Ah yes, a weak reference to a lame velvet underground song makes for great start to this post. Even though the menu for tuesday's workout wasn't so appealing (3000/2000/1000), the forecast for that day had me excited. There was an 80% of rain with temps only in the 80s.
Sure enough, at 4:30pm it was pouring down rain and I couldn't have been happier. But by the time I got to Runtex, it had stopped and there was a hint of blue sky on the horizon. That didn't seem promising. The sun coming out right after a downpour would really be the least desirable of outcomes. But sure enough, by the time we finished our drills at Zilker, the sun was shining brightly and you could see the steam rising off of the road. Any enthusiasm that might have been lingering for this workout pretty much disappeared that point.
My new goal was just to try to finish all the repeats: 1x3000m, 1x2000m, 3x1000m. I took it nice and easy on the 3000, and felt reasonably comfortable and finished strong. 12:32. The 2000 was a little faster but nothing to get too excited about: 8:02.
My legs were already tired, but I still wanted to at least make a decent effort on the 1000s. We all took our time walking/jogging across the soccer fields to the starting point and on the first one, the group I was with did the first half really really easy and turned it on as we rounded the corner and went into the second 500. Despite a decent effort to finish strong, my time was 4:02, which I wasn't overly enthused about. The next two were much better: 3:48, 3:45, which isn't too far off of my pace from the old days. That last one took pretty much everything I had though, and I'm not sure I could have shaved much time off no matter how motivated I was feeling.
The good gossip from the workout was that Gilbert guaranteed Mario that G's time in The Human Race (tm) would be 12 minutes faster M's. Alright, it's on! I figure that means Gilbert's going to have to come in around 30-31 minutes or so, which could be tough on a hilly course in the heat.
I missed the thursday track workout, so I decided to try to run a couple fast miles this morning. Unfortunately, I got a late start and only had time for 4.5 miles. The 3 miles I timed were 7:40, 6:50, 7:28. Not great, but not bad.
Later in the day, I had a little free time, so I ran 4 easy miles on the greenbelt. My first two-a-day ever!
Doing two runs with one on ttalbl and the other on the greenbelt provided a really easy comparison of those two locales, and not surprisingly I found ttalbl much more tedious. The variety on the trail just seems to help time pass a lot more quickly.
I'll miss saturday's long run, but hopefully I'll get to do my usual 10 on sunday morning. I'm optimistic once again that I can continue to improve and get back down under a 7:40 pace.
Friday, August 22, 2008
Monday, August 18, 2008
chronicle of the last week's running escapades
DV always says he doesn't want his blog to just be a running log, but I have no such reservations. So here goes.
I missed the Saturday long run on August 9, so I was forced to run on Sunday. After a not-totally-sucky performance in the previous Thursday's tempo run, I was actually pretty optimistic that I might surprise myself again. I set out to do the usual 10 miler a little earlier than usual (around 6 I think) since I woke up early and couldn't fall back to sleep. Near end of the first mile, I started wondering if I maybe I was going out too fast. Then I consulted my watch and saw that my pace for the first mile was 8:40. Hmm, I guess it wasn't going to be such a good run after all. Anyway, I felt sluggish until around mile 7. Somehow I had worked my way down to a 7:40 pace, and then a couple of guys jumped on the trail at the First St and Lamar Bridges who were running a little faster and gave me someone to pace off of. I ended up running the next two miles at something like 7:15, I think, before easing up the last mile and jogging to Barton Springs . Overall, I did 10 miles in , like, 1:19, which might as well be an 8:00/mile pace. Not very impressive.
Tuesday I made it to another gazelle workout. Too bad it was Wilke. It was exciting to see Gilbert and Jean-Marie barrelling up the hill, but not so exciting that it encouraged me to do more repeats. In fact, I only did 6. I have to say, however, that my form was impeccable on those 6.
Wednesday was another PBJ run on the greenbelt. We left from the Spyglass entrance to accommodate Pat's lack of a car. This was a painful run. Apparently Wilke had sucked the life out of my legs because the entire return leg I kept wanting to stop and lay down. Then I'd feel bad for wanting to quit. It was a vicious cycle of self-pity. It didn't leave me feeling too excited about Thursday's scheduled workout of 800s.
As I was driving to Thursday's workout (my third straight gazelles workout!), my car's thermometer said 109 degrees. Granted, it's always a little high, but I've never seen it read that high. I usually expect whatever workout follows Wilke to suck, but apparently, the Wednesday recovery run actually helped me recover. My legs might have felt a tad bit tired, but it was nothing like the lifelessness I usually encounter post-Wilke. Due to the heat, Gilbert was being kind when instructing us on the pace we should targeting. He told me to run at 3:15, which even I thought was a little slow, but was not going to complain about. I had the honor of running with budding gazelle celebrity, Bob Newell, who was a pretty good partner for the day. We dropped down to 3:10 for the second, and then seemed to settle at about a 3:08 pace. I surprised myself by somehow managing to run 2:53 on the 8th one. Heck, I was surprised to even run 8, so while I would have liked to have been a little faster, I can't really complain. It was hot, and eventually I'll get some of my speed back. I hope.
On account of my not-totally-sucky performance on Thursday, I once again felt a little optimistic about my weekly 10 miler. This time I made sure to get some sleep, and maybe it helped, but it was definitely much better than the previous week. Splits: 8:30, 8:08, 7:53, 7:43, 7:34, water break, 7:42, 7:32, 7:22, 7:24, 7:20. That works out to just over a 7:40 pace. I'll definitely take that. Plus, instead of trudging through the last couple of miles, I actually felt very comfortable.
I went for a brief lunchtime run today, mostly so I could be someplace other than at work for a little bit, and to be out in the rain. I can't remember the last time I got to run in the rain, so that made the whole thing kind of novel.
Tomorrow's workout is 3000/2000/1000 intervals, which I normally would be full of dread over, but it's supposed to continue to be cooler and hopefully will be raining, so I'm actually looking forward to it. Let's hope the slow but steady improvement continues.
I missed the Saturday long run on August 9, so I was forced to run on Sunday. After a not-totally-sucky performance in the previous Thursday's tempo run, I was actually pretty optimistic that I might surprise myself again. I set out to do the usual 10 miler a little earlier than usual (around 6 I think) since I woke up early and couldn't fall back to sleep. Near end of the first mile, I started wondering if I maybe I was going out too fast. Then I consulted my watch and saw that my pace for the first mile was 8:40. Hmm, I guess it wasn't going to be such a good run after all. Anyway, I felt sluggish until around mile 7. Somehow I had worked my way down to a 7:40 pace, and then a couple of guys jumped on the trail at the First St and Lamar Bridges who were running a little faster and gave me someone to pace off of. I ended up running the next two miles at something like 7:15, I think, before easing up the last mile and jogging to Barton Springs . Overall, I did 10 miles in , like, 1:19, which might as well be an 8:00/mile pace. Not very impressive.
Tuesday I made it to another gazelle workout. Too bad it was Wilke. It was exciting to see Gilbert and Jean-Marie barrelling up the hill, but not so exciting that it encouraged me to do more repeats. In fact, I only did 6. I have to say, however, that my form was impeccable on those 6.
Wednesday was another PBJ run on the greenbelt. We left from the Spyglass entrance to accommodate Pat's lack of a car. This was a painful run. Apparently Wilke had sucked the life out of my legs because the entire return leg I kept wanting to stop and lay down. Then I'd feel bad for wanting to quit. It was a vicious cycle of self-pity. It didn't leave me feeling too excited about Thursday's scheduled workout of 800s.
As I was driving to Thursday's workout (my third straight gazelles workout!), my car's thermometer said 109 degrees. Granted, it's always a little high, but I've never seen it read that high. I usually expect whatever workout follows Wilke to suck, but apparently, the Wednesday recovery run actually helped me recover. My legs might have felt a tad bit tired, but it was nothing like the lifelessness I usually encounter post-Wilke. Due to the heat, Gilbert was being kind when instructing us on the pace we should targeting. He told me to run at 3:15, which even I thought was a little slow, but was not going to complain about. I had the honor of running with budding gazelle celebrity, Bob Newell, who was a pretty good partner for the day. We dropped down to 3:10 for the second, and then seemed to settle at about a 3:08 pace. I surprised myself by somehow managing to run 2:53 on the 8th one. Heck, I was surprised to even run 8, so while I would have liked to have been a little faster, I can't really complain. It was hot, and eventually I'll get some of my speed back. I hope.
On account of my not-totally-sucky performance on Thursday, I once again felt a little optimistic about my weekly 10 miler. This time I made sure to get some sleep, and maybe it helped, but it was definitely much better than the previous week. Splits: 8:30, 8:08, 7:53, 7:43, 7:34, water break, 7:42, 7:32, 7:22, 7:24, 7:20. That works out to just over a 7:40 pace. I'll definitely take that. Plus, instead of trudging through the last couple of miles, I actually felt very comfortable.
I went for a brief lunchtime run today, mostly so I could be someplace other than at work for a little bit, and to be out in the rain. I can't remember the last time I got to run in the rain, so that made the whole thing kind of novel.
Tomorrow's workout is 3000/2000/1000 intervals, which I normally would be full of dread over, but it's supposed to continue to be cooler and hopefully will be raining, so I'm actually looking forward to it. Let's hope the slow but steady improvement continues.
Thursday, August 7, 2008
tempo run at 99 degrees
Ah, yes, nothing like skipping gazelles workouts for weeks and then finally deciding to come back on the day tempo run is scheduled. Compound that with some hot, sunny and dusty conditions (99 degrees according the readings at weather underground), and before even starting you've got some great excuses for underperforming. There was actually a time when DV would say he enjoyed tempo runs and I wouldn't think he was crazy, maybe even agree a little. However, today was one those days where I might think, nah, he's just loopy.
Turn out was pretty good considering the conditions and the scheduled workout. And really, the weather could have been much worse --- the humidity at that hour was less than 30%, which made things a little dusty, but not so bad that you had dust caked on to your sticky sweaty body afterward (which has happened before). Also, there was just a touch of wind --- enough to keep you comfortable-ish, at least in the shade.
Pre-race, err..., pre-run goals were to try to get close to 7:00/mile. I though 7:10 might be realistic considering the heat, my lack of fitness, and the immensely disappointing time of my last tempo run (3 miles, 21:40). I shared these goals with John Colyandro and we planned to try to run together. (He's feeling a little out of shape these days as well.)
I successfully managed to not get caught up in the frenzy at the start and ran a safe 7:09. I continued to feel pretty comfortable for the next two miles: 6:59, 7:05. (I can't explain why that third mile was so much slower, and trust me, I've given it a decent amount of thought.) For the final mile, I was running alone. I was attempting to pick it up a little, but as I looked at my quarter mile splits, my pace was a not-so-impressive 6:59. Hmm. I certainly felt like I was working harder. Anyway, most of the last mile was an exercise in reminding myself that I only had a few more minutes to go. Somehow at about 600m I caught Michelle. She had been fading a little over the last mile and, well, it was just a weird experience. It's never happened before and it will probably never happen again. I expected her to pick it up and we'd torture each other by pacing one another the rest of the way, but instead she just offered some encouragement and let me pass. At the last 1/4 mile mark it was still looking like 6:59, maybe 6:58, but I guess I finally sped up for the home stretch and finished the last mile at 6:50. Total time was 28:03. Heck, that's pretty decent. Even an unapologetic glass-half-empty guy like me would have a hard time being too displeased with that performance. Oh yeah, plus I finished ahead of the reigning distance challenge winner.
Pat and I ran at lunch yesterday, from 360 out to sculpture falls and back. Nothing notable about the run (unless Pat not falling/not running into anything is notable) except that we saw a rat snake constricting a poor field mouse. I felt like we should have done something, and told Pat that if I saw a snake eating rodents in my yard, I'd be probably happy with that, but somehow seeing it out in the greenbelt where that field mouse wasn't bothering anyone upset me slightly. Anyway, there's something you wouldn't see on ttalbl.
I've resolved to get some trail running shoes since my asics just aren't rigid enough in the forefoot. If anyone has some suggestions, that would be appreciated. I currently wear mizuno wave riders (track/trail) and asics nimbus (pavement). I want something that feels like a running shoe, just a little beefier on the sole.
Turn out was pretty good considering the conditions and the scheduled workout. And really, the weather could have been much worse --- the humidity at that hour was less than 30%, which made things a little dusty, but not so bad that you had dust caked on to your sticky sweaty body afterward (which has happened before). Also, there was just a touch of wind --- enough to keep you comfortable-ish, at least in the shade.
Pre-race, err..., pre-run goals were to try to get close to 7:00/mile. I though 7:10 might be realistic considering the heat, my lack of fitness, and the immensely disappointing time of my last tempo run (3 miles, 21:40). I shared these goals with John Colyandro and we planned to try to run together. (He's feeling a little out of shape these days as well.)
I successfully managed to not get caught up in the frenzy at the start and ran a safe 7:09. I continued to feel pretty comfortable for the next two miles: 6:59, 7:05. (I can't explain why that third mile was so much slower, and trust me, I've given it a decent amount of thought.) For the final mile, I was running alone. I was attempting to pick it up a little, but as I looked at my quarter mile splits, my pace was a not-so-impressive 6:59. Hmm. I certainly felt like I was working harder. Anyway, most of the last mile was an exercise in reminding myself that I only had a few more minutes to go. Somehow at about 600m I caught Michelle. She had been fading a little over the last mile and, well, it was just a weird experience. It's never happened before and it will probably never happen again. I expected her to pick it up and we'd torture each other by pacing one another the rest of the way, but instead she just offered some encouragement and let me pass. At the last 1/4 mile mark it was still looking like 6:59, maybe 6:58, but I guess I finally sped up for the home stretch and finished the last mile at 6:50. Total time was 28:03. Heck, that's pretty decent. Even an unapologetic glass-half-empty guy like me would have a hard time being too displeased with that performance. Oh yeah, plus I finished ahead of the reigning distance challenge winner.
Pat and I ran at lunch yesterday, from 360 out to sculpture falls and back. Nothing notable about the run (unless Pat not falling/not running into anything is notable) except that we saw a rat snake constricting a poor field mouse. I felt like we should have done something, and told Pat that if I saw a snake eating rodents in my yard, I'd be probably happy with that, but somehow seeing it out in the greenbelt where that field mouse wasn't bothering anyone upset me slightly. Anyway, there's something you wouldn't see on ttalbl.
I've resolved to get some trail running shoes since my asics just aren't rigid enough in the forefoot. If anyone has some suggestions, that would be appreciated. I currently wear mizuno wave riders (track/trail) and asics nimbus (pavement). I want something that feels like a running shoe, just a little beefier on the sole.
Saturday, August 2, 2008
forward and back
The New York Times recently had a link to the men's 10k from the 2000 Olympics. I'm sure back in 2000 I couldn't have cared less, but now it seems so compelling. Check it out, it's got a great finish. And don't feel too bad for Paul Tergat, he's played the role of heartbreaker as well as Hendrick Ramaala can atest.
Maybe it's because the rest of the world has better things to do with their Saturday evenings, but it was oddly empty on the The Trail At Lady Bird Lake (henceforth referred to ttalbl) this evening. Due to miscellaneous life stuff, running opportunities have been thin as of late, so I jumped at the opportunity to get a run in at 7:30 this evening. I was originally hoping to run out to sculpture falls on the greenbelt, but that would have required me stashing some fluids out near mopac, so I figured it was late enough that ttalbl would probably would mostly shady. I parked at robert e lee and decided to run out to the east side for 8 miles rather than doing the 7 mile loop. It was immediately obvious that no one runs at this hour on Saturdays. Between the mile 1 marker and 1/2 mile marker I saw exactly 1 other runner. Then the floodgates opened and I saw 8 before mile 0. I saw 2 more runners before I-35 and then a total of 5 on the east side. I stopped counting after that since it was getting dark, so the absence of runners didn't seem as surprising.
The run itself was so-so. I stayed right around 8:00/mile for pretty much the whole run. It was hot, and I was tired from a couple of sleepless nights, so I was mostly happy just to finish. It would have been nice to have had some daylight when I finished so I could have jumped in the overflow at barton springs, but instead I just headed home.
So to catch up a little, we went to Boston to visit friends and family from July 14 - 21. It was the first (and possibly the last) trip with el beskrownito. He did great on the plane, but trying to mix in a full itinerary of visits with his sleeping and feeding routine was challenging and exhausting. By the end of the trip, we were telling people "sure we want to see you, but if you want to hang out, you have to come to us."
Despite staying at places that had good running options nearby, I didn't get to run once the entire trip. Sigh... Which was a bummer because I really felt like I had been building up some momentum leading up to the trip. The week before leaving, I had run 6 out of 7 days and put in over 40 miles which, and I know this will seem pathetic to many gazelles, was the first time I'd ever done that. I felt like I was getting some strength and maybe even a little speed back.
Then came the trip, and in the two weeks since returning from the trip, I've run a total of 4 times.
OK, enough with the self pity. The plan for the future is try to get in an many lunch time runs as possible. Since it's so freaking hot, this will probably mean running on the greenbelt. A lot. This has it's benefits. I can essentially walk out the door of my office and walk across the parking lot to the 360 entrance, and the run to sculpture falls and back is a pleasant 5.5 miles. I've really grown to enjoy this quiet and shady run. There's no water (like ttalbl), but there's spring right by sculpture falls with some cool water you can splash on your back, and because of the nature of running on a trail, it's a pretty damn good workout.
I'll still go to as many gazelles workouts as possible (as long as they're not the 3-2-1 fartlecks), but realistically, that's going to be tough for the near future.
I guess now that I've posted in August, I can wait until September to post another update.
