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

Centers around the Mystic Places Marathon. I was thinking Hartford initially, but there’s a decent chance that Drill Weekend will fall on the 9th of October. But October drill is a Fiscal Year 06 thing, and the schedule isn’t set yet. So, for planning purposes, I am doing Mystic. The upside is that if my schedule is open for Hartford, I can always move it up a couple weeks.

I’m going to be using the training plan from the New York Road Runners, specifically, the 18 week schedule starting from a 20 mile/week base. Not very aggressive, I know, but I want to leave a good amount of leeway to allow for swimming and biking. In the past, I’ve been very prone to overtraining. My secondary goal is to avoid overtraining while still reaching achievable goals.

To that, I’m starting the New Year with the program to build from a 10 mile/week base to a 20 mile/week base from the NYRR Training Diary. Again, not an aggressive plan, but I will likely swim or bike on the “rest” days. Realism and results is what I want.

Hopefully I can find some time in the next week to dig into the HTML of the site and add a bar with the races I’m planning on doing over the year.

In any case, it’s nice to be starting the year with a plan, and a new pair of shoes. (got them from the Exchange, but RRS is a quality place.) Christian and I should be on the road in 6 hours.

Hit the pool at the Y yesterday afternoon again. Swimming is great and awful all at the same time. I’ve always loved jumping in the water, and feel very comfortable at being able to keep my head above water in almost any situation. Apparently, though, that doesn’t apply to being able to move through the water.

10 breast, 1 kickboard, 10 freestyle, 1 kickboard, 5 freestyle, 1 kickboard, 5 freestyle. Ouch.

My sister-in-law is still in town, and swam competitively for about 12 years. I asked her for some style pointers, and the biggest one she had was to keep my knees locked while kicking, which I hadn’t been doing. I felt a definate speed increase when I locked them, but that transferred the effort from my thighs up to the all-important abs and glutes. Which hurts.

Ah, well, what do you want for nothin? Rubber Biscuit?

Have been greatly exaggerated.

So I’m writing this morning from a trendy chain bakery which serves bagels the size of one’s head, and good coffee. Yummy.

For the week between Christmas and New Year’s, I’m working out of the company’s Waterford office instead of making the drag over to Newport. I’m usually here on Fridays, anyway, which is nice since it gets me home about a half hour earlier, and I get that much more time to wrestle with the boys. Yeah.

Like I mentioned yesterday, life has finally slowed down enough for me to jump back on instead of sprinting alongside, and I’m trying to get back in a groove (some would say rut). Big project delivered, new client growing happy with me, and opportunity out the ying-yang. At least for this week.

Fitness is coming back to the top of my priority list, too. Swam at the Y yesterday – 10 laps breast, 10 laps freestyle, 3 laps kickboard, 10 laps free, and 5 breast. I’ll be the first to admit that other than being able to stay afloat, I have no clue what I’m doing in the water. For instance, I thought one was supposed to bend one’s knees while kicking. Which apparently, you’re not. Which could be why I consistently get lapped.

This morning was 3.7 or so at Bluff Point. There’s still a bunch of snow on the ground, and I probably would have been much better off if I’d been skiing. As it was, the run was tough, tough. I ran the first 1.5 at about a 9 minute pace, and walked/ran the 1.5 back (over a hill, etc) at about a 12 minute pace. Slow, yes, but it was snowy, and I think I was a little dehydrated. But it’s all in pursuit of a goal.

Anyhew, sorry for my absence. And again, good luck in the New Year to y’all.

That I haven’t posted in a while.

A long while. (12 October by my reckoning). Then I try catching up and get guilted by Dianna (aka Running Chick with Orange Hat) and her effort to take the RBF public.

In any case, I’d like to think I’m back. Work and family are somewhat more static than they were over the last couple of months now that the mother of all Christmases is over (Both my wife and I had family in from out of town for the holiday, and I delivered a couple of major projects). At least I’m not the only one taking off – April-Anne has been on hiatus since November, trying to bring up her GPA.

The upside is that I haven’t completely taken off from running, and I’ve swum basically once a week since I posted last. So progress hasn’t stopped, even though posting has.

In the new year, I’m planning on trying to race a little bit. Race being a relative term for paying money to run with people faster than I am. But my major goal is the Hartford Marathon in October, and the NYC Marathon if I get selected. Supporting that, I’m going to try to race at least every other month, wife-permitting. I would like to try a tri, but am not certain about open-water swimming up here without a wetsuit.

