Saturday, June 27, 2009

Race4Time @ Joe's Crab Shack

The family decided to join me for the 5k race this morning, although sans son #1 because he's now officially got the teenager attitude and it just isn't cool to wake up early and be seen with the P's at a race. That makes all my years of effort being a 'good' parent seem so satisfying!

Since we were expecting about 20 of my Pike Creek run club members to be here, we had all decided on a Mardi Gras Beach Party theme. It was either that or everyone go in drag... which I just hate wearing a wig & makeup when I'm trying to run fast. (insert drum rimshot: bum-bum-crash)(insert laugh track: hardy har har). For this reason I ran the race in a Hawaiian shirt with a couple of lei's around my neck & a large silly balloon hat. Might have slowed me down a bit, but not more than a few seconds. I've never run with any type of costume, it was fun! Not sure if or when I'll do it again, but sometimes you just have to go for it.

As to the race, started well back from the front. Good thing too becuase there's a lot of fast people at this race. The age group 1st place is a nice gift certificate to the local running shoe store. 2nd & 3rd get small GC too. Took it out sensibly & under control. I could see a few runners ahead of me that I hoped to be finishing with. But I didn't push the pace early and figured I would catch them later. This course is totally flat. Temp was around 72-75 or so and half sun/half clouds. First mile in 6:41 which seemed great because I was feeling good. The RD was at the 1mm taking photo's but he seemed to be having an camera issue so didn't get me. I really wanted a pic of me running in my zany costume but it didn't happen. other race pics here. As the second mile came back around to the riverwalk path I could tell that I was losing ground to everyone (Theresa, Jack, Ivan plus unk's) in front of me except Ray. This is where the typical 5k discomfort began to set in. That fact tells me that I should've/could've gone out faster in the first mile. Reach 2mm in 6:50 (13:31) which seemed fine; Ray was about 10-15 seconds in front of me.

The 3rd mile I felt like I was running my race, slowing pulling up towards Ray. I could see Jack was battling someone from his own a.g. and they were pulling farther away from me (he would finish 36 secs ahead). Was I didn't figure is that Ray was actually slowing because my split was 7:01 (20:32). When I saw that I was over 7 mins I knew that i wasn't working hard enough. The 3mm was just where I was catching up with Ray. i called over to him "c'mon - finishing kick" and then he proceeded to out sprint me to the line. Final .1 in :39 - which is good kick... again indicating that I should've worked harder earlier. 21:11 is not bad. 20 sec improvement from last weekend, but still not this year's best time. And about one full minute slower than last year's times.

This coming week I plan to take it a bit easy, cycle down then build a big week the one after. June has been a nice transition from post-marathon recovery into summer speed. A few more weeks of speed and then fall marathon training begins! Tomorrow will be a gentle trail run done solo & early morning. Looking forward to that.

Friday, June 26, 2009

Rest Day for the busy

Not finding the time to run today. Sort-of having a crappy week. But I'm thinking of this as a bit of extra rest leading to my 5k race in the morning. Shooting for 6:45 first mile & maybe 21:10 finishing time. That might be a stretch but we'll see what happens.

More Than This

Wednesday's workout: Tempo Run. Thought about neighborhood loop but decided to head for the treadmill at Y because my feet have been achey since Monday's run (why?).

I wanted to do 3x sub-7 minute pace this week. Incline set to .5 uphill grade. This definitely felt easier than last week. That's a good sign! 6:55 - 6:58 - 6:48 were the splits. During the cool down I did 4x 30 secs. at approx 6:30 pace. Full recovery between each of these (2 or 3 minutes). The last accelleration was close to a full minute but then I reminded myself that this workout isn't a race. Good stretch, light upper body weight circuit, went home to eat lunch but suddenly realized I was running late for appointment. Burger King lunch. Ugh. BTW, i've gone way off my diet this week and haven't stepped onto the scale outta fear of what it will say.

