2008 coming to an end

Had an uninspiring run today - legs, body and head felt tired.  Just ran easy 5 miles.  Hopefully will have something in reserve so I can do the Killer 8 mile NY run in the morning.  L heel a little more sore today.  Push ups coming along.

In 2008: I ran Boston for the first time

I finished 3rd in my age grp for the Distance challenge

I actually took a 4 month break from heavy training

I won the masters Sunstroke Stampede as I ran all 12 races (during my 4 mth break!)

I finally started placing in the masters or my age group consistantly in bigger Austin races

I have successfully rehabilitated an 18yr old horse who the vets had given up on 9 yrs ago and he is doing great

I successfully treated my 16 yr old cat for hyperthyroidism

I helped my dog lose 10lbs

I helped my vet get closer to achieving her retirement financial goals!!

I suffered my first running injury and have actually successfully managed it

I have maintained my overall good health

I am still within 3 pounds of my weight watchers goal weight achieved 2 1/2 yrs ago.

I am still employed.

I still have retirement options.

I consider myself very lucky.  For 2009 I have running goals.  Whether I can achieve them is still to be seen.  I know that time wise I can't run 90 miles a week.  That probably means that for me to achieve my goals will take a little longer than those cranking out the big miles.  I could probably trim back a few things and get the miles in but that would leave me running, sleeping, working and if you are really lucky taking a shower occasionally.  I will be satisfied with what I can do on 60 miles a week - that's my mileage goal for 2009.  That will be a stretch I think.  Other than that I'm just going to continue being who I am - no big resolutions for me - I am who I am.  I can't be any less cranky!

Happy New Year everyone!

Runners in my neighborhood

Until today, I though that there were 2 runners in my neighborhood - myself and a guy that lives down the street.  He only runs one race a year - Marathon 2 Marathon.  Mostly he runs 3 miles a day with a longish run on the weekends.  Wears the same white t shirt every run and sometimes his wife rides her bike.  He is not fast but is a pleasant guy and loves to hear about the races/training I do.  Today I met a 20 some year old woman who is training for her first half marathon.  She is going to run Austin.  She told me the route she runs every day (flat) and that she does her longish run around townlake (flat).  She is training with a friend.  I suggested she look into a training group like Rogue and she said she was planning to do the run with the Pacers this weekend...good plan.  Since we live right on the Decker course, I told her she needed to go run some of the hills so she wouldn't be unpleasantly surprised in the race.  She had no idea there were hills on the race course.

I ran a nice easy 7 miles - 8:40 pace.  Legs a little weak at the start but got going by the time I was a mile into the run.

Diet is doing much better!

OMG!!

My arms are trashed - did day 1 week 2 and barely made it at level 3.  Total of 56 push ups.  

Legs are fine after Saturday's ordeal.  Plan to start increasing mileage now.  

After this push up deal I had better have abs of steel!  This is way harder than any running thing.  My arms are feeling weak!!

For those of you trying to learn to cook I saw a great recipe for Shepard's Pie with a combo of mashed potato/mashed cauliflour topping it off.  Looked really good.  Might make that on my days off.  The food network can give you great ideas....just stay away from Paula Dean and cut their portion sizes in half!

One day too late!

Wow.  I went out for an easy 5 miler tonight.  Despite the agony of yesterday's run, my legs  felt great.  I can feel my quads a little.  My left foot feels great - the final verdict will be in a few days.  I find it almost always feels great the day after a hard effort but a few days later feels like crap.  I had no pain in my foot yesterday other than a bit of stiffness afterwards.  The cold, crisp air today felt amazing after yesterday's soup.

However, I can say I did not hydrate adequately today - a hot chocolate, bowl of soup, diet coke and 1 glass of water is not enough.  Need to work on that.

Over all a nice day - slept in until 9:30, ate breakfast, rode my horse for 20 min, ate lunch, took a 2.5 hr nap, then my run.  

