Oops, time to catch up!

it has been a busy few days, awesome busy though!

Friday was a great day for weather up here in the far north, not the 23 degress that they promised, but sunny, not a lot of wind.  Yes, you guesses, that equals one heck of a good scene for a bike ride!  SO that I did.  Spent a great mid day burning rubber covering 80km at a 32-33km/h speed with a <130 average heart  rate.  We did a good section of hills over the course of the ride to get the on the road hills into my legs!  One of the satisfying parts of my ride is having found my old cycling form again.  A couple of years back when I was riding all the time, I was able to kill the hills and still have the gas at the top to roll away with comfort.  Last season when I started on this journey,  tried to do the same thing, only to have the cycling gods kick my in the butt and tell me to get back on my saddle and go to work for a while.  So, like an obedient little man, I guess I  must have listened because I kicked the pants off the couple of hills that were on our ride!  The short steep one and the long one and all their little friends in the middle were sheer entertainment!  As you can sense, I am happy as could be about this.  The ride once again convinced me that the work to date is working! Friday was also a day that I slacked off a bit!  Yeah, instead of going to the gym I met up with an old pal.  Just as I was getting in the car, a friend that I have not seen in a couple of years called me, so I detoured and went to the pub to catch up.  I did not feel bad about it as I have been going for a few days now and a 'rest' is not going to kill me.  It was great catching up with him and sharing stories of what we have been up to!
Saturday this weekend is to have been 'rest' day.  Yep, a true day with no workouts and nothing to do.  So, I got out of the house at 7AM to join my ROGA group for the Saturday run.  It was a short and slow run so I will count it as a break.  Mind you I am convinced the extra 3 short slow runs a week that I am doing I attribute to where I am currently am physically.  I dont think without those runs I would have smiled through Boston or Around the Bay.  Being done the run meant that the rest of the day was one to catch up.  So that I did.  I finally got my tri -bike off the trainer an ready for the road.  I had to put on my bottle cages, change the skewers and do some general maintenance.  As well it was time to hook up my cadence monitor for my Garmin.  I am looking forward to being able to operate on one platform rather than Polar on bike and Garmin on run.  I cant wait to get out for a ride this week and get on the road in an aero position!  One of the coolest things with a weekend with a rest day, was the opportunity to get a nap in during the day!  IT ROCKED!
Saturday night was a pre race dinner with  a 10k road race in the AM.  A good pals don agreed he would feed us a pasta dinner which I happily accepted.  It was a great dinner and done at a reasonable hour to get some rest for an early race start.
Sunday AM was the Down the Hill 10k!  It is a great race which is mostly down hill with 15000 runners.  As I said a little earlier my races this season are more to get out in the adrenaline environment than to go fast.  But, the day worked out alright for me.  My finish time for the run was a 46m40s.  I was ecstatic with that.  That represents a pace of 4:41 which I am very pleased with at this point.  I have just started speed work, I had a lot of fuel in the tank.  Overall my running is getting stronger, I have a long way to go however time will give me the chance to get there!  Trish also ran an awesome run, with a 1:04 which is a huge improvement on her pace from normal.  She was very happy with what she accomplished.  I am finishing my Sunday with another long run with some of the people that are art of my ROGA clinic in order to get them  the miles they should be doing.
Overall it has been a great weekend with a lot accomplished.  I am looking forward to continuing the chaOS!
Bryan from http://trainingpayne/blogpsot.com has a great IMSG race this weekend.  Check out his race report and you will want to go and race it!  Congratulations Bryan, way to keep inspiring the IM wannabes!