Category: Uncategorized

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.

Jon in Michigan has a 201, and hasn’t had the love/love relationship that I’ve had with my 101. He’s trying to exploit its connectivity, but it sounds like that and the rechargable battery are the biggest problems.

Still love the 101.

Wow.

Just Wow.

Would that I had about 2 hours this evening to wax poetic about cycles – revolutions of wheels, changes of seasons, circuits of pedals, and loops of road.

I was running late this afternoon, and nearly decided to blow off today’s ride. But, as days are growing really short, I made myself do it, figuring that my wife’d understand.

And I was happy. It wasn’t an epic, just 10 miles in 38 minutes (bike odo, not Forerunner), but it was beautiful. Good stiff wind out of the south, so I parked at the fort on Jamestown and rode out to Beavertail, into the wind the whole out. Tailwind the way back (Woo Hoo! I did it right for once!), and life felt good.

There was one sketchy bit, though: As I came over the crest of the first decent hill, the road went all to heck. Apparently, they (whoever “they” are) are re-finishing the road, since it looked like someone had just dug up the crappy (and it was crappy) asphalt that was there and left gravel in its place. Upon closer inspection (translation – once I’d managed to slow down without resorting to picking up gravel with my elbows and knees), there was definately a layer of tar under the gravel. I really hope that the DoT is planning on putting down a smooth layer of asphalt on top of it, rather than using the dreaded “chip seal”. But, I made it through OK.

Highlight was 36.5 MPH on the way down a hill.

Happy fall, y’all.

I’m considering changing hosting services from 1and1.com to a small orange, mostly because I’m interested in getting scripting abilities, but don’t want to pay any more money for them.

So, if the site goes away for a while in the near future, this is the most likely cause. We’ll see.

I’m still really happy with Blogger, but want to learn a little bit more about how this internet thingy works.

So today’s run was one of the most worthwhile I’ve had in a long while: 1.5 miles in 13:38. Yep, somewhere north of 9 minute miles, not quite long enough to break a sweat, and I was happy as a clam.

Saturday was Naval Reserve Physical Readiness Test. I wasn’t eligible to take it this month, since I’d been out of town last month (don’t ask – it’s a silly regulation). But the rest of the unit was running, so I volunteered to pace a couple of guys who aren’t runners. Everyone passed, most by a margin of greater than 30 seconds.

All thanks to the wonder that is the Forerunner.

I slept through my alarm this morning, and finally had to give Christian “the call” –

“Hey, man”
“Hey, Bill, you almost here?”
“Uhhh, no.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah. Um, I don’t think I’m going to make it today.”
“Really?”
“Uh, yeah. I kind of completely slept through my alarm.”

Chris saves the day, though:

“Wow. Hey, that’s great, though. I was really kind of wanting to blow off today.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. We’ll pick it up next week.”
“Ok. Great. Bye.”

Then I get to work and read Dianna’s post about running in the rain (which I blew off on Wednesday) and felt like a complete and total slug.

Luckily, I ran into no snags at the office, and was wrapping things up (at least enough to go work on them at home) this afternoon, and realized I had enough time to sneak in a pretty decent run and still make it home in time for supper with the wife and boys.

So I set the Foreruner for 45 minutes, and a 8:30 pace (based on prior results), and set out from the office. It’s a pretty flat stretch (maybe 40-50′ elevation change 3 or 4 times), so I was pretty confidient I could stay in front of the pace guy, or at least hold constant.

As I’m getting onto the larger road that runs between NUWC and the Navy Base, then turns north along the coast, I glance down and am already 100′ or so ahead of the partner. Hmm. Didn’t feel like I was pushing, but let’s slow down the RPE a little bit. Mile 1/7:28. Wow. But there’s a little bit of a downhill, so whatever. Mile 2 clocks in at 7:52 – it’s on the flat, wind at my back, but I don’t quite realize how much of a tail wind I’ve got. I decide to press on to about 21:30 remaining from the 45 minutes, and then bust tail to get back with a negative split.

OK, we’ve got a plan – run the next mile in 8:00, flat.

Turn around and – HOLY CRAP! – man, that’s a headwind. Plus, the sun picks this moment to duck behind the clouds, and the bay suddenly turns from a pleasant blue to a sickly grey. Uh-Oh.

