Run, Run, Run, Run, Run, Cycle, Cycle Too

180 lbs AGAIN. Even after exceeding last week’s goals and avoiding monster most of the time. But following splurging on buffalo wings last night during the pre-game. But it’s all good. I feel more fit, and my clothes are getting bigger.

Forgot to post Sunday’s run – wanted to do 3 miles easy after Saturday’s epic up-hill trek. So I did 3 miles, no problem. Truthfully, the 3 miles went really well. Like 8:15 average pace well, with consistient negative splits well. (8:45/8:20/7:45! – where the heck did that last mile come from?)

But it was a fine way to end the week – absolutely beautiful blue skies, reasonable temperatures, and a general peace and well-being that came from interfacing with folks on active duty and realizing tha there are fine, fine people holding the line.

I went to bed at the end of the third quarter last night, and slept “in” (6 AM) since today was supposed to be a rest day. Woke up, and decided that my single addition (Inspired by but in contrast to Chris’ continual restructuring – not a criticism, but an alternative approach; I wish I had the discipline to dream up challenges like he does) to the program this week was going to be resuming pushups and situps. So, confusing the dog something fierce, I hooked my feet under the sofa and cranked out 40 situps, then flipped over and did 20 pushups. Baby steps.

In any case, today’s been torture. I’m finally caught up at work, so I could have afforded time to go run at lunch. Today was yet another day nice enough to have been made in California. Well, sort of- it hit maybe mid ’50s, which would be a SoCal inclement weather day. But the sun and sky was there, clear as if it’d blown in off of a 6,000 mile fetch riding the trade winds from Japan.

So to heck with rest, I’m swimming tonight.

I know it’s small fry for those of y’all who are actually in shape, but I had another in my series of small triumphs in my new year of fitness – Saturday’s scheduled 4 miler turned into a five miler, including a schwack-ton of hills. Yippee, I say, and a huge THANKS to the RBF’s continuing support; special shouts this week go to Bugdozer and Jeff for pics of mountains, trails, and double-digit miles. Plus a bit of off-line cycling babble – I am SO looing forward to getting on the bike again. And somewhat bitter about drilling this weekend – I could have oiled, changed cables and pads, and gotten in a ride in the 40 degree weather on Saturday.

Instead, I did my PT run Saturday afternoon. My intention was to run the base permimeter trail, however, with the exception of some icy tire tracks, the trail still had upwards of a foot of snow when I got to it.

So plan B kicked in. I turned around and headed back down the road I was on, but instead of looping around past the gym, I headed up the hill to the hospital. A good long climb to the top, a fabulous view of the Coast Guard Academy. Nice. I ran about halfway down the other side, then realized I still had climbing in my legs, so I turned around and went back over the top. Cruising down the other side, the Forerunner hit 3 miles, with about 1.5 back to the gym, so it was a no-brainer to tack on a little loop to stretch it to five.

I was spent when I hit the gym, and missed out on the runner’s high this time (probably due to the exertion), but had the smug sense of satisfaction that only comes from doing extra miles outdoors and seeing folks on treadmills who missed fresh air, sunshine, and the satisfying crunch of rubber on road.

Busy couple of days; no time to post, and not much to post, other than congrats to everyone else who’s officially made it through the first month of the year, training program intact. Yippie.

I almost slipped into Super Monster on the way home from work Thursday. I was a little famished from the 5 miler on Wednesday, and since the iTunes/Pepsi promotion is in full swing again, I figured I’d stop by, pick up a free song and some cookies since I’d been so good the last few days.

(Yes, I cheat. First, it’s stupid easy to do. Second, Apple/Pepsi only had to pay out like 5 million of the 100 million songs they gave away last year – my guess is that of the general public, market penetration is maybe 20% have any interest in using iTunes, the other 80% will just throw the caps away)

Anyhow, they only have leaded Pepsis with the caps, but I buy one anyway, figuring that I can hold myself to the half bottle that is actually a serving. (I did, BTW, and saved the rest for Friday) Then I go to look at the Monster aisles.

