A Holiday Message

With the holidays upon us, I imagine that most blogegrs have had trouble keeping as current on their posting as I have. To be sure, this weekend was the last respite before the chaos of the holiday season hits full force. Yesterday Annie and I went to Woodbridge to visit my family for some pre-Christmas cheer. Today I am at work and then will drive out to my parents' house for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with them and my grandparents before coming back to Baltimore tomorrow night, getting on a plane on Wednesday morning and flying to Cincinnati to visit Annie's family and then spend a week getting some wedding tasks accomplished before finally returning on New Years' Day to have a few hours to rest before going back to work on January 2. Whew!

In between all this, I am determined to find time to keep up with my half marathon training schedule. I'm taking today and tomorrow off since I will be in transit. Wednesday I will run 4 miles in the monring before my flight. Then I can get some running in while in Ohio without too much trouble, hopefully. My real challenge will be mapping an 8 mile long run for this coming Sunday morning.

Anyway, I had a good week of running and got all my miles in with minimal trouble. I totaled 21 this week without too many aches or pains. IN the interest of time (I gotta get out of the office and home to see Annie off to her Christmas Eve church singing gig and then pack!), I will only post about my long run yesterday morning.

I did 7 miles, which took me from the Inner Harbor, out to Ft. McHenry and then back through Federal Hill. It was a good run and I tried to keep my pace above 9 minutes per mile the entire way. While I was tired after finishing, I wasn't exhausted or anything, which is good. I would post my splits, etc, but I haven't had a chance to upload them yet. But, I took it slow and felt good with my run overall. Two days rest will be plenty to recover. Check out the map of my run below, however.

And with that, I'm off to the hills of West Virginia. I'll post when I can while in Ohio (I'm taking my laptop to work on some things while away, but who knows what sort of Internet connection I'll have).

Happy Holidays to all and to all a good run!

Administrative Holiday (i.e. No Running Today)

I was all hyped about getting back out on the road this morning when I went to bed last night. I had everything laid out and ready for when I dragged myself out of bed at 5:30. I got to bed about 10:30, to give myself a good 7 hours of sleep for once. Everything was in place for my 6 miler this morning out to Ft. McHenry and back. I even woke up without about 15 minutes before the alarm, a sign that my body is slowly adjusting.

That’s when I hit a roadblock. Not a get out of bed roadblock or a it’s too cold roadblock. No, this was an actual logistical obstacle to my running that didn’t occur to me until 5:30 this morning, amazingly enough. Let me explain.

So the route would take me out to the fort and back. Ft. McHenry is a national historical monument, which means it’s administered by the National Park Service. That means the park has hours when it’s open and closed. I didn’t even think about this until this morning when I remembere dseeing a sign at the gates last Sunday that said the park is open only from dawn until dusk. No big deal when you’re running at 9 AM, but at 5:30, it’s still dark outside and dawn isn’t until about 7:15! So, a large portion of my run was closed off!

In theory, I could have just gone out to the gates and come back and made up the difference somewhere along the way, but my mind doesn’t like working that way, especially in Baltimore at 6 AM while running. I like to have my route planned out so I can focus on running and training. So, I was mildly displeased at this discovery and decided to spend some time today mapping out some new courses ranging from 6 miles to 10 miles, taking into account when I will be running them so to avoid future mishaps like this. As a result, I will move my 6-miler from today to tomorrow and my 4 miler from tomorrow to Friday, with Saturday being an off day.

Yesterday I didn’t run in the morning because it was below 20 out when I got up. So I went to the gym and ran on the treadmill for the 4 miles. I forgot how inferior a treadmill is to the road. I can’t stride properly because I’m not used to the motion of the treadmill and the whole run I was out of sync and in pain. Sucked. But I got the miles in and got out of there as quickly as possible. Luckily no aftershocks from the ordeal today. From now on, I will push myself to run outside to avoid the hot, sweaty, annoying gym.

Celtic Solstice 5 Miler Race Report

Saturday marked the end of my 2007 inaugural racing season with the Celtic Solstice 5 Miler here in Baltimore. It was held up in Druid Hill Park, near the Maryland Zoo, and some of it was run on the same course as the Zoo Zoom that I ran back in mid-November. I had several goals coming into this race:

Run a PR and avenge my so-so showing at the Zoo Zoom.

Gain a better handle on my pacing in a race environment. One of my biggest challenges this Fall has been running too easy for too long in a race and not going as hard as I can.

Stay in the zone and remain constant and present in my racing.

Saturday morning I woke up a little early because I was anxious about the race. It gave me a little more time to get dressed and wake up, though, so that was good. The Weather Channel, which is my new best friend now that I am running outside all the time, said it was 29 degrees outside, so I put on my compression shorts, running tights, and long sleeved shirt. I packed my blue fleece, hat and gloves but put on my track pants and North Face jacket for warmth before the race. Sure enough, when I got to the race, it was pretty cold, but the sun was out a little, and that helped things.

There were tons of people there! The final count was something like 1900 runners, which was much larger than I anticipated. As a result, I got a half decent parking spot. The race was organized beautifully and they had shuttles from the parking areas to the starting line, which was fantastic. I got to the tent and picked up my bib and chip without any trouble and took my time getting my warm-ups off and fleece on, etc. I checked my bag and tried to eat the PowerBar I brought with me. Unfortunately, it was so cold out that the bar was like a slightly gelatinous rock, so I was only able to eat half of it.

As I walked through the crowds, I saw a variety of runners, from the very serious to the recreational. I saw one guy sitting on the curb meditating, which was interesting. He picked the worst place to center his mind because there were people running and yelling all around him. I saw another guy practicing Tai-Chi in the parking lot. There was a guy playing the bagpipes, but it was so cold that he couldn’t warm them up enough to really play much. Another guy was dressed in a kilt and had some swords that he clanged together to get people hyped up. They were at the starting line psyching people up.

I then ran a short warm up run up the first hill of the course, coming back down and then went out into a neighborhood briefly before coming back to the starting area. By that time it was 8:25. I was nice and warmed up. People began crowding up to the starting line but I laid back in the very back, focusing on my goals. This was my last race of the season and I wanted to make some real physical and mental progress before going into the hard training of January and February.

It took almost 5 minutes from the time the horn sounded to the time I crossed the line, and even then, my first mile was spent dodging other runners and passing people. I tucked in behind these two guys who were gradually increasing their speed. I knew they’d eventually leave me behind, but I drafted them so I could pass more people more quickly. After that though, it started to thin out and I was able to get into a groove. I still spent most of the race passing people, which is a bother and perhaps might lead me to start in the middle of the pack for the Shamrock 5K in March. However, it was gratifying not to be passed by anyone the entire way.

Mile 1 came in at 9:34, which was a product of passing people and getting caught behind some slow groups at the start. Mile 2 came in at 8:43, which is a good race pace for me at this point. In fact, my goal was to keep it around 9:00 per mile, but I never really got super exhausted while staying under 9 minutes, so I kept it as steady as possible in the 8:45 range. I was happy that I took my own water along for the run because there was only one water stop, about halfway through the race. It kept me hydrated throughout the run, which definitely helped me mentally, if not physically. I also got to skip the water station and keep my focus on running.

Mile 3 was undulating up and down through some of the same paths I had run at the Zoo Zoom, so they were somewhat familiar to me. Mile 3.5-4.75, roughly, was spent running around the big lake in the park. It seemed like that path just kept going and going and never turned back, but eventually we got back to the entry point and the rest of the race was downhill. I kept it under control during the downhill but then really picked it up once I reached the final straightaway. According to my Garmin, my pace dipped close to 5 minutes per mile at that point!

While I had maintained my focus on my time goal throughout the race, I never let myself get comfortable with my pace. I always monitored it and calculated my chances at making a PR at all times. Only when I reached the end of the lake loop did I look at my watch and know that I was going to beat my record. At that point I dropped it another gear and tried to pick up a few more seconds.

I crossed the finish line in 43:38, besting my 5 Mile PR by more than 2 minutes, which was intensely gratifying to me. The food after the race was pretty decent too: Kool-Aid, donuts, chips, cookies, fruit and other snacks. I didn’t stick around though and made my way home after changing back into my warmer clothes.
I really enjoyed this race and will definitely do it next year. It was really well organized, the course was challenging but fast, and even though I didn’t spend $45 for the race and the Brooks running jacket (I only spent $10 for the race), the jackets looked cool. The race director sent out numerous e-mails in the week leading up to the race to communicate parking arrangements, packet pick up times and other details about race day. It made for a smooth day for runners, and a great race overall. If you live in the DC-Baltimore area, I would encourage you to run this race, although you’ll have to register early because it fills up fast and I register for all my races months in advance!

What a Difference a Day Makes

Well, two days, actually. This morning's run was much better than Tuesday's, despite it being 1.5 miles longer. I took the pace back a good deal, even going above 10 min/mile for one mile, but it was worth it to avoid hurting myself.

My legs felt strong throughout the run and I was able to pick up the pace to just under 9 min/mile for the final mile without any problem. More importantly, afterward I didn't feel any of the tightness or soreness in my shin muscles that I had after Tuesday's run.

Tomorrow is a quick 3.5 miler before the Celtic Solstice on Saturday morning. The weather report has really shaped up for Saturday morning, which is great. It'll be cold, around freezing I think, but no rain or snow and little wind. The nasty stuff won't begin until later in the morning. While it won't be too bad here in Baltimore, further west it'll be messier, which means I will have to make a game-time decision on whether I'm going to drive out there or not. It's actually not even driving there that concerns me, but rather the drive back around 10 PM after several hours of snow and some sleet and some rain has had time to sit on the cooling roads. We'll see.

Date: 12/13/07
Time: 6:10 AM
Distance: 5.0 miles
Conditions: mid-30's with some wind, overcast with some rain but it stopped after about 20 minutes.