Mile 4/8:01. Not bad. But it is starting to hurt. I seriously contemplate stopping for a walk break, but I’m making great time, IMO. Can’t give up now. If I give up now, the fat boy inside wins. Mile 5/7:57 – Wow, maybe, I can lick this thing after
all.

Uh, no. The last .65 on the way back to the office (stopped at .65 and walked the other .35 since I’d hit the 45 minutes, which was my original goal), hmm, how can I put this gently – well, it sucked great monkey balls. It was the steep, steep hill up from the shore to the back gate to the base, and I was sucking severe wind. Average pace of 8:46/mile reflects about a 10 minute pace while climbing the hill, and about an 8:30 pace while I
-tried to catch my breath at the top of the hill
-tried hard not to puke
-begged and pleaded with myself not to stop running until I hit 45 minutes.

Obviously, I survived. And I’m thrilled, in hindsight. First, it was another good, long (again, for me – I’ve still got to break double digits again) run – 5.65 miles in 45 minutes. Second, it was FAST (again, for me). It may be my first greater than 5 miler run at less than an 8 minute pace (7:58 overall, but hey – it’s still technically less than 8 minutes). Third, I successfully avoided two days widening my rump; though after the strong performance today, I may have to reconsider my 5 day/2 rest day training program. Although I’m still planning to wait until some weight comes off (and it might be – after dinner today, I peed clear [sorry, may be too personal] and still weighed in at 181).

First time in a while I’ve wished I was back in Houston: The Tour de Donut may be even cooler than the Shiner Bash.

(If only for the 5 min/donut time bonus. 28 miles? My guess is that I could finish with a negative time. The upside is that a friend of mine is getting married that weekend, so I’ll be in town. The downside is that a) I don’t think I’ll have my bike, and b) I’ll likely be way hung over on Sunday. Although, I could just pay the entry fee and get the t-shirt. Although free donuts would rock, too.)

Again, sorry for the gap – Life and work have both been slightly more pressing than being one hand clapping. But the running’s been good.

Christian and I picked up where we left off way back in August this morning. It was humid, humid, this morning in downtown Newport, but the run was pretty good. Chris had taken most of September off while I was gone, but we managed the first mile in 8 minutes. I did the last two miles by myself at 8:26 and 8:10. The hill on Memorial is starting to get easier. It’s still an effort, but it’s not the wall that it was a couple of months ago.

I talked with Christian as we were cooling down – he’s going to try starting out more slowly when we run on Thursday. The Forerunner comes in really handy here – I usually set the “virtual partner” for 9 minute miles then work out exactly how fast I’m running in my head by the distance gap I’ve opened on the partner. Keeps my mind working on something other than “Dear god, are my lungs really trying to climb out my throat?” What I’d really like, though, would be the option to start the partner say half a mile ahead of me and then try to catch it. In any case, Thursday I’ll try to stay with the virtual partner to see if we can drag Chris any further.

Monday’s run made me proud. Stopped on Jamestown on the way home from work, set the virtual partner for 8:40 pace for 40 minutes, and tried to see if I could actually open a gap on it. I was skeptical – for whatever reason, I was feeling a bit beaten down. I was also upping the time I was going to run – I’ve been doing a half hour most days, but think I need to up the effort to keep getting results. The day was incredible – right around 70, blue skies, light breeze.

Left the park and started running towards the south end of the island. First mile crested a decent hill – 8:14. Second mile was almost all downhill, but I was conservative since I knew I was going to have to press back uphill. 8:22. Third mile I got to the turnaround, sprinted a little bit on the beach thinking thoughts of getting chased along the beach at NAS Pensacola by Drill Instructor Staff Sergant Hyler, United States Marine Corps. Good stuff. Then started heading back up the hill I’d been running down. Mile 3 – 8:49 (Yep, the partner gained 100′ or so on me).

The fourth mile was really tough. As I went past the half hour mark, I guess psychologically my mind started wondering “Hey, WTF? I cooperated, it’s time to stop.” Sorry, I thought back, but we’ve got improvement to do. The last tenth of the fourth mile was steep, steep, steep, and I broke down and walked about 20 yards. Mile 4 – 8:37, which suprised me – I though I would have lost a lot more time.