Strangely, even the Hostess cupcakes don’t look appetizing when I realize that almost everything I can get runs about 400 calories per plastic packet. It’s the wrong time of year to get the baseball cupcakes, though. But nothing was really appealing when I actually thought about it.

Then, I see “The Bomb”. Parliament starts running through my head, and I figure I’ll pick it up and see exactly how awful the burrito is for you. I love burritos. I flip over the package and

I ALMOST DROP THE DARN THING! THE FIRST THING I SEE IS LIKE 600 CALORIES AND LOTS AND LOTS OF FAT!

Wow, I think as I set it down. That’s like over a quarter of the day’s calories. My mind says to take another look, so I do. THE 600 CALORIES IS FOR ONE SERVING. The burrito is technically TWO servings.

So between the 20 oz Pepsi in my grubby palm and the burrito, I’m looking at, no lie, 1600 calories.

I bought a carton of skim milk (and the Pepsi) instead.

3 miles on the treadmill to get even with the week’s mileage. And more importantly, a new appreciation for how bad 7-11 really is for me.

The Runner’s High, that is.

I do not know that “they” make days visually much prettier than today. The sky was brilliant blue streaked with high white clouds; Naragansset Bay was a deep, clear blue, and the ground is still drifted with snow. Absolutely insane.

It was still chilly, but hovered somewhere near or possibly above freezing. Luckily, I haven’t run into any of the dreaded black ice that plagued Ben. But I got out on my way home from work.

The Forerunner took an abnormally long time to sync up today, so I started out, planning for 5 miles before it locked on to the satellites. It finally picked up sync after about 1/3 of a mile, 3 minutes or so into the run. S o I figured I’d just go ahead and run ’till it registered five miles.

Something just clicked today. It might have been the days on the treadmill – I am beginning to think that running at a regulated pace on the mill helps with pacing in the wild, or it just might be my level of fitness coming back to where it was in September. But the road just kept slipping by.

The iPod helped, too. The run started out with Beck’s “Novicane” – a little bit of whatever the heck Beck is with an adequate amount of screaming guitars, screaming hipster, and electronic noise to get the blood pumping. Then shuffle songs kicked out The Doors’ “When the Music’s Over”, and I got Morrison screaming and Manzarek pounding out keyboard bass for a solid 10 minutes, and then Madonna asked me to “Justify My Love”. Somehow, the music just fell into place – good rhythm and over-the-top energy for most of the run. It finished with Big Head Todd and the Monsters belting out a cover of John Lee Hooker’s “Boom Boom” that was quite possibly better than the original. I hadn’t realized that my wife had added the album to the shared music library. Amazing what gigs and gigs of storage can get you.

When I got to about the 3 mile point, the fabled Runner’s High kicked in for the first time in a quarter. Suddenly, my legs felt light, my feet were caressing the ground instead of pounding, and my breathing completely evened out to where all I wanted to do was run faster. So I did.

Near the end, I began to realize that I had a distinct possibility of finishing the run in sub-45 minutes for about 5.3 miles.

AND I DID IT!

So I’m up-to-date on mileage for the week, had my absolute best run of 2005, and avoided the snack machine all day.

Tomorrow is going to be a different story – a wanna-be diner has opened up near the office, and I feel a moral obligation to go make sure they carry icebox pies. If there’s none, I know where to send the chefs to Learn.

The cat’s got the crazies tonight, by the way.

— Update —

The diner didn’t have icebox pies. Drat.

Yes, I did find myself singing along. ‘Specially with the “Wanting…Waiting…Hoping…”, which is a scary enough prospect – middle-class white boy, red-faced and sweating, head bopping and singing. No, I have no issues speaking in public, why do you ask?

And the runner’s high? I think it’s only about 50/50 between people who get it and don’t. One of the best runners I’ve known claimed he’d never had it, and the guy could run almost anyone to ground.

Jon – tiny bits of extremely good dessert are much better than large bits of OK dessert.

