2013 MCM 10K

Well, I got another cool shirt and finisher’s medal this weekend.  The Marine Corps Marathon and MCM 10K were this past weekend up in DC and I ran the 10K.  Over the past several years a group of folks have gotten together to run that race, some from Mt. Vernon High School in northern Virginia and sometimes folks from other places.  Due to various reasons the group dwindled down to just me and Teri who always hosts the overnight guests at her home and throws a fun party to boot!

That part was no different with the theme being Oktoberfest.  We had brats and knockwurst, sauerkraut, schnitzel, and too much beer.  I, of course, had the obligatory tequila shot for luck as well.  We had a great time around the fire pit laughing and telling stories before calling it a night and hitting the sack around 11:30.  After all, Teri and I had to get up at 5:30 the next morning because we had a race to run.  Responsible adults.  That’s us.

And that's us on the Metro heading to the race.

Earlier in the day I went to packet pick up and got to enjoy the sunny weather by standing in line outside the big pavilion because they had no power and couldn’t activate people’s bibs.  What normally takes 30 minutes or so stretched to hours, and when I came out with my stuff the line had easily tripled from where I first got into it.  A friend of mine from the Outer Banks said he was there for over 4 hours getting his bib.  Yeesh.

 

I realized on my drive up that I have had the ability to record some of my blog stuff in video and there are the amazing results to prove it!  Exciting, huh?  So I did more.

Here I am at the starting line:

Yes, I wore a suit.  When I did this race a couple of years ago I wore a tutu just because Tina had an extra one and didn’t want it to go to waste, so this year I decided to go the other direction.  You’d think no one had ever done that before with all the comments I got.  I must’ve been called “Barney!!” and heard “Suit Up!!” a dozen times.

Now here are 7,603 runners and one above average singer:

 

Here’s a quick update from the beginning of the race after I’d bobbed and weaved through a whole lot of people who weren’t going to get anywhere near that 40 to 49 minute estimated finish time sign that was next to that area of the starting grid:

 

It was a beautiful day, but much warmer than what the weather was calling for even the night before, so I kind of got hot what with wearing a jacket, tie and running tights.  Yes, I wore running tights.  I didn’t want to find out what sort of chaffing I could get from suit pants.  Still, the Marines along the way were great and so was the crowd at the finish.  I took a few pictures and face timed with my daughter to see what she was up to.  She’s got an audition coming up in Virginia Beach and told me that the Virginia Repertory Theater was doing Tartuffe and Olympus on My Mind.  I might audition for one of those.  It’s been forever since I’ve done a play, but I have to see when the rehearsals and performances will happen before I can jump in.

 Marines on the course.  Gave me a "Suit Up!" and "Oorah!"

 

Water station volunteers

 

Guess where this was taken 

 

 

The last mile

The finish of this race is the same as the marathon and was definitely designed by a Marine.  It’s about 150 meters up the steepest hill on the course with a 90 degree turn thrown into the middle of it.  Still, with the music blaring, crowd in the bleachers cheering, and the Marines urging you on while they line the course, it’s a great way to cap off a big race.  This year the announcer even called out my name as I covered the last few strides.

 

A guy I ran with for the last mile and I traded cameras to take pictures of each other in front of the monument as the official photogs took their shots.  I must’ve been asked a dozen times if had run the race in my suit.  I always smiled and said, “yes” but secretly thought, “No.  I just tossed it on after I finished and pinned my number to the outside of the buttoned front.”  I’ll have to wear a suit more often, though because I got to meet and talk to bunches of people just because I had it on.  One Marine named Mitch came over and introduced himself and told me he thought it was cool and impressive that I did that.  He just ran the race as well while wearing a 40 pound flak vest and pack.

I just said, “Dude.”

2013 Monument Avenue 10K Results

There.  That title should help with some web searches out there...

What a terrific weekend!

As I approached this year's Monument Avenue 10K I felt sure I could beat my time from last year, which was a 44:04, because I knew I'd been training with more distance and tempo runs.  Optimism.  Then I looked at that pace, 7:04 per mile, and how in my last three tempo runs I couldn't hold a sub 7 minute mile for more than 3 miles.  Hell, my last one I only made two miles!  7:04 for over six miles seemed a little out of reach.  Anxiety.

So I pulled up my training log from last year and found I hadn't run crap over 7 miles back then, and I've been getting in at least one 7+ mile run or workout in every week since January.  Optimism.  I also have been able to negative split my 10 mile runs finishing them at about 7:30 pace overall and even got a couple of sub 7 final miles in there.  More Optimism.

Then on Thursday night something weird happened I still can't explain.  I came home from having dessert with my grand kids and their parents, walked upstairs and almost couldn't get back down!  I had this very sharp, stabbing pain in my left heel where my Achilles tendon connects to my heel.  I tried stretching it some and that was horrible.  I hadn't twisted it, strained it or anything and yet it was if I had a very bad case of tendinitis.  Anxiety.

I took a handful of ibuprofen, and put a bag of Brussels sprouts (I couldn't find any ice packs) on my heel and watched some TV.

It felt a little better.

Before I got in bed I smeared a glob of Blue Emu cream on it and went to sleep.

It still hurt the next day, but only when I tried to stretch it out or walk down stairs.  Walking and even hopping a little didn't bother it too much but it felt hot.  I decided that after work and hitting the expo for packet pickup I would buy some ice and soak this piece-of-shit-old-ankle-that-got-injured-for-no-damned-reason when I got home at night.

