Whoa, I missed a week

This is a catalytic converter. I think this is where all the noise is coming from on my car. It got a LOT louder last night coming home from running trails and I am finally forced to take it in and have it looked at. I was hoping to go swimming today after work, and maybe I will still be able to, but I'm heading over to the garage to have the exhaust system inspected.

Back to that trail running thing. We had a small group last night in Hinckley to run. We were getting some storms and steady rain earlier in the afternoon which I was under the impression would continue throughout our run. Unfortunately that did not happen. I kept waiting for the rain to start, but it never did. I would think, "now would be a really good time for it to start raining," but again, no such luck. You see, last night after the earlier rain, under the now full trees, with no wind, in FOG, it was 100% humidity and very uncomfortable. The rain would have felt really good. And it would have kept the bugs down too. I could see them and feel them. One even decided to fly into my ear. Right after his buddy decided to land in my eye. Like there was nowhere else for them to fly! We were out for 2 and a half hours and covered somewhere between 13 and 15 miles. It's always hard to tell exactly how far we go in there.

Sunday I was able to get my first brick workout under my belt. I rode from Strongsville to Rocky River and back along the parkway for 40 miles and followed that up with a strong 7 mile run in the heat. I felt good on the bike and since I chose to ride on the roadway instead of the all-purpose trail I was able to stay on the aero bars for most of the ride. My neck and shoulders were stiff and got sore later from that, so I think I'm going to raise my bars back up a spacer or two. The run felt good. Not as good as what the Garmin was showing, but good. I don't know if it was losing satellites and giving me a low pace or what. I certainly did not feel like I was running as fast as it said I was.

We had visitors on Tuesday so I missed the speed work. It sounds like I picked a good one to miss too as they were running 24 X 200's! Yuck! Rob and Becky, two friends of ours from when we lived in Denver were driving through our neck of the woods with their two sons Alan and Gregory, and stopped over to have some Romeo's with us. It was nice to get caught up with what's been happening in the last 9 years since we moved back to Ohio.

Other than that, just some early morning runs before work on a couple days for 4 or 5 miles. It depends on how quickly I can drag myself out of bed. I'm hoping to get another long bike/run brick in this weekend as well as get my behind back into the pool. I'm running out of time to get it together before Wendy's. Just 2 weeks to go.