Winter blahs

I think I have them. I believe it's a lack of sunshine more than anything and the constant snowfall. I think we're turning the corner now though, or at least I hope we are, or at least we should be.
The skiing has been great and so has the running. Tony and I have been putting in a little over 100 mile months so far mainly on the trails, but the last few weeks we haven't been able to run mainly on the trails due to the snow so the road has to suffice. We haven't been doing any great speed work yet but have been running LOTS of hills, so the hill efforts have been getting our heart rates up pretty high, just like running intervals. We're going to be running the St. Malachai 5 miler March 13th., that's usually a pretty good test of early season fitness. I'm not going to be running it for a great time though, I think I'm going to be running along side of a friend of mine to possibly be a sense of motivation for him when or if he feels like slowing down.............. :-)

We also have the Fools 25k trail race coming up March 28th. There's a 25 and 50k race. I signed up for the 25k but may continue on after my race is over to possibly run 20 miles or more, we'll see how the legs are feeling after the 25k.

We've been in the pool a couple of times to three times per week so far in February and are going to continue till we can get into open water. I'm going to get a new Orca Full sleeve wet suit in a couple of weeks and will be excited to use it, in open water that is, which may take a while now since the Lake is frozen over. The swim workout's have been going well and both Tony and I are feeling stronger, hopefully that will carry over into our races, we're just not overdoing it cause it's still very early in the season, even though we are going to do a race in May.

We haven't been on the trainer a whole lot, but when we have, we have been doing some decent workout's. No huge wattage but sometimes a little better than endurance. The legs felt pretty decent on the group ride last weekend and we did quite a bit of climbing, so hopefully things are going well, we're just staying steady and not overdoing it.

We're just really ready for this weather to break as is everyone else I'm sure. It will be nice to see some sunshine and warmer temperatures for a change.

Hope everyone is doing well and as a friend of mine always ends his messages....
Sunshine everyone!

Good times

this weekend. Saturday started off with the Nordic Flurry XC ski race at Chapin Forest. I didn't race, (probably should have) but I opted to watch instead. I did get about 2 hours in on the ski's though and a very good workout. Tony raced the freestyle 10k and finished 1st. in his age group and somewhere in the top 12-15 with a time of just over 33 minutes, not too bad since the course is basically all hills with some pretty technical sections where you have to really be paying attention or you could end up plowing into a tree at a high speed. Rudy raced strong as well and it was nice skiing with you guys along with quite a few other friends that were there as well. The temps. in the morning were perfect and the guys had the course groomed well, it was very nice conditions. After about 4 hours it started to get a little soft and the snow was sticky, but by then we were ready to leave. Lynn, Nick and Robert snow shoe'd, Lori raced and Julie with her pre-surgical ankle was the official photographer, but I must say was walking very well!

Today (Sunday) we had a team training ride, meeting at the entrance of the Brecksville Reservation. The weather was perfect again with almost no wind and temps. that reached the high 40's and bright sunshine, perfect and definitely a bonus for this time of the year. Tony and I ended up with 45.5 miles with quite a bit of climbing and everyone else had quite a few more miles because they rode there. After we finished the ride Tony and I did a 4.5 mile brick run and ended up running back up the entire hill from the very bottom of the Valley Parkway to the parking area where we all met. It was a good run and we felt pretty strong on the hill, which is 2.2 miles by the way from top to bottom.

It was good to get outside to train and race again this weekend with those that we see quite often and those that we haven't seen for a few month's, a little nice weather is good for everyone. We need more of it!

See you all soon.

Taking it easy this week

and kind of recovering from the race on Sunday. We're doing our workout's but nothing big, basically active recovery. Next week we're going to ramp up the mileage for the Fools 25-50k trail run March 28 in the Cuyahoga Valley, we're definitely looking forward to that one. XC ski race @ Chapin this weekend. I'm going to ski but not race. Tony is going to ski and race along with Rudy and Brian and many others. I will have more fun just skiing and watching this one than racing.