During the day my leg didn't feel too bad, but I was careful not to stress it and just limped whenever I had to go down some stairs.  Fortunately, the expo was all on one floor and I was able to move around that with no problem.

I love running expos.  All the people (read that "all the cute running girls"), the energy, and the stuff!  I love stuff.  Especially buying it.  And I found one piece of stuff that I had hoped to find and picked it up pronto.  It's called The Stick.

The Stick is a massage tool that looked to be a very effective piece of plastic and fiberglass.  And all the cool kids at Indoor Nationals had them, so I knew I should have one, too.

The sales people they had at the booth were actually very knowledgeable about physiology and massage therapy.  I told the lady about my Achilles and she said, "you're going to roll this up and down the back and both sides of your upper calf."

"Ummm. OK."

"When you do that you're going to find a trigger point (sharp pain) in one of these three spots," as she pointed to the back of my calf muscle under my knee and off to the outside about three inches below my knee.  "Those spots are where knots form that tighten up your calf and restrict blood flow to your tendon."

Damn if she didn't nail it.

That spot on the outside of my calf made me jump when I hit it.  I went more gently and after a few rubs it worked out a little.

I bought The Stick.

Now I look like the cool kids when I stretch after a run.

On my way out of the expo I met a guy named Daniel Komen.  He was manning a booth with a sign "Train With the Kenyans."  Google Daniel Komen.  Holy cow.

I was standing there chatting with the only human ever to put two sub 4 minute miles back to back.  The world record he set in the two mile back in the 90's still stands, along with his world record in the 3000.

He was super nice and he and his booth-mate David Cheromei run a running camp that is put together as part of a mission trip experience to raise money for the school that Komen started for orphans in Kenya.  My wife and I, along with some friends of ours in our church in Manteo, sponsor a child through Heart for Africa and he was familiar with that and spoke highly of it.  He asked me to come and support his school and said the kids get a lot out of seeing people there to help them and run with them.  He smiled and said, "Kenya make you fastman!"  I've got all their info for doing a trip to Kenya for the camp and then working with the kids at the school or doing grounds/building work while there in hopes I could actually do that some day.

Daniel told me he would autograph my bib number and I got a picture with him.

So cool!

 

So it was home to use The Stick and ice both ankles since I discovered bad knots in both of them.

In high school I had a nice case of tendinitis in the same area and the Trainer had me do a little icing routine using a big bucket and the jacuzzi.  I shoved my leg down into a bucket of 1/3 ice and 2/3 water for two minutes, then immediately shove that leg into the jacuzzi where the water temperature was about 100 degrees.  Sounds painful doesn't it?  It is.  Ridiculously painful.  But I only had to do it twice in two days and the inflammation was gone and I raced on it like nothing had ever happened.

I don't have a jacuzzi and I remembered how much moving into that hot water felt.  I figured I'd do without all that this time and just do the ice part.  So I dumped about half a large bag of ice into a paint bucket and filled it with water.  Then I grabbed a beer and used my phone as a stop watch.  Three times in and out and that should do it.

 

 

I soaked for two minutes in and five minutes out, then just kept them in there for a full five minutes the last time.  Geez, that was something.  Brrrrrr.

 

Then I massaged with The Stick, popped a couple more ibuprofen, rubbed on some more Blue Emu then went to bed.

 

When I woke up I felt fine.

 

Moved around the room.  Stretched.  My calves felt sort of tight and sore liked I'd worked them out hard, but there wasn't any sharp pain, even when I walked downstairs.

 

Sweet!

 

The race itself went about perfect.  Just like the weather.  55 degrees, sunny and a very light breeze.

 

I decided to do this race differently than I usually do, which is out fast and see how long I can hang on, and do the negative split thing I'd been doing on my long runs.  According to the things I've been reading it's best to go out for the first quarter of whatever your running at a pace that is slower than what you actually want to average for the race.  Then you steadily speed up, but just barely.  It makes it seem easier and it feels like I always have something in the tank along with speed if I want it.  I was surprised as I got to mile 2 at 7:10 pace and had been telling myself to take it easy.  Hold back.

 

At the 5k mark and the turnaround point I was at 7:04 and felt very strong.  It was also the only point where I got a good picture.  I took about five during the run and they all looked like crap.  But this one looks cool:

 



 

Hitting the turn hard

 

 

I pressed the first half mile after the turn and didn't get passed again the whole way.  I would look at my Garmin and watch as the average time dropped steadily.  At mile 5 I was dead on 35 minutes and a 7 flat pace.  I was going to PR this bitch.

 

I reminded myself of how dead I felt last year at this point and how hard I was fighting just to hang on.  "Completely different," I said out loud.  A guy next to me glanced over and I continued, "compared to last year.  I feel great this year!"  He smiled and grunted, and slowly faded off behind me.

 

I was grinning as I looked ahead and started pumping.  My hands were relaxed (except for holding my phone), my legs were driving along, and I kept on accelerating.

 

I covered that last mile in 6:26 and was smiling ear to ear when I came across the finish line.

 

I swear there are very few feelings in this world like the one I get when I run fast.  I don't even know how to describe it except that I always remember that day I was laying at the top of my stairs exhausted, sick and weak, then compare it to what I was doing in the last strides of that race.

 

And I just smile.

 

Rest is an important part of exercise

I took a couple of days off.

