<p>Humidity returned to SW Florida today. Really struggled to get the 6 miles in, but I did it. Explored around some neighborhoods and stayed mainly in shade (it was 7:30am anyway). Legs are tired from all the beach walking, too.</p>
<p>Beach walking and shelling - more exhausting than a half marathon for you and a metric century for me! Must have something to do with muscle specificity :). </p>
<p>Just came back from a mid morning windy 50 miler. My legs were weary climbing and riding into the wind. Must not have fully recovered from Thursday’s hammerfest. Not recovering from max efforts as quickly as I used to I guess is the one nod I have to give to hitting 60 ;).</p>
<p>Michael- I was thinking about you. My son hit a pothole last night in Phlia probably not too far from downtown. He crashed and scraped up his new tri bike and the right side of his leg. I’m really down on biking- especially for him. I think he’s reckless and I don’t think Philadelphia is safe for biking. I wish no one in my family touched a bicycle. I honestly believe my son will be killed or seriously injured on that bike. Y’all know me well enough to know I’m not prone to hysterics- but I’m there now! Of course he’s more worried about the bike than he is himself! </p>
<p>^^Ouch. Sorry to hear that! Those damn bikes!!! </p>
<p>Rule of 7 prevails again. Gotta get the Mio Link. 7 running watch-related items. 2 garmin watches 2 heart straps 2 stop watches. The mio makes 7.</p>
<p>12 400s on the track. Wind felt like it was blowing me backwards. Against the wind.</p>
<p>MOWC, I’m sorry to hear about you son’s mishap and hope he is not too badly banged up. The potholes after this winter have been particularly bad. For what it’s worth, Philadelphia and its environs are pretty safe for riders and bike friendly. There are lots of good, safe routes from center city out to the burbs and countryside. If for some reason your son is not familiar with them, there are many good routes from the center city area posted on the website go Bicycle Club of Philadelphia. I’m finding that with all the potholes, on many roads I need to take and control my lane rather than ride to the right. This is not only lawful under the PA Motor Vehicle Code, but is actually safer than riding by the edge or the fog line. Cadence Bike Shop in Manyunk and Break Away Bikes at 19th and Chestnut both have training rides geared towards racers. Has your son looked into doing rides with them? There is also an effective cycling course taught by a guy named Ed Hein who is and accomplished racer and roadie and a certified LAB instructor that’s all about how to ride safely on roads shared with cars. Would your son consider taking a such a course? Most of the really good racers I know have taken it and feel they have picked up valuable skills and knowledge to help them remain safe on the road. </p>
<p>Well, he is sponsored by Breakaway and has ridden with them, although since he switched coaches there is some tension. He has ridden all the routes and has crashed on the path (slow rider moved over suddenly) been hit (no bad damage) by a car in Manayunk and stranded 40 miles out in NJ. That was his fault. I feel better when he rides in the Poconos, but, to be honest, I think anything involving cars and bikes sharing pavement is just terrifying. His teammate at Breakaway ( she was at Ironman with us and just ran 2:56 at Boston (not his gf) separated her shoulder and had other bad injuries getting tangled up on a Breakaway ride. </p>
<p>I wish I could offer more useful suggestions. I can ask my racer friends on the Sturdy Girls Team if they have any ideas. Unfortunately, their team training rides are restricted to team members and no matter how accomplished your son is, I don’t think he’ll meet an essential criteria :).</p>
<p>BTW, the Schukyll River Trail is horrible for training. It is for recreational riding only because of its multi-use nature. An area that is great for training is Route 29 in Nj along the Delaware River from Washington’s Crossing Park up to Frenchtown. 8-10 ft wide improved shoulders and lots of back country roads off to the side for hill training.</p>
<p>Thanks. Unfortunately, he takes part if the trail to clear town - usually. Part of it is that he’s just always trying to go fast.</p>
<p>I took two month-long sessions of the Motorcycle Safety Foundation riders course when I got my motorcycle license. Best defensive driving course in the United States, both for dealing with traffic (it doesn’t matter if it’s the other drivers fault when you get hit on a two-wheeler, because YOU pay the price…) and going out and doing emergency swerving, braking, skidding practice through cones with an instructor. When, I taught my daughter to drive a car, I used much of the same stuff with her.</p>
<p>Anyway, I feel like a sitting duck on a bicycle. On a motorcycle, I would always do stuff like come to stop a bit back from the car in front at a traffic light, with my hand on the accelerator, front wheel cranked to the side, ready to gun it up on the sidewalk, if a car came screeching at me from behind with the brakes locked up. That’s how defensive I was – in every moment of every ride, you want to be thinking about an escape route. What if that car turns left in front of me? And so forth. The reason I feel so vulnerable on a bicycle is that, with no instant acceleration, most of the options are taken away. Can you accelerate a bicycle from a dead stop up onto the sidewalk or into the ditch in time to escape?</p>