Maybe it's because the rest of the world has better things to do with their Saturday evenings, but it was oddly empty on the The Trail At Lady Bird Lake (henceforth referred to ttalbl) this evening. Due to miscellaneous life stuff, running opportunities have been thin as of late, so I jumped at the opportunity to get a run in at 7:30 this evening. I was originally hoping to run out to sculpture falls on the greenbelt, but that would have required me stashing some fluids out near mopac, so I figured it was late enough that ttalbl would probably would mostly shady. I parked at robert e lee and decided to run out to the east side for 8 miles rather than doing the 7 mile loop. It was immediately obvious that no one runs at this hour on Saturdays. Between the mile 1 marker and 1/2 mile marker I saw exactly 1 other runner. Then the floodgates opened and I saw 8 before mile 0. I saw 2 more runners before I-35 and then a total of 5 on the east side. I stopped counting after that since it was getting dark, so the absence of runners didn't seem as surprising.
The run itself was so-so. I stayed right around 8:00/mile for pretty much the whole run. It was hot, and I was tired from a couple of sleepless nights, so I was mostly happy just to finish. It would have been nice to have had some daylight when I finished so I could have jumped in the overflow at barton springs, but instead I just headed home.
So to catch up a little, we went to Boston to visit friends and family from July 14 - 21. It was the first (and possibly the last) trip with el beskrownito. He did great on the plane, but trying to mix in a full itinerary of visits with his sleeping and feeding routine was challenging and exhausting. By the end of the trip, we were telling people "sure we want to see you, but if you want to hang out, you have to come to us."
Despite staying at places that had good running options nearby, I didn't get to run once the entire trip. Sigh... Which was a bummer because I really felt like I had been building up some momentum leading up to the trip. The week before leaving, I had run 6 out of 7 days and put in over 40 miles which, and I know this will seem pathetic to many gazelles, was the first time I'd ever done that. I felt like I was getting some strength and maybe even a little speed back.
Then came the trip, and in the two weeks since returning from the trip, I've run a total of 4 times.
OK, enough with the self pity. The plan for the future is try to get in an many lunch time runs as possible. Since it's so freaking hot, this will probably mean running on the greenbelt. A lot. This has it's benefits. I can essentially walk out the door of my office and walk across the parking lot to the 360 entrance, and the run to sculpture falls and back is a pleasant 5.5 miles. I've really grown to enjoy this quiet and shady run. There's no water (like ttalbl), but there's spring right by sculpture falls with some cool water you can splash on your back, and because of the nature of running on a trail, it's a pretty damn good workout.
I'll still go to as many gazelles workouts as possible (as long as they're not the 3-2-1 fartlecks), but realistically, that's going to be tough for the near future.
I guess now that I've posted in August, I can wait until September to post another update.
Saturday, June 21, 2008
It was not a bad week running-wise. Tuesday when I showed up for the gazelle workout it was ridiculously hot, and there was almost not breeze. The plan was to run to Austin High, do 3000m for warm up, and then a bunch of core exercises. I decided I wasn't tough enough to run all those laps on the burning hot, complete unshaded track, so I opted to take the long way around. The trail was pretty deserted (I've got to believe due to the heat), but it was still dusty thanks to the lack of rain. Whenever the occasional bicyclist rode by, you wished you had something to cover your mouth.
Once I arrived at Austin High, I did one lap and it was as miserable as I thought it would be. Maybe I wasn't just happy to be there. In fact, running on ridiculously hot days like that day (~100 degrees) really makes me question my sanity. Anyway, Gilbert decided it was too hot to stay at the track, so we ran back to Runtex and did our core work there. Thanks Gilbert! I ran back the long way as well figuring I needed a little more mileage than I'd been putting in, and was surprised at how hard it was.
Wednesday at lunch DV and I ran about 5 miles on the greenbelt, from 360 to sculpture falls and back. I tried to pre-hydrate that morning at work, but I still felt tapped from the heat. Neverthelss, it was a nice run... no scary spider webs this time. Despite all the time I've been putting in on the trail, I'm still finding it tough on the quads.
I missed Thursday's workout because I was stuck at work, so that brings me to this morning. I was hoping to run on the greenbelt trail again, but no one seemed game, so I figured I'd try to get up at 5:45 to run with Pat. Seriously, that's earlier than anyone needs to be up, but I figured with the earlier start I'd be able to get home and get in a nap and start my day at around 10 if I didn't piddle around too much. See? Sometimes I can be a glass-half-full guy...
So I met Pat at Barton Springs (who was waiting with a couple of Dans) at just after 5:45 (I'm never on time that early in the morning) and was rewarded for my effort with temps in the low 70's. Woo-hoo! We ran to RunTex to meet the rest of the Gazelles group which, by the way, was GIGANTIC this morning. Someone had made cute little pace group signs, which was a great idea.
Once we all took off, it was mob scene. It was literally like the start of a race with so many people leaving at once. I was going to try to run an enhanced 10-mile loop with Pat, which would have ended up being 12-14 miles with the additional mileage added on by going under the dam and looping back, but ended up doing the standard 10-mile loop. I was happy with that, since it had been long time since I had done 10 miles. My mile splits were pretty good too. I didn't get the first couple of miles, but I know they were very slow. After mile 3: 8:11, 7:39, 7:36, 7:43, 7:27, 7:13, 7:26. Relative to my pace in recent runs, those splits are smokin! It should be noted, however, that there were a lot of breaks: stop at RunTex after the first mile to meet with the Gazelles, stop at bathroom at mile 5 and also get water and gu, stop at gazelle water stop at mile 6. All of those breaks were pretty long, especially that last one since DV ran up while I was drinking and chatted a bit, and then Shannon (who looks awesome and awfully comfortable so late in her pregnancy) ran up as DV was going away, which just meant more socializing, less running. Maybe all the stops put me in a good mood, because I didn't have as many of the usual feelings of utter despair as I got deeper into the run. I'm hoping to have more runs about this pace this summer, but I'm not going to bet on it.
Oh yeah, Barton Springs afterward - of course.
The other big running-related news for the week is that I'm the proud owner of 4 new pairs of shoes. This inundation of running merchandise somehow provided me with a little more motivation this week. The new arrivals were two pairs of mizuno wave rider 10s (in hideous white and red, $55/pair from runningwarehouse.com), and two pairs of asics nimbus 9s (in not-too-atrocious silver and blue, $80/pair from runbargains.com). They were discounted because there are newer versions of each shoe, but they were such good deals, I'm wondering if I should get more. (Normal prices: $90 for the mizunos, $120 for the asics)
On the home front, el beskrownito has been sleeping especially well this week (I'm sure I just jinxed myself for tonight), which we're hoping he'll carry forward into the the second quarter of his first year (he's 3 months old today).
Finally, ugh, the Euro Cup is killing me. The first three games in the quarter finals have been upsets, and genuinely surprising upsets at that. (Well, maybe not the Germany win as you can never count them out.) I'm most distraught about the Dutch loss to the Russians today. To say the Dutch had been playing awesome might be understatement, but they met a young and unintimidated Russian team that played very clever soccer, and lost in overtime. Just to add insult to the whole event, I missed the second half and overtime because our power had gone out during a random but extremely intense afternoon thunderstorm. At this point, I'm feeling some apprehension that Italy will find a way past Spain tomorrow and end up winning the whole thing. Ugh, that's such a depressing though that it almost overcomes that satisfaction that I'm still feeling from this morning's run.
Once I arrived at Austin High, I did one lap and it was as miserable as I thought it would be. Maybe I wasn't just happy to be there. In fact, running on ridiculously hot days like that day (~100 degrees) really makes me question my sanity. Anyway, Gilbert decided it was too hot to stay at the track, so we ran back to Runtex and did our core work there. Thanks Gilbert! I ran back the long way as well figuring I needed a little more mileage than I'd been putting in, and was surprised at how hard it was.
Wednesday at lunch DV and I ran about 5 miles on the greenbelt, from 360 to sculpture falls and back. I tried to pre-hydrate that morning at work, but I still felt tapped from the heat. Neverthelss, it was a nice run... no scary spider webs this time. Despite all the time I've been putting in on the trail, I'm still finding it tough on the quads.
I missed Thursday's workout because I was stuck at work, so that brings me to this morning. I was hoping to run on the greenbelt trail again, but no one seemed game, so I figured I'd try to get up at 5:45 to run with Pat. Seriously, that's earlier than anyone needs to be up, but I figured with the earlier start I'd be able to get home and get in a nap and start my day at around 10 if I didn't piddle around too much. See? Sometimes I can be a glass-half-full guy...
So I met Pat at Barton Springs (who was waiting with a couple of Dans) at just after 5:45 (I'm never on time that early in the morning) and was rewarded for my effort with temps in the low 70's. Woo-hoo! We ran to RunTex to meet the rest of the Gazelles group which, by the way, was GIGANTIC this morning. Someone had made cute little pace group signs, which was a great idea.
Once we all took off, it was mob scene. It was literally like the start of a race with so many people leaving at once. I was going to try to run an enhanced 10-mile loop with Pat, which would have ended up being 12-14 miles with the additional mileage added on by going under the dam and looping back, but ended up doing the standard 10-mile loop. I was happy with that, since it had been long time since I had done 10 miles. My mile splits were pretty good too. I didn't get the first couple of miles, but I know they were very slow. After mile 3: 8:11, 7:39, 7:36, 7:43, 7:27, 7:13, 7:26. Relative to my pace in recent runs, those splits are smokin! It should be noted, however, that there were a lot of breaks: stop at RunTex after the first mile to meet with the Gazelles, stop at bathroom at mile 5 and also get water and gu, stop at gazelle water stop at mile 6. All of those breaks were pretty long, especially that last one since DV ran up while I was drinking and chatted a bit, and then Shannon (who looks awesome and awfully comfortable so late in her pregnancy) ran up as DV was going away, which just meant more socializing, less running. Maybe all the stops put me in a good mood, because I didn't have as many of the usual feelings of utter despair as I got deeper into the run. I'm hoping to have more runs about this pace this summer, but I'm not going to bet on it.
Oh yeah, Barton Springs afterward - of course.
The other big running-related news for the week is that I'm the proud owner of 4 new pairs of shoes. This inundation of running merchandise somehow provided me with a little more motivation this week. The new arrivals were two pairs of mizuno wave rider 10s (in hideous white and red, $55/pair from runningwarehouse.com), and two pairs of asics nimbus 9s (in not-too-atrocious silver and blue, $80/pair from runbargains.com). They were discounted because there are newer versions of each shoe, but they were such good deals, I'm wondering if I should get more. (Normal prices: $90 for the mizunos, $120 for the asics)
On the home front, el beskrownito has been sleeping especially well this week (I'm sure I just jinxed myself for tonight), which we're hoping he'll carry forward into the the second quarter of his first year (he's 3 months old today).
Finally, ugh, the Euro Cup is killing me. The first three games in the quarter finals have been upsets, and genuinely surprising upsets at that. (Well, maybe not the Germany win as you can never count them out.) I'm most distraught about the Dutch loss to the Russians today. To say the Dutch had been playing awesome might be understatement, but they met a young and unintimidated Russian team that played very clever soccer, and lost in overtime. Just to add insult to the whole event, I missed the second half and overtime because our power had gone out during a random but extremely intense afternoon thunderstorm. At this point, I'm feeling some apprehension that Italy will find a way past Spain tomorrow and end up winning the whole thing. Ugh, that's such a depressing though that it almost overcomes that satisfaction that I'm still feeling from this morning's run.
Sunday, June 15, 2008
just happy to be here
It's been over two months since I last updated this blog, so why the sudden burst of motivation to finally write a new post? Well, the amount of shame I feel every time my last entry from the beginning of April shows up on the Gazelle home page keeps increasing, but also things have settled down a little recently. Sure, my schedule with the new child is still non-determistic at times, but Meghal is working occasionally now, and Alayna (our nanny) is helping on regular basis. This has allowed to at least think that I might be able to run on with some regularity. Also, after a similarly long break, Michelle updated her blog and I feel like that makes me look bad. (Apparently the Maton-ettes are playing with skunks these days.)
So about the running... A couple of two week periods where I've done absolutely no running finally ended up costing me a lot of fitness. For example, I showed up to a tempo run a week and half ago after not showing up for the previous two weeks' worth of workouts. My time was 21:40. I'm pretty sure that's only 20 seconds better than the very first tempo run I ever did with the Gazelles. (By the way, DV was present at that tempo run, and I think he ran exactly 21:00.) I went in saying I would be happy with a 7 minute/mile pace, but after finishing I backtracked and claimed what I really meant was that I'd be happy if I ran a single mile at 7 minutes or less. (My last mile was 6:50-something.) It certainly crossed my mind that a couple of months ago I probably would have run around 6:30/mile or so, but the self-pity didn't stick with me for too long. I've accepted by this point that I'm going to have work to get back to where I was, and (like the title of this post says) I'm just happy to be able to focus on running again. I actually feel somewhat excited about running, which hasn't happened in a while. And this is especially surprising considering this is such a miserable time of year to be running. Not only has it been hot, but it's been windy and dry, making for stifling, dusty conditions.
While I'm still missing a lot of Gazelles workouts, I'm trying to run when I can out on the Barton Greenbelt. There's a lot of advantages to this. First, it's a block away from our house, and the 360 entrance is literally connected to the parking lot of my office. Also, it's shady, meaning I can run mid-day, and the scenery is a little more interesting than running on Lady Bird Lake. Sometimes you get to distract yourself by thinking about things like, "what exactly is running in brush right next to me?" The main downside is that there are no water stops. The pace is always a little slower on account of having to watch out of ankle-tweaking rocks and tree roots, but it's an excellent workout because you're always having to lift your knees and my legs are often spent afterward.
This past weekend, I managed to work the greenbelt into my long run as well. Paul (aka Pablo Rey) agreed to meet me at Barton Springs and we ran out to just before Mopac and circled back. I had stashed some Gatorades near the 360 entrance to make sure we were hydrated enough to make it back. It was pretty uneventful except for "the web incident". When you run in the mornings on the greenbelt, you often find yourself running through strands of webs that have been spun across the trail overnight. In general it's just an annoyance. However, on this particular morning, I was watching the ground for ankle-tweaking obstacles and ran right through a large web which contained, I noticed at the last moment, what appeared to be a large spider in the middle. I reacted by yelping, falling on the ground, and frantically wiping at my head and shoulders in case there was a large scary spider on me. Paul gave me the all clear (he gave me the impression the spider stayed with the web), and I eventually calmed myself down and we resumed our run. I did make sure to be a little more careful about watching where I was going the rest of the way.
We finished our run at the Barton Springs parking lot, and it wasn't 9:00 yet, so hmm... how convenient, let's jump into the pool. (Barton Springs is free before 9:00 for those that don't know.) Is there a better way to finish a run? I think not. I was in such a chipper mood I jumped off the diving board a couple of times. I was diver in high school --- good enough to make it to the state meet, but not good enough to actually be competitive at that level. Anyway, I'm apparently very rusty because I did a one and half and was surprised at how utterly disoriented I was in the air.
I can't help but mention the European Cup. I've decided the European Cup is more compelling than the World Cup. First, all the teams are pretty good, which you can't say about the World Cup. (I mean, England didn't even qualify for the competition.) But the main thing is that it's all so localized, there there are real rivalries and the supporters are able to attend their country's games creating a really frenzied atmosphere. You can sense the passion involved when you watch the games. Anyway, how about those freaking Dutch? You've got to wonder what became of the formerly dominant French and Italians teams. I mean, I'm never sorry to see the Italians lose, but I certainly wouldn't have expected them to get spanked the way they did by the Netherlands. And France, they received an even worse beating.
And did anyone catch the Turkey-Czech Republic game today? I missed the exciting part (i.e., I watched the first 75 minutes). In the last 15 minutes, Turkey scored 3 times to come back from a 2-0 deficit. Or so I hear.
Anyway, now I'm babbling. I should save some energy for a future post.
So about the running... A couple of two week periods where I've done absolutely no running finally ended up costing me a lot of fitness. For example, I showed up to a tempo run a week and half ago after not showing up for the previous two weeks' worth of workouts. My time was 21:40. I'm pretty sure that's only 20 seconds better than the very first tempo run I ever did with the Gazelles. (By the way, DV was present at that tempo run, and I think he ran exactly 21:00.) I went in saying I would be happy with a 7 minute/mile pace, but after finishing I backtracked and claimed what I really meant was that I'd be happy if I ran a single mile at 7 minutes or less. (My last mile was 6:50-something.) It certainly crossed my mind that a couple of months ago I probably would have run around 6:30/mile or so, but the self-pity didn't stick with me for too long. I've accepted by this point that I'm going to have work to get back to where I was, and (like the title of this post says) I'm just happy to be able to focus on running again. I actually feel somewhat excited about running, which hasn't happened in a while. And this is especially surprising considering this is such a miserable time of year to be running. Not only has it been hot, but it's been windy and dry, making for stifling, dusty conditions.
While I'm still missing a lot of Gazelles workouts, I'm trying to run when I can out on the Barton Greenbelt. There's a lot of advantages to this. First, it's a block away from our house, and the 360 entrance is literally connected to the parking lot of my office. Also, it's shady, meaning I can run mid-day, and the scenery is a little more interesting than running on Lady Bird Lake. Sometimes you get to distract yourself by thinking about things like, "what exactly is running in brush right next to me?" The main downside is that there are no water stops. The pace is always a little slower on account of having to watch out of ankle-tweaking rocks and tree roots, but it's an excellent workout because you're always having to lift your knees and my legs are often spent afterward.
This past weekend, I managed to work the greenbelt into my long run as well. Paul (aka Pablo Rey) agreed to meet me at Barton Springs and we ran out to just before Mopac and circled back. I had stashed some Gatorades near the 360 entrance to make sure we were hydrated enough to make it back. It was pretty uneventful except for "the web incident". When you run in the mornings on the greenbelt, you often find yourself running through strands of webs that have been spun across the trail overnight. In general it's just an annoyance. However, on this particular morning, I was watching the ground for ankle-tweaking obstacles and ran right through a large web which contained, I noticed at the last moment, what appeared to be a large spider in the middle. I reacted by yelping, falling on the ground, and frantically wiping at my head and shoulders in case there was a large scary spider on me. Paul gave me the all clear (he gave me the impression the spider stayed with the web), and I eventually calmed myself down and we resumed our run. I did make sure to be a little more careful about watching where I was going the rest of the way.
