Spring training Update

Spring does not seen to be in the air yet, but I've heard it's just around the corner.  There was some great training going on this week by the Brickyard group.

Lee and Tray did their back to back long runs, and were off to NY and NJ respectively for the weekend. Rumor has it Lee was going to jump in weekend race in the Watkins Glen area, so we'll wait for the report of both the race and the training sessions.

On Saturday morning, Rose; Barbara; Dave; and I braved the arctic blast that swept over the Brickyard- 16F at the start!  Dave and Barbara were fresh off the Lake Waramaug Polar Bear Race, where apparently Dave's chip broke and he was officially listed as No Name in the results.  As per our usual, we all ran a variety of distances and are happy to report that on our southbound leg we found the bridge open!  Rose, who took the distance prize this Saturday is off to Florida for three weeks. She is planning to run the Shark's Tooth 10K, I believe in Coral Gables on April 9 so we'll be wishing her good luck. 

My triathlon training had me riding several hours on the bike trainer this morning. Then Mary and I met this afternoon in West Hartford to check out the conditions for the HTC 1/4 Marathon on Saturday.  Due to the above mentioned ride, I showed up with the form of a 100 year old lady...Mary graciously told me I looked more like a 90 year old and dragged me through the MDC. She was wondering if I should enter the wheelchair division at ironman instead. Anyway the MDC course looks good, a little sandy with a few frost heaves but overall not too bad considering the winter we just had.

The highlight of this weekend's training for me occurred at our post run D&D stop.  We were chatting and warming up with some coffee after the run.  There was one other patron there sort of eavesdropping on our conversation.  Then out of the blue he spontenously broke into song, singing "Baby, Baby" ...

Well, hoping to see a bunch of people on Saturday, and hoping the weather starts to turn soon.

And, as a grad x 2, I would be remiss if I did not add Go Huskies!

Weather Report

I know several Brickyarders are planning on running starting @ 8 @ Brickyard this Saturday. I'll most likely be out of town (Linda & I will be celebrating the birthday of a friend who was born on March 13, 1911). The weather report for the next few days is putting a damper on running tomorrow and Friday but, as Tray puts it, "come hell or high water," the 15 / 15 double for Friday / Saturday will happen.

It's best to be safe, think long term so be careful on the roads the next few days and don't overdo.

..WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY IN EFFECT UNTIL 2 PM EDT THURSDAY
  
TONIGHT
SNOW. SNOW ACCUMULATION OF 1 TO 3 INCHES. NEAR STEADY TEMPERATURE IN THE LOWER 30S. NORTHEAST WINDS 5 TO 10 MPH. GUSTS UP TO 25 MPH AFTER MIDNIGHT. CHANCE OF SNOW NEAR 100 PERCENT.
   
THURSDAY
MOSTLY CLOUDY. SNOW LIKELY IN THE MORNING THEN A CHANCE OF RAIN AND SNOW IN THE AFTERNOON. TOTAL SNOW ACCUMULATION OF 2 TO 4 INCHES. HIGHS IN THE UPPER 30S. NORTH WINDS AROUND 10 MPH WITH GUSTS UP TO 25 MPH. CHANCE OF PRECIPITATION 70 PERCENT.
   
THURSDAY NIGHT
MOSTLY CLOUDY IN THE EVENING THEN BECOMING PARTLY CLOUDY. LOWS IN THE MID 20S. NORTHWEST WINDS 5 TO 10 MPH.
 
FRIDAY
MOSTLY SUNNY. HIGHS IN THE UPPER 30S. NORTHWEST WINDS 10 TO 15 MPH WITH GUSTS UP TO 25 MPH.
 
FRIDAY NIGHT
MOSTLY CLEAR. COLD WITH LOWS AROUND 18. NORTHWEST
WINDS 10 TO 15 MPH.
 
SATURDAY
SUNNY AND BRISK. HIGHS IN THE UPPER 30S.
 
SATURDAY NIGHT
MOSTLY CLEAR. COLD WITH LOWS 15 TO 20.

O'Hartford Race Report

Click here or the picture below to see more pictures, etc.

There was a beer race and several kids races before the 5K. Rose ran 27:10, placing first in her division! It was a gorgeous day to run and the beer, corned beef and cabbage tasted great after.

