Sunday, 5/5/2013 to Saturday, 5/11/2013 - Medved Madness 15 Mile Trail run

I ran 2 times this week, 21.9 miles
I biked 1 time this week, 13.7 miles

Sunday, 5/5/2013: 16.5 miles, 2:52:40, 10:28 pace, 57F, sunny, calm, a beautiful morning!

Christine was feeling poorly so I kissed her goodbye and headed down solo to Hopkins Point at Mendon Ponds Park for the Medved Madness 15 mile Trail run. I got there about 45 minutes before the 8AM start. I didn't go out for a warmup run. I have not had much mojo lately ... I was hoping to find it at this race.



I have run this race in 2009, 2010 and 2012 with a PR in 2010 of 2:28:32. It's basically a three loop race with each loop of 5 miles or so denoted by a different color flag: red, pink and blue. I started out a bit strong and was soon passed by runners that I never saw again. Soon I settled into a groove and just took what the course gave me. I tiptoed straight through the mud so my trail shoes wouldn't get sucked off. I splashed through the pond at the end of Loop 1 and was passed by 5 runners.

These 5 runners passed me like I was standing still!

I took an apple Gel before I headed out for Loop 2, Loop 1 time was 44:03. Loop 2 took us out of long grassy stretches with lots of open field. I took a chocolate Gel before I headed out for Loop 3, Loop 2 time was 32:52. I was slowing down but I managed a good pace ... running the flats and downs. Then after 13.5 miles or so ... I missed a turn on a downhill. So ... instead of just backtracking until I saw a blue flag I walked in circles for 2(!) miles before another guy and I found the missed turn and proceeded onward. By this time, I was hungry and almost out of water ... not good. I just kept on going ... forward until I got done, Loop 3 was 1:39:54. I went straight to the scrumptious catered lunch and soon felt human again.

Personally I think I would have PRed if I can stayed on course. I was running OK. But hey ... for the 16.5 mile race I placed first! Though everyone else had 14.2 or 14.3! I placed 76th out of 89, total time of 2:56:49, link here. Still, it was a beautiful morning, I found my running mojo and I was happy!

I played with my new iPhone while I recovered back at the apartment from Medved Madness. I finally figured out how to transfer my contacts from my personal Casio Commando android. Here is the geeky explanation ... strap in! On my Casio Commando I exported my contacts to my SD card and then emailed them to my Yahoo! account. I extracted the vcf file onto my laptop. I imported the vcf file into my gmail account. Then I set up a OpenDAV account on my iPhone. Voila! It sounds easy ... but it involved many Google searches, some blind alleys and ways that don't work anymore. My darling wife, Christine, suggested more than once that I should just take my phones to Verizon and have them transfer the contacts. But ... what fun would that have been? Success was sweet! Hopefully I can transfer the pictures from the old phone easier.

Monday, 5/6/2013: 13.7 miles on the bike, 1:10:19, 11.7 mph, 70F, sunny, calm.

Garmin Connect Activity for Both Banks of the Genesee River

I needed to exercise and chose biking. So I headed out on one of my favorite run routes. I headed up the east side of the Genesee River to O'Rorke Bridge, crossed over and headed back down the west side to the pedestrain bridge. I passed Tom and Amy Butler on the Genesee River trail and stopped to talk with them. They showed me a swan that was nesting about 30 feet away from the walkway. I did learn that your butt can get sore riding and that I should dress a bit warmer when riding my bike. But it was a sweet ride!

Tuesday, 5/7/2013: 5.4 miles, 45:31, 8:46 pace, 73F, sunny, calm.

Garmin Connect for Speedwork down at Cobbs Hill

I needed to do speedwork so I headed down to Cobbs Hill Park to run the reservoir. I parked at the Riley Lodge and ran a bit of a warmup. Then I set out on 0.4 mile repeats. I ran a bit hard at what I thought was slow but really turned out to be around 6:20 to 6:40 pace for 4 of them. I ran the last run at 7:00 pace. I really felt like I was having trouble holding the pace. I did a cooldown run and headed home. Maybe riding my bike the night before and a 16.5 mile run the day before that dogged me more than I realized.

Wednesday, 5/8/2013 through Saturday, 5/11/2013: Rest days

Coulda and shoulda exercised ... moving on. I thought I had found my exercise mojo ... just as quickly it disappeared.