Week 9: Day 7: Great Balls of Fire!

Tonight I learned a very valuable lesson. It all began yesterday afternoon when I stopped in the local running store to pick up some Body Glide, a great little product meant to prevent Chafing, an unfortunate result of long runs. It's seemed like a simple enough task and I was quickly taken to it's place in the store by the clerk. After a 12 mile run, and working on 4 hours of sleep I blindly grabbed a package labeled Body Glide, paid, and left the store; no problem... right?

distance	time	Pace	HR Avg.	HR Max
12.09	1:36:27	7:59	147	166

Tonight I was prepping for an 9 mile (marathon pace) run and applied the Body Glide product. I had noticed it looked different from what I was used to, but I just assumed they had made some changes. Companies are always "New and Improving" their product. It wasn't 5 minutes later, that as I stepped out the door I felt a gradually increasing burning sensation...

It turns out Body Glide has branched out into products other than Anti-chafers. Apparently I picked up their new Icy-Hot style product. Now what does "Body Glide" have to do with a product meant to relieve muscle soreness? I think they need a change in brand name... I'll be headed back to the store tomorrow to educate them on their own products.

As for my run, I was able to relieve the pain enough to get out for my 9-miler.

distance	time	Pace	HR Avg.	HR Max
9.03	1:05:33	7:16	158	177

I'm a bit sore afterward. I guess that new "Body Glide" could come in handy... or I could just stick with Icy-Hot.

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It's Official: I'm running the Toronto Marathon

Maybe I'm getting a bit ahead of myself, but I'm at least registered (as of last week). I will have two fellow NoVA residents competing with me as Noble (full) and Alex (1/2) are registered. It's good to know I won't be out there on my own. It looks like there will be a support team/spectators for us. Now I've got to hunt for hotels and travel options.

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Week 8: Day 6 - Long runs are always better with company

I moved my Sunday run up a day to run with Noble who will also be running the Toronto Marathon. I can't deny the benefits of having a running partner when doing distances like this. We met up in Waterfront in DC bright and early (7:30 AM) where I met my training group for Honolulu a few years back. It's a great spot to run with fairly level terrain and lots of great scenery.

We ran around the mall and along the Potomac on our out and back. I learned of Noble's sour luck this summer, and hope that will turn around for him. He definitely had a lemons to lemonade outlook on the situation which is refreshing. We were able to carry on conversation throughout the run. The pace was steady throughout, though we sped up in the later downhill miles. I was able to run a comfortable 7:57 extra last mile.

distance	time	Pace	HR Avg.	HR Max
17.05	2:22:28	8:21	136	157

I've been running with my helium 2 Fuel Belt which has worked well, even up to 17 miles yesterday, but I've definitely pushed the limits. Now I wish I had gone with helium 4 and run with less bottles when I didn't need them, but it's a little late for that now. The question is do I try to find a way to reload my bottles late into these runs, or do I spring for the larger capacity belt??

My recommendation: Buy the helium 4 the first time around!

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Week 8: Day 2 - On the Road Again

Today I returned from a long weekend in Rochester and Fredonia, NY. I stayed on the wagon for the most part, though I missed yesterdays 3-miler for some recording sessions in the folks' barn with Jim. I even got Jim to join me for a run. On Sunday he joined me for the final 4 miles of my 16-miler in Fredonia. I ran the first 12 faster than recommended (8:20/mile), so relaxing the pace with my bro was a nice relief.

distance	time	Pace	HR Avg.	HR Max
16.29	2:21:35	8:41	132	146

Over the course of my run, I climbed a fair amount, and still kept the heart rate low. This is a good sign with 11 weeks to go. I experienced sharp ankle pain for a few moments prior to my brief stop to pick up Jim, but that subsided. I had run over 7 hard miles in Rochester with some difficult inclines and winding single track paths which might have led to the soreness.

distance	time	Pace	HR Avg.	HR Max
7.05	52:30	7:27	156	180

Brenda and I had stayed at the Woodcliff Hotel and Spa perched at the top of a steep hill for our friends' wedding (Congrats Ben and Lauren!) which made for an awful return trip on the run. I had "golfed" 9 holes earlier in the day as well adding a good deal of miles on foot Saturday.

Today I went out in Fredonia for 8 before hitting the road. I pushed the pace more and more as the run went on hitting a 7:32 mile at the end. It wasn't intentional, but it felt smooth, and I had a long day on the road ahead of me. Now I get to enjoy some time back home, and just maybe... I'll have a few relaxing days. It was great spending time with friends and family, but it's great to be home.

distance	time	Pace	HR Avg.	HR Max
8.05	1:02:43	7:47	146	165

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Week 7: Day 4 - Dogs with wheels

Today was my 2nd hill workout. I went once again to Soap Stone, a perfect place to get angry at an incline. You would too if you ran up it repeatedly at a nearly all out pace. I completed 6 intervals each of which was ~1/4 mile. My last and fastest was at a 5:55 pace, which was pretty much all I had in me by that point on a grade incline.