Mile 1: 9:47
Mile 2: 9:45
Mile 3: 9:46
Mile 4: 10:13
Mile 5: 8:58

Total: 48:32
Average pace: 9:41

Calories: 749

Excuses, Excuses

Quick entry today as I didn't run this morning for a couple reasons:

1. I woke up and my right leg was still a little tight and tender so rather than push my luck 2 days before a race, I held off.

2. I was tired when I woke up.

3. I was also warm and cozy undr my blankets when I woke up.

As a result, no running today. Tomorrow morning I will be out for a nice 5 miler, then a 3.5 miler on Friday before the race on Saturday morning.

Weather Underground is forecasting only a 20% chance of any precip come Saturday morning. Right now it looks like it'll start around 10 or so, which is fine as I'll hit the road shortly after I finish the race anyway. I'm not as concerned about my other plans, as they can be cancelled without too much trouble. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

Sluggish Run with Some Soreness

At least the weather cooperated this morning. It was about 43 and overcast, so it was pretty decent running weather. Did 3.5 miles easy, although I need to really work on my pacing because I ran this way too fast and had some residual soreness in my right leg afterwards. I need to be more careful to prevent overtraining and the injuries (read: shin splints) that come with it. Tomorrow I have 5 miles that's supposed to be a tmepo pace, but I'm going to throttle that back to an easy pace so I don't stress my leg. Thursday is another 3.5 mile easy run so I think I should be able to baby the leg until the Celtic Solstice 5 Miler on Saturday morning.

Date: 12/11/2007
Time: 6:15 AM
Distance: 3.5 miles
Conditions: 43 degrees, overcast and slightly humid. Some wind but nothing bad.

Mile 1: 9:34
Mile 2: 9:34
Mile 3: 9:08
Mile 3.5: 4:26 (8:53 pace)

Total: 32:43
Average: 9:21
Calories: 525

Weather-wise, the rest of the workweek looks good and hospitable for running. Up until about 24 hours ago, Saturday was looking good too. But now they're calling for a 30% chance at freezing rain, which is no bueno. First of all, freezing rain makes driving dangerous and running treacherous. Luckily, I only paid $10 for this race, but I really want to run one final race before calling the 2007 season a wrap. More importantly, I have to drive from Baltimore to Hagerstown on Saturday afternoon and will be loathe to do so if I-70 is slick. In fact, I won't do it because the trip normally takes about 90 minutes and I don't want to drive 3 hours out there and 3 hours back. I'm keeping tabs on it for the time being so hopefully that 30% will go down as the week goes on.

Weekend Update

After a week with a series of frigid mornings that kept me off the road for all but one day, the weather finally started to warm up every so slightly this weekend. Actually, the weatherman said it was supposed to warm up on Friday but it was below 20 degrees on Friday morning, which technically is warmer than the 15 it was the morning before, but still too cold for me to be out there in just a fleece.

Thankfully, Saturday morning was much warmer (40 degrees is "much warmer" in mid-December) and I got a comfortable 5 miles in. Here's the data from that run:

Date: 12/8/07
Time: 11:36 AM

Weather: 40 degrees, overcast at the beginning, sunny by the end

Distance: 5.0 miles

Mile 1: 8:52
Mile 2: 8:48
Mile 3: 9:15
Mile 4: 0:25
Mile 5: 8:53

Total: 45:18
Average Pace: 9:02

Run felt good overall, although I got a late start, per usual, and the Inner Harbor was teeming with tourists and suburbanites so I had to adjust my route for that. I need to stop the procrastinating and get out the door earlier in the coming weeks. It felt great to get back out on the road though, to be sure.

Today it was cloudy and rainy when I woke up but the radar showed that the rain wuld be passing by about 11 or so. So I went out about 10:30 and sure enough, after about 20 minutes, the light rain let up and went away. This run called for 6 miles, so I finally did the run from the Inner Harbor out to Ft. McHenry and back. It was a nice run and of course the paths around the fort were vacant. Very peaceful run along the shoreline. Here's the data, followed by the route I took.

Date: 12/09/07
Time: 10:40 AM
Weather: low 40's, Light rain initially, overcast for most of the time.

Distance: 6.0 miles

Mile 1: 9:12
Mile 2: 9:00
Mile 3: 9:20
Mile 4: 9:38
Mile 5: 9:55
Mile 6: 9:19

Total: 56:28
Average Pace: 9:24



This week looks to be much warmer than last, which means I should have no problems meeting my mileage goal this week. Also, the Celtic Solstice 5 Miler is on Saturday morning, so I'm hoping for good weather for that, although I'd like it to be a little cold so I don't get too hot. Right now, I'm feeling good about the race and my chances to break my PR for the distance. We'll see how the training goes this week. Tomorrow is an off day, with only stretching and strengthening scheduled, so my tight calves will have 48 hours in total to recover and get ready for Tuesday morning.

Schedule for the week:

Monday: Off
Tuesday: 3.5 miles easy
Wednesday: 5 mile tempo
Thursday: 3.5 mile easy
Friday: Off
Saturday: Celtic Solstice 5 Miler
Sunday: Off (maybe a few miles easy if I feel good post-race)

7 Degrees = Too Cold to Run and Survive

Man, this week is almost over and I haven’t posted since Monday afternoon! The days have flown by, it seems. So, a quick review, although once again I am at work and unable to provide split data for my runs.

Tuesday I couldn’t get out to run because it was about 27 degrees outside with a 15 mph wind that cut the temp to about 15. Too cold to run without an actual running jacket, which I will lack until Christmas. I could have gone to the gym, but preferred to sleep another hour instead.

Wednesday morning I got up and while it was cold, it was still in the high 20’s, and without a wind so it was just warm enough to run. I broke out my tights for this one and am glad I did. Again, though, I need a real running jacket because my fleece is not cutting it at those temps. My pace was about 9:30 something for 3.5 miles, so I am getting faster, although I don’t know if this is due to increased endurance/strength or because it’s so damn cold outside that I have to run a little faster to stay warm. Thankfully, it was just overcast when I went out and didn’t begin snowing until around 9, when I was already safely at work.

However, the coldness stayed another day and it was 15 this morning without the wind chill, which made it feel like 7. That coupled with the snow and ice on the ground persuaded me to stay in bed and enjoy another hour of warm sleep. I should go to the gym tonight to get a run in, so we’ll see how that works out. My training schedule calls for a 5 mile run with a 3.5 mile run on Friday (I moved my Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday schedule back a day since Tuesday was a bust). However, I’d prefer to run that 5 miler outdoors since it won’t seem quite as much like torture as it would at the gym, so I think I will run 3.5 miles tonight and 5 tomorrow morning. The weather is supposed to be marginally warmer tomorrow with temps around freezing at 6 AM. I can run in 32 degree weather with my fleece and the coming days are supposed to be a little warmer (high 30’s and low 40’s in the mornings, I believe), so relief isn’t far away.

Unfortunately, I just remembered that they’re lighting the Washington Monument in Mt. Vernon tonight at 5:30 (well, it all starts at 5:30), so I might end up doing my run later, if at all. See, this is why I should have gotten up and gone this morning! But at 5:30 AM, my brain is a well-oiled excuse machine. My sleepy brain deploys all the logic I have now against me in the morning. In my defense, I didn’t know the monument was being lit tonight until someone at work told me earlier today, and I’d like to think that would have effected my decision to sleep later this morning had I known it at the time.

As it stands, I may miss this easy 3.5 miler this week and regroup tomorrow morning for the 5 milers, followed by a 6 mile long run on Sunday. Once the weather moderates a little (I can accept 30’s in the morning, but 20’s and lower is ridiculous), I don’t anticipate many mornings when I don’t get my butt up and run as I feel great afterwards.

I’m still about 16 weeks out from the half marathon, so I don’t think missing 3.5 miles out of the roughly 400 I will run to prepare for this race will hurt me too badly.

On another note, the Celtic Solstice 5 Miler is just over a week away and I am looking forward to the race. It’s taking place in Druid Hill Park along the same paths as the Zoo Zoom. I feel that I will run more effectively in this race since I’ve been running outside during the cold and have become a little more acclimated to it. Hopefully it won’t be 20 degrees that morning and it’ll be an enjoyable run. Between now and next Saturday I have a couple 3.5 milers, two 5 mile tempo runs and one 6 mile long run.

I’ll post my splits from yesterday’s run when I get home and have access to the data.

Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Saturday

Before getting into the running I did this weekend, which went well, I must briefly acknowledge the travesty that occurred in Morgantown on Saturday night.

I still can’t believe that the Mountaineers lost to the lowly Pitt panthers on Saturday night. It was, without a doubt, one of the worst football games I have ever seen. People will say that Pitt played “the game they had to play to win”, but that’s B.S. Pitt played thir usual brand of mediocre football with some notable defensive plays. Their offense was weak, per usual, and only managed 13 points the entire game.

However, 13 points was enough to beat WVU, amazingly. The same team that scored 60 points against UCONN, a much better team than Pitt, managed just 9 points. I can’t tell you how embarrassing that game was to watch. Horrible.

I realize that Pat White was injured in the second quarter but it’s not as if he was the only productive part of the offense. Sure, the backup couldn’t hang onto the ball, but then again, why hell are you having him run the ball and keeping it out of the hands of your star running back in the first place? Or maybe giving it to your fullback who’s known for hitting guys so hard he breaks facemasks? That might have opened up some holes in the line. Why weren’t you passing to your star receivers? And if you didn’t want to do all that, why not bring in the freshman running back and see what he does? None of that happened on Saturday night. Instead WVU ran plays that made no sense (why attempt a running play on 3rd and long? WHY?) or ran plays using the wrong players, like having the backup quarterback run the ball several times. I have nothing against WVU’s backup. I’m sure he’s very good. But he had no idea what to do out there at times. Just get the ball to the receivers or hand it to Slaton for Christ’s sake.

