All by Myself

Due to the rest of my plans for Sunday, I got up at 5:30 to run. I was planning on at least 12 miles, with possibly at little more. I ran the first six miles on the roads under the streetlights, waiting for the sun to come up enough so I could finish my run on the trails without fear of running into a tree.

The solitude during my run was amazing. Only three or four cars passed me, and I didn't see any other people. It was a welcome change from running at home that early in the morning. I've never run quite that early at home on a weekend, but during the week it's as if rush hour starts at about 5 am with so many people already on their way to work trying to beat the traffic.

Lydiard

pjm has a nice summary of a lecture from world-renowned coach Arthur Lydiard that he attended at Flashes of Panic . I highly recommend reading it.

Thanksgiving

Prologue: I'm still around, and hopefully will be blogging more regularly.

Thanksgiving has always been the bigger of the two end-of-the-year holidays for my family. Almost all of my family members from out of town (a group which now includes me) come to Pittsburgh for Thanksgiving dinner. Thanksgiving wasn't going to be quite as big this year since some of my relatives who usually attend weren't this year, but Thanksgiving morning the holiday got even smaller. My grandmother, along with most of the members of my aunt's family had come down with the stomach flu. Thanksgiving was scheduled for my grandmother's but was hastily rescheduled for the healthy members of my family at my parent's. We lost more relatives when another of my aunts decided not to bring her family, due to her fear of getting sick, despite the fact that everyone attending was well.

I ran my traditional race Thanksgiving morning. I finished 35th in the five mile race in a time of 31:07. Given the windy conditions, I'm pleased with the race.

One of the things I like about visiting home is the opportunity to run on some trails. There's one a half-mile away from my house and another about two miles away. It's a nice change of pace from all the running on the roads I do at home.

Training Update

It's been a little while since I've updated, but I've still been running. I'm working on getting my mileage up to build a good base over the winter. My last two weeks have been 37 and 50 miles, and I should be around 60 miles this week.

This past Saturday I attended the ACC XC Championships at the University of Maryland. It was fun to watch, and I ran into a friend of mine from high school who now runs for Duke. She's a grad student there in her last year of eligibility for cross. She didn't run Saturday, though, because she was injured. She's had a few injury problems over the last year or two.

I did vote today, and luckily it didn't take as long as it did for some of my friends. I was in line a few minutes before the polls opened at six this morning. It took 20 minutes for me to go through the line and vote, but some of my friends (who vote at other locations) waited up to two hours.

Mediocre

That's about how I'd describe my race Saturday morning. On a basically pancake flat course I managed an 18:51 5k.

My work week didn't come to a good end, which didn't help things with the race. I tried to leave early Thursday so I could get my run in before I went out to dinner, but I was held up half an hour taking care of a job that had to deliver the next day. Apparently planning ahead is not one of the National Park Services strengths; they didn't realize until Thursday that for a White House grounds tour on Sunday it might be helpful to put up a few signs.

I stayed an hour late on Friday waiting for tracking numbers that I couldn't even get until Monday morning because the person I usually deal with had left and no one else could help me. I did ask someone else for help, but he couldn't get me the information. And I know I told the agency the job would ship Friday, not that it would arrive Friday.

Desperately Seeking

Wanted: training partner. Must be willing to run every day. Indifference to the elements mandatory. Desire to be the best runner possible required. Following the sport at elite levels a plus. If interested, leave a message here.

Ah, Fall

The gorgeous fall weather is here. It was sunny and about 60 degrees for my run yesterday. I ran another 4 miles, still getting back into the swing of things again with my running. My knee pain is still lingering, so I did some quad exercises after my run. Hopefully the pain will subside soon.

My wife has started to run again. She ran some when we were in college, before we got married. When she started teaching, she was so busy and stressed out that she didn't exercise very much. She stays at home with Puff now, and gets together with other moms to run a few times a week. She found the group through the web site See Mommy Run. The group has been featured on the local news and supposedly will be featured in the upcoming edition of the Washington Running Report.

Back to It

After the pain in my knee came up, I took most of last week off to see if it would heal. I iced and took some drugs, and my knee felt better, but not completely healed. Saturday and Sunday I ran with Puff, and while there was still pain in my knee, it felt better as I loosened up. The same thing happened yesterday when I ran by myself, and even running some laps around the soccer field to run on grass didn't seem to make a difference. I think strenghtening my quads will help my knee, so I'm going to do some quad exercises a few times a week.

The cross country season is now in full swing, and I'm anxious to check out what happened over the weekend when I get into work Monday morning. Wisconsin and Stanford look good on the men's and women's side respectively, and I've been very impressed with Josh McDougal. There's a question at Trackshark about how he'll do at the NCAA championships in November. While I think he has a good chance of placing high, I wonder if he's racing too much right now and will be burnt out by November.

