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Tuesday, September 04, 2007

A Case of the Mondays

I know it is Tuesday, but I am suffering from a severe case of the Mondays. I guess that is what happens when you have as good of a 4 day weekend that I had. It was a combination of quality training time on my own and quality play time with my kids. The weather was picture perfect. It was the type of weekend you wish you could bottle up and open up every now and then.

The weekend started off with an early run through Prospect Park. I did an easy 8.5 mile run under cool, clear blue skies. It was nothing like the running I did in Spain just a week previously, but for living in a big city it was as quality as you can get. Afterwards, I ate lunch with my kids and their cousins and then took them to the Red Hook Municipal. We played in the water and surrounding park for hours. When we returned home my wife was wondering where we disappeared for so long. Everyone was having fun so I told her we just didn’t feel like coming home. After I did take them home, I headed back to the Red Hook pool so I could do some laps. That swim made it the third time in a week that I visited the pool. Unfortunately, this past weekend was the last time it will be open until next July. It is so sad that good things have to come to an end. Now I am back to swimming at an overcrowded and overheated pool at the YMCA.

Saturday morning I went out for an easy 50 mile ride. I needed to get this ride done in time for me to take my family to a Yankee game at 1pm. I didn’t think I would go 50 miles when I started and was only hoping to get around 30 miles in. Fortunately though, I found a couple of other athletes that I was able to draft off of which kept the ride interesting. This was especially true when I a serious Olympic distance athlete named Fred rode up upon me. He was going at a swift pace, but I was able to get on his rear wheel. We then proceeded to zip around Prospect Park at an average time of 9:30’s for each loop. At one point we started speaking to each other (that’s how I knew his name) about the races we were doing and our training. He lived out in Breezy Point, which explained why I didn’t recognize him from all the time I spend in the park. Anyway, he just happened to ride around the park enough times to get my distance up to 50 miles. I was really glad I ran into him, because riding behind him took at least 30 minutes off the time I would have spent to complete my 50 miles. When I returned home, I quickly showered and ate and then it was off to see the Yankees vs. Tampa Bay. Luckily we got to see the one game that the Yankees won over the Labor Day weekend.

My Saturday ended with me taking the Long Island Railroad out to my brother-in-laws house in Long Beach. I was doing the John Daly Ocean Mile swim race early on Sunday and I wanted to leave my car at home for my wife and kids to drive out their later in the day on Sunday. The conditions for the race were perfect. Clear, calm seas and a large field of 211 swimmers. I was happy with the way I swam and completed the race in 35:03. This placed me 88th overall and 14th for my Age Group. I had a great time and also ran into some friends that did the race as well. After the swim race, I ate a couple of the complementary donuts laid out in the post race buffet. Actually, that’s all there was to eat along with bottles of water. Those donuts fixed me right up and gave me enough energy to do a 17 mile run later that morning. I ran to Point Lookout and back and then started on another loop of the boardwalk in Long Beach. I wanted to go 20 miles, but at the 17 mile mark, my wife had called to let me know she finally arrived at her brother’s house. So I packed my run in and played with my kids on the beach.

My son had me dig him a giant hole in the sand. I brought a large gardening shovel so I could make an adequate hole. I managed to dig a hole that was about 3 feet wide by 3 feet long and 5.5 feet deep. When my kids were in the hole they were unable to get out. It was very funny listening to my son whine that he needed help getting out of the hole. I told him you got into the hole by yourself; you need to get out of it by yourself. One of the funnier moments with the hole was when my son jumped into it and yelled as he was falling into it. Some guy a few beach blankets away from us saw him jump into the hole and couldn’t believe how he just seemed to disappear. He came over to look into the hole and was duly impressed. Besides playing around in the giant hole, I went boogey boarding with my kids. The surf was reasonable accommodating to ride in and we had a blast. It was a lot of fun to ride the waves in with my daughter right next to me on her board.

Monday was another perfect day. We joined up with another couple and their sons and headed out to Coney Island. We splashed in the surf and built mud castles until late into the afternoon. We purchase from one of the vendors walking the beach sliced Mango on a stick that was served with hot sauce. I never heard of that before, but it was delicious. After the beach it was off to Deno’s Wonder Wheel Park for a ride on the Wonder Wheel and other assorted rides. None of the kids wanted to leave and I couldn’t blame them one little bit. However, it was getting late and alas, school began the next day. We finished the day by eating pizza and ice cream and L&B Spumoni Gardens. That is a famous Bensonhurst Brooklyn establishment where they make the best square pizza you will ever taste.

Part of the plan for going to Coney Island was for me and my friend Chris to take a run on the boardwalk while our wives watched the kids. We didn’t get in that run, so I decided to go out around 8:45pm for a quick run around the park. I didn’t get much past my corner though as I decided a run at this point wasn’t worth it. I really just wanted to extend what was a perfect day; a day that was ruined only by the fact that it had to come to an end.

So I guess you can see why I am unmotivated and suffering from the case of the Mondays. With Labor Day now in the past, it is back to school, back to work, no more vacation or play time. Back to the old grind stone and all manner of things unpleasant. People bitching their Blackberries don’t work, emails not getting through, computers crashing, homework to check, bedtimes to enforce and the ever shortening day. It is just really pissing me off. Why must all good things come to an end? Who made up that rule? Why does it seem that is one rule that could never be broken? ARRRRGHHH, I need to take my mind off of it. I have good things to look forward to. I am doing SOS this weekend. I’ll be on my own, but perhaps that is a good thing. I could concentrate on the race and just worry about having a good time. In a couple of more weeks I have the Staten Island 6 hour run and the Westchester Triathlon. That should be interesting. The 6 hour run is the day before the Westchester Triathlon. It will be interesting to see if I feel up to doing the triathlon and if so, will I finish it. Perhaps I’ll just skip it. Nah, I like my suffering.

Pictures to be posted soon.

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