so, got a few days away from the tiling thing. painted and did carpet for about 4 days. we went running on saturday - we wanted to try a faster run, so we did a 10 mile one.
we both had a great day - ran our fastest ever 10. felt great. only one water bottle stolen too! :-)
the new watch, a garmin 405cx went on it's first run. i need to make a lot of setup changes. it ran great for about 6 miles then for no FOCKING reason decided to chirp every time i moved my arm. two beeps for each step. once at the end of my arm swing and once at the beginning. beep beep beep beep beep beep beep. i ALMOST took it off and put it under a rock to pick up later. after about 3000 or so beeps i sorta got used to it. but GAWD it was annoying. did track my running though. i deleted the data, maybe i should have saved it from such a good run. but - i would probably only remember the beeping in the end.
what a good day.
Monday, December 28, 2009
Thursday, December 24, 2009
long weekend
well, last long weekend is over for a while. was a pretty tough one for me.
we ran 13 on saturday... my legs are just dead. about 2 miles in and i am pretty much done. its just hard to move my legs. too many days doing tile work i guess. i tough out the first 5 miles and then it gets easier. didnt have any sore spots or any thing that hurt. just dead legs. so all in all getting better at prepping for these runs. we left water every 3 miles and only one was missing when we got to it - so not bad at all. finished off tired but not gassed. so all in all a good run. just no jump.
on sunday we ran 22... my legs are just dead. about 2 miles in and i am pretty much done. lol. but today i get a bonus 20 extra miles. we found a 5.5 mile loop about 15 miles from the house and ran around that 4 times. we put water at two places. actually gatorade. i think in the end i drank too much of that - as i usually do when doing a really long run. i switched to water on the last loop.
resa had a strong run - so that was good to see. sadly i was trying to stay up with her for the entire run. the first loop went right away into bad as about halfway around i was pretty much feeling that i would have a really tough time from how i felt.
i also again drank a half bottle of the 5 hour energy drink. from about 5 tries with this stuff i feel it kinda gives me some jitteries - even though the advertising says it wont. just being able to drink it without dieing is pretty good though. i feel it takes about an hour to really get cooking though. i usually drink it minutes before i start - with the thought that if it makes me feel icky - at least i am running at the time. but the first lap and i am gassed. so it certainly didnt seem to be helping during that time.
i fight out the first half lap and we get our drinks. i dump my hat, gloves and sweater as i am sweating a ton. its about 60 degrees out and no wind - so as you can guess i was pretty warm. the second half of the lap is pretty nice. always good to be into the run. the start is not normally bad - but has been the last few months. again i might be starting out too fast. -- or not stretching out enough maybe. the night before we did a lot of massaging and stretching and drinking and i felt as recovered as i ever have.
the end of the first lap and the car has drinks and some candies. so i eat and drink up. the next lap was by far the best, although about 3 minutes slower. it was very relaxing. i think about this time i get a jump from the 5hour energy stuff. not much happened at during this lap. other than the wind went from 1 mph to about 20 mph in about 3 minutes time. the sun went behind some clouds and the temp seemed to drop about 10 degrees plus the wind. so when we got to the halfway point i put the hat and gloves back on. glad they were there still. the second and fourth lap we ran clockwise and the first and third was run counterclockwise. well the first half of the first lap seemed all up hill. like we gained about 300 ft in altitude. seemed that way heading the other direction too. very weird. and it wasnt just me, but resa thought it very odd too. and it felt this way all four times past this area. just weird.
the second lap end and we get more drinks and yummies. more gatorade and cliff bars actually. probably too much junk and not enough water as the third lap goes from ok to really bad at the end. i stagger around the last mile and back to the car. 28 miles in the last 24 hours and i started out totally dead. at this point i am almost ready to say its a good weekend. but after about 10 minutes sitting next to the car in the sun i get my energy back. well enough to stand anyway. i am about a 3 on the 10 scale. we run off and we do about 2 miles before we decide to walk. resa isnt gassed at all but really sore. i am both. we walk a quarter mile and then run to the drinkies. about totally dead... but only 1/8th of the run left - about 3 miles. so we plod on. we run to the hard section and walk up a long hill. i am now about a 2 on the scale. still able to walk but not very fast. hard to see well. the world swooshes back and forth but i can fight it not be taken along with it. resa seems in pretty good shape so i let her talk about stuff while we walk the hill. really just made it to the top. 1.5 miles to the car. i remember thinking about some of the more difficult runs i have been in. this is probably the 4th worst. 2 times on the mtn bike trail and once in columbus were worse. both those times i got to where i couldnt move at all. and at miles 15ish and 12ish. this time i am at mile 20 for the day and 33 for the last 24 hours and i am just teetering on the edge of sitting down. but... somehow i think i have found a bit more physical endurance. i remember greg lemond with his ' it doesnt get easier, but i do get faster. ' maybe i dont get faster, but i do get stronger. i fight back some serious frustration and decide to run the last mile and a half regardless of how i feel. and we do. it wasnt all that hard even. just ran along to the car.
wish i had been ready to start the weekend, but i am totally worn out doing physical stuff down here and the heavy miles lately. but... in weight lifting - which i find very enjoyable - the times you gain the most is when you are willing to push your muscles to the fail point and then reverse fail your sets out to pretty much unable to move. but you cant do that the first year or so you lift weights - or you will be too sore to be any good for weeks. which i have also done. but once you have a good base you can push and push and push. and its mostly going to help you. maybe maybe i have reached that point after a year of running. the point where i go to *almost* failure and i gain from it. i am hoping its this way. funner to run faster each month and set personal records each run. but i did set a personal half marathon record and it was very easy about a week ago. since then i have had 3 very hard runs. i am hoping after some time off and recovery it will make me stronger than if i just pounded out some brainless miles.
so all in all a mixed set of emotions.
still - i guess i cant look on the negative side - i have never done that in sports, and it couldnt help. so i will say rather, that the glass is half full and i have just pushed myself into an even better place - at a pretty steep price.
find out at Goofy. which is our next stop.
we ran 13 on saturday... my legs are just dead. about 2 miles in and i am pretty much done. its just hard to move my legs. too many days doing tile work i guess. i tough out the first 5 miles and then it gets easier. didnt have any sore spots or any thing that hurt. just dead legs. so all in all getting better at prepping for these runs. we left water every 3 miles and only one was missing when we got to it - so not bad at all. finished off tired but not gassed. so all in all a good run. just no jump.
on sunday we ran 22... my legs are just dead. about 2 miles in and i am pretty much done. lol. but today i get a bonus 20 extra miles. we found a 5.5 mile loop about 15 miles from the house and ran around that 4 times. we put water at two places. actually gatorade. i think in the end i drank too much of that - as i usually do when doing a really long run. i switched to water on the last loop.
resa had a strong run - so that was good to see. sadly i was trying to stay up with her for the entire run. the first loop went right away into bad as about halfway around i was pretty much feeling that i would have a really tough time from how i felt.
i also again drank a half bottle of the 5 hour energy drink. from about 5 tries with this stuff i feel it kinda gives me some jitteries - even though the advertising says it wont. just being able to drink it without dieing is pretty good though. i feel it takes about an hour to really get cooking though. i usually drink it minutes before i start - with the thought that if it makes me feel icky - at least i am running at the time. but the first lap and i am gassed. so it certainly didnt seem to be helping during that time.
i fight out the first half lap and we get our drinks. i dump my hat, gloves and sweater as i am sweating a ton. its about 60 degrees out and no wind - so as you can guess i was pretty warm. the second half of the lap is pretty nice. always good to be into the run. the start is not normally bad - but has been the last few months. again i might be starting out too fast. -- or not stretching out enough maybe. the night before we did a lot of massaging and stretching and drinking and i felt as recovered as i ever have.
the end of the first lap and the car has drinks and some candies. so i eat and drink up. the next lap was by far the best, although about 3 minutes slower. it was very relaxing. i think about this time i get a jump from the 5hour energy stuff. not much happened at during this lap. other than the wind went from 1 mph to about 20 mph in about 3 minutes time. the sun went behind some clouds and the temp seemed to drop about 10 degrees plus the wind. so when we got to the halfway point i put the hat and gloves back on. glad they were there still. the second and fourth lap we ran clockwise and the first and third was run counterclockwise. well the first half of the first lap seemed all up hill. like we gained about 300 ft in altitude. seemed that way heading the other direction too. very weird. and it wasnt just me, but resa thought it very odd too. and it felt this way all four times past this area. just weird.
the second lap end and we get more drinks and yummies. more gatorade and cliff bars actually. probably too much junk and not enough water as the third lap goes from ok to really bad at the end. i stagger around the last mile and back to the car. 28 miles in the last 24 hours and i started out totally dead. at this point i am almost ready to say its a good weekend. but after about 10 minutes sitting next to the car in the sun i get my energy back. well enough to stand anyway. i am about a 3 on the 10 scale. we run off and we do about 2 miles before we decide to walk. resa isnt gassed at all but really sore. i am both. we walk a quarter mile and then run to the drinkies. about totally dead... but only 1/8th of the run left - about 3 miles. so we plod on. we run to the hard section and walk up a long hill. i am now about a 2 on the scale. still able to walk but not very fast. hard to see well. the world swooshes back and forth but i can fight it not be taken along with it. resa seems in pretty good shape so i let her talk about stuff while we walk the hill. really just made it to the top. 1.5 miles to the car. i remember thinking about some of the more difficult runs i have been in. this is probably the 4th worst. 2 times on the mtn bike trail and once in columbus were worse. both those times i got to where i couldnt move at all. and at miles 15ish and 12ish. this time i am at mile 20 for the day and 33 for the last 24 hours and i am just teetering on the edge of sitting down. but... somehow i think i have found a bit more physical endurance. i remember greg lemond with his ' it doesnt get easier, but i do get faster. ' maybe i dont get faster, but i do get stronger. i fight back some serious frustration and decide to run the last mile and a half regardless of how i feel. and we do. it wasnt all that hard even. just ran along to the car.
wish i had been ready to start the weekend, but i am totally worn out doing physical stuff down here and the heavy miles lately. but... in weight lifting - which i find very enjoyable - the times you gain the most is when you are willing to push your muscles to the fail point and then reverse fail your sets out to pretty much unable to move. but you cant do that the first year or so you lift weights - or you will be too sore to be any good for weeks. which i have also done. but once you have a good base you can push and push and push. and its mostly going to help you. maybe maybe i have reached that point after a year of running. the point where i go to *almost* failure and i gain from it. i am hoping its this way. funner to run faster each month and set personal records each run. but i did set a personal half marathon record and it was very easy about a week ago. since then i have had 3 very hard runs. i am hoping after some time off and recovery it will make me stronger than if i just pounded out some brainless miles.
so all in all a mixed set of emotions.
still - i guess i cant look on the negative side - i have never done that in sports, and it couldnt help. so i will say rather, that the glass is half full and i have just pushed myself into an even better place - at a pretty steep price.
find out at Goofy. which is our next stop.
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
low five
just ran 5 and it was bad. well, the run was nice - the ken was bad. i just couldnt run very far before getting gassed.
my thoughts are either: 1 - it was the best ever 13 the other day, 2 - it was the first bike ride in months the other day ( hopefully not this as it will be all the time soon ) or... 3 - i am just gassed from doing 20 days of tiling. climbing stairs all day with materials and then spending hours on kneepads. wohooo boooo hooo hooo woe is me!
well, this weekend should be our peak weekend of running other than the goofy event itself for at least another year. planning on 13 and 25 miles. or about that. should be great fun. i am just going to recover til then.
my thoughts are either: 1 - it was the best ever 13 the other day, 2 - it was the first bike ride in months the other day ( hopefully not this as it will be all the time soon ) or... 3 - i am just gassed from doing 20 days of tiling. climbing stairs all day with materials and then spending hours on kneepads. wohooo boooo hooo hooo woe is me!
well, this weekend should be our peak weekend of running other than the goofy event itself for at least another year. planning on 13 and 25 miles. or about that. should be great fun. i am just going to recover til then.
Monday, December 14, 2009
biker
finally went for a bike ride... about 20 miles. i averaged about 18-19 miles per hour. was nice to sit down and exercise again! :-)
easy week
well, every 4th week we had planned on making an easy week and this one is it. thursday i ran 6 and sunday was 13.
the time off really helped my speed. last weekend i didnt have much speed going on, but a ton of miles. the opposite was true this weekend. the 6 was pretty uneventful, i got dropped off 6 miles from home and ran back. yeah!
the thirteen had three interesting things. all three i should remember for a long time. i got all prepped for the run as usual. advil, bandages, body glide, knee brace, clothes. i didnt go with the 5 hour energy drink this time. i am going to save it for runs over 13 or when i am totally feeling dragged out.
so the run started later in the day - i knew i was going to finish in the dark. set out my 3 water breaks on a course that was out and back for 13 miles. the run started well, but i had just drank a full bottle of gatorade and at the first water stop at mile 2 i had to pee... so there are some nice bushes there and that solved that. but! there were also mosquitoes there. it was about 70 degrees and overcast and the little buggers where all over in the bushes. so i did the running hopping pee thing. glad nobody was around for that. but i got out alive, maybe 3 bites and i drank some water and off running again.
my knee brace itched. which it never does. figured i had a bit of dirt or something in there. i ignored it and ran on to the next water stop at mile 4. ( i put the waters at 2,4,6 miles and then run out to about 7 miles and come back giving me drinks every 2 miles ) at mile for everything was going well. i was really fresh still and picked up the pace. ran a bit faster. sooner or later i end up paying for that, but i felt pretty good so i kept going. the knee still itched so i adjusted the brace and didnt find anything in it. trot trot trot into the sun set. for once there was no wind too, how nice. :-) until mile 5. there was a storm through in the last few days and the roads flooded. they were still flooded and you had to run do the middle line of a two lane road with speed limits at 55 mph. so you are pretty paranoid about getting whacked by a car. but, the really bad part was the water. it had sat there for a few days... and spawned about 1.7 trillion mosquitoes! well, i think there might have been more, but only 1.7 trillion could get up enough energy to attack me. it was INSANE. more extreme than the canada adventure races or the michigan swamp tour races. i had water at mile 6 but i didnt stop, they were so thick. they could land on your legs and at this time i was freakin moving. did 3 of my fastest ever miles. and they followed me out and back to the 5 mile mark again. then poof gone. i didnt drink on the way back either obviously. just left the full bottle sitting there for the pickup later that night. so that was number one event. the mosquito clouds.
the run from 5 back to 0 was a some of the most relaxing running in a long time. was going fast but not very hard to do. breathing was very moderate but i was moving pretty quick. the sun set behind me and the wind and mosquitoes stayed away. my knee went from itchy to burning, but at that point i didnt care any more. number two event happened when i got home. i checked the time and it was the fastest ever half marathon for my by over 5 minutes. so i have a new personal best - but since i didnt time it exactly i would have to say it was between 2:14 and 2:18 which is at least 5 minutes faster than ever before. and not very hard either. nice to know i have taken over 30 minutes off our spring 1/2 marathon. resa also seemed faster than me the last time - 2 weeks ago we ran together. ( she is in ohio another 4 days then comes down here for a month ) so big time improvement. just took a week of low activity for it to show up. really happy about this.
