Saturday, August 25, 2007

Scooped!

It was a great weekend for a trip to PEI and I had plans and thoughts for a great post about all the fun things we did but before I could say "Cody!", I was scooped by Stephanie! Well, not really but she did steal all the best pictures, though I am partial to the family group shot we took. The silly look on my face was due to the cat snake that you can barely see in my hand after it was flung out to make the cat look at the camera!Another silly cat photo, drinking out of the flower vase.

The weekend was busy and fun with a wonderful dinner and ceremony as Steph was inducted as a new vet school student. They also impressed upon us how there will be difficulties and hard work with very stressed out students, but it will all flash by in no time at all. It's hard to imagine 2011 when she graduates as Dr. Power as being just around the corner.

Did I mention that Charlottetown is home of the PEI Marathon, and now tentatively scheduled as the 3 Blind Moose Strikes Back event for 2008? This also turned out to be a great opportunity to explore the territory and some of the race route. On Sunday it was 20 miles as an out and back run from near the university which is about 1 mile from the finish line. The run started early for me (around 7am) on another humid but at least overcast to keep the direct sun away. The 1st 5 miles were on the Confederation Trail before crossing Hwy 15 and picking out the marathon route on the way out of town. I went for about 5 miles, reaching Sufolk before turning and heading for home. This part of the course is great terrain on a nice flat wide trail with fine crushed rock base. There are lots of farmland and scenic views all along and I enjoyed the quiet solitude this morning with very few runners, walkers or bikers to be seen. Coming out to the Route 15 again, this time I followed the 'thon route which goes the rest of the way to the finish along the open highway. I'm glad to have tried this because there are a number of hills and open areas where a prevailing westerly wind would be of concern as the miles pile up. Nothing too serious but after 15+ miles my legs and body weren't happy with the ups at this point. If you were feeling good, I'm sure you could cruise along, but ... when not up to par, the last miles will drag. Anyhow, finished the 20 in 2:43 and I was beat up pretty good and very thirsty despite carrying a bunch of gatorade.

Other running last week included 6 runs with a total of 62 miles for the week ending on Sat. Mostly just 1 hr runs each day and was unable to put any real hard workout's together except for a few faster repeat miles during a longer 12 miler on Friday. That's about all I've got to say about the so-called training for now. Getting the miles in, sort of and sort of training but not really and it's now 7 weeks and counting... There's still time to put it back together, I hope.

Have a nice week!

6 comments:

Andrew said...

Hey, great that you got out to the PEI course. I heard that wind is sometimes an issue on this race. We'll see...

Thomas said...

If it takes 10 tries to get Boston right, does that mean we can expect a stellar performance from you in 2009?

UMaine Cooperative Extension said...

Looks like the first 10k of PEI is a warm-up for the last 32k of hills. Looking forward to it!

I think I may need that walker for MDI.

DawnB said...

Georgous photo Mike.2011 that's what I say!!! but I know that they will fly by!!!

I wish your daughter the best!!!

Dubs said...

"Mostly just 1 hr runs each day and was unable to put any real hard workout's together"

Ugh - you impress me.

Nice looking family! Glad you all had a nice time. The years will fly by - amazing, isn't it?!

Dawn - Pink Chick Tris said...

Great photos Mike. PEI is beautiful. Reading your blog always makes me miss the East Coast.