I can’t understand it. As I said, it was the worst WVU football game I have ever seen. Not only did they appear not to want the game, but they really didn’t seem to care they were getting embarrassed by a bunch of clowns from Pitt. Now they’re going to the Fiesta Bowl to play Oklahoma. I don’t think they deserve to go to a bowl at all after playing like that. And you know what? I’ll bet $100 that they play another terrible game and lose badly to Oklahoma too. That’s just the way WVU football goes; I’m not sure why I thought this season would be any different. As a lifelong WVU fan, I will always cheer for the Mountaineers, win or lose. But that doesn’t mean I have to blindly accept such an obvious lack of heart and desire.

That’s all I’ll say about that until the Fiesta Bowl. Annie’s parents are Ohio State fans so I can cheer for them on January 7.

Anyway, on to the running portion of this post. I got a good 5 miles in yesterday morning before we left for Washington for the day. Nothing too exciting. I followed the same path I used last week, but I’ve posted it below in case you don’t want to look back through my awesome posts from the week. I also need to update with the splits, etc but I’m at work and away from y Garmin. This week I bump up the mileage just a bit, going for 18 miles total. Annie is going to New York on Thursday with her mom and sister and won’t be back until Monday, which gives me the entire weekend to relax and do what I want. She’s in New York tonight until later when I have to pick her up from the bus station, but today is a rest day. Tomorrow we have to drive back down to Washington for a callback, which I am not thrilled about. But the gig pays and she’s up for the lead, so it’s worth it if she gets it.

As my runs get longer, my need for a hydration pack gets greater. I am going to have bite the bullet and get one here very soon because once I start getting above 5 miles per day, I need to be able to drink constantly. I will spend some time today shopping. I’d like to find one on a site that doesn’t charge for shipping, because that whole concept is a nice little racket. Eight bucks for shipping that really costs them like $2.00? No thanks.

More tomorrow.

Army-Navy Gameday....Eh.

Slept in today because I was tired from the work week. Went out at 11 AM today but weather was still cold, although sunny. Tomorrow is going to suck as it's supposed to rain and sleet here in the morning...a true test of my dedication to using my Garmin! I don't want to have to run in the gym.

Anyway, did a nice 4 miles today and very fast pace historically. Went out a little too fast for my liking but slowed it up just a tad on the final 2 miles. Didn't feel terrible afterwards, either, which is a good sign. It was the Army-Navy game today but I don't really care. Lots of people in the Inner Harbor made running a process of avoiding obstacles. Here are the stats:

Date: 12/1/2007
Time: 11:00 AM
Conditions: Sunny but cold, wind about 10 mph; 35 F, wind chill 28 F
Distance: 4.0 miles

Mile 1: 8:45
Mile 2: 8:29
Mile 3: 9:15
Mile 4: 9:11

Total: 35:43

Average pace: 8:55/mile

Calories: 597

Foul-weather 5 miles tomorrow morning then it's off to Washington for the day. Hopefully the weather won't suck the entire day!

Flexible and Adaptable

That’s the motto of the company I work for and the theme of this week’s training. I forgot how much of a shift your body goes through when it has to start waking up a good deal earlier than it’s used to. I think it takes about 2 weeks to adjust to the point where you don’t feel like you’re going to vomit when you wake up in the morning.

That is how I felt on Wednesday morning and this morning. I just felt awful and it’s my own fault. I need to make myself go to bed earlier (10:30 instead of 11:30) so I can get enough sleep each night. I’m stubborn when it comes to going to bed, as I feel that I can stay up for another hour and get some more things done. However, that extra hour of sleep would do wonders over the course of a month or so. Plus, I’m tired and ready for bed by 10:30 and make myself stay awake later, which is dumb. I think if I start getting to sleep earlier, waking up earlier will become not so horrible.

As a result of this, I will be getting up tomorrow morning (7 or 8 ish) to do my 3-mile run that was supposed to happen today and then doing my usual long run on Sunday morning. In fact, I think I will do 4 miles tomorrow as punishment to myself for slacking off. I am going to try to use this weekend to start being more responsible about my sleep schedule so when next Tuesday rolls around and that alarm goes off around 5:30, I won’t want to die.

Easy 4 miler

Did 4 miles this morning around the harbor and briefly into Federal Hill. A little hillier than I anticipated but not bad really. Pace was better than Tuesday's...about 20 seconds faster or so.

Here's the stats:

Time: 6:13 AM
Temp: ~36 degrees F
Distance: 4 miles

Mile 1: 9:41
Mile 2: 9:04
Mile 3: 9:30
Mile 4: 9:48

Total: 38:06.56

Calories: 582

Easy 3 miles tomorrow morning and then off on Saturday for some cross training at a spinning class. I'll post more tomorrow at work.

Running Entry

Just a quick entry for this morning's run.

Distance: 3 miles
Time: 30:35.61
Average Pace: 9:53 min/mile

Mile 1: 10:34
Mile 2: 9:43
Mile 3: 9:31

Calories burned: 473

No route from MapMyRun today. I think I will only post new courses for my long runs and once my runs get longer and thus, I have to run different routes to cover the distances.

Overall, the run was fine. Legs felt a little sluggish but I think that was a product of eating a turkey burger, which was heavier than I anticipated, for lunch and Wendy's for dinner. Pace was slow and steady, which is what I want from my easy runs. Tomorrow is a 4 mile tempo run so I will pick it up a tad. Other than that, not much to report.

Another Week, Another 15 Miles

Monday after a holiday weekend is about the worst time ever. Not only would I rather be home watching Sportscenter for the 3rd time this morning, but I wouldn’t have to actually do work. And yet here I am, at my desk dutifully working and taking a brief break to post and keep my blog updated for my adoring fan or fans.

Yesterday I picked Annie up from the airport in the morning and dropped her at church so she could go sing and get paid. I was going to park and run from there, but decided against it because it was markedly warmer by that point than it had been when I left to go to BWI. I had my running tights on, but was already hot just sitting in the car. So I went back to the apartment, changed into some shorts and headed out.

Even though I know I can go as far as 8 miles at an easy pace, I stepped it back to just 5 yesterday. I am currently reading “Marathon: The Ultimate Training Guide” by Hal Higdon, which I got as a gift for my birthday. Throughout the book, Higdon has talked about overtraining, which is basically a combination of stressing your muscles too much, ramping up your mileage or speed too quickly, and getting burnt out mentally on running. The more I thought about my running the past two months (since the end of August, really), I came to the realization that I am probably overtraining relative to my current ability. I was trying to get too far too fast and as a result, was not enjoying running as much as I used to. Moreover, I was getting tired of the treadmill day in and day out. This probably made me subconsciously procrastinate on going to the gym and generally not being as dedicated to my running as I’d like to be.

To remedy this, I’m scaling back and then slowly building my mileage up in preparation for the National Half Marathon. Better to feel good after running 5 miles than to feel like not running 8 miles at all. Added to this is my new Forerunner, which has allowed me to run outdoors in the mornings with a constant stream of data, which satisfies my frontal lobe. I never saw the use of running and not having some way of knowing how far you’ve run and how fast you’ve done it in. Certainly people did this before the invention of GPS, but the technology makes the computations effortless. Instead of monitoring your watch or a stopwatch, etc, there’s one device that does it all and more for you. Brilliant. Anyway, running outside is such a vast improvement over the stuffy gym. Not only is it more comfortable running in 40 degree weather rather than 80 degrees indoors, since you’re actually moving, it’s more rewarding.

Thus far, I have been pleased with how I feel with this schedule. Of course, I have only been following the schedule for a week, but I had no problem meeting the first week’s demands.

Sunday’s run took me from my apartment in downtown Baltimore around the Inner Harbor and then into Federal Hill for a bit. I have another 5 miler scheduled for this Sunday and will probably run the same course again for simplicity. Here is my route from MapMyRun.com.



Here is this week’s schedule:

Monday: Rest
Tuesday: 3 miles
Wednesday: 4-mile tempo
Thursday: 3 miles
Friday: Rest
Saturday: Cross TrainingSunday: 5-mile long run

Bait and Switch!

I had initially planned on doing my long run this morning because of having to pick up Annie from the airport tomorrow morning. However, several factors made me eventually change my mind again and revert back to the training schedule.
1. It was about 25 degrees when I woke up this morning. While I have running tights, base layers, etc, I still lack a good outer shell to wear during these frigid mornings.
2. I realized that I could pick her up tomorrow and park the car near the church she signs at and do my run from that starting point. Again, thank God for MapMyRun.com and my Garmin. I created the course I want to run and exported it into my Garmin for tomorrow, including two waypoints along the way (one for picking up a bottle of water or Gatorade, the other for a critical turn on my route).

So, today I did 60 minutes of cross training at the gym: 35 minutes on the stationary bike, 25 minutes on the recumbent. Nothing too exciting but it helped loosen up my ever-tight calf and hamstring.

On another note, WVU is currently dismantling UCONN in Morgantown. It got to the point where ABC cut away from that game to the Georgia v. Georgia Tech game. I think it's 59-14 or something at this point. So, unless they implode against Pitt next week, the chances of WVU playing for the National Championship are growing by the minute. When I was home on Thursday I saw a Santa hat that was gold and had the WVU insignia on it. If they go to the BCS Championship game, I am definitely buying it and wearing it to work on January 7th.

Green Valley North Turkey Trot Race Report

Happy post-Turkey Day to my three readers, whoever you may be. I just returned to Baltimore from my parents' house in WV, laden with leftover turkey, mashed potatoes, and corn pudding, among other things. Thanksgiving dinner was a great reward after a nice 5 mile run in the morning. So, let's get down to business.



When I found this race online, the website was very basic and that made me think that perhaps this was going to be a low-key, small affair. I was looking forward to that aspect because the Baltimore Running Festival and the Zoo Zoom had been pretty large. The race was also scheduled to begin at 9 AM, which is about an hour earlier than most other races; two hours earlier than others! This, coupled with the haphazard way of registering (no online system; you had to print the form and then mail that in with your donation) and the fact that there was no pre-race packet pickup, led me to believe that this race might also be lacking in the way of sound logistical planning. But I was willing to work with that for the chance to run.



