Congrats Meb!

Meb's performance in the Olympic yesterday was incredible! It was inspiring to watch him get the silver medal. I was hoping he could catch Baldini and win the gold, but the Italian was just too much. It must have been great for him to be up on the medal stand during the closing ceremonies with all those people in the stands. I feel bad for Lima, but I think he would have been caught anyway, and he seemed very excited to get the bronze.

I had a halfhearted weekend of running. I was pretty tired Friday and only managed 6 miles at a slow pace. I slept in Saturday, but had another one of those days where I feel lethargic and tired all day so I didn't run. Sunday I got up early and ran 9 miles before Mass the Olympic and the Olympic Marathon. This morning I did 7 miles and some strides. I thought I was moving pretty good at the end of my run, but I must have started pretty slowly because my time didn't really show it.

I feel good about my half-marathon. The 5000 this weekend should be a good test of my fitness and let me know what to expect for the half.

Running with the Geese

You've heard of Running with the Buffaloes, now I bring you Running with the Geese. I went to the track for a workout yesterday. I was planning on going to the track at the middle school that I've run at recently, but it turned out that the track at the high school was actually open, so I ran there instead. There were a whole gaggle of geese on the infield at the track, surely there to watch me work out. The high school is across the street from the middle school, and since I had to wait to cross the road, I decided to run around the high school to extend my warmup a bit. I went by the track and the gate was open, so I decided to do my workout there. It's an actual rubberized track, as opposed to the asphalt track at the middle school.

My workout was 6x800 meters, with a lap recovery. I'm trying to sharpen for my half-marathon, which is in a little more than two weeks. My goal was to run the 800s in 2:50 to 2:55, which apparently was much easier than I thought. I ran the first in 2:40 and slowed down on the second one in 2:50. The last four were 2:42, 2:39, 2:42, and 2:39. It was nice for a change to run faster than I was planning on.

This morning I went out four a slow 4 miles. I was kind of stiff from the workout last night. I'm planning on another 7 or 8 this afternoon.

Regular Updates

Anyone who reads this blog will realize that it's been a little while since it's been updated. I don't think it's worth it to have a blog that's rarely updated, so I'm going to try and be more diligent about keeping it current. Now if I only did the same with my training log...

I took three days off last week after I got the blister during the race. I wanted to make sure that it had healed enough that running on it wasn't going to make it worse. I ran 9 miles last Thursday, and while I thought I was feeling the blister at times, it looked exactly the same when I returned from my run as it had when I left. I think it was more of a mental thing, e.g. I thought I was feeling the blister because I expected to.

Friday I did 7 miles and during the course of the run managed to get caught in a thunderstorm and get soaked. Coming inside to a cool air-conditioned house when you're dripping wet is not really a good feeling.

Saturday I felt sluggish and ran 6 miles easily, but I had a good workout Sunday. I ran 14 miles, with about 4 miles at half-marathon race pace. I ran the race pace portion on the track, so it's just shy of 4 miles (6400 meters to be exact), and I finished it in 24:59.

I ran Sunday evening, so I was pretty sore for my run Monday morning. I did a very easy 7 miles. I would have run Monday afternoon, but my dad was in town and was coming over after his meeting in the afternoon. Tuesday I did an easy 8 miles.

I've been watching some of the track and field action from the Olympics. The 10,000 meter and women's marathon coverage were excellent, and hopefully the men's marathon will be covered in the same fashion. I taped the steeple and women's 1500 heats last night. I also have tapes of the NCAA meet and Prefontaine Classic to watch when I get the chance.

Hurricane? What Hurricane?

Originally, we were supposed to get a couple inches of rain from the remnants of Hurricane Charley. So when it started to rain Saturday afternoon, I was expecting the deluge to come at any time. However, it rained lightly for a few hours and that was it. Charley must have been further east than originally forecast.

Since the rain was less than expected, the course for Sunday's race was not wet, except for a few muddy spots in the wooded areas. I ran 19:55 to finish in 10th place. I'm happy that I ran 24 seconds faster than last year, but I didn't feel like I had any wheels yesterday. I picked up the pace a bit at the end and passed someone about a half mile from the finish, but overall I felt kind of lethargic. Maybe it's a function of the longer runs and less intervals I've been doing to get ready for the half marathon. I'm going to do some shorter, speedier running over the days I have left before Sept. 12.

I learned an important lesson during the race Sunday--don't run in my new spikes without socks. I have a quarter sized blister on the ball of my foot. It was more painful yesterday during my cool down than it has been today, but I'm still taking at least a day or two off to let it heal before I run again. I want it to heal as soon as possible and I certainly don't want to make it any worse.

I'm anxious for track and field to begin at the Olympics. I'm particularly interested in seeing Geb try to defend his 10,000 meter title--and it doesn't look good for him if the reports that he's injured are true--and Deena try to take the marathon gold from Paula Radcliffe. I think the heat will be a big factor in the marathon and keep Paula with the rest of the field for most of the race.

