Is that water over there?

We should have known there was a problem when all the North team peeps showed up ready to run at 6am.  The note on the maps said we were starting at 7am.  We got to St Ed's...no water.  Got to the 7 mile mark...no water.  Thankfully John had 10 bucks in his shoe so he sprung for bottled water for the Team.  We realized at this point that Steve didn't expect us out on course that early.  Other than that little mess, the run was uneventful...easy thru the hills and a 3 mile push at the end.  Ended up sub 5k pace at the end.  Felt great.  Ended up with 15 miles.  Sinuses feeling way, way better...still lots of drainage but no headache at all.

Sounds like we have another 15 mile MGP run next week down south.  Should be OK if the weather cooperates.

Off now for a massage.

One year closer to a new age group

Today I turned 44.  Yeah, I know you would not have guessed it!  I went to the ENT office and I have a  good ol' sinus infection - no surprise.  3 weeks of antibiotics now and a medrol dose pack.  He thought I should be feeling much better in 3 days.  He is a triathelete so was able to commiserate with the situation of being sick and having Boston so soon.   One of the other docs in the office is going to Boston too.  My doctor and he ran Austin this year and he said he thought it was hard...I felt bad saying most of us cruised it for a long run and had fun.

I am taking today off to try and get better faster but will be running on Saturday.  16 miles...depending on how I feel maybe a little less.  

Rain has now past us and it looks to be a gorgeous, not humid, sunny weekend.  Yay!!

Change in schedule

We ran on Monday to shake to kinks out of our legs so Karen told us to take of Wednesday instead. No complaints from me.
I got the Vit B shot for Meesha and she was surprisingly cooperative about getting it. Also gave her a dose of kitty pain meds in case that is contributing to her poor appetite. She had spent the night out with no cat food and was hungry when I got home. She ate up 1/3 of a small can of cat food with no hesitation. I also tested giveing her some cat food in a syringe...I had to wrap her in a towel to protect me from her claws...she wasn't big on the idea. Anyway she at some dry cat food and had a syringeful of wet food for dinner. Hopefully she will eat somemore over night.
I'm not big on the idea of having to force her to eat if she doesn't eventually start eating enough on her own. She doesn't like it at all. Oh well, one day at a time.
I am looking forward to my appt with Dr T today to get my sinus issues sorted out before VBoston. I have now had various degrees of sinus headaches for a week. Not good. Still coughing but not bad. Considering taking today off to continue to get healthy.

Back on the horse

After Sundays lousy run, I have sat back and assessed my efforts since January. I have what I would call 4 major long run efforts under my belt. Austin Marathon - 26.2 at fast LR pace with a really hard close, one week later 20 mile SB 1, and 15 miles of MGP - all of these were very successful. SB2 was a bust. 3 out of 4 ain't bad. Other than my allergies and sinus issues, can't quite pinpoint what went wrong on Sunday.

Today we did a slightly hilly 1 mile MGP loop followed by 400 m at any pace faster than MGP. This was x 5 repeats - I think...I was going for one more when everone who was already done was yelling that I was done too! That has to be a first! I felt great and each repeat felt better and better. Coughing on repeat #2 but that didn't slow me down. The ups and downs were not a problem.

It was warm and humid - conditions that can be troublesome for me but it seemed fine. I am working on getting an appt with some ENT friends of mine to clear up the respiratory problems.

On a sad note - my cat Meesha continues to not do well. Ate nothing today. Will be picking up a B12 shot from the vet in the AM to try a get her going. She looks good, her coat is fine and her eyes are bright - she comes running when I shake the treat bag but when I offer her one she says "no". I am very concerned about being away from her for 10 days when I go to Boston and then Toronto as I can't ask my neighbor to tend to her when she is so needy. The vet and I agreed that if she rallys before Boston we will find someone to take care of her that can cater to her every whim and if she isn't doing better we will put her to sleep before I go. I hate that though but I know her quality of life sucks and that just is not right.

One more thing...

To those few people that say the following..."3:20 really is a bit of a stretch for you" - expressed by the same person multiple times without me asking for that type of feed back and "I think you just recovered from the Austin marathon" - said yesterday not one mile into the SB 2.  Those sort of comments are not helpful...not at all, so just shut up.  If you can't say something nice (even if you have to lie) don't say anything.