Perfect Timing

Unfortunately that does not describe my effort on the SB#2.  

Looking back I think we ran the first 15 miles a little fast.  We had a few runners with our group that didn't have the 5 miles MGP and 4 miles HMGP to do after the 15 mile part so they had nothing to lose by constantly picking up the pace.  Should have let them go.  The 5 miles at MGP went OK.  I was able to hang on just fine.  The 4 miles on the track was really hard.  My legs just would not go fast.  Given that it was in the 70's, very humid and windy I'm thinking that despite my almost constant drinking, I was not getting enough fluid in.  I took gu every 5 miles and tolerated it fine.  My shorts felt like a wet diaper by the time we got to the track.  Nasty!!  It is the toughest run in the worst conditions I have ever done.  

Lessons learned - if it looks like it will be warm for a run, hydrate more than you think the day before.

-if it turns out warmer than you thought it would be start out way slower than you planned

-the ladies were them little panties for a reason - They have to feel better than wet running shorts.

-I will not be stashing my goos in my sports bra for any marathon!!  Did that for one lap - the "girls" did not like it.

Despite not hitting my goal times, my soul was not busted.  I resisted walking many, many times so in that am a winner!!  Onwards I go.  By the way, the perfect timing refers to the fact that as the last runner crossed the finish line, the wind immediately shifted from south to north.   Weird!!  Thanks to the awesome North team folks that cheered us on while we ran around the track!

Preparing to kick some soul butt

Tomorrow is SB #2 for the North PP group.  Plan is 15 miles of long run pace, 5 miles of MGP and then onto the track for 2 miles HMGP and the 2 miles of at least HMGP if not faster.

I have prepared as carefully as I would a marathon.  Took it easy all day - just laundry and light housework - I will ride my horse tonight but that should be OK.  I wouldn't ride the week before a real marathon I was racing.

I am feeling some pain in my back related to the push ups so I back off and just did day 1 with only the minimum number for the last set.  A good coating of bio freeze helped too.  Stretched, rolled my legs and back.  Went for an easy 2 miles jog at 8:30/mile pace.  Very windy and humid - a good taste of what tomorrow may bring.

Made up a pace band and typed up route directions - laminated both with packing tape.  Packed my goos and a small bottle of water I'm going to carry.

Making my standard meal - plain pasta with a little butter and parm cheese and a salad.  I think back with horror as I recall my pre Boston dinner.  Didn't hurt me any and I ate it at 4:30 pm.

I slept great last night so if I can't sleep tonight I should be OK.  Last week I had a really hard time sleeping the night before the run.

Can't decide whether to use my Garmin or not - I know where the mile markers are some probably will not.  Will help me feel pace and effort and not work too hard into the likely gale force wind and possible rain!

Merry Xmas

I don't exactly celebrate Xmas.  I really couldn't care less.  In fact right now I'm not feeling merry at all.  My dog has made a point of irritating me for 12 straight hours (eating the cat's food, eating stuff off the counter and eating out of the litter box).  Work sucked last night.  At least I have 3 nights off.  Seriously thinking of getting a lottery ticket this week.

Hope all of y'all that do get together with your families have a great day and those that don't celebrate have a decent day too.  I'm going to take a power nap, then make a soup recipe I made up in my head, run and ride my horse.  If I am in a better mood, I may go have dinner with a friend's family.

I can really feel my abs!

Today as I dragged myself out of bed, I could really, really feel my abs.  Nevertheless, I hit the floor and did day 2 of week 1.  10/12/8/8/20.  Total of 58 push ups.  I never knew I could do that many.  Did a easy 4 mile run - short but I am adding a short run on Friday to keep my legs loose for the SB #2.  This one is specifically aimed at the Houston folks so they can see how hard running a flat course is on your legs.  I spent the running planning a successful execution of the run on Saturday.  Feeling good.

I can feel my abs

So after my first pushup workout on Monday, I could feel my abs when I got out of bed this afternoon. Not agonizing but the good light burn that lets me know they are working during my push ups. Looking forward to workout # 2 tomorrow.