Buoyed by the good results from the fourth mile, despite a little cheating, I really opened it up for the remainder of the time. I had just under 6 minutes left to go, and wanted to see if I could really blow it out. My lungs were burning, legs aching, and I was sweating like a pig, but somehow the endorphins kept me going to the end. last lap was 0.81 miles in 6 minutes, a 7:26 pace.

8 September – Kind of a non-descript run – one lap around Mosvagen, the lake outside the hotel. 2.42 miles, splits at 7:48/7:49/8:25 pace. Last pace is suspect; my guess is it was due to not counting a corner due to trees.

10 September – First real epic in a long while. 7.74 miles in 1:09:46. Mile 1/9:15 – Left the hotel, not quite sure how to find the big lake. Mile 2/8:39 – Found the lake, found the trail, had a decent downhill. Finding my legs, so to speak. Lap 3 (0.27 miles at 9:55/mile) – Ummm – kind of a wrong turn. I ended up on a point in the middle of the lake, and just kind of ran out of running trail. Stopped running and walked back to the last time I had good trail, and figured out where I’d missed the sign. The absolute only time in Norway that I was on a trail that was less than impeccably marked. Mile 3(not including the detour)/8:46 – OK, I’m back on the trail. But I don’t think I’m quite half way around. Start really worrying that I’ve bitten off more than I can chew. Mile 5/8:49 – I’m nothing if not consistient. Mile 6/9:08 – Couple of decent hills. OK, not really, but I’m really starting to worry that I’ve picked off more of a task than I can accomplish. Mile 6/8:40 – back to normal pace, and there is a glimmer of hope – if I scale out the map display, I can see where I got onto the trail around the lake. I have a goal. Plus, I’m running across a pretty nice golf course. I’m not sure why, but the grass in Norway was unusually plush. Mile 7/9:39 – Wicked hill getting up out of the basin around the lake. Plus, I can’t remember the last time I’ve run this far. So, I’m slow, but I’m happy as a clam. Last lap (.47 miles at 8:47 pace) – Never have I been so happy to see the hotel; never have I been so upset that it didn’t have a hot tub or a bath tub (though the bathroom and shower had heated floors. Can’t tell you how nice that was).

Sep 15 – So sue me, I took off 5 days after the last epic. But work was pretty demanding, and we took one night to go out steaming in downtown Stavanger. We were planning on going out again tonight, so I figured I needed to get in another epic. Plus, it’s been raining for the last five days – that really cold, cold rain that you can only get near the coast. I’ve somehow gotten it into my head that the rain is somehow hanging on until I pay the rain gods some penance and have just a miserable run in the rain. The trail around the big lake was just that pretty. This time, I ran it clockwise instead of counter-clockwise. Mile 1/8:53 – Leaving the hotel, through the neighborhood, taking it easy since this time I am fully aware of exactly how ungodly far this run is. Mists the whole way. I start to wish I’d put on wind pants. Mile 2/8:24 – On the trail, in a groove. Plus, I’m running just after working hours, so there are tons of other people out running, so the “small dog” syndrome really strikes hard. Mile 3/8:33. Not much to ponder. Feeling good as I approach half-way. Lose signal pretty frequently in thick pines. Mile 4/8:33. Nothing if not consistient. At the halfway point, I start feeling pretty excited since I’m keeping pretty close to an 8:30 pace. Lap 5/8:41 – Reality starts to set in. 7 miles is a long, long way. What was I thinking?. Lap 6/8:45 – Decent hill coming out of the lake basin again. Lap 7/8:33 – Just kind of loping back to the hotel. I stop at 7 miles and walk the extra quarter mile. The receptionist has been giving me dirty looks when I drag through the lobby panting, sweating, stinky, and dirty.

19 September – 3.35 miles from the house. Up the big, evil hill, with a detour on the way home. Average of 8:26/mile.

20 September – lapped Newport Navy Base – 3.42 miles, which was disappointing. I thought it was over 3.5. 8:43/mile average.

Sorry for the lack of posts recently. The trip to Norway was good, both professionally and from a running/hiking standpoint. Being home has been great, too.

The blogging got dropped in favor of doing actual work, running, and sleeping. I’ll try to recreate what I can from the forerunner.

In the mean time, it’s good to be home, and I can’t wait to catch up on my running blog reading.