Shamrock Race Idiot Award

Hello team! Hope everyone is enjoying the weekend running/ races. I went to the Bristol Shamrock Race this am, fully hoping to beat last year's 38:40 on a very hilly course. After a nice warmup, I watched the kids finish their race. A ton of adults proceeded to the start, and I followed (that's where the idiot part comes in). The gun went off, and I was cruising along around 7:25 pace. The course seemed different, even more hilly than I remembered. And then to my suprise around 1.8 miles I saw the finish line just up ahead...and it dawned on me that I had just run the 2 mile race instead. I stopped for a few seconds not quite sure what to do, and then just decided to finish anyway. They clocked me in at 14:35.

A half hour later they started the 5 mile race, by that time I was pretty well tightened up but ran anyway--and still managed to pull off a 37:59 by my watch-beating last year's time anyway. Have not seen the official results so I don't know if they counted me in both races or not. But I got my $20 worth today!!!! Good luck to the O'Hartford runners, I'll be looking forward to your race report.

This Weekend!

I wish everybody a great weekend of training, racing and whatever else you've got planned.

To Rose at the O'Hartford 5K, Lani at the Bristol Shamrock 5 miler, Lea at the Savin Rock Half Marathon and Frances in the Atlanta Marathon, have fun and do your very best!

I'll be heading out to Brickyard tomorrow (Saturday) @ 8 to run the North route which has *got* to be clear by now. If you can make it, I'll see you there!

Lee

Trails update and more...

Hi all, thanks for the race report on Collinsville, Lee. Sorry I had to cut out early after the race. Don't know what came over me: I was a bit nauseaous that morning, and took some Pepto, thought it would pass during the race...but it did not. Only vomited mid-race x 1, went home with a killer headache, stomach ache, ect. and spent the rest of the day in bed. Probably picked up a bug at the hospital. I'm about 70% better now. While I was infirmed, my little Sage brought me a kind gift, a picture of which I have posted!!! Guess that New Balance was mighty tasty. The Granby section of the rails to trails is clear, so I suspect that Farmington is good to go too. Hope they

unlock that gate soon. I'll be at the Bristol Shamrock Race Saturday, wearing orange to honor my 50% Scottish heritage. Hope everyone who is at O'Hartford has a great race. See you later- Lani

Collinsville!

Click here to see all the pix!

Tom Buckley directed this Hartford Track Club Winter Series race this morning (as he has for the last 10 years). The Brickyarders had a strong presence with Barb, Ken, Tray, Lee, Rose, Lea and Lani at the start line. The hill from mile 2 to 3 was especially fun. Tray "decided" to add a few hundred yards to the 11+ mile distance at the half way point and *still* turned in an impressive finish. Lea and Rose (who I swear said she would do only 1 loop) were together the whole way and both found an extra gear on the home stretch. Lee did his best not to get overtaken in the last mile. Lani, who along w/ all other Brickyarders save Lea (who is the only one w/ any sense) put in some longish miles yesterday and also got less than a full night's sleep last night, ran well. Ken (official navigator at yesterday's 15 mile Collinsville warm up) did the 11 in flying (Goshen Turkey Trot Orange) colors. Tom Walsh is easily recognized as the guy wearing the dress (just kidding).

Linda and Peter, in between taking pictures, got in about a 40-minute walk during the run.

David Reik's LTT system (Low Tech Timing) did the trick, once again. Complete results, including an historical perspective, have been posted on Cool Running.

BTW, last year there were something like only 12 runners (horrible weather). The year before, over 60 I think. Oldest runner: Jerry Shimoda-Peter, 79. Youngest runner: Jason Beaver, 9, who was way in front of me at about mile 4 and his Dad was suggesting he could do the loop one more time; he wisely decided to do the 5.5 extremely well.

So .. well done, Brickyarders. Well done, Tom.

Lee Bradley

Back to Brick!

OK Winter. We officially pronounce you Over!

Tray's Brickyard report ...

"Just spoke with the grounds manager, who said he has walked on the Farmington trail and there are a few patches of snow (not deep). He expects it to be gone once this rain passes through. The rain is supposed to end Fri. night."

In celebration, we return to Brickyard this Saturday @ 8 AM for our long runs. Anything from 12 to 20 sounds good to me. We hope all those who are running Collinsville 5.5 or 11 on Sunday and / or preparing for 5K / 5 mile / 1/4 marathon / 13.1 / 26.2 / 50K / 50 mile / 140.6 (yikes!) will take this opportunity to usher in the new 2011 racing season at our very own Brickyard Road!