We finished our run at the Barton Springs parking lot, and it wasn't 9:00 yet, so hmm... how convenient, let's jump into the pool. (Barton Springs is free before 9:00 for those that don't know.) Is there a better way to finish a run? I think not. I was in such a chipper mood I jumped off the diving board a couple of times. I was diver in high school --- good enough to make it to the state meet, but not good enough to actually be competitive at that level. Anyway, I'm apparently very rusty because I did a one and half and was surprised at how utterly disoriented I was in the air.
I can't help but mention the European Cup. I've decided the European Cup is more compelling than the World Cup. First, all the teams are pretty good, which you can't say about the World Cup. (I mean, England didn't even qualify for the competition.) But the main thing is that it's all so localized, there there are real rivalries and the supporters are able to attend their country's games creating a really frenzied atmosphere. You can sense the passion involved when you watch the games. Anyway, how about those freaking Dutch? You've got to wonder what became of the formerly dominant French and Italians teams. I mean, I'm never sorry to see the Italians lose, but I certainly wouldn't have expected them to get spanked the way they did by the Netherlands. And France, they received an even worse beating.
And did anyone catch the Turkey-Czech Republic game today? I missed the exciting part (i.e., I watched the first 75 minutes). In the last 15 minutes, Turkey scored 3 times to come back from a 2-0 deficit. Or so I hear.
Anyway, now I'm babbling. I should save some energy for a future post.
Friday, April 4, 2008
pinch me
I actually got to participate in a Gazelles workout on Thursday. It was the first time I ran hard since the Daisy 5K, so I didn't have high hopes, but it was awfully nice to be back. The allergy issues are still lingering a little, but I didn't really notice them once I got warmed up.
All in all, it wasn't a bad workout... I did 6x1000s at a 3:45 average. I was a couple seconds slower on my first one, and couple seconds faster on my last one. A couple of weeks ago I would have at least made an effort to run with the fast group, but I was content not to overdo it this time. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have stuck with those guys anyway... I heard Kyle ran a sub-3:00 on his last one. My only complaint is that I had to run my last one alone.
It was good to see Gilbert too. If anyone sees him before he leaves, make to sure to wish him well in London.
I also managed to get out for a quick 30 minute run around the neighborhood on Tuesday. I live in Barton Hills, so I figured I'd incorporate both Spring Creek (aka, "secret hill") and Wilke into my route, just to make things interesting. However, on my way home, I started thinking I would skip Wilke because, you know, it's just not *that* fun. Then, as I approached the intersection, I saw that there was a different training group there. I'm not sure if it was rogue or texas iron or what, but I couldn't resist seeing how many people I could pass on the way up. Granted, they were doing repeats and I was just doing one, but I wasn't about to let that little technicality keep me from pumping up my ego. I think I passed 15-20 of them (it was a very large group), but I'm pretty sure the fast people in the group were coming down as I was going up. Later when Meghal and I were driving by there, I recounted the story for her. "You are *so* cool" she said very sarcastically. I sighed satisfyingly and said, "I know."
I just discovered that my manager Margaret, who recently started with the 5K/10K group, has discovered my blog. It's a little embarrassing, but it's not like I hadn't considered this possibility. Sadly, I guess that rules out any work-related tirades on these pages.
All in all, it wasn't a bad workout... I did 6x1000s at a 3:45 average. I was a couple seconds slower on my first one, and couple seconds faster on my last one. A couple of weeks ago I would have at least made an effort to run with the fast group, but I was content not to overdo it this time. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have stuck with those guys anyway... I heard Kyle ran a sub-3:00 on his last one. My only complaint is that I had to run my last one alone.
It was good to see Gilbert too. If anyone sees him before he leaves, make to sure to wish him well in London.
I also managed to get out for a quick 30 minute run around the neighborhood on Tuesday. I live in Barton Hills, so I figured I'd incorporate both Spring Creek (aka, "secret hill") and Wilke into my route, just to make things interesting. However, on my way home, I started thinking I would skip Wilke because, you know, it's just not *that* fun. Then, as I approached the intersection, I saw that there was a different training group there. I'm not sure if it was rogue or texas iron or what, but I couldn't resist seeing how many people I could pass on the way up. Granted, they were doing repeats and I was just doing one, but I wasn't about to let that little technicality keep me from pumping up my ego. I think I passed 15-20 of them (it was a very large group), but I'm pretty sure the fast people in the group were coming down as I was going up. Later when Meghal and I were driving by there, I recounted the story for her. "You are *so* cool" she said very sarcastically. I sighed satisfyingly and said, "I know."
I just discovered that my manager Margaret, who recently started with the 5K/10K group, has discovered my blog. It's a little embarrassing, but it's not like I hadn't considered this possibility. Sadly, I guess that rules out any work-related tirades on these pages.
Sunday, March 30, 2008
is about running
Somehow, the planets aligned yesterday afternoon and I found myself with about a 50 minute window to go running. I had just gotten home from running errands, and Meghal was just getting ready to feed el beskrownito and she said she didn't need me for anything.
Sure, I was still dealing with a lot of congestion, and my nose was running non-stop, but I've already come to appreciate how rare these opportunities can be. So I quickly threw on my shoes and shorts and headed over to the park on Robert E. Lee. It was still pretty mild while I was running errands, but the temperature had jumped up to around 80 in the meantime. I figured I'd do the Congress loop, which meant I could be back home in less than an hour.
Down I went on the trail by Barton Creek. I had forgotten how pretty Barton Creek could be. I know it had only been a week and half, but nevertheless, I was genuinely surprised to see the vivid blue-green water. I know this is gonna sound corny, but I immediately thought about how exciting it will be bring el beskrownito down here in a few years for swimming and canoeing, and that it's pretty damned nice to only be a mile away from all this.
Once I got on the main trail where there were lots of other runners, I thought more about running. Mostly what I thought was there was no way I could have my usually Saturday 10-miler. I felt decent enough, but you know how it is when you've had some time off... You just feel kind of sluggish.
My goal was just to try to stick to an 8 minute pace since my head was so full of mucus, but I got caught up in passing some college students on the north side and ended up running the last 3 at 7:30 or less. It's kind of ridiculous how much I hate to get passed when on casual runs. Nevertheless, the effort level was comfortable. I was always breathing once per four or six strides, which I think is pretty relaxing.
It was nice to get out.... I'm not familiar with the runner's high that has been being discussed as of late, but it does settle my mind. And since I've pretty much written off any goals for the immediate future, I didn't fret about times or pacing.
Hmm, that reminds me, I kind of like this New Balance commercial called "Love/Hate". It's worth checking out.
After my run, I got home and M was done feeding and el beskrownito was drifting in his food coma... I had enjoyed being outside so much, I figured I'd take him for a walk around the neighborhood. So I buckled him into his car seat, plopped it on to the Bob, and away we strolled for a 1 hour trip through Barton Hills. Sadly, he fell asleep before we even left so he didn't get to enjoy it. But perhaps that's a good thing since I got stuck in a 10-15 minute rain shower. I closed both canopies as much as I could, and I guess it was good enough, but I was still stressed enough to find a spot under a tree and call Meghal in hopes of getting picked up. (She didn't answer since she was also taking a post-feeding nap.) The rain passed soon enough, but I felt like a little bit of an idiot for getting stuck in the rain with my one week old.
Another thing I noticed, it's not like I haven't walked/ran/biked around my neighborhood before, but people have never really acknowledged me before. When they see you with a stroller, they all want to say hi and ask how you're doing. I don't recall ever wanting to befriend people who were pushing strollers, so I found this a little weird.
Finally, I had hoped to get out this morning to cheer on the people I knew who were running the Cap 10K. Since M and I were awake so much last night, I slept through it, but I must offer kudos to DV for running a ridiculously fast 37-something and finishing in front of several people I don't think he (or I for that matter) would have ever thought he'd finish in front of. (Just imagine how fast he could have run with me cheering him on, ringing the little bell on my bicycle as he passed...) Way to make the leap!
Sure, I was still dealing with a lot of congestion, and my nose was running non-stop, but I've already come to appreciate how rare these opportunities can be. So I quickly threw on my shoes and shorts and headed over to the park on Robert E. Lee. It was still pretty mild while I was running errands, but the temperature had jumped up to around 80 in the meantime. I figured I'd do the Congress loop, which meant I could be back home in less than an hour.
Down I went on the trail by Barton Creek. I had forgotten how pretty Barton Creek could be. I know it had only been a week and half, but nevertheless, I was genuinely surprised to see the vivid blue-green water. I know this is gonna sound corny, but I immediately thought about how exciting it will be bring el beskrownito down here in a few years for swimming and canoeing, and that it's pretty damned nice to only be a mile away from all this.
Once I got on the main trail where there were lots of other runners, I thought more about running. Mostly what I thought was there was no way I could have my usually Saturday 10-miler. I felt decent enough, but you know how it is when you've had some time off... You just feel kind of sluggish.
My goal was just to try to stick to an 8 minute pace since my head was so full of mucus, but I got caught up in passing some college students on the north side and ended up running the last 3 at 7:30 or less. It's kind of ridiculous how much I hate to get passed when on casual runs. Nevertheless, the effort level was comfortable. I was always breathing once per four or six strides, which I think is pretty relaxing.
It was nice to get out.... I'm not familiar with the runner's high that has been being discussed as of late, but it does settle my mind. And since I've pretty much written off any goals for the immediate future, I didn't fret about times or pacing.
Hmm, that reminds me, I kind of like this New Balance commercial called "Love/Hate". It's worth checking out.
After my run, I got home and M was done feeding and el beskrownito was drifting in his food coma... I had enjoyed being outside so much, I figured I'd take him for a walk around the neighborhood. So I buckled him into his car seat, plopped it on to the Bob, and away we strolled for a 1 hour trip through Barton Hills. Sadly, he fell asleep before we even left so he didn't get to enjoy it. But perhaps that's a good thing since I got stuck in a 10-15 minute rain shower. I closed both canopies as much as I could, and I guess it was good enough, but I was still stressed enough to find a spot under a tree and call Meghal in hopes of getting picked up. (She didn't answer since she was also taking a post-feeding nap.) The rain passed soon enough, but I felt like a little bit of an idiot for getting stuck in the rain with my one week old.
Another thing I noticed, it's not like I haven't walked/ran/biked around my neighborhood before, but people have never really acknowledged me before. When they see you with a stroller, they all want to say hi and ask how you're doing. I don't recall ever wanting to befriend people who were pushing strollers, so I found this a little weird.
Finally, I had hoped to get out this morning to cheer on the people I knew who were running the Cap 10K. Since M and I were awake so much last night, I slept through it, but I must offer kudos to DV for running a ridiculously fast 37-something and finishing in front of several people I don't think he (or I for that matter) would have ever thought he'd finish in front of. (Just imagine how fast he could have run with me cheering him on, ringing the little bell on my bicycle as he passed...) Way to make the leap!
Friday, March 28, 2008
not about running
Since my disappointing-but-I'm-not-motivated-enough-to-care performance in the Daisy 5K, I've managed to go running once. I could feel myself getting sick all day at work, so I skipped Wilke the following Tuesday. On Thursday, I couldn't tell if I was getting better or worse, but it was a beautiful day and my legs needed the exercise, so I jogged out to the track and ran some easy 1000s. I managed to keep myself from needing to breathe heavily, and but got a little bit of a workout --- it was great!
Duane mentioned that he liked the running content of my blog, but that he skips any mention of Obama or Arsenal. Fair enough. I figure since reading this is a volunteer endeavor and you know you're only reading it because you're so bored at work, I can write what I want. But I can at least warn you that the rest of this entry will not contain any running content.
After the workout, I got home and started watching "Lost" when Meghal called and said she was coming home because she "felt something leaking". Wait --- what does that mean? "I don't know," she said.
So Meghal gets home and calls Felicia, her OB who happened to be on call. Basically, she said her water may have broken, but in a very half hearted way. She was instructed to lay down and see if there was anything else coming out and to call back with her observations. The waiting and further discussions were still inconclusive, so we were instructed to come on down to Seton Hospital and get to the bottom of this mystery.
We got there and were ushered into one of the L&D rooms. I had heard from Meghal (and other friends of hers in the medical field) that the rooms at Seton were not nice (they're currently in the middle of a big renovation), but this room was quite nice. Very roomy, hardwood floors, a comfy looking couch-bed-like contraption. If we were going to have to stay, I could live with these accomodations. But we were pretty sure we were not going to stay. Felicia would do her tests, and then we would go home rattled by the thought that we almost became parents. "Whew!" we would think to ourselves, "that was close."
There are 3 tests that are performed to determine if the amniotic fluid is leaking. Please don't ask me how any of these work. The first is a pooling test --- negative. Next up was a pH test. Um, we're out of litmus paper, the nurse told us. Well freaking find some, Felicia sternly replied. We were comforted by her bad-ass-ness. Finally the pH test was performed --- negative. At this point M was getting dressed to go home while Felicia checked a sample under the microscope to look for ferning. (I found a description of the test here. Warning: the word vagina is used a lot.) Sooner than expected, in marches Felicia announcing that we're staying because it is indeed amniotic fluid. I'm not exactly sure what the point of the first two tests is if you're going to overrule their results with the last one. Why not just do the last one?
Anyway, at this point our decision to leave Meghal's bag of clothes and toiletries is looking like a bad choice. At the time our thinking was that we didn't want to have to unpack the car when we got home. Genius, right?
So I head back out to the car to run home and bump into Chris Rains who is headed back to work in the pharmacy. Looking pretty sporty in that gazelle gear, Chris! So quite by chance, Chris becomes the first person I tell that el beskrownito's arrival is now imminent.
I run home and grab everything, including a pillow and blanket for myself since I'm told I might want to get some sleep. Yeah, right. M wasn't very dilated or having contractions, so they had started her on pitocin almost immediately. It was just after 11PM at this point, and they hoped to deliver the baby around 8 or 9AM.
While I'm at home, I text my brother. Don't ask me why I don't just call, but I'm too freaked out to talk. Texting is easier. I finally pack as much comfort clothes for M as I can (cozy socks and slippers, etc) and her laptop (they have wireless at Seton) and 3 different cameras, and head back.
When I get there, M is starting to feel her contractions, but she hadn't requested her epidural yet because once she does, she's stuck in bed for a good long while. I can't remember what we sat and talked about, but after an hour or so, she makes her move for the drugs. In comes the anesthesiologist, a little bleary-eyed, but in good spirits. I never really knew what numbing half of the body entailed, but I kind of figured they just gave you a shot. It's a little more complicated than that. I think it took 30 minutes for the anesthesiologist to get her set up. The end result is an IV dripping fentanyl directly into her spine. (In case you didn't click on that wikipedia link, fentanyl is 80 times more potent than morphine.)
Shortly after this, Meghal realizes she's really comfortable. It's late now... maybe 3AM or later, so she decides to take a nap. I pull out the bed but mostly just sit there, fidget and stare at the monitors.
A side story to all of this is that Meghal's parents were kind of stuck in San Antonio because her grandmother (who her parents take care of) was injured and Meghal's mom had to stay to take care of her. There were lots of phone calls over the course of the night, but the final plan was that her mom would drive up the next day. While we didn't want them to make a big fuss, but Meghal was a little sad that her mom couldn't be there with her.
The hours literally crawl by. Meghal naps. I stare at the ceiling. The nurses come by occasionally and turn on the lights, do their thing and turn the lights back off on their way out. I nod off for maybe an hour at the most around 5 or 5:30, but am awake the rest of the time.
Once Meghal is up at around 8, she seems pretty chipper. Being a doctor and having delivered babies, she's pretty familiar with how everything will go. I only know the rudiments. I keep thinking about all the things that could go wrong, like the recent story of a friend of ours who almost bled out when she delivered her baby.
It took a while, but at 10:15, she's finally ready to start pushing. It's kind of weird how casual all of this is. I'm thinking of the Hollywood-image of the angry mother-to-be screaming in agony. With an epidural, it's decidedly different. With each contraction, they'll do 3-4 pushes, and then look at the monitors and make sure the fetal heart rate looks OK. If there are abnormalities that concern them, they'll reposition the mom (by turning her on her side, for example) to put less stress on the baby. To me, this adds a little a tension. But to Meghal, Felicia and M's nurses Rachel and Brittany (who were awesome, by the way), it's no big woop. Anyway, no one is screaming.
So Meghal is going through this process of pushing between every minute and a half to two minutes and, in between, she and the nurses just chat about whatever. Meghal wants to hear about the most outrageous birth plans that patients have brought in, and the nurses want to hear about crazy ER stories. So they laugh and casually talk about stuff that would make most people grimace, then every two minutes get down to business, and then return to the conversation they were having before being interrupted.
M makes a ton of progress very quickly. The baby's head is visible, and you get the impression that they all expect things to go smoothly based on how things are developing. This makes me happy.
About an hour into the pushing, something surprising happens, Meghal's mom shows up. Hooray! That makes M happy, and it makes me happy as well.
Unfortunately, the pushing drags on. It seems that after the first hour and a half, not so much progress has been made. M is still fine, and the baby is still fine, but after 3 hours, it definitely seems like everyone's getting tired. Felicia and Meghal discuss the options. Felicia doesn't think she can vacuum the baby out, but she thinks forceps are a possibility. This doesn't bother me since I've read about what a great tool forceps are in the right hands. M has apparently seen some bad forceps deliveries. (There was a time when forceps revolutionized child birth, but it's become something of a dying art since it's a finesse skill and can be difficult to teach. It doesn't help that OBs are one of malpractice lawyers' favorite targets. Anyway, some residencies apparently don't even teach this technique any more so many doctors are forced to go straight to a C-section. I feel like it should offer the disclaimer that I am no expert on the field of obstetrics and that this is what I've picked up from listening on a few conversations and reading a few articles and I could be totally misrepresenting the facts.)