Did a 8+ mile run with the North group tonight. Ran with Karen, Mike and a couple of people just joining the Team. Took 2-3 miles to warm up but then felt really strong the rest of the way. I am mentally prepping for Soul Buster #2 on Sat. The North Team folks are coming out to give moral support and do water hand off. Should be fun.

Fall out from the poor economy

So last night at work one of the people that processes bonds said she had interviewed 20 people who were charged with theft.  I saw a mother and daughter team who got arrested for shop lifting at Walmart.  Here is their scheme.  PIck up several low cost items and put them in the shopping cart, then get a guitar hero set up and put it under the main basket of the cart.  When you are ready to check out you go to the self check out, scan the cheap stuff and then with the guitar hero thing still on the bottom of the cart, head out the door (until security stops you and calls the cops).  Just pitiful.  I might have a little sympathy if they were lifting diapers or food but gifts??  Guess they forgot to sign up for Blue and/or Brown Santa.  I have a problem with that too but that's a whole different story.  I see on the front page of the NY Times an article that said with the downturn in the economy, there is a 10-20% increase in shop lifting.  What do you know!

Push ups Day 1 Week 1

Rocked it!!  10/12/7/7/20 (min was 9 in the last set).

Decisions

Tonight we had a North Team party at Karen's house. We spent 5 min talking about the Team process starting in January. That brings on the decision. Do I just use Austin as a training run and plan the big race for Boston? I am leaning towards that as the turn around after a hard effort at Austin may prove to be kind of difficult if I want to try and run fast in Boston too. It was tough last year and I didn't run that hard at Austin. If that is the choice I make, I will be joining the team work outs in January and changing course just a little.
My choice will be made and final by Jan 1.

Super windy today. The cold wasn't too bad but the wind. Felt like I was running in place when the gusts came and I think the tail wind was worst because my legs just didn't want to run that fast. Silver dog came along and I don't think 6 miles was quite enough for her. She was still leaping around when we were done.

Major pre-spring cleaning today. Still got a little left to do but things are looking a lot better around my house.

Stats from Sat MGP 10 miles

So initially I just went off my overall time for my 10 miles - 1:16:00 - average pace 7:36 - right on!  At first I thought I had been slow through the section on Jefferson, Enfield and Exposition.  Reviewing my lap times from my Garmin show the following:

Mile 1 7:30

Mile 2 7:35 Both these miles were generally downhill 

Mile 3 7:53 First part into the wind

Mile 4 7:43 Getting out of the wind

Mile 5 7:45 wondering if I was gonna make it

Mile6 7:37 getting on pace

Mile 7 7:35 on pace - on what I thought was a difficult section - no head wind though

Mile 8 7:38 right on pace

Mile 9 7:22 LAB to trail

Mile 107:36 pushing to the Lamar bridge.

So as much as I thought I was all over the place, I was pretty even on pace.  Negative split too!!!

Soul Buster 1.5

OK Karen's North PP group did their first soul buster about a month ago.  Next week we do our second.  Todays might as well have counted as the third.  It was a measly 16 miles but it may as well been 26.2.  It was so humid our shorts were dripping like it was August.  There was a noticable wind from the south and since we started at gateway, we felt it quite a bit.

The first 3 miles were nothing special - I just tried to keep the pace easy for a warm up.  Starting at North Hills we ran MGP for 10 miles down to TLT and Lamar.  Seems easy enough but with the humidity and wind it seemed hard.  Thank goodness for LAB and the trail - I managed to make up sometime there.  Over all it was an unsatisfying effort because I never really got in a good groove.  The last 3 miles were painful - one foot in front of the other.

I did run in to Leslie Barcley and some of her running buds - ran with them for a bit on TLT.

Steven, Chris, Jason and myself had a good soak at BS and then headed home.

