Good times and Good Eats.

I am having such a good time back on the East Coast that I have changed my flight to stay another day. I also want to see the New England Patriots take a crack at perfection. I was supposed to be in the air when the game is on but now I will be hanging out drinking beers with the family. Much better.

I got in another good run on Thursday. This time it was a tempo time trial on the track. My parents still live close the high school that I graduated from so I ran from the house up to the track and performed the following run test to get a gauge of my aerobic pace and I begin my 2008 assault.

From the Training Bible:
Tempo Time Trial. Warm-up about 15 minutes raising heart rate to 10 bpm below lowest heart rate in 5a zone. Then start 3 miles/5km on track at 9-11 bpm below lowest 5a zone number. Exactly! Time? Cool down in heart rate zone 1.

I warmed up with 15 minutes of easy running and 10 strides working my heart rate up. My LT is 176 bpm so I was going to try and stay between 165-167 for the test. I took mile splits and was pretty surprised. I was actually expecting to be a little slower right now.



3 mile: 20:50 - avg HR 166 bpm
1: 6:58 - avg HR 166 bpm
2: 6:56 - avg HR 166 bpm
3: 6:56 - avg HR 166 bpm

I will be repeating this test during my recovery weeks and hopefully will see the time drop quite a bit. It should be fun. I am all about measurable results these days.

One thing I have been a lot of here is eating... and eating good homemade food. Last night it was pizza night at the Walsh household and my dad killed it! He conjured up 6 gourmet pizzas with everything made from scratch including the dough, pork/fennel sausage, and creme fresh.

before the oven: pesto, sun-dried tomatoes, artichoke hearts, chicken, and feta.


before the oven: pesto, roma tomatoes, havarti cheese, and scallions


putting together another one. BBQ chicken... one of the favorites.


another killer, post oven: leaks, pancetta, onions, and goat cheese


good work dad... time for a beer.


later on it was back to the bar with some friends for more of this.


my brother, courtney (his gf), and me getting crazy celebrating their b-days earlier in the week


Over the course of 2 nights Chris and Courtney cleaned out the entire family playing c-lo and Left-Right-Center.


that's it for now!