Felicia assures Meghal that she feels comfortable with forceps, and that since the baby is right there, she thinks it's good option. M trusts Felicia so she says "let's do it." Felicia also explains that if, for some reason she fails with the forceps, they'll have to move to a C-section and they'll have to move pretty quickly.
The only people in the room are still the two labor and delivery nurses, Felicia, Meghal, me and M's mom. I didn't notice anybody say anything to anyone about rounding up the troops, but out of nowhere, another 7 people come into the room. They don't huddle up or anything, they just immediately start setting things up: Felicia is gowned up, M is draped, someone is setting up the C-section cart, someone else brings the forceps, another nurse is prepping the baby receiving cart, etc. The hubbub seriously rattles me. A minute ago it was all light-hearted banter, and now, it's business time.
I'm not going to go into the gory details here, but highlights of the next couple of minutes are this: forceps look like giant salad tongs, Felicia has to pull harder than I would have expected but successfully pulls the baby part way out, and then Meghal pushes him out the rest of the way. Voila! Baby!
They lift up the baby and his head and arms limply fall to the side. I totally gasp and feel all the blood drain from my body, which is stupid in retrospect because everyone knows that babies can't hold their own heads up. Anyway, el beskrownito is fine. He's crying within seconds. They wrap him with a towel, plop him on Meghal's chest and he immediately starts pooping. I feel a little overwhelmed.
Apparently M is going to need a few sutures, so I stay with her while the baby is taken over to the receiving table and cleaned and checked over, etc. M's mom goes over there though is the first to hold him. She looks so happy. We're so happy. And relieved. It's been a tense 15+ hours since we arrived the night before.
I could go on about the week that's passed since then, but I don't think it would be all that interesting. It's lots of sleep deprivation, diaper changing and feeding. And a lot of learning on our part.
Oh yeah, in case you like sappy baby photos.
By the way, el beskrownito is formally known as Avi Mehta Beskrowni. (If you think it would be funny to make a joke related to his name and Windows file formats, um, it's been done.)
Duane mentioned that he liked the running content of my blog, but that he skips any mention of Obama or Arsenal. Fair enough. I figure since reading this is a volunteer endeavor and you know you're only reading it because you're so bored at work, I can write what I want. But I can at least warn you that the rest of this entry will not contain any running content.
After the workout, I got home and started watching "Lost" when Meghal called and said she was coming home because she "felt something leaking". Wait --- what does that mean? "I don't know," she said.
So Meghal gets home and calls Felicia, her OB who happened to be on call. Basically, she said her water may have broken, but in a very half hearted way. She was instructed to lay down and see if there was anything else coming out and to call back with her observations. The waiting and further discussions were still inconclusive, so we were instructed to come on down to Seton Hospital and get to the bottom of this mystery.
We got there and were ushered into one of the L&D rooms. I had heard from Meghal (and other friends of hers in the medical field) that the rooms at Seton were not nice (they're currently in the middle of a big renovation), but this room was quite nice. Very roomy, hardwood floors, a comfy looking couch-bed-like contraption. If we were going to have to stay, I could live with these accomodations. But we were pretty sure we were not going to stay. Felicia would do her tests, and then we would go home rattled by the thought that we almost became parents. "Whew!" we would think to ourselves, "that was close."
There are 3 tests that are performed to determine if the amniotic fluid is leaking. Please don't ask me how any of these work. The first is a pooling test --- negative. Next up was a pH test. Um, we're out of litmus paper, the nurse told us. Well freaking find some, Felicia sternly replied. We were comforted by her bad-ass-ness. Finally the pH test was performed --- negative. At this point M was getting dressed to go home while Felicia checked a sample under the microscope to look for ferning. (I found a description of the test here. Warning: the word vagina is used a lot.) Sooner than expected, in marches Felicia announcing that we're staying because it is indeed amniotic fluid. I'm not exactly sure what the point of the first two tests is if you're going to overrule their results with the last one. Why not just do the last one?
Anyway, at this point our decision to leave Meghal's bag of clothes and toiletries is looking like a bad choice. At the time our thinking was that we didn't want to have to unpack the car when we got home. Genius, right?
So I head back out to the car to run home and bump into Chris Rains who is headed back to work in the pharmacy. Looking pretty sporty in that gazelle gear, Chris! So quite by chance, Chris becomes the first person I tell that el beskrownito's arrival is now imminent.
I run home and grab everything, including a pillow and blanket for myself since I'm told I might want to get some sleep. Yeah, right. M wasn't very dilated or having contractions, so they had started her on pitocin almost immediately. It was just after 11PM at this point, and they hoped to deliver the baby around 8 or 9AM.
While I'm at home, I text my brother. Don't ask me why I don't just call, but I'm too freaked out to talk. Texting is easier. I finally pack as much comfort clothes for M as I can (cozy socks and slippers, etc) and her laptop (they have wireless at Seton) and 3 different cameras, and head back.
When I get there, M is starting to feel her contractions, but she hadn't requested her epidural yet because once she does, she's stuck in bed for a good long while. I can't remember what we sat and talked about, but after an hour or so, she makes her move for the drugs. In comes the anesthesiologist, a little bleary-eyed, but in good spirits. I never really knew what numbing half of the body entailed, but I kind of figured they just gave you a shot. It's a little more complicated than that. I think it took 30 minutes for the anesthesiologist to get her set up. The end result is an IV dripping fentanyl directly into her spine. (In case you didn't click on that wikipedia link, fentanyl is 80 times more potent than morphine.)
Shortly after this, Meghal realizes she's really comfortable. It's late now... maybe 3AM or later, so she decides to take a nap. I pull out the bed but mostly just sit there, fidget and stare at the monitors.
A side story to all of this is that Meghal's parents were kind of stuck in San Antonio because her grandmother (who her parents take care of) was injured and Meghal's mom had to stay to take care of her. There were lots of phone calls over the course of the night, but the final plan was that her mom would drive up the next day. While we didn't want them to make a big fuss, but Meghal was a little sad that her mom couldn't be there with her.
The hours literally crawl by. Meghal naps. I stare at the ceiling. The nurses come by occasionally and turn on the lights, do their thing and turn the lights back off on their way out. I nod off for maybe an hour at the most around 5 or 5:30, but am awake the rest of the time.
Once Meghal is up at around 8, she seems pretty chipper. Being a doctor and having delivered babies, she's pretty familiar with how everything will go. I only know the rudiments. I keep thinking about all the things that could go wrong, like the recent story of a friend of ours who almost bled out when she delivered her baby.
It took a while, but at 10:15, she's finally ready to start pushing. It's kind of weird how casual all of this is. I'm thinking of the Hollywood-image of the angry mother-to-be screaming in agony. With an epidural, it's decidedly different. With each contraction, they'll do 3-4 pushes, and then look at the monitors and make sure the fetal heart rate looks OK. If there are abnormalities that concern them, they'll reposition the mom (by turning her on her side, for example) to put less stress on the baby. To me, this adds a little a tension. But to Meghal, Felicia and M's nurses Rachel and Brittany (who were awesome, by the way), it's no big woop. Anyway, no one is screaming.
So Meghal is going through this process of pushing between every minute and a half to two minutes and, in between, she and the nurses just chat about whatever. Meghal wants to hear about the most outrageous birth plans that patients have brought in, and the nurses want to hear about crazy ER stories. So they laugh and casually talk about stuff that would make most people grimace, then every two minutes get down to business, and then return to the conversation they were having before being interrupted.
M makes a ton of progress very quickly. The baby's head is visible, and you get the impression that they all expect things to go smoothly based on how things are developing. This makes me happy.
About an hour into the pushing, something surprising happens, Meghal's mom shows up. Hooray! That makes M happy, and it makes me happy as well.
Unfortunately, the pushing drags on. It seems that after the first hour and a half, not so much progress has been made. M is still fine, and the baby is still fine, but after 3 hours, it definitely seems like everyone's getting tired. Felicia and Meghal discuss the options. Felicia doesn't think she can vacuum the baby out, but she thinks forceps are a possibility. This doesn't bother me since I've read about what a great tool forceps are in the right hands. M has apparently seen some bad forceps deliveries. (There was a time when forceps revolutionized child birth, but it's become something of a dying art since it's a finesse skill and can be difficult to teach. It doesn't help that OBs are one of malpractice lawyers' favorite targets. Anyway, some residencies apparently don't even teach this technique any more so many doctors are forced to go straight to a C-section. I feel like it should offer the disclaimer that I am no expert on the field of obstetrics and that this is what I've picked up from listening on a few conversations and reading a few articles and I could be totally misrepresenting the facts.)
Felicia assures Meghal that she feels comfortable with forceps, and that since the baby is right there, she thinks it's good option. M trusts Felicia so she says "let's do it." Felicia also explains that if, for some reason she fails with the forceps, they'll have to move to a C-section and they'll have to move pretty quickly.
The only people in the room are still the two labor and delivery nurses, Felicia, Meghal, me and M's mom. I didn't notice anybody say anything to anyone about rounding up the troops, but out of nowhere, another 7 people come into the room. They don't huddle up or anything, they just immediately start setting things up: Felicia is gowned up, M is draped, someone is setting up the C-section cart, someone else brings the forceps, another nurse is prepping the baby receiving cart, etc. The hubbub seriously rattles me. A minute ago it was all light-hearted banter, and now, it's business time.
I'm not going to go into the gory details here, but highlights of the next couple of minutes are this: forceps look like giant salad tongs, Felicia has to pull harder than I would have expected but successfully pulls the baby part way out, and then Meghal pushes him out the rest of the way. Voila! Baby!
They lift up the baby and his head and arms limply fall to the side. I totally gasp and feel all the blood drain from my body, which is stupid in retrospect because everyone knows that babies can't hold their own heads up. Anyway, el beskrownito is fine. He's crying within seconds. They wrap him with a towel, plop him on Meghal's chest and he immediately starts pooping. I feel a little overwhelmed.
Apparently M is going to need a few sutures, so I stay with her while the baby is taken over to the receiving table and cleaned and checked over, etc. M's mom goes over there though is the first to hold him. She looks so happy. We're so happy. And relieved. It's been a tense 15+ hours since we arrived the night before.
I could go on about the week that's passed since then, but I don't think it would be all that interesting. It's lots of sleep deprivation, diaper changing and feeding. And a lot of learning on our part.
Oh yeah, in case you like sappy baby photos.
By the way, el beskrownito is formally known as Avi Mehta Beskrowni. (If you think it would be funny to make a joke related to his name and Windows file formats, um, it's been done.)
Sunday, March 16, 2008
daisy 5k
So yesterday morning I ran the Daisy 5K. The course was on the east side, starting at the Rogue store on East 5th, running down to Lady Bird Lake around Martin Middle School and back. It was slightly downhill on the way out, meaning it was slightly uphill on the way back, but I'd say for an 5K in Austin, it's about as flat as it gets. It was definitely less hilly that the Starflight 5K I ran last weekend.
It was kinda warm. It was supposed to be in the low 60s, but it was really more like upper 60s. But on the plus side, there was very little humidity. Nevertheless, after doing my 2 mile warm-up, I was warm enough that I ditched my shirt with Pat, who was loitering around by the start/finish.
I had shown up the same time as Lou, and when I asked him if he wanted to warm up, I found out something interesting... He doesn't run before races. He just stretches. (It apparently works for him as he got second in his age group.)
Even though he had already done some warm-up, Rogers jogged part of the way out with me. I tried to make some mental notes about the course, but the only notable thing was that the last straightaway after turning onto 5th was about 600 meters, which seems like a pretty long way to go for a finishing kick.
There was a kind of odd format for this race. They let the women start 3:00 minutes early. I was guessing that this meant we'd be running into traffic pretty quick once we started running, but I figured maybe the race organizers had accounted for this and would try to help some of the faster guys get through without too much trouble. It turned out that it wasn't actually crowded enough to be too much of an issue. The group I left with started catching up with some of the women before we got off 5th (~600m or so), and though we had to snake our way through, it wasn't so packed that it slowed you down that much.
As expected, I was tight and sore from this week's workouts, but I felt decent enough during the first mile. So I was bummed to hit the first mile marker at 6:12. Granted, finding my way through the slower runners cost me a little time (as did almost stopping to ask a woman about her stroller/baby seat combo), but 6:12 was slower than I expected.
I have a vague memory of deciding that I need to try to sustain this pace and not slow down too much, but I must have backed off a little once I started to feel less comfortable. The second mile was 6:30. Hmm, once again, much slower that I would have expected. And I was falling into the same pattern as last week. Damn.
For the final mile, I resolved that I at least wasn't going to slow down any more. I had gotten passed by 3 guys at about 1.75 miles, and I managed stick with them all for the time being. I wasn't feeling great, but I don't remember ever thinking that I wanted to stop (which is a feeling I often have, by the way).
I passed 2 of the 3 guys that had passed me, and then as I got close to the corner of Comal and 4th, I saw DV and Pat waiting for me. Maybe it was just my imagination, but I swear they had a "where the hell have you been?" look on their faces. My first thought when I saw them was, "oh crap, I'm not ready to pick it up yet". We were probably about 800m from the finish. Nevertheless, I'm glad they were there because I needed a little motivation. I picked it up a little and continued to surge when I went down 5th and finally caught the 3rd guy who had passed me earlier right around the 3 mile marker. It wasn't fun, but I kept up my pace until I hit the finish.
Mile 3 was a pretty mediocre 6:23, and I ran the last 200 in 35 seconds. My final time was 19:40, so it's a good thing DV and Pat paced me for that last stretch, because I probably would have been 5-10 seconds slower if they hadn't.
Obviously, I wasn't happy about being 10 seconds slower than last week, but based on how tired I was from the workouts this past week, I didn't have very high expectations. Lou ran a little slower as well, so maybe the workout excuse has some legitimacy...
I saw a couple of other Gazelles who ran pretty good times: Kyle ran 18:19, Jesse Devlyn (who I met for the first time) ran 18:18, Rogers ran 18:41 and Lou ran 19:14. I also got to see Michelle and Ashley Maton for the first time in a while. They ran 20:36 despite Michelle hardly running at all lately. I was expected to see some other nooners, but perhaps they had trouble waking up so early.
I think the main thing I learned from this race was that I need to just suck it up. I've kind of become a huge wimp, and seem to backing off the moment I start to feel uncomfortable. The problem is that, in a 5K, you get that feeling pretty early on. What happens is that I worry that I need to save something for the finish when what I should be thinking is that it's only 3 freaking miles and it will be over soon enough. I need to trust my fitness a little more. When I first saw Pat and DV, I didn't think there was any chance I'd be able to pick it up because my legs were feeling so heavy for the last mile and a half. But thanks to the extra motivation, I found a way to make it happen. So in the future, I need to remember that I probably have a little more left than I think. I mean, I've run substantially faster than this, and I'm definitely in better shape right now than I've ever been.
Normally, at this point I'd throw in a little bitching about the Arsenal game, but this entry is already to freaking long, so I'll just mention that they played a disappointing game against a mediocre team and came away with a tie. As a result, Man U is now in first place in the Premiership.
To make up for my lack of a long run this week, I ran 6 easy miles with my co-worker Kurt this morning at about a 7:40-7:45 pace. Since I now have less than a month before taking some time off, I'm considering trying to work in some kind of tempo-y run this week to make up for my lame 5K, but I'll consult with Gilbert to see what he thinks.
In other news, I put together our jog stroller this afternoon. Of course, I won't be able to run with it for 7-8 months but, you know, I needed to make sure I knew how it worked. Less than two weeks to go until el beskrownito moves in.
It was kinda warm. It was supposed to be in the low 60s, but it was really more like upper 60s. But on the plus side, there was very little humidity. Nevertheless, after doing my 2 mile warm-up, I was warm enough that I ditched my shirt with Pat, who was loitering around by the start/finish.
I had shown up the same time as Lou, and when I asked him if he wanted to warm up, I found out something interesting... He doesn't run before races. He just stretches. (It apparently works for him as he got second in his age group.)
Even though he had already done some warm-up, Rogers jogged part of the way out with me. I tried to make some mental notes about the course, but the only notable thing was that the last straightaway after turning onto 5th was about 600 meters, which seems like a pretty long way to go for a finishing kick.
There was a kind of odd format for this race. They let the women start 3:00 minutes early. I was guessing that this meant we'd be running into traffic pretty quick once we started running, but I figured maybe the race organizers had accounted for this and would try to help some of the faster guys get through without too much trouble. It turned out that it wasn't actually crowded enough to be too much of an issue. The group I left with started catching up with some of the women before we got off 5th (~600m or so), and though we had to snake our way through, it wasn't so packed that it slowed you down that much.
As expected, I was tight and sore from this week's workouts, but I felt decent enough during the first mile. So I was bummed to hit the first mile marker at 6:12. Granted, finding my way through the slower runners cost me a little time (as did almost stopping to ask a woman about her stroller/baby seat combo), but 6:12 was slower than I expected.
I have a vague memory of deciding that I need to try to sustain this pace and not slow down too much, but I must have backed off a little once I started to feel less comfortable. The second mile was 6:30. Hmm, once again, much slower that I would have expected. And I was falling into the same pattern as last week. Damn.
For the final mile, I resolved that I at least wasn't going to slow down any more. I had gotten passed by 3 guys at about 1.75 miles, and I managed stick with them all for the time being. I wasn't feeling great, but I don't remember ever thinking that I wanted to stop (which is a feeling I often have, by the way).
I passed 2 of the 3 guys that had passed me, and then as I got close to the corner of Comal and 4th, I saw DV and Pat waiting for me. Maybe it was just my imagination, but I swear they had a "where the hell have you been?" look on their faces. My first thought when I saw them was, "oh crap, I'm not ready to pick it up yet". We were probably about 800m from the finish. Nevertheless, I'm glad they were there because I needed a little motivation. I picked it up a little and continued to surge when I went down 5th and finally caught the 3rd guy who had passed me earlier right around the 3 mile marker. It wasn't fun, but I kept up my pace until I hit the finish.
