Setting a Goal: Making a Plan

The first, and arguably the most important, step in achieving something is to set a goal.

I do it all the time in business and life then build plans to help me get to where I want to go.  Sometimes I succeed and sometimes I don’t, but I have learned that due to my ADD if I don’t have a goal and a plan, then I’m not going to get anything accomplished.  I’ll just look around at stuff and be busy as all get out then look around again and realize I’ve gone nowhere.  It’s like going to the grocery store without a list to get milk and cereal.  I’ll come back with four or five items but no milk.

 

The longest memory is a short pencil.  I live that.

 
Some of the goals I set are beyond what I really think I can do, but I’ve found that helps me do more than I actually thought I could.  Especially when dealing with physical things like weights or running.  When I set those stretch goals I also have secondary ones that I plan to hit “on the way.”  That way I build in successes so I feel good and keep working.  That’s worked really well the past two years as I try to run a mile in under five minutes.

Only about ten people a year in my age group, or the one above or below for that matter, do that in any given year.  The air is rare up there.  Those guys are fast, fast, fast and I’d like to be up there with them.  Of course I haven’t run a sub-5 mile since I was 18 but, pffft, I don’t care.  It’s a stretch goal! 

I’ve already hit several of my secondary goals and had some great races along the way, plus I’ve learned a great deal about training and perseverance.  I’ve also had the good luck to be able to share a lot of those learning’s with other folks and hear about their successes, too.  So today I want to do some more sharing and give y’all some basic pointers for accomplishing any racing goals you might have.

 

First: Set the goal

 

Write it down, tell someone about it, and talk about.  Those things will help make it real to you and keep you working towards it even if you hit some setbacks.

 

Second: Have a plan

 

Things that are worthwhile don’t just happen.  They take effort and you work for them.  With the limited amount of time we all have, we can’t just be wasting it if we want to do something big for ourselves, and having a plan will help us be more efficient and improve the likelihood of reaching our goals.  Think the plan through starting with the finishing point.  If you’re goal is a PR in a Half Marathon, start with the race date and work your ways backwards understanding that you’re not going to be able to run the needed distances at the needed speeds if you don’t build up to it!  Knowing where you need to be and when will help lay out what you have to do to get there.  And be smart about it.  Don’t just go throwing big numbers out there like running 6 days a week 10 miles a day if you’ve never made yourself do it before.  If you’re a three day a week runner, stick to three days.  Play to your habits and strengths if you can.  If you do have to change something do it in small steps.  It’s really easy to get discouraged so it’s important not to plan for discouragement.  Plan for success and go after it in little, manageable steps.

 

Third:  Vary the plan

 

We all know shit happens.  Sometimes it’s self-inflicted; sometimes it’s not but you know it’s going to happen, so be ready to go with the flow.  Missing a workout isn’t going to be the end if you gave yourself the leeway when putting together your plan.  The other key point here is the “variety” in the “vary.”  Regardless of what you’re training to do, just going out and running several times a week is not going to get you very far.  When I began my training I first looked at what the world class “elites” do.  No, I’m not going to be one of them, but they obviously know what they’re doing so I imitate them!  Which brings up a pet peeve of mine: training plans where you don’t ever run the distance you’re going to race.  Please.  To me that’s just a plan to help you FINISH a distance, not race it.  Now, obviously, finishing is the goal for many people.  That was my goal when I ran my one and only Marathon.  I did pretty well even though I hit the wall hard at 23 miles, but I’d never run more than 18 leading up to that so what the hell else should I have expected?  Elite marathoners do 30 mile runs in their training from time to time.  Those of us who want to really race a marathon should think about doing that, too.

 

But back to the “variety.” 

A good training plan addresses lots of different systems and muscles in your body to help you get the most you can get out of yourself.  Marathoners do speed work, and sprinters do long slow runs.  Just in varying quantities and speeds.  Here are the pieces I suggest everyone needs to do when training for any distance.  There are a gazillion variations on these workouts as well as cross-training opportunities that make a difference but these are the ones that will give you the most bang for your buck.  Read that: give you the most benefit in the shortest amount of time. 

Sprint Work:  Short, 40 to 80 meter, full-out-hard-as-you-can sprints with about 4 to 5 minutes rest between each rep.  Those build leg muscle and help you learn to move your feet faster and faster. 

Speed Work:  Distances from 200 meters up to a mile.  Intervals, where you run at a fast pace then rest and repeat, work the best here.  One of the most used workouts anywhere is a “10 x” where you run ¼ the distance you’re going to race at your goal race pace, then rest for about a minute or jog for about a minute and a half then hit the rep again for a total of 10 times. 

Stamina Work:  Distances ranging from about 1/3 to the full distance of your goal race.  The iterations that exist here are also numerous but think Tempo Run since that’s the most used workout.  These runs are done just a little slower than race pace and usually for a distance a little shorter than your goal race.  These are the workouts the Kenyans (a generality, but there’s some merit there) focus on most.  Supposedly it’s almost all of their training and that makes sense since this most closely resembles your goal race.  If you’re training for a 10K then 2 to 5 mile Tempo Runs will be what you’re doing. 

Endurance:  Distances as long, or longer, than your goal race.  These are really important just so your body is prepared to do what it needs to do for a given period of time and distance.  It’s going to be very difficult to race for an hour if you never run that long in practice. 

The balance and focus of these segments depend entirely on your goal race and secondarily on your physical capabilities.  My goal race of the mile means my time is spent on Speed, Stamina, Sprint and Endurance in that order.  If you’re training for a Marathon then it’s going to be more Endurance, Stamina, Speed and Sprint.  But all of the pieces should be there. 

Plus one more:  Easy Days. 

One of the best things you can do for your body is have a day where you run, but it is short and very easy.  This type of run gets the fluids flowing through you to speed up healing, elevates your heartbeat and breathing so there’s a little cardiovascular benefit to it, but it doesn’t stress your muscles and joints at all.  Very, very beneficial. 

That variety of training will not only improve you physically faster than doing just one type of running, it makes running a whole lot more interesting and fun!  And those two things, interesting and fun, bring me to the last word on a training plan.

 

You're the designer, so make the plan fit YOU!

 

One size does not fit all in the running world and while a plan by Higdon might be a good one, it might not be good for you individually.  The same goes for any plan out there.  I've got books and articles you could read on the subject, but I realize not everyone is as geeked about running as I am.  Just think of yourself and your goals when you lay out a plan to reach them.  Play to your strengths and deal with your weaknesses in ways that you CAN and WILL deal with them.  If you hate rigid things, then it doesn't make much sense to have a 7 day a week plan complete with the time of day you run, rest, stretch and eat does it?  No.  Just make a list of three or four runs you're going to do that week.

