty steep hill at the midway point of our run that just killed our pace, but I thought it could only make us stronger.

As for my planned evening ride, it ended up being a relatively short 11 mile loop. I tried to get home early enough to be able to get in a longer ride but I was guilted into a shorter ride by my 6 year old daughter. She said that I should be spending time with them and gave me a very sad face. Geez, what was I going to do? I changed really quickly and said I would be home by 6:00pm. The ride was nothing to write home about aside from the fact that I did manage to hit 40+ MPH on a downhill stretch. I recall my average speed for the ride being around 19.2 MPH, which is pretty solid considering I had a pretty significant mile long climb two miles into my ride where my average speed was about 9.5 MPH. Not the ride I had planned but it'll have to do.