that's awesome =)

Way to go Erin...what a woman!

a 1.35 half marathon after the swim and bike is impressive. Dave T.

I always figured my first running profile in the Press Herald would come after a breakthrough race at Beach2Beacon. But I'll take this :)

16 miles today, trying to hold onto the crew running up and around the mountain. 32 miles for the weekend, a new 2-day PR. Honestly, I don't know how folks like Peter and Mark do it. I can barely walk at this point.

....for this

where, you may recall, this sort of trash talk three years ago,

the next year resulted in this.

• June 11. Litchfield Hills 7-miler, Litchfield, CT

I'm either on or off. And I was off today. Had that same feeling I did when ran the 5-k on the track a couple months ago. I should have been about 3 minutes faster as I've beaten guys that were at 36 minutes this year. I even lost to the top master, a 44 year old guy, but managed not to get girled!!!

Overall it's a pretty fast course. Anyone could set a mile PR on the first mile. Then it simply rolls switching from pavement to dirt roads or paths a couple of times. Most of it's run through a swamp or around it. At the 6 mile mark you see Gallow's Lane hill in front of you. At 10-k the worst is over and you have another 200 meters of an easier uphill grade. Before 6.5 it flattens out and stays that way until the last 150 meter downhill finish.

Not sure what was more disgusting, my first mile in 4:45 which was way too slow or my last mile of 6:41. I'd planned to run about 4:30 for the first mile which I should have, but the Kenyans went out slow and I'm a little nuts but at that moment a little intimidated to press the issue from the start with them. So I got to the mile in 4:45 feeling really relaxed and like I hadn't started yet. The other good hill is about at 1.5 miles into the race and one of the Kenyans surged and there was a pack of 13 of us and then stragglers, pretty far back. Now I either had a choice to run a bit quicker than I wanted and run with 12 other guys or run my own pace and run alone. I went with option A knowing I could hang for at leas thalf the race and then my strength would kick in. But by 1.25 mile sI started to feel completely drained, like you do at mile 22 of a marathon. Somewhere between 1.5 and 2 miles I fell apart. There was more to it than running a bit too fast because I should have been able to go longer than that at that pace, the kenyans never started to surge until about mile 3. The legs felt dead and next thing I knew I get to the 2-mile mark and I'd run a 5:25 mile. Mentally I was good to go and wanted to catch back up, I was pissed at myself for driving so far to run a 5:25 second mile. Physically I felt dead and couldn't figure out what was up. Had I run too hard this week, was my body trying to tell me I was tired, was it humid out, hot, windy?.

Well it wasn't cool, maybe about 68-70 during the race, so maybe that played a small role, but I wore my winter hat and I didn't feel the heat big factor, especially with the wind. Windy, yes, but I'd run well in the wind over the last few weeks, and it was cooling me down. Humid, yes, although I didn't realize this until after the race when my coach called and told me he'd check weather.com and saw it was 84% humidity, so maybe that was it. I made a feeble attempt and ran my next mile in 5:21. I don't give up. I'd run 25-k this fast and I was struggling to run it now. My next mile shows it all, 5:52 on a fairly flat mile, but I ran as hard as I could. At that point the top master came by and I held on for dear life running a 5:35 and a 5:25 next couple of miles, but those were slightly downhill. Gallows lane sealed the deal and that hill is steeper than most of Mnt. Washington.

The weird thing is the days I race in the humidity and then push myself the entire time is when my body feels it's worst afterwards, even if it's a short race. After Litchfield I was dizzy, and my muscles felt like they'd gone through a meat grinder. just like the feeling I got at Jacksonville and the 5-k in Tenn. Both humid and hot.

Either way, Pete and I know I'm in super shape, and that will not stop us from running another race next weekend. Workouts are going great and the body feels good everyday, so I don't think I'm running too much or too hard. I'm definetly not running too much because for the past 5 weeks I've been between 60-75 mles a week compared to the 100 plus all spring. The trend with the heat and humidity continues. And since all those other races the past few weeks have been in cool temps. and all my training has been in cool temps. and I've had no problems I'd say Litchfield was a weather problem.

Still it sucks to drive so far to not run up to what I could. I wish I could run well in the heat because I don't like having that hanging around. What happens if chicago is hot this fall or the trials after that? Somehow I need to fix this. I'm tired of running like crap and using the heat as a piss poor excuse.

One things for sure, If you put Cake out in the sun it melts. Maybe if I change my last name to Hotcakes I'll run better.

That's me again above. I seem to be doing that a lot.

Sorry you didn't run the race you were hoping for, but nice write up. I'm sure you and Coach Pete will figure this out. Maybe it's all the traveling? How about training with a treadmill in a steam room?

Keep running!

From now on I have to run every run in my winter gear and spend a couple hours a week in the steam room at the Atlantic oaks. orders.

And I probably should start some training on the treadmill as well since that really helps me get used to the heat and keeps me from running to fast during runs.

At least I'll get gaunt after the amount I'm going to sweat off.

Isn't that what you say? Who knows whether it is the heat or the humidity or the travel or whatever, one thing for sure is that no one out there has been working as hard as you. All of this is going to click into place, and I do NOT want to be in your way when it does!

P.S. I like the name "Juddy Hotcakes".

and you look quite serious in your biking gear!

just makes one feel serious (and incognito I thought).

a grown-up person, who should know better.
I thought about yelling, "where's your helmet?" but I was going downhill really fast and I don't think that she would have heard me.

A friend of mine was biking somewhere in the park once, fell and hit is helmeted head on a rock, and the hemlet cracked in two.

When I see people without helmets. Esp. when they have the helmets hanging off their handle bars, or adults aren't wearing them, but their kids are, way to set a good example.
It bothers me partly because my sister and I ALWAYS had to wear a helmet, my mom told the neighbors if they saw us without them to tell her so she could take our bikes away. The other reason it bugs me is because when I broke my collar bone, I also hit my head on the road, fortunately I was wearing my helmet, and it cracked instead of my skull.
I think I'll get a shirt made specifically for running on the carriage roads that says "Bike helmets are cool, dude!"

Thing happened too me, except...

I drove my bike into a moving car. I must have been 8. Suffered a broken collerbone and yes, gave that helmet a make-over...but i'm very fortunate that i was wearing one thus I always get angry when I don't see kids or adults even wearing one.

Late miles part 2, 16 around 7:20 pace around 7 this morning before waiting tables at the cafe.

-Chris

helmetless rider, except on a motorcycle.