 

Interesting and Fun.

 

If you keep those things in your running, you will do it more and do it better.

 

 

Winter Running and Finishing Strong

It was cold this morning!

Not the first frozen morning of the year, but 22 degrees is right chilly.  Makes you realize men have nipples, too.

That first step outside was coooollllldddd,

Since it was Saturday I slept in a bit and didn't head out until 7:00 am.  Other than the temperature it was a gorgeous morning.  Very sunny, not much of a breeze and a bright blue sky.  With the right gear it wasn't bad at all really.  I had my hat and gloves, a couple of long sleeve shirts and my Nike track team running tights.  Those things are incredible.  I don't care how cold it gets I'm comfortable in them.  If it gets down below 15 degrees I'll wear two pairs of tights, but if it's any warmer I'd burn up.  I also wore my running jacket, but even with the underarm zippers undone it got kind of hot towards the end of the run.

Saturdays are my long runs and last week's was done as a Progression Run with a Fast Finish, so it was a hard workout.  This is supposed to be an easier week, so today was to be 10 miles at a relaxed pace.  The purpose of these runs is to keep the aerobic capacity up, maintain good endurance, but also let the muscles have a little break from the hard stuff so they can heal and get stronger from the work in prior weeks.  Most coaches advise having one "easy" week out of every four.  I put that in quotes, because your mileage will still be fairly close to normal and there might even be a hard workout in there, too.  But not as hard a week as others.  Think of it as the flat part of a stair step.  The hard work is moving you up and you use the flat part to position yourself to move up again.

That being the case I brought my phone for tunes and to take pictures.  I didn't look at my watch a whole lot and decided to do a video for the blog!  Once again I found out that I have no discipline when it comes to pace.  I kind of just run until I realize I'm getting too tired and then either back off or more often than not, push a little harder.

Yeah, I'm a dufus.

I realized after cutting off the camera that I was also running up one of the long hills while I was recording.  It's one of the few times I'm on a sidewalk and in this case next to a pretty busy road.  Because it was late I only saw one other runner and we high fived as we crossed paths.  That's so cool.  I've never seen this guy before that I know of but we both pointed at each other than high fived like we'd done it dozens of times.  It's a club.  A very cool club.

I exercised a little bit of discipline after this and brought the pace down somewhat, but not by a whole lot.  I just felt fine so I kept trotting along.  I still pushed the last mile a little because that's just a good habit to have in training.  And today's tip!

So there you have it!  Finish strong each and every time to train that kick into your races.

One last thing.  I can tell my shoes are getting "old" which means they have over 400 miles on them and the cushioning isn't quite there.   My calves were getting tight and actually hurt a little bit towards the end of the run.  Looking at the soles there's some good wear there, too.  So it's time for another pair!  Now where should I go to look for a good deal on shoes?   I wonder....

Track Time!

Ed -

I'm excited.

This week I'm wrapping up my "rest phase" which began back on August 4th right after my silver medal 800 at the State Games of America.  Since then I dropped my runs to three times a week keeping them at a moderate pace to keep my endurance at a good level, but not doing anything intense running-wise.  I also hit the gym three times a week to add some muscle doing a chest day, back day and leg day.  I had dropped to only 135 pounds or so by the end of track season so I really needed to do something about that.

I now weigh 147 so I'm not all that impressed with how much I've gained.  Mental note has been made and I'll make some serious diet alterations next year to go along with the weights.  I'd like to have about 10 more pounds on me at this stage.

The last couple of weeks I've actually gone to the track to do some 1 mile intervals and long ladders, but kept them at a comfortably hard pace.  Those were interspersed with Tempo Runs of 3 miles inside 7 mile runs.  Once a week I also did a sprint workout after an easy 5 mile run.  Those sprints augmented the squats and deadlifts I was doing to build raw strength in my legs.  Doing them on semi-fatigued legs increased the benefit of that work.  All that combined to form a six week cycle designed to improve my VO2 Max (stamina) and prep me for the more serious speed work.

From here I should be able to handle extra reps of fast 200's through 800's right out of the gate.

My first speed workout of last year wasn't until the 2nd week of December and it was a 4 x 800.  I was really happy with that workout and they went 3:07, 3:03, 3:00 and 2:55.  I didn't write it down but I'm pretty sure I was doing those with two minutes passive rest between each rep.  This year I should get 5 out at close to 3 minutes flat.  After that I'll be moving around through interval and ladder workouts to build speed and stamina.  I will also be keeping one long run each weekend that will include fartlek and be done as either a progression run or fast finish.  That will keep my overall endurance at a high level.

There are two other pieces to the weeks ahead.

First, I'll keep a Tempo Run of three miles in there during my midweek 7 mile run.  I was lacking that last year and I think it cost me time in the Mile and 1500.  After that run I will do my 100 meter strides/sprints.  I did those last year and saw some serious gains in my ability to kick at the end of a race.  That last 200 meters in the 800 of the State Games will stick in my mind for a loooooonnng time.  I want that feeling again and again.

The second piece is an addition to last year.  I'm keeping one day a week in the gym doing a combination of chest, back and squats.  I finish that time in the gym with three sets of skips in the gym.  Starting tomorrow I'll be wearing my 10 pound weight vest to do those.  I believe this once a week workout will help my race times by simply keeping my full body strength at a much higher level than it was at last year.

Having a plan gets me worked up anyways, but the fact that I feel as good as I do right now and running faster on my "moderate" runs than last year by a pretty good clip is a real bonus.  Last year at this time my runs were pretty consistently done at 7:50 pace or higher and now I'm running below 7:40.  Just yesterday I wrapped up a 10 mile fartlek run at 7:29 pace.  So far so good.  Now it's time to see if my 400's will be faster than last years'.

That's the other part of coming out of the rest phase that has me pumped.  I'm hungry for running fast again.  The rest phase is designed to rest the runner mentally and emotionally as well as physically.  And right now I feel like I've been holding back the last month or so.  I want to run HARD.  I want to leave myself gasping for breath, dropping to my hands and knees and puking at the corner of the Midlothian Middle School track.

I am chomping at the bit, baby.

Outer Banks Marathon Weekend

Outer Banks Half

I had a great time over this past weekend and didn’t even run.