the third memorable event was the knee brace. wtf? it was rubbing my whole upper leg area the whole time. and all the skin is torn off. its a freaking mess. i couldnt sleep last night i have bloody sticky goo all over my leg - about the size of my hand is totally messed up. it hurts just sitting here. bending my legs hurts... every thing about it stings. now i have to get on my knees and do tile work. :-/
i threw the thing in the wash as always, i will have to get it out and figure out what happened. my first guess right now is that the elastic is dead and it gained an inch in size and rather than being tight and unmoving on my knee it is now loose and rubbing. if so - out it goes. i have two, and probably wont be able to run with one again for a few weeks.
kinda weird all around. but... whatever! :-)
the time off really helped my speed. last weekend i didnt have much speed going on, but a ton of miles. the opposite was true this weekend. the 6 was pretty uneventful, i got dropped off 6 miles from home and ran back. yeah!
the thirteen had three interesting things. all three i should remember for a long time. i got all prepped for the run as usual. advil, bandages, body glide, knee brace, clothes. i didnt go with the 5 hour energy drink this time. i am going to save it for runs over 13 or when i am totally feeling dragged out.
so the run started later in the day - i knew i was going to finish in the dark. set out my 3 water breaks on a course that was out and back for 13 miles. the run started well, but i had just drank a full bottle of gatorade and at the first water stop at mile 2 i had to pee... so there are some nice bushes there and that solved that. but! there were also mosquitoes there. it was about 70 degrees and overcast and the little buggers where all over in the bushes. so i did the running hopping pee thing. glad nobody was around for that. but i got out alive, maybe 3 bites and i drank some water and off running again.
my knee brace itched. which it never does. figured i had a bit of dirt or something in there. i ignored it and ran on to the next water stop at mile 4. ( i put the waters at 2,4,6 miles and then run out to about 7 miles and come back giving me drinks every 2 miles ) at mile for everything was going well. i was really fresh still and picked up the pace. ran a bit faster. sooner or later i end up paying for that, but i felt pretty good so i kept going. the knee still itched so i adjusted the brace and didnt find anything in it. trot trot trot into the sun set. for once there was no wind too, how nice. :-) until mile 5. there was a storm through in the last few days and the roads flooded. they were still flooded and you had to run do the middle line of a two lane road with speed limits at 55 mph. so you are pretty paranoid about getting whacked by a car. but, the really bad part was the water. it had sat there for a few days... and spawned about 1.7 trillion mosquitoes! well, i think there might have been more, but only 1.7 trillion could get up enough energy to attack me. it was INSANE. more extreme than the canada adventure races or the michigan swamp tour races. i had water at mile 6 but i didnt stop, they were so thick. they could land on your legs and at this time i was freakin moving. did 3 of my fastest ever miles. and they followed me out and back to the 5 mile mark again. then poof gone. i didnt drink on the way back either obviously. just left the full bottle sitting there for the pickup later that night. so that was number one event. the mosquito clouds.
the run from 5 back to 0 was a some of the most relaxing running in a long time. was going fast but not very hard to do. breathing was very moderate but i was moving pretty quick. the sun set behind me and the wind and mosquitoes stayed away. my knee went from itchy to burning, but at that point i didnt care any more. number two event happened when i got home. i checked the time and it was the fastest ever half marathon for my by over 5 minutes. so i have a new personal best - but since i didnt time it exactly i would have to say it was between 2:14 and 2:18 which is at least 5 minutes faster than ever before. and not very hard either. nice to know i have taken over 30 minutes off our spring 1/2 marathon. resa also seemed faster than me the last time - 2 weeks ago we ran together. ( she is in ohio another 4 days then comes down here for a month ) so big time improvement. just took a week of low activity for it to show up. really happy about this.
the third memorable event was the knee brace. wtf? it was rubbing my whole upper leg area the whole time. and all the skin is torn off. its a freaking mess. i couldnt sleep last night i have bloody sticky goo all over my leg - about the size of my hand is totally messed up. it hurts just sitting here. bending my legs hurts... every thing about it stings. now i have to get on my knees and do tile work. :-/
i threw the thing in the wash as always, i will have to get it out and figure out what happened. my first guess right now is that the elastic is dead and it gained an inch in size and rather than being tight and unmoving on my knee it is now loose and rubbing. if so - out it goes. i have two, and probably wont be able to run with one again for a few weeks.
kinda weird all around. but... whatever! :-)
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
you internet goofballs can keep your damn poop fairy!
well, still tired from the longish weekend. heck. long. i think there was a time about... oh, 12 months ago when 30 miles in a month would have been pretty good miles. now its a weekend.
we certainly are getting our distance up if not much on speed. but speed comes with the next phase of training which starts after the january run.
today i spent about 10 hours laying tile in our house here on the gulf. and it was pretty hard on my sore legs. spent the whole time kneeling over tiles and hardybacker. at the end of the day i was faced with the option of running. most of the day i was planning on doing the run, but as the hours wore on and it got harder to stand let alone walk i was leaning on putting it off. wasnt sure i could run at all.
so i went up stairs to the "reading room" and sat there for a bit. OH MY GOD! the poop fairy came out of the internet and pulverized me. i am betting very few people out there have lost about 40% of their body weight in one 2 minute period and lived. i nearly didnt.
after this i decided to go running. as the house was now a biological disaster area.
so i ran 3. and it was pretty tough as i was still gassed from tiles and miles. but done. after all, if you think you can, or you think you can't, either way you are probably right.
and. i shall utter not the P*** F**** words again, lest she be summoned and i be destroyed.
we certainly are getting our distance up if not much on speed. but speed comes with the next phase of training which starts after the january run.
today i spent about 10 hours laying tile in our house here on the gulf. and it was pretty hard on my sore legs. spent the whole time kneeling over tiles and hardybacker. at the end of the day i was faced with the option of running. most of the day i was planning on doing the run, but as the hours wore on and it got harder to stand let alone walk i was leaning on putting it off. wasnt sure i could run at all.
so i went up stairs to the "reading room" and sat there for a bit. OH MY GOD! the poop fairy came out of the internet and pulverized me. i am betting very few people out there have lost about 40% of their body weight in one 2 minute period and lived. i nearly didnt.
after this i decided to go running. as the house was now a biological disaster area.
so i ran 3. and it was pretty tough as i was still gassed from tiles and miles. but done. after all, if you think you can, or you think you can't, either way you are probably right.
and. i shall utter not the P*** F**** words again, lest she be summoned and i be destroyed.
Sunday, December 6, 2009
and part 2
ouch. tricky one. i think i didnt eat enough last night and i pretty much had a very hard run.
did run 18 but felt like a lot more. the difference is i think that i can now go into the negative areas longer before i fail completely. so i spent most of the second half of the run ( into a very strong headwind ) running and walking and running.
well, done, and off to bed!
did run 18 but felt like a lot more. the difference is i think that i can now go into the negative areas longer before i fail completely. so i spent most of the second half of the run ( into a very strong headwind ) running and walking and running.
well, done, and off to bed!
another long weekend - part 1
well the easy part is done, the ten on saturday.
ran the old shoes and they felt great. so i now know that i have two sets i can count on. ( somehow this makes me think of resa... hmm... ) well. anyway nice to know i can swap back and forth.
so... about the 10 yesterday. again i ran on the sidewalk between the golf course and town. its 5 miles long so a ten round trip. i put water at about 1.25 miles from each end. so about 2.5 between water breaks. running out i went into the sun and the wind. the wind you know about, it was a bit breezy and comes in small gusts so you are always guessing when you have to lean a bit. kinda annoying. :-) but the sun for me is worse. it was getting later in the day and the sun was right in front of me. the trees are what make it tricky. the path is between a lot of trees and the sun comes in and out of them the whole way so its like those horror house places with the flash strobe bulb and people seem to jump around weird. so i spent most of the time looking down as i ran. didn't see any glass or dog poop on the trail either.
i get my drinks and run along. the first 2 miles again are the hardest. this is getting kinda weird - and i am going to try to pay special attention to starting a bit slow from now on - its not fun to be out of breath about 300 yards from the start. and then 2 hours later running faster and not be breathing hard. really strange. so that's today's plan. but today... 18 or so should be lots of fun. and gads who knows what i will get.
so anyway i run all the way to the end and its in a bit of an open spot and now the sun is my friend as it is just sitting there and i am taking a break and eating a chocolate cliff bar.
ah. was all in all a good if not great first half. i am really looking forward to running back with the wind and the sun pushing me along. so i start back. the first water is gone! and after my big chocolate goopy sticky bar i was really hoping to wash it down. 3 kids are playing with the bottle splashing gatorade all over the trail. great. thought about asking them where my drink went but they would have just stared or lied to me. so i ran on. what point i guess. never see them again anyway, just kids of renters. ah, well, so now i am in not such a good mood. next an old lady is walking her dog towards me at about mile 7. i work up some happy and smile and wave to her. but she ignores me, probably i am one of those jogging molesters that you hear about. so i shrug and plod on thinking for sure my other bottle is going to be gone now too. probably the kids will steal a car and race ahead and empty that on the trail too. and i almost step in the ladies dog's shit. big pile of dog shit and pee right in the middle of the sidewalk. wtf? the area runs through woods. and she has the dog dump right in the middle. big pile of steaming crap. and i was the one annoying her by waving about 3 minutes earlier. sometimes i hate people. so i almost walk from there. just kinda lost my happy run thing. but i get mad and run because she couldnt. so ha. run to the first water stop - and its there. finally i get to swallow the big chunk of chocolate goop in my throat! :-)
after this i have only a bit more than a mile to go and i run on, usually the last mile is hard, regardless of the distance, sorta like the first. i hate 3 mile runs its all first and last miles! but i am running, coming into town and pretty happy and two teenagers run past me all laughing. ah, well, things are better. but they are all happy because they found a bunch of glass and smashed it all over the sidewalk for about half a mile. glass in piles all over. i smile anyway. whatever.
just got back from staging my water for an 18 mile run... should be a lot more boring, which today is just fine!
ran the old shoes and they felt great. so i now know that i have two sets i can count on. ( somehow this makes me think of resa... hmm... ) well. anyway nice to know i can swap back and forth.
so... about the 10 yesterday. again i ran on the sidewalk between the golf course and town. its 5 miles long so a ten round trip. i put water at about 1.25 miles from each end. so about 2.5 between water breaks. running out i went into the sun and the wind. the wind you know about, it was a bit breezy and comes in small gusts so you are always guessing when you have to lean a bit. kinda annoying. :-) but the sun for me is worse. it was getting later in the day and the sun was right in front of me. the trees are what make it tricky. the path is between a lot of trees and the sun comes in and out of them the whole way so its like those horror house places with the flash strobe bulb and people seem to jump around weird. so i spent most of the time looking down as i ran. didn't see any glass or dog poop on the trail either.
i get my drinks and run along. the first 2 miles again are the hardest. this is getting kinda weird - and i am going to try to pay special attention to starting a bit slow from now on - its not fun to be out of breath about 300 yards from the start. and then 2 hours later running faster and not be breathing hard. really strange. so that's today's plan. but today... 18 or so should be lots of fun. and gads who knows what i will get.
so anyway i run all the way to the end and its in a bit of an open spot and now the sun is my friend as it is just sitting there and i am taking a break and eating a chocolate cliff bar.
ah. was all in all a good if not great first half. i am really looking forward to running back with the wind and the sun pushing me along. so i start back. the first water is gone! and after my big chocolate goopy sticky bar i was really hoping to wash it down. 3 kids are playing with the bottle splashing gatorade all over the trail. great. thought about asking them where my drink went but they would have just stared or lied to me. so i ran on. what point i guess. never see them again anyway, just kids of renters. ah, well, so now i am in not such a good mood. next an old lady is walking her dog towards me at about mile 7. i work up some happy and smile and wave to her. but she ignores me, probably i am one of those jogging molesters that you hear about. so i shrug and plod on thinking for sure my other bottle is going to be gone now too. probably the kids will steal a car and race ahead and empty that on the trail too. and i almost step in the ladies dog's shit. big pile of dog shit and pee right in the middle of the sidewalk. wtf? the area runs through woods. and she has the dog dump right in the middle. big pile of steaming crap. and i was the one annoying her by waving about 3 minutes earlier. sometimes i hate people. so i almost walk from there. just kinda lost my happy run thing. but i get mad and run because she couldnt. so ha. run to the first water stop - and its there. finally i get to swallow the big chunk of chocolate goop in my throat! :-)
after this i have only a bit more than a mile to go and i run on, usually the last mile is hard, regardless of the distance, sorta like the first. i hate 3 mile runs its all first and last miles! but i am running, coming into town and pretty happy and two teenagers run past me all laughing. ah, well, things are better. but they are all happy because they found a bunch of glass and smashed it all over the sidewalk for about half a mile. glass in piles all over. i smile anyway. whatever.
just got back from staging my water for an 18 mile run... should be a lot more boring, which today is just fine!
Thursday, December 3, 2009
ten the hard way
still tired from the monster week last week. but there i was sitting there... looking at my new shoes. and they are looking back at me. WOOF! lets gooooo woof woof!
so i strap em on and run 10. gads i was dead for the first 3 miles. resa's mother dropped me off in town so i was stuck - i had to do the run. or i might not have. i was really sore for the first half hour, but it didnt so much as go away as just faded into that long run pain thats normal. so after about 3 miles i felt normal if not good and then i hit the gas a bit and ran a pretty fast next 6 miles. the last mile was as always a brain thing. is it done? is it?? isit isit?? isitiististiitisis??!?!? done??? but finally it was. :-)
the thing that really picked me up during the run was the blue angels. they are here in the gulf doing a show and they take VIPs up for a ride about 30 times a day. two planes just do circles over the town and the house. and i was running between them. so every 20 minutes or so i here the thunder noise and then the WHOOOSH as they go by right over head. they fly pretty low and make a ton of noise doing it too. so that was a good adrenaline boost.
and speaking of boosts - i didnt try the 5 hour energy this time. i think i will save it for half marathons and longer. also i was lax about taping my foot and of course paid for that with a blister. right foot is a disaster right now. the ankle is sore - as it has been for the last 3 months. the blister on my toe on that foot is still there, the nail is still black and now the ball of my foot is really sore there too. the left foot is at 100%. weird.
so i strap em on and run 10. gads i was dead for the first 3 miles. resa's mother dropped me off in town so i was stuck - i had to do the run. or i might not have. i was really sore for the first half hour, but it didnt so much as go away as just faded into that long run pain thats normal. so after about 3 miles i felt normal if not good and then i hit the gas a bit and ran a pretty fast next 6 miles. the last mile was as always a brain thing. is it done? is it?? isit isit?? isitiististiitisis??!?!? done??? but finally it was. :-)
the thing that really picked me up during the run was the blue angels. they are here in the gulf doing a show and they take VIPs up for a ride about 30 times a day. two planes just do circles over the town and the house. and i was running between them. so every 20 minutes or so i here the thunder noise and then the WHOOOSH as they go by right over head. they fly pretty low and make a ton of noise doing it too. so that was a good adrenaline boost.
and speaking of boosts - i didnt try the 5 hour energy this time. i think i will save it for half marathons and longer. also i was lax about taping my foot and of course paid for that with a blister. right foot is a disaster right now. the ankle is sore - as it has been for the last 3 months. the blister on my toe on that foot is still there, the nail is still black and now the ball of my foot is really sore there too. the left foot is at 100%. weird.
