Running with Buggies

Three weeks in and still going strong. For the July 4th holiday we were in Holmes county Ohio spending a relaxing weekend with my family. This was the second annual family summer vacation. We have been picking midpoints between eastern Pennsylvania, central Virginia, and Detroit. Last year we met south of Pittsburgh.

The weekend runs were a 6 mile at pace and an 8 mile easy. This after a week where I dialed back a bit to see if my energy level returns. Only a softball game on Tuesday and a 3 mile run on Wednesday were the total of my training. I was feeling better going into the weekend and had little trouble getting up on Saturday morning. Amish country Ohio is considerably hillier than Detroit metro, and scenery of cows up their knees in mud and buggies displacing scattered road apples makes for an intriguing running dynamic. A light rain kept me cool as I coasted down the hill from our lodge and eased over the first two miles at a 7:50 pace. The rain smeared the horse terds across the road, causing difficulty to avoid mussing white shoes. A steep hill after the 2 mile mark took my wind, and pace; from that point I was solidly at 8:25 miles, fighting the hills to maintain. The sky drenched the dry corn and my shirt began to stick annoyingly in the heat on the return. And suddenly stopped, giving the horse flies permission to flock and pester me the remainder. Would have preferred the rain. Flies are persistent, clinging to shirt, divebombing hair, buzzing irritating. I finished strong and feel good about staying under 8:30 in the face of the hills.

After a pace run I am definitely in need of sleep, and fetl the effects when trying to wake on Sunday. The afternoon before, football toss with my brother turned into an impovised verision of ultimate frisbee with brother, dad, and bro-in-law. The heat/sun combo turned this into a sweatfest as we basically played team monkey-in-the-middle. So I was low on energy Sunday morning. I followed the same route, but continued further into the hills, with miles 3 to 5 continuously rising and falling with extended hills. I was running comfortably easy, feeling great through 4 miles at a 9:35 pace. Then the familiar intestinal monster rumbled, indicating an early, uninvited arrival. A country road with fields on all sides is the optimal place to face this monster, but I was cursing the current stretch of pavement with barns and houses spaced just so to eliminate any obscured land. A field of 3 foot corn almost became my place of relief, but after jogging into the mud the angle from the windows of a nearby house gave to clear a view for my liking, so I returned to the blacktop to battle the thunder head on. Further up a copse of trees behind barbed wire was more inviting and I diverted quickly between barb strands, descending below road height among the bushes. A quick release, monster stilled, and back on the road. The remainder was enjoyable, noting only the number of small animal carcasses that are crushed into a farm road. Mice, frogs, birds, all meet their demise in numbers on the roadside, lying in varying imprint states of bone, fur, feathers.

Resting

Today is really a cross-training day, but I'm taking a full rest. This weekend went much better, running-wise. I dialed back my running during the week, sensing that I was overdoing it too early. Softball games twice a week doesn't sound like much, but the sprinting on top of training runs was sapping my legs of life. We didn't have any games last week; I skipped the Tuesday run and cut the Wednesday run from 5 to 3 miles. By Saturday my legs were springy again, ready for the slow runs on the schedule. Fortunately the next pace run is not until next weekend. The 5 miles on Saturday were a breeze. Then I was rocking 8:25-8:30 pace for 7 miles on Sunday, gradually slipping to a 9:00 pace by mile 11. But felt solid the entire way. No intestinal incidents. Two weeks of full training behind me, and I've only missed one 3 mile run and cut a mile or two off a few others. So almost at full mileage. Feeling good. Still not sure if a 7:15 pace is achievable, but going to go for it.

One week in

First week of training is finished! Tough weekend of running and I may need to reconsider my goals if next week is similar. The intermediate program I'm on calls for a run at race pace most Saturdays, followed by a long, slow run on Sundays. Saturday morning I started on the 5 mile jaunt with the goal of holding a 7:30 pace. After starting a bit faster at 7:22, my pace cratered and I struggled to stay under 8:00 minutes the remaining 4 miles, hitting about 7:50. It was a little humid, but I was just tired. I am definitely not used to running 5 times a week. Leaden legs for 40 minutes of running is torture. I was literally going into focus mode and looking at the sidewalk cracks two steps ahead to get through the pain. The rest of the day I attempted to refuel the machine, pounding Gatorade and pasta, and more pasta at a wedding that evening.