It was the Outer Banks Marathon weekend in my adopted home town but I wasn’t going to be running in any of the races this year.   Kind of odd how many people thought it was weird that I wasn’t running and it came up in every conversation I had.

“So are you running the Half?”

“Nope, just volunteering this year.”

“Why not? Are you hurt?”

That conversation was repeated a bunch.

I just did the MCM10K and am wrapping up the Rest Phase of my training for the year, so my training needs to get pretty particular at this point and I’m planning my rest days as much as I’m planning my workouts.  I need to have fresh legs to get the most out of the track and the hills, so tossing in a 13 mile run haphazardly isn’t really the best idea, plus it ain’t cheap.  Next year I’ll put it in there and maybe even see if just doing long, steady state runs can get me a decent time in the Half.  That’s what the Fall is for me: three runs a week of moderate effort and weight lifting to put back on some weight lost in the summer track season.  Not the best thing for racing, obviously, but not horrible either.  And, of course, I could make it for fun instead of for ego.  ; )

The weather in Dare County was great for races and a lot of my friends had great races.

David was running his first ever marathon after going through an amazing weight loss transformation.  He was a sprinter and talented athlete in high school, but had gained a bunch of weight after that.  The past couple of years he buckled down diet-wise and started running.  Now he’s a challenge sort of guy so simply doing a marathon just wasn’t enough:  he signed up to do the OBX Challenge and run an 8K on Saturday followed by the Marathon on Sunday.  When I raced my Half I did the same mini-version of that by running the 8K with a 13.1 mile chaser.  David hit a sub 7 minute pace time for the 8K then turned around and ran a 3:31 Marathon!  Dude…

Gretchen is a friend of mine who I helped along with a plan so she could “finish a Half Marathon and not die.”  She clocked in her first ever Half with a time of 2:16!  A whole lot faster than what she figured it would take because she didn’t have to walk any of it.

Another longtime friend of mine, Blake, was down from Maryland and surprised me with a 1:36 in the Half!  Geez…and the guy always tells me he’s not very fast.  Puhleeeze….

There were bunches of other great stories, too including Kathy who was celebrating her 1 year anniversary of beating cancer by running a 13.1 mile “victory lap” with her sisters.  Made me smile AND cry.

As for me, I got to experience the races from the other side of the barricades.  I’m being literal there.  Literally, I was on the other side of the barricades during the race.  I also got to set up those barricades the day before.  You should see what goes into the finish line area.  One serious logistical exercise being done with smiles and enthusiasm by volunteers, and it was a lot of fun.  Plus, I got to hang out and talk to friends I haven’t seen in a while which is always fun for me.

I took a couple of pictures of the “chute” and the emergency area that is massive, but somehow on race day you almost don’t even notice it.  It’s an entire hospital just like on MASH!  Okay now that just showed my age….

 

 

 For next year I’m issuing an open invitation to come run in this festival.  The first few folks who want to can avoid the hotel bill and stay with me in my house just three blocks from the finish line!  Of course you also have to pass an interview with my wife, but there won’t be any background checks (Bob) so you’re good.

Nutrition Overload

Another 10 mile run this morning.  Not hard, but not easy.  I'm still doing these longer runs with the mindset "run so you're tired, Ed."  That way I just do whatever I feel like pace-wise but I always negative split it and wind up with a pretty decent run.

It's how I did all my training for my one and only Marathon and my first Half.  I didn't really know any better at the time and was really just concerned with finishing, however training this way has it's strong points so both races were good ones.  Thinking back I actually did do two track workouts before the Half.  Now two workouts aren't going to make but so much difference, however they did show me that I really could increase my speed over 13 miles by running 800 repeats.  Yasso's 800's.  Now an absolute must whenever I'm coming up on a 10K or longer where my time matters to me.

This week Bob and I were talking about nutrition and what we've learned, and are still learning.  So during my run this morning I thought I'd share an experience I had and my thoughts on taking vitamins and supplements.  And like Cyrano I decided to do this post with a little panache and record it on the run.

So there you have it.

Run on!

Celebrate A Little Every Day

Driving home from Manteo today I made my usual stop at Border Station.  No longer can I get a Blizzard there, but it's still the place I like to make a pit stop during my three and half hour commute from one home to the other.  While I was pulling into a parking spot I noticed a young woman jogging out towards the highway.  Normally people use that area to walk their dogs and what not, but she was just sort of heading out toward the intersection so I watched her for a second.  She stopped by the side of the road and held up her phone to take a picture of the "Welcome to North Carolina" sign.

I have driven by this spot I don't know how many times over the past 18 years or so, and I don't think I've even noticed that sign but a couple of times.  Here there was somebody taking a picture of it!  I thought, "Man, she's excited to be going to North Carolina!" and I immediately was reminded of how much I love coming here.  It's the state I consider to be my Home.  I have tons of friends here, a house I love, and a town I absolutely adore.  I always get excited when I drive down here, but I've never stopped to take a picture of the sign.

Maybe it's her first trip down, or maybe she's going to be getting married down here this week.  A lot of people do that in the Outer Banks.  Whatever the reason she wanted to capture that moment so she could remember and relive it again later.  Cool.

I figure every one of us does things over and over again and we allow those things to become mundane or mechanical.  Even things we love to do.  We might have even celebrated them in the beginning, but now just sort of do them, because it's what we do.  Nothing special here.  Then we find out that very thing we take for granted is something entirely spectacular to someone else.  It's a big event, a major achievement, or a completely unique occasion that they're going to celebrate, record and relish for years to come.  I take pictures all the time, but when I drive by Border Station I should grin big and think about how incredibly cool it is that I get to do what I'm doing.

Living the dream!

And of course all this reminded me of running.

I've been watching all the comments of friends who will be running Marathons or Half's in the next month and marveling at the mileage they're all logging.  Most folks are going into their tapers or just about done and I have to laugh at seeing phrases like "I won't feel bad for only doing 8.5 miles this weekend," or "just did my last 20 miler!"  I mean, seriously.  I still remember what it was like to walk/jog a single mile.  Now I can go out and run 14 miles with friends and talk the whole way.  That's ridiculous!  Those comments, and those runs, didn't just happen.  A lot of sweat, pain and effort have gone into getting to this point and I wonder if we're stopping to take enough pictures along the way?

I know there will be lots of celebrating, story telling and commiserating after those mammoth races, but I want to encourage everyone to high five somebody during their next run and take a quick moment to celebrate the fact that the run is EASY.  That you can do it.  That you're doing it with friends or all alone.  Smile about it!

