Been on vacation for the last week.
Two weekends ago I hosted our local RAAM team (Ride Across America) for a weekend training weekend in the mountains. Good time and I joined in on some of the rides.
Friday eve: 13 miler including a 5.5 mi, 1675 ft climb up Beech mt with grades up to 18.6%. Averaged 8 mph on the climb which took 41 min. Ouch.
Friday nite: Drove the van for some riders doing a nite descent down a 1500 ft, 3.1 mile descent. They hit speeds of 40 mph in the dark and the wind was gusting to 30 mph blowing leaves everywhere. Absolutely a wild time.
Sat morn: 21 mile TT effort. Averaged a weak 16 mph in a ride with 1600 ft of climbing. In this loop I hit all weather extremes including fog, sun, torrential down pours, winds up to 30 mph, and crossing creeks spiling across the roads.
Sat out the afternoon session for a 5 mile run.
Sat eve: 16 miles, 1550 ft climbing, 15 mph ride.
Sat eve: 3 mile run / walk. I was cooked by this time.
Sun morn: 13 mi, 1150 ft climbing, 16 mph
Sun afternoon: 16 mi, 2125 ft climbing, 12 mph avg. Inc a 4.8 mi climb, 1300 ft, 7.7 mph.
The RAAM team departed and a buddy joined me for 3 days of turkey hunting and fishing. no luck on the birds but we slayed some trout and beers. Need all 3 days to recover from the weekend.
Thur ride: Previewed the Grizzly metric course which I'm slated to ride before the Grandfather marathon. Didn't go so well. 63 miles, 6700 ft of climbing, 13.8 mph average. Ride time was 4h34m and I skipped a mile of climbing and 2 miles of descent which would have added another 15 min of ride time. This course is one of the most brutal I've ever riden. Keys climbs: 1675 ft over 5.5 mi, 1150 ft over 6.5 mi, 660 ft over 3.7 mi, 1020 ft over 8.5 mi, 400 ft over 1 mi, and 300 ft over 1.25 mi. There's a 2.25 mi gravel section with 300 ft of climbing and 300 ft of descending and grades up to 12% before the signature climb starts.
Needless to say I was hobbling off the bike and today is the first day I've felt recovered. Would have run today but the dishwasher sprang a leak and i've been chasing a part all around western NC. Sucks prepping for a marathon and not running for 10 days. Will get a more formal training plan together later this week for you guys to pick apart.
Tomorrow night I'm running a 5K for the first time in 8 months. Its the first 5K that I ran on no training. This race is what got me back into this craziness. It will also be my brother's first ever 5K. Really looking forward to how he's going to do tomorrow. 
For me the ideal running temperature is mid 40s.
Gotta love the FL heat. I actually prefer the heat and humidity over that cold feeling you get in your chest when running in the colder temps (but I've been running on a treadmill inside lately).
when I went out and 90 when I came back, luckily the humidity was only 40%. I had plenty of water and I planned to really take it easy today 
could check in there and give it some credence.
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these days.
My #1 goal right now is the Green Bay half marathon on May 15. Current PR is 1:27:52. Hoping to be closer to 1:26-1:27 in Green Bay and then hopefully down into the 1:25s sometime before Lakefront this fall. I've got an 8K race this Saturday in Madison, and while my legs feel pretty good, I'm smart enough to know that they're still not all the way recovered from Boston, so I'll probably just take it easy and save the racing for Green Bay.
