July 2008 Archives

Erin tagged me a long time ago to answer some questions. I figured since xt4 just tagged me for something else, I better get this one done.

1. How would you describe your running 10 years ago?
Ten years ago, I was finishing school, not doing any physical activities whatsoever. Unless you count multiple late night sessions of 12-oz curls. Multiple late night sessions.

2. What is your best and worst run/race experience?
My best was the last half-mile of my Ironman. Ted caught me right at the top State St, heading towards the finish line. He asked how I was doing, I replied, "I'm finishing!"

The worst hasn't happened yet. As much as some of these intervals suck, I still am learning much about my running and how much the mind plays a role. In fact, just this morning, on my fourth half-mile of six, I stopped running. For no real reason other than my legs hurt. For a small second, I couldn't believe what happened. But within an instant, I started again and finished out the workout according to plan. For me, the mind is weaker than my running legs. Every tough/bad run tells me how to get better.

3. Why do you run?
I run because it's my weakest leg in a triathlon. When looking at results, almost always I will have the slowest run time of all those that finish in front of me, and probably another ten that finish behind me.

4. What is the best or worst piece of advice you've been given about running?
The best was for a racing a 5K; "When you think you are about to blow up start using your arms. They will be hanging by your side. Pump them. Pull with them."

The worst was when I was told I don't need motion control shoes. Must've been a bad day for Endurance House that day. They made up for it when I went back.

5. Tell us something surprising about yourself that not many people would know.
There was this one time at band camp...

I ran a whole twenty miles yesterday! I think that's my longest, continuously running effort ever. The legs are a bit stiff today, but not sore. A massage would really hit the spot right now.

BUT, I would be remiss to not thank my awesome wife, Kris, who was my magnificent sherpa. She woke up early just to bike next to me, carry extra water bottles and keep me company for the nearly 3-hour run. We've got a nice routine going every Sunday morning.

It was a perfect day with slight cloud cover, no wind and warming temps. I ended up seeing the same guy in three different locations each one further from the previous, with two different groups. He was old school; no shirt, no heart-rate monitor, no GPS, a simple watch, longer hair, and bushy, 70s-era mustache. He let out a loud "HI!" which grew louder with every successive pass. I loved it.

Here's the route if you're interested. Below is my pace and heart rate per mile for each mile in the run. I should've averaged 8:45 per mile, but I felt too good to slow down. Especially those middle miles, I don't know what got into me, but I was really cruising quite well. I'll have to remember to hold back in the race, though; can't be expending too much energy too early.

Unknown to me, it was 85° out with a dewpoint of 68. Good conditions for a interval run -- NOT! My body told me so about four-tenths of a mile into my second of three mile intervals.

I struggled through the first one and significantly missed my scheduled pace of 6:30/mile. Immediately starting the second I felt weak. I fought off the overwhelming need to stop for only so long. I caved at 0.51 miles and rested, fighting for any breath I could manage.

And then when I convinced myself to start up again, my legs didn't respond. Empty and weak, I fought to continue running, no matter what the pace. That's when I got a touch dizzy and felt my face get flush with heat. I stopped my watch and quit the workout and started walking home, overheated and frustrated.

After I cooled down and thought about what I was doing to myself, I looked again at the training paces and corresponding marathon goal pace and realized my mind was writing checks the body simply couldn't cash. Why did I ever think that a 3:23 marathon was possible? Some day maybe, just not now.

So I'm retooling and re-timing. With a new goal and set of paces, I'll be able to meet my training times (hopefully), which keeps from getting frustrated mentally, and best yet, allow my body to see another week. I should've done it after the first week, but I blamed the blisters and not the pace. Let's hope the next 11 weeks works out.

I've found that running intervals is a bit like taking cough syrup: It sucks to do, but it's good for you in the long term.

We went from this:

to this:

In the second shot, you can see that there was a bay window that was removed and replaced with two regular windows. Our best guess is that when the street was widened, the sidewalk was moved closer to the house and the bay window was a casualty. The other small discoveries included (original?) brown paint, and a whole lotta bug nests and spiders behind the tiles. This is all in prep for the insulators coming this week, and new lakeshore fern (siding) the following week.

And of course, every hard day has to end with a relaxing beer or two:

You can see some more shots of the day here.

Above is my second interval workout as tracked by my watch. It was 4x800m at 6:14 pace. Note how that red line (my hear rate) creeps upward as the workout progresses. That means it hurt.

A while ago, I decided that it would be a good idea to run a marathon. It still is a good idea, don't get me wrong. The plan is to train using the FIRST "3plus2" method. The method concentrates on three key running sessions supported by two non-impact days. The three days include: intervals, tempo runs, and a long run. The paces are all dictated on your best 5K pace, which set me up for a relatively fast training pace. So fast, that I highly doubt I can sustain it race day, but I will do my best to meet the training goals, however difficult. And words are all fine and dandy, but with the rubber hits the pavement it's a whole other story.

My first workout in the program was 3x1mile intervals at a 6:47/mi pace.(!) Halfway through the second mile, I wimped out and stopped. It surprised me how fast it took my body to shut down after my mind said "I hurt. Please stop." in a matter of a few steps, I stopped running. I rested a bit, and finished it out. The same thing happened to the final interval, but about three-fourths of the way through. By the time I was done, I had serious doubts about the rest of training. That weeks tempo was replaced by the Auqathon and now it was time for a long run. Life pushed it from Saturday to Monday evening. It went well until the end when I took my socks off to find some really nice blisters, one was a really nice bloody one.

So this whole training thing really isn't getting off to the best start. I talked with Justin at Endurance House about the blisters and he suggested using the "runner's knot." I tried with the second week's tempo run, but still got some hot spots. Guh. Back to the Endurance House for some new shoes.

So that gets me back to the chart above and what is the second interval workout since I missed it last week. This time, as hard as it got, I didn't quit. Maybe it was because of the halves, but I had some mental fortitude to finish out each one without stopping. And it paid off, too. I split 3:10, 3:07, 3:07, 3:09 for the four intervals, right on target. I gave myself a congratulatory clap and warmed down.

I'm eager to get to the tempo run and test the shoes on the long run. Hopefully I'll find the time while we're ripping the siding off our house.