I slept about 2 hours last night, had nightmares about getting lost on the run and had to get up to slug down some pepto for my pissed off stomach.  Not good.  A shower at 4:15 am did get me going and I'm sure I'll sleep well tonight.

Lessons learned - if it doesn't kill me surely it will help down the road and a nightly prayer for good weather at the marathon is in order.

I did the test!

OK I did 20 man style push ups today - woo, hoo.  Will be starting week one on Monday.  I would not recommend doing it 15 minutes after dinner like I did.  It's called - I wasted too much time messing around today so this was the time I had to do it!

Tomorrow a meager 16 mile run, 10 of it at MGP.  In the past I would have doubted my ability.  Not anymore, I know I can run 10 miles MGP easy!!

I found a really good rider to help me get Riley a little more exercise.  That takes a load of my mind and lets me focus on running.

Bandits

So I'm at HEB stocking up so I can sustain my highly tuned engine of a body when so guy walks up and says "so you run with Rogue?".  I had a Rogue T on.  He goes on and on about how he didn't finish either one of the ultra trail races he attempted and that running on the road was just too bad for anybodies knees.   He asked what races I had run and I listed off a couple including Boston.  He mumbled something about not seeing what the big deal was and listed off a few other marathons.  I told him it was all about the atmosphere and achievement of qualifying.  Then he says "well I could always run as a bandit".  I was like "NOT".  I told him unless you qualify you don't deserve to be there (unless of course you fund raise for one of the worthy causes). 

So if you see a tall middle aged, balding guy with a gut that looks like it takes in a 24 pack every night and no number running in Boston, that's him!

Congrats to all of us that have qualified or are hot on the trail to qualifying for Boston!!

Week 15 so far...

The folks in Karen's north performance project are on week 15.  It is just about 2 months until Austin Marathon.  This week has been pretty tame running wise.  I am mildly concerned that we are not running enough mileage but I qualified 2 years ago with a max of 43 miles in a week once and 2 20 mile runs.  This year I did 1 20 mile run and maxed out at 50 miles once before Austin and although I did not kill my self at AT&T I ran an 11 min negative split and requalified.  I barely got into the 40 mile/week range between Austin and Boston, did 1 22 mile run and ran a PR and qualified yet again.  

I am feeling pretty good about MGP right now and know I can run 13.1 hilly miles at sub MGP without much effort.  Yet, I can't let my guard down.  For me running a 3:20 is going to take a level of effort, focus and relaxation I have not yet encountered.  Sure the first AT&T where I qualified for Boston was an ugly fight for the last 4 miles.  But that tells me I can dig down and suffer if needed.

I believe I have my foot situation under control.  That too is going to take constant monitoring and adjustment of my stretching routine to keep it happy.

I ran a solid progressive run today and was able to kick up the pace at the end when I wasn't sure I could.  I don't have the luxery of a 3:20 train to run with - the folks who are in the 3:20 range in PP just don't seem to run at a consistant pace.  So, this is all about me.  I am taking 100% responsibility for my running and am going to use Steve's analogy of the WR marker they used in the Olympic swimming when I use the pace group at the marathon.

Survey

Given my rant about the Austin Marathon and Priscilla's desire to have it go back to a point to point, do you:

a) like the current course (as it was LAST year)

b) prefer the point to point set up

Personally I have only run the newer course - I thought last years was perfect and the hills were manageable.  There has to be less aggravation with getting back to your car etc on a loop course.  Of course, I've never had a problem with 3M.  I like running Austin because it is a challenge for me to try and get faster on it each year that passes.  

OK I need to stop wasting valuable running time and go do my run so I can run my scorching fast time in February.

Good insight from others

After considering canning this blog this morning - I got good insight from other people.  So I will keep it going.  Thanks to those who have occasionally looked at it.  I need to jazz it up and make it more interesting to generate some comments.  I like Mike's idea of using it as a personal journal.  I think I may do it less frequently.  Next items I will be journaling will be whether or not I can actually stick to 100 push ups in 6 weeks!

