On Sunday, I did something a little stupid in the name of fun. Well, that's if your idea of fun is not only running yourself into metabolic oblivion, but also beating your legs to a pulp over 13 hard miles after not having run that amount, cumulative, over the previous 5 weeks. Not what I was planning when I agreed to pace my friend through what was supposed to be around a 73min half marathon. One of us was able to achieve said goal; the other was left walking for the final 15minutes. The only good news, and I'm stretching here, is that it wasn't the calf strain that halted my efforts at just short of the 6mi mark, but a distinct lack of fitness. I guess the daily cross-training was woefully inefficient in helping maintain fitness.

It's hard to tell what is actually muscle and what is simply a knotted mass of injured tissue, but the good news is that the calf is no worse than it was before the "race," which is not to say that it's better, because it still has a huge knot that no amount of effort on my end can relax, but just the fact that I was able to run is somewhat concerting, if only in the short term. I'm going to try and run on it again tomorrow on a far more sensible easy 5 miler. I'll take it day-by-day from there. New York is out of the question for 2009, which in retrospect is actually ok because I was kidding myself that I would be ready in time to run as fast as I wanted to, healthy or not. The smarter way to do this is certainly to start out small by racing a half in the Spring, figure out a way to stay healthy over the summer, and have a full 6 months to build the strength necessary to handle Marathon training over a 12week period. It's not what I was hoping to be doing in August 2009, but just being able to run again, at any pace, will make me really content.

In the mean time, I have a mini-vacation to plan, some friends to watch at World Champs, and a perfectly good pool that I am once again become far too well acquainted with.

Living Vicariously

Well, my running may be going downhill faster than the Peloton on the roads of the Tourmalet, but somehow I can still get excited about the sport that often brings nothing but bloody frustration to my life. At least temporarily, I have managed to transfer my enthusiasm for what was going to be the start of my own tough training segment into getting excited about seeing the culmination of my friends' efforts. Things are starting to come together with the planning of the next leg of my adventure through life: Berlin. My biggest fear about this little shindig so far has been accomodation, because when you combine any major event like the World Championships of anything with the word "city," things always get expensive. However, I finally knuckled down and booked what is to be the proverbial roof-over-my-head for the first two nights sandwiching the day of the Womens Marathon. I really need little more than said roof, but I managed to find what looks to be a great hostel right in downtown Berlin. It looks like it's only about 5k from the airport, and maybe double that to the stadium. I had a rough time searching to find the Marathon course route; however, I think I'm safe after giving up that game because I know that it runs through the streets downtown criterium-style. I can't possibly imagine I'll be too far from the action. I'll be sharing a room with no more than 4 other travellers in a modern building with a rooftop pool, internet, and a bunch of other stuff and it only costs 24euros/night. Even with the dollar being worth less than shit to pigs, I'd consider that a darn good find. The fact that accomodation seems far from sold-out makes me feel good about the fact that after Sunday night, I have absolutely no plans because I haven't the slightest idea where I'll be anyway. Hopefully I'll get the chance to hang out with Tera for a day or two, but Berlin looks like such a great city that I really won't be too bent out of shape if she's busy with the family and I end up exploring on my own. Flight to Geneva: Check. Return Flight from Geneva to Berlin: Check. Partial accomodation: Check. Now I just need to make sure that I don't need any Visa's, and I'll be set. Adventure on!

Surely I will have sorted this garbage of an overworked-right-calf-muscle-caused-by-a-short-right-leg out by then and can do some solid training over there too. Next on the Jason-Adventure update agenda: The Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc 166km Endurance Run, which is of course the reason I get to go to Europe in the first place.

The month of July, or the month of le Tour?

Apologies for the lack of enthusiasm on this site as of late. There is a direct correlation between my training and my energy level, hence my absence. Granted, part of the reason is because as far as I'm concerned, the month of July should be been renamed le Tour because nothing else really matters right now does it? In fact, it's probably the only month of the year when I can tolerate being injured. Two years in a row now. Oh well.