My hips hurt, my legs felt tired and during my last few runs I’ve had little pains show up.  Both Achilles tendons have felt hot or tight here and there.  My glutes, or at least that tendon at the top of the hamstring, definitely have a little inflammation thing going.  With the intensity of my training the last two months along with all the heavy work I’ve been doing around the house on nights and weekends had taken its toll.

None of this is anything I couldn’t ignore and keep going.  I’m sure I could cut my pace back quite a bit on my easy days, still keep my mileage up, and heal up just fine, but these are things I shouldn’t ignore.

My coach during my “comeback”, Robin, once told me that during the peak times of her training she actually set her schedule over a two week period as opposed to weekly.  That way she could keep speed workouts at least ten days apart to allow her body time to fully recover and adapt.  I’ve really fought that advice.  I keep laying stuff out by the week and definitely squeeze those HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) runs closer than seven days apart.  I’ve had some weeks when I did two of those workouts.  I’m pretty sure I do that because I never put them that far apart when I was 18, so why should I now?

Because I’m 49, not 18, that’s why.

I’ve gotten much faster than I was in January, but I feel like I’m struggling now as opposed to feeling stronger.  Not the way I should be feeling with less than two weeks to my first competition.

So I took these two days to just rest the legs and joints, and it’s time to lay out my training to get me through May, June and July anyways.  I’m going to try and pay more attention to the spacing of my workouts and force myself to go easier on my “easy” days.   The trick is figuring out what to do on the days that I’m not planning anything intense.

I’ve found precious little that talks about anything other than specific workouts that will build endurance, speed or stamina.  There’s plenty out there on workout ideas and plans, but the workouts always add up to something like 10 to 15 miles of running and then they just toss in a weekly mileage total of 30 to 40 with no explanation of how you get there.  A couple of ten mile runs? Four 5 mile runs?  What?

I do have one good source, 10K & 5K Running, Training, & Racing: The Running Pyramid by David Holt, and he actually lays out nice schedules that show what to do each week for about a year in order to peak for a one month period for those types of events.  That’s helpful.  He only runs four days a week, but other folks I read suggest five days a week.  I think I'm finding out that I should stick to four ...

So I've had two days off and tomorrow morning I get on the track again to do a pyramid workout.  400, 800, 1200, 800, 400.  This will help with my stamina (endurance at speed) since that's where I feel the weakest right now.  After that I'll have a couple of fartlek runs, then real easy to nothing  by the middle of next week.

Sunday morning is the 800.

And I'll be wearing these!!

 

I was not in the market for racing spikes, I have a pair and seriously how many does an old guy with this hobby need?, but I had won an award from GM for work and that came with a gift card.  Just a couple of days after getting the award notification I got an email from a member of our track team and these babies were on sale for $20!!  So I added two more pairs that were on sale and am donating my two older pairs to the thrift store in Manteo.

Here are the other two pairs.  One for shorter, faster training runs and 10K or longer races...

and the others for longer training runs.

Now to just lay out what all those runs will be over the summer....

Training Mistakes

Ed -

My wife got me subscription to Runner's World for Christmas and I was SO looking forward to get my first issue.  I LOVE Runner's World but haven't had a subscription since high school.  However, they messed up their information and mailed the first two issues down to Wilmington, NC to where my wife ordered them.  Goofy.  However, it lead to a nice little bonus.

When the publisher got the address thing straight they decided to give me a free subscription to the Running Times which is a magazine primarily targeting elite runners.  The articles are still really well written and interesting, but all of them have a lot more specific "how to" type of information.  I highly recommend it to anyone who's been trying to train smarter and better.

This month there was an article by Pete Magill about The Dirty Dozen which is about the 12 most common mistakes people make when training.  I devoured it and found right away that I had actually learned a few things from 2009 when I trained for and ran my first ever marathon in just six months.  However, I also caught a couple of things that had me immediately hopping on the computer and pulling up my spreadsheet.  Sure enough I had a couple of things to adjust to my plan.

The first thing was Mistake Number 4: Recover Inadequately.

In my zeal for lots of workouts and increased mileage I had done a poor job of scheduling my rest appropriately.  I happened to feel that this week after several days of hard running in a row I decided to take a couple of days off because of the way my right hip felt.  At least I was paying attention to my body and I'm sure I did the right thing.

I went to the spreadsheet and clicked on each week and looked at what workouts I was doing and what I was doing the day after each one.  I had to make several changes to make sure there was either a rest day or a very easy day after each Speed Workout or Tempo/Steady State run.  I feel really good about how the weeks look now for the next month now and my mileage is still increasing the whole time as it should.

The other mistake I was making I began to fix this morning.

Mistake Number 2: Make All Runs 'Medium Runs.'  I thought I had this one handled, but after reading the whole explanation I realized I was missing a big piece that I would regret later.

Each different type of workout is designed to develop a particular aspect of your body and ability to run some distance fast.  And every workout has target paces based on current and goal race times.  Doing a workout wrong; either by changing the number of reps, the length or type of rest, or the pace pretty much sabotages what that workout was supposed to do which screws up your progression and development.  My screw up was that I was flat out missing an important workout each week even though I thought I was getting it in there.  The Steady State run.

See, I'm pretty much a short distance speed type guy.  I love being on the track.  I love going fast, fast and doing interval type running.  I don't particularly like racing a 10K or longer since it hurts.  I was getting plenty of speed and sprint type work done, I had my long run each week, easy runs and my Tempo or long intervals.  But there was the mistake.  My long intervals and Tempo runs weren't long enough to do what they're supposed to do: make it easier to run longer at a faster pace.  Being able to do a fast 5K is going to make it easier for me to hold my 95% effort for a full mile.

