Prospect Park Duathlon – Saturday, March 24

I almost decided to sleep in for this race since it was a bit chilly outside and I wasn’t in the mood to wait around in the cold for the race to start. To top it off, I discovered that I had 3 flats over my two sets of wheels. I had put on my Zipps the night before and inflated them after they have been sitting since September ’06. When I went to my bike in the morning I discovered both of them had lost all of their air pressure. I can’t imagine why this was so as they seemed fine when I took them off all those months ago. My third flat was on my regular set of training wheels, so I had to spend a few minutes that morning, getting my hands dirty to fix at least one flat.

I met up with a bunch of other members of the Asphalt Green Triathlon Club. Since this was a club points race, I felt obligated to wear my AGTC tri clothes. No worries to Hammer Nutrition though, as before and after the race, I had on my Hammer gear. It was nice to be part of a team for a change.

My lack of serious training as of late showed up in the race. I felt like I was running through molasses. The last time I did this race, I was second in my age group. This time the best I could muster was 7th. It is what it was though and I guess I should just be happy to have been able to put in a hard effort. Overall place I was 33rd out of 111.

After lounging around the house for a while, I decided to head to the YMCA for a swim. I felt pretty good and wound up going 2000 yards when all I planned for was 1500. I could have gone longer, but I wanted to leave the pool wanting more. Hopefully this will give me inspiration to get back in the water soon. I do have Alcatraz coming up.

When I got off the subway when returning from the pool, I decided to stop into the local grocery to buy a lottery ticket. A woman was standing outside of it asking for money. She didn’t seem to be in particular need and I didn’t like the way she asked for it. Anyway, I entered the store to cash a winning lottery ticket and buy another for that nights drawing. As I turned to leave the store, this woman who only moments ago was on the sidewalk begging for money was right next to me purchasing her own lottery ticket. I couldn’t help but ask her if that was why she was asking for money. She replied “That’s right, there is no crime in that”. I could have thought of a million different replies to her, but I just kept going instead. Who knows, maybe one day she will become a millionaire from someone else’s money.

I guess the workouts from Saturday, took their toll on me. I went out for a 5 to 6 mile run this morning and completely lost all energy by the time I reached 2.5 miles. I stuck with it thought and managed to get in 5 miles without stopping, although it was a struggle. The fact that I had trouble with these 5 miles is concerning me a bit as this coming weekend I am signed up to do the Kurt Steiner 50K. At least this ultra will be over a short 2.2 mile loop so I can always easily bail out. I am counting on my friend Larry to get me through it. This 50K will also serve as my one and only long training run before the Boston Marathon. I’ll just have to see how it goes.