Later all

Good race

despite the snowy trails. In some spots it was hard to stay upright because of the ruts from other runners and just the snowy trail conditions, but it was still a good race and a very good workout on a hilly course. I was pleased with my race and finished 7th. overall. Rudy finished 6th. overall and he and I ran together for the majority of the race, nice running with you today Rudy.
Tony finished 2nd. overall and right from the start he took off and ran strong the whole way, he said he felt good and had good legs. On the second loop at about mile 6 he said he started to fade a little though and that's where he let the first place runner go so he wouldn't blow up. He said if the conditions were a little bit better he would have stayed with him and hopefully dueled it out to the finish.
After the race and after we got a little fuel in us, Lynn, Tony and I headed back out on the trails and did a fast 4 mile walk including the big hill by Squires Castle for the third time! Lynn whooped up on us on the walk and she said she might have liked to do the 8k, I think she would have did just fine!
It was nice seeing some friends out there again today and nice job to all that ran and put this race on.

Ready to run

tomorrow morning. We've been putting in decent miles lately on the trails and on the road in preparation for the upcoming trail races and just good fun endurance running in general. We'll be running a 15k trail race in the North Chagrin tomorrow with 198 other runners, (the cutoff was 200). The conditions are packed snow with major and minor hills and a well marked course. I'm sure this is going to be more of a fun event than an all out competitive race, especially with the snowy trails and it is still only the middle of February. Never the less, any time you toe the line at any race, you always try to do your very best, and I'm sure that's the way it's going to be tomorrow. 3 of the local triathlon studs are running as well. Kevin Park, Brian Stern and Adam Hunter are going to be there setting pace. The ever competitive and ageless (friend and teammate) Rudy Sroka will be racing too, and after the 15k race, he's heading to Chapin Forest for probably another 2-3 hours of xc skiing, that's simply why Rudy is at the front in any race he enters.
Tony and I are going to be doing another lap with Lynn afterward, just so Lynn can get some time in on the trails rather than just taking pictures. I'm sure it will be a great day.

Race report to follow.

Hadda good week

this week. Got in some nice workout's and some good preparation for next weekends trail race. Actually we did another 10 miles on the trails today at the North Chagrin and had a great run on the snowy trails, which were very runnable. Started nailing down the 2010 race schedule which includes a revamped tri schedule with a few of the local races that are must do's. Gonna do some traveling as well for road, tri and cross for hopefully a fun filled season. We're going to do the Raccoon Rally mountain bike race in New York this year again too. We did it a few years ago and had a blast, so we're going to hit that race up again.
Clothing orders are out and about now for Lake Effect and Cleveland Tri, so race season isn't that far off. We're still mostly doing base mileage right now with just a little increase in intensity, still just enjoying our runs and swims and pretty much dreading the trainer..... but we'll be on the bike outside again before long.
On that note it's back to the Celtic's and the Magic before all the funny commercials come on later.

Peace

Nice day tomorrow

so Scott, Tony and I are going to get out on the bike's for a couple hours in the afternoon. It's supposed to be 35* and sunny so it will be nice to stretch the legs on the bike outside even if it's only going to be short lived. The weather men are talking about the possibility of more snow for Friday and Saturday, so maybe it will be back on the ski's for a couple of days too this weekend, wow, the possibilities are endless around here.

We've been in the pool more last week and so far this week. Tonight we did 2900 meters with some nice sets and Monday we did 2400 meters, I know that's not a big workout, but right now at this time in the season, it's about right to get some work in, the bigger stuff will come later on.

We're doing a 10 mile trail race next weekend in the North Chagrin Reservation and we're looking forward to that. We did a long run there on Sunday to run the sections that the race is going to be held on. There's some big hills and some technical trails, the race is going to be great. We did a 5 mile tempo run last night on the road with the middle 5k run at a fast pace. Our heart rates were up like we were climbing hills at Chapin Forest on the ski's. I still say there is nothing to take the place of xc skiing to get the heart rate up though.

Gotta go, the Buckeye's and Penn State are playing now.

Later all.