Sunday, November 29, 2009
turned 60
so we ran about 60 miles in the last 7 days. pretty tough stuff for us. runs of 12,12,3,13,18...
but today is off. :-)
never did this before. pretty gassed now. sure beats being sick though.
very strangely the hardest run of them all was the 3 mile one. did that on thursday, and i spent the entire time out of breath. which you would think would be impossible. but maybe it was all in my head. running for 30 minutes thinking crap crap crap - i have over 30 miles to go in the next two days. but we are trying to get ready for Goofy as you guys all know. so we figure if we can do 30 while already pretty beat down then 40 after a week off should be pretty doable.
we have been running down here in Gulf Shores Alabama. the temps were pretty brutal, it plummeted into the high 50s for one of the runs. makes me shiver just thinking about it. so the first run, the 3 mile one was just out to the road and back. but my legs felt like logs and i was totally out of breath. after all just a few days earlier we did back to back 12 mile runs and it wouldnt be too unusual for me to feel tired. but i feared mightily for the next two days.
the next day we did the 13 mile run. we had our niece drive us into town which is 13.2 miles away. along the route every 3 miles we left some drinkies. i also brought along a cliff bar and a shot block. the shot blocks are pretty easy on my stomach. i think i could eat one of them every mile and get a lot of the calories i need that way. its easy to stuff them in your cheek like they are a wad of chewing tobaco. we also ran with sheila, resa's sister. she used to run marathons and about a year ago when we decided to try ironman canada she said she wanted to get back in shape too. so she is a bit out of shape but remembers what its like to run the long distances. the we let her do the pace making as she is the slowest at the moment. the first mile we ran at 13 mins a mile, the second mile at 12, then 11 then 10 then 9, faster and faster. after that we were pretty much back at 12 minute miles as everyone was pretty dead. i would say resa had by far the best day. sheila only planned on running 10 and she did that. i give myself a 7 on the run. was pretty strong for the first 10 miles but dragged in the last 3.
also i tried something new during the run. for the marathon in the fall we did a lot of long runs. but i was going from a non-runner to a marathon in about 5 months. and it was pretty tough. but my biggest regret was that i didnt try more things out during the long runs. the short runs dont have much to try out be cause you are not really in the hurting zone. what food to eat during one of those gruelling never ending 3 mile runs??? so during the marathon i was thinking i was going to try a lot more experiments during my next set of long runs. if it doesnt work then i dont have to ever think about it again. if it works then better and better.
some of the things we have tried involve recovery. here are the things i have noticed helping me after a long run:
1 - eat protein. a lot of it. and right after the run. either a heavy protein shake, or a bunch of cottage cheese. usually i am eating that while still breathing hard. we run to the car after the trail on a 12 miler and get the door open and the food in our mouths within about 20 seconds of finishing.
2 - chill the legs. either the garden hose, the bathtub filled with water as cold as it can get or a pond or pool in the fall. we stand in the water for about 10-15 minutes while eating. you really notice the chill getting in. but then you go pretty numb.
3 - drink drink drink over the next 20 hours. including in the middle of the night. get up to pee, drink a glass, sleep 2 hours and repeat. this really helps.
4 - advil. what to say? advil.
5 - massage / stretch. do the self massage thing on your legs and the dumb runners stretch while watching tv or a movie or just in bed before you go to sleep. takes about 15 minutes. not too sure on how much this helps. i feel it does, but its not an immediate thing like the others seem to be. seems worth it though.
6 - walk a half mile about 5 hours after the run. read this somewhere. like you have a clog of crap in your muscles and the 10 minute walk will be like blowing your nose. it blows out the junk in your legs. not sure if thats what happens but it sure keeps you from being tight, which is painful for me especially after sleeping. so we try to do this. we do it about 1/2 of the time. worth the effort i feel.
and so, during our 13 mile run i decided to try something new. i dont drink caffeine, at all. i eat the occasional chocolate - about once a month but otherwise none at all. about 15 years ago i nearly died from it. spent about 8 hours in the hospital with docs 3 rows deep around me running about 5 machines and pumping drugs into me. they said i should have died. but... heh. just lucky. so i dont like caffeine obviously. and its abit scary as you would imagine drinking it. just the thought of drinking a coffee or a can of pop gives me pretty creepy scared feelings. soooo.... watching football last weekend there is an add for 5 Hour Energy. its soooo good for you!!! it has only natural things in it. it has apples and all sorts of stuff that is good for you. plus a bunch of caffeine. but its good caffeine and doesnt give you the shakes. ok.
also many years ago i read a study on caffeine and running. if you drink coffee or soda you are pretty much screwed, your body is already used to it and you really have to drink like 10 cups before a race to get much help from it. however, if you don't ever drink caffeine then the occasional jolt of it is huge. they did tests and people who tried running with it when they were not used to it got tons of personal bests. it was staggeringly big improvement. and i filed that away as i dont drink it ever. someday i would try drinking a soda before a race. i did do that and felt really nasty about 10 years ago. shakes and headache and panic and it just sucked. so never again i thought.
but on TV they say its the best, no shakes just fun times. so. i bought one on while in line at the checkout.
when they were putting together the bomb in the 40s the scientists put radioactive material close together to measure how much radiation was given off. they called this tickling the dragons tail. some guys died doing this. you had to get it just right, close but not too close.
so the 13 mile run comes and i am feeling nasty about the 3 mile run the day before. and i think well, might as well try something on a long run. so i pop the top on the little happy bottle of death and take a swig. i drank about 1/10th the bottle. probably a gulp of coke worth of caffeine. which is what most people use to wash down a french fry. not much. but i am right away all paranoid and waiting for my heart to stop.
we do the 13 miles and about mile 10 i am gassed. dragged the last three in and we go through the post race recovery stuff. we also get new running shoes.
next morning and my left knee is sore. which never happens. i have 2 leg braces, alternating use on my right messed up knee. i put one on each leg for the first time ever. also the 90% full bottle of 5 Hour Energy is still sitting there. i grab it and drink down half the motherscratcher.
tickle the dragons tail.
well, today is an out and back for 18 and i am pretty tired already. the new shoes are on their first ever run and the double knee brace and go-go juice is running through me.
had a great run. great.
the stuff i think gave me a boost. it lasted about till mile 16-17 when i finally crashed. resa was about the same way - she was done at mile 16ish also but we pushed to 17 and then had a one mile cool down. about mile 14ish we found some people stuck in the sand and spent 20 minutes straining and pushing their truck back to the road. this for sure caused us the loss of the last mile or two - but it was kinda fun too. we jumped into the swimming pool to chill our legs. and i was pretty darn happy. :-)
so the double knee thing may be permanent, might get a few more of those for the long runs. my knee felt great after the run, both did. was really nice. had a sore spot on my right foot from the new shoes but they are better than the old ones. might be i would have got that sore spot regardless of what shoes i wore. the left foot felt much better in the new shoes so they are keepers. might try the whole bottle the next time i run over 15 miles. heh! thats in like 6 days!
couple of days off and then back at it...
but today is off. :-)
never did this before. pretty gassed now. sure beats being sick though.
very strangely the hardest run of them all was the 3 mile one. did that on thursday, and i spent the entire time out of breath. which you would think would be impossible. but maybe it was all in my head. running for 30 minutes thinking crap crap crap - i have over 30 miles to go in the next two days. but we are trying to get ready for Goofy as you guys all know. so we figure if we can do 30 while already pretty beat down then 40 after a week off should be pretty doable.
we have been running down here in Gulf Shores Alabama. the temps were pretty brutal, it plummeted into the high 50s for one of the runs. makes me shiver just thinking about it. so the first run, the 3 mile one was just out to the road and back. but my legs felt like logs and i was totally out of breath. after all just a few days earlier we did back to back 12 mile runs and it wouldnt be too unusual for me to feel tired. but i feared mightily for the next two days.
the next day we did the 13 mile run. we had our niece drive us into town which is 13.2 miles away. along the route every 3 miles we left some drinkies. i also brought along a cliff bar and a shot block. the shot blocks are pretty easy on my stomach. i think i could eat one of them every mile and get a lot of the calories i need that way. its easy to stuff them in your cheek like they are a wad of chewing tobaco. we also ran with sheila, resa's sister. she used to run marathons and about a year ago when we decided to try ironman canada she said she wanted to get back in shape too. so she is a bit out of shape but remembers what its like to run the long distances. the we let her do the pace making as she is the slowest at the moment. the first mile we ran at 13 mins a mile, the second mile at 12, then 11 then 10 then 9, faster and faster. after that we were pretty much back at 12 minute miles as everyone was pretty dead. i would say resa had by far the best day. sheila only planned on running 10 and she did that. i give myself a 7 on the run. was pretty strong for the first 10 miles but dragged in the last 3.
also i tried something new during the run. for the marathon in the fall we did a lot of long runs. but i was going from a non-runner to a marathon in about 5 months. and it was pretty tough. but my biggest regret was that i didnt try more things out during the long runs. the short runs dont have much to try out be cause you are not really in the hurting zone. what food to eat during one of those gruelling never ending 3 mile runs??? so during the marathon i was thinking i was going to try a lot more experiments during my next set of long runs. if it doesnt work then i dont have to ever think about it again. if it works then better and better.
some of the things we have tried involve recovery. here are the things i have noticed helping me after a long run:
1 - eat protein. a lot of it. and right after the run. either a heavy protein shake, or a bunch of cottage cheese. usually i am eating that while still breathing hard. we run to the car after the trail on a 12 miler and get the door open and the food in our mouths within about 20 seconds of finishing.
2 - chill the legs. either the garden hose, the bathtub filled with water as cold as it can get or a pond or pool in the fall. we stand in the water for about 10-15 minutes while eating. you really notice the chill getting in. but then you go pretty numb.
3 - drink drink drink over the next 20 hours. including in the middle of the night. get up to pee, drink a glass, sleep 2 hours and repeat. this really helps.
4 - advil. what to say? advil.
5 - massage / stretch. do the self massage thing on your legs and the dumb runners stretch while watching tv or a movie or just in bed before you go to sleep. takes about 15 minutes. not too sure on how much this helps. i feel it does, but its not an immediate thing like the others seem to be. seems worth it though.
6 - walk a half mile about 5 hours after the run. read this somewhere. like you have a clog of crap in your muscles and the 10 minute walk will be like blowing your nose. it blows out the junk in your legs. not sure if thats what happens but it sure keeps you from being tight, which is painful for me especially after sleeping. so we try to do this. we do it about 1/2 of the time. worth the effort i feel.
and so, during our 13 mile run i decided to try something new. i dont drink caffeine, at all. i eat the occasional chocolate - about once a month but otherwise none at all. about 15 years ago i nearly died from it. spent about 8 hours in the hospital with docs 3 rows deep around me running about 5 machines and pumping drugs into me. they said i should have died. but... heh. just lucky. so i dont like caffeine obviously. and its abit scary as you would imagine drinking it. just the thought of drinking a coffee or a can of pop gives me pretty creepy scared feelings. soooo.... watching football last weekend there is an add for 5 Hour Energy. its soooo good for you!!! it has only natural things in it. it has apples and all sorts of stuff that is good for you. plus a bunch of caffeine. but its good caffeine and doesnt give you the shakes. ok.
also many years ago i read a study on caffeine and running. if you drink coffee or soda you are pretty much screwed, your body is already used to it and you really have to drink like 10 cups before a race to get much help from it. however, if you don't ever drink caffeine then the occasional jolt of it is huge. they did tests and people who tried running with it when they were not used to it got tons of personal bests. it was staggeringly big improvement. and i filed that away as i dont drink it ever. someday i would try drinking a soda before a race. i did do that and felt really nasty about 10 years ago. shakes and headache and panic and it just sucked. so never again i thought.
but on TV they say its the best, no shakes just fun times. so. i bought one on while in line at the checkout.
when they were putting together the bomb in the 40s the scientists put radioactive material close together to measure how much radiation was given off. they called this tickling the dragons tail. some guys died doing this. you had to get it just right, close but not too close.
so the 13 mile run comes and i am feeling nasty about the 3 mile run the day before. and i think well, might as well try something on a long run. so i pop the top on the little happy bottle of death and take a swig. i drank about 1/10th the bottle. probably a gulp of coke worth of caffeine. which is what most people use to wash down a french fry. not much. but i am right away all paranoid and waiting for my heart to stop.
we do the 13 miles and about mile 10 i am gassed. dragged the last three in and we go through the post race recovery stuff. we also get new running shoes.
next morning and my left knee is sore. which never happens. i have 2 leg braces, alternating use on my right messed up knee. i put one on each leg for the first time ever. also the 90% full bottle of 5 Hour Energy is still sitting there. i grab it and drink down half the motherscratcher.
tickle the dragons tail.
well, today is an out and back for 18 and i am pretty tired already. the new shoes are on their first ever run and the double knee brace and go-go juice is running through me.
had a great run. great.
the stuff i think gave me a boost. it lasted about till mile 16-17 when i finally crashed. resa was about the same way - she was done at mile 16ish also but we pushed to 17 and then had a one mile cool down. about mile 14ish we found some people stuck in the sand and spent 20 minutes straining and pushing their truck back to the road. this for sure caused us the loss of the last mile or two - but it was kinda fun too. we jumped into the swimming pool to chill our legs. and i was pretty darn happy. :-)
so the double knee thing may be permanent, might get a few more of those for the long runs. my knee felt great after the run, both did. was really nice. had a sore spot on my right foot from the new shoes but they are better than the old ones. might be i would have got that sore spot regardless of what shoes i wore. the left foot felt much better in the new shoes so they are keepers. might try the whole bottle the next time i run over 15 miles. heh! thats in like 6 days!
couple of days off and then back at it...
Monday, November 23, 2009
better
feeling much better health wise. finally. :-)
dead in the legs as we ran 12 on saturday and another 12 on sunday. both at very good times for us. both at under 2:20 halfs. which would be PB for us. whew - was tricky the second day though. did the soak the legs and massage thing. seems to help - but they are pretty dead - just what i was hoping for last weekend.
need to be more relaxed on the run - i think i burn up too much energy with the tight body. need to be more sloppy i guess.
hoping to run run run over the next month and get it down to 10 mins/mile for 13 miles.
goofy is calling us - it sure is a tough one.
in other news i am heading down to alabama for the next 2 months. so should be some different run courses and hopefully the pool is open. probably something in town though - should be ok.
dead in the legs as we ran 12 on saturday and another 12 on sunday. both at very good times for us. both at under 2:20 halfs. which would be PB for us. whew - was tricky the second day though. did the soak the legs and massage thing. seems to help - but they are pretty dead - just what i was hoping for last weekend.
need to be more relaxed on the run - i think i burn up too much energy with the tight body. need to be more sloppy i guess.
hoping to run run run over the next month and get it down to 10 mins/mile for 13 miles.
goofy is calling us - it sure is a tough one.
in other news i am heading down to alabama for the next 2 months. so should be some different run courses and hopefully the pool is open. probably something in town though - should be ok.
