Amish Paradise

Off to the races in Lancaster. You can tell by the guy lined up to my right how high the caliber of this race was... stratospheric!

M: 10-Apr
0. Took a day off. All I recall is that I had a busy day working for Alan in Philly, followed by class. The day evaporated without time to scramble out for a run.
T: 11-Apr
15.5 min warm-up to Haverford, where it was actually quite warm today.
38 min work out of 6 X mile around the grass loop, w. 90 second rest. As I always mention, the rolling loop is slower than the track would be. A solid, strengthening workout with splits of: 5:01, 5:02, 5:01, 5:02, 5:02, 5:04.
14 min cooldown

W:12-Apr
72 min
11.5 miles
Today I ran the Havertown road loop, followed by 1 Haverford loop. Lengthy run, for a human.
R:13-Apr
15 min WU
4 mile tempo on track (5:20, 5:20, 5:15, 5:09); jog 800m/rest 5min, 4X200 (32, 32, 30.9, 30.8). Workout conducted fully in trainers. I only wanted a light workout today, and actually went a little harder than planned. I was forced onto the track, due to a plague of baseball games ravishing the grass loop that I normally workout on. I postponed my workout today long enough to catch the end-of-the-day rain/thunderstorm. On the bright side, there was a pretty rainbow. I was going to go to the end of the rainbow to hunt for leprechauns, but ran out of time. According to Mrs. O'Leary's Facts, leprechauns make most of their gold as shoemakers for other fairies. Makes sense, I guess. 14.5 min cooldown.
F:14-Apr
46:15, 7 miles easy pre-race 2 laps around Haverford. Later, I picked up Stacy, who brilliantly missed her train, and went home for Easter. We watched March of the Penguins on dvd, which was filmed in a stunning fashion. Penguins are tough customers, enduring weeks without food and mind-blowing weather extremes. My penguin friends, I salute you!

S:15-Apr

I took a chance and drove out to Lancaster this morning for a competition and hopefully some cash money.
18 min/2.5 mile warmup
5 miles in 25:34; splits 4:54, 10:02, 14:56, 20:20, 25:34. After 3 miles, no other competitors were in sight, so I relaxed. Confident in the win, I waved to spectators as I trotted home for the easy "W." Then, with less than 100m to go, I saw a blur out of the corner of my eye. Sure enough, some crazy mofo ran me down and almost stole the win. Luckily, I had enough time to kick in for the win. Turns out the lad who got second is no slouch, and was on last year's New Zealand World Cross Team. I breathed a big sigh of relief afterwards, for I won $200, and he, tragically, got nothing. Results (pdf format): Here.

Photo: 1 Lucky Dude

29 min, 3.5 mile cooldown with Stacy, up to Warwick's track. This race had a very "Lancaster" feel to it, with more cows along the course than spectators. I even viewed some Amish. The race was sponsored by Sauder's eggs, and they cooked scrambled eggs for us at the finish.

I immediately spent some of my money on the way home by getting my car's oil changed. My auto's A/C still needs to be addressed, as the beast actually breathes out hot air instead, which could make it a very long summer.
S:16-Apr
94 min. Today's long run was around Warwick County Park. I managed to fall into a stream early on, and put a gash in my shin. Some well-meaning person aligned rocks across the stream. However, he or she left the rocks very unsecure, making crossing even more treacherous. I was pretty tired on this hilly expedition.
Later today, my parents, Stacy, and I went to a small, cozy church for Easter. Cozy might not be quite the right adjective, for the pews were rather hard and cramped. Maybe "quaint." Easter dinner was delish, as expected. It might have been too good, as Stacy went home and immediately bought 5+lbs of sweet potatoes to attempt a duplication. I also snuck up and petted our feral cat, which is a rare accomplishment.

"You got to pray just to make it today"--MC Hammer
Weekly total: approx. 63.5. A good week, though the mileage was stunted by the day off on Monday. 2 ok workouts and a profitable race. A-OK.