Last night we went to a minor league baseball game. I always bring my glove, but hve never in my life caught a foul ball. So in the 8th inning, after paying pretty close attention all game, I was momentary distracted while a batter was at the plate. Sure enough a screaming liner came right into our section! It hit the aluminum bench so hard that their was a major dent (2 rows behind & 4 seats over). The family next to us almost had a hospital visit, but they didn't get the ball either because it bounced around and the next family further over ended up with it. I had my glove on, so if I had only been paying attn there's a good chance I would've made a nice play on the ball. What had distracted me? A clown was working the stadium making balloon animals for the kiddies. I gotta get my head check. Maybe it's adult onset ADD??

Thurs: supposed to run 4 easy but I ran out of time. Hopefully find room to squeeze that into Friday somewhere...
So anyway... I feel some 'minor tightness' on outer knee area (right leg) which is probably an IT band issue. I need a few easy days before Saturday's 5k race + plenty of stretching to make sure this doesn't develop into anything more than this.

Monday, June 22, 2009

99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall




I had such a good Father's Day weekend that I think it fitting to write blog posting #99 about just that.


Friday night dinner out just the wife & I. That rarely happens but now that the older son is officially certified to babysit for his younger brother we might enjoy more dinners out. Saturday a.m. was a 5k race. Some good quality "me time" that I enjoy. That evening we had family movie night - Mall Cop. Silly film that the kids enjoyed. Well, we all got some good laughs to be honest. Sunday afternoon was the neighborhood father & son baseball game. This is a very informal 'pick-up' game. There was 7 boys & only 3 dads, but we had a good time out there. I knew it was going to end up hurting me the next day. Remember that lower abdominal strain that I hadn't mentioned recently? Sure enough I strained it again. Not too bad. Also have some issue going on with right ankle & calf. I'm not used to so much pivot, sprint, jump, stretch type of movements.
Great weekend. I'm looking forward to blog posting #100 and then another 100 after that!
p.s. thanks to Ray's beer bottle collection for these photo's. I've been to Ray's house for a pre-race pasta dinner ... it's quite a scene with the decor mostly devoted to running & beer.

Strong Energy

Today I felt like a million bucks out there on the pavement. Planned to run 5 or 6 easy miles around neighborhood. Instead turned into a hard effort as I felt alot of strong energy.

First two miles more or less level @ 8:28 then 7:40. The 3rd & 4th miles each have a significant hill climb. 7:50 then 7:45. I was really looking forward to miles 5 & 6 which were downhill and then flat. Done in 7:31 then 7:41. If you drop the first 'warm up' mile then this is a pretty fast workout for me. Hopefully I feel this good again on Wednesday when it's Tempo run day.

Plan to run 5k on Sat. Course should be flat, weather might cooperate... or might be hot & muggy. I'd like to take 20 or 30 seconds off from the last race but we'll just have to see...

Saturday, June 20, 2009

You Can't Always Get What You Want...

But if you try sometimes
you just might find
you miss by a second or two?

The summer of "Stones blog titles" continues with today's installment. The other day my younger son was getting ready to leave from camp and I overheard him talking to another boy. Andy was collecting his things/toys/crafts and the other boy wanted him to leave something so that he could play with it. "You can't always get what you want" was my son's reply! When I asked him about it in the car he said - you know, Dad, like that song you were singing the other day. 8 years old. Cool.

I had sort-of predicted that I'd finish in the range of 21:15 thru 21:30 but my time was 21:31 so I just missed. It started raining 15 mins before gun time; it started pouring cats & dogs 5 mins before! They delayed the start about 10 mins but there was no end in sight. So we ran in a downpour. Course: downhill .2 miles, then up over 9th street bridge, then mostly flat until a large hill at 1.5 miles. Then exactly back the same way.

