Thoughts on Running

Did the seven on the plan today at an 8.21 avg. pace, which is good for me.

Seen for the first time:
A woman jogging in a warm up top, track pants, and wooden clogs with two inch heels and open toes. Now I've seen it all.

Pain Free!!

Yesterday was my long run for the week. A few minutes ago I walked up two flights of stairs with no twinges or complaints from the ITB. Yesss!

TSD; Future Century Runner

headband
Originally uploaded by gene_poole.

Pretty sad week for me as far as running went. Some of the running bloggers I read don't follow any sort of formal schedule in preparation for a marathon, just making sure they get a goodly number of long runs in, in the months leading up. Others, like Flatman, have yet to miss a single Hidgon specified workout in their entire program. Up until now, I've missed only two training runs leading up to Vegas. This week I doubled that, missing to of my weekly short runs. I did my specified 13 miles today and you know what? I feel fine. I was a bit slow out there today, but it was an easy day and I feel more than up to a to the little walk around the neighborhood my wife just proposed we take with the dogs and the kid.

Hope you are all feeling good too.

Weekend Long Run

WEEK TOTALS	Running: 21.7 miles Time: 3h 20m 38s Avg. Pace: 9:15/mile
MONTH TOTALS	Running: 54.8 miles Time: 8h 29m 47s Avg. Pace: 9:18/mile
YEAR TOTALS	Running: 258.1 miles Time: 1 day, 4h 24m 16s Avg. Pace: 9:25/mile

Twelve miles today in one hour and 52 minutes. I went out to Willow Grove, which is surrounded by a six mile long looped levi with the Columbia River on one side and a dike on the backside. In the middle is mostly sleepy grazing land and little farm houses. Its quiet. People in pickups and SUVs wave at you and get completely in the other lane as they pass. Old men are particularly prone to the two or three finger wave from where their had is resting atop the steering wheel. In other words its a pleasant place for run.

Ever since Mr Toad's Wild Ride, I've had this reocurring, lancing pain that shoots up the left side of my knee with I push things. It started out behind my knee and has migrated to the outside. If I take shorter runs and rest up for a week, its mostly gone by my weekend long run. I've sort been deal making with this pain. "If you let me have my weekend run, I won't push it during the week." This seems to be working.

Anyway, the pain went running with me today and seemed to be enjoying itself immensly. It doesn't really hurt much when I'm running, just later when I want to go up and down the stairs, etc. I wasn't getting the most out of my run and was worrying about The Pain until about mile eight when I passed some sort of mental hurdle and relaxed. It seemed that my breathing came easier, the fatigue melted away and I felt obscenely happy. Maybe I got a good squirt of brain chemicals. Who knows? Feeling pretty good now after my ice bath and some rehydration.

One more week of slackertude and then I start back up on the Vegas shirts. I promise.

If you run with an mp3 player and haven't checked out Steve Runner's podcast yet do so right now by going to steverunner.com to get his rss feed. I've found his episodes to be uniformly entertaining and informative. If you don't know what I'm talking about with this podcast/rss stuff, email me.

As he says at the end of his casts, Run Long and Taper.

Quote of the Day

Seeing as other people are quoting their favorite presidents, I will too:

It is not the critic who counts, nor the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.
The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows great enthusiasms, great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.
- Theodore Roosevelt

Back and Forth, Oh My

I haven't been blogging much the past couple of weeks. First I was on vacation/home renno time for a week and then I came back to the two busiest weeks of the year for someone in my profession. For any of you contemplating doing something similar, I'd say it is about as bright an idea as violating the golden 10% rule we are all beholden to.

Anyway, tonight the plan called for six miles. Lately, I've been letting go and just following my plan - no broad strokes or romantic dashes, just putting the old head down and following the plan. I decided to drive about a mile to a little section of graveled dike access road that covers about 1.8 miles if you start at one end and run it as an out and back circuit. I took Jonah and was looking forward to a quiet and peaceful time of easy rhythms, repetitive motion, and maybe some interesting podcasts.