So, I decided to get to the race early, right when registration was set to begin at 8 AM. I found it without much trouble and lo and behold, there were people everywhere! People were parking in lots more than 1/2 mile away from the actual tents! Luckily, I found a spot a little closer in another lot of a church. By 8:15, the lot was full. Obviously, this was a bigger deal than I had thought and most of the runners probably were repeats since the website was so crappy. I initially wore just a short sleeved shirt and shorts. And even though it was about 60 out by that point, the breeze was making it feel cooler. Luckily I came prepared with a long sleeved running shirt, so I changed and felt much better. I was a little hot on the course, but nothing terrible.



Anyway, I went to the tent where people were registering to sign in. However, when I told the woman at the table that I had pre-registered, she simply gave me my t-shirt and some orange wrist band like the Live Strong band and sent me on my way. So much for getting a head start by pre-registering. Moreover, the tents were set up in a neighborhood, basically on someone's front lawn, which was not only weird, but made everything cramped. I rolled with it though and took my shirt and band back to the Jeep to finish my Clif bar and Gatorade breakfast. I returned around 8:30 to see that the crowd had doubled! I took this opportunity to run a 1 mile warm up, returning around 8:45. I stood around for another 10 minutes before the race organizer got up and talked about this being the 24th annual turket trot, etc. Wonderful except that by the time he was done, it was after 9 AM. Late. Then he says, "There's no water on the course, but we have plenty of water in the tent so grab a bottle before going out."



First of all, it's absurd not to have any water stations on a 5 mile course. At a 5K, this is acceptable since you should be able to run 3 miles without absolutely needing fluid. However even here, I have run 5K's with a water stop. Anyway, I went to the tent only to find NO MORE WATER! Actually, there was no fluid left whatsoever. Of course I saw some dicks with two bottles, but that sort of idiocy is par for the course at these types of events. So at this point I was pissed because I had left my Gatorade back at the Jeep. I could have used that for the race!



I started walking to the starting line of th race along with everyone else (the director said there were about 1500 people either running 5 miles or walking 3 miles). The guy had also said that the course was clearly marked, so I was not too worried about that. However, we walk and walk and walk and finally, after walking another 1/2 mile, come to a point where there are two signs. One points right and says "Turkey Troy Walk" the other points straight ahead and says "Turkey Trot". Awesome signage. At this point I decided to take matters into my own hands and started my Garmin at that sign pointing straight ahead. I would run 5 miles and call it my race. So that's what I did. I was near the back of the pack thanks to my vain search for water, but that was fine since there was not official starting line, timing system, numbering system or finish line. Nice.



The course was extremely hilly, with a big hill coming about 1/2 mile into the race. I kinda figured that it was hilly from the drive in and took it slow going out, knowing I'd be running well over my Zoo Zoom time of 45 minutes anyway. There was a guy just in front of me who took off right when I did and ran fast since the course began on a downhill. However, I saw him start that first big hill ahead of me and saw him start to walk almost immediately. In fact, most people I saw were walking the hills, a sign that they were not experienced runners (or at least marginally experienced, as I consider myself), or that they had gone out too fast. I ended up passing him on that hill and never saw him again on the course.



Overall I ran well for never having hit hills quite like that. My average pace was 9:47, which is slower than I would have liked, but acceptable considering I took the hills much slower. In fact, at many parts of the race I made myself slow down so as to conserve energy for later in the run. I could also tell that most of the runners had been in the front of the pack because I was passing mostly people who were walking and exhausted. But I also think most of the real runners were repeats and probably knew the drill for this ramshackle race going in and got in front to get going before the crush arrived.



I set my Garmin to alert me each mile so I knew how far I had gone without having to constantly look at my Forerunner. I only checked it for pacing data to keep myself from running too fast between the hills. At one point I was running close 8:00 min/mile, which was way too fast for that course for me. Thanks God for my Garmin! Anyway, as I said there was no finihs line, and people were stopping where the tents were, which was actually about six tenths of a mile shy of 5 miles. I kept going and got my 5 miles in. Below are my per-mile splits:



Mile 1: 9:39

Mile 2: 9:42

Mile 3: 9:41

Mile 4: 10:06 (took a 15 second walking break after a huge hill)

Mile 5: 9:47



I was remarkably consistent in my pacing despite the hills, which I am very happy about. I am almost certain that is because of the Garmin pacing data I was receiving the entire time. Since I knew how far I had gone and how far I had yet to go, I could also ration my energy more efficiently. There were no signs on the course saying what mile you were at, so most people had no idea how far they had run. One lady stopped me as I was passing her to ask me what time it was and how far we had gone. I didn't mind that; I remember how I felt at the Zoo Zoom not knowing where I was on the course and how that screwed up my racing approach.



After the race I didn't stick around because A.) I had to get going so I could make it to WV in time for Thanksgiving; and B.) I wasn't interested in walking to the tents only to not find any more fluids. By the time I was done, I was parched! So I returned to the Jeep, guzzled the rest of my Gatorade and drove home.



Overall, I was pleased with my race. I ran those hills at a better and more consistent pace than I would ahve thought going into the race. However, the lack of logistical planning turned me off from the beginning. If I hadn't had my Garmin, it would have been a shitty race. As it was, without the water and with the haphazard style of presentation, it was pretty low rent. I won't be doing that turkey trot again next year and will find another race on Thanksgiving.



I love my Garmin, though. Here are some other fun data points from my run:



Lowest elevation: 553 feet above sea level



Highest elevation: 706 feet above sea level



Total calories burned: 749 (thanks to those hills, I suspect)



Greatest rise/fall: Elevation increased from 583 feet to 697 feet in a third of a mile.





As for this weekend, today was a total rest day on my training schedule. Normally, I'd do cross training tomorrow but since I have to pick up Annie from the airport on Sunday morning, the normal day for the long run, I am switching the two and doing 5 miles tomorrow morning and cross training on Sunday morning after picking her up. I've decided on a basic course to follow and will post that tomorrow using the ever-useful MapMy Runs.com. Below is the course for the Green Valley Turkey Trot.

I Heart Garmin

So after a hectic weekend, I have tried to seize this brief lull between then and Thanksgiving to get some miles in and to begin the gradual process of actually training for the National Half Marathon in late March. I have about 18 weeks from now until then, which is more than enough time to properly train for the race. In fact, the program I am basing my own plan on is only 12 weeks long. However, I drew it out to about 17 weeks for several reason:

1. Since I have more time, I can increase the mileage more gradually, lowering my risk of injury

2. Since I have 6 extra weeks, I can push my long runs so that I am running 14 miles on my long runs by the day of the race rather than getting that number to just 10 miles and relying on adrenaline to drive me those last 3.1 miles.

3. With the holidays coming up, I wanted to have some cushion built in to the program to allow for unforeseen circumstances. For example, the second wekeend in January Annie and I are going to an Engaged Encounter weekend as part of our wedding preparations. While I don't anticipate that hampering my training too much, if I have to miss a run, it won't be a big deal.

I also made the decision to go back to shorter distances for the beginning of the program to better handle the mileage. While I can run 8-mile long runs, I wasn’t comfortable starting at that level for my first real training program. Instead, I decided to start at the base level (3 mile easy runs, 2 mile tempo run, 5 mile long run) and work up from there at a slightly more accelerated pace than the program prescribed. So, this week my total mileage will be 15 miles and by the end of the program I will be running close to 40 miles a week. Every third week I step back as well to give my body time to rest a little and to reduce the risk of injury. With the extra 6 weeks, I can do that and still reach my training distance goals.

On another note, my birthday wishes came true and my parents got me the Foreunner 305! I ran with it for the first time this morning and it was awesome! Once it was able to find the satellites (downtown Baltimore has many tall buildings), it was great. I only ran 2 miles this morning, so I didn’t have enough time to really fool around with it. But I am going to use it tomorrow morning at the Turkey Trot. I am also going to set up the online training diary that it comes with although if it’s not free, I ain’t using it. But from the looks of it, the online program will be much more comprehensive than the log I have been using on RunningAhead.com. I’ll check it out tonight after work.

And one other thing. Now that I have my Forerunner keeping me informed as to my distance, time pace, heading, caloric burn, elevation, time of the sunrise, time of day, and heart rate, I ran outside today. It was much more relaxing than running on the treadmill and even though I was sweating by the end, I wasn’t as tired as I am after the treadmill. I think they keep the gym extra hot to make sure you sweat and feel like you’re getting a great workout. Problem is, the hot air tires your muscles out faster than more temperate air. Plus it smells in the gym, whereas at 6 AM even Baltimore smells fresh and clean.

Overall, I’m feeling good about this new leaf in my training. I spent the last four months getting a basic endurance base, which I have accomplished. However, to get to the next level not only will I need to run farther and faster, but I’ll have to do it smarter. That means more running outdoors to better acclimate to real running conditions, more morning running to get the distance in without screwing up my evenings, and sticking to a plan to make sure I reach my goal with time to spare in March.

Quick run-down:

Tuesday: 3 miles
Wednesday: 2 miles
Thursday: Green Valley North Turkey Trot (5 miles)
Friday: Rest
Saturday: Cross Training 60 minutes
Sunday: 5-mile long run

Total: 15 miles

Goal for Turkey Trot: 45:00 or better to set a PR.
Happy Thanksgiving! I know I’ll be feasting tomorrow afternoon after running in the morning. What better way to build up your Thanksgiving appetite than to burn 500 or so calories beforehand?

