Run – Page 16 – Run, Run, Run, Run, Run, Cycle, Cycle Too

Speed Work

Wow – running fast is fun.

So, I’m probably going to go with the “Run Less, Run Faster” school for the OKC Marathon in April. (Against the advice of some). My initial observation on reading the book is that it’s not really a lesser time commitment – the plan relies on three structured runs (speed work, tempo, and long run) two intense cross training days a week, and a easy run/cross-train day. The running mileage is down, but the time really isn’t.

So, tonite I headed over to the track to do some speedwork. Warmed up with a mile from the gym to the track, and did 4×800 repeats, with about a quarter mile of jog/walk between each of the repeats. Repeat splits were 3:44/3:54/3:50/3:39. I walked between the second/third and third/fourth repeats, and jogged/ran the mile back to the gym after the last.

And it felt good. I completely need to recalibrate my Nike+ – it gave me an average pace of 7:33 for the evening, which is Boooooo-gus, based on the 800 splits I recorded.

But, still – running fast is fun.

So, the disaster that was last week…

…appears to be over.

So, here’s the scenario: For about a month, I’d been planning a one-day trip to the DC area to iron out an agreement with a client and a supplier. Easy stuff – we’d been negotiating for a couple of months, and this was basically just to finalize a bunch of email and phone calls. That, and their caterer has great cookies. The plan was to leave Wednesday, spend all-day Thursday there, and fly back on the mid-evening flight. Plenty of time on either side of the meeting, plenty of time to do some of the planning I’ve been meaning to do.

Here’s what actually happened: Friday, we got the go-ahead to go pitch a project out in Colorado on Wednesday. So, there’s the flop-and-twitch to get last-minute travel arranged, AND, of course, I cannot drop my existing meeting to make flying 2/3 of the way across the country less painful, as we’ve been working towards this agreement for months.

So, we fly out on Tuesday after half a day in the office finalizing the pitch. Delayed an hour coming out of Dulles, so it’s 10 PM before we get checked in Tuesday night. Did a mile on the dreadmill that morning, but the ‘mill was a crappy one. On site at 8 AM, leave at about 4, and fight to get to DIA (DEN? Not sure which is the right one) in time to catch the red-eye back to the East Coast.

The flight’s delayed an hour, so I call the travel service to make sure my rental car company has been notified. They check the reservation, and say “Hey, that company’s closed after midnight”. Which is interesting, as my original flight was supposed to arrive at half past midnight, even without the delay… Got to the hotel in Maryland about 2AM. Not tragic, as I was meeting my client in the lobby at 9 to travel over to the supplier’s site. Decent sleep, but no running – rainy and tired.

The other opportunity that presented itself was to get a briefing on a R&D project that had direct application to some other stuff I’d been working on. I’ve been trying to meet a researcher for a couple of months – her schedule opened up the week before for the Friday of last week. So, I’d changed plans to fly back Friday afternoon. The wrinkle? My hotel of Wednesday night (the one I spent a grand total of 7 hours in) was all full up for Thursday night. So, I booked one inside the Beltway to be close to Friday’s meeting.

And got creamed by Thursday afternoon traffic.

Bleh. Checked in about 7:30 PM, logged into the VPN to clear the inbox, and jumped on the Metro. Rode down a couple of stops, got off, and walked back to the hotel, stopping to get some Mexican food and Shiner Bock just off of Capitol hill. Didn’t see anyone worth seeing making out with interns, though.

Friday’s meeting was great – good info, but another 8AM start, which meant that, after staying up to watch the Sox somehow not choke (Heh, have I dated myself?), I didn’t run.

Made it back to Mystic in time for supper AND to head down to my bi-monthly meeting with a needle before a lovely supper. Interesting bit of Jank trivia: My hematocrit was 47. I’m kind of bummed that they don’t use the Cu(2)SO4 test anymore (I dug the blue test tube and the little donuts of blood), but it’s kind of cool to get the number. No EPO for me – no wiggle room at all.

The irony? My bit on traveling and running ran on Wednesday. Not that I’m complaining – the week was phenomenal professionally. No major disasters traveling, just a string of minor inconveniences. And it wasn’t a disaster training-wise, not once I got home.

This weekend I ran.

Saturday, we slept in, took the kids to swimming lessons (Nate passed Pike, Jake’s getting to continue working on Pollywog). I went over to the church to help clean up after the White Elephant sale while Nate napped. When I got back, Missy headed out for a quick run (pun intended). She got back, and insisted that I go. A good 4 miles later, I was back. There was a hill about mile 2.5 where i felt really winded. Kind of depressing, ‘cept as I was heading back down, I felt the band-aid on my arm, and remembered I’d given blood (Yep, that kind of week).

