I guess I had too much fun this past weekend because running yesterday was pretty humbling.  For the first time in a while I had to take two walking breaks before the finish.  My body just wasn’t in for it, breathing sucked, heartrate was pegged, and my legs were slack.  I was surprised at the end to hear the Lance Armstrong announcement that I had recorded my best mile on the Nike+ system.  Turns out I did 7:50 on one of them but my overall average was around nine minutes.  It could’ve been my Armadillo Grill burrito too, but that would be silly wouldn’t it?

Today I have to put in two hours on the bike which I’ll probably do on the trainer.  Works a bit backed up so the time it would take to drive out to open roads in Cary needs to be put in on the computer.  Even though I can setup in front of the TV riding the trainer for that long is a freaking nightmare.  Its just hard to put in that sustained constant effort with no breaks.  In the long run I know its a great training tool but at least on the road there’s breaks when going downhill and what not.

I did make it down to the criterium on Friday and had a pretty good time.  We got there in time to catch the very end of the women’s race which had already garnered a pretty good sized crowd.  We ducked into a good cajun place on Fayetteville street to get some food before the men’s race started up.  By the time we were served and got back to the fences the men had been going for a few laps but we were able to see over 2/3 of the race.  There weren’t many big teams there, Im guessing due to a smaller purse.  The most recognizable name was Jittery Joes which some may remember as being in the Tour of Georgia and heavily covered by the media during Lance Armstrong’s one appearance there.

I didn’t hear many primes called during the race but they were going pretty fast the whole race.  The speed ‘comparable to Austin but close, another factor of Austin having the bigger cycling teams.   There were major gaps throughout the race but everyone tightened up at the end for a sprint finish.  There was a good leadout and a slingshot for the winner by his team, which sadly I can’t remember at the moment.

It was a good night to be outside and everyone I talked too, plus the few people I got to come along, had a fun night.  It made me want to get out on my bike and want to buy a new one even more.  If only my air conditioning had lasted another season.

Yep, the site is back up and still going strong.  My apologies if you stopped by today to be greeted by blank pages, error messages, warnings, etc., etc.  For my work, web consulting, Im moving our server from our old hosting company to a new one which entails getting the new server setup the same as the old one.  Needless to say there are tons of issues to run into and little tweaks to perform.  Since we cant do this with our revenue generating sites Im using my few sites as the guinea pigs to work out the kinks.  Today there were plenty of kinks to go around but eventually they were all ironed out, hence the site being back up and available.

So I apologize for any inconvenience, actually ill be selfish and say Im glad if you noticed cause it means you’re reading.  LAFRider is moved and rolling again and wont be going under any more maintenance.  Thanks for understanding.

This Friday is the annual Raleigh Downtown Criterium, also known as a crit.  A crit is basically an all out race on a short circular course of a several city blocks usually about a kilometer in length.    If you’ve never gotten a chance to attend one you really should try to find one in your area.  You’ll be amazed at how fast these cyclists can get up to and maintain.  Id guess that they run over 30 mph the entire length if not faster.  The past two years Ive been out to Austin for the Livestrong Challenge there has been a professional criterium downtown which Ron and I have made sure to attend.  Just standing on the sidewalk you get blasted with a gust of air generated by the bikers with cowbells going off all around you from the fans and the clicks of gears changing on the course.

The Raleigh Downtown Criterium will have two women’s races and two men’s races followed by a men’s professional race.  Its the pros that really ramp up the speed but even the amateurs can crank out excessive bursts.  Another thing to watch for is the prime, which is basically a race within the race.  Every once in a while a prime will be called out to the riders and whomever wins that lap gets a special pre-determine prize.  Thats the one that you’ll see those not in it to win the overall  burn themselves out on in the hopes of winning.

So if you’re in Raleigh this weekend head downtown Friday around six and expect some fun.  If you’re not in Raleigh keep and eye out for a criterium and attend, you won’t regret it.

Friday I headed out to do my 50 minute hill running session.  Because my normal route of four miles would have left me finishing between 30 and 35 minutes I needed to work out a new route to pad the extra time.  A few weeks ago my friend Charlie told me about taking a wrong turn during his run onto a street named Fairview and how it had some of the toughest hills he had ever run on.  Now it wasnt that I entirely didnt believe him but his definition of hills is a little harsher than mine.  So I decided to take a right when I got to Fairview and see what it was like.

He had nailed the description as the road started on a steep long downhill to a brief valley followed by a steep sharp incline.  Since I was doing a loop I’d hit both hills on the road.  For most of the incline I was running on my toes as I headed up because it was so steep.  By the time I got back onto my normal route after the Fairview extension I felt like I had just been put through the ringer.  It was by far the hardest set of hills I had ever run on and in the end it was pretty fun.  It was nice to mix things up and though the hills were tough and led to still being sore days later, they were fun to take on.  Overall I ended up putting in 5.77 miles in 50 minutes which wasnt a good average but considering the circumstances I was pretty happy with it.