Mile 3 was a pretty mediocre 6:23, and I ran the last 200 in 35 seconds. My final time was 19:40, so it's a good thing DV and Pat paced me for that last stretch, because I probably would have been 5-10 seconds slower if they hadn't.
Obviously, I wasn't happy about being 10 seconds slower than last week, but based on how tired I was from the workouts this past week, I didn't have very high expectations. Lou ran a little slower as well, so maybe the workout excuse has some legitimacy...
I saw a couple of other Gazelles who ran pretty good times: Kyle ran 18:19, Jesse Devlyn (who I met for the first time) ran 18:18, Rogers ran 18:41 and Lou ran 19:14. I also got to see Michelle and Ashley Maton for the first time in a while. They ran 20:36 despite Michelle hardly running at all lately. I was expected to see some other nooners, but perhaps they had trouble waking up so early.
I think the main thing I learned from this race was that I need to just suck it up. I've kind of become a huge wimp, and seem to backing off the moment I start to feel uncomfortable. The problem is that, in a 5K, you get that feeling pretty early on. What happens is that I worry that I need to save something for the finish when what I should be thinking is that it's only 3 freaking miles and it will be over soon enough. I need to trust my fitness a little more. When I first saw Pat and DV, I didn't think there was any chance I'd be able to pick it up because my legs were feeling so heavy for the last mile and a half. But thanks to the extra motivation, I found a way to make it happen. So in the future, I need to remember that I probably have a little more left than I think. I mean, I've run substantially faster than this, and I'm definitely in better shape right now than I've ever been.
Normally, at this point I'd throw in a little bitching about the Arsenal game, but this entry is already to freaking long, so I'll just mention that they played a disappointing game against a mediocre team and came away with a tie. As a result, Man U is now in first place in the Premiership.
To make up for my lack of a long run this week, I ran 6 easy miles with my co-worker Kurt this morning at about a 7:40-7:45 pace. Since I now have less than a month before taking some time off, I'm considering trying to work in some kind of tempo-y run this week to make up for my lame 5K, but I'll consult with Gilbert to see what he thinks.
In other news, I put together our jog stroller this afternoon. Of course, I won't be able to run with it for 7-8 months but, you know, I needed to make sure I knew how it worked. Less than two weeks to go until el beskrownito moves in.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
track!
Thursday's workout was a speed workout at the track. We did 600/400/200 repeats, where each repeat consisted of the following:
600m run/200m jog/400m run/200m jog/200m run
My legs were pretty sore from Tuesday, so I was a little bummed to see so many people line up for doing a pace of 1:20/lap. That's a little fast for me, but what the hell, I figured I'd try. A co-worker Kurt who has done a lot of running had suggested that I trying running more often at pace considerably faster than my 5K goal pace. (FYI, my goal pace is 6:00/mile) Makes sense right? Only I certainly had avoided doing much of that in the past. In general, I've been happy to just do tons of repeats at a 6:00 pace and maybe slightly faster, but I usually don't push myself enough. So anyway, 1:20/lap is about 5:20/mile, so that would be in line with Kurt's suggestion. And I could always slow down if (when) I get too tired. Also, Gilbert did mention that people running the Daisy 5K should only do 2 sets, but that sounded kinda wimpy to me so I tried to pretend I wasn't paying attention.
Lemme see, my pace group consisted of about 9 people (NINE people, can you believe it? it's a good time to be a nooner.), and I was pretty much in 9th place the whole time. The first set I just tried to suck it up, assuming it would get less painful once I got used to it. Unfortunately, it never got less painful, and the second set almost killed me. My legs were feeling completely shot, and the fact that it was hottest day so far didn't help.
I started on the 3rd set, but I noticed a couple of people running the 5K had called it day. Hmm, suddenly Gilbert's suggestion of 2 sets wasn't sounding so wimpy. In fact it was sounding kind of appealing. Plus, you know, I didn't want to show up my fellow runners and make them feel bad for cutting off their workouts while I kept going. That would be really uncool of me. So I cut off the 600m I had started after 400m and did one last fast 400m after a little extra rest. (I figured my legs were already toast, so what's the harm?)
600/400/200 #1 : 2:03, 1:21, :40
600/400/200 #2 : 2:03, 1:23, :40
400m x 2 : 1:20, 1:13
If there's a silver lining to how tired I now feel after the workout, it's that I have a good excuse to run a crappy time at the Daisy 5K. My legs feel much worse than they did after running 2 tempos last week. Plus, I'm not sure what to make of the weather, it's supposed to be in the low 60s, which is kinda warm, but the humidity isn't supposed to be that bad, so maybe it will turn out to be OK. My goal remains to improve 15 seconds over last week's performance of 19:30. But whereas last week I felt pretty confident about hitting 19:30, this week my confidence is pretty low. Anyway, we'll see how it goes. I'll try to go out fast and see how long I can take it.
The fun part of the workout was talking about snowboarding with Karen (who apparently has the same issues with her lead calf that I did) and ultimate with Sam (who seems to have had a much more illustrious ultimate career than I did). If we could have worked in some talk about Arsenal and Obama, my evening would have been complete. (By the way, Arsenal plays Middlesbrough at noon on Saturday on Fox Soccer Channel.)
As for primary news, Hillary was interviewed on NPR yesterday morning claiming that the Michigan primary, in which she was the only candidate on the ballot, was a fair election. Um, and that's from a person who might be next president of... not some third world dictatorship, but of our country. Ugh. Interesting standards about fairness to say the least. The interview can be found here. One of the comments about the interview that I thought was pretty accurate was: "We've suffered enough with a president who interprets reality to fit their own selfish goals. We don't need another one." One of my co-workers described the Clinton strategy of late as scorched earth, which seems apt to me. She seems to making sure that if she doesn't get the nomination, she's taking the whole party down with her. Anyway, regardless of who you support, you've got to admit that Republicans must be cartwheeling with joy about the self-destruction going on with the Democratic candidates.
OK, so expect an excuse-laden race report sometime this weekend. Hopefully getting to watch the Arsenal game after the race will cheer me up.
600m run/200m jog/400m run/200m jog/200m run
My legs were pretty sore from Tuesday, so I was a little bummed to see so many people line up for doing a pace of 1:20/lap. That's a little fast for me, but what the hell, I figured I'd try. A co-worker Kurt who has done a lot of running had suggested that I trying running more often at pace considerably faster than my 5K goal pace. (FYI, my goal pace is 6:00/mile) Makes sense right? Only I certainly had avoided doing much of that in the past. In general, I've been happy to just do tons of repeats at a 6:00 pace and maybe slightly faster, but I usually don't push myself enough. So anyway, 1:20/lap is about 5:20/mile, so that would be in line with Kurt's suggestion. And I could always slow down if (when) I get too tired. Also, Gilbert did mention that people running the Daisy 5K should only do 2 sets, but that sounded kinda wimpy to me so I tried to pretend I wasn't paying attention.
Lemme see, my pace group consisted of about 9 people (NINE people, can you believe it? it's a good time to be a nooner.), and I was pretty much in 9th place the whole time. The first set I just tried to suck it up, assuming it would get less painful once I got used to it. Unfortunately, it never got less painful, and the second set almost killed me. My legs were feeling completely shot, and the fact that it was hottest day so far didn't help.
I started on the 3rd set, but I noticed a couple of people running the 5K had called it day. Hmm, suddenly Gilbert's suggestion of 2 sets wasn't sounding so wimpy. In fact it was sounding kind of appealing. Plus, you know, I didn't want to show up my fellow runners and make them feel bad for cutting off their workouts while I kept going. That would be really uncool of me. So I cut off the 600m I had started after 400m and did one last fast 400m after a little extra rest. (I figured my legs were already toast, so what's the harm?)
600/400/200 #1 : 2:03, 1:21, :40
600/400/200 #2 : 2:03, 1:23, :40
400m x 2 : 1:20, 1:13
If there's a silver lining to how tired I now feel after the workout, it's that I have a good excuse to run a crappy time at the Daisy 5K. My legs feel much worse than they did after running 2 tempos last week. Plus, I'm not sure what to make of the weather, it's supposed to be in the low 60s, which is kinda warm, but the humidity isn't supposed to be that bad, so maybe it will turn out to be OK. My goal remains to improve 15 seconds over last week's performance of 19:30. But whereas last week I felt pretty confident about hitting 19:30, this week my confidence is pretty low. Anyway, we'll see how it goes. I'll try to go out fast and see how long I can take it.
The fun part of the workout was talking about snowboarding with Karen (who apparently has the same issues with her lead calf that I did) and ultimate with Sam (who seems to have had a much more illustrious ultimate career than I did). If we could have worked in some talk about Arsenal and Obama, my evening would have been complete. (By the way, Arsenal plays Middlesbrough at noon on Saturday on Fox Soccer Channel.)
As for primary news, Hillary was interviewed on NPR yesterday morning claiming that the Michigan primary, in which she was the only candidate on the ballot, was a fair election. Um, and that's from a person who might be next president of... not some third world dictatorship, but of our country. Ugh. Interesting standards about fairness to say the least. The interview can be found here. One of the comments about the interview that I thought was pretty accurate was: "We've suffered enough with a president who interprets reality to fit their own selfish goals. We don't need another one." One of my co-workers described the Clinton strategy of late as scorched earth, which seems apt to me. She seems to making sure that if she doesn't get the nomination, she's taking the whole party down with her. Anyway, regardless of who you support, you've got to admit that Republicans must be cartwheeling with joy about the self-destruction going on with the Democratic candidates.
OK, so expect an excuse-laden race report sometime this weekend. Hopefully getting to watch the Arsenal game after the race will cheer me up.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
2000 meters of ugh
We did 2000 meter repeats today, which I'm pretty sure is my least favorite workout. Meriden can suck sometimes, but it at least the distance goes by fast, the scenery is nicer and there's a lot less traffic. That 2000 meter distance just seems to long enough to make me really uncomfortable, and you get to fight afternoon traffic running down Barton Springs Drive to boot. (This workout is really much less painful in the morning due to the traffic issues.)
Today we had lots going for us though. It was a beautiful afternoon, we had extra sunlight thanks to the early arrival of DST, the temperature was just right --- warm but not too warm, and we had a good turnout. (Though no Paul, who said he would there when I bumped into him on Tuesday.) Normally, I would try to do more repetitions at the Pace of Reason, but today I was just hoping to do 3 at around a 6-ish pace.
There was a really big lead group. I knew I couldn't run with most of them (people like Eric, DV, Kyle and Rogers, for example), but I figured it worth trying to tag along. And I have to say, for the most part it was. I certainly didn't enjoy it while I was running, but I was happy enough afterwards.
Before I get carried away talking about myself, I must admit that I was impressed with Duane and Arthur's showing, since they both did the workout this morning and then showed up again this afternoon. They each did two more repeats this afternoon, and it's not like they were loafing.
Also: Rudy sighting!
OK, so I ran 7:27, 7:19, 7:23. For some reason that was never explained, Gilbert didn't have us run the full 2000m, but instead we stopped when we completed the loop. I'd probably add another 10 seconds on to those times for the full 2000, so my mile pace for each repeat would have been around 6:05, 6:00 and 6:02 respectively. All I know is, I never run mile repeats that fast. The breathing felt good, the legs not so good.
I was toast after those three, but more than half of my group decided to do a 4th. Eric, Sam and DV all ran the last one in less than 7 minutes. Crrrazy.
In the hmm-what-a-funny-coincidence category, after the workout there were four of us sitting around at RunTex chatting and stretching (we allow talking during stretching in the afternoon) and enjoying the extra sunlight, and all of us were wearing the same red/black/silver asics nimbus shoes. Funny, eh?
Obligitory Obama update: another big win in Mississippi. Nice. Unfortunately, the campaign is getting so ridiculously ugly these days I'm having a hard time keeping up my enthusiasm.
Today we had lots going for us though. It was a beautiful afternoon, we had extra sunlight thanks to the early arrival of DST, the temperature was just right --- warm but not too warm, and we had a good turnout. (Though no Paul, who said he would there when I bumped into him on Tuesday.) Normally, I would try to do more repetitions at the Pace of Reason, but today I was just hoping to do 3 at around a 6-ish pace.
There was a really big lead group. I knew I couldn't run with most of them (people like Eric, DV, Kyle and Rogers, for example), but I figured it worth trying to tag along. And I have to say, for the most part it was. I certainly didn't enjoy it while I was running, but I was happy enough afterwards.
Before I get carried away talking about myself, I must admit that I was impressed with Duane and Arthur's showing, since they both did the workout this morning and then showed up again this afternoon. They each did two more repeats this afternoon, and it's not like they were loafing.
Also: Rudy sighting!
OK, so I ran 7:27, 7:19, 7:23. For some reason that was never explained, Gilbert didn't have us run the full 2000m, but instead we stopped when we completed the loop. I'd probably add another 10 seconds on to those times for the full 2000, so my mile pace for each repeat would have been around 6:05, 6:00 and 6:02 respectively. All I know is, I never run mile repeats that fast. The breathing felt good, the legs not so good.
I was toast after those three, but more than half of my group decided to do a 4th. Eric, Sam and DV all ran the last one in less than 7 minutes. Crrrazy.
In the hmm-what-a-funny-coincidence category, after the workout there were four of us sitting around at RunTex chatting and stretching (we allow talking during stretching in the afternoon) and enjoying the extra sunlight, and all of us were wearing the same red/black/silver asics nimbus shoes. Funny, eh?
Obligitory Obama update: another big win in Mississippi. Nice. Unfortunately, the campaign is getting so ridiculously ugly these days I'm having a hard time keeping up my enthusiasm.
Saturday, March 8, 2008
starflight 5k, in painstaking detail
This morning marked the end of tempo week with my participation in the Starflight 5K. I mentioned last time that I was shooting for a 6:15 pace, but would be content as long as I was under 6:20. Did I make it? Or will I, in fact, turn into a mopey insufferable whiner who complains non-stop about disappointing running performances? Read on for the exciting (and long-winded) answer.
Despite having run two tempo runs earlier in the week, my legs felt reasonable good. But, it was COLD --- 35 degrees at race time. I spent a lot of time thinking about what to wear this morning, only to blow it by ditching my gloves at the starting line. As we stood at the start gate (behind some high school kids wearing jeans who I would see finishing 30 minutes later), I decided my hands felt a little toasty, so I ditched my gloves with Pat and Ivi. By the way, did I mention that Pat and Ivi showed up to cheer me on? That was very awesome of them. Duane, Lou Kokernak, John Armstrong and Arthur were the fellow gazelles I recognized at the starting gate, but I'm convinced Pat and Ivi were there mainly for me.
Anyway, the race started right on time. Like I said, it was cold, but the sun was out and there was only a light breeze. The course snaked through Zilker Park, and it was a little frustrating to not have any idea where you were going, but at least there were mile markers so you had some idea of how far you'd gone. Immediately after starting, we made a sharp turn, crossed Barton Springs Dr and were headed down Lou Neff --- where we run 1000m repeats on a regular basis. It became immediately obvious that my hands were freezing. Like, they hurt they were so cold. (And they never really stopped hurting, it's just there was so much general 5K-related hurt, that they weren't as noticeable by the end.) My original plan was to chase Lou from gazelles for the first mile (he was shooting for 19:00), to make sure I at least didn't start as slowly as Thursday's tempo. By the time we passed the 1 mile marker (just past where the hike and bike trail comes up by the road), he was probably 10 seconds in front of me, but my first mile was 6:07, and I was pleased enough with that. My immediate thought was that I just needed to sustain.
The second mile turned out to be a lot different from the first mile. While the first mile was net downhill, and second mile was net uphill and had a bunch of tight turns (including a turnaround on the road that leads to the Mopac lot). We crossed back over to the south side of Barton Springs Dr, did a bunch of zig-zagging and some point I passed Pat and Ivi again. They had now been joined by DV. (Thanks for coming DV! You get awesome points too!) As I approached them, I asked for my gloves but Ivi said something like, "No, just keep running!" That's demerits for you Ivi. DV actually did try to catch up to me, but I waived him off. Gosh, my legs were feeling really tired about now. At some point I hit the 2 mile marker. Goddammit, 6:30! How do you slow down 23 seconds and totally not notice it? I would have guessed that I was under 6:20. Do I really have that little awareness of how I'm running?
Well, there really wasn't time to figure out how that had happened, but I did feel a little despair. Like I said, the legs were feeling heavy, and I didn't think there was much of a chance that I would speed up on the last mile. Still I pressed on.
We were now running what was essentially the mile repeat loop that we do with the gazelles. We headed out on the road that cuts through the disc golf course, and it was kind of nice to be in familiar territory. As we turned onto the back road that goes by the day camp, I veered out into the middle of the road to avoid the annoying camber on the sides and then let myself roll down the hill, not a fast as possible, but much faster than I normally would during mile repeats. I hit the flat at the bottom of the hill and figured I had about 800m to go, tops. I also had a bit of stitch just bellow my ribs on the right. I refocused on my form and breathing, trying to just get a little comfortable. We turned into the Barton Springs parking lot, and I started to look for the finish. After the parking lot, the course had one more climb, probably the worst one of the race, but it was over before you knew it, then we turned toward the finish and hit the 3 mile marker. Pat, Ivi and DV were all there yelling and I tried to turn it up. I didn't have much left, but Ivi was yelling that someone was going to catch me and, even though I didn't believe her, it scared me enough to keep running hard and not just limp across the finish line. (It turned out the next closest finisher was 13 seconds back, so that was big fat lie. But an effective lie. Bonus points for Ivi.)
Oh yeah, mile 3 was 6:13. Cool. Once again, you'd think I'd know it if I had sped up by 17 seconds, but I had no idea. My final time was 19:30 (19:29.50 by my watch), which is a 6:17 pace. I was content with that. Man, it was freaking hard though. I hope I can improve on that next week, but it certainly won't be easy.
