Still Alive, If not Blogging about Running

I'm on track for Hood to Coast. I have to admit to seriously considering giving up my spot on the relay team due to the head cold, but dammit, I've wanted to do this for years, and this is my year.

The cold is still causing volumes of snot in my kid's noses and making me cough but other than that I feel pretty good. Day before yesterday I did 45 minutes on the eliptical trainer. Yesterday I did that and then 25 minutes on the stair stepper at our hotel. We're home today, and tomorrow I plan a longish run with the forerunner and some good long hills. I have a month to get myself in respectable shape and I will do it.

Scotts Running (at the mouth)

In an effort to prepare myself as best I can for the relay race next more (which at this point there is no way I’ll be fully prepared for), I went out in the heat of the day yesterday and ran up and down the steep hill at the end of our road for an hour. This morning I got up an ran in the cool. I am not a morning exerciser (my wife can stip. to that) so this was a real chore for me.

[insert a break here for background information]
There is a guy in our town who I have personally come to think of as the Grumpy Runner because every time I have ever made an attempt to engage him, he was avoided eye contact and made little or no response to any enquiries or called out greetings. I don’t just see him running. Our town is too small for that. He was some sort of minor adult when I was in middle schooler – assistant bus driver or third string math teacher or some other adult position holder. I’ve also seen him in line at the store, an once pawning a rifle. The guy as always been just plain grumpy. On the other hand, he must be living right because I don’t think he has aged at all since I was in the seventh grade, which is a neat trick.
[/End break for background info]

So I’m plugging away at mile three of this morning’s ‘early’ run today. The temperature is starting to rise rapidly. I’m sweating a lot and thinking about Jeff’s sweat stories. The milk and cheerios I unwisely ingested are starting to do the kooky dance in my stomach and that’s when I hear the crunch, crunch in the gravel behind me. Despite the (non-name brand) cheerios, I automatically pick up the pace. I always plan my paces down to the mile and stick to them religiously, checking the forerunner every minute or so, until someone tries to overtake me and then it’s all lost to competition with whomever is on the other end of the shadow. So I pick up the pace, and it doesn’t even matter. The person gaining on my cruises right on up, and you guessed it, it’s the Grumpy Runner. Only today he is cheery. He yells out a great big “hullo!” and slows down to run with me patiently while I fiddle with my mp3 player and get into conversation mode. The conversation went something like this:

“Lovely day for it, huh?”

“Yeah”

“Say, Don’t you live up on Clark Creek?”

“Yeah”

“Well, Enjoy the day!”

“OK, You (hack, cough).”

With that, he powered up and literally left me in the dust.

Grumpy and a sadist.

I didn’t post about it previously but if Jeff posted about his hard drive issues and Susan about the dildo-cam appointments she has to contend with, so I guess I can add that I have rescheduled my vasectomy until after Hood to Coast. The doctor was explaining that they give you a local up by your shoulder blades because some of what they tug on attaches up there, and I thought "Not what I should be doing two weeks before a major running evet." I sure hope that one doesn’t come back to bite me – we could refer to him/her as our little relay baby.

I’m in Pasco, in Eastern Washington tomorrow and Tuesday. I’m going to try for more of this running in the AM and the afternoon business and see if I live.

Nobody knows...

I'm wearing black ankle socks at work today....

Ran hills for an hour last night. Man that kicked my butt! Twenty minutes into it I had to stop and walk. Today I feel like someone beat me with a stick, rolled me over, and finished the job. I have sooo much work ahead of me. Riding in to work this AM felt good, though.

Survey Says

Today was an, “Aw Crap!” day all around. I woke up 30 minutes late this morning. I’d plan to ride in, run, and ride back from work today. Instead, at 6:30 my wife was saying, “Babe, you’re late. You have to get up.”

I think I answered with something like, “Yeah, but I’m telling her what kind of hot dog I want to order.” A second or two later I realized that ordering dream hot dogs from the ultimate dog stand in the sky wasn’t going to contribute to general success in life and got myself in gear, if a little late.

I drove to work, accomplished a lot, and generally made good food choices throughout the day (coffee and pizza). In the early afternoon I got my leg descriptions for the upcoming race. I was expecting them to go easy on me and probably not even have me do three legs as I’m the newbie. Turns out that I’m one of several newbies (see my leg descriptions below) and my leg descriptions are “Hard,” “Rediculously Hard,” and “Just Lay Down In the Street You Wimpy Boy Hard.”

The rest of the day was normal work thoughts punctuated every now and then with unbidden panic, “work, work, work, OH JESUS! work, work, work, I’M GONNA DIE!” type thoughts.