Olympics

I watched a bit of the opening ceremonies last night, and one word pretty much sums up my feelings: "Blah." I'm sure they're exciting if you're participating, but watching them on TV was kind of boring. I would much rather watch the events themselves. And speaking of the events, why were there soccer games being played before the opening ceremonies take place?

Yesterday I ran 12 miles, 4 before and 8 after work. I was expecting rain, but Bonnie moved out and took the rain with her. It actually turned out to be a fairly nice day, partly cloudy and cool. Today I ran 9, with a few strides at the end.

I'm looking forward to the race tomorrow. It will certainly be wet, but the race is not until 5 in the afternoon so I don't have to get up early and I should be nice and warmed up.

My Week

This week's been pretty good. I'm a bachelor for most of it, what with my wife and son in New York Tuesday through Sunday. It's nice to get some time alone.

Sunday I didn't run. I didn't feel up to getting up early and running before church and in the afternoon I got sucked into Mystic River, so I took the day off. I was kind of sore from the race Saturday, but not enough to take the day off just because of it.

Monday I did 8 miles on the trail by my house in Pittsburgh. I still refer to it as "my house," despite the fact that I don't live there any more. It was very nice, cool morning.

Tuesday I was back in VA and ran 7 miles on the bike path. I ran after work and it was warm, but not sweltering.

Wednesday I doubled and finally got around to doing a real tempo run. I ran 4 miles in the morning before work, and then did the tempo run at the track after work. I ran 5000 meters in 18:55. It wasn't too warm, but the humidity was terrible since it rained earlier in the afternoon. My shorts were soaked when I was done.

This morning I did 8 easy. I knew it would be slow, but it took even longer than I thought. One thing I've noticed is that when I run in the morning I always think I'm going faster than I actually am. I think it's because I'm not as warmed up and it takes more effort than I think to maintain a certain pace, but if anyone has any other ideas feel free to let me know.

I'm running another XC race this weekend, a 5k this time. It's supposed to rain pretty heavily through Saturday, so who knows what the course will be like.

Race Report

I'm in Pittsburgh for the weekend, and this morning I ran an 8k XC race in Frick Park. Frick Park is a good-sized park with miles of trails. I ran this race three years ago and ran something like 32:30. This year I wanted to beat that time, but also get close to or below 30:00. The course is rolling, going both up and down. If you run the 8k race (there is also a 2k and 4k), you have to go up a 3/4 mile long hill, but then you get to come back down. I ran 31:32 and finished 5th. I'm pleased with my performance, especially since I caught the guy who had been ahead of me for about 6k of the race with 200 or so meters to go, but the hill just killed me. I'm not a strong hill runner, and that wil be something I work on before I run the Pittsburgh Marathon in the spring, since it is a hilly course.

I cooled down with some people after the race and was able to talk a little track. There's not many people I know who can hold a conversation about elite US or world distance running.

Attempted Tempo Run

My new shoes did arrive yesterday, but I didn't run when I got home. I was lazy and played with Puff. I wanted to do the tempo run this morning, and I tried. I just didn't get close to the pace I should have been running.

I ran out the bike path to warm up, and started the tempo part of my run when I got to the 11k mark. I ran to the 8k mark, turned around, and ran back to 11k. I was hoping to run it in about 24-25 minutes, but it took me over 28 minutes. It is a rolling loop, most of each k is either up or down (down, up, down on the way out and the opposite on the way back), but I just didn't have it this morning. I didn't feel all that great either; something I ate last night upset my stomach. I thought it would be gone when I got up this morning, but it was with me until about lunchtime.

On the plus side of things, I did read something inspiring on the message board at LetsRun.com. There's a thread about working full time and running high mileage, and when asked if it was worth it, one of the posters replied "Yes! It absolutely was worth it, even though I was never more than a passably decent local road runner. The thing was, I wanted to know what would happen if I did what guys like Clarke and Lindgren did." That pretty much sums up the way I feel. Now I just need to get out there and do it.

New Shoes, New Shoes

I was planning on doubling today, but decided not to run this morning. I was tired and I heard the rain falling on the roof, so I just stayed in bed. I'll run when I get home from work. I think I'm going to do a tempo run on the bike path.

Hopefully my new shoes will be there when I get home. I had been running in a pair Saucony Grid Azuras because I had read about the benefits of training in lightweight shoes/flats and wanted to give it a try. I've been running in them for about three months and probably have around 700 miles on them. Thursday, my knees were pretty sore for most of my run, and that coupled with the outsole being really worn made me decide I need to get a new pair of shoes. I'm going back to the Saucony Grid Trigon Light. I've been training in one version or another of the Trigons for two years now, and haven't had any complaints.