Another Frustrating Wekeend

Through a combination of tiredness and business, another weekend has gone by without any runnign on my part. This weekend is Annie's opera at school and her parents are in town and mine are due into Baltimore in about an hour. Friday night I went to the opera to see her, so no running then. Saturday morning we drove her parents and brother out to Towson so they cold go to an Ohio State alumni association of MD party for the OSU-Michigan game. Kickoff was at noon and they wanted to get there early so we picked them up at 10:30 and didn't return until about 4 PM, after the gym had closed. Then we met them for dinner last night. So no running yesterday. I fully intended to get up this morning and go to the gym before today's festivities began. However, I was exhausted after a week of work and then non-stop family stuff. So I didn't get up until 10. I also hate running when I have a tight schedule. To do my 8 miles, I need a good 2 hours where I don't have to be anywhere or do anything afterwards so I can relax and shower, etc. I have found that running and then immediately running out to do some errand makes for a miserable day as my muscles have no chance to recover at all.

Plus, I have to meet my parents and Annie's parents at 12:30, which would have left only 30 minutes to get back, shower, change and get to the Inner Harbor. Suck. All this should be over by 6 PM tonight, which will be a relief to me. It's not that I don't like seeing our families, but they're exhausting.

As a result, this weekend has been a complete wash for running. I'd like to get some miles in tonight, but I seriously doubt that will happen. Tomorrow night we're going to a friend's recital, so no running tomorrow night either! Each day that passes that I have to put off running makes me more frustrated. But I think that Tuesday through Thursday of this week will be better for running (including Thursday with the Turkey Trot). Then I can take Friday off and run Saturday and Sunday and try to get back on the horse once and for all.

Happy Birthday to Me

Today is my birthday, so I of course had to post so as to memorialize this day in Internet history forever. I am still 25 for the time being, though, as my actual birth time is 11:33 PM. I was born on my due date, because even in the womb I had respect for other people’s time.

Anyway, I am still undecided whether I will run tonight or not. On the one hand, I have to go to Annie’s opera tomorrow night, which means no time to run tomorrow after work. However, today is my birthday and I ran the last two nights. Also, because I didn’t rest two full days (Monday and Tuesday), my calf has been slower to recover and is still just the slightest bit tight. And, if I am really set on running, I can always wake up early tomorrow and do it so as to rest tonight. Or I could just run tonight and have two days off before Sunday’s long run of 9 miles.

Tuesday night I ran the usual 4.5-mile easy run, although my easy pace is much slower than what I usually run at. I know the experts say to run at a slow, conversational pace, but I hate shuffling along on the treadmill like that. If I can safely and relatively comfortably shuffle along at a slightly faster pace, I’ll do that instead. My calf and leg muscles were really tight the first mile or so, but loosened up nicely after that. No real issues to report there.

Yesterday I did a short 3-mile tempo run. Again, the calf and leg were tight for about 1.5 miles but loosened up afterwards. This has been happening more often lately, and leads me to believe that my usual warm up is no longer adequate. Once the muscles are warmed up, they’re fine and I feel much better. However, the pain and discomfort that I have to endure before that point saps a lot of valuable energy that I’d like to use to run better and improve my efficiency.

So, I am going to start working on a new warm up process that will get my legs warmed up more thoroughly. Maybe a 10-minute job followed by some stretching. This sort of segues into another topic for this post: the future indoor/outdoor ratio of y running.

As you can see from my online training log, approximately 100% of my training runs have taken place indoors on a treadmill since June. As the months have gone on, I have gotten progressively more bored with this arrangement but have been faced with several impediments to running including:

1. Baltimore is full of nut jobs.
2. I have no desire to run outside after work because of traffic, aforementioned nut jobs, and pedestrians messing up my groove
3. No way of monitoring my pace, direction, distance, time, etc.

I’m sure there are other obstacles, but these are the three biggies. However, I have reason to believe that the biggest factor, #3, will be remedied shortly. I have a wishlist on Amazon that I have compiled as I have found books that I want to read. The beauty of Amazon is that they sell everything so I was able to also add the Garmin Forerunner 305 , the Porsche of the GPS sports training products. I have reason to believe that I will be receiving this for my birthday this weekend, which would be awesome. This would greatly improve my chances of significantly reducing my indoor running time. By being able to monitor every stat possible regarding my training away from the treadmill, I will be free to run wherever I want, whenever I want.

As a result, if obstacle #3 is resolved, numbers 1 and 2 will quickly fall as well because I will have the motivation to get up early in the morning, when there is no traffic, pedestrian interference and the nut jobs are still passed out in their lairs. Plus I don’t like going anywhere and not knowing where I am, how far I am from home, etc. The Forerunner 305 will do all of that, and more.

Now, it’s possible that I won’t receive this until Christmas, which I am OK with, of course. But it would be sweet to have it now because I have wanted it since I laid eyes on it several months ago. Sure, I could have asked for the 205 model, but really, why bother if I’m getting it as a gift? Am I spoiled by my family? Yes. Will I run an awesome half marathon in March? Absolutely. Will I have my Forerunner with me when I do? Hopefully!

Postrace Injury Report

Just a quick posting today since I had such a long one yesterday.

First, I would encourage you to check out Jason’s race report from the Richmond Marathon over at his site Jason’s Running Diary . This was his first marathon and it sounded like it went pretty well.

I was getting my logistics squared away for the Green Valley Turkey Trot next Thursday (getting directions from Google maps, thinking about the time of the race, driving distance, etc) and discovered that it is not a 5K but in fact a nice 5 mile run. That makes me pretty happy because it’ll give me a shot at breaking my time from the Zoo Zoom. A 5K would have been nice so I could test my speed a little more, but 5 miles will give me a bigger appetite come Thanksgiving dinner later in the day.

My right leg is feeling better today. It’s still a little tender, but I think it should be just fine for running tonight. While my quads were hurting the afternoon after the race, my right calf really didn’t start hurting until Monday morning. But it got better throughout the day and this morning it was just the slightest bit tight. I think some light stretching after my warm up tonight before the actual run will take care of any lingering tightness.

The lesson from this minor injury is to get to the race earlier next week so I have plenty of time to jog a little, stretch thoroughly and then jog to keep my muscles loose before the race. That’s probably even truer when it’s cold outside. All things considered, I count myself lucky to have only a slight twinge of my right quad and calf. At this point, I’m about 90% and I think that the running will actually help the healing. No worries here.

Zoo Zoom 2007 Race Report

As promised, below is my race report for the Baltimore Zoo Zoom 2007.

The race was slated to begin at 8 AM at the Maryland Zoo, which is in Druid Hill Park in Baltimore. While the park is very nice, it’s in a bad part of Baltimore and can be a dangerous place at night. However, at 8 AM on a Sunday all the crazies are still asleep.

Packet pickup for the race was being held the day before at Falls Road Running in Mt. Washington. It coincided with the huge post-marathon tent sale, so I made a little trip of it. I picked up my race packet, which included a nice long-sleeved t-shirt and some information about the zoo, etc. There is an adopt-an-animal program where for $20 you can adopt your choice of a zoo animal (like a lion or an arctic fox, etc). I think I might do that as part of Annie’s Christmas gift for something different.

Anyway, while I was there, I bought a new pair of running shorts to replace the two pair from Target that I absolutely hated (see my previous post from last Wednesday). I got these shorts at 40% off and they’re New Balance, so they’re great quality. I also bought a Brooks long-sleeved running shirt for 20% off. I have a ¾ length shirt that I bought at the Baltimore Marathon’s Health and Fitness Expo back in October, but it’s a little thinner than I am comfortable with wearing when it’s below 50 degrees. My new short is thicker, but still a technical shirt, so it breathes well. I also bought two Clif Bars: Chocolate Brownie for Annie and Blueberry Crisp for me.

So, Sunday morning I woke up around 6:45 to give myself plenty of time to wake up and get dressed, etc before leaving for the zoo. I spent a good deal of time the night before getting my stuff together and thinking about what I wanted to wear for the cold weather. I’m glad I did so much research because I ended up being just right for the run.

I ended up wearing shorts and my long sleeved shirt, along with a fleece to the race. It was hovering around 35 degrees at that point, so I was worried I’d be too cold. But I got there a little late because I got all the way to my car in the parking garage only to realize I had forgotten my race bib on the couch. So I went back up and got it and then headed out. I parked and got situated by about 7:45 AM, which was about 15 minutes later than I had aimed for initially. I put on my gloves that I had gotten in the Baltimore Running Festival race pack, along with a knit toboggan to cover my ears. Of all the warm clothing I wore, I think the hat made me feel the warmest since it kept my ears warm and my head covered.

As soon as I walked into the zoo, race volunteers were calling for people to line up and get ready to go. I didn’t have a good chance to warm up my muscles, so I was concerned about injuring myself like I did after the Run to Cooperstown back in July. I stretched as best I could and before I knew it, the horn sounded and we were off!

The course wound through the park for about 2.5 miles I estimate, before going through the zoo. I estimate because there weren’t any mile markers on the course so aside from my stopwatch on my watch and the assumption that I was running around 9:00 min miles, I had no idea how far I was from the end. I hope they fix that for next year’s race.

After what I guess was about a mile, we hit a water station, however it was so early in the race, I wasn’t thirsty and didn’t stop, thinking that I’d hit the next one, which I assumed would be around 3 miles or so. Wrong! That was the only stop on the entire course! If this race had been in August, people would have been in danger. As it was 38 degrees, it wasn’t so bad, but still annoying not to have anything to drink. I had even brought my own water bottle of Gatorade but had left it in the Jeep because I figured they’d have at least two water stations on a 5 mile course.

I enjoyed the course itself. It was very hilly by my standards and offered a lot of nice scenery to take my mind off the burning in my quads from the hills. I stuck to a basic strategy throughout the race: pick up the speed a little on the straight and level portions, slow down and take smaller strides on the hills, and let my momentum carry me down the down slopes without losing control of my pace and risking injury. It seemed to work fairly well, although I think I could have pushed the level running a tad more. However, the short strides really helped my hill running. There was one hill that nearly killed me and I had to stop and walk for about 20 seconds before starting down again, but that was the toughest part of the course, I think.