After work I went for medium length run through the hills. I never trained hills getting ready for my marathon and so have very little frame of reference. I didn’t have my forerunner with me but kept track of my route and ran for about an hour. The whole time I kept reminding myself to keep the pace up and run fast for a shorter distance. Afterwards I went back and drove my route to establish distance. I ended up with about a 10:30 average pace. Like I said, I’m gonna die.

Leg5

leg5
Originally uploaded by gene_poole.

I found out what Hood to Coast legs they have me down for today. Looks like I'm going to have it harder at the beginning and end. I need to find some hills and start running them!

Leg17

leg17
Originally uploaded by gene_poole.

Thankfully they gave me a rest in the middle.

leg29

leg29
Originally uploaded by gene_poole.

So hills then...

M+M and I are cleaning out our closets

I just updated my sidebar for the first time in, ohhhh, about six months - the definition of procrastination...

Then Next Episode

H2C
Originally uploaded by gene_poole.

Today was my first day back in training for a race in almost eight months. It’s amazing how much difference that one little thing can make. One day I’m tootling along, enjoying my runs and rides, zoning out on my podcasts and generally just taking it as it comes. With a goal in mind, everything is different (in my mind anyway). Today I noticed how slooooowwww I’ve gotten. I’m still the same guy shuffling around the lake but now I’m thinking about running when I wake up in the morning. I’m thinking about the excitement and joy of race day. I’m hoping I won’t eff it up. I’m looking forward to meeting other people, and I’m looking forward to running by myself and then talking about it later.

The Hood to Coast trek runs 197 miles from Timberline Lodge at the top of Mt. Hood to finish in Seaside. The course is divided into 36 legs. If all 12 relay team members show up, division tells us we’ll each get three legs of about 5.5 miles each. I think in reality some of the legs are up to eight miles each. I found a site where someone google-mapped each leg. You can download the official handbook with descriptions of each leg here. I hope find out my legs a.s.a.p. so I can start training for them.

Today I road a total of 10.4 miles to work and back and ran 7.1 in an hour and three (slow). I feel pretty good but probably won’t run again until Sunday. I have no idea how to train for these shorter faster distances. There won’t be any 20 mile Saturdays. I guess I’ll get the scoop on Tuesday.

running-ya-ya-ya-running....

And so it starts again

"As the largest relay race in North America, The Hood To Coast Relay stretches 197 miles from the top of Oregon's majestic Mt. Hood down to the beautiful Pacific Ocean in Seaside, Oregon. Over 12,000 runners show up to experience this annual event, now in its 25th year!"

Well, once again, I have a goal, or maybe a goal has me. A friend of my wife’s called me up today to invite me to join their Hood to Coast team this year. I called her right back and agreed to join the team and take which ever lengths they decided to give me. I’ve been trying to get on a team for three years now. I was an alternate once and I’ve made embarrassingly obvious hints that I’d like to join other teams, only to be told gently that their turnover is “quite low.”

Thinking about the crash course training I need get going on got me to thinking about my friend Andy. Every couple of months the one whose turn it is to get a free lunch will call the other up and invite him to lunch. I know that is backwards for most social arrangements, but that’s how we have worked it out. Andy and I are old ex-coworkers who like to get together periodically and talk about work, family, and most importantly running. Hood to Coast is Andy’s big event for the year and he is on a really good team that I have wanted to be on for a long time.

Email exchange was something like this:

Me – “You up for lunch this week, tomorrow, or next week M, T, or Th?”

Him – “How about T or Th? How’s running?”

Me – “Tuesday. Running coming along. I’m doing Hood to Coast this year!”

Him – “Really? My next line was to invite you to go with us. We lost someone. Where”

Me – “How about that Japanese place that used to be the Rusty Duck. Meet you there at noon unless I hear different.”

I guess that last line doesn’t add much to the story. Anyway, Tomorrow I ride in to work and run home. This entails carrying three pairs of shoes on the bike but should be pretty doable.

Keith tells me that my rss feed is messed up, which might explain why nobody ever reads my blog. I oughta get that fixed.

I Pee My Pants for Quiche

DSCN1086
Originally uploaded by gene_poole.

Monday I drove to work and then ran home. Tuesday I rode my bike to work and drove home. I was feeling pretty good yesterday and planned to run home again, leaving my bike and car both at work. But then a little idea in the back of my head started to slowly build up steam, making increasingly fervent attacks on my conscious thinking. “Quiche,” the voice said, “Hey you, Quiche!”

You see, we have some friends who keep chickens. Spring is currently exploding all around us, with everything waking up. The chickens are feeling frisky and have really ramped up production. By Wednesday morning we had something like 36 eggs. So the quiche idea really made sense but it didn’t jive with my desire to run home as I’d have to stop at the store on the way home for a few ingredients.