Being on the journey is a blast in itself and a big deal.

Congratulations!

Base Building

Man, it’s been over two weeks since we posted up on here.  Sorry about that.  A lot has gone on and I know Bob will want to talk about his Half and all of his buddies who hit PR’s on what was just a perfect race day.  But for me I’m just going to talk about boring old training stuff.

 

My Outdoor Track season ended back at the beginning of August and I moved from there into a Rest Phase of training.  It’s pretty much impossible to maintain a peak fitness level so there have to be times where one backs off the intensity to let the body and mind recover and get ready to grow again.  The mental part is as important as the physical in that it helps us avoid burning out and losing the desire to really push.  My Rest Phase lasted about six weeks.  I still ran some, but only about twice a week and always at a conversational pace.  Nothing intense, no racing, no intervals, no real pushing at all except for that fast finish I did down in Manteo a couple of weeks ago.  After those runs I remember feeling like my heart wasn’t even beating hard and my breathing was as relaxed as before I started.  But I still got a run in and that would keep my circulatory system operating smoothly and allow me to move into the next phase, Base Building, without having lost all of my endurance.

 

I also used my Rest Phase as a time to start building muscle back that I had lost during the last nine months.  Hard distance running actually removes muscle mass over time and eventually your top end speed begins to decline because you simply don’t have the muscle cells there to move you.  So I used my Rest Phase to begin adding that muscle back with weight training.  I think it was El G that said he spent his Rest Phase time “getting fat.”  He was never, ever fat, but he lifted weights the most during that time to build muscle so he could put it to work running later.  My weight days are divided up into Leg Day, Back Day and Chest Day.  I do core exercises and kettlebells throughout the week to augment that and round out my body’s work.

 

Leg Day to me is the most important and that consists of doing squats, deadlifts, lunges, step ups, calf raises, box jumps and skipping exercises.  This routine builds my power and trains me to transfer that with some pop in my legs and stride.  I’ve only done five workouts for Leg Days so far, but I’m now comfortably squatting 205 pounds and deadlifting 185.  Three sets of 5 each.  I’m set to move up again in both those this next Monday to 225 and 205 respectively.  I know I could do more right now, but then I wouldn’t have enough to do the lunges and step ups!  I do those with the big straight bar, too and load 115 pounds on for the lunges and 135 pounds for the step ups.  The lunges I do slow and steady to work on balance and I do those in 3 sets of 5.  The Step Ups I do with 135 pounds on the bar and I use the 12” box.  I step up starting with the left foot then bring the right up so I’m standing on the box, then step down with the left foot first then the right foot so I’m back on the ground.  I do ten of those then immediately switch to stepping up with the right foot first.  So 20 at a shot for three sets.  Makes my heart pound!

 

It also makes my legs strong, along with my hips and improves my balance.

 

I’m continuing my lifting through at least the first half of my Base Building phase since I really need about three months of lifting to get my body to significantly different place.  To help that part along I’m adding sprint workouts back into the mix once a week.  Those are the ones where I sprint all out for somewhere between 50 and 90 meters with complete recovery between each rep until I do two reps slower than the previous one back to back.  My goal is to see my 100’s drop into the low 13’s and my 200’s get done around 26 or 27 seconds.  That should make running 37’s feel  easy and that’s where I need to be to go sub 5 in the mile.

 

The Base Building part is just like it sounds.  Sort of boring to write about.  I’m running three times a week right now doing somewhere between 5 and 10 miles.  I did throw in a 14 mile run with a bunch of the Outer Banks Running Club folks and that was fun.  The main difference between my runs now and the rest ones is that instead of cruising along at somewhere around 8:30 minutes per mile, I’m doing them all at under 8:00 pace.  I still don’t feel like I’m busting it or anything but I definitely focus on doing negative splits each time out.  This week I’ve done a 5 mile run and this morning a 7.5 miler.  Saturday I’ll do 10 miles and try to stay below 8 minutes.  Next week I’ll move the 5 mile up to 7 and repeat the other two.  Little by little I’ll move them up, and then add a fourth run of about 3 to 5 miles on Sunday.  I’ll also begin doing some fartlek and Tempo runs in there as well.

 

Ten weeks from now I’ll have a nice solid base of endurance underneath me along with some stronger, more powerful legs.  That’s when I’ll start the Hills for several weeks and move back onto the track with a focus on February and March as peak time.

 

Mentally, I can hardly wait.  I’m beginning to chomp at the bit all ready, so I know I’ll be ready to kick it hard when I finally turn myself loose again!  Geez, I love this stuff.

The Rest Phase

Next week marks the end of my month long Rest Phase.  During that time I've run two to three times a week and logged a total of 69 miles which works out to just over 17 miles a week.  I've also added three one hour work outs in the gym consisting primarily of lifting heavy weights (I use the term "heavy" very loosely here) and dividing those workouts into Chest Day, Back Day and Leg Day.  So how exactly is that a Rest Phase?

Well, mostly its in the type of running I do as well as how often I do it.

Since about September of last year I was running four to six times a week and doing at least one, sometimes as many as three, very intense workouts.  That sort of training puts a lot of wear on the body and mind and eventually one hits a plateau.  I know I did.  My 1500 peaked at a 5:01 in June and went slightly backwards over the next two months.  It was time for a break so for the past month I took that break.

Each of my runs lately has been between five and ten miles and I've kept them at a comfortable pace.  Never really pushing it, but not going so slow I didn't break a sweat.  My legs always felt good even on the days after my run and I just sort of allowed my mind to relax and enjoy the scenery and the feeling of those easy runs.  I think that was the best part of this for me: the mental relaxation.  I got a little tired of pushing myself really hard one day, then spending the next day getting psyched up to do it again.  A year of that and I needed the break.  And over the last month I've found my pace has steadily crept up even though my effort never really felt like it changed.

What started as runs averaging just under 8:30 pace they wound up dropping down to right around 8 flat and still feeling like they were easy.  My endurance was improving without having to really work at it and my mind was beginning to feel that fire again.  I was itching to run fast, but I was holding back.

Well, holding back for the most part.  This past week I was down in Manteo running with friends, a couple that I hadn't seen in awhile, and we set out to do an easy eight miles.  The first seven we kept around 8:15 pace while running through trails and back roads and just all over the north end of the island, but David was saying he really wanted to take off for the final mile.  He's in training for the Outer Banks Marathon and his training runs have him looking at a 3:30 or better so he's pretty pumped.  As he talked about his training along with the rest of them I could only say I'd been taking it easy but was about ready to get started again with my sprint workouts and ramping up my mileage to build my base before starting hills in October.  David was sort of the guide that morning so as we moved along in the seventh mile he laid out where we would go because he was planning on leaving us.