What I forgot was that this little ribbon of gravel is the most noticeable landscape feature in a fairly densely populated residential area. The dike hugs the line where the floodplain meets the hills. By curtaining the floodplain in the 2.5 miles or so between two adjoining rivers our city planners created a pleasantly flat and dry area for suburbia to flourish. Now all the houses on the lower parts of the hill look down on the dike road and it towers gently above all the houses in the floodplain. Anyone standing in the kitchens of any of those houses probably looks at that .9 miles worth of trail and thinks to themselves, “Man, I really need to start getting some exercise.” Before I started training for a marathon (k-k-k-crazy!), I fit in here, slowing chugging through a leisurely almost two miles and then going home.

Tonight I arrived, right after dinner time, in my technical gear, with my hydration plan, ear buds, two-layer Wright socks, and a slight sense of unworthiness if my average mile pace were to creep above about 9 minutes. I did a quick out and back on another side road and then commenced running back and forth on the dike. I passed about 9 groups of walkers multiple times. At first I felt energized and flattered by their encouraging calls of “Hey, you’re a really good runner!” or “I’m going to be running like that in a week, right! Ha ha!”

I ran faster and faster, holding my head up and feeling good about myself. I was even pleased because my dog was better behaved than any of their dogs. Then I started to feel like a bit of a putz. I started to feel like that college sophmore who shows up at the high school party and flexes his muscles. Not like I’m Mr. Hotstuff or anything but I’ve graduated past the level where women feel uncomfortable about setting out to exercise and change themselves for the better without wearing a lot of makeup and hairspray and you see old men wearing jeans and work shoes who meet your eye aggressively as if daring you to question the proposition that they’re not actually there to exercise but are maybe instead simply walking to work… along the dike… at six thirty at night…

Tonight I went back to my old stomping ground and found out I’d outgrown it. As Ljisaak says, “2 months, 20 days.” Let’s roll.

Pints to Pasta 10k, Portland, OR, 09/11/05

IMAG0010
Originally uploaded by gene_poole.

A more complete race report to follow when life gets less crazy.

Run Time:52.26
Run Dist: 6.31
Avg Pace: 08:18 per mile
Best Pace: 6.44 per mile (last .3 I sprinted)
Mile One: 8:01 (8.01)
Mile Two: 16:24 (8.23)
Mile Three: 25.03 (8.38)
Mile Four: 33.12 (8.10)
Mile Five: 41.50 (8.37)
Mile Six: 50.20 (8.30)
That Last Bit: 2.26 (6.44)

End of the Week Tomorrow

Sep 7, 2005	3
Sep 8, 2005	3.51

Remember alll those people who tell you to never ever violate the 10% rule? THEY'RE RIGHT! I didn't do any permanent damage, I don't think, with my indulgences last week but I came pretty close. I now know what ITB pain feels like. Yay!

I didn't run hardly at all this week. Partly to let myself recover and partly because I spent a good part of the week sanding a hardwood floor and just wasn't feeling up to running after a day on my knees.

Tomorrow will be my first formal running event since I started training for Vegas. Keith, Natalia, Brit, Lauren and the Moo are headed down to Portland for the Pints to Pasta 10k. I'm feeling 95% recovered and looking forward to it.

Belt Pic for Jeff

Belt Pic for Jeff
Originally uploaded by gene_poole.

Jeff asked for a pic of the hydration belt I got off Ebay and then asked my wife to modify for me. It can carry 16 oz. of fluid, my iPod, up to 4 goo packs, and my car key. There is also probably room for ammonia squirt bottle or a dog-be-gone sonicator, which I don't have but wish I did.

What the numbers signify:
1. The original velcro patch, which sewn behing the key pocket.

2.new velcro

3. old velcro

4. new velcro

This makes the belt about twice as tight as it used to be. It doesn't squish me or chafe but I wish the hip mounted fluid bottles were a bit further back. The belt also now overlaps one of the front goo or mace holsters. This is actually a good thing as you could now put something in there and have it stay more securely.

End of the week post

Weekly Total:31.08

Aug 30, 2005	3.60
Aug 31, 2005	7.17
Sep 1, 2005	4.56
Sep 3, 2005	15.75

This past week, at least as far as running goes, was a good one. The week before I took it easy and recuperated. This was necessary, and relaxing but boring. This week the batteries were charged up and I decided to fire off all the guns at once, as it were.

