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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

leap year day!

OK, a real quick recap of this week's running adventures:

• 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?
  

March starts tomorrow. It's a big month running-wise. I'm planning to run 2 5Ks (star flight on March 8th and daisy on March 15th) and if I don't manage to run sub-19:20 in one of them, I'm gonna get pretty freaking mopey. I'm hoping to follow those up one month later with the bun run on April 13th.

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.

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:

1. 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.
   


2. 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 snowboarded at Sun Valley, a fancy-schmancy resort area about 3 hours away, for 2 days. The views from the tops of the mountains are stunning. Better than Aspen (the only thing I have to compare it to) in my opinion. But the runs are just ho-hum. They're a little steeper than what most places offer, and there isn't much variation in the terrain. I just slants downward the whole way. Plus we had visibility issues on the second day, though I understand that's just bad luck.

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.

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:

• 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.

Sadly, I'll miss next Saturday's run because I'll be snowboarding in Idaho. I'm pretty broken up about it.

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....

the dreaded post-ultimate workout

Way back when I started with the gazelles, the primary motivation was to have people to run with. I just wanted to run a 20 minute 5K and it had become clear that I was too unmotivated to get there on my own. Then, once I started, I realized I like the routine of regular workouts as well. And I realized this Gilbert guy was pretty entertaining. And eventually, when I got over my shyness/aloofness (depending on your perspective), I made a few friends. All these factors have resulted in me showing oddly obsessive behavior... Every weekend (and all of the summer before last) I wake up way earlier than I want to, and often run in quite uncomfortable conditions (sometimes cold and rainy, but more often, way to freakin' hot) that make me wonder what the hell is wrong with me. Basically, I now manage to go running and put forth a pretty good effort even when I really really really don't feel like it.

Today was one of those days where the only reason I even came out was because of these extra motivating factors. Whenever I play in an ultimate tournament, it's always the day after the day after that feels the worst. In other words, today. As usual, the legs were incredibly stiff, it took me 45 seconds to stand up or sit down, and I had a zombie-like gait all day. It didn't help that I only got about 4 hours of sleep. I wanted to take the day off. But it's funny, even when I want to take the day off, I convince myself that I'll just go to the workout and maybe I'll take it easy, but at least I'll get in a little exercise.

For some reason it's often worked out that my post-ultimate workout is a hills workout. That may sound like the worst thing that could happen, but actually it's good. I don't need to focus on speed, I just need to try to grind it out and, well, I generally feel like crap during the workout anyway, so a little extra stiffness isn't a big deal.

However, today was 1000m repeats, which is decidedly not the ideal post-ultimate-tournament workout. And given my short-term goals, I can't really go skipping a speed workout. As usual, I thought I'd jog out there and see what happened. I might not run any repeats at all. Gilbert wasn't there, and we were stuck with some total stranger named Rudy who brought like half a gallon of water for all of us to share. Once I was there, I of course figured I'd give it a go. I wanted to at least run a couple under 4 minutes. I managed to do six. After two, I thought I might only be able to do one more, but my group of Duane, DV and Kyle was nice enough not to totally drop me, so I kept on going. Except for the first two, they ranged from 3:45-3:50. They were all hard. The first half, which is slightly downhill, I was, like, "Weeee! I feel great!" Then we'd turn the corner and suddenly my tired legs would remind me that weren't really in the mood for this and I had to trudge the rest of the way to that guy Rudy's truck. Hmmm. Last time I did this workout, I did 8 and remember finishing with a 3:26 or something like that. Normally, I'd be disappointed, but since I was barely able to convince myself to even show up, I guess I can't be too broken up about it. I keep telling myself that I'm getting something out fighting though tiredness, even if it's a little slow. After this though, I really can't mail it in at any more workouts. No more rationalizing.


A couple of notes from this evening:

• DV came again! That's two in a row. E-Dawg too.
• Desiree started the same time as us and finished her first 3000m before we finished our second 1000m. Um, that was humbling.
• Also, Duane said, "Good job with the blog." Not to be suspicious, but usually I only get praise from the legendary rocker dude when he's feeling some pity for me. Still, I appreciate the sentiment. Could it be that he's misunderstood and that hidden under that sweaty old bandana there's a softee secretly (very secretly) lurking? On the other hand, he sure was being mean to that Rudy guy.
• Obama wins three more states (er, two states and a pseudo-state)... hell yeah!