Friday, November 20, 2009
getting back
foot feels tons better. give that a 9 on the ten scale. nice not having that sting everytime i take a step. also feeling much better healthwise.
did several runs and a swim over the last 3 days. today is off and then we have 15 and 10 mile runs on the weekend. hopefully its not the weak-end.
feeling good!
did several runs and a swim over the last 3 days. today is off and then we have 15 and 10 mile runs on the weekend. hopefully its not the weak-end.
feeling good!
Sunday, November 15, 2009
weekend
well, still very under the weather here sadly. but i did ride the bike on saturday for about 2 hours and then ran 12 miles today - but i am pretty dead. erf. i guess this is those hard days i have dreaded for a half year and never showed up. i wish it was due to working out and not to being sick though.
pressing on.
pressing on.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
N1H2345
went running thursday, friday and saturday. saturday was a bit tricky as i think i have the flu or something. after the run i was shivering and had 3 shirts and a coat on under the blankets. now its tuesday and i am finally feeling like walking around. pooop!
Thursday, November 5, 2009
thursday
did a speedy run and swim this morning - boy the pool sure feels warmer after a run. :-)
the biggest problem with my swimming is that i feel really dizzy after doing about a half mile. i think i must be turning my head too much and its getting me too spiny. anyone have this? maybe a head to one side only would fix this. i might try that next time. resa says my arms look better going into the water so thats good :-0
the biggest problem with my swimming is that i feel really dizzy after doing about a half mile. i think i must be turning my head too much and its getting me too spiny. anyone have this? maybe a head to one side only would fix this. i might try that next time. resa says my arms look better going into the water so thats good :-0
Monday, November 2, 2009
monday monday
used to not like mondays... not no more! :-)
did two runs over the weekend. a 8 and 10 miler. if you run two times within 24 hours its about the same as one long run i have heard. not sure but i guess thats possible.
well, back to it. now we are back in it and going strong for florida. weight down to 194. not sure if i am cheating that or not - seems like i am still eating quite a bit. :-)
did two runs over the weekend. a 8 and 10 miler. if you run two times within 24 hours its about the same as one long run i have heard. not sure but i guess thats possible.
well, back to it. now we are back in it and going strong for florida. weight down to 194. not sure if i am cheating that or not - seems like i am still eating quite a bit. :-)
Friday, October 30, 2009
going up
did the stairs for the first time. there is a monument to some dead president in the area and the front is about 60 steps. so we ran up that. then walked down and did it again. 4 whole times! wow. well. ok - i wasnt much - but we wanted to get a feel for it during a run. we plan on doing this a lot more. also went swimming this morning. so back on track. plan on 2 runs on the weekend
Thursday, October 29, 2009
i couldnt possibly. i have to run, swim and bike in the morning.
7 mile run last night - went pretty good. my foot is getting better. was still stingy but ok.
http://www.nasports.com/index.php?dir=RaceVids/imcan&vidname=RaceVid-2009-CAN-high&playtype=mov&w=480&h=400
swam this morning. not very much there :-) just splashing around in the pool.
i feel so awesome. this is the best.
http://www.nasports.com/index.php?dir=RaceVids/imcan&vidname=RaceVid-2009-CAN-high&playtype=mov&w=480&h=400
swam this morning. not very much there :-) just splashing around in the pool.
i feel so awesome. this is the best.
Monday, October 26, 2009
STAGE TWO: back to work you slobs
well, its back to work on the ole ironman thing.
ran about 5 yesterday to get it started. my foot still hurts from the pothole disaster and it pretty much didnt like the run yesterday, but i guess we cant wait around for a sore foot. so off we go for the next stage.
which is STAGE 2.
Stage Zero started in January. it was just biking and running and not even a trip to the pool. i mentioned i wanted to do the ironman and resa said she would do it with me. so mostly we biked and signed up for the 200 mile bike ride. which went pretty well. we are as i said mostly bikers that want to run. so we had some good biking days and i ran my weight from about 218 down to about 208 and that was stage zero.
Stage One started the week after the bike ride. we started running. signed up for our first marathon ( well mine anyway ) and mostly ran. with some swimming thrown in. i went from a max of 40 yards distance swimming to a one mile in 45 minutes. also my weight went from 208 to about 199 on marathon day. our cruising times for the half marathon went from 2:50 in the early summer to 2:25 on marathon day with i would guess a 2:15 half marathon good time now.
Stage Three, the current starts today ( after week off ) and goes till january 11, 2010. this is the Goofy 40 mile run over two days. a half marathon on saturday and a full on sunday. not really a huge difference, but we hope to set personal bests both days which is a HUGE goal we think. i am very certain we can set the saturday best half marathon, we could probably do that next week. but to come back a morning later and run a marahon in under 5:12 is going to be very very hard. so thats our goal. and so the big running section starts now. we hope to do a lot more runs per week. going from our lame 2 runs a week to about 4. with a lot of running on sat-sun too. the bike is in the garage for most of this. they come back out on the trainer in january like last year. also i am going to up my swimming. with a goal to swim the 2.4 miles in 1:45.
Stage Four will start in january/february and go 24 weeks to the Ironman. i dont look forward to that guy right now! LOL. should be a full time job by then. all three events three/four times a week.
ran about 5 yesterday to get it started. my foot still hurts from the pothole disaster and it pretty much didnt like the run yesterday, but i guess we cant wait around for a sore foot. so off we go for the next stage.
which is STAGE 2.
Stage Zero started in January. it was just biking and running and not even a trip to the pool. i mentioned i wanted to do the ironman and resa said she would do it with me. so mostly we biked and signed up for the 200 mile bike ride. which went pretty well. we are as i said mostly bikers that want to run. so we had some good biking days and i ran my weight from about 218 down to about 208 and that was stage zero.
Stage One started the week after the bike ride. we started running. signed up for our first marathon ( well mine anyway ) and mostly ran. with some swimming thrown in. i went from a max of 40 yards distance swimming to a one mile in 45 minutes. also my weight went from 208 to about 199 on marathon day. our cruising times for the half marathon went from 2:50 in the early summer to 2:25 on marathon day with i would guess a 2:15 half marathon good time now.
Stage Three, the current starts today ( after week off ) and goes till january 11, 2010. this is the Goofy 40 mile run over two days. a half marathon on saturday and a full on sunday. not really a huge difference, but we hope to set personal bests both days which is a HUGE goal we think. i am very certain we can set the saturday best half marathon, we could probably do that next week. but to come back a morning later and run a marahon in under 5:12 is going to be very very hard. so thats our goal. and so the big running section starts now. we hope to do a lot more runs per week. going from our lame 2 runs a week to about 4. with a lot of running on sat-sun too. the bike is in the garage for most of this. they come back out on the trainer in january like last year. also i am going to up my swimming. with a goal to swim the 2.4 miles in 1:45.
Stage Four will start in january/february and go 24 weeks to the Ironman. i dont look forward to that guy right now! LOL. should be a full time job by then. all three events three/four times a week.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Monday, October 19, 2009
marathon man.
ta-da.
about 20 years too late, but i am finally a marathon runner. :-)
hmmm... what a day it was. the short of it was it went really well. mostly. and then it was over and i had a fast time for me and a slow time for marathoners.
ahhh... just thinking on it now. pretty much the story starts the day before. saturday night. about 10 people showed up at the resa's sister's house. she lives about 20 minutes from the start so we spent the night there. about 8 of us were running in the marathon. i think 4 half and 4 full, actually i didnt know 3 or 4 of them and i think some of them ran too. but around 9 at night i decided to go to bed. i was the first one in for the night as i sleep really well. except before a sporting event. i will sleep about 300 days in a row from 3 seconds in bed to alarm clock at whatever time. and then the night before a big event i will sleep in 3 minute sections all night long. arg. and so i went to bed early to at least have more 3 minute sections. which i did get. i probably woke up 20 times over the next 4 hours while the late night people ran around the house yelling or whatever.
long story short i finally did wake up to the alarm clock at 5:30. felt like i finally got enough sleep for an event. usually its an adventure race and i am the map guy and i get the maps at 8 at night and get them plotted and sealed around 12 or 1 and the race starts at 5 or 6. not this time, lots of sleep. :-)
quick breakfast. did everything like always. and you know when you drive a car in a lot of traffic... and you cant just go swerving around the road all over the place. you have to do stuff just right to have it work out. well that lesson hit us in a strange way. resa and i both use body glide all over. behind ears and up noses and everywhere else. so we are both putting that on after breakfast. and she found an older stick of it in our luggage. it was about maybe 2 or 3 years old i would guess. but she found it about a week ago and dumped it into her running bag. so she reaches into the bag and there are probably 3 sticks in there but she pulls out the old one. just blind chance. and puts it on. and about 5 minutes later she says its burning. and 10 minutes later she is back in the bathroom with wet towels wiping it off everywhere. and still today on monday she is bright red where she put it on, says it stings still. weird. i mean wtf? so dont do anything different includes everything. wow. ever-reee-thing.
i did a lot of guessing on the clothes to wear. i am cold mostly. if its 60 out i am cold. oddly i dont like it hot though. i have about a 3 degree range of weather where i am happy. which means never. or only during about 1 hour of a run. so it was cold. at freezing during the start. i asked all the 3 hour people what they were going to wear. shorts and a t-shirt. maybe a jacket for the first 10 miles, er i mean first hour. well, that wouldn't work for me. i was planning on somewhere between 5:45 and 5:00. ( we are really slow )
well, i decided to take the advice of some of the bloggers and friends. i put on 3 layers on the bottom and 4 on the top.
BANG! gun goes off. actually we didnt even notice the start as we were six thousand yards from the starting area. but the line started moving and so we went running. ah. first marathon. actually second, but the real first one i didnt think i could finish because i could hardly walk and ran half of it for resa's first ever marathon about 6 years ago. she had a really hard day that time, lots of puking on the course. it was a very hilly and poluted part of south africa.
anyway. off and running the columbus marathon. not half. like i have said about 20 times in my life. 20 halfs and now my first ever full. full. a full focking marathon. full... meaning keep going by the finish when 70% of the people turn off there. wow.
so the plan was to run somewhat fast the first half and then suck it up the second half. which all in all is what we did. the first 3 miles were uphill and we ran them pretty steady. my clothes felt great, but i got a bit warm at the end of the 3 and dumped the outer layer after giving it some serious thought. turned out to be the right decision. also had hand warmers in my gloves which lasted to mile 10. really good. everything went well. almost. :-)
downhill miles and uphill miles. there are 3 small long hills on the whole first half. very fast. we walked every water station. drank drank drank. i also chewed my cliff shot bar as the day went on. 4,5,6,7,8... no problems. just a nagging doubt that grew as we went. we were picking up the pace a bit. at this time we were on about a 5:00 finish pace. which was about as fast as our very best expected time. but... we felt good. it would have been more work to go slower. which was also a big change due to the track workouts. most people were passing us over the first 10 miles. they we passed one or two, got passed by 20 or 30... mile 12... and running uphill to the finish! almost there!!! there! nope. thats the half. we didnt even look at them leaving. just plodded up the hill. and then down the far side and spat out into the empty streets. at mile 12 we were packed in tight with the half marathoners, the 5 and 10k guys the huge crowds watching them, bands playing... then at 14 there are crickets. the marathon people were 1 or more hours ahead of us. no crowds. we did see a homeless guy and some wacky guy clapping. resa said she saw a prostitute. this usually interests me but i was a bit tired. from running our all time fastest half marathon. 2:28 was our previous best ever in 20 races. ( we are slow ) today we got there in 2:25 and were feeling much stronger than ever before at that distance. goes to show you can get better even if you are old! so keep training kids!!! we did some chattering between ourselves about how we would have run the half if thats what we wanted to do as a total distance. we did some training runs of 12 miles where we thought we could have gone low 2:20s. but this was the first time we actually did 13.1 miles at that pace. did we pay for it later? maybe. but i am not sure. we paid, but it was worth the fairly cheap price i think. ;-)
so we run with our groups of 4 or 5 people and they are no longer faster than us. most of the people who ran past were half marathoners having a good day. not many people at 2:30 doing the marathon were blasting around the course at this time. 14,15,16 and its mostly flat or downhill. i am struggling on the uphills now. hill training is next on my list of crap to do. also my stomach is flipping. and i am now taking an interest in drinking the city hose water instead of the hose water gatorade. i pop in the second to last chewy gummy and run on. downhill to the football stadium to meet our first friends. they are bringing the special happy gatorade and candies! awesome!!! we run through the stadium parking lot and out the other side. no friends. ahh well. :-/ and we were hoping to get all that here because the next two miles are uphill several hundred feet. and we thought we might walk some of it before the race started. at this point, mile 17 we planned on having a lunch type meal - well candies and good drinks. and walk the hill and then bomb down the other side. we were still at the 5:00 pace. well, we did pretty much walk the hill. 2 miles of pretty much climbing. hill training is next... ahem.
mile 19 and we have lost 10 minutes on our 5 hour pace. but we are now pretty gassed. 20,21,22 all downhill and we keep the previous pace for this part. just as we had planned. bombed down the hill. but bombing was now not so fast. just normal running on a long steep downhill. so we didnt lose time here, but we sure didnt gain any either. 6 miles of water only stops have totally re-set my stomach and i feel actually better at mile 23 than at 17. also i am getting a second wind. well second breeze anyway. well, things were not getting worse at least. other than at mile 16ish i tripped over some road pothole and went windmilling for about 5 staggering strides. everyone around us found it pretty interesting i remember. well my right ankle is hurting pretty bad from it. (and still is) i am trying very hard not to change my stride into a limpy one sided thing as that leads to all sorts of pain. also our friends on bikes find us at about mile 20! very cool present. and we were talking about it as they showed up. in one of the weirder moments of the run some guys are playing some song and resa starts yelling, i think it must be some awesome grunge song i dont know. but its our friends with yummies!
mile 24 and thats it. bang. we are done. resa was strong until the bottom of the hill, having i would say a slightly better day than me. i would rate our days up to that compared to training runs as ken:8 resa:9. which is absolutely incredible. i dont score between 7-9 like the olympics. if a guy wipes out in the olympics and still gets a 7 or 8 thats just crap. a total failure wipe out should be a 1. not an 8. well we have had runs where i have felt like a 4 to start and ended up a 1 staggering back to the car. and by stagger i mean barely conscious. walk 10 feet. sit, walk 20 feet. sit. hours to get a few miles.
