No running. Today I took out the mountain bike I recieved last week for winning a contest. First I rode it to some trails off of Gilsun Road in Nashua. I had heard there were some trails back there but I only have gone on the trails when nature calls during a run as most of my runs go down or up Gilsun Road. There is a paved bike path that starts on this road and goes 11-12 miles to Ayer, Ma. and I have run, and kickbiked this trail often, but today was not for a paved road.
The trails were fun. There was a mix of forested area, sandy trails, rocky trails, flowery meadows, and even a few puddles and streams to cross. I just went where my bike took me and did a few miles. I found another guy in there and we rode a bit together. I came out again on Gilsun Road and biked a few miles to the west entrance of Mine Falls Park. I did the loop from Stellos Stadium (where the Monday night 5k races begin) down to the Millyard and back. I have run these trails numerous times, but it was great fun seeing them from another perspective than just running them.
That was the most fun exercising that I have had in a long time. It was good not to be "training" or checking speed or distance traveled. I was out for just about 2 hours and it was just what I needed!
Track and Field started in the Olympics today. NBC is not televising things live. Last night I found you could go here and if you click on the Online TV screen and new page will come up. At the bottom left side of the page is a pull down menu. Pull it down to "Sports TV"> Then on the right hand side on the pull down menu, click on "Danmark Beijing 1 Olympics Live". Then click on the "arrow" button to the right of it. You can watch a live feed of the Olympics here. It is in Danish, however!
So this morning I wanted to watch the women's' 10K live. It came on perfectly and the showed the athletes warming up for awhile. Then the race. It was fantastic. Lornah Kiplaget set a great pace. Runners kept dropping off the back. Then Kara Goucher and Kim Smith fell off the pace. American, Shalane Flanagan, held on to the blistering pace. She was in fifth when she fell back. Soon two more runners fell back, but you could still see Shalane hanging in and I wondered if she had a chance. With two laps to go something happened and my feed died! I worked to get it going but missed the great finish. My feed returned just as Shalane crossed the finish line holding up three fingers and wondering to the crowd if she got third.
She did indeed and with a new American Record. What a great race!
Meanwhile I watched the rest of the 1500 prelims on my ReplayTV. I have 3 ReplayTV's (like a TIVO-just better) connected throughout the house and to each other. While I wait for NBC to replay the track races 12 hours later, I can watch them on my ReplayTV (I also get the French-Canadian channel on Comcast) which tends to show more events live. I had recorded the Canadian channel earlier in the morning and watched the events I wanted to later in the day. The best thing about the ReplayTV's is that I can fast forward through recorded broadcasts and get the events I want (I can watch what is on one ReplayTV box on any of my ReplayTV's) and if I want to watch an entire Olympics broadcast (usually at night) I can start the recording and then wait an hour or two before watching and skip all the commercials or events that I find dull before catching up with the end of the broadcast. The ReplayTV's are some of my favorite and most useful technologies in my life!
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