Sunday, we left Melissa’s car at church when we headed out for lunch. After we got home, Jake hopped on his bike, I strapped on my sneakers, and we headed down to retrieve the car. Jake was a trooper – wouldn’t let me push his bike up the killer hill on the way, and we made the 3.5 miles at better than an 8 minute pace. The kid rocks.

Swam tonite – I could really, really feel the lack of blood. Can’t breathe more rapidly with your face under water… Will start Run Less, Run Faster-style speedwork on Tuesday.

So, I’m salvaging.

Deene – wish that I’d had more time in Colorado. Maybe I’ll get asked back…

Congrats to the folks from Grand Rapids and Marine Corps. Checked the results – an OCS buddy of mine almost broke 3:20, and to April-Anne.

In Rainbows

Man, life has been hectic. Found out on Friday I’m flying most of the way across the country on Tuesday for a meeting Wednesday, then having to be at another meeting Thursday back on the East Coast that was already scheduled. The meeting Wednesday is a HUGE deal, and I’m kind of surprised that they’re letting me take it. But not really ’cause I’m that good. (yipes). There would be details passed, but there is NO time available. Sorry.

So, I’ve got it back into my head that I need to do this running thing RIGHT. Melissa rocking her debut at Hartford (and she has, indeed, uttered the “So, I’m wondering when I should run again…” phrase, not in reference to like running – she cranked out 6 on Saturday, but in reference to another M) has got me thinking. Thinking that

I’ve got to get my weight down. 170 is not heinous, but 160 would be within weight for BMI, and 155 would be almost 10% less than I am now…
Running is phenomenal right now. Wx is great, healthy, etc.
I need to do it more

Last week was kind of a disaster. Ran Monday, ran Thursday, ran Sunday (more on that later). But not nearly so bad as the week before, where I DID NOT RUN, ‘cept for the PRT.

So, determined to salvage this week, I did my favorite run – otherwise known as Family Swim at the Y, and run home. And Run I did. I felt sooooo good, when I hit the south side of Old Mystic, I turned south to run down to Mystic proper, and add another 4 miles to the run.

Life is good.

Cow Hill kicked my butt again, Warren, but it’s good to have the challenge immediately between you and the house, instead of in somewhere bypassable.

fog

It’s kind of nuts – I think I’m seriously looking forward to winter.

The fog is back. This afternoon, I ran from the gym over to the track to calibrate Nike+ for a new pair of sneakers. The fog had set in – traffic was backed up due to slowness on the bridge.

(Truncated due to loss of train of thought)

New England has Ghosts

And they are vicious.

The title of this post was going to be “I went to the woods because I wanted to live deliberately, and to rock out on my iPod when I ran

I had a meeting today just north of Walden Pond. Yeah, that Walden. So, I figured after it was over that I’d head out and sneak in a quick run and commune with nature. And, as mentioned above, rock out on the iPod.

When I mentioned my plan to Missy last night, she said “You can’t be serious.”
“Why not?” I asked.
“Isn’t that like, sacrilege, or something?”
“Whatever,” I said.

It should have been a perfect run – 60 and sunny, dry trails. My plan was to run the ridge trail on the northeast side of the pond, connect to the fire road, run up Emerson’s ridge, connect to the shoreline trail back at the beach, and then circle the pond along the shore. Quick 4 or 5 miles, no problem.

And the walk in the woods ended up being wonderful.

The ghosts struck early. The trails are well defined, but I left my map at the car, and rapidly realized I wasn’t where I thought I was. I finally found the fire road, but rolled my ankle while heading up Emerson’s ridge. I walked it off a bit, and ran down the other side.

Only to get completely and totally lost, and end up spit out on Mass 126. I found my way back to Walden Woods. While I was heading down to the beach, I REALLY rolled my ankle. Figured it was HDT’s way of telling me my mind wasn’t in the right spot to run and rock out to the iPod.

All in all it was a good run – 4 miles or so, though Nike+ is giving me funny readings with a new pair of shoes. But it was an even better day to spend some time in the woods. I’ll be back to Walden, but not in running shoes.

PRT Fall 2007

Another NAVRES Physical Readiness Test. Another run just under 10:30. I sucked at pushups and situps this time- can tell I haven’t been swimming over the summer, and haven’t been doing them regularly enough.

The run felt good, and I could have come in closer to 10 minutes (10:10 or so), but when I hit the lap and a half to go time check (The course is odd, but after the first lap, it should be about 2 minutes per lap to hit 10 minutes for the run) at like 7:05, I knew that I didn’t have it in me to break 10 this cycle. So, I checked 6, and the two guys I use as run gauges were still far behind me.

And I let up and cruised in at 10:29. Closest I’ve come to 10:30 in about two years.

I’m slacking.

4:07:50-something!

Marathon Over!

Missy crushed the Jankowski Family Record (by which I mean me and my little bro) today at Hartford. Conditions were near perfect, and a great time was had by all. The photoset is at Flickr. But, I’ll post most of it here.