I bumped into DV later at RunTex and he said I looked really strong and smooth at the finish. What a sweet thing to say. I certainly did not feel strong or smooth during that last 200m, but it's good to know I can put on a good show.
Duane ran an 18:29 (nice! 6th overal), Lou ran 19:05 (also very nice), John ran 20:02 (I'm sure he'll break 20 soon) and Arthur won the stroller division in 22:05.
I liked the race over all. It's fun to run in Zilker, even if the course was little zig-zaggy. The hills made the course tough, but they weren't awful. And the turnout was small enough to make the atmosphere feel kind of homey. Oh yeah, the shirts were nice too. Technical material (by Mizuno) with cool graphics. I'll actually get some use out of it.
I love that I just wrote a 5K recap that was longer than most people's marathon reports.
Obligatory election-related comment: I just read that Obama won in Wyoming today by TWENTY THREE percentage points. I realize it's just Wyoming, and I'm sure the Hill people will point out that results are less legit because it was a caucus. But regardless of whether it's a caucus or primary, that's a pretty big margin of victory. You can't talk your way around that. Hopefully this will get the Obama campaign back on track. Fingers crossed.
Despite having run two tempo runs earlier in the week, my legs felt reasonable good. But, it was COLD --- 35 degrees at race time. I spent a lot of time thinking about what to wear this morning, only to blow it by ditching my gloves at the starting line. As we stood at the start gate (behind some high school kids wearing jeans who I would see finishing 30 minutes later), I decided my hands felt a little toasty, so I ditched my gloves with Pat and Ivi. By the way, did I mention that Pat and Ivi showed up to cheer me on? That was very awesome of them. Duane, Lou Kokernak, John Armstrong and Arthur were the fellow gazelles I recognized at the starting gate, but I'm convinced Pat and Ivi were there mainly for me.
Anyway, the race started right on time. Like I said, it was cold, but the sun was out and there was only a light breeze. The course snaked through Zilker Park, and it was a little frustrating to not have any idea where you were going, but at least there were mile markers so you had some idea of how far you'd gone. Immediately after starting, we made a sharp turn, crossed Barton Springs Dr and were headed down Lou Neff --- where we run 1000m repeats on a regular basis. It became immediately obvious that my hands were freezing. Like, they hurt they were so cold. (And they never really stopped hurting, it's just there was so much general 5K-related hurt, that they weren't as noticeable by the end.) My original plan was to chase Lou from gazelles for the first mile (he was shooting for 19:00), to make sure I at least didn't start as slowly as Thursday's tempo. By the time we passed the 1 mile marker (just past where the hike and bike trail comes up by the road), he was probably 10 seconds in front of me, but my first mile was 6:07, and I was pleased enough with that. My immediate thought was that I just needed to sustain.
The second mile turned out to be a lot different from the first mile. While the first mile was net downhill, and second mile was net uphill and had a bunch of tight turns (including a turnaround on the road that leads to the Mopac lot). We crossed back over to the south side of Barton Springs Dr, did a bunch of zig-zagging and some point I passed Pat and Ivi again. They had now been joined by DV. (Thanks for coming DV! You get awesome points too!) As I approached them, I asked for my gloves but Ivi said something like, "No, just keep running!" That's demerits for you Ivi. DV actually did try to catch up to me, but I waived him off. Gosh, my legs were feeling really tired about now. At some point I hit the 2 mile marker. Goddammit, 6:30! How do you slow down 23 seconds and totally not notice it? I would have guessed that I was under 6:20. Do I really have that little awareness of how I'm running?
Well, there really wasn't time to figure out how that had happened, but I did feel a little despair. Like I said, the legs were feeling heavy, and I didn't think there was much of a chance that I would speed up on the last mile. Still I pressed on.
We were now running what was essentially the mile repeat loop that we do with the gazelles. We headed out on the road that cuts through the disc golf course, and it was kind of nice to be in familiar territory. As we turned onto the back road that goes by the day camp, I veered out into the middle of the road to avoid the annoying camber on the sides and then let myself roll down the hill, not a fast as possible, but much faster than I normally would during mile repeats. I hit the flat at the bottom of the hill and figured I had about 800m to go, tops. I also had a bit of stitch just bellow my ribs on the right. I refocused on my form and breathing, trying to just get a little comfortable. We turned into the Barton Springs parking lot, and I started to look for the finish. After the parking lot, the course had one more climb, probably the worst one of the race, but it was over before you knew it, then we turned toward the finish and hit the 3 mile marker. Pat, Ivi and DV were all there yelling and I tried to turn it up. I didn't have much left, but Ivi was yelling that someone was going to catch me and, even though I didn't believe her, it scared me enough to keep running hard and not just limp across the finish line. (It turned out the next closest finisher was 13 seconds back, so that was big fat lie. But an effective lie. Bonus points for Ivi.)
Oh yeah, mile 3 was 6:13. Cool. Once again, you'd think I'd know it if I had sped up by 17 seconds, but I had no idea. My final time was 19:30 (19:29.50 by my watch), which is a 6:17 pace. I was content with that. Man, it was freaking hard though. I hope I can improve on that next week, but it certainly won't be easy.
I bumped into DV later at RunTex and he said I looked really strong and smooth at the finish. What a sweet thing to say. I certainly did not feel strong or smooth during that last 200m, but it's good to know I can put on a good show.
Duane ran an 18:29 (nice! 6th overal), Lou ran 19:05 (also very nice), John ran 20:02 (I'm sure he'll break 20 soon) and Arthur won the stroller division in 22:05.
I liked the race over all. It's fun to run in Zilker, even if the course was little zig-zaggy. The hills made the course tough, but they weren't awful. And the turnout was small enough to make the atmosphere feel kind of homey. Oh yeah, the shirts were nice too. Technical material (by Mizuno) with cool graphics. I'll actually get some use out of it.
I love that I just wrote a 5K recap that was longer than most people's marathon reports.
Obligatory election-related comment: I just read that Obama won in Wyoming today by TWENTY THREE percentage points. I realize it's just Wyoming, and I'm sure the Hill people will point out that results are less legit because it was a caucus. But regardless of whether it's a caucus or primary, that's a pretty big margin of victory. You can't talk your way around that. Hopefully this will get the Obama campaign back on track. Fingers crossed.
Thursday, March 6, 2008
2 of 3
Today I ran my second tempo of the week. After looking at the forecast last night, I decided I'd try to make the morning workout. I'm not usually able to get up that early, but I figured I'd set my alarm for 5:00AM and see how it goes. I did make it (it's almost worth getting up that early to see the surprise on G's face) and, I have to say, I totally made the right decision. When I left work at 6 this evening, it was miserable outside. The rain had let up, but the temperature had dropped 15 degrees during the day and the wind had picked up quite a bit as well.
So it was a pretty small crowd this morning. I didn't really see anyone I knew I could run with, so I figured maybe I'd try to stay close to Arthur, though I didn't really think I'd be able to stick with him for the whole 4 miles.
Somehow that first mile ended up being ridiculously slow. My goal was to get as close to a 6:30 pace as possible, but when I hit the first half mile marker my watch said 3:29. Yikes! I figured I'd try to pick it up a little and maybe at least get under 6:50 for the first mile, but when we hit the bridge my watch said 7:01. Double yikes! I didn't feel like I was totally loafing. Arthur and I were (surprisingly) still together at that point, and we did manage to run the second mile in 6:40. Once we turned around Arthur took off and I pretty much let him go. I did mile 3 in 6:35. Arthur was probably 15 seconds in front of me at that point. I tried to keep grinding away, focusing on form and breathing (since I felt a slight stitch). As we got back on the trail after going under the railroad bridge, I could see Arthur had slowed down just a tad. I was gaining some ground, but there was no way I was going to catch him. Still, I put in an effort to finish strong for that last 600 meters or so and finished my final mile in 6:26.
We followed up the tempo action with a little cool down and then everyone headed off to do start the rest of their days. That is one of pities doing the morning workout (other than waking up so early): there's no post-workout loitering since everyone has to get to their jobs.
I'm sure this sounds like a broken record, but my performance was little disappointing. Nevertheless, I never had that oh-my-god-I'm-going-to-die feeling that one can get during a tempo run, and my legs and lungs felt OK. Not so good that I felt like running faster, but not so bad that I wanted to stop. See? I can do the glass-half-full thing too.
I'm going to go on the record with my goals for the Starflight 5K: I'm shooting for a 6:15 pace which would get me through the course in just under 19:30. I'll live with a 6:20 pace, but anything slower than that and this blog will be taking a trip to mopey-town. You've been warned.
So it was a pretty small crowd this morning. I didn't really see anyone I knew I could run with, so I figured maybe I'd try to stay close to Arthur, though I didn't really think I'd be able to stick with him for the whole 4 miles.
Somehow that first mile ended up being ridiculously slow. My goal was to get as close to a 6:30 pace as possible, but when I hit the first half mile marker my watch said 3:29. Yikes! I figured I'd try to pick it up a little and maybe at least get under 6:50 for the first mile, but when we hit the bridge my watch said 7:01. Double yikes! I didn't feel like I was totally loafing. Arthur and I were (surprisingly) still together at that point, and we did manage to run the second mile in 6:40. Once we turned around Arthur took off and I pretty much let him go. I did mile 3 in 6:35. Arthur was probably 15 seconds in front of me at that point. I tried to keep grinding away, focusing on form and breathing (since I felt a slight stitch). As we got back on the trail after going under the railroad bridge, I could see Arthur had slowed down just a tad. I was gaining some ground, but there was no way I was going to catch him. Still, I put in an effort to finish strong for that last 600 meters or so and finished my final mile in 6:26.
We followed up the tempo action with a little cool down and then everyone headed off to do start the rest of their days. That is one of pities doing the morning workout (other than waking up so early): there's no post-workout loitering since everyone has to get to their jobs.
I'm sure this sounds like a broken record, but my performance was little disappointing. Nevertheless, I never had that oh-my-god-I'm-going-to-die feeling that one can get during a tempo run, and my legs and lungs felt OK. Not so good that I felt like running faster, but not so bad that I wanted to stop. See? I can do the glass-half-full thing too.
I'm going to go on the record with my goals for the Starflight 5K: I'm shooting for a 6:15 pace which would get me through the course in just under 19:30. I'll live with a 6:20 pace, but anything slower than that and this blog will be taking a trip to mopey-town. You've been warned.
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
caucus madness!
Went to the caucus tonight and, man, there were a lot of people representing. Once again, this is a good and a bad thing. It's good that so many people are voting. It's bad that I have to wait around while they get their say. (Damn them.)
The caucus was supposed to start at 7:15, but it turns out they can't start the caucus until all voters have finished. Apparently quite a few people must have showed up to vote at 6:59, because it was after 8:00 when they finished. Anyway, here's the order of events:
7:15 - I meet my neighbor (and co-worker of my wife) Scott at Barton Hills Elementary. We're led into the school and put in the gymnasium with a few hundred other people. There's a bunch of anatomy posters on the wall and Scott points out that one of them has a label pointing at the jaw that says "mandibles". He would like to tell the maker of that label that there's only one mandible.
7:15-8:15 - We sit and wait. Stand and wait. Most people are like us, and haven't a clue how this is supposed to work. At one point, we find ourselves standing next to a woman who's explaing things to another person. (It's worth mentioning she was wearing a Clinton button.) Scott asks her a question and she starts to answer, but interrupts herself. The conversation finishes like this:
WOMAN: ...Oh wait, are you a Clinton supporter?
SCOTT: No, Obama.
WOMAN: (making a face like someone just farted) Well, I'm sure you can find some Barack person to explain it to you.
SCOTT: Really? You're not going to answer my question because I'm voting for Obama?
WOMAN: No, I'm not.
ME: So this is your attempt to disenfranchise people who aren't voting like you?
WOMAN: (scowls and turns to talk to friend about how she almost offered some Obama supporters a bottle of water.)
Anyway, that was interesting. After that, we went and sat out in the hall so we would have easy escape routes. (Kidding... it was just less crowded.)
8:15-8:45 - We get in line to sign our names. It turns out moving to the hall was a good move because we had a way shorter wait than the people who stayed in the gym. It was a very simple process. You write your name, address and who you're voting for.
Now the election results are trickling in. It's a pretty tense night. Clinton took RI, Obama took Vermont. CNN just called Ohio for Clinton where she was leading handily. Right now (10:15 on Tuesday night), it's 50% Clinton, 49% Obama in Texas.
Wow, two posts in one day. Top that DV.
The caucus was supposed to start at 7:15, but it turns out they can't start the caucus until all voters have finished. Apparently quite a few people must have showed up to vote at 6:59, because it was after 8:00 when they finished. Anyway, here's the order of events:
7:15 - I meet my neighbor (and co-worker of my wife) Scott at Barton Hills Elementary. We're led into the school and put in the gymnasium with a few hundred other people. There's a bunch of anatomy posters on the wall and Scott points out that one of them has a label pointing at the jaw that says "mandibles". He would like to tell the maker of that label that there's only one mandible.
7:15-8:15 - We sit and wait. Stand and wait. Most people are like us, and haven't a clue how this is supposed to work. At one point, we find ourselves standing next to a woman who's explaing things to another person. (It's worth mentioning she was wearing a Clinton button.) Scott asks her a question and she starts to answer, but interrupts herself. The conversation finishes like this:
WOMAN: ...Oh wait, are you a Clinton supporter?
SCOTT: No, Obama.
WOMAN: (making a face like someone just farted) Well, I'm sure you can find some Barack person to explain it to you.
SCOTT: Really? You're not going to answer my question because I'm voting for Obama?
WOMAN: No, I'm not.
ME: So this is your attempt to disenfranchise people who aren't voting like you?
WOMAN: (scowls and turns to talk to friend about how she almost offered some Obama supporters a bottle of water.)
Anyway, that was interesting. After that, we went and sat out in the hall so we would have easy escape routes. (Kidding... it was just less crowded.)
8:15-8:45 - We get in line to sign our names. It turns out moving to the hall was a good move because we had a way shorter wait than the people who stayed in the gym. It was a very simple process. You write your name, address and who you're voting for.
Now the election results are trickling in. It's a pretty tense night. Clinton took RI, Obama took Vermont. CNN just called Ohio for Clinton where she was leading handily. Right now (10:15 on Tuesday night), it's 50% Clinton, 49% Obama in Texas.
Wow, two posts in one day. Top that DV.
all tempo, all week
I was going to allude to the fact that it's primary election day in the title of this post, which really is the big news today, but I remembered that would be a violation of the self-centered spirit of blogging, so I opted for something more about me. However, since it's been brought up, yeah it's primary election day and I'm pretty stressed. Hillary has been ruthlessly attacking Obama, and you have to wonder what the effects will be on the day's outcome. I'm hoping Obama can pull through in Texas and keep it close in Ohio so the pressure will be on Hill to hang it up. But these election things seem to never the go the way I hope. I'll put in my vote at the caucus tonight (so I'll at least know I did my part) then go home and wait it out. Fingers crossed...
(Note: At some point, I'm going to talk about today's Arsenal/AC Milan game, so if you recorded it and don't want to know the result, stop reading now.)
OK, now on to the important stuff: my running. I skipped circuits today and decided I needed (as certain rocker dude might say) some "quality" miles this morning. I wasn't sure whether to do 5 or 7, but then I remembered how annoying all the construction on the north side was and figured I could do 6 (plus a little extra to cool down) running out to the east side from RunTex. Perfect.
While last night was cold and so windy there were white caps on Lady Bird "Lake", this morning was just lovely. The winds had died down, the sun was out and reflecting off the water, it was a little chilly but you only noticed it for about 2 minutes while warming up. It was so lovely that I felt sorry for anyone who might have chosen to run yesterday instead of today.
My goal was to run at about a 7-ish pace, which I did... kind of surprisingly (usually the first mile is so slow that it's hard to make up for it later in the run). The only caveat is that I did stop to use the bathroom at miles 2 and 4. I know two bathroom breaks on 6 mile run is a lot, and it probably helped my performance a little, but one can you do? 7:48, 7:30, 6:52, 6:53, 6:44, 6:25. Thanks to the never ending construction, I had to stop before hitting the mile marker just past the stinky bridge, but I added 8 seconds on to my last mile to try to provide an accurate estimate.
I'll follow today's quasi-tempo run up with the real deal on thursday, and then the Starflight 5K on Saturday morning. That should give me enough "quality" miles to get by for a while. I'm pretty sure today's run will have a negative effect on thursday's tempo, and today's and thursday's runs will join forces to undermine my performance in Saturday's 5K. But, I'm trying to think long term here, so that by April I'll be in better shape to put in a decent performance. Plus, now I have a built in excuse for running poorly on Saturday, and who wouldn't want that? It kind of takes the pressure off. (Of course, the current forecast for Thursday is really ugly --- cold, rainy and windy --- so it's possible I might sheepishly decide not to run on Thursday and thereby ruin this rationalization that I'm already counting on.)
The second leg of the Arsenal/AC Milan matchup in the Champions League was today. I followed the first half on the internet, and it sounded suspenseful. It sounded like Arsenal was getting there asses (or arses, as they would say) handed to them for the first 15 minutes, but then they turned the tables and dominated for the rest of the half. Despite all the action, the first half ended 0-0. I hadn't had lunch, and my house is only 2 miles from the office, so I figured I'd run home and catch the second half. Arsenal was once again dominating for first 20-25 minutes, but then the game seemed to settle down and you could tell both teams were just running out of gas. It was still end-to-end and exciting, but things got a little sloppy. Arsenal seemed to have a little more control, but their grasp on the game seemed fragile. It was still 0-0 and all, so all it would take is for them to give up one sloppy goal.