The Steady State run is an entire run lasting somewhere between 20 to 40 minutes at about 85% of race pace.  This is where the McMillan Calculator comes in handy since I was a History Major and couldn't do this if somebody paid me to.  I figured I could run about a 20:30 (6:30 pace) 5K right now (based on my last flu ridden race and a healthy one last fall) and the calculator says I should do a Steady State run somewhere between 6:55 pace and 7:13 pace.  But I haven't been doing any runs like that at all, so when I stepped out last week and pushed that 2 mile Tempo I realized I was in no condition to hit the recommended paces and call it only an 85% effort.  I was almost horking for Pete's sake.

So I went back to the spreadsheet and changed all of my Tempo runs to either a Steady State run or a longer Tempo.  Nothing shorter than a mile.  I also set distance targets that were at the correct pace, but at the short end of the duration since I'm just beginning that training.  Today I ran five miles, but made sure the first three were at the correct pace and was able to hold 7:09 pace for the first three, then I had to back off because one long steep uphill wrapping up at mile 2.5 had me dry heaving on the hoof for a bit.  I didn't all together collapse and did a 7:33 pace the last two so I had a 7:18 average for the run.  Not horrible, but not 85% either.

That's okay.  Next week my Tempo will be two 2-mile efforts with a mile rest in between, and the following week will be another five miles where I try to hold sub 7:10 for the first four miles.

By making these two adjustments: correctly doing a long run workout and building in appropriate recovery days, I'm filling the holes from previous year's training efforts.

I feel very confident in what I'll accomplish this year!

So find yourself a Running Times and get reading, but if you're looking for another great resource for running check out the American Running Association website.  Our friend, Darren, brought it to our attention and I cruised around the site today and it is flat out full of cool resources and articles that will help anyone run better longer.

A post not about running, training, P90X, cross-training or any other super searchable words

So let me tell you how things work in my house.

My wife told me the tank on our toilet seemed to be sloping backwards.  I took a quick look at it and tell her it's because it's an old style toilet with only two bolts.  These things sit up straight because the rubber seal between the tank and the bowl has four little feet on them and after awhile they get squishy and it slopes forward or back.  "I just need to replace it," I say, "Only take fifteen minutes."

"We'll stop by Lowe's after church," she said while brushing her teeth.

We get into Lowe's and walk around to the plumbing supply area and I can't find the part I want.  I start describing it to the guy (there's always 'the guy' at Lowe's) and he says, "Yeah, that's an old toilet. We'd need to order that."

Debbie pipes up and says, "Let's just get a new toilet."

Fine.

So we cruise around two aisles and pick out a new one.  On sale!

"Hey," Debbie says, "We've talked about remodeling the bathroom anyways.  I hate that shower unit."

The Old Shower

"Sure," I chime in.  "We can tile the walls, get a nice tub and new fixtures. Let's see if we can find a tub that will match the toilet."

So we walk around the corner and immediately find a great one on sale because it's a display model and they were discontinuing the model.  There were only two left and we grabbed the left hand drain one and put it on one of those big ol' trolleys, leaving the toilet on it's own little one.  Fortunately, the designs of the two looked remarkably similar so we were really pleased with our luck.

From there we hit the flooring department to look for tile, and went to the piles of them they had on clearance.  There were several different kinds and I had figured we only needed about 60 tiles.  We narrowed it down based on color wanting to keep it fairly neutral in case we decide to sell or rent the place in the future.  The tiles we settled on were only 58 cents a piece which is just ridiculously cheap, so we decided we'd bump up the design a little bit with some sort of accents.

Normally in showers where I'm doing 12 x 12 tiles I'll go about 5 feet (tiles) then rotate the tiles at 45 degrees.  Makes a nice look.  In this case we also picked up some cool glass accents that I'll use to create a 3" divide between the first 5 tiles and the angled ones at the top.  It's going to be really nice.

So we haul everything home after miraculously getting it into the Equinox I'm driving right now.  Then from there I got it all upstairs.

We decided to just set it all in the guest room because it was going to take me a bit to get all this work done since I was only going to be able to work at nights and on weekends.

Notice how that one box of tiles is opened?  Bottom right of the picture there.  Well Debbie pulled some out and carried them downstairs.  I get down there and she's laying them out on the foyer floor.

"I really hate this old slate in here."

"Only because it's hideous," I reply, "So what are you thinking?"

"How much would it cost to tile the downstairs?"

"I figure we've got just under 790 square feet down here, so not even $500!  I'll call Lowe's and see if they've got enough of those tiles left."

They did and delivered them two days later.  41 boxes of 'em.

While waiting for the tiles to get there I made some attempts to get the slate up.  No dice.  They were installed into a bed of wet cement as opposed to be glued down to a slab.  The kitchen has tile that would pop right up, but then I'd have to level that floor with the foyer.  Same was true about the ugly laminate we have in the dining and living room areas. The laminate was glued down, so it wasn't going anywhere and was a nice flat surface. I checked the bottoms of doors and measured the dishwasher and decided I could just go right over the top of everything.  Not the best way to go about things, but sometimes the most cost-effective.

From there we talked about the layout and snapped some lines to follow to ensure the pattern matched up perfectly from the foyer and around the hall and kitchen.  Then I started removing doors and hauling stuff out of the kitchen, like the big hutch full of dishes, cookbooks and glassware.