Work's been frustrating lately. It's amazing how hard it seems to be for some people to follow simple procedures, such as faxing a copy of an order they placed to me because we handle the billing.

Getting Back Into It

I ran yesterday for the first time since the half-marathon. I did 4 miles, along the bike path out and back. I felt some pain just below my right knee, which was rather surprising after two weeks off. I can't think of anything I did in those two weeks that would have caused it to hurt like it did. I iced it and took some ibuprofen, and today I'm going to run on the soccer fields in order to stay on soft surfaces.

Saturday I went to College Park because Maryland was hosting the Pre-ACC XC meet. There weren't many ACC teams there; besides Maryland the Clemson women and Miami men ran. Maryland won both the women's and men's race, but I'll be shocked if they do the same at the ACC Championships.

Half Marathon Report

The half-marathon did not quite go as planned, despite the fact that I ran a PR (of course I ran a PR, it was my first half-marathon). As is typical with my races, I went out too fast. I ran the first mile in 5:44, just about my 5k race pace. I slowed down for the next four miles or so and ran each of them at about 6:05 pace. That was still a bit fast, and I ended up running the last 8 miles or so of the race at more or less 6:45 pace. My watch did say I ran one mile in just over 7 minutes and the next mile in 5:51, but I think those mile markers were a bit off. I finished in 1:24:28, certainly a respectable time but not what I was hoping for.

I'm taking the next two weeks or so off, and then base building over the fall and winter. I hoping for a prolonged period of at least 80 miles a week, which should be a good start for the half-marathon and marathon I plan on next year.

Tapering

I've been tapering for just under the past two weeks now for my half this Sunday. I'm anxious to run it and see how I do. It will be my longest race to date, and hopefully it will bode well for the marathon I plan to run next year. Originally, the plan was to run Pittsburgh, but that's out the window now that the marathon is dead. The new plan is to run a 20k (I can't remember the name of the race) Memorial Day weekend, and then run the Richmond Marathon in November.

I've begun to run in the afternoon now instead of the morning. If I go into work early, I can beat some of the traffic, and I'm more loose in the afternoon. I can actually sleep a little longer and get to work earlier. Plus, I can take Puff in the stroller and give my wife a break.

Cross Country Season

Fall is my favorite season, not only for the cooler temperatures and multi-colored leaves, but for cross country. Cross country has always been my favorite of the three running disciplines I participate in, evidenced by the fact that I participate in multiple cross country races each year. I'm especially looking forward to this fall because the Pre-ACC and ACC cross country meet are at the University of Maryland in College Park. I'll cheer for my alma mater, despite the fact that they're likely going to be finishing toward the bottom of the standings.

While I'm on the subject of races I'll be attending, hopefully next weekend I'll have a chance to meet Carrie Tollefson. She's the "guest speaker" (I'm not sure exactly what they're calling it) at a race in Maryland. Meeting an Olympic athlete will be a treat.

18:08

So I didn't run a PR. It was still a good effort. I was only 9 seconds off my track best, and 13 off my road best. As usual, I slowed a bit after the opening mile, but not as much this time as I have in the past. The weather cooperated, with the cloudiness keeping it cooler than it would have been with blue skies. It was still humid, though.

Given my tendency to go out a little fast, I know I'm going to have to make a very conscious effort to go out at the right pace in the half. I'm not quite planning to copy Deena's race plan, but I don't want the second half of the race to be a death march, either.

Fans

I now know what it must feel like to run in one of the Golden League meets. Well, not exactly, but there were some people in the stands for my workout yesterday.

I ran 8x400 with 30 seconds rest at the high school track yesterday. As I arrived, the football team was leaving the field, so I thought Good, I got here just at the right time. I started my workout, and people began to walk down into the stadium and sit in the bleachers. More and more people continued to arrive as I ran each interval. The band was practicing on a field adjacent to the track, and were apparently going to perform for the "fans" in the bleachers, who I assume were their parents and siblings. I kept expecting to be told to leave, but no one ever even said anything to me. I had finished my workout and was just leaving the track as the band marched down to the field.

The workout went very well. I ran most of the 400s in 78 seconds, with two in 77 and one in 76 seconds. This workout gives me some confidence going into my race Saturday, where hopefully I'll break my PR, which I set at this race last year but have since broken.

I wonder what the people in the bleachers were thinking as they watched me run. I'm also shocked that no one even mentioned that I should leave, given some of the stories I've read about getting kicked off the local track.

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.