The second half of the course wound through the Maryland Zoo, which was cool. We ran through the “Africa” section, although most of the paddocks were empty and the animals had been brought inside. I guess it doesn’t get down to 38 degrees in too many parts of Africa. We did run past the cheetah, however, which was cool. He looked really confused at all the possible prey running past him for no good reason. We also ran by the penguin habitat. They were just looking at us with confused looks as well. After we ran through Africa, I could hear this woman behind me complaining to everyone about how crappy the race was. I could tell from her tone that she was a real experienced runner (know-it-all complaining voice “I could put a 5K together with this many people running without any problems!” etc). She was pissed too, because apparently she had run the wrong way at one point on the course, which cost her a bunch of time. She was cursing up a storm too, which while I support (I curse up a storm when I’m angry too), she was doing it around parents running with their kids, which I do not condone. In the end, it’s just a 5-mile race through a zoo so lighten up and shut your mouth. Honestly. Don’t ruin it for everyone else because you were born with your head up your ass.

I can understand being angry about the lack of water, signage, and knowledgeable volunteers, but just suck it up and shut up. Run your race and try to enjoy yourself. She sped past me and went off cursing and complaining, presumably to the finish line where she undoubtedly bitched out someone else. When you get that angry about a hobby, it’s time to take a step back and relax. Isn’t this supposed to be fun?

Before long, I could hear people cheering and knew I was getting close to the finish line. It snuck up on me, actually, as I got into the zone of progressively catching up to runners in front of me. Some of them I just couldn’t catch, of course, but the exercise helped to pass the miles. I gave a good kick to the finish and crossed in 45:58 according to the clock, but my watch said 45:45, which I accept as more accurate since I was in the back of the starting pack and assumed the starting line (again, no starting line was delineated) to be about 25 yards in front of me. That works out to about a 9:09 pace, which is pretty good for not knowing where I was on the course or how fast I was running at any given mile.

Afterwards, they were giving out water so I took two bottles and made my way to swag tent. They had bagels, cheese, donuts and bananas available. They also had this energy drink from Coke available. It was carbonated and had some berry flavor to it, but it tasted horrible and I threw my can away. Don Pablo’s was a sponsor of the race and was hading out free nachos with either cheese or chili sauce along with Amstel Light beer. I got myself some nachos with cheese but no beer since it would have made me feel gross. After resting for about 15 minutes and watching other people cross the finish line, I headed back to the Jeep.

Overall, this was not a bad race. I liked the course and the weather worked out well. I think mid-November is a good time for a wintry race because the chances of bad weather are fairly even (as compared with December or later). It was a pretty well attended race, although I think it was bigger in years past. This year, 435 people participated. I also liked the nachos at the end. However, the lack of a clearly marked course, lack of mileage signs, and only one water station on the course were major detractors. Next year I think I will have to make sure those problems have been fixed before I register to run it again.

So, with my clock time of 45:58, I came in 201st place out of 435, which puts me in the 46th percentile. Better than 50% is always a plus for me. I finished 13th of the 30 men in my age division, putting me in the 42nd percentile there.

I’m pleased with that result since it was my longest race to date and I had no idea what my pace was. Perhaps if I had known, I could have picked it up at certain spots. But I’m happy to have gotten solidly under the 10:00 min mark.

My next race is next Thursday at the Green Valley North Turkey Trot, where I plan to break out my long sleeved shirt, gloves and toboggan again and try to break 26 minutes!
For now, I am resting, as my calves and quads are sore today. They should be fine by tomorrow so I can get back to the gym without any interruption.

Preparing the Race Report

Since the Zoo Zoom was yesterday morning, and I used most of my Sunday to watch my Redskins squander a lead to the lowly and yet still obnoxious Eagles, I did not sit down to write a race report yesterday.

Monday being the beast of a day that it is, my morning was quickly swallowed up by work. However, the afternoon is looking a little better, although still busy. I think I will take some time to construct a race report and try to have it up by mid-afternoon.

In the meantime, I've posted an essay by Dean Karnazes about the marathon and the fight every runner has against it. I originally saw this over at Jason's Running Diary . I have a link to his site on my toolbar, and I heartily encourage you to check it out. He ran his first marathon (Richmond) this weekend and I am awaiting his race report, which will be much better than mine, even though at one point I did run by a cheetah and penguins.


THE MARATHON

The Marathon is not about running, it is about salvation. We spend so much of our lives doubting ourselves, thinking we’re not good enough, not strong enough, not made of the right stuff. The Marathon is an opportunity for redemption. “Opportunity,” because the outcome is uncertain. “Opportunity,” because it is up to you, and only you, to make it happen. There is no luck involved in finishing a marathon, the ingredients required to tackle this formidable challenge are straightforward: commitment, sacrifice, grit, and raw determination. Plain and simple.

So you set about in your training to prepare your body for the rigors of running 26.2 miles. You train like crazy, dedicating yourself wholeheartedly to the challenge ahead, pouring everything you’ve got into it. But you know the Marathon will ask for more. In the dark recesses of you mind, a gloomy voice is saying, you can’t. You do your best to ignore this self-doubt, but the voice doesn’t go away.

The Marathon shakes you to the core. It deconstructs your very essence, stripping away all your protective barriers and exposing your inner soul. At a time when you are most vulnerable, the Marathon shows no pity. The Marathon tells you it will hurt you, that it will leave you demoralized and defeated in a lifeless heap on the roadside. The Marathon tells you that it can’t be done, not by you. “Ha!” it torments you, “In your dreams.”

You fight back, however, and stand courageously at that starting line, nervously awaiting the gun to go off. When it does, you put your head down and charge off into the abyss with the knowledge that you either paid your dues, or skimped along the way. There is no lying to yourself, the Marathon sees right through excuses, shortcuts and self-transgressions.

All goes well for the first half. But slowly, step by step, the pain mounts, while the intensity of the endeavor amplifies. You remain steadfast, knowing that you did not skimp, that you did not take shortcuts along the way, that every footstep was earnedthrough months of diligent preparation. Still, with each wearing thrust forward, that little nagging inclination of self-doubt progressively advances toward the surface of your awareness.

Then, at mile twenty, the voice looms louder than ever. It hurts so bad you want to stop. You must stop. But you don’t stop. This time, you ignore the voice, you tune out the naysayers who tell you you’re not good enough, and you listen only to the passion in your heart. This burning desire tells you to keep moving forward. To continue putting one foot boldly in front of the other, and don’t stop. Courage comes in many forms, today you will have the courage to keep trying, to not give up, no matter how dire things become. And dire they do become. At the 26 mile mark, you can barley see the course any longer, your vision is faltering as you teeter on the edge of consciousness.

And then, suddenly before you, looms the finish line. Tears stream down your face as you cover those final few steps. Now you are finally able to answer back to that nagging, pervasive voice with a resounding: Oh yes I can!

You burst across that finish line and are liberated from the prison of self-doubt and limitations that have forever held you captive. You have learned more about yourself in the past 26.2 miles than you have known in a previous lifetime, now you are freed from the chains that bind. Even if you can’t move for a week, you have never been so free.

As you are being carried away from the finish line, wrapped in a flimsy mylar blanket, barely able to raise your head, you are at peace. That daunting adversary that, as a runner, has haunted you for an entire lifetime is now your liberator, your fondest ally. You have done what few will ever do—you have done what you thought you could never do—and it is the most glorious, unforgettable awakening ever. You are, a Marathoner, and you will wear this distinction not on the lapel of your clothing, but in your heart, for the rest of your life.


Hell yeah Dean. Hell yeah.

Worst Shorts Ever

As I have gotten more and more serious about my running over the past four months or so, I have made incremental improvements to the gear I use or wear. For example, I started out running in simple training shoes, which were no good. So I upgraded to Addidas and then later to my current shoes, the Brooks Adrenaline GTS 7. I have only had a few blisters here and there as a result of this investment. I also used to drink just water on my runs. Now I make my own Gatorade most nights, giving my body the salts it needs while saving the expense of buying the stuff each night. And I recently started using gel shots on my long runs to better fuel myself.

This has also been the case with my running shorts. I started out with simple mesh shorts but quickly found they would be tough to run in for long distances. I bought a nice pair of running shorts at Target back in July that have been awesome. In fact, they are the shorts I normally run in now. I recently went back to Target to try to find a couple more pairs of these awesome shorts, only to find that they weren’t being made any longer for the season. I bought two pairs of another style of running short instead. These have a lining in them similar to underwear, which I was skeptical about at first but am fine with now. I hadn’t worn them yet until last night. That’s when I discovered that they are the worst running shorts ever made. Ever.

For one thing, they have no pockets. Are you just supposed to carry everything in your hands? I’m not sure what would make someone design shorts without pockets. What possible logic could they be using? Secondly, the drawstring on the shorts is connected. In other words, rather than one string around your wait, it’s actually a looped string. As a result, it’s almost impossible to tie the shorts tight enough to prevent them from gradually slipping down as you run. This is a very bad thing, particularly when one is at the gym. I had to stop not once, not twice, but three times to retie the shorts during my run to make them tight enough. Again, what is the point of that? Why not just make the drawstring have two ends so you can tie them like the other 90% drawstrings in the world?

So, I will be taking the shorts back to Target this weekend hopefully. Falls Road Running Store is having a post marathon sale on Saturday so I may go out there and get real running shorts made by people who use their frontal lobes on a regular basis.

This was in addition to the burning and cramping that plagued my right leg through the first 2 miles of the run. Needless to say, I was not a happy camper through the first half of the run. However, after reaching a point where I was relatively sure that my shorts wouldn’t fall down mid-stride and had gotten some Gatorade in me, my leg loosened up a little and the rest of the run was just fine. Still, I hate having those crappy runs where your legs feel like they weigh 300 pounds and everything is either hurting or feels tired.