It was kind of chilly this morning – perfect marathon weather. Dry, little to no wind, and a madhouse in Bushnell Park.

The start was a riot – tons of people just hanging around, waiting for the race to start. I jockeyed for a position near the starting line, and loved seeing the elites start. Coolest thing? They all clicked their watches at the start, just like the rest of us.

I was a bit curious about some of the runners who were seeded.

As I was leaving the start, a guy named Brian flagged me down to see if I knew where to ride along the course. Said his wife, Sara, was running her third. I said I had no clue where I was going (absolutely true), but that he could feel free to try to keep me straightened out. We stopped at the hotel to pick up his bike, and Brian ran into a guy named Nick in the garage, as well. We didn’t know each other from Adam. Nick had run the race a couple of years prior, but was injured this year, and was here to support his Sara.

We caught up with our runners about Mile 6 – We were there about 20 minutes before them. Fate was on our side – our wives were all within about 4-5 minutes of each other. Missy looked good, but as anyone who has run a marathon knows, after months of training, 6 miles is a warmup.

Mile 8 and smiling. I had on my “Cookie Monster” shirt – bright blue, with eyes, nose, and mouth from the monster with the sweet tooth. I kept getting “yeah, Cookie Monster” shouts from the runners, which was encouraging.

The course is kind of an out-and-back to South Windsor. Brian, Nick, and I paralleled the race along CT 5. Nick’s an Ironman, Brian’s a runner, and the day – man, what a treat. Perfect weather, and good runs by everyone. The ride was awesome; so good that I kind of felt guilty. Here’s the turnaround at 11.something.

And just past halfway:

We caught them at mile 16 and 20. Mile 20 was great – there was a band there, though the band was way far away in a parking lot. I don’t think many of the runners noticed it, especially as life had to really suck for them by that time. I mentioned that I kind of wished I were running on a day like today, and Nick shook his head, saying that just watching was bringing back every ounce of body-ripping pain and effort. And as soon as he mentioned it, I started having flashbacks.

Completely lucked out on where we caught them at mile 20-ish. I hadn’t realized there was a pedestrian bridge on the south side of IH-84. So, we were able to meet up with them again at between mile 22 and 23. Brian’s Sara had been FLYING after the halfway point, and, leaving just after Melissa passed us at 20-ish, we just barely caught Sara(Brian) on Main Street. Missy came by looking strong (I am so dead for posting the pic with the tongue hanging out).

Brian, Nick, and I ditched the bikes at the Hilton, shook hands on not getting lost, wished each other’s SO’s best and passed congratulations, and split. Always great to have good folks to ride or run with.

My ma had flown up for the race, and brought Jake and Nate to the finish line. The kids were having a riot on the playground and carousel, and we headed down to the finish line to wait for Missy with a little bit of chocolate milk (to make up for having to leave the playground).

We saw the two Saras finish, but didn’t see Brian or Nick again. And soon enough, Melissa came charging up the hill, looking as fresh as I’d seen her at the start.

We caught up with her as she came out of the finisher’s area, and headed for the food. A little bit of nourishment, some re-hydration, and everyone was right as rain. One thing I love about finishers – the cool sweat buildup.

So, that’s pretty much it. We went back to the hotel, cleaned up. Missy headed back to Mystic (where, amazingly enough she managed to stay up past 9). Ma, me, and the kids headed over to the Wadsworth Atheneum, where the kids were remarkably well behaved. Especially considering Jake REALLY wanted to go to the Air Museum. You can check out pictures here. The museum was great – it’s the oldest public art museum in America, and had an amazing collection. Hartford continues to surprise me.

A couple of other observations – It would have been wicked tough to keep up with the elite runners, even on bikes. Even following 4-hour-ish runners, we were pedaling pretty good to get from spot to spot. Granted, we didn’t break much of a sweat on the bikes, but anything quicker and we would have been pushing to get from spot to spot.

Also, I don’t think that I would have appreciated watching the race as much if I hadn’t run one before. Like Nick said, the hurt just keeps coming back over and over again.

Huge thanks to Brian and Nick, and congratulations to their wives (both of whom were named Sara[h?]).

And the biggest congrats of all go to Melissa, the Fastest Jankowski on two legs!

Chicago Rant

So, by now I’m sure that y’all have read up on the disaster that was the Chicago Marathon – closure of the course after 3:30 or 4 hours, depending on reports, no water for the first 10K for anyone running less than a 3 or so hour pace, etc. Wicked hot.

Frankly, that blows, especially the reported shortages in at the first aid stations.

