VT Dad’s fight vs. inertia & flab

I was visiting my in-laws and got up this morning at 5:15 to run.  I went on a 7&2/3 mile loop and had nothing.  Click, click, click, went my right knee.  I averaged 11+ minute miles, ~2 minutes per mile slower than my normal pace.  The only neat thing about the run was the family of wild turkeys, a mom with 6 chicks that crossed the road in front of me.

Like most years I ran in the Clarence DeMar road race in South Hero, VT.  Most years there had been an option to run either 10K or 5K, and I always ran the 10K, but these past 2 years there has only been a 5K option.  Today we had ideal weather for a race, it was overcast and calm,  65F, 18C.  I woke up at 5:00 this morning, and decided to bike the 21 miles, 34K to the race.  The scenery along my ride was gorgeous, beginning as rolling Vermont countryside, progressing to a tidal marsh and bird sanctuary, then crossing Lake Champlain, and then returning to rolling farmland.  It took me 80 minutes to bike to the starting line, and I arrived 90 minutes before the start of the race.

I relaxed, ate, and stretched before the race, but when the race started I had nothing, no explosion in my legs, I was struggling.  The course was flat, but I couldn’t harness any speed.  I chugged along not making much headway during the first 2 miles, and passing 8-10 runners during the last mile.  I finished in 26:06, nearly 2 minutes slower than last year.  After the race I rode 1/2 way back, stopped in the town of Colchester to watch their 4th of July parade, before completing the remainder of my ride.

Hope everyone has a wonderful 4th of July weekend.

I’d been a fitness slacker recently, unable to wake up early to go for a bicycle ride.  Today was no exception, but I decided to get on the bike at noon. I chose a new 27 mile ride, 43.5K, that would take me out to Lake Champlain, and bring me back by the Burlington bike path, before turning back for home.  I quickly found out that there was a lot more traffic at 11:30 AM than 5:30 AM.  A hedge row of trees was blocking my sight of oncoming traffic, and I was forced to come to an abrupt stop, rolling over with my shoes clipped to my pedals like a turtle being flipped onto his shell.  I jump up quickly and pretended that nobody saw my graceful tumble.  

I proceeded onto VT 2A and was again surprised by how much traffic there was.  After about 2 miles in the midst of traffic I turned off onto a side street and my ride took a turn for the better.  I got on a rural road with rolling hills, it was a pleasure to be on the bike.  I turned towards Lake Champlain, and road for miles past summer camps, and views of the lake and  the sailboats.  My route took me toward the Burlington bike path, and along routes I had run for my long runs while training for the marathon.  I light mist like rain fell, and the bike path was a joy to ride, less crowded than I would have anticipated in the early afternoon.  

The biggest challenge of my ride was a 1 mile hill in Burlington up Maple Street.  The hill is challenging in its own right, but adding to the challenge were the 6 stop signs breaking your momentum while climbing the hill.  I enjoyed the challenge, and headed for my busiest 1.5 miles on Williston Road.  The road was congested with traffic, but luckily things opened up for me at the right time, allowing me to safely get in the left hand lane, and negotiate a left turn off the busy road and into suburbia.  The rest of my ride was peacefully, and I completed the circuit in 1:49.  Averaging nearly 15 miles, 24K an hour.