Then I had a mental flash – I could drive to the lake, run, drive to the store, and then drive home to eggy veggie Bisquick goodness. The only problem was that I had my light grey shorts that turn darker grey when went. When I run and sweat and then sit in my car, it looks like I pee’d my pants. “Whatever,” I thought, “I’m bigger than that.” So ultimate sacrifice: I ran and then went to Fred Meyers, trying to make steely eye contact with every other shopper, daring them to look down and accuse me of incontinence.

I managed to make it back out to my car without any kids yelling, “Pee pants! Pee pants! Look at the dirty bum, Mommy!”

At last check we have 4 eggs left. Brit made yummy egg salad and I got a little carried away and now we have quiche to last us, and give to all our friends.

DSCN1089
Originally uploaded by gene_poole.

...

Reading other people’s running blogs, for me, is like a health benefit. Just like I take vitamins for my health, I read blogs to get me up and moving and motivated. Maybe like vitamins, there isn’t really any benefit to the reading, but it sure seems that way. I’ll keep doing it like I do other things for my health – namely drinking beer and coffee.

Susan and Jeff both made posts recently that stuck with me. Jeff made a clever analogy you should go read if you haven’t already. Susan who is currently suffering from PMDS (post marathon depression syndrome) had a good post about why she runs and whether or not marathoning is worth it. One thing we agree on is the obvious health and mental health benefits of getting out there and picking ‘em up an putting ‘em down.

Running News:
Ran home last night. Is running to work a possibility? Maybe, I’ll have to scout out the summer time access to the showers.

Swimming News:
The school’s pool shut down for the summer. If I want to work on my lap swimming goal of being able to do 12 continuosly crawled laps, I have to go to the Y and pay seven bucks a day. Sux.

Biking:
The ride into work was really pleasant this morning. I have to use my car tonight. I think I’ll drive home, drive back to work Wednesday, ride home, ride in Thursday, drive home – do that switching off between riding and driving for a while and then possibly ramp up to riding every day, both ways.

biked to work

Took me 25.0 minutes, hitting all the lights, not a bad way to travel.

Bad Motor Scooter

Bad Motor Scooter
Originally uploaded by gene_poole.

When Brit and I first started dating, one of the things we did a lot of was riding. I think the first epic adventure we went on was the Oregon City Bike Tour, which is about 200 miles in one weekend. Recently I’ve had a hankering to get the blue bomber out and get back in the saddle. Last weekend I took it for a short shake down ride and it seems all systems are in the green.

Today I took it out of the valley for a 30 minute cruise. I purposefully took it on some gravel roads and off a curb to test the innertubes and general, "will this bike get me to work or not-ness." According to the forerunner, I was averaging somewhere between 4-5 minutes per mile, which means that if I leave 35 minutes before work I should have ample time to get changed before the start of the day. Tomorrow I drive to work, and run home. Tuesday I have to drive to my moonlighting gig after work, but Wednesday, you-are-mine.

Tri'ing to Run to Work

After a two month trial separation period, I’ve decided to go back, embrace schizophrenia, and post to two different blogs. Henceforth I will once again blog exercise related topics on Scott’s Running and everything else on the Clark Creek blog.

Today was my first day back in the pool. I hope this will become my first regular swimming in over ten years. I swam laps on my lunch break today, keeping going without any significant resting for 45 minutes. After the first 4-5 laps I was totally beat and had to spend one pool length doing a lazy back paddle. After that, I crawled one length and then did the sidestroke or elementary back stroke back. My goal is to try to steadily increase the number of crawl laps I can do without losing my breath.

Boy, do I have a long way to go – both fitness wise, and in learning technique. I’m lucky to have an enthusiastic coach as I am learning that unlike with running, improving my swim technique will rely heavily on external observation and suggestion.

I was pretty beat after lunch. My quads, tri’s and back were aching, but I used almost none of the muscles I do when I run, so I ran home from work. On the way I listened to an interesting podcast of an interview with Olympic runner Frank Shorter. Just as I was getting to the last mile and thinking that while I wasn’t really tired, and far from pain, I was getting a little bored, my darling wife showed up to pick me up. She decided that 45 minutes was long enough to leave me out there after first swimming day and came to get me – now that’s love.