Now our house looks like Oscar Madison's place.

 

Dishes on every flat surface

 

Tools on the table and floor

 

 

 

Everything shoved out of the way for the layout work

 

Doors and tile all over

 

Well, since I didn't have any of my tile saws up here I decided to get started doing all I could without cutting anything or putting myself in a tough spot to get a tile under a door jamb when I go to put those pieces in.  I've done that before and it's a big mess and pain in the butt because those pieces have to slide under the cuts I make in the jambs so I've got to leave room to slide the tiles.  And this way I could get that critical layout work done as well as get the dishwasher out of the way.

 

I got a long way prior to going to Manteo for the weekend and coming back with a saw which I needed to use to get things finished under the dishwasher.  Once that was wrapped up and put back together I got to get all the dirty dishes out of the sink and cleaned up at last.

 

So here's where I am right now:

 

Kitchen Floor

 

Foyer Floor

 

Connecting the two in the Dining Area

 



And here's where the toilet is that started it all:

 

... sigh.

 

"It'll take about fifteen minutes."



Runner's World 10K 2012

Ed -

Finally met Bob this weekend.

Not nearly as anti-climactic as I thought it might be.

Of course I jest.

And I speak in short, overly enunciated and arrogantly condescending tones as I write.

-shew-

Have no idea why I went that direction, but I was hanging out with Bob all weekend.

It was an absolute blast.

I drove up Friday with a couple of other high school friends who actually knew Bob in school and liked him a bunch.  Back then I only knew he was super cool, had great hair and was the fastest white guy I'd seen run track.  This weekend proved he is freaking fun to be around.  A bad influence, sure, but still a lot of fun.

It started with a brief greeting outside a Pennsylvania bar and Bob was all ready a blur:

 

 

From there we had dinner with a group of folks from his running club and that started off with a shot of tequila and a Smithwicks Ale or twelve.  I figured it was important to carb up for the next day's 10K.  And apparently I thought I needed a lot of protein because I ordered half of a dead cow for my dinner.  Who knew anyone even served 86 ounce strips?  Phenomenal.

 

The people were really cool and it was a fun evening.  Everyone was friendly, funny and were seriously into running.  One guy I sat next to did the warm up run that day with Shalane Flanagan the Olympian!  Very cool.  Here's the crowd:

 

 

 

But with the race the next day we decided to call it quits early and get some rest.  I think it was around 1:30 am when we finally passed out in the hotel.

 

The location of the race was Bethlehem, PA and started at the old steel mill.  What had been abandoned after the collapse of the industry here has become a vibrant center of the town and hosts concerts and other events like this race.  The bands were great, the venue incredible and the course was challenging.  Up, up, and then a little downhill through Lehigh University, historic Bethlehem, by Moravian College, and across the Lehigh Canal.

 

 

 

 

 Here's the mill and the registration tents.

Even the porta-potties were in nice shape (although I avoided them as previously instructed by Bob) ...and a decent distance from the actual race....Bob was so happy.

I had been warned that there was a lot of hills, and I wasn't disappointed.  The first three miles followed the pattern: run up hill, turn, run up hill, turn, run up hill.  As we approached a tight turn I said to the runners next to me, "Boy I hope there's a hill around this corner, but what do you think are the odds of that happening?"

He just half grunted a laugh, then we ran up another quarter mile hill.

Seeing as how the finish line was back where we started, I figured we'd get to run downhill, too at some point.  Yep, I'm smart like that.  Figured it out all by myself.

I was really enjoying the cool old houses, and pretty streets so I decided to call my wife and share it with her.

"Hey hon."

"So, how was the race?"

"I'm still doing it.  About mile 4 right now."

"You're running and calling me at the same time?  You're going to trip."

I told her about the beautiful town and fun time I was having.  She told me that was nice but I should shut up and run.  I could call her later.  She's smart like that.

I snapped a self portrait . . .  because, I'm vain like that, and decided it was downhill from here, so it was time to do some running.  I pushed up the pace and checked my garmin now and then, and for the last mile and a half or so I clicked along at about 6:30.  Felt really good.

Here's some shots along the way:

The start.  Captain Obvious strikes again.

That's the finish area.  All the people getting their medals.

...and me at the finish line.  Phone in one hand and a cowbell in the other.  I brought the cowbell along to cheer for the volunteers (nobody does that!) and one particular race fan.  He's the son of one of Bob's (and now one of mine) friends.  I rang it, then gave it to him to thank him for coming out.  What fun.

The night of the race we got to go to a Halloween party and it was a total blast.  We ate ridiculously well . . .

 

in this house with gorgeous old oak floors . . .

 

 

and saw some of the funniest costumes I'd ever seen . . .

 

 

The buttons they're wearing say, "It was a tie."  Bwahahahahahah!!

 

 

All in all a wonderful race weekend and just one more reason to get out and run!

 

 

 



Succombing to Saucony

Ed -

Did I spell that right?  Succombing?  Spell check says, "Oh HELLZ no! It's 'succumbing.'  Cracker ass mutha f&%$#^."  I have the Detroit 2.3 version of spell check.

I got the silent "B" so that's like almost nailing it.  9.5 biotch!

Bob mentioned his Kinvaras in his last post and I chimed in that I owned a pair as well.  I bought the Kinvara 3's at Dick's Sporting goods early this summer because I have a need to buy a new pair of running shoes every six months.  I don't wear them out nearly that fast, but I miss that new shoe smell so much.