That's all it took.

"I'll go with you," I said.

"Oh you think?"  He replied.

We made a turn around near the middle school and lined up the last mile down the bike path.  One guy with us was doing 16 miles so he waved goodbye and headed the opposite direction and the other two guys told us to go on without them.  I looked at my garmin and called out "6.94" and David said, "we'll go on your watch."

At the beep we took off.

Now David is about 6' 2" and a muscular black dude.  I'm short, old and white.  However, we matched stride for stride as we rolled up faster and faster.  It was funny that when my watched beeped the half mile mark it was the first time I realized that neither one of us had said a word since the start of that last mile.  Here we'd been yammering the whole damn day and now we were mute.  I glanced at him and caught him looking at me.  The last half mile was interesting because as I slowed some because I was really getting winded, he would move ahead a little and pull me along.  A moment later he seemed to slow, so I gritted a bit and accelerated some and he came back along with me.  We pumped hard and high fived when my watched chimed again.

As we turned the last corner to get back to our cars he was fooling with his garmin and announced the last mile was done in 6:23.

"Really?" I said.

"Damn that was great!" he crowed.

And it was.  It felt so good and was just cool to have him to run with.

So now it's time to start back into it for winter track by building my endurance base with longer runs and adding a fourth one on Sundays.  I still have to do the three weight days because that's needed to build the muscle I'm going to need for the speed work to come in the winter.

I'm going to have to explain the difference between sprint work and speed work, and how it's possible to do sprint and endurance work as part of "easing" into more intense workouts.  Sounds goofy, but I assure you it makes sense.

Happy running!

Adjusting

Ed -

I’ve found that being focused on a particular goal demands a paradox.  In order for the plan to work one has to be persistent and patient, while being ready to quickly adjust when the need arises.  The trick is to know which way to go when doubts surface.

I had doubts galore this past weekend during the Commonwealth Games in Roanoke.

As usual, the 1500 race was held before the 800 and its the distance I’m really focused on at this point, so I do all I can to cover those 3 ¾ laps as quickly as possible.  The goal for Sunday was to break five minutes and I was confident I could because I ran that 5:01 back on June 22^nd.  I’ve had a full month of additional training since then and my workouts showed that I was getting faster on the top end.  However, the plan I had been following really dropped off of the longer runs.  This seems to be normal in the track world; the closer you get to your peak race, the more speed and race specific training you do.  I trusted the plan even though I found in my last long run that I couldn’t do a 10 mile Progression Run with a Fast Finish the way I had been able to the month before.

Originally I chalked that up to the heat, humidity and being back on the hills of Midlothian as opposed to the flat course in Manteo.  All logical things that would slow me up, but I think the real issue is that I’ve sacrificed some endurance.

While my 1500 wasn’t terrible (I ran a 5:16) it was nowhere near where I thought I would be and I definitely did not feel the way I thought I would.  There were some events that I’m sure didn’t help my run.  First off it was incredibly hot and humid.  I warmed up as usual, running about a mile at 8:30 to 8:45 pace, then some 100m strides.  I did three of those strides and while I was keeping them very relaxed and telling myself to hold back I was hitting 18’s.  That’s two seconds faster than my goal pace of 20 seconds so that made me feel pretty good even though I felt a little drained by the heat.

The second problem actually occurred earlier in the week.  I strained my left foot in a workout and it was threatening to keep me from racing.  I had taken some ibuprofen and smeared two coats of Blue Emu on it before the race, so I was able to keep the pain down enough that it wasn’t going to ruin things for me, but it still hurt.

Then the real “flow stopper” happened as we stepped to the line to start.  Lightning.  We were all leaning forward with our fingers on our watches when they told us to stand up and issued a half hour delay.  Half an hour is my normal warm up period!  I went and sat down for about 15 minutes and had some Gatorade, then got back up and started jogging to stay loose.  Two more 100m strides and they called for 15 more minutes.

What a pain.

I’m sure that took something out of me, but I still didn’t expect what I got in the race.

The first 300 meters was a tad ahead of pace as usual, but not bad.  A friend of mine, C.L., was helping me out by pacing with me since he was going to run the 1500, 400, 800 and 200 as a workout that day.  I guess when you’re 32 and fast as all get out you can do that.  He and I crossed the line in 56 seconds and started into the second lap.  I wanted to come across the line again right at 2:20 to make sure I wasn’t  pushing too hard the first half of the race, but when I slowed just a bit and came out of the first turn I began to feel a little winded.  Keeping up with C.L. became work.  By the time I got to the start/finish line we was a good 5 meters ahead of me and my watched had me at 2:23.  I was already fading with two laps to go.

This is the point that Greg McMillan calls the “Go Zone.”  The third quarter of any race and the object is to pick up the intensity just a little bit and attack the race now.  Not blow it all out, but move up because this is the lap where time can really be gained or lost.  I pushed through the first turn and just couldn’t draw anything out.

I was done.

I came across with one lap to go at 3:51 and the goal was to hit 3:40.  Still, I surged the first turn again, relaxed in the back stretch, tried to accelerate through the final turn then did all I could do in the final straight.  In June I was at the bell lap at 3:46 and finished with a 1:15 400.  On Sunday I tacked on a miserable 1:25 to that 3:51 mark.

Something was definitely not right.

There was another short delay during all the 400 heats, the races between the 15 and the 8, so this year there was plenty of rest before my second race.  Normally, there’s less than an hour so that race was always hard and slow, but a good workout.  With the bad 1500 in my mind I didn’t have any confidence at all in the 800 but figured I’d just do what I could do.

The shorter distance made it a completely different race.

The first lap felt very comfortable just like in the 1500 and I took the first 400 in 1:17.  One guy had taken a very large lead and C.L. had just come around me before we completed that first lap.  Since I felt comfortable I decided to try and go with C.L. and strangely enough I did fairly well.  We matched strides all the way down the back stretch and by the time we got to the final turn I knew we were going to catch the leader.  He was standing straight up.  A clear sign.

I'm betting I did that just after the halfway point in my first race.