i give me a 9 on running and a 10 on that days prep and a 6 on my stomach. resa gets a 6 for prep - great clothes, food. nasty body glide. and a 10 on running and a 9 on eating. but at mile 24 with 2 to go and we fall off the table on the numbers. running goes to about 4 for me, and 3 for resa as her stomach blows up. but its 2 to go and i told dave i would run this one for him. sorry dave, it was the lamest mile of the 26. but... :-) maybe thats fitting - not that you are lame, but that you are certainly going through a harder time than even that 25th mile was for us. so a few sneaky tears and then mile 26 starts.
longest ever run already for me and the last mile in a half is certainly a brain teaser for us. it never ends. and then they tack on more distance. oddly not this time. it lasted longer for sure. it was mostly walking, at least half a mile of walking. but we were done. needed just about 5 more miles of strength and we would have beat our fantasy time of 5 hours. but they say anyone can run 20 miles. i guess so :-) cause we did.
so last quarter mile. "lets run this bitch" she suggests. or something that hinted that. so we ran. ran past the 26 mile marker. done! nope. still have .2 to go. we run faster. its downhill and we are pounding it out. really fast. its fun. i see the finish a hundred yards away and i swing out a bit wide and we run like maniacs past everyone. sprinting and breathing hard at the end and we cross with me doing the crazy yelling arm pumping thing. cant wait to see those pictures. i was the classic finish in 5:12 minute guy who thinks he won. i still do.
wow. what a day. foot hurts. legs ache. no chaffing. clothes great. stomach brought back from the brink and wow. i felt like one huge monkey was off my back and wow.
so we dont know our official time yet but 5:12 or 5:13 is what we guessed. personal bests for both of us. mark our nephew who is also signed for canada iroman was hoping to break 4 hours. he just sqeeked under 3:20 so i guess he had a good day. it was his first marathon too. he said he ran a few times over the last month to get ready. guess it worked. :-)
the course was great. tons of bands and people on it. wonderful medal and just all around great day.
big thanks to resa for pulling me through the run.
a few days off and we start training for the 40 mile run in january.
about 20 years too late, but i am finally a marathon runner. :-)
hmmm... what a day it was. the short of it was it went really well. mostly. and then it was over and i had a fast time for me and a slow time for marathoners.
ahhh... just thinking on it now. pretty much the story starts the day before. saturday night. about 10 people showed up at the resa's sister's house. she lives about 20 minutes from the start so we spent the night there. about 8 of us were running in the marathon. i think 4 half and 4 full, actually i didnt know 3 or 4 of them and i think some of them ran too. but around 9 at night i decided to go to bed. i was the first one in for the night as i sleep really well. except before a sporting event. i will sleep about 300 days in a row from 3 seconds in bed to alarm clock at whatever time. and then the night before a big event i will sleep in 3 minute sections all night long. arg. and so i went to bed early to at least have more 3 minute sections. which i did get. i probably woke up 20 times over the next 4 hours while the late night people ran around the house yelling or whatever.
long story short i finally did wake up to the alarm clock at 5:30. felt like i finally got enough sleep for an event. usually its an adventure race and i am the map guy and i get the maps at 8 at night and get them plotted and sealed around 12 or 1 and the race starts at 5 or 6. not this time, lots of sleep. :-)
quick breakfast. did everything like always. and you know when you drive a car in a lot of traffic... and you cant just go swerving around the road all over the place. you have to do stuff just right to have it work out. well that lesson hit us in a strange way. resa and i both use body glide all over. behind ears and up noses and everywhere else. so we are both putting that on after breakfast. and she found an older stick of it in our luggage. it was about maybe 2 or 3 years old i would guess. but she found it about a week ago and dumped it into her running bag. so she reaches into the bag and there are probably 3 sticks in there but she pulls out the old one. just blind chance. and puts it on. and about 5 minutes later she says its burning. and 10 minutes later she is back in the bathroom with wet towels wiping it off everywhere. and still today on monday she is bright red where she put it on, says it stings still. weird. i mean wtf? so dont do anything different includes everything. wow. ever-reee-thing.
i did a lot of guessing on the clothes to wear. i am cold mostly. if its 60 out i am cold. oddly i dont like it hot though. i have about a 3 degree range of weather where i am happy. which means never. or only during about 1 hour of a run. so it was cold. at freezing during the start. i asked all the 3 hour people what they were going to wear. shorts and a t-shirt. maybe a jacket for the first 10 miles, er i mean first hour. well, that wouldn't work for me. i was planning on somewhere between 5:45 and 5:00. ( we are really slow )
well, i decided to take the advice of some of the bloggers and friends. i put on 3 layers on the bottom and 4 on the top.
BANG! gun goes off. actually we didnt even notice the start as we were six thousand yards from the starting area. but the line started moving and so we went running. ah. first marathon. actually second, but the real first one i didnt think i could finish because i could hardly walk and ran half of it for resa's first ever marathon about 6 years ago. she had a really hard day that time, lots of puking on the course. it was a very hilly and poluted part of south africa.
anyway. off and running the columbus marathon. not half. like i have said about 20 times in my life. 20 halfs and now my first ever full. full. a full focking marathon. full... meaning keep going by the finish when 70% of the people turn off there. wow.
so the plan was to run somewhat fast the first half and then suck it up the second half. which all in all is what we did. the first 3 miles were uphill and we ran them pretty steady. my clothes felt great, but i got a bit warm at the end of the 3 and dumped the outer layer after giving it some serious thought. turned out to be the right decision. also had hand warmers in my gloves which lasted to mile 10. really good. everything went well. almost. :-)
downhill miles and uphill miles. there are 3 small long hills on the whole first half. very fast. we walked every water station. drank drank drank. i also chewed my cliff shot bar as the day went on. 4,5,6,7,8... no problems. just a nagging doubt that grew as we went. we were picking up the pace a bit. at this time we were on about a 5:00 finish pace. which was about as fast as our very best expected time. but... we felt good. it would have been more work to go slower. which was also a big change due to the track workouts. most people were passing us over the first 10 miles. they we passed one or two, got passed by 20 or 30... mile 12... and running uphill to the finish! almost there!!! there! nope. thats the half. we didnt even look at them leaving. just plodded up the hill. and then down the far side and spat out into the empty streets. at mile 12 we were packed in tight with the half marathoners, the 5 and 10k guys the huge crowds watching them, bands playing... then at 14 there are crickets. the marathon people were 1 or more hours ahead of us. no crowds. we did see a homeless guy and some wacky guy clapping. resa said she saw a prostitute. this usually interests me but i was a bit tired. from running our all time fastest half marathon. 2:28 was our previous best ever in 20 races. ( we are slow ) today we got there in 2:25 and were feeling much stronger than ever before at that distance. goes to show you can get better even if you are old! so keep training kids!!! we did some chattering between ourselves about how we would have run the half if thats what we wanted to do as a total distance. we did some training runs of 12 miles where we thought we could have gone low 2:20s. but this was the first time we actually did 13.1 miles at that pace. did we pay for it later? maybe. but i am not sure. we paid, but it was worth the fairly cheap price i think. ;-)
so we run with our groups of 4 or 5 people and they are no longer faster than us. most of the people who ran past were half marathoners having a good day. not many people at 2:30 doing the marathon were blasting around the course at this time. 14,15,16 and its mostly flat or downhill. i am struggling on the uphills now. hill training is next on my list of crap to do. also my stomach is flipping. and i am now taking an interest in drinking the city hose water instead of the hose water gatorade. i pop in the second to last chewy gummy and run on. downhill to the football stadium to meet our first friends. they are bringing the special happy gatorade and candies! awesome!!! we run through the stadium parking lot and out the other side. no friends. ahh well. :-/ and we were hoping to get all that here because the next two miles are uphill several hundred feet. and we thought we might walk some of it before the race started. at this point, mile 17 we planned on having a lunch type meal - well candies and good drinks. and walk the hill and then bomb down the other side. we were still at the 5:00 pace. well, we did pretty much walk the hill. 2 miles of pretty much climbing. hill training is next... ahem.
mile 19 and we have lost 10 minutes on our 5 hour pace. but we are now pretty gassed. 20,21,22 all downhill and we keep the previous pace for this part. just as we had planned. bombed down the hill. but bombing was now not so fast. just normal running on a long steep downhill. so we didnt lose time here, but we sure didnt gain any either. 6 miles of water only stops have totally re-set my stomach and i feel actually better at mile 23 than at 17. also i am getting a second wind. well second breeze anyway. well, things were not getting worse at least. other than at mile 16ish i tripped over some road pothole and went windmilling for about 5 staggering strides. everyone around us found it pretty interesting i remember. well my right ankle is hurting pretty bad from it. (and still is) i am trying very hard not to change my stride into a limpy one sided thing as that leads to all sorts of pain. also our friends on bikes find us at about mile 20! very cool present. and we were talking about it as they showed up. in one of the weirder moments of the run some guys are playing some song and resa starts yelling, i think it must be some awesome grunge song i dont know. but its our friends with yummies!
mile 24 and thats it. bang. we are done. resa was strong until the bottom of the hill, having i would say a slightly better day than me. i would rate our days up to that compared to training runs as ken:8 resa:9. which is absolutely incredible. i dont score between 7-9 like the olympics. if a guy wipes out in the olympics and still gets a 7 or 8 thats just crap. a total failure wipe out should be a 1. not an 8. well we have had runs where i have felt like a 4 to start and ended up a 1 staggering back to the car. and by stagger i mean barely conscious. walk 10 feet. sit, walk 20 feet. sit. hours to get a few miles.
i give me a 9 on running and a 10 on that days prep and a 6 on my stomach. resa gets a 6 for prep - great clothes, food. nasty body glide. and a 10 on running and a 9 on eating. but at mile 24 with 2 to go and we fall off the table on the numbers. running goes to about 4 for me, and 3 for resa as her stomach blows up. but its 2 to go and i told dave i would run this one for him. sorry dave, it was the lamest mile of the 26. but... :-) maybe thats fitting - not that you are lame, but that you are certainly going through a harder time than even that 25th mile was for us. so a few sneaky tears and then mile 26 starts.
longest ever run already for me and the last mile in a half is certainly a brain teaser for us. it never ends. and then they tack on more distance. oddly not this time. it lasted longer for sure. it was mostly walking, at least half a mile of walking. but we were done. needed just about 5 more miles of strength and we would have beat our fantasy time of 5 hours. but they say anyone can run 20 miles. i guess so :-) cause we did.
so last quarter mile. "lets run this bitch" she suggests. or something that hinted that. so we ran. ran past the 26 mile marker. done! nope. still have .2 to go. we run faster. its downhill and we are pounding it out. really fast. its fun. i see the finish a hundred yards away and i swing out a bit wide and we run like maniacs past everyone. sprinting and breathing hard at the end and we cross with me doing the crazy yelling arm pumping thing. cant wait to see those pictures. i was the classic finish in 5:12 minute guy who thinks he won. i still do.
wow. what a day. foot hurts. legs ache. no chaffing. clothes great. stomach brought back from the brink and wow. i felt like one huge monkey was off my back and wow.
so we dont know our official time yet but 5:12 or 5:13 is what we guessed. personal bests for both of us. mark our nephew who is also signed for canada iroman was hoping to break 4 hours. he just sqeeked under 3:20 so i guess he had a good day. it was his first marathon too. he said he ran a few times over the last month to get ready. guess it worked. :-)
the course was great. tons of bands and people on it. wonderful medal and just all around great day.
big thanks to resa for pulling me through the run.
a few days off and we start training for the 40 mile run in january.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
AHHHHHHH!!!
getting so ancy. gads. its EASIER to be running the 20 and 17 mile long run weekends than sitting around. never ever thought i would think this.
sit sit sit sit.
sit
sit sit sit sit.
sit
Monday, October 12, 2009
one week to go
just a week til the first marathon of my life. so i am busy doing very little.
went on a 7 mile run yesterday and plan a 3 mile run on wednesday. then off to columbus. hopefully its all downhill running :-)
went on a 7 mile run yesterday and plan a 3 mile run on wednesday. then off to columbus. hopefully its all downhill running :-)
Friday, October 9, 2009
laundry day
i dont think i have ever done so much laundry in my life! and it should only get worse now that we are wearing more clothes in the colder weather.
ran a pretty tired 6miles yesterday. neither of us are feeling very good right now. resa took a sick day off of work for the first time a few years. well, if we have to taper, now is the time to really taper i guess. ;-)
should be good in a week for the race.
then the training really gets heavy with the 40 mile run in january.
ran a pretty tired 6miles yesterday. neither of us are feeling very good right now. resa took a sick day off of work for the first time a few years. well, if we have to taper, now is the time to really taper i guess. ;-)
should be good in a week for the race.
then the training really gets heavy with the 40 mile run in january.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
half
well, ran a half marathon today as part of our tapering. kinda odd that.
run went well if a bit slow. neither one of us really had our heart in it. got passed and then passed a group of boyscouts doing some 50 mile bike ride. at least that kept us talking. :-)
good day all in all - but sore. but otherwise looking forward to real tapering now. i like the word. taper. taper...
:-)
run went well if a bit slow. neither one of us really had our heart in it. got passed and then passed a group of boyscouts doing some 50 mile bike ride. at least that kept us talking. :-)
good day all in all - but sore. but otherwise looking forward to real tapering now. i like the word. taper. taper...