Finally, with less than 10 minutes left, Fabregas (who is pretty much a 20-year-old midfield genius, and who is much more inclined to pass than to shoot) uncorked a long range shot that caught the goalie off guard (perhaps he was tending to his hair) and slid in perfectly just inside the left post. It totally came out of nowhere and while it was an incredibly well-placed shot, you can't help but wonder if the goalie should have been able to do more to keep it out of the net. After that, I Milani were in panic mode throwing everything forward but with no luck at all.
There were 4 minutes of stoppage time, thanks in part to the Arsenal goalie lying on the ground and pretending he was in extreme pain. (Perhaps he was, and it's certainly possible that he had learned this behavior from watching the Italians perform similarly throughout the game, but it sure looked a little overdone to me.) Once the action resumed, someone fed a long ball up the right side to Arsenal's Theo Walcott, who is blazingly fast and had fresh legs since he came in as sub about 15-20 minutes earlier, and he easily outran the tired Milan defender. Here is one thing about Walcott that distinguishes him from other players (other than his speed), he doesn't seem to like to play for penalties. He seems to try to avoid situations that will lead to him falling to the ground, and when he gets tripped it up, instead of he trying to make his stumble look like The Most Dramatic Fall Ever to win some sympathy from the ref, he tries to keep his balance and keep running. (I'm sure someone's going to point me to some counterevidence on YouTube, but I can assure you that Theo keeps running when most people would be lying on the pitch waiving there arms in incredulously.) Anyway, so the tired Milan defend makes a pretty good effort at a desperation slide tackle and actually does get a teeny bit of the ball, enough that Walcott totally loses his balance and falls to his side. The problem is Walcott instantaneous popped back and is still at full speed, and the defender didn't get enough of the ball so it happens to still be right in front of Walcott. At this point, it's Walcott versus the goalie, with the only problem being that Walcott is so far out to the side that he doesn't have a good angle, fortunately his teammates were still involved and follow him with two cuts. Walcott dribbles the ball towards the goal, one of his teammates (Flamini) flashes to the goal as he crosses it (not sure who it was), but it's passed beyond him in favor of teammate Adebayor who comes out of nowhere (at least on the TV screen) to easily tap it in. It was textbook play --- perfectly passed and perfectly converted. Game over. I need to see if I can find that pass on YouTube. OK, there's a really low-fi replay (is there any other kind on YouTube) here. (Arsenal is wearing the white shirts and cute stripey socks.)
Whew, this was long. I really don't know how I manage to say so much about so little.
(Note: At some point, I'm going to talk about today's Arsenal/AC Milan game, so if you recorded it and don't want to know the result, stop reading now.)
OK, now on to the important stuff: my running. I skipped circuits today and decided I needed (as certain rocker dude might say) some "quality" miles this morning. I wasn't sure whether to do 5 or 7, but then I remembered how annoying all the construction on the north side was and figured I could do 6 (plus a little extra to cool down) running out to the east side from RunTex. Perfect.
While last night was cold and so windy there were white caps on Lady Bird "Lake", this morning was just lovely. The winds had died down, the sun was out and reflecting off the water, it was a little chilly but you only noticed it for about 2 minutes while warming up. It was so lovely that I felt sorry for anyone who might have chosen to run yesterday instead of today.
My goal was to run at about a 7-ish pace, which I did... kind of surprisingly (usually the first mile is so slow that it's hard to make up for it later in the run). The only caveat is that I did stop to use the bathroom at miles 2 and 4. I know two bathroom breaks on 6 mile run is a lot, and it probably helped my performance a little, but one can you do? 7:48, 7:30, 6:52, 6:53, 6:44, 6:25. Thanks to the never ending construction, I had to stop before hitting the mile marker just past the stinky bridge, but I added 8 seconds on to my last mile to try to provide an accurate estimate.
I'll follow today's quasi-tempo run up with the real deal on thursday, and then the Starflight 5K on Saturday morning. That should give me enough "quality" miles to get by for a while. I'm pretty sure today's run will have a negative effect on thursday's tempo, and today's and thursday's runs will join forces to undermine my performance in Saturday's 5K. But, I'm trying to think long term here, so that by April I'll be in better shape to put in a decent performance. Plus, now I have a built in excuse for running poorly on Saturday, and who wouldn't want that? It kind of takes the pressure off. (Of course, the current forecast for Thursday is really ugly --- cold, rainy and windy --- so it's possible I might sheepishly decide not to run on Thursday and thereby ruin this rationalization that I'm already counting on.)
The second leg of the Arsenal/AC Milan matchup in the Champions League was today. I followed the first half on the internet, and it sounded suspenseful. It sounded like Arsenal was getting there asses (or arses, as they would say) handed to them for the first 15 minutes, but then they turned the tables and dominated for the rest of the half. Despite all the action, the first half ended 0-0. I hadn't had lunch, and my house is only 2 miles from the office, so I figured I'd run home and catch the second half. Arsenal was once again dominating for first 20-25 minutes, but then the game seemed to settle down and you could tell both teams were just running out of gas. It was still end-to-end and exciting, but things got a little sloppy. Arsenal seemed to have a little more control, but their grasp on the game seemed fragile. It was still 0-0 and all, so all it would take is for them to give up one sloppy goal.
Finally, with less than 10 minutes left, Fabregas (who is pretty much a 20-year-old midfield genius, and who is much more inclined to pass than to shoot) uncorked a long range shot that caught the goalie off guard (perhaps he was tending to his hair) and slid in perfectly just inside the left post. It totally came out of nowhere and while it was an incredibly well-placed shot, you can't help but wonder if the goalie should have been able to do more to keep it out of the net. After that, I Milani were in panic mode throwing everything forward but with no luck at all.
There were 4 minutes of stoppage time, thanks in part to the Arsenal goalie lying on the ground and pretending he was in extreme pain. (Perhaps he was, and it's certainly possible that he had learned this behavior from watching the Italians perform similarly throughout the game, but it sure looked a little overdone to me.) Once the action resumed, someone fed a long ball up the right side to Arsenal's Theo Walcott, who is blazingly fast and had fresh legs since he came in as sub about 15-20 minutes earlier, and he easily outran the tired Milan defender. Here is one thing about Walcott that distinguishes him from other players (other than his speed), he doesn't seem to like to play for penalties. He seems to try to avoid situations that will lead to him falling to the ground, and when he gets tripped it up, instead of he trying to make his stumble look like The Most Dramatic Fall Ever to win some sympathy from the ref, he tries to keep his balance and keep running. (I'm sure someone's going to point me to some counterevidence on YouTube, but I can assure you that Theo keeps running when most people would be lying on the pitch waiving there arms in incredulously.) Anyway, so the tired Milan defend makes a pretty good effort at a desperation slide tackle and actually does get a teeny bit of the ball, enough that Walcott totally loses his balance and falls to his side. The problem is Walcott instantaneous popped back and is still at full speed, and the defender didn't get enough of the ball so it happens to still be right in front of Walcott. At this point, it's Walcott versus the goalie, with the only problem being that Walcott is so far out to the side that he doesn't have a good angle, fortunately his teammates were still involved and follow him with two cuts. Walcott dribbles the ball towards the goal, one of his teammates (Flamini) flashes to the goal as he crosses it (not sure who it was), but it's passed beyond him in favor of teammate Adebayor who comes out of nowhere (at least on the TV screen) to easily tap it in. It was textbook play --- perfectly passed and perfectly converted. Game over. I need to see if I can find that pass on YouTube. OK, there's a really low-fi replay (is there any other kind on YouTube) here. (Arsenal is wearing the white shirts and cute stripey socks.)
Whew, this was long. I really don't know how I manage to say so much about so little.
Sunday, March 2, 2008
it really shouldn't be this hard...
"It really shouldn't be this hard..." I feel like this thought comes to mind far too often. Not quite every single time I run, but probably more than half of the time. During yesterday's 10 miler, it was practically my mantra. I was repeating in my head that often.
I met DV at RunTex and bullied him into running on the trail instead of doing the lollipop, but with the wrinkle that we ran from mile 0 to 10 instead from 10 to 0. It didn't take long before we both thinking, "Damn, I'm more sore than I thought from those 400s."
We made a quick stop at Mopac and I bumped into Mark Casey and Diana Damer. They're both in post-marathon mode, so who knows when we'll see them again. Diana thanked me for helping with the pacing at the marathon, and I told her it was fun for me too. I left kind of abruptly since it's rare that I have a running partner and I didn't want to piss him off. So, Mark and Diana, if you happen to read this, apologies for the rudeness.
Off we went again... Here's my token weather comment: It was crazy humid. In fact, I ditched my shirt at Mark Casey's car. It's only March and too warm for a shirt. Anyway, I think we were around a 7:30-7:40 pace, but with the construction on the north side, it's really hard to figure out. DV was testing out a footpod, but the results were a little erratic. (I'll let him comment on that sometime.)
Once we got to the east side, we picked it up, but just barely. I don't have the exact times due to stopwatch ineptitude, but I would guess we were 7:15-7:20. (Though based on how hard it seemed, it felt faster. See the title of this post...) DV suggested we try to get under 7:00 after we crossed the dam. As we sped up he commented that he felt better now. Well, not me. I can pretty vividly remember seeing the mile marker approaching and having to have a little conversation in my head to convince myself not to start walking. We finished up that mile in 6:28, which wasn't bad. Rather than stopping for water, we jogged the rest of the way back (total time for the run was about 1:16... nothing to get excited about), did a few strides and then I hurried home to watch the Arsenal/Aston Villa game.
A few years ago when we lived in Providence, I would occasionally watch soccer games with one of Meghal's class mates who happened to be a big Arsenal fan. I got hooked. OK, maybe hooked is something of an exaggeration, but I do try to watch a game once in a while. It's really easy to get into because the action is non-stop. The only time there is a pause if there is an injury or if it's halftime. No timeouts, no commercials, no referee reviews.
Anyway, on this day Arsenal was annoyingly anemic. They often blow lots of easy opportunities trying to be too fancy, but you know that they'll have so many of these opportunities that it's not a big deal to waste a few. It's not that they weren't creating opportunities in this game against Villa, but they never seemed in control and often even seemed on their heels. Still, they were only down 1-0 and towards the end of games, once the opponents' defense has tired from chasing around all those passes, they're often able to manufacture a goal. The last 10 minutes was all pressure from Arsenal, and finally at the very very last minute (3rd minute of stoppage time), they put one in. Pretty exciting.... Almost made it worth watching the previous 90 minutes of listless soccer.
Coming this week, a tempo run and 5K. All hypoxia all the time.
I met DV at RunTex and bullied him into running on the trail instead of doing the lollipop, but with the wrinkle that we ran from mile 0 to 10 instead from 10 to 0. It didn't take long before we both thinking, "Damn, I'm more sore than I thought from those 400s."
We made a quick stop at Mopac and I bumped into Mark Casey and Diana Damer. They're both in post-marathon mode, so who knows when we'll see them again. Diana thanked me for helping with the pacing at the marathon, and I told her it was fun for me too. I left kind of abruptly since it's rare that I have a running partner and I didn't want to piss him off. So, Mark and Diana, if you happen to read this, apologies for the rudeness.
Off we went again... Here's my token weather comment: It was crazy humid. In fact, I ditched my shirt at Mark Casey's car. It's only March and too warm for a shirt.
Once we got to the east side, we picked it up, but just barely. I don't have the exact times due to stopwatch ineptitude, but I would guess we were 7:15-7:20. (Though based on how hard it seemed, it felt faster. See the title of this post...) DV suggested we try to get under 7:00 after we crossed the dam. As we sped up he commented that he felt better now. Well, not me. I can pretty vividly remember seeing the mile marker approaching and having to have a little conversation in my head to convince myself not to start walking. We finished up that mile in 6:28, which wasn't bad. Rather than stopping for water, we jogged the rest of the way back (total time for the run was about 1:16... nothing to get excited about), did a few strides and then I hurried home to watch the Arsenal/Aston Villa game.
A few years ago when we lived in Providence, I would occasionally watch soccer games with one of Meghal's class mates who happened to be a big Arsenal fan. I got hooked. OK, maybe hooked is something of an exaggeration, but I do try to watch a game once in a while. It's really easy to get into because the action is non-stop. The only time there is a pause if there is an injury or if it's halftime. No timeouts, no commercials, no referee reviews.
Anyway, on this day Arsenal was annoyingly anemic. They often blow lots of easy opportunities trying to be too fancy, but you know that they'll have so many of these opportunities that it's not a big deal to waste a few. It's not that they weren't creating opportunities in this game against Villa, but they never seemed in control and often even seemed on their heels. Still, they were only down 1-0 and towards the end of games, once the opponents' defense has tired from chasing around all those passes, they're often able to manufacture a goal. The last 10 minutes was all pressure from Arsenal, and finally at the very very last minute (3rd minute of stoppage time), they put one in. Pretty exciting.... Almost made it worth watching the previous 90 minutes of listless soccer.
Coming this week, a tempo run and 5K. All hypoxia all the time.
Friday, February 29, 2008
leap year day!
OK, a real quick recap of this week's running adventures:
Also, and I can't believe I'm saying this, I'm looking forward to next week's tempo run. It will give me some idea of where I stand fitness-wise.
- Tuesday - Spring Creek/Norris hill workout with the gazelles. I only did 5 and they were all in the 2:20-2:30 range. (I have no idea how that compares to my historical performance since I've never been able to access my old cool running log once it moved to active.com. Grr. For this and other reasons, there is high likelihood that I will someday create a blog entry titled: "I fucking hate you, active.com.") My legs felt surprisingly fresh, but my right knee hurt like hell later that evening.
- Wednesday - PBJ on greenbelt with whole gang: Pat (post-marathon), J-Rey (slumming it on a short run) and DV (wearing the spiffy trail shoes from his win in the Maze 10K last year). We did about 40 minutes of running, with two people taking big spills. Normally I would take this opportunity to taunt them mercilessly, but if it can happen to an experienced trail runner, it can happen to me. I won't tempt karma this time. Oh yeah, and my knee still really hurt, but it went away later.
- Thursday - 400m repeats at austin high. We did the version where you get a minute rest and basically do as many as you can (as opposed to the sets of 5 with long break between each set). I did a total of 13: 5 @ 1:29, 5 @ 1:26, 1 @ 1:24, 1 @ 1:15 and then mellow one at 1:31. I tried --- really tried --- to keep up with John Colyandro on the 12th one, but I lost him going into the last 100m. Then I thought I would be able to take it easy on the last one and still run about 1:25, but it turned out that running 1:31 was plenty challenging. Overall, I'm mildly disappointed. I felt good aerobically, but my legs felt weak. They always feel weak. Very annoying. Since I'm hoping to run a 5K at a sub-6:00 pace this spring, I would have liked to have been a little faster than a 5-freaking-56 pace for half of them. At least my knee stopped hurting. Since I don't want him to get self-conscious, I won't talk about DV and his heart rate monitor.
- Today - I spent over an hour waiting in line to cast my vote for Barack. It's nice to see so many people giving a damn and voting, but I wish I wasn't trying to vote at the same time as all of them. Does anyone know why they won't let you use a cell phone close to the voting booths?
Also, and I can't believe I'm saying this, I'm looking forward to next week's tempo run. It will give me some idea of where I stand fitness-wise.
Monday, February 25, 2008
wasted week
OK, so the whole reason I started this blog was because, after about a year and a half of running with the gazelles, I had lost my focus. I wasn't as interested in running or, more importantly, improving my running. I stopped pushing as hard in workouts, which resulted in a cycle where I would be disappointed with my progress, so my motivation would suffer, so I wouldn't push as hard, so I would be disappointed... blah blah blah. I'm really not looking for sympathy here, I just figured a little background on this exercise in self-indulgence would be called for eventually.
I realized I was in this muddle back in the fall, but I figured I'd be able to shake it off before this spring when I was hoping to improve on my 5K times from spring 2007. Unfortunately, I got sick around Thanksgiving, and then shortly afterward went to Kenya for two weeks (pics here in case you care). I only went running once or so over a 4 week period, and to make matters worse, I lost somewhere around 16 pounds due to illnesses and general travel anxiety. (If you know me, then you know I didn't really have 16 pounds to lose. It was well over 10% of my body weight.)
So January hit, and I was trying hard to get back into things, but I still had this nagging sense of ambivalence. Under normal circumstances, I might not try to force the issue, but I had two upcoming events that made me feel something of a sense of urgency:
- el beskrownito was due to be born at the beginning of April. Just guessing, but my focus would probably shift a little more to non-running activities after that. If I was planning to train somewhat intensely, it would have to be before then.
- the bun run was in early april. Who cares, right? There are plenty of other 5Ks.... The thing is, I look at the bun run as my annual exam. In 2006, it was the first race I ran a month after joining the gazelles in a PR time of 20:51. Last year, I improved that to 18:52... Almost a 2 minute improvement! While I don't expect such a big drop off this year, I'd still like to do better than last year or I'll feel like I've wasted all the training I've done since then.
(Wow, my verb tense is really awkward in those above paragraphs, but I'll leave it as it is instead of messing it up more. Just wanted to make sure that you know that I know it's borderline unreadable.)
So I still have grand (for me) aspirations; namely, I want to run a 5K at a sub-6:00 pace. But there's not much time to realize this goal. You'd think I'd be cramming in all the workouts I could, right? Wrong. Nope, in the last week, since my marathon experience (which was really Pat's and Diana's marathon experience but thanks for sharing y'all), I've done no running. Instead I went snowboarding in Idaho.
Granted, it was fun, and if I'm going to do activities like this, I need to get them in before el beskrownito appears. But it's not going to help with my running, and it doesn't really do much for the running content of this blog either.Nevertheless, while I have your attention, I need to tell you that Boise is an extremely well kept secret. It's a smallish town (approx 200,000) situated in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. The city itself is located on a high plains type of area, but there are mountains literally within walking distance. Also, there's a trail and park system that runs along the Boise River in the center of town that puts our Lady Bird Lake trails to shame. It runs for 20+ miles and features a lot more park-like attractions than what we have here. Plus it's, you know, actually on the riverfront the whole way. I have to mention that the public library is in a boring box of a building that say "LIBRARY!" on the side. I think that's awesome. And yes, I yelled "LIBRARY!" as I walked by. The only negative comment I can up with about the Boise is that the Asian food is not so hot.