Actually, I have a geeky runner reason to do it.  I alternate shoes every run.  Doesn't matter what sort of run it is, but I like to have two different pairs of two different brands and switch back and forth.  The logic for this comes from hearing about how running shoes with tons of support and structure are actually bad for us over time and weaken our own God given structural support for our knees, hips, etc.  What I figure is that if I rotate between shoes, I'm getting a different sort of support structure and my body is rotating back and forth adjusting for it, ergo no weakening!

I just used Latin in a sentence.  Twice!  Etc and ergo.  Sweet.  My daughter who was a Latin wiz in high school would be so proud.  Side story:  she came with me to my 30th high school reunion and wound up having a blast.  We went on a tour of my old school and they had this huge mural of our seal and motto painted on this one wall.  My best friend from school, Dwayne, was talking to his daughters about it.

"What's 'Esse Non Videri' mean, dad?" One of them asked him.

He didn't hesitate, "I Didn't Do It."  My daughter's head snapped around at me like I should say something. I just shrugged.

So I rotate shoes and I think it helps me out from a physiological standpoint.  The fact that I buy a new pair every six months also means I retire a pair every year with about 400 to 450 miles on them.  I read someplace that's a good thing because it helps prevent injuries.  Bottom line, though, I get to buy new shoes every six months!

It's like a mini Christmas party for me, and, yes, I'm goofy like that.

The Kinvara 3's I have now are the blue and bright green version.  Voila:

Here they are situated in juxtaposition to my older and more preferred pair of Saucony's; my A4's.

Damn, that was one adult sounding sentence.

I do like the Kinvaras, but I love those A4's.  They are so light and almost zero drop in them from heel to toe.  I bought them for road races and to help move me to more minimal shoes (again with the get away from structure theme) and ran in them for a year now.  I still use them for 10K races just because they feel so stinking good, but the heel on the left one is beginning to show some wear.

It's really not horrible, but I don't like that it's so far back.  I've been told my form is good, but obviously I scuff that left heel now and again.  The right shoe shows nothing like that.  Still, the heel is almost flat so I put them on to race even if they're no longer in the training rotation.

I've never been a real brand fanatic,  but Saucony gots a good thing going and I'm probably going to pick up another pair of the A4's next time out.

Now for a random picture of one of my dinners when my wife is out of town.

. . . and, yes, I'm in front of the TV.

Just Running

Ed -

I've been feeling a little lost the last few weeks.  Since the track season ended (a little abruptly due to my ribs) and I've moved into a rest phase, I just don't seem to have a grip on what I'm supposed to be doing each morning during my runs.  I had been doing so many different interval workouts, distance runs to keep some endurance in me, that now that I'm only running four times a week and it's all long distance I just feel . . . I don't know.  Bored.

This is where having a goal and a plan pays off.

Before my little running tour I did for y'all last week I sat down with my spreadsheet and mapped out the next couple of months.  Fortunately, I have a 5K (The Colony Lost and Found 5K) I plan to race in there along with a 10K (Runner's World 10K) the week after which will I'll be running with Bob and some of his running club members up in PA.  That gave me the excuse to put a couple of interval workouts back on the calendar.  It also had me dig back into a book I've been reading called 10K & 5K Running, Training & Racing: The Running Pyramid.  The title is as about as long as the book.

It's by David Holt, who I believe is a Brit, and it's written with a high level of science and explanations.  Not boring, but being so ADD I have to be really focused to read a lot and retain any of it.

I also had my little training folder out with all sorts of workouts, and white papers I had printed off the web regarding training along with my spreadsheets of my training over the last 4 years.  Thanks to keeping that stuff and making notes I could really see where I would focus on one particular thing, or just did one particular thing because I didn't know any better, and it helped me plan what I should be doing now.

And for now what I'm supposed to be doing can be a little boring.  Distance three to four times a week.  Nothing shorter than five miles, alternating longer with shorter days, working up to nothing shorter than eight miles by November.  However, it's recommended that those runs are more than just steady state runs, and I should still work in an interval session at least every other week.

Thank God.  I'd only been at this for a couple of weeks and I was going stir crazy.

So Saturday was the 11 plus mile running tour I did at about 7:45 pace.  Sunday was rest, and Monday was a Tempo run.  Now this is something that you've probably heard me say I was missing this past summer.  Greg McMillan calls this training Stamina Training.  He divides conditioning up into three groups: Speed, Stamina, and Endurance.  It took me this racing season to really figure out what he meant, but Stamina and Endurance are really different.  Endurance is the ability to run for an hour or more at a good pace.  Stamina is being able to run at your lactate threshold for a mile up to a 5K.  For instance, that last 1500 I did my first 400 in 72 seconds and felt fantastic. But by 800 meters my arms were tired, I could barely breathe and my legs felt like lead.  Lactic acid had flooded my body and I wasn't trained to process it better.  I ran a 5:21.  Just a month before that I went out at a 78 first 400, felt great and held pace to finish in a 5:16.  Those six seconds in that first lap were beyond my Stamina training and I boinked.

I had not done any Tempo runs or long enough intervals as part of my workouts.  It was all Speed or Endurance.  And we need all three to be fast.

This past Monday was a Tempo run.  I did a four in seven.  One mile easy at about 8:30 pace, then I pushed up with a goal of doing the next four at 7:20.  Then I would run the last two miles easy as well, but no slower than nine minutes to force me to deal with the lactic build up.