I purposely went slow, controlled at start. In retrospect I could've gone faster like I typically do. My plan was to crest the bridge then settle into a steady working pace. That went fine. Mile 1 in 6:55 and feeling fine. I let up a bit as we eased into the hill...then slowed it down on the steep part. At no point did I feel that I was pushing into the 'red' zone. Then downhill to the 2 mm @ 7:09 / 14:04. I was expecting that. My conservative plan was to yield a mediocre reslut...but you can't have it both ways.

I thought I was working real hard during the 3rd mile. Set my sights on a guy with blue & white stripe shirt...caught & passed rather quickly (he must've gone out too fast?). Then there was a kid in red shirt about 10 yards in front of me. Slowly made up that ground...passed him with less than half mile left. I could hear his footsteps behind me as we turned onto 9th street for the bridge. As we crested same I saw that the next person in front of me was just rounding the next corner - a full block in front of me! I went down the hill fast, turned onto the finishing str8 (uphill couple of blocks). At this point I was just coasting with no one in front & no one right behind me. 3 mile split 6:48 / 20:52.

I felt like I had worked pretty hard, but it was that 2nd mile where I should've pushed a bit more. It's tough to measure it out evenly on the first 5k back. This is alot different than marathon running! I found some way to push the final tenth - done in 39 seconds - and the race director got a photo of me finishing. Blurry pic, but that's the way it was because I'd forgotten my hat and was taking full rain the face/glasses. Blurry race.

21:31 gives me plenty of room for improvement. Overall I finished 22 out of 295. But I'm only happy in the perspective that this is the first in a series of 5k's this summer. So the bar was set semi-low and I did what I did. Now I've got to step up the training and the race mentality. I was 6th in my 10-year age group. 6 of the top 22 finishers were men 40-49.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Up Tempo 3 @ 7

Today's planned workout: 6 miles; middle 3 Tempo run @ 7 minute pace... assuming that I could hold that effort. Last week had planned the same run, but fell short on speed. Decided to modify (reduce) the total distance due to my feet being achey and I'd rather rest, even a little bit, before racing on Saturday. Total was 5 miles.

This is a treadmill tempo run. Warm up 1 mile ez. Mile 2 felt controlled & comfortable at 6:58. Began to feel it during second mile but at 7:03 I was still very happy. At beginning of last mile I was trying to talk myself into hanging on to be able to finish it. But then fell into a zone and the time passed quickly. Began to dial up the speed at the end, but it was too late to really make any diff. 6:54 and I definitely had more energy left in the tank - hopefully that will still be there for me on Sat morn. Good stretch and lite weight circuit for upper body.

This workout makes me think my 5k will be between 21:15 - 21:30. Factoring in unknown intangibles (weather, hills, me) maybe a wider range like 21:00 - 21:45 because I'm really not sure what might happen!

Good news: I've lost another half pound. This is a huge relief just to see that the scale does move back down. Still scratching my head about gaining weight during marathon training phase. This makes one full pound in 3 weeks. Basically just trying to eat less. My problem is that I just plain eat too much. Less food = less calories.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

There isn't always a tomorrow.

Another day that I somehow was too busy in the morning to get out for my run. Lunchtime came & went and no running. Bummer. But I vowed to do it in the afternoon. I feel very motivated to run lately. This is another example where in previous cycles I would easily fall back onto any old rationalization to skip a day. Hey, there's always tomorrow. But my new approach is "today is already tomorrow" i.e. there's no more waiting. I don't have endless time to run fast races...no one gets unlimited time. There isn't always another tomorrow.

City Runnin'. 4 miles downtown. Parked along Union St. Stopped in at the local running shoe store to drop off my entry for Sat's 5k! Woo- hooo. this is the first local 5k I've done in almost a year. So psyched! But i'm also knowing that this isn't going to be much of a show, even by my standards. I'm thinking of this as more of a first race to establish a baseline. Something to build from...and let me know exactly where my fitness is at right now.