:-)
Saturday, October 3, 2009
better.
well, oddly i feel pretty much better. must have been allergies and not a cold or anything. so good news there. we went on a 5 mile sprint workout last night and the plan is 12 miles in the morning. we also did some weight lifting since the taper thing has us a bit ancy.
and the sparties beat the evil empire in football so whatever happens tomorrow should be good. :-)
and the sparties beat the evil empire in football so whatever happens tomorrow should be good. :-)
Thursday, October 1, 2009
of course
since i said i was having the best time ever about 3 days ago i got some kinda cold. hacking and coughing. ran 7 tonight - but it wasnt much fun...
ahh well. better now than in 2 weeks for the marathon. better than 2 weeks ago for the long runs too. so great timing. just kinda bleah is all.
ahh well. better now than in 2 weeks for the marathon. better than 2 weeks ago for the long runs too. so great timing. just kinda bleah is all.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
miler
so i went swimming today. set up my little counting bouy at the end of the lane. each time down the lane i would move it to the right one foot. it takes 7 laps to get to the end. i dont double the right end and then there are 6 to get back making a total of 13 laps. my previous best was 8 laps and i didnt feel like i pushed myself too hard doing it. so today i decided to do 13. a down and back on the bouy marker. this is also just a touch under a half mile (about 14 yards short). when i started i looked at the clock so i could have a half mile distance time. the first quarter mile went pretty well. mostly i was just trying to not think about how far i was going to go. as i was finishing the second quarter i doing the math in my head how much farther a mile would be. which is pretty easy actually. 2x farther. plus one more length. but i rounded it up to one more lap.
so about 80% of the way through my half mile, and feeling pretty good i decided to double it and do a mile.
which i did.
the only tough time came on the second to last lap. for the last 10 laps or so all i had in my head was to finish the mile. and more and more thinking got me to where i started worrying about the last lap. what if i blew up on the last lap?? cramps?!?!? lungs full of water? dead tired!!! eeeek!
well, the second to last lap i had just the slightest panic attack and had to back off a bit. i spent the lap trying to do some tricky math problem i have been stuck on for about 1/2 year. no luck on the problem, but i almost crushed my head in at the end of the pool. :-) was a great relaxing moment. swimming i think gives me time to think about other stuff. which is pretty good. on the bike i just love what i am doing most of the time - so i dont want to think about other things. on the running i dont like what is going on in my body so i dont like being distracted from trying to keep myself together. but swimming seems to give me some amount of area to think on other stuff.
the last lap was pretty heady. just grinning in the water and a sprint on the last length.
wasnt out of breath - any more than normal that is. and my arms felt tired but not dead. i might have been able to do another mile - but thats for another month ( or day ). so i cruised up to the end of the lane and checked out the pool clock. 44:30! just what i had predicted a few days ago. actually the 30 seconds is a bit longer than i predicted but i did swim an extra length. so that must be worth the 30 seconds. so i will go with 44 minutes for a mile.
first time ever over a quarter mile. wow. :-) i am really happy right now.
someday when things suck i am going to have to read back on the entries for the last month - its been so very positive lately.
so i sat on the side of the pool and of course in one of those incredible moments of my life the next song i heard was Jackson Brown's Running on Empty. this is my all time favorite song to run to. i dont think i have done a run in the last 10 years where i haven't heard that song in my head. its about the only song i ever hum to as i run. just for a minute - its not like i have the thing on repeat for 3 hours.!
but there it was playing... seemed fitting since i just swam my first ever focking mile!!!
so about 80% of the way through my half mile, and feeling pretty good i decided to double it and do a mile.
which i did.
the only tough time came on the second to last lap. for the last 10 laps or so all i had in my head was to finish the mile. and more and more thinking got me to where i started worrying about the last lap. what if i blew up on the last lap?? cramps?!?!? lungs full of water? dead tired!!! eeeek!
well, the second to last lap i had just the slightest panic attack and had to back off a bit. i spent the lap trying to do some tricky math problem i have been stuck on for about 1/2 year. no luck on the problem, but i almost crushed my head in at the end of the pool. :-) was a great relaxing moment. swimming i think gives me time to think about other stuff. which is pretty good. on the bike i just love what i am doing most of the time - so i dont want to think about other things. on the running i dont like what is going on in my body so i dont like being distracted from trying to keep myself together. but swimming seems to give me some amount of area to think on other stuff.
the last lap was pretty heady. just grinning in the water and a sprint on the last length.
wasnt out of breath - any more than normal that is. and my arms felt tired but not dead. i might have been able to do another mile - but thats for another month ( or day ). so i cruised up to the end of the lane and checked out the pool clock. 44:30! just what i had predicted a few days ago. actually the 30 seconds is a bit longer than i predicted but i did swim an extra length. so that must be worth the 30 seconds. so i will go with 44 minutes for a mile.
first time ever over a quarter mile. wow. :-) i am really happy right now.
someday when things suck i am going to have to read back on the entries for the last month - its been so very positive lately.
so i sat on the side of the pool and of course in one of those incredible moments of my life the next song i heard was Jackson Brown's Running on Empty. this is my all time favorite song to run to. i dont think i have done a run in the last 10 years where i haven't heard that song in my head. its about the only song i ever hum to as i run. just for a minute - its not like i have the thing on repeat for 3 hours.!
but there it was playing... seemed fitting since i just swam my first ever focking mile!!!
12 miles
we might have messed with the last few weeks as far as our long run goes. 17,20 and sunday we we went 12. i think the original plan was to swap the 12 and 20. but whatever. :-)
the 12 went well. i had a bit of a tummy problem, and resa was really good. ran it in 2:10 so thats pretty good for us. we were both tired as its pretty much our peaking week now. another 12 tomorrow and again on sunday and then its time for some beer for a week before the marathon.
legs feel a bit more gassed than normal after this one. will see if we can grind it out on wednesday.
the 12 went well. i had a bit of a tummy problem, and resa was really good. ran it in 2:10 so thats pretty good for us. we were both tired as its pretty much our peaking week now. another 12 tomorrow and again on sunday and then its time for some beer for a week before the marathon.
legs feel a bit more gassed than normal after this one. will see if we can grind it out on wednesday.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
swim on dude.
friday morning we went swimming at the nat. did a 7 lap and 6 lap set. so about 1/2 mile. i timed the longer one and it turned out to be 11:30. doing the math that works out to about 44 minutes on the mile length. provided i could go that far. ;-)
so i liked that the pace is not way too slow. that was a huge relief. up till now i didnt know if i was going only half speed. resa is a bit faster, she did it in about 40 minutes. so we can probably stay together on the swim as i get better. she already has a good swim style and can go a lot farther. so hopefully i improve enough to stay with her.
and here is the video i watch several times a week: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNnSM7xAZNU
so i liked that the pace is not way too slow. that was a huge relief. up till now i didnt know if i was going only half speed. resa is a bit faster, she did it in about 40 minutes. so we can probably stay together on the swim as i get better. she already has a good swim style and can go a lot farther. so hopefully i improve enough to stay with her.
and here is the video i watch several times a week: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNnSM7xAZNU
Thursday Run
we ran 9 miles on thursday. went really easy. at the end we were kinda looking at each other with the 'was that it?' feeling. after running 20 on the weekend it was pretty darn easy to run 9. too bad we cant get up to about 40 mile runs and then a marathon would be that easy! :-)
things going really well overall right now. hope we can keep it up!
things going really well overall right now. hope we can keep it up!
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Happy Laps
well, again a good day at the pool. really good. they subdivided the pool into either a 33 yard or a 25 yard area. we ended up in the 33 yard section - which is nice - less turning around. but its longer than i have done before. weird. when i thought i was at the end, nope, still lots left. but i got used to that after about 10 minutes. still did the easy return on the arms. also used the floaty bob thing for my legs. its cheating, but, eh. i figure i will use that for a few more months, maybe even a half a year more - just to get my arms into good shape and my distance up. then i can drop the floaty thing and go with just swimming. maybe the wetsuit will be the floaty thing during the event.
well, again i concentrated on keeping my head down and arms forward and return easy and arms out a bit and breathing and ... well, i did one of those at a time, so its still far from being good in the water but... but! but i did spend a lot of time on the easy recovery and pulled off swims of 400 and then 500 yards. personal bests! and!!! i wasn't even out of breath at the end of the 500 yard one. just stopped because resa had to get to work. this is really huge. next time i will see if i can get in a mile. also i will see what kinda pace i have for that distance. that will be a big number. if its less than 45 minutes i think i am golden. otherwise... well, not sure i can even keep my arms going that long, so i will get to a mile first then worry about speed.
good day in the pool. :-)
well, again i concentrated on keeping my head down and arms forward and return easy and arms out a bit and breathing and ... well, i did one of those at a time, so its still far from being good in the water but... but! but i did spend a lot of time on the easy recovery and pulled off swims of 400 and then 500 yards. personal bests! and!!! i wasn't even out of breath at the end of the 500 yard one. just stopped because resa had to get to work. this is really huge. next time i will see if i can get in a mile. also i will see what kinda pace i have for that distance. that will be a big number. if its less than 45 minutes i think i am golden. otherwise... well, not sure i can even keep my arms going that long, so i will get to a mile first then worry about speed.
good day in the pool. :-)
Sunday, September 20, 2009
long and hard.
just the way resa likes it... long and hard. 20 miles of the nasty today. kinda gassed right now, but we did our long run today. might have done it a week early as last week was 17 and i dont think we were recovered from that yet. but done. pace was all over the board... fast and slow.
didnt learn all that much from it. the body glide i put on my chest probably needs to go under my arms a bit too. but really, nothing at all serious there. the bloody toe felt great with a kleenex wrapped around it - so that was also an easy and quick fix. ran out of water a bit on this one. kinda medium severe i would call it. i give myself a running feeling of 7 when it was going well to about a 3 when we were gassed. neither number near an extreme. never great never devastated. probably another week's rest would have made this much easier, but we didnt ever plan on today being good. so we got what we deserved. :-)
one big positive is that i think we can both 'gut' it out a lot longer now. we started feeling pretty bad about 6 miles from the end and still managed to get it done. again greg lemond's not getting easier but getting faster or at least stronger. so all in all we were pretty happy with the day.
tomorrow off then pool day on tuesday. hoping to up the long swim portion of the workout. hopefully with my more relaxed swim style i can get it up a bit. :-)
didnt learn all that much from it. the body glide i put on my chest probably needs to go under my arms a bit too. but really, nothing at all serious there. the bloody toe felt great with a kleenex wrapped around it - so that was also an easy and quick fix. ran out of water a bit on this one. kinda medium severe i would call it. i give myself a running feeling of 7 when it was going well to about a 3 when we were gassed. neither number near an extreme. never great never devastated. probably another week's rest would have made this much easier, but we didnt ever plan on today being good. so we got what we deserved. :-)
one big positive is that i think we can both 'gut' it out a lot longer now. we started feeling pretty bad about 6 miles from the end and still managed to get it done. again greg lemond's not getting easier but getting faster or at least stronger. so all in all we were pretty happy with the day.
tomorrow off then pool day on tuesday. hoping to up the long swim portion of the workout. hopefully with my more relaxed swim style i can get it up a bit. :-)
Thursday, September 17, 2009
weekend move
well, we are moving the stuff out of our ann arbor house down to canton ohio this weekend.
on saturday we ran 17 miles. so that was a longest ever north american distance for us. i would say afterwards that running the poto trail is a lot harder, and about 2 miles shorter. but all in all this wasnt easy as it was mostly hills running around brighton lake 2 times. we ran the first loop in about 104 minutes. the second loop we were tired and kinda died, took 105 minutes. pretty amazing that the pace stayed consistent. we didnt wear watches so we only found out when we got back to the car each time around. was feeling pretty gassed after that. but we staged water on the route and stopped to drink that at a few places. i think i am behind the staggering crashed events. hopefully. resa has some stomach issues with the food as we run and i felt pretty good with the eating. just need some more interesting things to eat i think. maybe a box of donuts at mile 15 would be good. :-)
tuesday i ran around the block one last time. its about 4.5 miles around. did it pretty quick, but my legs felt dead.
on saturday we ran 17 miles. so that was a longest ever north american distance for us. i would say afterwards that running the poto trail is a lot harder, and about 2 miles shorter. but all in all this wasnt easy as it was mostly hills running around brighton lake 2 times. we ran the first loop in about 104 minutes. the second loop we were tired and kinda died, took 105 minutes. pretty amazing that the pace stayed consistent. we didnt wear watches so we only found out when we got back to the car each time around. was feeling pretty gassed after that. but we staged water on the route and stopped to drink that at a few places. i think i am behind the staggering crashed events. hopefully. resa has some stomach issues with the food as we run and i felt pretty good with the eating. just need some more interesting things to eat i think. maybe a box of donuts at mile 15 would be good. :-)
tuesday i ran around the block one last time. its about 4.5 miles around. did it pretty quick, but my legs felt dead.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Swim Breakthrough
for a while i have been going to the pool and working on technique. trying to keep both hands in front of me. today at the pool i did more of the same. still hard to do for sure. keeping from looking forward is hard too. its like on the bike, you want to look down road as you pedal and so are bent back at the neck. thats one of the more tender spots after a long run, the sore neck. same in the water, i like to swim so that i can see stuff as it comes at me. also i like to watch my hands come into the water. ( usually crowded with bubbles! ) so looking down at the pool is not easy. but i was working on that and the forward hands. i think i made medium progress on the hands and very small progress on looking down. actually working on one makes the other harder... lol.
after doing these drills for a bit i decided to see if i could match my personal best ever long swim. and i did. i went back and forth across the 25meter pool 6 times. 3 laps. woohoo! i kept thinking this is the same pool mark spits trained in for the 7 medals he won a lifetime ago.
after finishing the monster long swim of 150 meters i hung on to the edge and breathed for a bit. about 4 lanes over some guy was swimming ( actually the only other guy in this huge pool ) so while hanging on the wall i watched him go back and forth. head up, slow swimming, breathing on one side, arms all over. but he went back and forth for about 30 minutes. no stops. just plodding along. splashing and moving slowly. and i was thinking, hmm, the only thing keeping me from doing longer swims was my breathing. i run out of breath pretty quick. like i feel when i am running too fast.
then i thought back to the video i watched a few weeks ago. one of the drills was to return your arm to the front with your fingertips dragging the surface of the water. so i tried that. just dangled my fingers as i brought them back. this does two things, one, you dont lift your hand too high and second you are relaxed on the recovery. which turned out to be huge. image running where you are pushing back as hard as you can and also swinging forward as hard as you can. sprinting. jogging is more relaxed. relaxed upper body and not a forced run. and you can do this for hours without breathing so hard you run out of breath. same in swimming! what a huge breakthrough that was. i did 5 easy if slower laps. and at the end i just stopped to think about it. it was easy. i wasnt out of breath. it was the longest swim of my life and i felt pretty relaxed about it. i believe, and hope to test, that i can do 3 or 5 times as long a swim if i wanted.
also had a good experience with getting water in my mouth. normally this is a panicky thing for me. i want to stop and re-set my breathing. because i am kinda on the edge with air anyway, one missed breath and its like sprinting with your mouth closed. but with the more relaxed breathing i just got a bunch of water in my mouth and blew it out with the air on the next breath, i was a bit out of breath and went to one sided breathing for a few strokes. but it didnt stop me like it would have before.
also i kept track of the number of strokes to cross 25 meters: 11. so thats a number i am hoping to cut down over the next year. maybe 7-8 would be much easier.
great run last night and a great day in the pool today. :-)
after doing these drills for a bit i decided to see if i could match my personal best ever long swim. and i did. i went back and forth across the 25meter pool 6 times. 3 laps. woohoo! i kept thinking this is the same pool mark spits trained in for the 7 medals he won a lifetime ago.
after finishing the monster long swim of 150 meters i hung on to the edge and breathed for a bit. about 4 lanes over some guy was swimming ( actually the only other guy in this huge pool ) so while hanging on the wall i watched him go back and forth. head up, slow swimming, breathing on one side, arms all over. but he went back and forth for about 30 minutes. no stops. just plodding along. splashing and moving slowly. and i was thinking, hmm, the only thing keeping me from doing longer swims was my breathing. i run out of breath pretty quick. like i feel when i am running too fast.
then i thought back to the video i watched a few weeks ago. one of the drills was to return your arm to the front with your fingertips dragging the surface of the water. so i tried that. just dangled my fingers as i brought them back. this does two things, one, you dont lift your hand too high and second you are relaxed on the recovery. which turned out to be huge. image running where you are pushing back as hard as you can and also swinging forward as hard as you can. sprinting. jogging is more relaxed. relaxed upper body and not a forced run. and you can do this for hours without breathing so hard you run out of breath. same in swimming! what a huge breakthrough that was. i did 5 easy if slower laps. and at the end i just stopped to think about it. it was easy. i wasnt out of breath. it was the longest swim of my life and i felt pretty relaxed about it. i believe, and hope to test, that i can do 3 or 5 times as long a swim if i wanted.