Yesterday was the first day in the Pyrenees, and from what I observed, I'll say right now that Lance will win his 8th Tour de France. He didn't win the stage and he wasn't even the first Astana rider to cross the line after Contador broke team orders and flew the coup. He may not even be the physically strongest rider in the race. However, in my mind, if Alberto was trying to stamp his authority as team leader of Astana he should have either picked a better time to do it, or done a better job with it. Armstrong didn't even bat an eyelid as he came by on the climb up to Andorre Arcalis, and only finished 21 seconds back. To anyone who has watched Lance over the years and can read into his non-verbal expressions it was advantage Armstrong. He has learned to play the master politician when it comes to the press, which is in stark contrast to his early days as a bike racer, but he is clearly the team leader, the smartest rider in the peloton, and has more knowledge and experience than everyone else combined. It's the subtleties of this event that makes it so exciting for me, because you cannot rely on the obvious to fully assess how a rider is doing. The strongest rider on the day does not always show his cards and you often have to look carefully to see exactly who is waiting to assert themselves in the most effective manner and this is exactly how I saw Stage 7.

Most followers believe that this race will be decided by the time we reach the final climb up to Mont Ventoux on Stage 20. With the Alps coming so late in the Tour this year, I'm going to call that this is not going to be the case, and rather that Armstrong takes the Yellow Jersey at the 11th hour. The 4 toughest days in the saddle are undoubtedly stages 16-20; 3 tough climbing days with an individual time-trial sandwiched in between. Lance won't win that Time Trial. In fact, I don't think he'll be top 5 which will unprecedented for him. The obvious fairytale ending would be for him to destroy everybody on the climb up to Mont Ventoux after losing time to Contador during stage 18, and I personally think that this is exactly how it's going to play out. Alberto is certainly the stronger rider in terms of physical capability, but he has show some weakness in not being able to rein himself back, and I think this is what is going to cost him the top spot at the 2009 Tour de France. I'm sticking my neck out big-time by making such bold predictions. That's what you do though when you believe the man to be one of the greatest endurance athletes ever to grace this planet.

One more sleep...

Friday :: AM: 5mi easy PM :: Another 5 easy

I think my leg is finally get back to normal. I don't get it; maybe it's just a part of getting old. Fortunately I've been on the bike a bunch, and I was in good shape before this shit started again so I don't think I'll be in too rough shape for pacing Tera in 3 weeks.

On a different note: it's going to be bike racing weekend. My mate Joe is coming out from Colorado and we're going to spend the weekend down at Laguna Seca for some AMA and MotoGP action. The weather should be good, we've got a campsite booked, the bbq is packed and the cooler is filled with beer. It's going to be and awesome time!

You'd think with all this going on I'd have enough to keep me busy. However, the calender now reads July and that can only mean one thing; it's Tour de France time! Lance is back, team Astana arguably has three of the strongest riders in le Tour, and it's going to be nothing short of epic! The only thing good about my stress fracture last year was that it happened on July 1, which meant that I was able to wake up and watch the stages live while doing some rehabbing at the same time. This year, hopefully I won't have that luxury since I should be out on the road putting in the miles. However, being the only one of my friends who pays $10/ month extra for extended cable channels only so that I can have Versus means that I'll have plenty of company in the evening to watch the action on DVR. Every year I get pissed when at least one of the top contenders gets busted for doping and I swear that I won't watch the next year. Forgiveness, eternal optimism or just plain excitement always overrides the disappointment of bad judgement though, and I'm even more stoked than ever for the action to start! With three famous climbs through the Alps starting on Stage 10, and the mountaintop finish at Mont Ventoux on the penultimate day, this is going to a battle right to the second-to-last day, guaranteed.

Stage 1 starts tomorrow in Monaco with the 15km Prologue Time Trial. I'm calling Cancellara for the win, and Levi, Alberto and Lance to all be in the Top 10. It's going to be awesome!