Eased into the pace. 1=8:30 or 8:45, then 2=8:30 or a bit faster. 3=opened it up here, about 7:30. 4= 7:15 with the last stretch really moving fast. I'd like to run 7 min pace on Sat for approx. 21:45 but that really doesn't sound very fast *(at all)! I've only done one 5k in like the past 6 or 8 mos. Haddonfield in March - looked up my time - 21:08. Have I really gotten signif slower since then?? Lack of speed work/tempo runs has really impacted me.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Whew - legs dead tired.

I couldn't get to the Y until late afternoon yesterday - not the time of day that I typically run. Plan called for 4 easy miles on tread, with stretching & weights. Those easy miles were tough! My legs just felt dead tired. I think Sunday's trail run took more out of me than I'd thought.

Went slow, took the dreaded walk breaks (even on treadmill now?!?) and I got it done. Wiped out tired. Didn't do any weights. I fell asleep on the couch at about 9 p.m. Had a tough time getting up this morn too. Today is a scheduled rest day - thankfully. Back at it tomorrow.

Monday, June 15, 2009

Damn Walk Breaks Again

Sunday morning I headed out for the planned 6 mile trail run. Was met by friend Ray who informed me that he needed to go 10. I wasn't sure that I could stomach it but figured that he would just tack a few onto the end...and I could go a few extra to help out.

It had rained very heavy late yesterday so the trails were really muddy immediately. The big puddles & slippery goey mess type of muddy. During the whole run neither of us fell, but there was some slidin going on! We had the trails almost totally to ourselves until we got to the park ranger road down along the river.

Uneventful run. Barely saw any wildlife - a lone chipmonk; then a turkey vulture getting breakfast from a way-past-expiration-date deer on the side of the road by Thompsons Dam Bridge. Water in river was very high. Nobody out in canoes/kayaks - thank God. (Last storm 2 idiots went out for a thrill and the authorities are still looking for the one guy's body.)

I felt like we were working a good 9:00 min pace but Ray wanted to go a bit faster. I need to run with faster folks more often. Around mile 5 we picked up the pace as we came back from the other side of the river. Almost immediately I started to have bad stomach issues. Probably the food from last night (baseball game fare - hot dogs/pretzels/ice cream). I felt stomach cramps & uncomfortably bloated. Just before this I had realized I hadn't drank any water for miles and maybe I chugged too much too quickly. Anyway, it worked out as we were on a straight section and Ray went ahead without me and then doubled back so that he got 2 or so while I got 1 or less with a good walk break. There's those damn walk breaks again. Since the mega-walk marathon I can't seem to shrug off these pesky walk breaks. Sad, very sad indeed.

I feel like I was working pretty hard, but only have 8 miles to show for 90 mins. Very humid, sweated out a ton. Took in extra salt dose with post run food. As this is my longest run post-marathon I'm considering this a 'long run'. Next weekend I should probably plan on a 10 or 12 miler so that my legs don't forget long runs. Made prelim plan to go up to Philly in August to run on the PDR course - I know that will help me have a good race day.

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Gotta Start Somewhere

Got out the door early this a.m. for another 4 easy run. Glad I did because now it's raining steady. Forgot to wear watch and didn't go back inside for it. Just made the decision to go easy. A few times in the first half I had to tell myself to go easier, slow down. Overall this wasn't as slow & easy like I planned. But maybe around 8:15 pace or so. But hey- it's only 4 miles so no biggie.

At the end I was feeling really good and decided to try out some 'strides'. This is basically hard 30 seconds, easy 60 seconds, then repeat. Not full 100% sprint, but quick leg turn over, watch form, faster than 5k pace. My new summer time goal of shooting for a fast 5k (before my ramp-up towards Sept's PDR half) means that I need strategies for increasing my speed. I've never done striders before, always sounded a bit too much like speed work to me. I did 3 times with each accelleration being on flat or somewhat uphill block & jogging on slightly downhill grade. these went very well & felt great! i will try for 5 x 30 seconds at the end of my tempo run this Thurs... that should feel alot tougher coming at the end of a hard workout.

Woo-Hooo, I lost .5 pounds this week! Gotta start somewhere...