To all the rest of you who are supportive no matter how bad I might look struggling in a workout, thanks...it's really appreciated!

A long tough SB

I slept OK Sat night...not great but better than the 2 nights before.  My allergies have shifted into a sinus infection and some serious lung congestion.  I had no trouble getting up.  My legs felt good.  Other than the allergies, it all pointed to having a decent run today.  Unfortunately it was not to be.  Started off nice and easy and slowly picked up the pace to a conservative LR pace.  Let me point out it was extremely humid...the kind of humidity where your shorts are dripping wet.  I carried a water bottle.  I had drunk at least 12oz by mile 6.  My legs seemed less enthusiastic from that point on.  Sucked it up along Balcones and Hart.  Got a little lost by turning the wrong way on Woodrow but ended up with 15 miles.  Got rid of my water bottle and sucked it up and started my 5 miles of MGP on the road.  Amazingly I was reasonably close - not great but definately not horrible - especially considering how slow I was on the LR part.  Then came the track march of death.  Strictly about survival.  First mile was faster than my average of the 5 miles of MGP so that was good.  Then the last 4 did not resemble any HMGP or 10K pace I have ever run.  Just hanging on until the end.  Karen didn't seem to care.  She was happy that I stuck it out and never actually just gave up.  We were supposed to do a 1 mile cool down - I walked 3 laps of the track as my legs weren't into running.  In retrospect I'm glad I did.  After a 4 hour nap and ice bath, my legs aren't too bad.

Where does this leave me for Boston - I don't know.  Since January, I have solidly nailed 2 out of 3 hard long runs.  I am going to run less distance and at a faster pace for the last few long runs.  I don't see the value of dragging myself around a long run and just making myself more tired.  I wish the coaches would give us a long term plan for the taper because I know I need a longer, more aggressive taper than the average.

On the plus side - Jim Gelb had made a spread sheet of 6 people from our Rogue Boston grp last year.  Aside from running the first 5K too fast, I was very consistant for the rest of the race and only lost about 1.5 minutes in the hills (I was also the fastest thru the hills).  This gives me confidence because I certainly had some very bad runs last year prior to Boston.

On the depressing side, my 16 year old cat is not doing well.  She seems to have a surprising level of energy but is hardly eating anything.  I have tried everything.  Seems she just isn't hungry - she should be ripping the raw fish I serve her out of my hands but she isn't.

Scary

I need to get a phone with a camera - I just must.  I missed a fashion opportunity that would have out done any of Mike's fashion shots.  Picture this...overweight middle aged female, whose thighs haven't seen the sun or a thigh master in a very long time...wearing only what looked like a long t-shirt...barely covered her rear.  I only hope she wasn't planning to bend down.

Today on my run, as I was running along the feeder of 130, I heard this roar and looked over to see about 50 motorcycles going at least 80-90 mph on the toll road - weaving in and out of the car/truck traffic - one mistake in judgement and there would have been a large pile of motorcyclists being run over by cars.

Good Omen

I ran 6 miles today just to shake my legs out for SB 2 tomorrow.  Felt pretty good.  Saw my neighbor walking in the neighborhood (he usually runs) - turns out he injured his knee at the Austin 1/2.  Got chatting about Boston and he went to Boston back in the day when you had to run a 2:50 to get in.  He trained with a guy who ran a 2:26 on a max long run of 16 miles.  He's 50ish now and figures he'll see about training for a fall marathon if his knee gets better soon.  Anyway - somehow it seems that I often see him the day before a big run or a race so I'll take it as a good omen about tomorrow.

My allergies are still raging but I feel better today other than having a cough and having to blow my nose every 5 minutes.  I'm hoping they won't be a bother tomorrow.

I got my Team Rogue outfit yesterday and will wear it tomorrow.  I'm not convinced the pockets on the ladies top is going to work for GU's. I will try tomorrow and will bring my SPI belt as back up.  I have a plan for tomorrow and am going to try as hard as I can to make it work.