<p>The MSF course made me constantly see the many ways any given car can try to kill me. I don’t much like bicycling or running/walking in traffic.</p>
<p>This is as much exercise as I will get tomorrow, LOL. A friend of mine has a home on the running route of a local triathlon. Each year, she hosts mimosas, beads and music and lawn chairs to friends who want to come out and cheer on the athletes! It starts at 8am, I haven’t had a drink that early since I can’t remember.</p>
<p>IDad, once upon a time I was an avid motorcycle rider as I alluded to in an earlier post so I understand what you mean. There is a very distinct skill set involved in riding a motorcycle safely in traffic.</p>
<p>The same thing goes for bicycling on roads that have vehicular traffic. Understanding the dynamics of lane positioning, how to maintain a single or double pace line in traffic, understanding the types and causes of accidents involving cars and bicycles and understanding how to act so as to command the same presence as a car and be predictable are distinctly different skill sets from what it takes to be a successful bike racer competing in a pack or a peloton. When I did my “push to the limits” ride last Thursday, the guys I was riding with were extremely strong, fast riders. They also were horrible at the skill sets involved in riding in a group on roads with cars. They surged from the rear to the front, pulled ahead off the front, didn’t hold their lines consistently, didn’t stay in the intended lane of travel when on roads with right turn lanes as we were proceeding straight, rode 3 abreast, didn’t position themselves correctly in our lane of travel. They acted like the ride was a sprint from start to finish on a closed course. Great workout, crappy group ride.</p>
<p>There’s a lot of controversy over the old notion of bikes staying to the right at the edge of the lane. Based on traffic pattern and accident studies, and consistent with resultant changes in the law, it is generally much safer to ride 3-4 feet into the lane from the right edge so as to maintain visibility to cars from all directions and discourage drivers from attempting to squeeze by in a narrow lane and clipping you with a mirror or when you are at the right edge and have to swerve left to avoid a road obstruction or defect. My general rule is to ride like I’m a car, pulling over towards the right to allow cars to pass only when the lane is wide enough to do so safely or when there is a big wide, clean improved shoulder. Common sense and courtesy to faster moving vehicles is important but very often what is really safer is counter intuitive and there are many times that rider safety trumps notions of courtesy.</p>
<p>There are rider safety courses designed to reach these skills and emergency bike control maneuvering but unfortunately too few bicyclists take the time to avail themselves of them and instead either pass on or have passed on to them approaches that are contrary to principles of safe and effective cycling.</p>
<p>Gotta love those late night succumbings. My summer workout plan shall consist of P90X and its knockoffs. Time to see if this thing really works.</p>
<p>I think there will be a lot of late night succumbings with P90X! 
Or, early morning. Or whenever you do the workouts…</p>
<p>My whole sleeping plan has been so messed up from this semester and finals week. Hopefully, this summer will get me back on track of heating healthy and a routine workout. This spontaneous life has worn this chick out!</p>
<p>This is as much exercise as I will get tomorrow, LOL. A friend of mine has a home on the running route of a local triathlon. Each year, she hosts mimosas, beads and music and lawn chairs to friends who want to come out and cheer on the athletes! It starts at 8am, I haven’t had a drink that early since I can’t remember."</p>
<p>Being on the other side, I really appreciate you guys doing this! As far as the early drink - it is just a mimosa (or two or seven, but who’s counting? 
)</p>
<p>Edited because I thought BB was drinking the mimosas. Sounds like fun ECmotherx2!</p>
<p>4 mile trail run. Couldn’t get my garmin to work until half way through. I’m positive it was user error. </p>
<p>MOWC, I know how you feel. My BIL the crazy triathlete has crashed his bike it seems like a lot. The obsession seems to rule over safety. It’s very frightening to me. His wife doesn’t seem too worried but that’s not in her DNA. </p>
<p>Anyway- 4.2 nice miles by the palm trees this morning. 35 mile week. Butt in the sand for last beach day. Flying from Tampa tomorrow back to TN into bad storms I’m afraid.</p>
<p>Not sure if you have seen this but, if not, the runners among you might enjoy–
<a href=“http://www.letsrun.com/news/2014/04/untold-story-american-teamwork-ryan-hall-helped-meb-keflezighi-win-boston/”>http://www.letsrun.com/news/2014/04/untold-story-american-teamwork-ryan-hall-helped-meb-keflezighi-win-boston/</a></p>