The four mile section of my route that I ran starts out fairly flat, slopes downhill for a quarter mile, then up a steep hill for a quarter mile, then flat again to a long rolling but mostly downhill mile then finishes with a half mile back up hill.  I felt like I was pushing it pretty hard, but held on and ran those four in 29:04 or 7:16 pace.  Then I backed down for half a mile to about nine minute pace then pushed back up the last mile and half with an average of 8:30 for the last two.  Really good run.

One day of rest, a little upper body and core stuff at home, then on the track this morning for the first time in a month.  And it felt like it.

I ran 800's.  I only did four, but they were 3:04, 3:01, 3:01 and 2:59 with about 2:50 rest between each.  I didn't puke but made that nasty gagging noise after the last one.  I could have definitely made myself puke with a 5th one, but there was a guy on the track this morning with me running some 100 and 200 repeats, and I didn't want to freak him out.  Plus, this is supposed to be my rest phase so I'm not out killing myself.  "Less Intense" is my mantra at the moment.

I met him afterwards.  His name is Ben and he's going to be running the Philadelphia Marathon in November; his second one and first in over 20 years.  We talked a bit about Yasso's 800's and he is planning to be back out on the track in a couple of weeks to run his last workout of those before the race.  I'll be resting that day with an easy 3 to 5 mile run since it's the Wednesday before the 10K in PA, but I think I'll go down to the track and do one with him.

It's so cool to meet other runners and hear their stories and some of their training.

The rest of this week includes a seven mile run tomorrow at around 8:00 pace, kettle bells on Friday, five miles with at least six fartlek bursts on Saturday, then 12 miles on Sunday.  The following week has a short hill workout in it on Tuesday, but will be a very easy week since I have the 5K next Saturday.

From there I have a nice balance of mainly long runs made up of steady state, tempo and fartlek, with an interval workout of some kind built in every other week to keep my speed up.  Three months of this and I should have a nice base built up to begin the stamina and speed training in mid to late January.  The Endurance, Stamina, and Speed combination shifts from a focus on Endurance to being on Stamina for the next three months, then to Speed going into the summer.  The plan is to peak for the 1500 and 800 in July when I'm at the State Games of America in Hershey, PA.

Good to have a plan.  Helps keep the boredom away.

Twizzlers

Bob -

I am sitting here eating Twizzlers and contemplating the last few weeks.  The bag says they are a low fat snack.   It also says the serving size is three and each serving is 120 calories with total fat at 0.5 grams.  I have a 12.4 ounce bag and there are supposedly 10 servings.  My question to the bag would be as follows...who the hell could just eat three Twizzlers?  I wouldn't even bother opening the bag to eat three.  In fact, I expended about 350 calories opening the bag and 500 walking into the Dollar Store to buy them.  That means I would be in calorie depletion mode just getting to the Twizzlers.  So,  10 servings is 1200 calories and that is about what I ate.  Plus, I'm a runner and an eater.  One reason I run is so I can eat, which gets me to the true point of this story.  Yesterday I did a half marathon.  The Philadelphia Rock and Roll Half Marathon.  I signed up for it a long time ago as part of my training program for the full marathon.  As I have complained many times before, I do not feel my training has gone that well.  I have bonked on many occasions on my long runs.  My running partners mock me and call me Sissy McBabypants because I cry a lot.  I now have that on my forehead.  It says, "Hi, my name is Sissy McBabypants, kick me."  I have a rather large forehead and I can fit lots of verbiage upon it.  It is not a thing I am real proud of, but it came in handy in the fifth grade play I was in.  The play was about Abraham Lincoln and the Gettysburg Address.  The person who played Lincoln could not remember the whole thing, so they had me play the role of a podium and they printed the whole think on my forehead.  It took hours and it hurt after awhile, but I think that pain readied me for the pain of training for the marathon.  I cried as I prepared to be a podium and I cry as prepare to run, but I still do it.  That is one thing that I have learned.  I can keep going through the pain.  Most of it.  Sometimes I quit, but I usually find a way to make up for it and cause myself pain.  Like riding a bike up a bunch of hills or running up and down stairs.  I truly feel that cross training plays a huge role in training to run.  Running long distance requires enduring some pain over long periods of time.  I feel beating the crap out of my legs in workouts other than running can really help my running.  Which may bring me back to my original point.  We ran 10 miles on Friday.  I could barely move on Saturday.  I did 1.5 miles and felt like I was going to die.  I seriously thought about not going to Philly.  Why drive an hour and a half to go feel like crap for 13.1 miles.  I can do that at home.  A good friend said, "you paid for it, you will be fine, you should just do it."  No pressure, but those words made sense and since there were other friends going there, I thought it could be fun.  But, I was not expecting much, just to finish and get a good workout.  I got up a four a.m. to drive down.  What started as a bit of dread turned out to be a good ride down.  Dark, no traffic, good music on the radio and just some alone time to be in my head.  Then I got to Philadelphia which is mostly a beautiful city.  The day was perfect.  There were thousands of people and bands playing and the aforementioned running friends.  I was still not expecting much and a bit nervous, like I always am before a race.  I have the same thoughts of not being able to finish, even though I have run these distances a bunch of times now.  When the race started I decided to go slow, or at least what I thought was slow.  I rarely look at my Garmin when I run.  I go at a pace my body allows.  I have gotten to the point where I can tell how much I can take and if I am going to burn out.  After a few miles, I noticed that I was passing many people, not many were passing me.  I felt so much better than I thought I would.  I looked at my watch and decided I was probably going a bit too fast and that maybe I couldn't keep it up for the whole time.  So, I backed off a bit and then found myself picking it up again.  At the 10k mark, my time showed that if I kept it up I could possibly get a pr.  I had to tell myself that I still had a long way to go, not to get carried away.  To run smart, which is not my strong point.  I kept feeling good.  I actually thought about picking it up more to bust out a great time, but I'm glad I didn't, because at mile 9 things started to hurt.  I took a GU at that point.  I always have to resist the urge to yell, "Guuuuuuuuuuuuuu!" at the person handing that stuff out.  I did that at a triathlon once and while I found it very funny, they apparently didn't.  I got blank stares and I think someone called 911.  There was a group of cheerleaders and someone with them dressed as Mickey Mouse.  I high fived Mickey.  Mickey and the GU gave me some energy and the next few miles were good.  Then, the last mile.  The longest mile ever!  It wouldn't end.  People are cheering and I knew the finish line was looming, but it never seemed to loom.  I felt a twinge in my calf and thought I was gonna cramp up.  Thoughts of being that poor guy that cramps up and crawls to the finish line were in my head.  Except in my case, I was sure that instead of being inspirational and worthy of a YouTube video, I would just crap and pee my pants and lay there in a disgusting heap while children cried at the sight.  Luckily, nothing happened.  I finally made it to the finish line and looked at my watch.  I not only made it to the finish, but I had a new pr.  I really and honestly could not believe it.  Overall, I felt good.  In all, I am just amazed at what hard work can do.  To make it 13.1 hard miles without my legs dying is something I would not have thought was possible a few years ago, maybe even a year ago.  As hard as running is, this is fun.  To see how your body can react to training and mileage.  I am intrigued to see what I can do.  How fast I can get at a somewhat advanced age.  I also can't believe that in a few weeks I am going to be going twice as far as I did yesterday.  I cannot wait to get to that finish line.  I hope I can.  Now, back to those Twizzlers.