Can't sleep

I lay awake on Thursday for a while before I fell asleep after work...worrying a bit about the SB this week and my ability to recover from a run of this intensity and length, this close to Boston.  Karen has reassured me that I will be fine.  I am going to be careful though as this is not the race and I know myself.  So I will be running pretty darn slow for the first 15 miles.  I was to run at normal long run pace - 8:30ish, and then complete the rest of the run as Karen has instructed, I'd be running close to a 3:30 marathon and that would be dumb.

Can't sleep now either...that's why I'm up - I have a sore throat and ears but I think it's just from allergies and nasty ol' post nasal drip.   Tried half a vicodin but it did not make me sleepy or make my throat hurt less.

Crappy run yesterday due to inadequate sleep, food or hydration.  At least I know what the problem was.  Also got a bit of a sunburn.

Excellent ride on Riley last night - he was a bit wild but I was able to channel his excess energy well.  He suffers from allergies too and flips his head around when his nose drips - that does not help at all!  He is jumping superbly and I am pumped to go to the first show of the year for us in May.

I got into the worst corral of Boston - last corral first wave so I believe I'll be moving back to the second wave.  I am almost exactly 1000 places further up this year from last.

Cheerleaders

The CV workout seems to be one I struggle with - especially the way Karen does it.  She picks a nice 2000m loop through the neighborhoods with a few innocent looking hills and lots of turns.  I can hit my paces no problem on the track but it just isn't there on the road.  Karen's theory is that Boston isn't going to be run  on the track!  Yesterday, I was OK on lap one and 2 - just a few seconds slow.  Third legs my legs were saying no so my brain chimed and said no too.  Half way through that lap I slowed to a crawl and didn't really care.  I've been there before when things aren't going well and I just throw in the towel.  So Karen spent a while before the last 2 sets telling me to get the cheerleaders into my head and the demons out.  Also told me not to worry about the splits...just to maintain a hard effort the whole way. I was a whole lot more successful on the last 2 laps.  So a workout that looked like a disaster turned out to be very useful.

I will have plenty of time on this weekends soul buster to practice that mindset.

I had a grueling night at work - all ready tired from the run and then a busy night of drunken fools.  Add on having to train someone that ain't the brightest and deal with employee screw ups - I was swamped.  All is better now as I had my favorite breakfast - oatmeal (the real thing not the junk in the packets) with fresh blueberries and a little maple syrup.  Tastes like blueberry pancakes in a bowl - also had a big slice of cantelope.

Here is a big plus for me this week - I hate bananas - I think it is the texture.  Last night I had dinner at Mother's cafe and decided I needed a little extra food so I got a smoothie to go.   I explained my dislike of banana to the waitress and she made the best smoothie with frozen banana (extra well blended), coconut-pineapple juice and yogurt.  Really tasty - and as a bonus she told me how to freeze the banana in slices and how much to use so I could make them at home.  I left an extra nice tip for her.  So now I know a way to get some extra potassium into me!!

Ahhhhhh...

After having suffered through the last 5 days of chilly damp weather, I enjoyed a nice warm, sweaty run this afternoon.  I knew that I would feel much better today than I did all weekend.  I find the cold weather makes my joints and muscles ache terribly.  I have a feeling if it is cold and wet at Boston I will be in trouble so I think I will run over to Mellow Johnny's this week and look into getting some warming cream for my quads just in case it is cold.

More Austin news...a Lago Vista man shoots his wife and then himself...while driving on 1431.  Two carneval workers at the Rodeo got in a fight stabbing each other into pieces.  Jeeze - can't people just try to get along.

Austin News

I rarely watch the news on TV.  I was watching it tonight while I made dinner and made note of a few interesting things.

1.  AT&T messed up everyone's I Phones this weekend - whatever did we do before cell phones let alone i phones.

2.  The lead prosecutor of DWI's in Travis County got his very own DWI this past weekend...oops!

3.  We set a record high today - felt great!!

Run over by a truck

That's how I felt after my massage and long run yesterday.  Still feel that way today.  We did a 20 mile long run yesterday with a fast close.  Went well although my quads were a little tight from the cold.  Had a massage afterwards, came home had lunch and then a nap.  Could barely drag myself out of bed when I woke up.  Had planned to get up early and do a run with Silver dog and then go do water hand ups at the soul buster.  Unfortunately, I was hurting too much when the alarm went off.  Seems mostly upper back and shoulders.  So I let the cat out and went back to sleep.  When I woke up again it was raining.  I thought about the lucky soul busters today.  Brrr - hope no one got too cold.  Plan on getting out for a run a little later.

