no nor'easter for us!

Hi mom!

It seems Jenn and I are sneaking-out of town just in the nick of time. A burly nor'easter is rolling up the coast tonight - and is likely to camp-out off new england for most of the weekend. We'll be soaking-up the sun in Florida, visting my sister's family in Merritt Island, while my fellow Bostonian's will be soaking-up their third rainy / windy weekend in a row. Sometimes, things work-out nicely, unlike my ability to plan a snowboarding trip out west when it's snowing. 5 trips, 4 rainstorms and one amazingly sunny week. West=5, Jeff=0. Anyway, my sister's got herself a nice chunk of sandbar - and they're exceptionally good people, so we've been looking forward to the visit.

Training-wise, yesterday was successful - and was the first time since college that i've had a training partner for an interval workout - that was fun - and really helped pass the time. The weather has been very cooperative this week and i've accomplished all the up-tempo work that i was looking to do - which has left my legs tingling, yet more responsive than i could have hoped. The base is there, now i'm waking it up - not too too much, but enough to have a bit of speed & power for the first three EFTA races: Watershed Wahoo on May 15th, Bear Brook on the 22nd, then Bradbury on June 4th. Results from these 3 races will determine whether i continue with more intense speed work in an attempt to be in the hunt in EFTA NECS, or focus more on the enduros of the summer and fall. Either way, the enduro's are being run, it's more about how i use the other weekends, as I feel an obligation to taper for any race - and that effects endurance training. All things being equal, I haven't been very fast in the past and can't really expect to suddenly leap from the top of the bottom 3rd in Expert, to the bottom of the top 3rd [in EFTA], but we'll see in 9 days. While I definitely feel stronger this year, I don't know what that means on a race course yet. For all I know, it could mean only a couple minutes over 20 miles - which would be great - as every athlete knows what it takes to be just 1% faster than the year before...

Tomorrow I'll wrap-up this high intensity week with an indoor session at my sister's plush gym, then take a much anticipated reat day on Sunday in their pool. Sweet-as! While it's raining in Boston, i'll be floating about on a raft with Jenn under sunny skies. There's a good chance there will be a nice, spicey bloody mary in the mix as well...

BTW, it sure makes traveling easier for an athlete when you're family is into being healthy. More on that later, as my dad isn't the only one with the fever!