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Street Fightin' Man

Yesterday Josh Cox posted "wake up & fight for your dreams."

I thought about that several times. This morning I decided to take it to heart. I never roll out of bed and run. I'm more of a shower, and caffeine, then take my time (unless it's a race day) before I head out to run. Not today. I just put on my running shoes & out the door I went.

Mind you this was just a 4 ez miles day; but I got it done. Felt real stiff & tired at first, warmed up into it. 8:30-8:15-8:00-8:15. Felt really good to push myself to get out there. I'm resolved that i just plain need to run more. Who BQ's on an average of 25 miles per week? I'm not a gifted athlete. Some people just genetically have it. And then there's the rest of us. I need to run more miles, and more days per week to acheive those miles. Currently I average 3.5 days/wk. I need to get that to 5.5 by the end of the summer. Even a 4 mile recovery (yesterday was my tough tempo effort) day is better for my legs & my cardio fitness than just plain rest.

My body needs alot of recovery time - I know that. And that's been proven plenty over the last few years. I think a genetic component is involved there too. Dudes that run 120 mile weeks have biomechanics that don't make their limbs/joints/body fall apart at that level. But I think I've lulled myself into mediocrity. I need to average 35/wk and pop a 40 or 45 mile week every once in a while. I've gotten away with low mileage -but intense mileage- for too long. That works for me from 5k all the way up to the half marathon, but the full 26.2 is a totally different animal. I'm going to add one day bike ride per week with conversion to run miles (equivalent 3.5bike = 1run ratio?).

Starting off today feeling good positive vibes!!! Make it a great day people!

p.s. 2nd Stones inspired blog title this month - where's that coming from?

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Recent Recap

Recent Recap:
Sat.- 8k race.
Mon. - 6 miles trails w/hills.
today - 6 miles total w/middle 3 as a tempo segment.

I see that I've gotten behind on blogging, again. Todays' workout didn't go all that well. But I like to think of rough workouts as progress reports or fitness tests. So I've got some work to do!

wanted to do a 3 mile tempo at 7:00 pace with 1.5 warm-up & cool-down. I could tell during the first mile that my legs were 'dead' from Monday's trail run/hill workout. (oops, never blogged on that. Recap: very hot & humid late afternoon run. I am supposed to lead a group trail run this weekend and haven't been on all sections of the planned route in some time, so I ventured into the woods. Good thing, took a wrong turn early. Don't want to do that on Sunday. Felt good and added an extra hill loop, but then by the end I was real exhausted and had to walk on the final hill. Checked weather channel when I got home, 80-82 degrees with 70-75% humidity. 6 miles total).

So back to today...I decided to start the tempo portion at speed & then slow down as needed on the fly. Mile 1 - uncomfortable but done in 7:03. Mile 2 - slowed it down immediately as the humidity was making me sweat like a pig! Very uncomfortable, even after backing off the pace some more. 7:22 still not soo bad. But then Mile 3 - I just couldn't keep going. Took a one minute walk break then slowly cranked it back up. Practically racing to try to break 8 on that last one, but couldn't. 8:10, first 100 yards was walking and next 200 was getting up to speed.

Disappointing . . . a little. But it tells me where I'm at.
1. Need to aclimate now that summer weather is full force.
2. I'm giving myself a break since I haven't done any tempo runs for like 2 mos.
3. This is basically 2 tough workouts in a row. I should've gone ez today and tempo friday.

Next week try again to hit the 3 x 7:00 tempo target. I've decided to try to put on some speed for some hot 5k racing in July. Then I'll go back to the long stuff for half marathon race (PDR) at the end of Sept. So training sets up like this: Fri - a few easy miles. Sun - trails, moderate. Tues - ez 5 or 6. Thurs - Tempo.

Lower ab muscle pull still annoying me, but it's getting better.

Gotta run... soccer dad shuttle to tryouts for travel team. have a good one!

