Back from Toronto

i had to get to toronto. pronto!

i stood up in my good friend's wedding on sunday evening in toronto. it was my first ever jewish wedding with grabbing chairs with people in them and lifting them into the air.

i was raised strict atheist so i dont know much about religions ( any of them ) but have been to about 10 weddings ( including a few of my own ) in my life. and i would have to say this was the most fun i have ever had in a wedding. tons of dancing in a circle and yelling stuff in hebrew and my favorite the chair toss thingy.

the resa and i also brought our bikes along in case we wanted to do some running and biking. she ordered her new bike a few days ago and is waiting on that to show up too. the week after the "harder than an ironman" weekend had us going pretty light on wed-thur and friday. on saturday in toronto we ran about 8 miles in a park and rode about 30 and ran another 8 on sunday.

the sunday run was a bit of grinder for me. i had a lot on my mind over the last few months. but finally we are into a set of about 90 days that has us doing nothing but working out and just enjoying the summer (hopefully!)

but, the resa and i both feel we are probably ready for the event, but not by a lot. i would give us about an 80% chance of finishing right now. would like to get that bumped another 10%. obviously things like bike failures are always going to be there.

so, anyway we are about 4 miles into our run after riding about 20 miles. and i am pretty tired. just feeling like i an struggling a bit. the resa notices that i am not really into it and asks whats up... and i dont really have an answer for her. just kinda plodded on.

we run down the beach on the west side of toronto. over the white bridge and on towards the dinosaurs. not easy running as there are ( as everywhere ) fat people screaming at their children in the middle of the path with their strollers sideways to block as much traffic as they possibly can. well, we run in front of some outside diner and we are just plodding along in the 90 degree heat in the middle of the day. after the diner the path heads inland a bit and splits also to a sandy path heading to the beach.

we come up to the split and resa says, if the beach one looks like sand dunes then go left on the cement. so we run up there and she is on my right side towards the water. when we get to the junction it looks sandy to me but not too bad. so i go straight.

not the resa.

we slam into each other and stop. at first we are both WTF about it but after a few seconds we start heading back to the locked up bikes. she says lets increase the pace. and i am thinking well, its only a few miles back so i guess i can. ( and i realize now that has been my running thinking for a few months now. ) i am all ready to go biking, its my favorite - i look forward to the long weekend rides far more than anything else. and i have come to dread the runs. short runs, long runs... all runs have been a pain lately. just tiring mentally maybe.

so we turn back to the bikes and she says lets go faster. not that we were going fast, about a 6 on the 10 scale maybe. but my first thought was "why? why do we have to go faster? then i guess we can." and then my second thought was "why do i always dread being tired on the run?" and i think now it's because it's not biking. nothing wrong with running - i shouldn't dis-like it. so we start running back. and we ramp up the pace quite a lot. and... after the easy week it is fun! we are running along - not sure how fast my watch died the night before after not paying attention. but i would guess under 10. about 10:30 is as fast as we ever go.

running along the boardwalk dodging everything and moving quick. and a guy starts running as we go by. he runs right behind us. either using us as blockers or pacers. i sneak a look back to see if the guy is trying to pass us but he is just sitting there. so now three of us are running along pretty happily quick. and a mile or so goes by. then we start another and are almost to the bikes and i am feeling lighter on my feet than in 3 months.

now there is rasping gasping breathing behind us. and it gets worse and worse and then suddenly stops. i turn around to see what happened and the guy is holding his knees at the side of the road and staring at us.

obviously he wasnt a runner. or rather he was no longer running anyway.

ok. going back through 46 years of life. my first three friends were John, Jim and Tom. we did everything together. the four of us played all the sports we could. i guess we were at age 8 on our way to being in the jock crowd. but when we ran they were always faster than me. i would finish 4th of 4 every time. and i quickly realized that i was going to have to be a skill guy, not a speed guy. for many years we still played sports. they were fast, i was good. in the end i was the slow guy that hit the home runs. or threw the football. then i moved away for highschool and the 4 of us never got together again as a group.

john was the fastest of the 4, he turned into a pretty good baseball player. tom ran the 100meter dash for a college scholarship. jim ran cross country in a big ten school also for a scholarship.

i was slow, but now i think way above average. but i never won a race. 30 years go by and i play with younger people when i play sports and they are usually fast. i was still good with the skills but as always i didnt win any races.

well, i didnt win anything sunday, but it was the first time in my memory that i ran a short fast run and beat someone. lol.


also on saturday there was a criterion bike race held in the downtown. they closed a few miles of streets in a circle and had races all day long. we watched about an hour of it. guys sprinting and of course people getting dropped. if you are in danger of getting lapped they pull you out of the race and the last desperate riders are always getting picked off. on the last lap of one race there were about 10 guys in a big wreck. one walked his bike over to where we were and sat on the curb moping with a lot of blood coming off the road rash. med guys came and patched him up. but he leaned his high end bike next to us, the glue on wheels were flat, the high end rear de-railer was all mangled. spokes were bent and the chain was off.

"Dude, your bike is fucked up." suggested the resa.

"Fuckin guys need to learn to fuckin ride a bike." he hinted.

the bike was pretty messed up, i am guessing the wreck cost him $500.

we rode home to the hotel just in time for me to make the wedding. at a red light we stopped, a convertible pulled up next to us with the radio on loud: "Fly by night, good bye my dear, my ship is a coming and i just cant preeeeteend..."

The Resa smiled next to me. "Of course it's Rush, this is Toronto."



Scores!

Mentally: 9 - feeling like we are into the fun part, cant wait to get exhausted. :-) bump up just from the last 3 miles of the run sunday.

Physically: 10 - totally recovered. no injuries, not sick. got a new book Paleo Diet, feel rested and ready.

Workouts: 7 - lame stuff since the ironman. but we needed it i think.