Intervals on the Track

Ed -

The Fall sort of marks a start over point for my training.  It's the point where I focus on two areas that you wouldn't think go together:  endurance and strength.  I did this last year and was surprised by my times in a couple of 5K's and 10K that I ran for fun and flavor.  I actually improved in the 5K's and ran the 10K right on where I had earlier in the year when I had actually been focusing on that sort of distance.

My plan then was to run three long runs a week at an easy pace.  The shortest being around 5 miles and up to 12 on the weekends.  On the other day I would hit the gym and do free weights for upper body and lower body at least twice a week.  My favorite day was leg day where I was doing squats, lunges, and step-ups with the big bar and heavy plates.  I did squats with 225 pounds and the lunges and step-ups with 155 pounds.  3 sets of 3 for everything.  Then I would leg curls on a couple of the machines.  I really felt more powerful by the end of winter.

However, I noticed in all of those races that I was really slowing down the last mile or so.  After researching and reading more I looked back at my log and saw that just about everyone of my long runs were very slow paced.  I wasn't doing any of my runs fast enough.  I needed to do them closer to my race pace; something like 80 to 90 percent effort.

That's pretty much what I did exclusively the year I ran my marathon and the next year I ran my Half, and both of those went pretty well.

So this year I'm starting the weight work by doing a kettle bell class so I can get my joints and muscles ready to get underneath heavier weights again, plus this training is both aerobic and anaerobic maintaining the fitness I've gained over the last year.  Plus, I've mapped out my training with a more balanced approach that should move me to another level for the spring.

So now I've got three longer runs per week but only one is easy pace.  My longest run of each week will be targeted at a minute and a half to two minutes slower than race pace.  Those will also be longer runs of 12 to 14 miles.  These build the body's ability to provide more oxygen around for fuel and allow me to go longer before hitting my lactate threshold.  The other two runs will be faster but varied.  One will be a tempo or very long intervals at close to race pace sandwiched in between two easier miles: like a 6 mile tempo run at 7:30 pace with a mile warm up and a mile warm down.  The last one will be a steady pace run of about a minute over 5k race pace and will be my shortest runs of 5 to 7 miles.

All this with one addition: one speed work or hill workout every other week.  This will help me keep the leg speed I gained this past summer (before breaking my ribs and becoming a hobbled wuss boy).  I'm going to keep these runs supporting the longer intervals though.  Nothing shorter than 400's which is what I did yesterday.

10 x 400 on the track with two minutes rest between each.  I hadn't done that workout in over two months so I didn't have high hopes.  However, the training books and guides really do work and it turned into almost the identical splits I did before!  Even better, I wasn't nearly as wiped out lung-wise at the end.  The longer, faster runs I've been doing have really helped.

My splits for the workout were 1:29 (always do the first one "easy" even though it will feel hard), 1:24, 1:24, 1:24, 1:22, 1:23, 1:22, 1:22, 1:20, 1:16.

The goal was to run these at 85 or less and I did it.  In a couple of weeks I'll do some 800 intervals, then back to this one with the goal of doing them at 83 or less.  By spring I hope to be solid at 80 each with only one minute of rest between.  The idea is that whatever pace you can hit for 10 reps and one minute rest, you can do four reps back to back.

I promise Bob will be back soon and the posts won't be as boring!

Run on!