I crunched a couple of numbers for an email exchange that Mark and I had, and pulled the following numbers:

*Marathon Finishing Tims*
Race	Finishers	Under 3H	Under 4H
NYC 2006	38,000	900	12,000
Houston 2007	5,300	125	1650
Chicago 2006	33,600	900	11,700

Even with the extreme heat, the planners should have realized that fewer than a third of the field is going to finish under 4 hours, so there should have been SOMETHING at the first aid stations for those runners. I find it hard to believe that even with the increased heat, the front of the pack third consumed three times as many resources as they have in the past.

Honestly? My take? There’s a move afoot in elite running circles to discourage average runners – mid to back of packers – from racing. Hence the iPod bans, hence poor support at a marquee race.

The solution? Get faster.*** But moreso, get involved. (Pot, this is kettle) One of the beautiful things about running for me is that it’s all a personal challenge – can I improve upon my last performance? Races are a dispassionate judge of that. I can always fudge whatever timing/mileage device I’m using. I can’t fudge a chip.

*** EDIT/Clarification – this is meant to be tongue in cheek.

Story of my life (Part 1)

I love my wife and all, but this is how our conversations are going these days. Which, in and of itself, rocks, as I’m into my second year of staying under 175, the longest I’ve been this skinny (though still above the “normal” BMI – still have work to do, hence the “tuber”) since before I went to college and discovered beer (mmmmmm – beer). (It also doesn’t help that the Frazz homepage says that Jeff Mallett, who Jon says is a quality human being, swam the freakin’ Strait of Mackinac for charity.)

Before I get into my paean to late summer, an admin item – Missy’s running the Niantic Bay Half Marathon on Sunday as her last hurrah before Hartford. The boys and I will be there as soon as church lets out. Michelle will be there selling Bondi Bands, which are so cool I’m thinking about getting one to keep my ears warm in winter. Should be good – an early fall afternoon at the beach. Hopefully they’ve kept the chowder despite getting rid of the Marathon.

Now – Late summer.

Dianna nailed the beginning of fall this week. I broke out of my rut toady after work (at an undisclosed location) for a freakin’ great run. Freed of the normal time constraints by a loving and patient wife, I set out and, much like Mark, I embraced “Run, Billy, Run!” and ran, ran, ran, ran, ran. I took the iPod with me for Nike+, but didn’t plug in the headphones.

And, man.

There’s nothing like a fall run on an Indian Summer day. A little bit of warm and humidity had rolled in – should have great thunderstorms tonight. The sun was getting low on the horizon, and the light of the “golden hour” was amplified by the strong hints of color on the trees. Blissfully little traffic, and I surprised myself by finding some wonderful rail-trail.

So I ran.

I knocked out about 3.5 before I came to a big hill. Paused Nike+, and walked for a little bit. Kept walking, exploring the area, and wondering about those who’d been here before.

Rural New England is the absolute greatest. There’s a history here unlike much of the rest of the country. Business empires and factories built and forgotten. Roads and rails and whole communities slowly disappearing under blankets of rotting leaves, thick oaks and maple roots tearing up the hopes and dreams of a century ago.

I wandered past an abandoned reservoir, wondering who’d built it, and if they’d known that it’d be choked with lilies and marsh grass someday instead of providing power for their water wheels. Flushed a covey(?) of grouse, and got a flashback of the quickening of the pulse and sharpening of the senses that is the draw of hunting upland game. Came across a pond, crept up over a hill, and jumped a couple of dozen ducks. They’d carved paths between the lilies and duckweed, and made a ruckus as they flew off.

Ran another mile and a half, and walked for about an hour or so in addition. Nike+ gave me credit for 5 miles running, so I figure I did between 8 and 9 miles total with the walking. Just what the body needs.

This weekend, I’m going to plow through “Run less, run faster”, and actually chisel out a training schedule for OKC. 7 months to go. Which translates to 3 months (12 weeks) to drop 10 pounds (completely plausible, ‘cept for Thanksgiving and Christmas), and 16 weeks to go from an 8 mile long run to 26.2 again.

Man, I’m psyched.

Story of my life continues below the break.
Continue reading Story of my life (Part 1)

Freakin’ Awesome!

Man, there are some days when running’s a pain, and other days, like for me this Saturday, when it’s the absolute greatest thing in the world. Then today strikes, and I’m in the throes of a week that’s been greater than anything in a long time.

For what it’s worth, I’m astounded that I haven’t blogged about Saturday’s run, as it was phenomenal. Good things can happen when sneakers are strapped on, dear readers. Good things. I managed to eak out 20 miles last week, and it didn’t feel like a thing.

This week is off to a kind of inauspicious start – I’m busy, busy, and my schedule’s thrown off kilter. So, I’ve had a three day break after the great week last week. But I think I can salvage it. I have, interstingly enough, done pushups and crunches two of the three days, though.

Interestingly enough, though, I’m far more invested in Melissa’s 20 miler this weekend in preparation for Hartford than I am in anything else going on in my life. I’m completely pumped for her.