I also got to spend a day at Bogus Basin, which is only 16 miles outside of Boise. It's a really scenic drive to get out there on a windy road through the mountains. It's supposed to be a small-ish resort, but it features a lot of trails on different faces of the mountain and, most importantly, a lot of variety. We expected it to be packed since there was fresh snow and it was a weekend day, but the lift lines were short, and the trails felt roomy. All in all, I'd say it was more fun that Sun Valley. The only complaint would be that some of the runs drain into cat-trail-ish greens at the bottom, which is boring and, if you're a snowboarder, a little stressful. (At least for this snowboarder.)
Before finishing this post, I want to get back to running for a bit. This week's workouts are the secret hill (Spring Creek/Norris) on Tuesday and 400m repeats on Thursday. Ah yes, it quickly becomes obvious that the marathon has finally passed as the speed workouts reappear. I don't really care how Tuesday goes... I haven't run in a week, and my legs are still a little wrecked from snowboarding. But I really need to push myself on Thursday and force myself to get a little hypoxic. Or maybe even a lot hypoxic. I'm hoping I'll have some people around my speed to run with to help with the motivation. If I don't run a bunch of repeats at 85 seconds or less, expect a very mopey follow up post. You can see how it all goes in the next thrilling episode.
Sunday, February 17, 2008
whole lotta running going on
Saturday morning I found myself doing my usual 10 miles on the trail on a dreary February morning. Fate has smiled on you, gentle reader, because I cleared my watch already so I won't be able to provide a mile by mile account in painstaking detail.
However, just in case someone reads this who also isn't interest in running long distances, here's the format of my Saturday morning runs. I start at RunTex, and run counterclockwise on the Lady Bird Lake Trail. The first mile or two are always as slow as comfortably possible. I used to start out at over 9:00/mile, but nowadays I'm usually around 8:10-8:15. (This may be a winter thing since I always start out faster when it's chilly.) After that, I'm back on the trail on the east side and I try to hit a faster but still comfortable stride. Once I get back around to I-35 (mile 5), I try to really push it until I get to Mopac (3 miles). From Mopac back to mile 0 is cool down. Doesn't that sound fun to anyone? It's like 1o mile run with a little tempo-like burst in the middle. I probably don't push myself as hard as Gilbert would like me too, but I often run on my own so I'm guessing that doesn't help. Running on the trail is nice though (and Gilbert-recommended) because it's easier on the legs and it's very easy to gauge your tempo.
Before moving on to today's event, here are some notes from Saturday's run:
Oh yeah, and there was marathon-thing today. I've never had anything to do with any marathon, but this year I had plans to pace Pat Legate from miles 14-20, and possibly any other gazelles that were in his vicinity. We had chosen that section of the race because those two points of the marathon route were only about 1/2 a mile from each other, making it easy to come and go and hopefully make it back downtown to watch the finish. Pat was shooting for a 7:40 pace, so I figured I should be able to do that for 6 miles.
I woke up early to go watch the runners headed towards Lady Bird Lake on 1st. I waited at South 1st and Mary for a couple minutes before the lead runners came by, then it was just a deluge. I had to concentrate to pick out the familiar faces. It was easy to yell for Bernard, Gilbert, Desiree, Paul, Dawit and Woo when they went by, but I once the herd thickened up it was almost impossible.
After I the 3:20 group passed, I headed home to get ready to go to mile 14 to meet Pat. My plan was to park at 38th & Duval, ride my bike to mile 20 at Woodrow and North Loop, and then run the 1/2 mile over to mile 14. Then, once I'd finished my leg with Pat, I'd be able to ride down to the finish from mile 20 and hopefully get to see some fast people come in.
Maybe it was a little complicated, but it sound like a perfect plan to me. I spent a lot of time coming up with it, so it's a really sad how badly I botched it up. Basically I was running really late. When I parked at 38th and Duval, I realized I had about 5 minutes to meet Pat. I was frazzled so I just started riding as fast as I could and when I finally got to mile 14, I knew I was too late. Fortunately David Andrus was there wearing his gazelles shirt (which helped me identify him) and I was I able to find out just how late I was. He told me the 3:40 group should be coming by at any minute. Dammit, why am I always so late? Dammit dammit dammit.
Away I went again, chasing down the marathoners. I passed some familiar faces. Erine. Ward. Ward?! Aren't supposed to be broken or something? And a few other people in gazelle shirts that I didn't know, but to whom I gave a ring on my bicycle bell and a "go gazelles".
2.5 miles later I finally passed Pat and told him I'd ride ahead a little to lock up my bike. In addition to being serially late and disorganized, I also underestimate how long things will take me, and of course locking up my bike and stowing my jacket and helmet took a frustratingly long time. I saw Pat run by and I don't think I got on the road to go after him for another minute or minute and a half.
Once I started running, (a little before the 17 mile marker on Foster) I felt very illegitimate. I was passing people like crazy to try to catch Pat and, as a result, was getting a lot of crowd support, even some runner support. I wanted to tell them all that, really, I'm just a highly disorganized guy trying (unsuccessfully) to keep a promise. I also found I felt like shit. 5 miles of biking as hard as I could, combined with the previous day's workout, combined with the fast pace to make up the gap with Pat was taking its toll. I was actually a little worried about making it to mile 20. (I kept trying to tell myself that these people were running 26 miles, and my discomfort must be pretty meager in comparison, but I knew those sorts of rationalizations never work for me... There's a reason I don't run long distance races: I'm a something of a quitter.) I grabbed some water as I approached Pat, but was breathing so hard I couldn't drink it. Pathetically, I stopped for a few seconds, took a few sips and then finally ran up to Pat and apologized profusely for being over 3 miles late. He seemed cool with it.
He seemed to be in awfully good shape for having already run 17+ miles. And I have to say, slowing to his marathon pace made me feel a lot better too. So far, he was right on target and I told him not to let me screw things up since I had just been running a lot faster and who knows what sort of tempo I would settle into. So, at first, I let him set the pace and I started assuming a concierge-type role. When we'd approach water stops, I'd take his order and then run ahead and get it. We seemed to hit mile 20 before we knew it, and DV joined in. I figured I'd stay on until 38th and Duval, then get my car and drive down to the finish.
Along the way, we caught up to Diana Damer, a fellow nooner who was also shooting for 3:20 (same as Pat). I wasn't sure if she'd want the company, but we encouraged her to work with us. At this point, DV took over helping Pat, and I helped Diana. Eventually, Diana and I slipped about 10 meters or so back of Pat and David. Once we got on Duval, I started wondering where a good place to bail would be, but it also didn't seem like a good place to leave someone to finish the race on their own --- we were past 20 miles at this point and the course was becoming downright evil. There seemed to be hills around every corner. So I just kept on going since I had convinced myself I was somehow helping.
As we approached a hill after turning off Duval, Diana admitted she was hurting, so I encouraged her just to take it easy going up the hill... short steps, quick breaths, etc. All those things I do to make a climb a little less painful (though at the cost of speed). We relaxed and made it to the top and turned the corner and fortunately there was gentle downhill slope at this point. I don't know Diana super well, but I do know she's ridiculously tough. I never heard her complain the rest of the way in. In fact, not too long after that as we got within a mile and half or so of the finish, she started picking it up. I wasn't sure if it was intentional or not, so I said, "Um, it's your race and all, but you're speeding up, just so you know." I'm not sure if she said anything, but she didn't ease up so she must have felt OK. We passed Pat and DV and didn't let up. Finally we got to where we could see that last awful hill with about 1200 meters to go. (By the way, was that last hill really necessary? I mean, damn!) Same thing up the hill, short steps and breathe. Diana ran it really smart. As we got to the top, I could see the sign for 11th St and assumed the finish was 3 blocks on the other side. I even said, "Just 3 blocks past that intersection" Oops, there was actually a turn for two blocks before the route finished 3 blocks down at 8th. (The fact that I'm remembering this several hours later is proof of how bad I felt about that.) Still, she shook it off and once we crested the hill, she really picked it up. I mean, she sped up so much it was a finish worthy of a 5K. When we turned on to Congress we were almost running full stride. I yelled and pulled over and, as far as I know, I she kept it up for the last block and a half to the finish.
Pat and DV were about 20 seconds back and I turned and yelled for them. Then DV and I chatted about how awesome both of them did and how running 26 miles seems absolutely crazy. Though DV ran sub-3 hours in Dallas just a couple of months ago, his remark today was, "I kept thinking someone else must have run that, because I can't imagine having run it myself." I only ran 9 miles (barely more than a 3rd of what anyone who finished ran), and I was pretty beat. I have to say though, it was fun to help some of my fellow gazelles. I'd definitely do it again.
I think Diana finished 3:22 and change, and Pat was about 20 seconds back. Great job y'all! BQ's all around. For the record, though I'm sure those last few miles were hard for both of them, I don't remember anyone passing us. It's a testament to their toughness and their well executed race plans.
Next order of business, how do I get back to my car, and where on earth did I park my bike? The short story is, eventually, I resolved both of those issues I made it home and took a nice nap.
Finally, happy anniversary to me and my far-too-lovely-for-me wife Meghal. We went on our first lunch date 8 years ago today. I think the typical thing to do at this point would be to share a cute story or something but, hey man, that's personal....
However, just in case someone reads this who also isn't interest in running long distances, here's the format of my Saturday morning runs. I start at RunTex, and run counterclockwise on the Lady Bird Lake Trail. The first mile or two are always as slow as comfortably possible. I used to start out at over 9:00/mile, but nowadays I'm usually around 8:10-8:15. (This may be a winter thing since I always start out faster when it's chilly.) After that, I'm back on the trail on the east side and I try to hit a faster but still comfortable stride. Once I get back around to I-35 (mile 5), I try to really push it until I get to Mopac (3 miles). From Mopac back to mile 0 is cool down. Doesn't that sound fun to anyone? It's like 1o mile run with a little tempo-like burst in the middle. I probably don't push myself as hard as Gilbert would like me too, but I often run on my own so I'm guessing that doesn't help. Running on the trail is nice though (and Gilbert-recommended) because it's easier on the legs and it's very easy to gauge your tempo.
Before moving on to today's event, here are some notes from Saturday's run:
- Once again, I was unable to get under 1:15 for the 10 mile loop. I'm happy enough with "fast" miles (7:05 down to 6:46), but my first 4 miles were too slow. I think my overall time was 1:15:45. (sigh...) But (and this is exciting...) no water/bathroom breaks this week --- that doesn't happen very often.
- DV came out to join me, but he was in the parking lot building at RunTex when I arrived and we missed each other. That was a very big bummer. Especially since he'll soon be too fast for me again.
- Despite the unpleasant forecast, it was actually a nice morning for a run. The temp was about right. Somehow I found the mistiness pleasant. And scenery was pretty: there was fog rising off the water and the grass was all glisteny from recent precipitation.
- I almost hate to make this public knowledge, but they've done a lot of maintenance work on the east side of the trail in the past few months and it's just awesome over there. Go run over there sometime if you get a chance, just don't bring everyone you know.
Oh yeah, and there was marathon-thing today. I've never had anything to do with any marathon, but this year I had plans to pace Pat Legate from miles 14-20, and possibly any other gazelles that were in his vicinity. We had chosen that section of the race because those two points of the marathon route were only about 1/2 a mile from each other, making it easy to come and go and hopefully make it back downtown to watch the finish. Pat was shooting for a 7:40 pace, so I figured I should be able to do that for 6 miles.
I woke up early to go watch the runners headed towards Lady Bird Lake on 1st. I waited at South 1st and Mary for a couple minutes before the lead runners came by, then it was just a deluge. I had to concentrate to pick out the familiar faces. It was easy to yell for Bernard, Gilbert, Desiree, Paul, Dawit and Woo when they went by, but I once the herd thickened up it was almost impossible.
After I the 3:20 group passed, I headed home to get ready to go to mile 14 to meet Pat. My plan was to park at 38th & Duval, ride my bike to mile 20 at Woodrow and North Loop, and then run the 1/2 mile over to mile 14. Then, once I'd finished my leg with Pat, I'd be able to ride down to the finish from mile 20 and hopefully get to see some fast people come in.
Maybe it was a little complicated, but it sound like a perfect plan to me. I spent a lot of time coming up with it, so it's a really sad how badly I botched it up. Basically I was running really late. When I parked at 38th and Duval, I realized I had about 5 minutes to meet Pat. I was frazzled so I just started riding as fast as I could and when I finally got to mile 14, I knew I was too late. Fortunately David Andrus was there wearing his gazelles shirt (which helped me identify him) and I was I able to find out just how late I was. He told me the 3:40 group should be coming by at any minute. Dammit, why am I always so late? Dammit dammit dammit.
Away I went again, chasing down the marathoners. I passed some familiar faces. Erine. Ward. Ward?! Aren't supposed to be broken or something? And a few other people in gazelle shirts that I didn't know, but to whom I gave a ring on my bicycle bell and a "go gazelles".
2.5 miles later I finally passed Pat and told him I'd ride ahead a little to lock up my bike. In addition to being serially late and disorganized, I also underestimate how long things will take me, and of course locking up my bike and stowing my jacket and helmet took a frustratingly long time. I saw Pat run by and I don't think I got on the road to go after him for another minute or minute and a half.
Once I started running, (a little before the 17 mile marker on Foster) I felt very illegitimate. I was passing people like crazy to try to catch Pat and, as a result, was getting a lot of crowd support, even some runner support. I wanted to tell them all that, really, I'm just a highly disorganized guy trying (unsuccessfully) to keep a promise. I also found I felt like shit. 5 miles of biking as hard as I could, combined with the previous day's workout, combined with the fast pace to make up the gap with Pat was taking its toll. I was actually a little worried about making it to mile 20. (I kept trying to tell myself that these people were running 26 miles, and my discomfort must be pretty meager in comparison, but I knew those sorts of rationalizations never work for me... There's a reason I don't run long distance races: I'm a something of a quitter.) I grabbed some water as I approached Pat, but was breathing so hard I couldn't drink it. Pathetically, I stopped for a few seconds, took a few sips and then finally ran up to Pat and apologized profusely for being over 3 miles late. He seemed cool with it.
He seemed to be in awfully good shape for having already run 17+ miles. And I have to say, slowing to his marathon pace made me feel a lot better too. So far, he was right on target and I told him not to let me screw things up since I had just been running a lot faster and who knows what sort of tempo I would settle into. So, at first, I let him set the pace and I started assuming a concierge-type role. When we'd approach water stops, I'd take his order and then run ahead and get it. We seemed to hit mile 20 before we knew it, and DV joined in. I figured I'd stay on until 38th and Duval, then get my car and drive down to the finish.
Along the way, we caught up to Diana Damer, a fellow nooner who was also shooting for 3:20 (same as Pat). I wasn't sure if she'd want the company, but we encouraged her to work with us. At this point, DV took over helping Pat, and I helped Diana. Eventually, Diana and I slipped about 10 meters or so back of Pat and David. Once we got on Duval, I started wondering where a good place to bail would be, but it also didn't seem like a good place to leave someone to finish the race on their own --- we were past 20 miles at this point and the course was becoming downright evil. There seemed to be hills around every corner. So I just kept on going since I had convinced myself I was somehow helping.
As we approached a hill after turning off Duval, Diana admitted she was hurting, so I encouraged her just to take it easy going up the hill... short steps, quick breaths, etc. All those things I do to make a climb a little less painful (though at the cost of speed). We relaxed and made it to the top and turned the corner and fortunately there was gentle downhill slope at this point. I don't know Diana super well, but I do know she's ridiculously tough. I never heard her complain the rest of the way in. In fact, not too long after that as we got within a mile and half or so of the finish, she started picking it up. I wasn't sure if it was intentional or not, so I said, "Um, it's your race and all, but you're speeding up, just so you know." I'm not sure if she said anything, but she didn't ease up so she must have felt OK. We passed Pat and DV and didn't let up. Finally we got to where we could see that last awful hill with about 1200 meters to go. (By the way, was that last hill really necessary? I mean, damn!) Same thing up the hill, short steps and breathe. Diana ran it really smart. As we got to the top, I could see the sign for 11th St and assumed the finish was 3 blocks on the other side. I even said, "Just 3 blocks past that intersection" Oops, there was actually a turn for two blocks before the route finished 3 blocks down at 8th. (The fact that I'm remembering this several hours later is proof of how bad I felt about that.) Still, she shook it off and once we crested the hill, she really picked it up. I mean, she sped up so much it was a finish worthy of a 5K. When we turned on to Congress we were almost running full stride. I yelled and pulled over and, as far as I know, I she kept it up for the last block and a half to the finish.
Pat and DV were about 20 seconds back and I turned and yelled for them. Then DV and I chatted about how awesome both of them did and how running 26 miles seems absolutely crazy. Though DV ran sub-3 hours in Dallas just a couple of months ago, his remark today was, "I kept thinking someone else must have run that, because I can't imagine having run it myself." I only ran 9 miles (barely more than a 3rd of what anyone who finished ran), and I was pretty beat. I have to say though, it was fun to help some of my fellow gazelles. I'd definitely do it again.
I think Diana finished 3:22 and change, and Pat was about 20 seconds back. Great job y'all! BQ's all around. For the record, though I'm sure those last few miles were hard for both of them, I don't remember anyone passing us. It's a testament to their toughness and their well executed race plans.
Next order of business, how do I get back to my car, and where on earth did I park my bike? The short story is, eventually, I resolved both of those issues I made it home and took a nice nap.
Finally, happy anniversary to me and my far-too-lovely-for-me wife Meghal. We went on our first lunch date 8 years ago today. I think the typical thing to do at this point would be to share a cute story or something but, hey man, that's personal....
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