Posted Here For the Bobsy Twins

I originally posted the following on my other blog and am posting it here again because it is exercise related and I'm reawakening this blog:

In the exercise/career development area, easily the best news is the possibility of becoming the junior frogman. Our college has a series of swimming and lifeguard training classes that run at noon. I’ve been talking to the instructor and trying to get in there to lap swim on my lunch breaks. He is someone that I work with in a few other capacities at the college and have come to know over the past few years. Anyway, yesterday he approached me and told me that he will be retiring in another few years and hasn’t identified anyone to take over his classes and that I might consider it. How much would that rock? Teach swimming and CIS courses online and do my administrator gig as a supp contract or additional duty? I could get a big chunk of the summers off and maybe even be my own kids’ swim teacher/coach. Obviously I’d better not try to get a job in the English dept. with all my incomplete sentences. Over the next few years, I’d have to get certified as a lifeguard and swim instructor and then state certified to teach lifeguards and instructors. I was a fairly strong swimmer in high school and the military but that was ten years ago. He said to meet him Tuesday at the pool and he’d “get me started.” I think that may end up being a euphemism for kicking my butt, we’ll see.

Joe's Ugly Green Shoes Ride Again

DSCN0958
Originally uploaded by gene_poole.

Brushed the sawdust off my old street bike and took a spin. The tubes held pressure up to the end of the road and back. Next goal is riding down to the office and back to see how long that takes.

A Post

Let me say first that I am posting to my running blog not by first choice but in hopes of ending the threats, cajoling, and pathetic pleading. It seems a certain girl who is soon to be from San Diego just can't live unless I do.

That being said, I'm working towards an ideal lifestyle. What do I mean by that? We're trying to downsize our life, live healthier, and concentrate on what is important. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings Brit puts the boys in the car and drives me to work. Our family is in training to become a one car family. After work I run home. This time together in the morning is actually pretty pleasant. Running home pleases me on so many levels - the exercise, the hour spent with my thoughts and the podcasts, commuting in way that doesn't involve the oil industry (except in the shoes and clothes). Tuesday and Thursday I drive myself and then go to the YMCA right after work where I meet my two year old for swim lessons. Mom goes for a run around the lake.

Like I said, this is an ideal. This is only week two in The Plan. I didn't run this Wednesday because I was still muscle-tired from Monday. Tonight was the first night T. didn't scream bloody murder in the showers before and after our lesson. Still, there are highlights as well - heading into the big hill into the middle of the run and knowing you have the energy to power through it where you didn't last time, or holding your son with one hand on his belly as he flops his arms and legs and glides towards the toy, saying, "Ball! Ball!"

I'm thinking water polo.

Let It Be Written, Let It Be Known

For the foreseeable future I will not be maintaining a separate running blog. Look for running news over at what was formerly my home improvement blog and will hence be a general life blog (http://clarkcreekhomeimprovement.blogspot.com/).

I'm feeling 100% better. I'm definitely running tomorrow after work.

Jeez! I just did it. I talked about running on my running blog... OK, thats the last time for a while. I promise.

Running...

Tomorrow...

woohoo!

The First Step to Recovery: Good Drugs

I'm feeling better (no you're not). The title of this post is a bit of a nod to the denial I've fallen prey to recently. First, I decided I was well before I was and tried to go back to work too soon. Secondly, not going to the doctor for help with the flu.

Remember the caravan scene in the movie Gladiator where Russell is passing in and out of consciousness while clouds spill across the sky in fast forward? There has been a bit of that for me recently - wake up, its morning, wake up again, its early afternoon. How did that happen? Only I didn't have a gladius wound on my shoulder and pajamas were involved.

Two days ago I finally went to see the doctor, who gave me antibiotics for my lungs and blessed codeine to help me sleep through the night without impersonating a mustard gas victim. Since then I have steadily improved to the point where work on Monday is a foregone conclusion/victory. Yesterday I felt pretty good but little tasks like washing my hair would tucker me out and force me to lie down for a while. Today I can take a shower and make the bed, all in a row. Take that flu bug!

I’ve always been fairly healthy. By that I don’t mean I eat the prerequisite helpings of veggies. I mean I have been blessed with good genes and fortuitous circumstances. Getting ill enough to spend a couple of weeks out of it and then be as weak as the old people who shuffle around the grocery store with two items in the cart they are using as a walker, makes me all the more determined to lead a healthy and active life so as to keep the strength and ability that it is so easy to take for granted.

Keep running and keep blogging about it. If nothing else you are inspiring us invalids.

Somebody's Snot Been Running

Feeling puny today, which is an improvement. Counter to my purpose for taking two weeks off from work to stay home and enjoy our new son and help my wife adjust to being the stay at home mom of two instead of one, I came down with a nasty bit of the flu. Not to be a miser, I also shared it with the two year old. No sir, no running happening in these parts, nope. Yesterday I felt sufficiently recovered to do little tasks like folding a load of laundry, but even that would tucker me out. I'm hoping for a short run this Sunday.

Keeping my fingers crossed.