Hope everyone had a Christmas (or holiday of your choosing), and best hopes for a happy New Year.

Finally took an actual holiday. Jake was extremely confused, not quite grasping the whole idea that there are exceptions to the Monday-Friday work week. He got used to it, and I got a dose of parental guilt. Darn.

Took the wife, boys, and bikes up for a late afternoon ride on the Airline Rail/Trail starting from Salmon River State Park. Absolutely beautiful, as always, and the leaves ought to peak next weekend, so I think we’ll be back. It had been a while since I’d been out to Airline. We used to live in Colchester, so I would hike the section in Salmon River, and another section between Colchester and Hebron pretty frequently. But that was just as the first real work was going into making it a nice rail trail, and most of the old trestles were still “impassable”, meaning you had to go around a gate and balance on an i-beam to go down them.

But the work that’s been done is great. I was digging it something firece, and I see many weekends next year dragging a cooler and pic-i-nic basket behind the bike. I was dragging the trailer with Jake and Nate, and Melissa was punishing me up the hils. But life was good, the sun was shining, and it was nice to have a day off.

Hosts over to another service provider. Same per month cost, less bandwidth, less storage space, but more server-side toys with which to play. While I treasure every reader I get, I’m coming nowhere close to the bandwidth that my previous host was supplying. So the move makes sense.

Sorry if we’re down for a while; hopefully we’ll be back soon, and better.

Yours,
Bill

Heh.

No seriously, I woke up this morning kind of sore and a little discouraged. Decided to blow off running and “rest” today.

Not such a bad day at work; I picked up a task I hadn’t anticipated, had a good conversation with a partner who’s working on a project with me, and was wrapped up a little earlier than I’d anticipated. Plus, I was feeling pretty good in legs, so I decided to go out for a “recovery” run, then take a sauna on my way home.

Three miles, 25:43, 8:33 pace.

As a recovery run. I really, really tried not to breath too hard, tried not to push.

And cranked out three miles at almost a 8 and a half minute pace.

Wow. This training stuff must actually kind of work. Mile splits – 8:23/8:45/8/30. Did I mention that it felt like I was taking it really easy?

Sorry for gloating, but all the talk of Hartford in the CT arm of the RBF has me seriously thinking about next season. Heck, I’m thinking about next week – there’s a 5K Friday afternoon. Good luck to everyone marathoning this weekend, and thanks for the inspiration and accountability.

It’s been this color for a month or so, so I don’t think it’s falling off. But it makes me feel like a real runner:

I’ve picked up a new client who runs. As in actually RUNS, as opposed to jogging, like I do. I went out with he and his boss a couple of weeks ago, and was reduced to a blubbering pile of protoplasm. Today, he said, was their easy day, so I joined Joe, Frank, and another co-worker, figuring I could at least “hang” on the easy day. I did, but “easy” isn’t what I would have called it. (‘Specially not after the 7 miler yesterday).

Mile 1/8:51 (Actually, it was about 1.1 miles) – Out the gate, up the hill, and through the gate onto the Navy base. Feeling good. Joe and I dropped Frank and the other guy – I didn’t mean to, but we were shooting the breeze, and I felt good. Mile 2/7:48 – One decent hill here, but I was still feeling good. I fell behind while we were heading up the hill, but managed to catch Joe on the downhill (OK, he slowed up, but sue me). Halfway point .34 miles in 2:52. I’m hurting, but Joe and I are a couple minutes in front of Frank and the other guy. We wait, I catch my breath, and realize that the way home is going to suck.

Mile 3/8:46 – Frank and Joe take it easy, talk a little business. I talk with the other guy for a while, and it’s kind of nice. Same hill as in mile 2, but this time, we go up the steeper side and have a while to recover on the way down. Pretty nice overall. Mile 4/8:55 – Up the same hill that kicked my butt on Friday. Not quite as steep an approach, but I don’t know that less steep makes it any less painful. The guy I’m running with is a great partner – picks up easy to discuss threads and asks great questions. I’m a complete and total narcissist compared to him. Last lap – 0.21 miles in 1:40, 7:57 pace – Downhill, begging myself not to puke before we get to the gate. I don’t.