Happy running or rehabbing!

Stopping Blog

Since no one reads this, I've decided I'm wasting my time and could spend my time being more productive.  By bye blog!

Invited readers only?

Seems like some of us bloggers have decided what they say should only be read by a select few.  Perhaps so that they only get comments they want to hear?  Hmmmm?

Lazzzzy Sunday

I woke up around 9am, dragged myself out of bed and hobbled to the kitchen to feed Silver dog. My right hip was pretty sore as was my quad. I've felt the quad part before and think it's related to the cambered road but the hip thing was new. I let the dog out and took a shower thinking that would wake me up and get me moving better. Nope. Ate breakfast and went back to bed. Got up at 2:30pm. Drove to the store to get a diet coke to wake me up and ate a sandwich. Still sore and hobbling. Thinking about whether to do my 5 mile recovery run. I spent the next 2 hours cleaning house and the activity loosened me up. Made a pot of soup for dinner, put my running stuff on, used the foam roller on my hip and quad and hit the road. Purposefully ran really easy. My leg felt fine. Took an ice bath when I got home.

Lessons learned - I should have taken the ice bath on Saturday! 2- when I'm stiff I can still run!

Hills to Heaven....

....or maybe that was to Hell.  Ran 18.45 miles of unrelenting monsters including Ladera Norte.  That was my slowest mile.  Otherwise kept up a good pace.  For sure the hardest run I think I have ever done.  Felt OK at the end - just tired legs.  Not much else to say.  It was fun to run with the other Austin marathoners.

Good Grief

What are they thinking???  I though the Austin Marathon course last year was very good and whoever thinks San Jacinto is treacherous needs help.  They are changing the course again!  Sounds like they are going all the way to Ben White - WTF???  Then they aren't going thru UT??  So, how are they going to get from North of UT to South of UT?  If they think that going on Red River to MLK is an improvement then they are sorely mistaken.  Someone thinks not running on San Jacinto is an improvement - not me!   I love running the Austin Marathon but the constant changes annoys the heck out of me.

Decker Dog

Silver and I went on a 10 mile run today.  Perfect weather and Silver dog did great.  She of course wasted a bunch of energy chasing grasshoppers and so forth but with 4 dips in water (she needs a bath now!) she did a great job.  She is tired out now and I think is gonna sleep really, really well tonight.

It was a great run - 10 miles 1:23:47 - average pace 8:23.  Finished fast 7:35 and 7:33 for miles 9 and 10 respectively.

The cool thing is I felt like I was really going pretty slow and these paces are right where I need to be.

Plan - lunch, ice bath, ride Riley, dinner, bed!

Pay Back

We had what should have been a fairly straightforward workout tonight. 1 mile wu then 1 mile MGP, 1 mile HMGP, 1 mile 10K, 1 mile 5K, 1 mile cd.

It was so freaking windy that when I turned into the headwind I felt like I was running backwards. I think my legs may have been a little tired from Sunday but even Jason who did not race on Sunday found it hard to hit the splits. We just could not make up the time we lost with the headwind when we had a tailwind. Good workout despite being a little slow on the last 2 (OK a lot slow!).

Total payback for the fantastic weather we had on Sunday! Thankfully, the rain did not start until I was back in my car driving to the gym for my 10-15 min hot shower!

Since our group has been drastically reduced due to the rest the Team is taking for the rest of the month, we only have AM workouts on Thursdays - I can't make them so it will be could practice for me to get out and do them on my own. I can always call on Jim Gelb to keep me company if necessary. I don't mind doing this weeks Thurs run on my own - it's just 10miles and I'd rather do it when it's not 20 degrees out.

This was not my A race

So, I did not go 100%.  My goal was to hang out at MGP or so.  I wanted to get a feel for it and not work so hard I needed a big recovery.