I pushed hard and gained a couple of strides on C.L. but then he looked over his shoulder at me and I knew he had much more to give.  I saw him lean a bit and then simply run away from me.   Still, I sprinted past the original leader to finish about 3 seconds back for 2^nd place in 2:30.  Not a bad race and a second lap of 1:14 told me that I definitely have the speed I want, but the endurance or stamina was missing.

Perhaps it was the warm up, cool down, warm up routine and the fact that I ran about two miles before that 1500, but I’ve hashed it around in my head a lot and I think I have to make an adjustment this week.  The plan actually has an incredible workout the Wednesday before the State Games of America in two weeks, but there wasn’t enough distance in this week’s work.  So I’m adding it.

I’m not going crazy or bailing on the plan, but I need to get some of that stamina back in my lungs in time.  Plus, I reviewed my training for the week before my June race and discovered that I had missed my Monday workout leaving me almost 5 fewer miles than the week before this past race.  I’m going to repeat that “mistake” because it obviously left me with fresher legs.

Having a plan is critical to reaching a goal, but I believe it’s just as critical to track and react to results along the way.

Of course the proof will be in the race on August 4^th, but fast or not, I’ll do my best, pay attention to what goes on so I can keep on learning and have a great time competing.

Putting Purpose in your Run

I have really come to love my training schedule.

I love reading it over to plan ahead.  I love going through the workouts in advance and calculating my splits then writing them out.  I love keying in my results into my spreadsheet and comparing them to past results then processing exactly how I felt physically during them and tweek the plan to adjust for something I feel I'm missing.  On top of all that I love reading about coaches and athletes; how they approach the same workouts I'm using, how they overcome the same challenges I face, why they do what they do, and of course I love reading about their results.  Incredible endurance, amazing kicks and blazing top end speed.

That paragraph was awful, but I'm gushing.

I just love this!

I also love that every single workout and run has a purpose.  There is some specific focus or objective, because it is one more step in the right direction on my path.  I'm sure some people wouldn't like having that sort of mind set, and I get that.  Depends on what you want out of running.  But when there is a specific goal in mind, then everything should be aimed at reaching that goal.  Otherwise, you're just wasting time.  Everything I read from great coaches and athletes, as well as great businessmen or anyone else at the top of their field, repeats this point.

There has to be Purpose.  A reason to do what you're doing.

What started out as a sort of fantasy and tangible example of some things I always say about getting the most out of life, has turned into a real passion.  And that passion is delivering all the things I had hoped it would in the beginning.  It's become my Purpose.

First of all is the fact it's made me stronger and faster.  I still flash back on a regular basis to when I was sick.  I know that can get kind of old to hear, but I'm not going to forget it.  I'm reminded of various aspects of that time of my life almost daily.  When I ache I'm reminded of how whatever I feel right now is nothing compared to the pain I felt the first days after surgery and the months around the end of my radiation treatments.  I was triple dosing on the pain meds and still not getting relief.  Whenever I lean in and drive through a turn on the track I'm reminded of how exhausted I would get just walking up a flight of stairs.  And, of course, every time I hear of someone else who's been diagnosed with cancer I'm reminded of how lucky I've been and that I need to be there in some way for them like people were for me.

Those memories are always placed against where I am now, and where I am now is someplace I had only hoped to be.  5:01 in the 1500 and sure of myself that I can break five minutes.  Ranked 30th in the country last year in my age group for the 800 was a total shock.  That part I hadn't even dreamed about.  Racing in a national championship had never crossed my mind, but I've gotten to do it.  My running has given me strength and speed that surprises and thrills me all the time.

Secondly, because I've seeing such gains from my focus and planning on training, I'm doing the same things in work and in life.  I'm looking at something that I want to accomplish, and then working backwards with a plan.  Then, each and every day, I'm working that plan.  Some things have been in place for awhile, and others I've just embarked on.  Either way I know that I have a far better chance of reaching my goals by approaching them with purpose.

Lastly, and probably most important of all of this, is what I hear from various people I've crossed paths with since I set out on this mini-quest.  People are inspired by it.  They tell me about how they've begun running, or have decided they want to see how fast they can get.  A few have asked for help and I'm having a blast working with them to set new PR's.  I get excited knowing that, if we plan right, and the work gets done, they're going to experience the same thrilling emotions I have when they finish that race and look at they're watch.  It's so incredible.

Yesterday I read something in an article in Running Times about the best advice elite athletes have gotten from coaches over the years, and one of them was by Aaron Braun.  This guy ran 10,000 meters in 27:41.  Wow, that's fast.  His college coach told him to "run for something greater than yourself."  His point being that if you're only running for yourself, you may back off in that final lap because you know you'll just race again another time.  But if there's something outside of you that is your focus, you're more likely to push on.

I've found that to be so true.  And not just for an individual race.  It's the same for every single workout.  I push hard the last rep, the last hill, or the last mile and sometimes do "just one more" because there's something greater than me at stake.

People are watching and wanting to see good results.  It inspires them, motivates them to do better as well.

I've had Purpose in my running from the beginning of all this, but it's transformed into something else.  Other people are trying harder, exercising more, living better and smiling more often.  I want to help them along even if it's just a little thing like a random post on facebook that makes them say, "wow, that's fast" and wonder if they could do something like that.

Put Purpose in your running and you will.

Race Day!

I just love races.  I get all amped up and nervous days before just like when I was a kid.  It’s a whole bag of jumbled feelings in my stomach.  Confident anticipation wrapped up in a layer of doubt, wrapped in fear of the pain that’s going to come, wrapped in gratitude for having the chance to race.  I guess those things make your adrenal glands pump, because I can feel them pumping!

This weekend was my first race of the Outdoor Track season and would be my first crack at the 1500 since I totally hosed up my last one.  As a reminder,  last July I had gotten some decent training weeks in after recovering from some broken ribs, so I felt like I could beat the 5:16 I had run the month before.  I set my sights on something close to 5:00 even though all of my training really told me that 5:10 would’ve been a bit of a stretch.  Then I pulled a rookie mistake and went out way too fast, because I just felt so good.  I should’ve hit my first 400 meters in about 1:20 or so, but instead came around at 1:12.  About a lap later I was overdosing on lactic acid and fell all apart.  Finished in 5:24. Stupid mistake.  And one that gets made by many, many runners.

This year I’ve trained a lot smarter, avoided barrel rolling a golf cart, and knew I was faster than last year.  I had also learned my lesson and started doing my longer training runs the way the best coaches tell us to do them.

Start slower than your goal pace.  Then accelerate throughout the run.

It’s amazing how well that works, and I’ve been preaching it as a tactic ever since.