Pretty Impressive

No, I'm not talking about the weather or my tempo run yesterday!  Brian Plunket's (a member of the north team)21 yr old daughter who lives in Vermont, qualified for Boston after 6 weeks of training (OK she was pretty fit to start with) a few weeks ago and somehow managed to pull some strings and get an entry into Boston after it was closed.  She just found out and now has 5 weeks for Karen to get her ready again.  I'm sure she will run another impressive race in Boston.

Quality of Life

I'm a big believer in maximizing quality of life - for me and my pets.  My cat Meesha has hyperthyroid and has been on meds to supress her thyroid for about 4 months.  She had some problems early on then it seemed like she was doing fine.  In the last few weeks, I have been begging her to eat and she hasn't eaten much at all.  All in all too stressful for all of us.  So I called the vet today and we decided to take her off the meds and let nature take it's course.  Hyperthyroid causes a rapid heart rate, elevated blood pressure and kidney failure.  At the worst Meesha will die suddenly from a heart attack or there will be a gradual decline from kidney failure.   The good thing is she is in good condition now with a sleek coat and seems quite content.  She has been off the meds for a few days and has started to eat a little better.

Speaking of quality of life, Silver dog and I enjoyed a 5 mile recovery run...can feel my legs from the track workout yesterday.  We dodged the rain but it was pretty windy.  When I told the vet I was getting ready to go out for a run with Silver, she thought I was nuts.  I told her this is Silver's favorite kid of weather.  Not mine...I prefer sunny and warm like yesterday.

I can do anything for...

1 mile, 15 miles, 800m... whatever. This is my mantra. I used it on Saturday and again today. We did a modified Ruth's ladder today and while I could feel a little fatigue from Saturday, it went well, actually really well.
Splits (splits in brackets are what I should have done):
MGP x1 mile - 7:32 (7:36) felt crazy slow!
HMGP x 800m x 2 - 3:34, 3:34 (3:37)
10K x 400m x 4 - 1:40, 1:39, 1:43, 1:39 (1:43) ran with Javi and crew
HMGP x 1 mile - 7:16 (7:14)
15K x 1 mile - 7:02 (7:04) - this one felt hard - I thought I was way slow on the first 800 so I tried to pick up the pace (actually I was right on - eyes playing tricks on me).

Active recovery between each interval. 1 mile w/u, 1 mile cool down. Another positive workout. I am feeling really good about Boston. I am going to weather the difficult days and savor the ones that go really well. My head is in the game and I am looking forward to running the race. Last year I couldn't wait for it to be over. Just under 6 weeks until race day!!
Diet is going really well - pleasantly surprised that I don't need to eat all that much as long as what I am eating is quality food. No soda x 10days. All time record. I am feeling thinner!!

Tour of grilling

So today after a super lazy morning of laying in bed, I finally got up and went over to Decker lake for my recovery run.  Took Silver dog and she enjoyed plenty of swimming although I'm sure the people fishing did not appreciate her scaring the fish.  There were tons of families out grilling and everytime we ran past one Silver would look at them hoping a burger or steak would be tossed her way.  Alas, she didn't get any snacks.  Sure smelled good though.

My legs felt tired and it isn't flat at Decker lake but the pace was so slow, it didn't really matter.

Near disaster

I recall setting my alarm clock for 5am last night...woke up at 5:45 this morning, and noticed I hadn't actually set the clock to go off...oops!   I had set my clothes out and packed my bag of stuff the night before and had looked at the map to get to the start and figured it would take me about 30 min to drive to the start.  I knew at the very worst, I could be a little late and work in a warm up into the first lap and then do a bit extra at the end.  I was out the door at 6am.  Amazingly I didn't forget anything.