also had a good experience with getting water in my mouth. normally this is a panicky thing for me. i want to stop and re-set my breathing. because i am kinda on the edge with air anyway, one missed breath and its like sprinting with your mouth closed. but with the more relaxed breathing i just got a bunch of water in my mouth and blew it out with the air on the next breath, i was a bit out of breath and went to one sided breathing for a few strokes. but it didnt stop me like it would have before.
also i kept track of the number of strokes to cross 25 meters: 11. so thats a number i am hoping to cut down over the next year. maybe 7-8 would be much easier.
great run last night and a great day in the pool today. :-)
It doesn't get any easier. I just get faster. - Greg Lemond
Wed night we went for a 12 mile run in the park. Used to be a half marathon was something to get all nervous about. Last night i even forgot my knee brace. i have found that if i wear it my knee lasts about 2x as long as when i dont. i dont need the bracing, but the thing keeps my knee warm. and when it gets cold it will lose a lot of strength. not sure if anyone else has this. it might also have something to do with tendons maybe.
well, anyway i forgot the brace. and normally i would have driven back to the house to get it. but we were running a bit late and wanted to beat the sundown. the park is actually an old tow path for horses by a canal. its very pleasant but at night its in the woods and you cant see anything. well, just barely you can see the hole in the woods the path is on, but otherwise you cant see where you are running or if there is a hole or something else on the path.
so we just start running and hope the knee holds out. we ran a pretty fast pace. i dont know if i mentioned before but we are very slow in the run. our bike is respectable, but not our run. but last night we started fast and kept it up. it was great. we ran all the way out to the icecream shop and stopped for 10 minutes and then ran all the way back. 12 miles. and at our personal best ever time too. :-) better than anything we did in africa or in the years before or since. was a great feeling to be running along and my knee was feeling if not strong, at least able to keep me from falling over.
our best ever half marathon was about 2:30ish. which shows how hideously slow we are. this year we did one in about 2:45 and about 2:35. last night if we could have kept the pace up for another mile, which i think we could have, we would have been in at about 2:20. it is flat and no wind or sun and the weather was great. but still. was a wonderful feeling. hopefully we can adopt that pace as our running pace. not sure, but that would be a huge improvement. plus we can use that as a launcher to even better times if that becomes our normal pace. but, more likely we just had a great night.
in other news i am under 200 pounds for the first time in about 2 years.
well, anyway i forgot the brace. and normally i would have driven back to the house to get it. but we were running a bit late and wanted to beat the sundown. the park is actually an old tow path for horses by a canal. its very pleasant but at night its in the woods and you cant see anything. well, just barely you can see the hole in the woods the path is on, but otherwise you cant see where you are running or if there is a hole or something else on the path.
so we just start running and hope the knee holds out. we ran a pretty fast pace. i dont know if i mentioned before but we are very slow in the run. our bike is respectable, but not our run. but last night we started fast and kept it up. it was great. we ran all the way out to the icecream shop and stopped for 10 minutes and then ran all the way back. 12 miles. and at our personal best ever time too. :-) better than anything we did in africa or in the years before or since. was a great feeling to be running along and my knee was feeling if not strong, at least able to keep me from falling over.
our best ever half marathon was about 2:30ish. which shows how hideously slow we are. this year we did one in about 2:45 and about 2:35. last night if we could have kept the pace up for another mile, which i think we could have, we would have been in at about 2:20. it is flat and no wind or sun and the weather was great. but still. was a wonderful feeling. hopefully we can adopt that pace as our running pace. not sure, but that would be a huge improvement. plus we can use that as a launcher to even better times if that becomes our normal pace. but, more likely we just had a great night.
in other news i am under 200 pounds for the first time in about 2 years.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
training on site
i forgot to mention, santa did finish the race at about the 16:20 time. so he was pretty happy.
also some cool shirts we saw while waiting: "Death before DNF" and some chick with "I couldn't possibly! I have to run, bike and swim in the morning."
also i was toying with getting a tatoo. not sure if i mentioned it before. but standing in line i found out what it will be. looks like about 1 in 4 people get a tatoo. on the right calf about the top of a long sock up the leg. so there you go.
while on site we decided to run and bike the course. i was feeling great all the way up to the site but the day after the race i went to bed feeling sick. it lasted about 3-4 days. nasty headache and stomach stuff. resa got it about 3 days after i did and it lasted the same amount of time. weird. certainly not the flu or a cold. ???
but whatever. i was feeling yucky but we biked about 20 miles just around for fun on tuesday. followed by running the run course from about mile 3 to 7 and back. so not much of a workout. but the run course is HILLY. but nothing too killer. just not flat like i read it was. or maybe for having hills all around its as flat as it can be. and it was very hot. must have been about 90 and sunny. killed us. we ran it at the hottest point of the day. probably about 3 hours sooner than we will this coming year. so we drank and drank and chilled in the lake.
the next day was a bike day. we planned on biking the first half of the course the first day and the second half the next. the bike course looks a bit easier than i thought it would be from what i read. it starts out flat does one hill and goes flat for 45 miles. easy. which it was. we road casually out on it at about 16mph. so plenty fast enough. then the first real hill richter pass showed up. and the hammer hit us. wow. the big climb in the tour de france is a long 8degree mountain stage Alpe Du Heuz or something. Richter is 6 degrees and 6 miles long. not worth mentioning to the tour guys. heh. but to us. bam!
down goes frazier.
and ken too. i thought all along this year i might need smaller gears on the bike to handle it. even at the bottom i told resa i was not geared for this. i was right. i grannied it up the hill, but had to stop when i totally lagged my legs. happened to both of us about 3 times. new gears will be an easy swap and that will fix that. the time on those six miles though. ouch. about an hour is going to be lost just there. and getting a good ride after that is going to be hard too. you just get blown up doing that part. i am really hoping now that gears and a new body are going to make it ok. there were a lot of chalk messages on the route too. the only one i remember other than "Go Tom" "Go Sally" "Go whoever" messages was this one: "Get Over This BITCH!!!" if that doesn't make you smile... nothing will.
down the other side we went. zoom, 4 miles down and into the rollers. only got the bikes up to about 35 mph. we had crossed the 50 mile point and decided to call it good when the RV showed up about 30 seconds after we reached the bottom of the hill.
the next day was planned as rollers and yellow lake. but we had driven home that way and other than being annoying it didnt look all that bad really. certainly not nearly as bad as richter. we did some math the next day and decided to head out after lunch. staging and overhead from biking the second half would have gotten us out about 3 in the afternoon so we went for a 7 mile run in the hills instead.
we packed up and went on home.
not as confident. at least not me. looks harder than i thought it would be, but not much. just a bit. also sadly a guy died while doing the swim portion of the race.
under a year to go now.
clock is ticking now. off to swim in the morning. running 12ish tomorrow night. thats the plan. see how i do. :-)
also some cool shirts we saw while waiting: "Death before DNF" and some chick with "I couldn't possibly! I have to run, bike and swim in the morning."
also i was toying with getting a tatoo. not sure if i mentioned it before. but standing in line i found out what it will be. looks like about 1 in 4 people get a tatoo. on the right calf about the top of a long sock up the leg. so there you go.
while on site we decided to run and bike the course. i was feeling great all the way up to the site but the day after the race i went to bed feeling sick. it lasted about 3-4 days. nasty headache and stomach stuff. resa got it about 3 days after i did and it lasted the same amount of time. weird. certainly not the flu or a cold. ???
but whatever. i was feeling yucky but we biked about 20 miles just around for fun on tuesday. followed by running the run course from about mile 3 to 7 and back. so not much of a workout. but the run course is HILLY. but nothing too killer. just not flat like i read it was. or maybe for having hills all around its as flat as it can be. and it was very hot. must have been about 90 and sunny. killed us. we ran it at the hottest point of the day. probably about 3 hours sooner than we will this coming year. so we drank and drank and chilled in the lake.
the next day was a bike day. we planned on biking the first half of the course the first day and the second half the next. the bike course looks a bit easier than i thought it would be from what i read. it starts out flat does one hill and goes flat for 45 miles. easy. which it was. we road casually out on it at about 16mph. so plenty fast enough. then the first real hill richter pass showed up. and the hammer hit us. wow. the big climb in the tour de france is a long 8degree mountain stage Alpe Du Heuz or something. Richter is 6 degrees and 6 miles long. not worth mentioning to the tour guys. heh. but to us. bam!
down goes frazier.
and ken too. i thought all along this year i might need smaller gears on the bike to handle it. even at the bottom i told resa i was not geared for this. i was right. i grannied it up the hill, but had to stop when i totally lagged my legs. happened to both of us about 3 times. new gears will be an easy swap and that will fix that. the time on those six miles though. ouch. about an hour is going to be lost just there. and getting a good ride after that is going to be hard too. you just get blown up doing that part. i am really hoping now that gears and a new body are going to make it ok. there were a lot of chalk messages on the route too. the only one i remember other than "Go Tom" "Go Sally" "Go whoever" messages was this one: "Get Over This BITCH!!!" if that doesn't make you smile... nothing will.
down the other side we went. zoom, 4 miles down and into the rollers. only got the bikes up to about 35 mph. we had crossed the 50 mile point and decided to call it good when the RV showed up about 30 seconds after we reached the bottom of the hill.
the next day was planned as rollers and yellow lake. but we had driven home that way and other than being annoying it didnt look all that bad really. certainly not nearly as bad as richter. we did some math the next day and decided to head out after lunch. staging and overhead from biking the second half would have gotten us out about 3 in the afternoon so we went for a 7 mile run in the hills instead.
we packed up and went on home.
not as confident. at least not me. looks harder than i thought it would be, but not much. just a bit. also sadly a guy died while doing the swim portion of the race.
under a year to go now.
clock is ticking now. off to swim in the morning. running 12ish tomorrow night. thats the plan. see how i do. :-)
Canada Eh?
so after some adventures and a quick visit/car trouble in fort collins we made it up for the race in canada.
about 2 hours late sadly. the first thing we saw on the road into town were... Pro Bikers! awesome. these guys all had the evil bitch bikes with the $10,000 setups. very fast. they were at the bottom of richter pass as we showed up. we could see the road heading straight up the pass but we didnt try to follow them, instead we headed downcourse to the starting area. all along the way there were bikers coming toward us. as we covered more miles and took more time off the clock the level of the bikes and riders went from freaky fast to just a lot faster than us. towards the end it looked like people we could even ride with. the last 20 or so looked like they were absolutely hating the idea of being in a triathlon. one guy who we called santa because of the 300 pounds and giant white beard looked pretty happy peddling along though.
we parked the RV and started walking the one mile to the start. at least the cop said one mile. turned out to be about 5 miles and we got about 80% of the way there when the pros started coming in. they were totally spread out as there are no teams and no drafting on the bikes. really cool to see them spread out rather than in a bunch. the first chick came in about position 9 or 10. only about 20mins or so behind the lead guy. she looked really strong. one of the guys at about position 20 or so slapped hands with everyone on the course as he went by.
after watching the guys arrive for about an hour we decided maybe we should have a beer. when we came back out, it was more normal people. actually normal people being those that could run a marathon in like 3:30 hours rather than the insane people earlier. we watched them run out of town and followed them 5 miles back to the car. saw all kinds. fat. skinny. fast and really slow. some people are bikers and fat and dont look good on the run portion, others were bad on the bike and were pretty much sprinting on the run now.
we parked the RV and set up for a few hours then headed back to the start line to do our volunteer work. we got to hand out Tshirts to the finishers from 8 to midnight. so if you ran this race, and finished then, we saw you. i would guess you didnt see us as most people could hardly walk at the end. :-)
what stories i could tell about those 4 hours. before hand we thought it would be pretty hard on us with all the people coming in. but after you see 20 people stumble, fall and then puke you kinda get used to it. the last hour the amount of people finally slowed down. the big groups came in trying to beat hour times. so at 14:49 there was a large group and at 15:59 another one. the 16:59 group never showed. only about 4 people finished in the last 10 minutes. the last guy was escourted over the line by the male and female winner earlier in the day. ( they probably flew to vegas and back during the race ) the last guy finished pretty darn close to cutoff, puked and we started packing up. sadly one more person finished but didnt get a finisher shirt after cutoff. also the 79 year old nun ran in with about 4 minutes to spare. oldest finisher ever. next year we might very well finish arm in arm with the first ever 80 year to do it. another set of two people finished at about 16:30 and the guy asked the chick to marry him. he had run the ring for the marathon. sadly the ring wouldnt fit on her swollen fingers. but she said yes anyway. :-0) another woman came in and started pumping fists and had the greatest grin on her face. she was an ironman.
it was emotional, the whole thing. amazing. we thought at the time it looked do-able. the people coming in at the end were obviously athletes. but not extreme. we were confident.
the next day we signed up. there was a line about 2000 people long and it started at 5 in the morning. we showed up about 9 and stood in line for about 4 hours. actually resa and sheila did, mark and i went looking at those high end bikes at a local store. $3000 would get me pretty focking fast i think.
so after 4 hours in line we signed up. they said volunteers needed to use a different line. you didnt have to wait. it was empty. so.... uh.... well. anyway we are signed up.
for ironman. 350 days to go.
YIKES!!!!!
about 2 hours late sadly. the first thing we saw on the road into town were... Pro Bikers! awesome. these guys all had the evil bitch bikes with the $10,000 setups. very fast. they were at the bottom of richter pass as we showed up. we could see the road heading straight up the pass but we didnt try to follow them, instead we headed downcourse to the starting area. all along the way there were bikers coming toward us. as we covered more miles and took more time off the clock the level of the bikes and riders went from freaky fast to just a lot faster than us. towards the end it looked like people we could even ride with. the last 20 or so looked like they were absolutely hating the idea of being in a triathlon. one guy who we called santa because of the 300 pounds and giant white beard looked pretty happy peddling along though.
we parked the RV and started walking the one mile to the start. at least the cop said one mile. turned out to be about 5 miles and we got about 80% of the way there when the pros started coming in. they were totally spread out as there are no teams and no drafting on the bikes. really cool to see them spread out rather than in a bunch. the first chick came in about position 9 or 10. only about 20mins or so behind the lead guy. she looked really strong. one of the guys at about position 20 or so slapped hands with everyone on the course as he went by.
after watching the guys arrive for about an hour we decided maybe we should have a beer. when we came back out, it was more normal people. actually normal people being those that could run a marathon in like 3:30 hours rather than the insane people earlier. we watched them run out of town and followed them 5 miles back to the car. saw all kinds. fat. skinny. fast and really slow. some people are bikers and fat and dont look good on the run portion, others were bad on the bike and were pretty much sprinting on the run now.
we parked the RV and set up for a few hours then headed back to the start line to do our volunteer work. we got to hand out Tshirts to the finishers from 8 to midnight. so if you ran this race, and finished then, we saw you. i would guess you didnt see us as most people could hardly walk at the end. :-)
what stories i could tell about those 4 hours. before hand we thought it would be pretty hard on us with all the people coming in. but after you see 20 people stumble, fall and then puke you kinda get used to it. the last hour the amount of people finally slowed down. the big groups came in trying to beat hour times. so at 14:49 there was a large group and at 15:59 another one. the 16:59 group never showed. only about 4 people finished in the last 10 minutes. the last guy was escourted over the line by the male and female winner earlier in the day. ( they probably flew to vegas and back during the race ) the last guy finished pretty darn close to cutoff, puked and we started packing up. sadly one more person finished but didnt get a finisher shirt after cutoff. also the 79 year old nun ran in with about 4 minutes to spare. oldest finisher ever. next year we might very well finish arm in arm with the first ever 80 year to do it. another set of two people finished at about 16:30 and the guy asked the chick to marry him. he had run the ring for the marathon. sadly the ring wouldnt fit on her swollen fingers. but she said yes anyway. :-0) another woman came in and started pumping fists and had the greatest grin on her face. she was an ironman.
it was emotional, the whole thing. amazing. we thought at the time it looked do-able. the people coming in at the end were obviously athletes. but not extreme. we were confident.
the next day we signed up. there was a line about 2000 people long and it started at 5 in the morning. we showed up about 9 and stood in line for about 4 hours. actually resa and sheila did, mark and i went looking at those high end bikes at a local store. $3000 would get me pretty focking fast i think.
so after 4 hours in line we signed up. they said volunteers needed to use a different line. you didnt have to wait. it was empty. so.... uh.... well. anyway we are signed up.
for ironman. 350 days to go.