Tonight I am doing a tempo run (of sorts), and those always feel good. I’m not sure if it’s the fact that I’m running faster and feel stronger, or that they’re shorter than my usual runs so I know I’ll be done sooner. Regardless, I think tonight will feel better. I forgot to post my theoretical schedule for this week on Monday, so here it is:

Monday: OFF
Tuesday: Easy, 4.50 miles

Wednesday: Tempo, 3 miles

Thursday: Easy 4.50 miles

Friday: OFF

Saturday: Easy 4.50 miles

Sunday: ZOO ZOOM 2007, 5 miles

Total: 21.50 miles

I also said in yesterday’s post that I would be doing 9 miles for my long run this weekend. Obviously, with the race on Sunday, I won’t be doing a long run this week. I’ll hit 9 miles next weekend. As a result, my weekly mileage for this week will be lower than usual.

Another Week, Another Chance

Another week has begun and with it, another chance to maybe run every day that I want to. Last week I got close, but fell short for a variety of reasons. This week I feel pretty positive. Work has quieted down considerably and I don’t forsee having to work really late any night this week. In fact, I am going to leave at 5 today rather than 5:30-5:45 because I got so much crap done today. Yes, I am that awesome.

Seriously though, with quarter-end over, the huge project done, and Thanksgiving just two weeks away, things here are busy, but not as hellish as they were a month ago. That means more time for the gym in the evening and a better chance at running when I want to.

Yesterday was my day off from running since Sunday was my long run, and that worked out well because I had to go to the second alumni council meeting for my prep school. That meant I missed the afternoon of work and didn’t get back until around 7:30, by which time I was exhausted from driving 90 minutes each way. Tonight I will go right after work and do an easy 4.5 miles. This weekend I will bump up the mileage to 9 miles for my long run too. I’m inching closer to that 10 mile mark, which is intimidating. Not only that, but the treadmills at the gym only allow you to put 95 minutes into the machine, which means that eventually the combination of distance and lack of speed will demand that I either reset the treadmill, or finally get my ass outside. We’ll see how that works out.

Only 4 days until the Zoo Zoom 2007! I’m excited to run a longer distance race, even if it is only 5 miles. Ideally I’d like to increase the length of my aces as I increase the length of my overall running leading up to the National Half. I don’t think that’s going to be possible though, as 8K’s and 10K’s are hard to come by, especially in the winter months. The race on Sunday should be fun, though pretty cold from the looks of the forecast.

After that I have a little over a week off before hitting the road again for the Green Valley North Turkey Trot. Yes, this is replacing the YMCA Bel Air Turkey Trot, mainly because it’s closer to Baltimore and will be easier to run, logistics-wise. It’s at 9 AM, which should put me in WV for Thanksgiving dinner around 12:30 or so. I’m excited to run a race on Thanksgiving because it will stoke my appetite so I can eat even more pumpkin pie and creamed corn, among other things.

After that, I am debating whether to run the Celtic Solstice 5 miler in December. It all depends on work and how I feel and if I feel like running in the bitter cold again. So it really depends on how these next two races go.

Tomorrow I will write a little bit on the latest Phedippidations podcast and the recent decision by USATF (is that the right acronym?) to ban headphone and mp3 players at their approved races. For now, I’m off to the gym!

Gels are Disgusting and yet, Awesome

So earlier today I wrote that forces had conspired against me to prevent me from running on Friday and Saturday. Friday I fully intended to go home and get to the gym but Annie called me at work and wanted to go shopping. Being the accomadative fiance that I am, I agreed so long as she stopped by my apartment and got my Banana Republic gift card that I have been waiting to use for about 6 months now. So we went to the mall instead of to the gym and I got a nice new pair of dark brown pants for casual Fridays.

Saturday I woke up with every intention of getting to the gym at some point. Annie was working on young artist applications and stuff for her graduate assistanship, so I had practically the whole afternoon to myself. I went to the REI store in Timonium and bought myself an awesome new North Face fleece, a pair of running socks made for men's shoe sizes 12-15 (I wear size 14!), the Clif Bar seasonal flavor (Spiced Pumpkin is excellent) and three Clif Shots (Razz, Vanilla and Apple Pie flavors). These were my first Clif Shots and I was a little hesitant to buy them for the simple reason that I don't honestly feel that mt running necessitates them. This despite the fact that I am running 8 miles for my long runs, which demands more of a refueling effort than Gatorade now. When I hear people say they took a gel at mile 20, something inside me thinks, "You're barely running 8 miles. YOu don't need to use gels yet." Nevermind that the person had already taken a gel at mile 8 an hour before.

Anyway, on my way back into Baltimore I also drove over to the Maryland Zoo to see where I'd have to go for the Zoo Zoom next Sunday. After making it to the Zoo, I got lost trying to get back to the highway before making it back home. I got home around 3, ate some lunch and watched some of the Navy-Notre Dame game. Any time I can see Notre Dame lose is a good time for me. The gym closes at 4 on the weekends so I was going to go down to the workout room in our apartment building around 5 after I had had time to digest. 5 PM rolls around and I get down there only to find both treadmills occupied. I was meeting Annie at 6:45, so I really didn't have time to wait around and thus, my attempts at running were foiled.

Today I got up early because of the time change and got to the gym around 10 AM. I decided to employ a simple fueling strategy for my run today. About 15 minutes before leaving for the gym, I ate a Vanilla Crisp Power Bar. When I was running, I waited until I had run about an hour (mile 6...slow yes, but easily calculated) before trying the Razz gel shot. After managing to dry my hands enough to tear the foil, I just went for it and squeezed the whole thing in my mouth best I could. It tasted like rasberry flavored energy goop, which is exactly what it is. I forced it down and chased it with a couple swigs of Gatorade. This basic strategy helped tremendously! I had a comfortable time getting to mile 5 and only started to get tired between mile 5 and 6, and even then I wasn't hurting...just mildly uncomfortable. It took about 10-15 minutes for the gel to fully kick in but it helped keep the cramps from my abdomen and took all the burning out of my legs. When I got to 8 miles, I felt that I could ahve gone for 10 if I had to. I felt worlds better than I have the past 2 weeks when I've run 8 miles. That coupled with a conscious effort to drink plenty of water after the run probably helped me feel normal today. My legs are tired, but that's par for the course.

So, I am going to stick with that simple fueling strategy for my long runs from now on. Power Bar before, one gel every hour or so afterwards.

And finally, the Redskins pulled out a victory over the lowly Jets today, which made me quite happy. They have little chance at winning the NFC East so long as the Cowboys are around, but you never know. One bad Cowboys game and the Redskins are rulers of the division! It could happen!

On my Way Out the Door

Quick note before I head out to my long run for the week.

First, after patiently waiting for some of my Running Blogs of Note to post updates over the past few weeks, I've grown tired and have removed some of them. If you don't update your blog, then really you're taking up valuable space on my awesome toolbar. I've added a new blog, however, called Boston or Bust that I would encourage the 2 people who read this blog to check out.

Secondly, I watched the Olympic marathon trials yesterday and was saddened by Ryan Shay's sudden death on the course. His tragic story made me think back to a story I read in Men's Journal several months ago about a condition that is endemic to athletes that involves the natural enlarging of the heart that comes with greater endurance. Basically, the wall of the heart get thick enough that it's too hard to pump blood and the heart stops, killing you instantly. There is another condition, which I have actually, where your heart's electrical currents don't work properly and causes your heart to skip beats. If that happens enough times in succession, your heart might stop. This is what happened to FloJo years back after she ran a race and dropped dead on the track.

Unfortunatley, she didn't know she had the tachycardia. If you know, you can take steps as I have to prevent the skipped beats.

Anyway, I will be interested to see what caused an elite athlete in better shape than 99% of the population to drop dead.

Lastly, forces consipred against me to keep me out of the gym on Friday and Saturday. I'll talk about that more when I post after my long run. For now, I'm off to get 8 miles in before the morning ends.

Spooktacular!

Happy Halloween to those who read my blog by accident! Halloween at my office is taken as a serious event and all the employees are “strongly encouraged” to dress up for the day. And by “strongly encouraged” I of course mean “dress up because if you don’t, you’ll get a stern talking to about playing on a team, etc.” People are even given a hard time if they take the day off! Last I checked, the markets aren’t closed on Halloween and the federal government is still operating. Thus, this is not a serious holiday.

My plan for next year is two-fold. If I can, I’m taking the day off and not even bothering with the whole thing. If I get some push back on that (corporate speak for catching flak), I can either use the old “St. James Aluni Council meeting” excuse or I can drop it and come to the office. This is where the second part of my plan comes into play.

This year I went as a masquerader from Venice (think of the hooded guys in spooky masks from Eyes Wide Shut or, the costumed guys from the Mozart opera Don Giovanni). It’s a great costume because it’s mysterious and spooky but it’s damn near impossible to explain to people. Two people today got it right away without an explanation, which surprised me. However, most people are just kinda freaked out by it because they can’t see your face. I’m keeping this costume for the future because it’s easy to wear, always cool looking, and easy to maintain. I’ll put a picture that Annie took over the weekend on my Flikr album. I am definitely going to keep an eye out for a better mask to use, preferably one that covers my entire face and has a creepy look on it like these from Eyes Wide Shut.

But, for next year, should my attempts at getting out of Halloween fail, I will get back to my roots and come as a stereotypical WVU fan. Accent and all. Having been born in West Virginia (OK, actually Virginia, but I grew up in WV), I speak hillbilly fluently and can switch back and forth at will. So, with that in mind, I don’t feel quite as desperate to get out of the day next year.

On to running issues. I did my fastest easy run to date last night. I ran 4.5 miles at 9:50 or better. I ran the first mile at 9:50 and then the rest at 9:30. Even though I felt tired when I stopped, I wasn’t exhausted and felt like I could have kept going by mixing in some short walking with my running. Tonight I’m going to do a shorter tempo run of 3 miles, with one-mile warm-ups and cool-downs.