And this one’s for Chris – grapes after getting home from the Y instead of “monster food” after 9.

And this one’s for Jeff, and exhortations to think of my arms as paddles while swimming.

And for Mark and Aaron, and the meta RBF list.

2,000 yards in the pool tonight, give or take. Smoother and stronger, forget about thinking, and concentrate on watching the tiles going past. See the cross, flip push and twist. Nice.

The “paddle” thing worked wonders – instead of 8 four-count cycles to go the length of the pool, I was reaching it in between 6 and 7 cycles. The showers had tons of hot water. Life was good.

1 February was good on the eating front, too – bran muffin and coffee for breakfast; leftover chili (50/50 97% lean ground beef and ground turkey) for lunch with a diet coke; whole wheat spaghetti, turkey meatballs, and spicy red pepper sauce for supper washed down with a glass of skim (I will never bow to marketing and call it “fat free”) milk. Grapes for dessert.

The swim was blowing the training plan, BTW – today was supposed to be a 3 mile run. Tomorrow’s a 2 miler – I think I may try to stretch it to 5 miles. The last 4 miler felt good. We’ll see.

Figure I might as well bring this back, as painful as it might be.

180.

I looked back to the first weight entry I could find (May 2004), and I’m down from 185 near the middle of last year. The other positive is that I haven’t been above 185 since May.

It’s still a long way from the 159 where I should be BMI-wise to be at the high end of the normal band, and way far away from 118 lbs which would put me at the low end of the “normal” range.

Which means that my February addition may be diet. Rather than Chris’s shotgun approach, I’m trying to take a methodical approach so as not to get lost in the forest by trying to monitor every tree.

And if that last paragraph doesn’t mix enough metaphors for you, I don’t know what would.

It’s probably a good 3 months until I actually get out on the roads, but I grabbed a new set of skins for the bike over at Pricepoint. They’re having a tire sale – got two Hutchison’s over half off. Haven’t tried them before – I’ve been a fan of Michelin GP 2000’s – but new inspiration deserves a little splurge.

Now, if only I can get of my butt and get back on the rollers…

*** Linked pictures are extremely large

Finally had another successful week. Met goals and everything.

Saturday was about 4 miles of XC ski at Bluff Point. Pictures below. I forgot to charge the rechargable AAA’s in the Forerunner – oh well, it was nice. Great conditions on the trails:

There was a pretty decent ski groove down the center, and I was kicking and gliding something fierce. Keeping 12 minute miles or so, at least until the forerunner died.

I never get tired of the view over Fischer’s Island sound, especially seeing Ledge Light, a huge, red brick lighthouse looking like an old post office at the mouth of the Thames. When I was riding submarines professionally, there was always a sweet, sweet feeling when the ship came through the Race between Long Island and Fisher’s Island and sighted Ledge Light. Somehow, everything was right with the world, or soon would be. It’s tough to make out in this picture, but it’s there. And looking especially when contrasted with the brown of the seagrass and trees, the pale blue of the sky and deep blue of the water, and the bright white of the snow.

So, like I said, 4 miles, right on target.

Today – 3 miles. Outside. (yippee!) In Shorts (Yippee… Wait… Holy crap, it’s still in the 30’s).

Yeah, irrational exuberance got the better of me, and I went out in shorts, fleece, and gloves. I left all the electronics behind, and just listened to wind, feet on pavement, and my body (oh crap oh crap oh crap – when do we turn around and run with the wind?). In any case, I survived without frostbite, or even being terribly cold, but I think I’m a little bit more sore than I should have been if I’d worn pants.

Life is good. Signed the boy up for t-ball, napped with the baby on Sunday, and watched The Phantom Menace Saturday Night. (TPM Was not nearly as bad as I’d remembered. Return of the Jedi quality, if only that the Gungans were less annoying than the Ewoks).

As long as Cardio means spending time with an elevated heart rate.