Did a super easy warm up with the North group and then got started on the MGP part.  I knew that I would have to be conservative on the first lap and then pick it up on laps 2 and 3.  I did exactly that.  My garmin had it's yearly malfunction so I don't have any mile splits but I had the overall distance and time and averaged 7:43.  I need to run 7:38 for a 3:20 so a hair slow.  Am I disappointed?  Hell no...I'm really happy.  This time last year I attempted an easier MGP run (the Great Northern run from hell) and made it 6 miles before I completely blew up (this after Scott McIntyre was sure I could run 3:20 at Boston 08).  Took me several weeks of easy running to recover from that mistake.  Last week on a regular long run I average 8:59...my legs were dead and I just had no go at all.

I have revamped my diet and I think I can feel a difference...on less food!  I feel more alive now than I have in weeks after a long run...granted I only ran 19 miles today.  But for me that's the smart thing to do.

Enjoyed breakfast with the South group - I love your comraderie - I'm jealous in fact...doesn't seem quite there in the North group.  

Ridiculous run?

So on Thursday afternoon, I reviewing the instructions for our progressive run and I'm thinking that it is ridiculous...is it even achievable?  We ran up Far West (with a little extra side loop that was still up) and further up Far West and then back down North Hills.   MGP...HMGP...12K pace...yeah, right!  One reoccuring theme for me is..."this is so much harder than what I have done with Rogue in the past".

I have made kind of a drastic change to my diet so wasn't sure how i would feel.  Wondered if I would hit the wall half way around.  

Nailed MGP, a few seconds slow on HMGP but nothing awful and then got my butt spanked on the 12K loop.  I was pleased with the run...stayed close to Javi the whole time and ran smart.  My legs were feeling the up on the third lap and it was hard to convince them to run hard down North Hills the third time.  All I can say...way better than Tuesday.

I had plenty of energy so that was good.  Mentally I used that run the remind myself that saturday should feel easier.  Now, if the wind would just go away!

Day 4

I feel much better today...really motivated about eating better.  Enjoying a huge salad with grilled fresh tuna.  No cravings for sugar or diet coke at all.  Did some interesting research about raw diets - not going there but am definately going to make raw veggies and fruit the staple of my diet and add in some grains and lean protein.  I really wish I like bananas - seems like a nice easy snack to take along.  Apples and pears work though and the strawberries are looking good these days.

Nice easy 5 miler into a hefty head wind today but it felt fine.

Detox

OK I'll admit it...I have a serious addiction to Diet Coke. I don't drink any other sodas and don't drink a lot of Diet Cokes. I do seem to be drawn to diet foods with lots of artificial sweetners in them to try and manage my weight but somehow the reverse was happening. I just kept eating more and more (and gaining weight). Three days ago, I stopped cold turkey. Here's what happened. Until about 4 hours ago I had sore muscles and joints and felt kinda crappy. Now I feel awake and pretty darn good. Tonight, while at work, I ate less than I have eaten in a long, long time and no junk. I don't feel hungry at all. No sugar cravings at all!! Drank a couple liters of water and some green tea. Contimplated the changes I'm going to make to my diet.
I had a very bad run on Tuesday when we did our CV workout. No way I could run the pace I should have. Had no snap to my legs at all. Wasn't sure what was going on but will now attribute it to the detox process. The caffiene is not such an issue as the artificial sweetner is. I am going to make a huge effort (and it will take that level of effort) to not eat packaged/processed food.
Planning to leave work early and stop at HEB to stock up on salad stuff, fruit (I already eat quite a bit but I'm going to eat more) and some fish for dinner.
Easy run tonight. Will be curious about energy levels.

Wonders never cease!

Today is the first day in ages I have been able to access my blog (or anyone elses for that matter) from home. 

Karen told me to take the day off today to rest myself and my foot.  So I did!!  Enjoyed a ride on Riley who was super lazy and relaxed today.  It is nice out today but still a little windy.

For all the apple lovers out there, tried a new apple yesterday - Crisp Glo - can be found at Central market.  Crisp, juicy with a bit of a tart bite to them - yum.  They also have really good strawberries on sale now too.

Looks like things are going to warm up again this week - yay!!