Sunday, June 7, 2009

RaceReport: M 8k

Not too much exciting to report from this race. As I expected, my performance was "okay" but nothing special. This is my first fast running since marathon day. I'm happy with the way the this one turned out, although my time is a minute slower than last year.

Saturday morning was not as warm & humid as last year's running...would've been a good chance to run this course for a PR. Bigger crowd this year - they ran out of t-shirts. Nice shirt, tech fabric, says 25th anniversary. I found some guys iPhone & turned it into the DJ for an announcement over the PA speakers. I didn't run any warm-up at all since I don't think my legs are ready for any extra miles yet.

One fun aspect of this race is that there's a simultaneous relay event for youngsters that features 5x1 mile (last mile is a bit short). So there's lots of speedy kids up front. I purposely stayed well back from the front lines. My Splits:
6:53
6:54 - 13:47
7:26 - 21:13
7:33 - 28:46
7:00 - 35:46

First mile, felt good. Kids zipping past me as we near the relay hand-off location. Fun, but I move to the other side of the street. Second mile, ran the whole way with 2 young ladies that were local h.s. track buddies and now go to different colleges. They're home for summer and doing the race together. One of them (Jessica or Allison?) has a really cute way of running on her tippie toes. I asked if maybe she was a sprinter . . . but no, she's always been a long distance runner up on her toes like that. Obviously I'm not the first to comment on her form. As we approach the 2 mile mark I pull ahead of them and don't see them for a while. Someplace during the third mile I notice that the sun's come out and I'm feeling hot. Is this section uphill? {I've looked up my splits from last year and this is the same stretch where I wilted then too. } By the time I see the 3 mm I'm not feeling good. From about 2.75 thru 4.0 I am trying to slow down so that I feel better but I'm not enjoying this. The girls catch me at about 3.5 and they glide by smooth & strong. They're still chatting away. They aren't taking this race seriously. Soon after the 4 mm I feel recovered. Those girls are about 15 or 20 seconds in front of me and I resolve that I will try to reel them in. A woman named Sylvia has a pacer join her right at 4 and they power away from me. But as I try to stick with them I am making up ground on the girls. There's a long straight away here and I see my buddy Dirk way up ahead. I'm focused on making up ground and I do it. I finish 2 seconds behind the girls & chat with them post race. The one girl's dad is fast (he's over 50 and ran 31:30). Sylvia beats me by 17 seconds - she really flew that last mile!

One of our club members DNF's due to injury from trail run wipe out. This is the day that half our runners are doing the trail event Wissahickon. My WAVA is only 65% so I can't help the team. But I wasn't expecting much here anyway. My time is exactly within the range that I predicted. Funny how that happens with such regularity.

Saturday, June 6, 2009

Top Ten List

I've thought about this one a lot in the last few weeks 'post marathon' so without further procrastination, here's my Top Ten "Ways to Screw-up Your 1st Marathon"

10. Set an unrealistic goal. If you do your 20 milers at 8:40 pace, then what illogical thought process made me think I could do 8:20 for the marathon. . . and hold it an additional 6.2 miles?
9. Start out waaaayyy too fast. And on a humid morning, and a hilly course. Hello? What was I thinking?
8. When the facts are clearly right in front of you, fail to adjust to the situation early enough to make a difference. Actually, failed to adjust at all really. At mile 7= 4 minutes ahead of pace; then at mile 10= 5 mins ahead. Huh? How come it didn't occur to me that I must slow down until my legs already were beginning their revolt/cramps?
7. Drive your car 10 hours the day before the race. Duh. Arrive at the hotel at a quarter till midnight. Doh!
6. Recruit a support person who is not a runner. In all fairness to the Mrs., this ended up being a minor issue given all the other major screw ups. But the water, cereal bar, and dry towel would've been nice at 16. And the missed Gu handoff was a real factor. The refusal to wake up & get out of bed at 5:30...plus the double back to the hotel after packet pick-up for the wife pick-up, that added a bit of stress.
5. Fail to interpret the course description profile correctly. "This course has LOTS of HILLS? Why didn't they just come out and say that?"
4. Other translation miscues: When they said this marathon is good for first timers, they didn't mean that the course is not challenging; they meant 1,000's of locals will come out to watch you suffer. When they said the race has a high BQ ratio, they forgot to mention that they invite a lot of fast people to come up to Vermont to race. Kind of like Carlsbad 5000 is 'America's fastest 5k' because of the runners that it attracts (it's not the course there either people).
3. Start out way too fast. This one cannot be understated as the primary reason for failure.
2. Drink a few beers & eat crappy food for the pre-race meal. It tasted good, but greasy cheese puffs, mini spinach quiche and fried mushrooms is not proper carbo-loading fare.
1. And from the home office, the number one way to screw-up your first marathon is... "Logical thinking . . . who needs that?"