We’ve had issues with ice dams along the edge of our roof since the “Blizzard of Aught Five”. Ice dams form when snow melting from contact with the roof hits bitterly cold air at the edge of the roof and freezes. Eventually accumulation of ice starts working back up under shingles and flashing around roof penetrations, and water starts coming into the house. We’ve never had a problem with them before, but the combination of an above-average amount of snow and consistiently below freezing temps did us in.

Last night, I finally got out there and did something about it. We’ve got a Cape-style house, meaning that the roof in the front has a pretty steep pitch, and comes down to just over the front door. The roof in the back has a much shallower pitch, and ends above the second story windows. The front of the house was pretty easy – I was able to use the 12′ extension ladder and a shovel to remove snow back about 8′ from the edge of the roof, and then use a hatchet and hammer to break off the 6-8″ of ice along the lip. Great upper body workout.

For the back, I had to borrow the neighbor’s 20′ extension ladder. And I climbed up on the snowy roof and shoveled off about 18″ of snow from the whole thing. I was not as successful at chipping off the ice dam in the back – something about working on the edge of a 20-30′ drop in the dark in the freezing cold just scared the hell out of me. But the snow’s gone, and there are a couple of channels cut through the ice near the flashing that the biggest leaks were coming from. Hopefully, that’ll do the job.

In any case, my heart was pounding for about 2 hours, especially as I contemplated the edge of the roof while shoveling. Wow.

To finish off the “fight or flight” reposnse, I banged out a slow-ish 3 on the treadmill while watching the Simpsons (lame episodes – one was the Christmas episode where Homer and Ned try to out-good each other, the other was so mediocre I can’t even remember it. Which is unusual).

The upside is that if I don’t get out for my “long” run on Saturday (4 miles by the schedule), I’ll have Battlestar Galactica to watch. But I’m planning on heading to Bluff Point to ski at the crack of dawn. Which will count as the jogging.

We’ve got ice dams. Like really bad ice dams. Realized it yesterday evening when the GFI in the downstairs bathroom kept tripping, and I found water dripping in the baby’s closet. Crap.

I tried climbing up to the roof to break them down – Uh, no. Sorry. Maybe I’ll swing by EMS tomorrow and pick up some crampons, or by Home Despot and grab a 20′ ladder to reach one of the non-suicidal pitches of my roof, but I the climbing was not happening.

So I spent part of tonight drilling holes in the ceiling and arranging twine and buckets to catch the runoff. Oh, yeah! But patching a small hole is going to beat replacing drywall in the spring. I climbed into the attic, too, to see if I could see the source of the leak – no dice, which means almost certainly that it’s pushed up the shingles near the edge of the roof. Guess this means I’m installing more soffits next summer.

In any case, helplessness and frustration got the better of me (and the boy pulled his all-time worst stunt ever just prior to bath time – I’d document it, but I’d rather just pull it out for his dates in high school), so I headed down to the Y to take out my issues on my body.

45 or so laps – 10-ish breast, 2 sets 10 free, 1 set 5 free with speed breathing pattern, 5 breast to stretch and cool-down, and a couple kickboard laps thrown in for good measure. Good times.

I was feeling kind of bad because the guy next to me was flying, and regardless of what I did, I was having a tough time keeping up. I saw him in the locker room after, and the dude was like 6’6″. So on every stroke he made, he was reaching a foot further than I could. Granted, I, sometime in the future, can probably make up the time by concentrating on turnover, but it was kind of amazing to watch. He also had the coolest flip/turn – When he did his flip, he’d slam his heels/calves into the water and make kind of a “boom” splash sound. Very authoritative.

My motion was much smoother than it was the last time – I didn’t feel like I was thrashing. Swimming seems to be a whole lot like yoga – all about form and repetition. Watching the tall guy swim, I could tell he was reaching further than I did. As a result, I concentrated on getting full extension with my arms, and could feel a speed increase without having to work any harder. On my last set of breast stroke, I concentrated on stretching my arms WIDE, and sweeping them back. Very relaxing.