I ran the first 5 miles with Glenda Adams who had her Garmin with her.  She was clear when she said her only goal was to run no faster than MGP (her's is the same as mine).  That worked great for me because it helped prevent me from getting sucked into a faster pace than I needed to go.

1 7:11 - mile measured short

2 7:59 - mile measured long

3 7:28

4 7:34

5 7:38 - start of a long but gradual incline - pulled away from Glenda

6 7:30 - one steep, short climb a down hill and another longer climb

7 7:14 - steady downhill with one minor up

8 7:20  

9 7:31 

10 7:36 -  first long climb on 973

11 7:43 -  2nd long hill on 973

12 7:31 

13 7:35 - long hill to finish

14   :44 - last .1.

I am really happy with how it went.  Of course the weather was perfect.  Just like I predicted it would be.  

My foot feels almost 100%.  Here I come Austin Marathon - hang on tight!

Cupcake with icing and sprinkles

Decker 1/2 2008 - this is short and sweet (just like a cupcake)

1:38:40ish...2nd place Masters.

I'll dod a race report later.

No Excuses!

OMG - I just watched some highlights from the para olympic games in Bejing.  Unbelievable.  If a guy can swim with only one leg then there are no excuses.  I watched about an hours worth and it was very, very inspiring.  No drama, no attitude, just athletes doing their absolute best no matter the obstacles they had to over come.  Now I hear some guy yapping on the TV about Michael Phelps...I'm less impressed than I might have been.

Waiting

Decided a nice hot bath last night would feel good on my legs.  Get the tub running and when I went back to hop in found COLD water.  WTF???  Guess my water heater broke AGAIN.  Off to bed without the relaxing soak.  Went on a relaxed 5 miler with Jim Gelb today.  Nice and easy.  My legs felt a little heavy but I think a decent warm up and some drills/strides tomorrow will get them moving.  Took a shower at my neighbor's.  She is nice enough to let me come over at 5:30 AM tomorrow for my pre race shower tomorrow.  Had lunch.  Rode my horse a little and shared some pretzels with him.  Now it's 3:30pm and I'm wasting time watching TV, stretching and rolling my legs.  A good reminder about how boring it is the day before a marathon.  Then I'll get my clothes together for the race.  It's a gorgeous day in Austin and looking to be as nice tomorrow.  Perfect racing weather.

Tempo Time

I had planned to do a tempo run with Jim Gelb tonight.  Unfortunately he had some kind of medical problem and was unable to so now I had to motivate myself.  I fueled up with some homemade tortilla soup - minus the tortillas, cheese and avocado and some pita bread and headed out.  I always worry in these types of runs that I won't be able to run tempo pace.  Did a 2 mile warmup and started my tempo run into the wind...now smart me had planned the run that I would only run about 1/2 mile directly into the wind and most of that involved 2 small up hills.  The rest of the run had a tail wind although I will say the last mile was tough because of the cross wind.  Overall my average for the 4 mile tempo part was 7:18 - a hair slow but the wind at the start and finish did slow me a bit.  I felt strong, my foot felt acceptable and I was paying attention to my form.  Looks good for Sunday.  I continue to hope this wind dies down.

Decker Forecast

The first year I did Decker it was freezing and windy...last year it was hot and muggy...3rd times a charm...low in the 40's at the start...warming up to 70 later in the day and SUNNY!!! No mention of wind. Yay!!! I'm feeling a good race in me!

Plantar Fasciitis treatment

OK - all you people out there suffering with PF listen up. I just read a thing on line about this procedure called dry needling and ultra sound guided cortisone injection. The doctor injects your heal with local anesthetic, the sticks a needle in and out of the fascia where it connects to your heel - causes micro trauma and stimulates bleeding and ultimately faster healing. Then under ultrasound, they inject the cortisone around the fascia to decrease the existing inflammation. In the study done in Italy, 42 out of 44 patients reported no pain after 3 weeks.

What I want to know-where do I sign up? I qualify - it's annoying and it interferes with my daily life!