Friday, June 5, 2009

Goat's Head Soup? Goat's Head Soap!



I don't know why, but at the marathon we rec'd a full sized bar of Goat's Head Soap with the packet pick-up. This stuff says they make it in France, Canada, and Vermont. Yikes, who wants to bathe with Goat's Head Soap?

I've wanted to post this pic & comment for like 2 weeks. I never seem to get totally caught up around here. Anyways, I'm also working on my autobiographical 'top ten ways to choke on your first marathon' which I will add to this posting sometime very soon (hopefully tonite while I'm watching the Phils play L.A. from West Coast).

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Already Too Late

Ran 4 miles yesterday for Nat'l Run Day. Instead of typical (boring) loop around neighborhood at lunchtime, I went out to the main road and ran to the Y because I know it's just slightly over 2 miles to get there. Tons of cars/trucks, an old guy on a bike, but no other runners. So I feel like I was representing us runners out there. Forgot to wear club colors, had a Phillies shirt on. Noticed several places where the bushes/weeds/vines are totally overgrown blocking the sidewalk... don't notice that when driving past. I see walkers along here regular, and it is a full sidewalk, just covered in places by jungle. Maybe I'll contact these folks back to point out that their sidewalks are almost un-passable do to the overgrowth (maybe).

Easy pace, variable. One measured mile was 8:15, but I know that i started much slower than that. Picked up my new stainless steel water bottle at the Y. They give away something about every-other month. I guess that's where my $75/month goes. Frankly I could do without the give aways, but i always pick them up since it's my money anyway. They probably end up thinking the friggin give aways are soooo popular! I'd rather have some of my money bacK!

M8k race is saturday. I'm not expecting much. In all the times I've done this race i've never had a really good one here. It's flat so I always think... i'll run fast. But several times it was warm & humid. Other years I was injured or just coming back from injury so didn't max the opportunity. Forcast this year is pretty good, but I haven't done a lick of speed work in over a month. Plus still not 100% since post marathon. Speaking of which, that little nagging pain in lower left abdominal area is really buggin me. I made the mistake of playing tennis for a long session the other night and the reaching, pivoting, etc really aggrivated the problem. This tennis was a prefect parallel to my marathon experience. I know what to do, but i don't always do it. Tennis hurts my body- I should stay away from it or at least take it in small doses. It's like when I start having fun (yes, I can still whup my 13 y.o.'s butt, and his friends, even though they were on the tennis team at school this year & I only picked up a racket 2x in the last 2 yrs)... then my brain shuts down and I just don't think until it's too late. When my 10 mile split at the marathon was 5 minutes ahead of pace AND there was more hills than I anticipated... it was already too late. Gotta remember my brain more often when I am out having fun.

M 8k times over past few years:
2004 33:40 6:46pace
2005 injured; didn't run
2006 busy w/work; was on break from running
2007 36:38 rehab'g quad tear
2008 34:54 humid/went out too fast
2009 ? not expecting much, maybe 35:30 - 36:30 range. One of these years I'm going to get it right at this race but it ain't gonna be this year.

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

National Running Day

Isn't there also a Run To Work Day? Not sure if that's the same or diff...

