What a week's it's been!

Haven't had the chance to write much, but it's not for having a lack to write about either. April has been an assault on the roads. I have run and/or cross trained every day this month. 20 days and 188 miles later, I have been very blessed to see that my body has been holding up well. I've started running early in the morning this week too. Temperature-wise in New York has been great, and my stride is looking good.

Perhaps the best thing of all is my weight management goal. Yesterday was my daughter's 10th birthday, and I threw a picnic for her at the park. Alas, the 3300 calories were not something good and I gained 1.4 pounds. However, yesterday morning I was down to 153.8 pounds, and I have no doubts in my mind that I will reach my goal of 140s soon. The cross training has been toning me up as well, and I am beginning to see muscle definition around my abs area.

This past Wednesday, I subbed for Bonnie and led our group for the Wednesday night run. I held court on Victory Field's oval track. We did speed work. 2 X 400, 2 x 300, 2 x 200, and 2 x 100 and then repeated. Afterwards, I met Roberto Puento. He came in 2nd place overall in last year's Forest Park Race. I managed to keep pace with him for nearly 3/4s of a lap, but he is a speed demon. I think I was going a about a 5 minute pace. I also met a guy named Antony who runs with Witold Runners. All the runners in that team are 50 and over, and as Bonnie accurately described, I run as fast as their slowest runner. They are pretty remarkable!

Next week is the Alley Pond Challenge 5 mile race. I am really looking forward to that run.

We had our team meeting today, the highlight of which was to discuss about preparations for the Forest Park Classic that we host each year. It's pretty amazing how much preparation has to take place to put on a race, but from what I've seen, we've got a lot of amazing people in our group, and everything's coming together well thus far. I've volunteered to hand out water (with my kids) that weekend, which reminds me that I will need to sign up to do the same with NYRR, if I am to qualify for next year's Marathon.

I am definitely going to skip the Brooklyn Half on the 3rd, to focus on a good finish for the Long Island half on the 4th. I may however, volunteer to be "Dad's taxi" for the other runners that day. The Brooklyn Half is not an out and back run. You start in Coney Island. You finish in Prosepect Park. It's 17 subway stops in between.

Pictures & video of my kids and festivities for my daughter's birthday to follow.

I've broken the 70 mile mark this week. Like I said, my legs are rubber this week. If only they were like this every week....we shall see.

I owe you all a "Journey Across America" entry. After all, with all these extra miles, who knows where I am.....Ohio, perhaps???