I've pretty much settled into a routine I like to call the Modified Beginner's Higdon. I think I do this mostly in an attempt to fool non-runners into thinking I know what I'm talking about when it comes to repeatedly putting one foot in front of the othere, but what it involves is waiting around for the Hal Higdon beginning marathoner's training plan to catch up to where I am now as I train for Vegas. While I'm waiting for Hal to catch up I feel free to improvise a little. Riona is in the homeland currently so she can't send me the warnings she has the full moral authority to send about exceeding my weekly mileage and getting ahead of myself, and besides, like they used to say, if it feels good, do it - right?

Anyway, what I do is run fast once around the lake on Tuesday. Its 3.6 or 3.7 miles around (depending on what mood the forerunner is in). I’ve taken to doing a lot of stretching and a little pre-run jog to warm up before I do my official once around. This past Tuesday I ran around the lake in 28 minutes and 47 seconds - faster than I ever have – faster than when I was in high school cross-country track. Yay thirty-two year old me! (moment of self love there). Wednesday I do my second highest mileage for the week, or two lakes. Thursday is the last work day of the week for me as we do four 10s in the summer. I usually do five slow miles in the heat of the day and then go home for a shower before going back to work for a few hours. Why its important to run during the work day on Thursday I’m not entirely sure but I think it is related to why frat and sorority student now hold drinking parties on Thursday nights – starting the weekend early. Friday is generally a day for getting the stuff done I can’t do when I’m working 10 to 16 hour days (depending on whether or not I have night school). There is usually some lazy time in there too. Then comes Saturday. This is the day I pour it on. I try to push myself to a new height each Saturday. I realize this will become a unobtainable goal as time goes one but for now, in the beginning, it is a heady pleasure. Sunday and Mondays are days of rest for me (I get two). By Tuesday I'm usually itching for my fast run.

Today I ran from my house out to where we used to live at the beach and back home again. I logged 15.75 miles on the forerunner, drank 32 oz of sugar water, and did two goo packets while preambulating. The hydration belt I got off the Internet (after flatman bought one) worked just fine after Brit sewed a few new Velcro patches into it (slipped over my non-gadonkadonk before the tightening up). I ran at the pace of a snail (and not the one from Never Ending Story) but I still ran about a mile and a half farther than I ever have in my life.

I can now run places. Running is a viable means of locomotion for me. I feel like I did at ten when I got a ten speed and could suddenly ride my bike to friend’s houses and again as a teenager when I could drive places. Now I can run to real places like work and back or to the beach. Soon I’ll be capable of running to neighboring communities. I probably won’t do that often but I’ll know I can do it. I’ll be walking around in my normal street cloths but I’ll be thinking, “Yah, if I wanted to right now, I could run to Kalama.”

Also exceeded 30 miles for the first time this week. Now I'm really thirty something!

Thanks to all of you who have participated in the shirt design project so far. One Internet friend told me that working on the shirt and thinking about Vegas in general helped lift her out of a week-long blue funk (Yay Part II!). I'm thinking we should keep soliciting input and then order the darned things in about the middle of October/early December.

If you’ve made it this far in this way too long posting, you qualify for Dear Reader status.

Thanks Dear Readers and good night.

And So to Beat a Dead Horse....

It sounds like people uniformly (get it?) prefer the left breast vs. the full chest logo. What do y'all think about resurecting the URL and putting it across the back below the Las Vegas Marathon text?

RBG Shirt Design 4

RBG Shirt Design 4
Originally uploaded by gene_poole.

OK, Partyrunner's little sister spurred me on to further action, or further procrastination depending on your point of view.

Things I changed since version 3:
1. Took off the support staff designation. Nobody seemed to care whether we designate the wearer as runner or support. I sure didn't.
2. Decreased the size of the front and back printing so as to stay out of the seems.
3. Added "Las" to "Las Vegas" on back
4. Lost the url
5. Cut the river and the mountain edge on the left back some and made the mountain edge swoop down by 13 degrees more to clockwise.
6. Cut some out of the bottom edge of the mountain as I thought it looked too thick compared to the river and complete runner guy.

I can always change things back or change them further, depending on the consensus. Whaddiya all think?

Also, I'm not married to the design we have. If any of you want to put forth alternates for consideration, I'd be all for it.

Also, also, I added designs 4 and 5 to the design photo set.

SD

RBG Shirt Design 5

RBG Shirt Design 5
Originally uploaded by gene_poole.

Here is the shirt with the logo moved up to the left breast. Everything else is the same as design 4.