Lee

Caitleks

Lee interesting workout, I'll have to give this one a try. I am wondering if I could develop a swim or bike version of this too!
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Caitlek Running

Went to the track this morning and revived my interest in "Caitlek Running."

http://primepuzzle.com/nihilator/tnr1.html

WPLR New Haven Shamrock 5k race report

Don't ask me how to write that in Latin, yo no se!

My objective  at today's event was to simply show up and bring a chip across the line for HTC.
I had my camera but took no photographs due to the rain, so let me paint a picture:

Last week's IM training had me doing anaerobic threshold testing in all three sports, topped off by a 3.5 hr. bike ride through Western Mass yesterday afternoon, then a zone one transition run afterwards.  Needless to say, my legs were quite dead when I woke up this am. I met Katy Scotti, Dea Collins, and Mike in  Wethersfield (at 7:10 am!),  we drove down together and met Kathy Lundin and Nancy Loughlin at Toad's Place.  By then the rain had started, everyone was seeking shelter inside and it was a real mob scene.  We got off just a little after 9am, and  Kathy Lundin fresh off the indoor master's track championship (which she won) killed it. I was hanging on for dear life about a minute behind her at about 22:12ish. Dea was across the line at about 26 minutes, and Kathy somewhere behind her.  I have no idea what Nancy and Mike did. The Kathy-ies both took home age division awards, as did Bob Dacey for the men.  I have no idea where the results are posted, and probably will not have time to look this week. 

Just after we all finished the real downpours started and we were outta there. 

All in all, it's an interesting experience to run with the team. I know Lee already runs for Hi-Tek, and Dave for HTC.  If anyone else is interested, it looks like HTC could use some more bodies (sorry Lee and Hi-Tek). Just go to the USATF site, become a member, then let someone on the team know so your race results are recorded, and show up for the grand prix series races listed in the newsletter. 

Hope everyone has a good week.

PS return to DST is 7 days away, and the vernal equinox is in 14 days! Yay spring is almost here.

Latin lesson

Quick, what does this mean?

Brickyardia omnis in partes tres divisa est.

Extra credit: What is this a take off of?

Lea and Rose did 11, choosing (wisely) to avoid the scenic Berlin Turnpike crossing that Lee's route included. They stuck "close to home." Lea's going to run the Hartford full in the Fall! Go Lea! May your training go well. Go at your own pace, your own distances and enjoy the trip.

Lee and Tracy followed the Highcrest to Newington and back route, taking a full 18 minutes longer doing roughly the same distance as the Peoples Forest 17.3452543345 miler a month and a half ago. We blew a turn off Thornbush which added an extra mile to the run.

Mary and Lani ran in scenic Reservoir 3, site of the upcoming 1/4 marathon.

So, all Brickyarders were divided in three parts this weekend.

We hope all is well with all Brickyarders and that this early phase of 2011 is a promising one.

Collinsville, Shamrock, O'Hartford. Comin' up.

PS

The votes are in: Lee's Highcrest to Newington and back course got a 1 on a scale from 0 to 3, mostly due to the trafficy stretch from Highcrest to Newington Center. We encourage members to design scenic, safe courses that have split off points for those that want to go short, medium and long. Rose has about a million routes in mind in the Highcrest area. How 'bout a Century Hills course that has a split off at 8, at 12 and at 18?

Of course if the snow would melt, we could return to home base in Farmington. That would be nice.

Weekend run

Hi all,
Hope everyone is having a great week. I am planning a shorter run, alternative location as my personal ultra distance training plan is a bit different. If anyone wants to run with me, let me know. Have fun, Lani
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Branching Out ...

Here's a proposed 18 mile run for those Brickyarders that want to go this distance this Saturday. It starts at Highcrest Elementary School, goes to Newington, does about a 5 mile loop in Newington (including the famous Newington 'Nihilator) and then heads back to Wetherfield.

Happy March

Hi everyone! Happy March. Spring is under three weeks away! The team needed another warm body for the WPLR New Haven 5k, so I'm going to head down there this Sunday. If anyone wants a ride, call me. Also planning on running the Winter Series Collinsville 11 miler, which runs right past the neighborhood where I grew up and started running in the 80's! The following Saturday is the Bristol Shamrock run, which I enjoy much more than the O'Hartford 5k, so hope to see some of you at these events. Rose has asked me about the Iron Horse Half in June. I would love to run this, however I am watching my niece and yet to be born little brother or sister that weekend while my brother and sister in law are in a wedding in RI. I think the wedding is on Saturday, but I should know more details soon. Enjoy the increased daylight and better weather- Lani
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