We did 4.65 miles in 38:54, an average of 8:23. The Forerunner didn’t gain signal for about a tenth of a mile, so the first mile time is slow. I’ll keep it as a great run, especially for what should have been a recovery day. Christian and I will have to really take it easy tomorrow.

Worked late tonight (and woke up late – but it was all right – Christian called to let me know he was blowing me off …). Steve and Chris swung by a restaurant for supper; I decided that I really, really needed to go run, plus, the Sox were killing the Angels.

Newport is an exceptionally beautiful place. Just hands down. Today was a blue sky fall day, temps in the low 60’s, and a few, few fluffy clouds. I left from Chris’ house about 6, and headed south into town. Ran down Thames towards Naragansset Ave, and took a left up the hill. As I crested the hill, I was treated with a view through a tunnel of trees looking out onto the North Atlantic. The sky in the east was just beginning to show indigo with the band of pink atop it that most folks miss while staring west at a sunset.

I hit the Cliff Walk, and instead of turning north to begin closing my loop, I decided that this evening was something magical, and I needed to extend rather than close. So I headed south, down to Ruggles, adding another mile, and watching the band of pink begin to climb in the sky.

Hit the turn at Ruggles, and started running north towards First Beach. Life was good. I was on stride, in rhythm, and I was totally hitting the runner’s high. Having experienced endorphins straight to the brain while running, I’m petrified of trying any sort of opiate, which is supposed to be the same feeling without the exertion. Needless to say, I was feeling great, and when I thought about cold beer in the fridge back at Chris’, I was able to dig even deeper and keep the feet falling.

As I crossed the Naragansset (I know that the street’s changed names by the time it hits the ocean, but that’s just silly, so I’ll call it Nara.) access point, I spied a runner a little ways ahead cresting a hill. The remaining bit back to Memorial (same thing as Naragansset) was a push to try to catch her, and we hit the sidewalk at the end of the walk at about the same time.

The band of pink was really racing across the sky as I headed up the east side of Memorial. The evil hill that I’ve been struggling up for a year was suddenly an ally as I headed down it, and stretched and FLEW. Really. I think my feet touched ground like three times in the .3 mile downhill.

Turning north back onto Thames, I started thinking I might cramp. But I wasn’t about to let a small thing like physical discomfort get in the way of today’s run. No siree bob. Small dog struck again – there were two guys up ahead of me, and I felt the need to blow by them, even though they were probably at sub-9 minute pace, and I still had about 1.5 to go (at about mile 4, I decided that I needed to do 7 today. Why? Because).

The last mile was kind of slow, because I was completely spent. Legal twilight ended as I got back on the road along the bay headed towards The Bridge, and the last bit of pink eased under the horizon as the sky became completely indigo. The last mile seemed to take FOREVER, but I ended up doing it.

A big shout-out needs to go to the folks at WEFUNK, a sweet funk and hip-hop show out of Montreal that puts their 2 hour weekly broadcast online as a downloadable MP3. I’ve probably got a whole gig of their shows on my iPod, and it’s always worth a listen when there’s nothing else on. Not sure which show I found, but the downhill was run with Chuck D screaming in my ear. Beauty.

Oh, the numbers – 7 miles in 56:48, for an average of 8:07/mile. This 8 minute thing may not be a fluke – I probably could have pushed a little harder and trimmed the minute off the run to get the average under 8. Mile breakdown as follows: Mile 1/7:29 – very slight downhill, beautiful evening, good tunes – how could I go slower? Mile 2/7:54 – traffic through downtown, and the beginning of the climb up Nara Ave. Mile 3/8:16 – lots of uphill, trying to figure out how far I wanted to go. Mile 4/8:15 – Cliff Walk. Mile 5/8:23 – Sure, I was small-dogging the woman, but I’m still fat and out of shape. Mile 6/7:50 – This was the flight downhill. Like I said, it was the most amazing thing I’ve felt running in a long, long time. Mile 7/8:41 – Just trying to finish, and up the slight hill that mile 1 was down. Best pace was 6:15, which I’m sure was down the hill.

Got back to Chris’, the Sox hadn’t choked, and Chris and Steve brought me a cheeseburger. Life is good. Tomorrow, I head home early so that Melissa can go to the Y in the evening. And I run at mid-day with a new client.

Life is good.