YIKES!!!!!
Monday, August 24, 2009
resting
we took the weekend off. we were not really wanting to, but we have been spending every hour getting the RV ready for the trip to canada. only a few days to the event. we are heading up to be volunteers and check in for next year. we are the people that are going to hand out medals in the last 4 hours, so if one of you guys reads this in the next year, hopefully we were smiling at your at the end! so... one year to go! we hope to ride the bike course while out there.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
midweek
decided last minute to do a longer run. so we went to the towpath and ran 12 miles. we both had a good day, which happens about 40% of the time. usually one of us is a bit stronger. but last night it was pretty even. also picked up our pace a bit. or at least left it at the same level. running out is slightly uphill, you add about 15 feet of elevation per mile, but there are no hills. not sure if its in your head or not, but running home is for sure a lot easier. we were strong the whole way and came home for 9 hours of sleep after doing the leg chill and drinking a protein shake. carried some water and drank that half way out and back, at the far end point we got a banana and strawberry smoothie which was pretty darn good. also first run with the new shoes. not supper good, but they felt pretty comfy so i guess they are keepers.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
lap it up
well, increased the long swim from 3 to 5 laps today. still working on breathing, turns out if you have your mouth open you can get a more relaxed swim out of it.
also spent some time on keeping my arms in front of me. tricky that. its ok if you look at them, but as soon as you breath or look down... you are windmilling again.
also did a quick time check, one lap took about 80 seconds. so... at that pace without stopping i would finish the 4kilometers in about 1:57 so thats 3 minutes faster than i need to be! eeek.
also spent some time on keeping my arms in front of me. tricky that. its ok if you look at them, but as soon as you breath or look down... you are windmilling again.
also did a quick time check, one lap took about 80 seconds. so... at that pace without stopping i would finish the 4kilometers in about 1:57 so thats 3 minutes faster than i need to be! eeek.
Monday, August 17, 2009
rest day
its monday and we just got back from running poto again.
this time we staged food and water on the trail. and had a much better run. it was still a bit tricky at the end. but the big difference was i had energy if not leg strength. we think its about 15miles on hilly trails. sunday we rode a quick 30miles... pretty good pace about 17mph.
should be a good week, plan on swimming tomorrow, hoping to do a bit more relaxing in the water and get in maybe a longer run. i felt pretty close last time to getting over the hump on the breathing thing. a few more times and maybe i can get to where its arm tired not out of breath that stops me. that should get me some real distance. but... slow and steady.
really good weekend.
this time we staged food and water on the trail. and had a much better run. it was still a bit tricky at the end. but the big difference was i had energy if not leg strength. we think its about 15miles on hilly trails. sunday we rode a quick 30miles... pretty good pace about 17mph.
should be a good week, plan on swimming tomorrow, hoping to do a bit more relaxing in the water and get in maybe a longer run. i felt pretty close last time to getting over the hump on the breathing thing. a few more times and maybe i can get to where its arm tired not out of breath that stops me. that should get me some real distance. but... slow and steady.
really good weekend.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
went swimming this morning. after watching the video last night i had about 45 different things i could work on. started with the underskate. really makes you think about having both hands in front of you when you swim. having that balance is great - keeps you from doing bobs as you head down the lane. sadly i cant do it yet. i still do the windmill thing. thats the reason for the drills, to slowly get you to have both arms forward on the swim.
in other news i swam 3 laps of the 25 pool, so thats a small benchmark. longest swim in 5 years!!! wooohooo!. 150 yards. leaving me 77 laps short of the race distance. well, if i add one each time i should be there in a year.
in other news i swam 3 laps of the 25 pool, so thats a small benchmark. longest swim in 5 years!!! wooohooo!. 150 yards. leaving me 77 laps short of the race distance. well, if i add one each time i should be there in a year.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
wednesday
went on an 8 mile run tonight. the run went great... finally feel that i am recovered from the long runs the other weeks. still was a bit hard at first, but realized that we were going out too fast to start. after about 3 miles we backed off the pace and the last 5 were really good.
in other interesting news i found that i should not eat a gu before the run. i tried it last weekend and i think it helped me to bike better as i got some strength back after the hard run. today i ate one before starting. about mile 4-5 i started burping it up and my stomach felt like acid. this lasted about 2 hours after the run was over too. nasty. so i will probably save gu for the bike or just go with something else. we talked about what to eat over a 14 hour day. need about 200 cals per hour and you cant really miss too many hours or you are in trouble. soup and lasagna we have had good luck with in previous years.
also we both think we need new shoes. the ones we have on now are a few years old. eeek. might get some this weekend, also the shorts i run in now are much better than the old cotton ones. lighter. but they are too short and wad up in a ball under my uhhh... well. they wad up. so the longer ones i had the other week were much better, might get some more of those too.
off to bed, going swimming in the morning. watched the new video - lots of good stuff in that.
in other interesting news i found that i should not eat a gu before the run. i tried it last weekend and i think it helped me to bike better as i got some strength back after the hard run. today i ate one before starting. about mile 4-5 i started burping it up and my stomach felt like acid. this lasted about 2 hours after the run was over too. nasty. so i will probably save gu for the bike or just go with something else. we talked about what to eat over a 14 hour day. need about 200 cals per hour and you cant really miss too many hours or you are in trouble. soup and lasagna we have had good luck with in previous years.
also we both think we need new shoes. the ones we have on now are a few years old. eeek. might get some this weekend, also the shorts i run in now are much better than the old cotton ones. lighter. but they are too short and wad up in a ball under my uhhh... well. they wad up. so the longer ones i had the other week were much better, might get some more of those too.
off to bed, going swimming in the morning. watched the new video - lots of good stuff in that.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
laps
went to the pool this tuesday morning. i am trying to relax a bit more while swimming. i can get across the pool in a hurry but cant do it very long. reminds me of the guys sprinting out to start a 10 mile run. i did about 10-15 laps of 50 meters each. so about 1/2 to 3/4 kilometer. not much! but each day i am going to try to extend what i swim. mostly stood around and thought about stuff. like where my arms entered the water. how my legs dangled. i ended up trying one of those leg sponges - totally lifted my legs and sent my head into the water - which is really good - i am going to use that more often to get the right angle in the water.
i should probably set some swimming distance goals. maybe one for amount swam in an hour and another for continuious swimming distance. the per hour would keep me working hard and the continuous would be a more accurate measure of how far i can get. nothing to important untill maybe january or february i am guessing. if i can just get the comfy thing figured i can probably take a few months extending my distance. just need to learn to swim first!
i should probably set some swimming distance goals. maybe one for amount swam in an hour and another for continuious swimming distance. the per hour would keep me working hard and the continuous would be a more accurate measure of how far i can get. nothing to important untill maybe january or february i am guessing. if i can just get the comfy thing figured i can probably take a few months extending my distance. just need to learn to swim first!
Monday, August 10, 2009
monday morning
last wednesday i still felt pretty gassed from the weekend run. we went biking and put in probably our fastest 40 miles in a few years. felt great until about 100 yards from the house. was a great ride. rode out to a small town called paris here in ohio.
sunday we went for an 8 mile run and i was still hurting i think from the previous week, but managed to stick it out. still need to find some recovery somewhere. this time we prestaged water and gatoraid about every 2-3 miles and we ended up drinking a ton of it. it was 94 degrees out and later went up to 99 on the bikes which we rode for 24 easy miles.
i am now completely convinced that the bike and run are two completely different muscles. should be obvious i know, but after the 8 mile run i was pretty dead. i ate a gu and a cliffbar and we hoped on the bikes and gads i was strong. felt great. i did feel that i ran out of energy about 2 hours into the ride so i am guessing the 350ish cals i got from the semi-food lasted 2 hours. going to do some research on that. also it seemed to take about 20-30 minutes to kick in.
this week we hope to actually ramp up the activities so monday is a rehydrate day. the tentative plan right now is tuesday sprint, wed medium length and sunday 15 on the trails. eek! :-)
sunday we went for an 8 mile run and i was still hurting i think from the previous week, but managed to stick it out. still need to find some recovery somewhere. this time we prestaged water and gatoraid about every 2-3 miles and we ended up drinking a ton of it. it was 94 degrees out and later went up to 99 on the bikes which we rode for 24 easy miles.
i am now completely convinced that the bike and run are two completely different muscles. should be obvious i know, but after the 8 mile run i was pretty dead. i ate a gu and a cliffbar and we hoped on the bikes and gads i was strong. felt great. i did feel that i ran out of energy about 2 hours into the ride so i am guessing the 350ish cals i got from the semi-food lasted 2 hours. going to do some research on that. also it seemed to take about 20-30 minutes to kick in.
this week we hope to actually ramp up the activities so monday is a rehydrate day. the tentative plan right now is tuesday sprint, wed medium length and sunday 15 on the trails. eek! :-)
Monday, August 3, 2009
bonkity
well, went for a 15 mile run yesterday. i didn't feel up for it, but resa wanted to get in a longer run. about 3 miles in i thought about cutting it short. we met some friends on the trail and one of them drank some of my gaterade and then i really felt like cutting it short. but we plowed on. at about mile 6.5 i thought i should have turned around but we went to 7.5 and i had to walk the last 4 miles in a dizzy desparate mannor. i think i ran out of fuel and was having a bit of a rough morning on top of it. so i am going to do some looking into what to bring to eat - probably going to be gu or something similar. otherwise it was a great day :-)
havnt done a 15 mile run in about 5 years, i vaguely remember having more to eat/drink those times too. so a bit of a lesson.
havnt done a 15 mile run in about 5 years, i vaguely remember having more to eat/drink those times too. so a bit of a lesson.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
thursday
working on swimming this morning - got the dvd happy laps and waiting on freestyle swimming both from total immersion. the first dvd started out pretty beginner, how to stand in a pool. but at the end there are 7ish steps to follow float on back float this way and that. we have done the drills for 1-6 in the pool. the first 5 i found pretty easy. the last one i will do again next trip. which we plan is tomorrow. have our softball playoff game tonight - so we will see if we show up tomorrow or not.
we planned all along to just go this and that as far as working out goes until we are signed up. then its exactly a year ( minus a bunch of hours ) till the race. and thats the motivation to start getting really orginized.
well, today in the pool i swam and did the drills. resa can swim a lot better than me, she did a kilometer in probably 15-20 minutes. but said she was pretty tired at the end. i will work on my distance a bit tomorrow.
we planned all along to just go this and that as far as working out goes until we are signed up. then its exactly a year ( minus a bunch of hours ) till the race. and thats the motivation to start getting really orginized.
well, today in the pool i swam and did the drills. resa can swim a lot better than me, she did a kilometer in probably 15-20 minutes. but said she was pretty tired at the end. i will work on my distance a bit tomorrow.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
1st post
yikes.
right now i am sitting at the computer and i am scared.
one month from now i am heading out to pinticton, canada to volunteer and sign up for the 2010 Canada Ironman. Fock!
fock fock fock.
whew. ok. not sure if i am going to send anyone the link to this stuff, maybe knowing my ego i am sure to send it out sometime. but for right now i am keeping it quite.
i am writing this to both look back at later and to also keep me motivated in just the smallest way.
i have never run an ironman before. or even a marathon. i have 13 months to get ready.
here is what i have done already. ( the wife - resa, and i decided about january to run the ironman )
ran about 4 half marathons and maybe 3 more 10 milers. biked 2 100 milers and maybe 6 more 50 milers. swam one time (today) for about a total distance of 1/2 kilometer. the race is 4 so i think this is my weak point. uh-hmmm.
we are signed up for the columbus marathon in about 3 months. so thats the short term goal. also i think running will help biking and some in the swimming when i get some form and need distance.
a year in the local olympic sized pool should get me ready to survive the swim. the biking is very hard in canada but the wife and i are bikers so we think we can do that part. the run... well. we are not runners but we will be at least able to do it by then.
if we train hard enough.
so here starts the log of training. so i dont slack off for a month or something.
we hope to do a long workout every weekend for the next 50 or so. rest on monday and then swim during the early hours of the week and bike when we can on weekends mostly. also set up the trainers in the living room for bikes. and get the treadmill set up too.
:-)
ready, set, go.
right now i am sitting at the computer and i am scared.
one month from now i am heading out to pinticton, canada to volunteer and sign up for the 2010 Canada Ironman. Fock!
fock fock fock.
whew. ok. not sure if i am going to send anyone the link to this stuff, maybe knowing my ego i am sure to send it out sometime. but for right now i am keeping it quite.
i am writing this to both look back at later and to also keep me motivated in just the smallest way.
i have never run an ironman before. or even a marathon. i have 13 months to get ready.
here is what i have done already. ( the wife - resa, and i decided about january to run the ironman )
ran about 4 half marathons and maybe 3 more 10 milers. biked 2 100 milers and maybe 6 more 50 milers. swam one time (today) for about a total distance of 1/2 kilometer. the race is 4 so i think this is my weak point. uh-hmmm.
we are signed up for the columbus marathon in about 3 months. so thats the short term goal. also i think running will help biking and some in the swimming when i get some form and need distance.
a year in the local olympic sized pool should get me ready to survive the swim. the biking is very hard in canada but the wife and i are bikers so we think we can do that part. the run... well. we are not runners but we will be at least able to do it by then.
if we train hard enough.
so here starts the log of training. so i dont slack off for a month or something.
we hope to do a long workout every weekend for the next 50 or so. rest on monday and then swim during the early hours of the week and bike when we can on weekends mostly. also set up the trainers in the living room for bikes. and get the treadmill set up too.
:-)
ready, set, go.
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