Anyway, my schedule isn't good for evening run (soccer game) so I'm going to hit the streets solo this a.m. But the club folks will be out together. Here's a re-post from last week's info:

Here's a link about NATIONAL RUNNING Day which is next TODAY: http://www.nyrrmail.org/eventcal/events/index.php?com=detail&eID=127Our club will be out running - but we have a standing group run on Wed. evenings (get it, standing group run?). {Duh, bad, i know.}

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

New Group Runs at Brandywine Creek S.P.

This is from an email I sent out today:

New Group Runs for Pike Creek:
Because club members asked for more group runs, we are announcing the following dates for group trail runs at Brandywine Creek State Park (link). These groups runs are open to runners of all abilities, club members or not, so please invite friends & guests to come out and run with us!

Sunday June 14th - This run will be led by Dean. 6 mile trail run starts at 9 a.m. We will meet in the parking lot behind the TGIFridays on 202 Concord Pike (map) at 8:45. Water & light snacks will be provided. The trailhead is behind the hotel next door (Rocky Run Parkway). This run can be shortened to 4 miles, or you can add more trails to bring it up to 10 miles or longer. The restaurant mgr has agreed to open the TGIF front patio an hour early (10 a.m.) for our after run drink & food needs!

Sunday July 12th - 5 mile trail run starts at 8 a.m. Meet in parking lot behind the JCC off 202 on Garden of Eden Road (map). Trailhead is at back of lot. Similar mixed terrain, some flat wide sections along river, some single track with hills. Distance can be more or less. If anyone has a GPS pls bring because I've always wanted to get an accurate distance on this route. This trail features the mtn bike 'bridge' that some kids built last year. I've run up & over this contraption - something different. After running we'll meet at Janssen's Market Cafe (here) by taking Mt. Lebanon Road to Rockland Rd to Rt.52 in Greenville.

Sunday August 16th - location/time/distance TBD. Save the date & look for details to follow and/or I'm open to suggestions. If we meet in the park you have to have pay $3 per car or have the annual parking sticker.

Please RSVP so we can have an estimated headcount. Feel free to invite all runners to join us on these group runs. Arrive 15 minutes early to review trail maps; the run begins at scheduled time. If you need to start early (to run longer) contact me & I will meet you there early. For general info about Pike Creek Valley Running Club, and our group runs, follow this link.

Monday, June 1, 2009

Fall Season Coming into focus


I did 3 easy miles around the neighborhood. I told myself at the beginning that if my legs still feel 'dead' then I'd take a walk break in the middle. I walked. Gee, these walk breaks are addictive. You'd think that maybe I got enough walking during the last few miles of the marathon melt-down. But I walked for a minute (and didn't time the run at all anyway).

Didn't have time to hit the weights. Will try for the gym tomorrow. I've been eating slightly healthier post-marathon. That feels good. I look downright fat in some of the online pics compared to other runners around me. Oh, btw, online pics are up! Here's a photo montage in crappy low-resolution. I guess I should fork over the $55 to get the high-res images. Right click and open in 'new tab/new window' to see best. insertPingimagehere


I have a lingering muscle pain in the lower left abdominal region. This was hurting with the leg spasms during the race. Now it's the last remaining ache. Hard to exactly put my finger on it - literally. It's like a pulling/pinching pain when stretching, coughing, bending. I'm thinking hernia type issue, which I really hope it's not that. I had that surgery about 12 years ago and the area has always bothered me. Pretty sure the doc did a sub-par job and there's like scar tissue or just plain not done correctly. Will watch this for a week & hope it resolves on it's own.

I have signed up for the Philly Distance Run Half in Sept. This is a PR target as it will be my first flat 13.1 in many years. This is the focus of my early fall season. And another shot at the 26.2 distance will be the focus of the late fall season. Really torn between Philly Marathon (here) or the Rehobeth Beach marathon but Philly seems the logical choice. About a dozen runners from club are doing Rehobeth That would be fun...