I think I went a bit too long on the remainder of the run. It clocked in at over 7 miles, whereas I could've probably cut it at 6 and been no worse off. I experienced some ankle soreness duing the 1.5 mile warm-up, and it was very tender walking around after the run tonight. I also felt some strain in my lower right hamstring. Though I was thinking about running tomorrow, It's definitely going to be a day of rest now.

distance	time	Pace	HR Avg.	HR Max
7.12	57:36	8:06	144	188

The interesting part of my run was coming across dogs with wheels. The first was wearing a harness and pulling a tire. Apparently he's weight training... One wheel dog wasn't enough for the day. I came across another dog, who wasn't as fortunate as the previous one. He had wheels because his hind legs apparently weren't cutting it. The dog above seems to be fairly content with his situation, so hopefully today's 2 legged/2 wheeled dog was too.

Yesterday's 4-mile run was fairly uneventful (no wheel dogs or people trying to run me down), but I kept up a comfortable quick pace.

distance	time	Pace	HR Avg.	HR Max
4.02	30:36	7:36	149	177

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Week 7: Day 2 - Hulk Smash Dumb Drivers

First of all, today was SUPER muggy. I ran at (of course) the peak part of the temperature curve at a nice 94 degrees, with a fair amount of humidity. It didn't help that I was nearly run over while running in a cross walk in a parking lot. Some jack ass decided that he was cool with running people over so he came barreling into the Safeway parking lot almost right through me. Luckily his mirror and rear tires remained a good 3 inches from me and my lead foot.

I followed this punk to his parking spot to see what his deal was and it turned out "He didn't see me." Didn't see the bright white dude running nearly in front of him? My guess is this jerk-off does not pass the vision test for his driver's license next time around.

This is the first time I've looked at my HRM data to see the effects of emotion on my workout. It should be no surprise that this incident was the peak of my run (despite being only 1/3 of the way into the run) at 180bpm. There are a couple smaller peaks near 171 cresting a few hills near the end of the run. On top of that, that period after the incident is somewhat erratic.

Perhaps this guy had something on his mind distracting him from the task at hand, but this is not the first time I've dealt with drivers who didn't care about nearby pedestrians. As long as I have to run on road, there's always that slim chance that some absent minded, or malicious fool is going to plow me over... That's part of the risk of running outdoors.

Despite the heat and shenanigans, I had another spirited run, negative splitting the last several miles.

distance	time	Pace	HR Avg.	HR Max
8.08	1:03:20	7:50	153	180

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Week 6: Adventure Racing

This weekend I participated in my second Adventure Race, the Odyssey Sprint AR, near Roanoke, VA. Like most of these races, this AR consisted of orienteering, treking, mountain biking, and canoeing. We must have covered 25 to 35 miles in the course 0f 6 hours. We strayed off course from the get go, taking the high road, which turned out to be a bad idea. After trudging through some heavy foliage, we reached the canoes at the first check point.

The canoeing seemed to drag on forever, and it didn't help that we were spun around 3 times by other boats. We resumed right where we left off on foot going way off course, and eventually learned that we were making this event harder than it needed to be. Every checkpoint was on some major trail or road. It seemed like smooth sailing once we hit the bikes, but we ran into some technical problems when Stas' Chain guard broke off and wedge into his gear hub. We were able to cut it away and get back on track leaving Stas with out his low gear.

This years Odyssey Sprint was overall a great time. Despite our misguided methods of navigation, everyone on our teams (John, Stas, Sergey, and I; Mike and Ian) had so much fun. I look forward to future ARs with these guys!

Despite an exhausting day, followed by an outing in Staunton that last until 2pm, I went for my 10 mile run to cap off week 6. I had been speaking to Kevin Shirk earlier in the day, and being humbled by his run times, I encouraged myself to step up the pace for the run.

distance	time	Pace	HR Avg.	HR Max
10.02	1:17:24	7:44	153	175

I have thought about approaching the coach for South Lakes HS Cross Country about assisting him this fall. The only hang up is the ability to get to practices with my work schedule... It turns out Sergey is going to be running for the team. The kid had a motor and was cranking this weekend, running when everyone else wanted to rest and barreling up the hill on bike. It would probably be a good time to get involved since I know one of the athletes... Maybe I can find someone who has volunteered and had an office job like mine....

John pointed me out to the Brooks ID program which supposedly could get me a 40% off discount. I'm excited!

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