Sunday morning the alarm went off at 6am. I felt like I was up to my neck in sand, flicked the screen of my iPhone to silence the annoyance, and crashed into REM for a couple more hours. I haven't been this tired since summers roofing and evenings playing hockey or baseball in high school. I delayed the scheduled 10 miler until the evening, getting out of the house after 7, then waiting several minutes for Garmin 305 to find a satellite. My only complaint with this genius gadget. After that I had my worst training run. An 8:30 pace quickly slipped to about 9:05ish a mile in. Looping up and down adjacent streets in our neighborhood between 9 and 10 mile, I ran past houses I haven't passed before. Remarkable the diversity in house design for a city that is entirely bungalows and ranches. I'm serious, each house is distinctly unique. Love it! About 5 miles in, stomach rumblings brought me out of reverie and into feeling the unpleasant present. Debate over shortening my route ended as my stomach quieted and I turned to cross 10 mile for the finishing leg. This was a mistake. Making the turn at the 8 mile mark, my furthest point from home in the entire run, I knew I was at high risk of an intestinal incident. Fortunately there were many walkers and porch sitters enjoying a pleasant evening, so any personal disturbance could be shared with neighbors. At 8.6, the jostling of internal organs was pressuring uncomfortable and I reluctantly slowed to a walk, knowing this would triple my time to get to the safe home toilet. I fought a losing battle with the gurgling and had an uncomfortable last mile. Very happy to finally make the turn into the driveway. A fine denouement to the inaugural training week, not the way I drew it up. It can only get better from here, right?

5 Days...

Five days in and my knee is sore already. Think it's just a bump from a softball game, but not ideal to be feeling gimpy already. Timing of softball games on Friday, which is supposed to be a rest day, is not great either. Softball is causing problems already....

The Garmin 305 is working well. Quite an incredible device that I am still figuring out how to use. I'm looking forward to using it on a pace run this Saturday. The watch keeps track of your real time pace and the automatic lap counter at each mile is brilliant. And the history is tracking my runs so far. Love it.

Feeling tired at the moment. Still optimistic, but the runs this weekend (pace on Saturday and 10 mile slow on Sunday) will give me a better indication. I know it's early, but since I've been running a fair amount already this year, I'm optimistic for a solid effort.

Beginnings

It has been on my long-term personal goals, with a vaguely defined two to three years for achievement. A disappointing effort in a recent competition has accelerated my hazy timeline. This week begins the preparation for the real deadline of Sunday, October 16. Undeniably the goal is a significant stretch, but a needed challenge.

The goal: qualify for the Boston marathon this year. How: run the Detroit marathon in under the 3 hours and 10 minutes (that's a pace of 7 minutes 15 seconds per mile). Turning 33 years old this year keeps me in the toughest age bracket for qualifying and next year the qualifying time for those 34 and under drops to 3 hours and 5 minutes or just over 7 minute per mile pace. Considering that my first and only marathon, the 2007 Green Bay, was in 3:54:34, nearly a 9 minute mile pace, and having run two half marathons this May, Cleveland in 1:39:5 (7:34), and Traverse City in 1:41:16 (7:44), I have work ahead to increase my speed. Basically I need to run a faster pace of about 20 seconds per mile for twice as long as I was able to do in May. And both halves were in perfect weather conditions and, while I was a bit under trained, I felt great on race day. So I have well defined my max speed at the moment. That means pushing my body to do something it is not able to do at the moment, or training my mind to withstand pain it was not able in May.

I was very disappointed that my time in Traverse City slipped from the race in Cleveland two weeks prior. Admittedly I ran hard in Cleveland, but did not train well after running only once (aside from a couple of softball games) in an effort to rejuvenate dead legs. Hence the motivation to step up and set a high bar.

The training schedule begins this week. Living in the suburbs a mile north of Detroit is an environment void of hills, so much of my training will be on level roads, but plan to venture to area metro parks to get some elevation change.

My partners include my wife Shereen and dog Dexter. Shereen chooses not to experience the joys of running, but Dexter is a happy jogger for 3 mile loops. At least he starts out pulling eagerly at the leash, then drops to my side after a mile. Maybe he will work up to longer distances this summer.

So here we go, I'll keep you posted!