Also, if you didn’t catch it last night, I would strongly urge you to find a re-running of the NOVA Marathon Challenge episode. I TiVoed the episode but watched it immediately after it was done. That way I can keep it on my TiVo and re-watch it without spending the $20 for the DVD from PBS. It was really interesting, though, They took 13 non-runners and gave them 9 months to train for the Boston Marathon. During that time, they had two coaches from Tufts University working with them to help them prepare properly. It was interesting to see how each member faced the prospect of running a marathon and how they responded, both physically and mentally, to the stresses of training for that long a distance.

I’d be interested to know more about the details of each member’s training because it seemed that some of them just weren’t prepared to run 26.2 miles, despite having completed a training program successfully. Their longest training run was 20 miles, which is huge, but leaves that last 6.2 miles unexplored. I’m not sure if you need to run 26.2 miles during the training process, but the difference between 20 miles and 26 miles is enormous. I have seen programs that recommend final training runs of 22-24 miles to get your closer to that exhaustion point that most runners reach after mile 20. The Team NOVA runners didn’t have that experience and so most of them fell apart after the halfway point, although they all finished the marathon eventually.

I was checking my bank account statement last night and saw an odd check that had been cashed for $20.00. I thought it was odd and couldn’t remember writing a check for $20 recently so I took a look at the check because I get free imaging with Bank of America. And what did I write a check for $20.00 to? Why, the Great Strides Against Prostate Cancer 5K! The very race that I was sure I had forgotten to register for back in late September (see September 29th’s post, “I’m an Idiot”)! So apparently I not only registered for it, but I totally failed to document the registration both physically and mentally. Nice. Well I donated to the St. Joseph’s Medical Center so all is not lost. I would have felt bad if the race had been done through a race company because my money would have gone there instead of a medical center treatment program. Nonetheless, this is a good lesson to always document your race registrations.

Back to Normal

OK, so it was a crazy week at work. I’m sorry, I know I should have told you before I just went off working and not posting. But don’t worry, my running also suffered. I ran on Tuesday night and then failed to get to the gym again until Friday night after the week was done and my huge project had been delivered. So both days I did the usual 4.25 miles. I had planned to go running on Saturday, but instead we went to Target and got some errands done. So, yesterday I got up and went to the gym and did my long run. Forces were conspiring against me, though. First of all, it was cold and windy outside, but that could not deter me. Secondly, I got to the gym and warmed up and then turned my iPod on to find that it had frozen just like it did a few months ago! This time, however, I had a backup. My company gave us all new 2nd generation iPod Nanos with the company logo on them. This was my emergency backup so I went back to my apartment, downloaded my running playlist onto the other iPod and returned to the gym. Screw you, Forces Conspiring to Keep Me From Running.

I got my 8 miles in, although I was stupid and failed to drink n much water afterwards, which had me feeling like crap the entire day until I finally got 3 full glasses of water in my system. Literally within minutes I felt worlds better. Stupid. I won’t do that again.

So, tonight I am not going to the gym to give my legs another day to recover. I am setting my goal for the week as the same as last week, with higher hopes of actually meeting that goal now that work has quieted down considerably. Once again, for those who don’t feel like scrolling down, is my goal schedule:

Monday (10/29): OFF

Tuesday (10/30): Easy run, 4.5 miles

Wendesday (10/31): Tempo Run (1 mile warm up, 3 mile run, 1 mile cool down)

Thursday (11/1): Easy run, 4.5 miles

Friday (11/2): Easy run, 4.5 miles

Saturday (11/3): OFF

Sunday (11/4): Long run, 8 miles

Total: 26.50 miles

This is ambitious, but I need to get my act in gear here, because the Zoo Zoom is the week after next and I’d like to put in a good effort there if possible.

Ever Closer and Ever Farther

I really hate Mondays, but not because I have to go back to work after having two days off, although that certainly sucks. However, I’ve gotten to the point where I get bored if I have more than a few days without any structured time consuming the middle of my day. I feel lethargic and lazy if I’m not doing something from 7 AM to 6 PM.

No, I hate Mondays because they are the day when the shit hits the fan at work. All the work that people put off on Friday suddenly becomes really important and it all needs to be done. Mondays are the biggest days for work coming into my inbox, by far. Today was not too bad, although still not an easy Monday. Boot.

Anyway, the weekend was good. I broke another distance record on Sunday by running 8 miles. I took my sweet time doing it, but hey, that’s the point of a long run: endurance rather than speed. I was very pleased with that effort but won’t be upping the mileage again until at least the weekend after this one coming up. For now, I will keep it at 8 miles. I think I will also stay at 4.25 miles as well on my easy runs.

Tonight I am not going to the gym so my legs can fully recover from yesterday, even though they feel OK right now. I’m supposed to be going to a performance of French opera scenes at Peabody tonight, which hopefully won’t last more than 2 hours. So, my tentative schedule for the week is going to be:

Monday: Totally off

Tuesday: 4.25 miles (easy run)

Wednesday: Tempo Run (1 mile warm up; 3 mile tempo; 1 mile cool down)

Thursday: Cross training

Friday: 4.25 miles (easy run)

Saturday: 4.25 miles (easy run)

Sunday: 8 miles (long run)

If all goes according to plan, that should be just about 26 miles for the week. If I get caught at work or lose the motivation to wake up early one morning when my schedule demands it, then there’s always next week.

On another note, I am still holding out hope for getting up to New York next Saturday to see the U.S. Olympic Marathon trials in Central Park. However, hotel rooms in Manhattan are killing my budget so we’ll see if I can find something relatively affordable. The cheapest I’ve found is $200 a night, which isn’t terrible because I haven’t gone anywhere in a while. And finally, I’ve posted the photos from the Baltimore Running Festival on my Flikr site. Check them out by clicking on the link on the toolbar!

Getting Back on the Horse

So after my long weekend in the Midwest, it’s been tough getting back into a running rhythm. Thursday evening I went and did 4.25 hard miles. I’m not sure if it just seemed hard or if I was actually working harder. I did the whole distance at 6.3 mph (9:30 min/mile) and at 1.0 incline. That and the fact that it had been several days since the Baltimore Running Festival may have made it tougher. Oh, that and the fact that I had eaten a bag of M&M Peanuts ad drank a Mountain Dew around 4 PM so I could make it through the rest of the workday probably didn’t help either.

I’m happy that I got through the entire distance at that clip. It’s evidence that my endurance is picking up slowly and that my body can handle that stress, even with Mountain Dew (liquid cocaine) and M&M’s in my stomach. However, I was really getting tired by the end of it, which made me mad at myself. I guess it was just the frustration from Saturday, my shirking of running while in Cincinnati and then the sluggishness I felt when I got back to the gym that all came together at once. I was planning to stop at 3 miles because I was feeling like crap and could feel a slight pull forming in my lower left calf (is that the beginning of your Achilles? I think so). But I was pissed off so I walked long enough to take a couple drinks of Gatorade and got back to it. I got to 4 miles and wanted to stop again, but again I was still angry at myself for wimping out on Saturday and not running like I should have, so I kept going and finished the allotted 4.25 miles. At that point, I did stop because that’s as far as my mileage has naturally progressed thus far; going any further would have really risked injury.

As it was, my lower left calf was tightening up as I cooled down. I stretched it out thoroughly but it still twinged as I walked home. I was concerned that I had really pulled something so I stretched it again once I got home and cooled my body temp down. I took two ibuprofen to help prevent further swelling, and took it easy after showering. Luckily, it wasn’t anything serious and healed up nicely by yesterday mid-morning. Today I can’t feel anything wrong down there, so no injury report is forthcoming.

I had intended to run yesterday after work but Annie came over and we just chilled since she had opened at Starbucks the last three mornings (getting to work at 5:15 AM each day!) and was tired. In retrospect, it’s probably a good thing I stayed off the calf last night o give it an extra day to regain its strength. I’m not running today because I spent the late morning at the office trying to get this enormous project done that’s due this upcoming Friday. This afternoon we might go to my firm’s company picnic, but Annie has rehearsal until 2:45 and it takes 40 minutes just to get out to where the picnic is being held. The picnic ends at 5 so it might be a waste of time to drive out there for all of an hour. We’ll see. I won’t be heartbroken if I get to spend Saturday afternoon on the couch.

Tomorrow I will do my long run and will aim for a base of 7 miles, with aspirations of 8 miles. I’ll do that in the morning so I have the afternoon to watch football and generally not move too much beyond eating and napping.

I’ve now registered for the Baltimore Zoo Zoom 2007 race on November 11, which is World Run Day and just four days before my birthday. According to the MacMillan Running Calculator, I should be able to run that in about 45 minutes (just under a 9 minute mile pace), so that will be my goal. I am going to try to also get an idea of the course itself so I can have some intel going into the race. Running Smarter. That’s my new motto.

Also, Annie and I are planning on going up to New York the first Saturday in November. She has at least one audition scheduled for that day and I will be going to see the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials in Central Park. I’m so excited for this; it’ll be awesome to see some of these elite runners in person and to get to see who will make the Olympic team! I’m pretty pumped. We will be back on Saturday night so she can sing at her church job the next morning.

Annie has finally caught the running bug. I knew it would only be a matter of time before she wanted to get in on the benefits of running. I’ve started her off with the walk-run program to build her stamina and her confidence in her running ability. She’s already been doing spinning classes and lifting weights, so she’s not starting from scratch. I’m hoping that I can talk her into running a 5K with me sometime next spring. She’s already running for 8 minutes and walking for 2, which is great! She’ll be hitting the 3.1-mile mark before too long. Her sister just did a 100-mile bike ride down in Salisbury, MD so she has a high bar to meet!

And finally, I was very happy to see that the 2008 Baltimore Marathon will be held on October 11, 2008, which is one week before our wedding. I was concerned because I want to make that my first marathon but if it had been held the third weekend in October for some reason, I would not have been in town. This way, I can run the marathon and have a week to recover and regain the ability to walk before we get married.