So for this race I was confident I could get down around 5:00 and with a little luck maybe break into the fours which is my “big goal” for this year.  To hit 5 minutes I need to average 1:20 per 400 meters.  My training paces and my workouts were telling me I could do that, although I wasn't quite sure how I was going to feel putting almost four of those back to back.  Still, I knew my goal pace and I wasn’t going to blow that up in the first lap this year.

Because of my nerves I must’ve written down my splits three different times and I spent the entire day before the meet running the race through my head and saying, “20 seconds at the first turn, 40 coming out to the straight, 60 seconds at the finish line with 3 to go, then 1:20 at the next turn.  Don’t go under 1:20 unless the first 100 was a little fast.”  After that I was just going to look at every 200 meters to make sure I was staying on pace.  2:20 at the 700 meter with two laps to go.  Then 3:00 flat, and 3:40 with one lap to go.  If I could hold on to that pace I’d be right at 5 minutes flat.  I had no idea what I’d feel like at that moment, but I told myself that no matter what when I hit the turn with one to go I was going to surge for 50 meters at least to get a good start on that last 400.  Had to do it.  No excuses.

Friday night I took one last look at my training plan from McMillan Running and decided to check out the articles they suggested about mentally preparing for a race.  One proved particularly helpful and it was about handling the “No Go Zone.”  That’s the third quarter of every race no matter the distance and it’s where runners drop the ball out of fear all the time.  We used to call the third lap in the Mile “Bizzarro World” because it was just the weirdest, disrupting thing.  You’ve all felt it, too, in 5K's up to Marathons.  It’s the moment you realize you’ve hit “only” the half-way point and you’re already feeling tired.  You’re not going to make it at this pace, so you’d better conserve a little to finish strong.  Bingo.  Precious seconds of race time tick away.

I re-read the article, committed pieces to memory so I could tell myself what to do when my body started telling me to “conserve” a little.

When I had warmed up, put on my racing spikes and stepped up to the line with my finger on my watch I was ready to roll.  I was nervous, but focusing hard on the plan and hoping to see sub-5 at the end of it.

We all took off as the gun sounded and two guys kind of jumped out.  The strides I had just done as warm ups were done at my race pace, so I knew I was a little fast but not much.  I dropped into third and sort of felt like I was coasting as we went by the first 100 right at 18 seconds.  We rounded the turn and the first place guy began to stretch it out, but my pace felt right so I stuck to the guy in front of me.  We got to the first 200 right on 40 seconds and heard the “three to go” call dead on 60 seconds.  We had slowed a little but I was right on pace and felt like I was barely making an effort at that point.   And that pace held nicely as I hit the next split perfectly at 1:40.  I was kind of excited that I was feeling so good and had this big guy in front of me to take the headwind that was coming up on the home stretch part of the track, but then he started to really slow down.  I began to step around him, but thought I’d give him the next 100 meters and take advantage of the draft.

We hit the line at 2:27.  Suddenly I was behind pace by 7 freaking seconds!  I jumped to the outside and moved around him.  Here I was in Bizzarro World, beginning to breathe a little hard and I HAD to accelerate.  After that last, slow 200 just holding onto my goal pace was going to feel very fast.  I followed the suggestions in that article and once I felt like I was back on pace I focused on just holding the cadence.  It took a little more effort as described, but not much more.  I hit the next turn at 3:06 or 7 which meant I was hitting the pace just right, but my shot at 5 flat was going away quick.  I decided to start pushing a little even though I had 600 more meters to go.  This time by when they guy shouted, “one to go!” I found I had only gained one measly second and I was at 3:46.  As planned I surged my way into the turn and immediately felt the rising tide of fatigue kicking in.  It’s funny how I’m beginning to actually feel the lactic acid build up in my muscles.

Because it’s running and you’re breathing so hard it feels differently than say, when you’re doing pushups to the point of failure.  In pushups you kind of click along at an even pace for a whole bunch then all of a sudden you just can’t pop up like you had been and you realize you’ve got maybe 5 more reps in you and the last couple are going to take forever or not even happen.  With all the oxygen deprivation going on it comes on a little subtler with running, but keeps accelerating getting worse and worse.  I swear it gets “louder” the longer I try to keep pushing at that point.  It’s like I can’t hear as much around me or even see as well because everything in me is focusing down on the pain instead of out on the track.

Well surging into that turn I felt my thighs really heat up, my stomach tighten and my arms get heavy.  I stopped accelerating, but didn’t slow down.  I tried to just hold the faster pace until I got to the last turn and focused on gulping down air deep; imagining my back and stomach flaring out to get as much oxygen as possible into my body so my muscles would have something besides themselves to burn up.  I didn’t look at my watch with 200 to go, because I was just hurting too much and besides, what was I going to learn about at that point?  It was hard enough just see the lanes ahead of me and the next split was the one that really mattered.

That last 100 was hard work.  That’s all it was.  Painful, exhausting but somehow still fast feeling.  I didn’t really get rubber legged until the last few strides but I was home then, so it didn’t matter.

I stopped my watch as I leaned across the line and stumbled up a few strides to get out of the way of the other runners coming in.  I was thinking my last lap had to be faster than 1:20 when I looked down and saw 5:01.

 

 

Damn.  So close!

But even while I was gasping and trying not to hork just then, I realized that made my last 400 a 1:15! Now that’s better than I was expecting and I knew it was because I had not gone out too fast.  Of course I did go way too slow at that one point in the first half of the race, but think about how that pans out.  If I had hit the 1100 meter mark at 3:40 as planned I would only have had to run a 1:21 to get the exact same time I just got by gutting out that 1:15.  I could’ve run a 1:19 and broken 5 minutes!  Of course I know that means I would have run a faster 1100 by six seconds, but those six seconds probably wouldn’t have made me feel that much different.  I would have put out the same effort in my final lap, struggled just as much, and probably would’ve been a little slower.  But I COULD’VE been slower and still wound up with a faster final time.

It’s all about pace and splits.  And of course the training.

Over the next couple of months I’ll continue to focus on those Lactate Turners which will push off that exhaustion feeling another 50 to 100 meters or so, and I know I’ll get down under that 5 minute mark and achieve something I thought was just a target to shoot for, not something I would really ever do.

Watching it Work

Prepare to get your Geek on.

Over the last couple of years I've put in a ton of work and not all of it was actually running.  If I went back and added up the hours I'm betting I've spent more time reading, studying, planning and evaluating than I have running.  A lot more.  Having kept my spreadsheets, logs and copious notes I can happily say that it is paying off nicely.  Very nicely.

Since I've experienced some great gains (went from a 5:38 1500 meters to a 5:16 in just two seasons) I'm inspired to do even more.  To learn more, push more and maybe actually reach my stretch goal of breaking 5 minutes in the mile.  But the more I train, and the more I read; the more I find out stuff I didn't know.  Thankfully, each time I learn something I immediately see how it's going to help me get faster.

This past week I went out and paid for a customized training plan from McMillan Running.  You've heard me talk about Greg McMillan and his calculator (check out his site here).  I've been using the calculator for a couple of years now along with the workout suggestions, and the price of a customized plan was very reasonable, so I bought one to get me through the State Games of America in early August.

Since I've been dishing out advice and stories I thought I'd share a nuance Greg explains for the workout I did this morning.  The difference between a Speed Workout and Cruise Intervals.

Both of these workouts involve intervals, and look very similar on the surface.  However, they train you for two very different things, both of which you need to race fast.

I've done a number of Speed Workouts where I run 5 or 6 800's at a fast pace with about the same amount of rest as there is running.  1 to 1 ratio is what Bart Yasso recommends for marathoners when doing this workout.  I tended to run an 800, then walk a little bit and jog a 400.  Then I would stand still for a few seconds to get me to 3 minutes of rest or so, then go hard again.  Last week I did 5 x 800's and they were all around 2:46 with the last two faster.  My legs would just burn earlier and earlier in the reps until I was just completely rubber legging it down the last 50 meters in my last rep.  Super hard feeling workout.

In Cruise Intervals like this morning, I ran 6 x 800's only they were all over 3:00 on purpose.  Specifically, I ran 3:02, 3:06, 3:05, 3:04, 3:03, 2:59.  The object is to make them "comfortably hard" but make each one a tad faster than the one before it.  I sort of blew the first one, because I wasn't paying as much attention to my splits and went out a little fast.  So these are decidedly slower than my Speed Workouts, but not a ton different.  The next difference was the rest.  I walked maybe 25 to 50 meters after each rep, then jogged to finish out 200m.  Without stopping I rolled right into the next rep.  The effect is that my breathing and heart rate, never really came down like it does during a Speed Workout.  I was still panting as I began each rep.

Now instead of my legs burning as I was finishing each 800, it was my lungs and heart.  I was just gasping the last couple of times and right after the last rep, which I pushed to the 2:59, I had those sudden dry heaves.  That was the only time I stood still during the workout and it was only for a second or two during each heave.  I had to keep jogging to finish the workout.

To top it all off, Greg had me doing 3 x 200's and those are supposed to be at my goal race pace for my 1500.  The goal is 5 flat, so that's 40 second 200's.  Even though I was super winded, my legs felt great so I wound up doing those in 36, 35, and 33 seconds.  Once again there was no standing still and only a 200 meter jog between each.

Two similar workouts that train two different things.  The Speed Workout is designed to work my legs and develop strength and speed.  The Cruise Intervals workout is designed to increase my VO2 max which is basically how efficiently my body processes oxygen for energy.  Instead of so much muscle development, this develops the cardiovascular system.  It makes it easier to run faster longer.

Combining these two types of workouts means I will get faster, and it will feel easier.  They feed each other.

The 200's at the end help me develop the ability to kick even when fatigued as well as make me mentally tougher under those stressful moments of finishing a race like the 1500.

Having done both types of these workouts I can tell you they feel completely different, so I know they're doing what they're supposed to do.

If you're looking to improve your pace, even for a Marathon, combining these types of workouts will make a huge difference in your race times.

Happy Running!

 

A little lesson in humility

The problem with having a blog is that you have to write stuff on it.  Otherwise, you probably should not have a blog.  I should not imply that there is a problem with having a blog.  The problem lies in the fact that if you have one, you should write on it.  Even if people totally ignore it.  With all that being said, what happens if you actually have nothing to say or write, yet you still feel obligated to write or say something.  Well, I guess we are about to find out.  I get tired of talking about myself.  Nobody may believe that, but it is true.  Me, me, me.  Look at me run.  Listen to me run.  Read about me running.  I think I will try to take the focus off me for today and talk about others. 

I have lost 14 pounds in the last couple months.  7 in the last month.  I am still eating well but just cut out most of the junk.  All of the junk.  I miss salt the most.  I have found that I used so much salt in the past that going cold turkey made everything taste like nothing.  A steak tasted like a shoe.  I've never eaten a shoe but I can imagine it would be fairly tasteless.  I used to love cold, leftover steak.  Pull it out of the fridge, pour salt on it, take a bite, pour more salt on it.  Etc, etc...ad infinitum.  <<<< I like using Latin phrases and words when I can.  It makes me look more smarter, I do believe.  As in, I used to eat steak fat, pork rinds, a carton of Ding Dongs, et al.  Et al is one of favorite Latin situations.  Now, I think I remember an episode of The Beverly Hillbillies where Jethro was speaking Latin.  Here's what I remember.  Granny, "Jethro, where did all the vittles git to."  Jethro, "Dang Granny, I et em all."  I learned a lot from the shows of the sixties. 

My running seems to be getting better.  I am definitely feeling more motivated again and started setting realistic goals.  For a pretty long time, I was eating lots of food, et al, and not running in a focused manner, ad infinitum, and sitting around wondering why I wasn't getting faster and/or losing weight.  Ibid.  Goals do not reach themselves.  Motivation mostly comes from yourself.  Something has to click.  I feel that something finally clicked.  I know that when I push myself, all aspects of my life seem to get a bit better.  Under acheiving makes one feel like crap. 

I will leave everyone with this.  Oofum, Daglus, Mootanufus.  This in Latin means, You do not get stronger without getting stronger, hard work pays off over time.  The people who made up the Latin language had a way of condensing  many thoughts and words into little, concise phrases.  For example, when Caesar said, "Et tu, Brutus?", I would have said, "What the hell Brutus?  Your stabbing of me is not only leaving me in physical pain but my feelings are hurt as well.  If you really did not like me, maybe we could have sat down and had a talk.  Now, please stop stabbing me because I feel as though I could die soon."  Instead, Caesar just said, "Et tu, Brutus?"  Short, to the point, remembered for centures.  If I could do that, my posts would be about three lines of verbiage.    So, to sum and conclude, I say again,"Oofum, Daglus, Mootanufus."

"Running keeps me sane."  House Vandeweghe