Category: Run

Bad Idea

I went too far today. Figured I’d run the loop – Old Mystic, down the Stonington side, past the Seaport, over the drawbridge, and back home on River Road – and get the 6 I needed, plus make up for the day I skipped this week.

Naw, that tickle I’ve had in my throat, or whatever it’s been that has had me sleeping whenever possible – that wasn’t going to affect me, not on a Saturday. No matter that it’s 40 and drizzly…

Yeah. Right.

After about 5K, just as I was passing the seaport, I just faded – hard.

I walked for about 5 minutes, and thought I’d put enough gas into the tank to make it home.

I was wrong, wrong, wrong.

The hill that beat Warren on the bike last spring? Killed me this morning.

Worst part was getting home later than planned, and letting the wife down – she was ready to head out the door.

Ah well, tomorrow is another day. 4 miles, and I’ll hit 18 for the week. Not quite on track, but not bad.

Staring at the wall

So, there’s good news in abundance:

  1. Looks like winter may actually pay a visit to New England this year, instead of giving us the illusion of passing directly from fall to spring.
  2. I’ve still been consistient with my running
  3. It looks like I’m on track to not have to run outside in shorts in February, despite the glitches in the Nike+ site.

However, despite all the sunshine, we need a little rain. I’m still a big old wuss. All my running this week has been on the dreadmill. Even though it hasn’t been bitterly cold, the little cold snap we’ve had was too much for my tender constitution to bear. Luckily, I’ve got gyms a-plenty to which I can go.

So, mileage is on track.

Interestingly enough, Nike+iPod has been lending credence to something I’ve believed for a long time. Y’know the old saw about  running on a treadmill being easier than running on the road? For Wednesday’s run, I kept the ‘mill on 0 elevation for most of the run, and at the end, I had to go to 4.2 miles by the dreadmill’s reckoning to have Nike+ give me credit for 4 miles of running. Yesterday, I ran the whole thing on 1% up elevation, and Nike+ and the treadmill’s odometers agreed within about 0.05 miles.

Today, it’s 4 miles outside, and another 15 minutes on the rowing machine.

Goin’ to the Dog Park!

Stopped by the Copp Family park on the way home from drill on Sunday to kick out the 2.5 miles I needed to make 20 on the Nike+iPod record for the week. Total mileage for the week was already over 20, thanks to a wonderful run with my lovely wife on New Year’s Day, but I’m dedicated to becoming a slave to corporate fitness, and haven’t been able to figure out how to hack miles back into the system…

Anyway, the run was fabulous – I could feel the successful week in my legs, a tiredness that I haven’t felt in a while. I went back through my logs, and I’m set to pass both my October and September running totals by the end of this week, barring losing the bubble completely.

Oh, and there’s an interesting message at the NikePlus website –

Due to increased traffic (we’re happy to see you are taking your New Year’s resolutions seriously!), we needed to temporarily shut down certain areas of the nikeplus site in order to make some changes and stabilize the platform for you. The site messages what areas are impacted. We apologize for the inconvenience but can assure you that your workout data is safe. So go for a run and revisit us shortly!

I can only hope it’s true! Wave to the new runners, everyone, flash them a smile, and encourage them to keep it up!

Keep in the spirit of the article Susie linked to – motivate by the positive, instead of using fear of fat/death/whatever…

Tale of the Scales

So, I’ve been noticing that the jeans I’d bought in the middle of last year were getting tight. AND I decided that it was time to step on the scale to see exactly how much damage I’d done over Christmas with Queso and cookies during the trip to Texas:

175, and that’s being charitable.

Uggh.

For the record, this is 8 lbs from my lowest weight of 2006, and at least 6 lbs heavier than I was this time last year.

What the heck happened?

The answer, amigos y amigas, is that I completely lost the bubble regarding watching what goes in my piehole. (Cakehole, jerkeyhole, candyhole, whatever) Chomp, chomp, chomp. No amount of running is going to deal with that.

So, come Monday, it’s back to the record book. Nothing in or out without recording it, and then doing a bit of calorie calculation.

Bluff Point

The upside, though, is that I had a wonderful run at Bluff Point yesterday evening. Instead of running the perimeter at the Navy base during drill, I headed south, parked the car, and spent 35 wonderful minutes in sticky, stinky mud, all bathed in the glow of a gentle twilight.

I love that the days are getting longer.
I love that the breeze still blows cold across the sound
I love that it’s 2007, and I’m on track for my weekly and monthly goals.
I love that I finally cleared my running blogs RSS feed. If I didn’t hit you, please drop me a line and I’ll stop by.

4 miles, 35 minutes. Tomorrow’s a rest day, by which I mean cross-training.

XC Running

Meeting up in Northeastern Mass yesterday. Absolutely cool meeting – the company we were at is putting HUGE amounts of computing power into small spaces. My work on Monday is going to be to actually translate their marketing material into small words so that I can understand it. I really am feeling the need to go back to school – this stuff is completely cool.

The meeting was really close to Great Brook Farm, which is apparently a pretty decent place to XC ski. However, there was absolutely NO SNOW at the park, and temps in the 60s. So, I ran.

The run was great – not sure why, but probably because it was

  1. in the woods, and
  2. during work hours – it was somewhat on my way home from the meeting, but I still felt like I was playing hooky. I made up the time once I got back to the house.

But there’s something just absolutely great about running through the late fall/winter woods – the leaves were off the trees and had been off long enough that they were quiet while I ran through. The overcast and light fog in spots was great, as was dodging babies heads on the trails.

I didn’t run the entire thing – did about 2.5 miles running, walked for about a half mile, ran another 1.5 to get my 4 for the day, and walked another mile in a half.

In shorts.

In January.

In an XC Ski area.

Deene – stop hoarding snow.

Two Days of True Love

Inspiration for this is the third part of this post here; I have severe doubts that I can ever wax so eloquently again.

Background

So, we’re almost a whole week into our 2006 Holiday Family Fun Fest – two kids, a nonstop flight from Hartford to Houston, a compact rental car that gets crappier mileage than my ’91 Jeep Cherokee did, and life is good.

We flew out on the morning of Christmas Eve, and trying to be clever figured that it’d be easier on us all to spend the night in a hotel near Hartford and wake up at 5 to make a 7:30 flight than it would be to sleep in Mystic and wake up at 3:45 for an hour’s drive and a 7:30 flight.

Wrong-O, moosebreath.

Turns out that the kiddos really, really think hotels are cool, plus the opportunity to sleep in the same bed just means that it’s that much easier to keep each other up. Nate woke up about 2 AM, and didn’t go back to sleep until we were in the car in Houston.

Christmas Eve in Houston was good – Jake completely passed out during the Christmas Eve service, and I lugged my 6-year-old son out to the car despite the congregation having done a HUGE production of “Joy to the World” including an orchestra, full choir and organ with him passed out on the pew.

Christmas Morning we did presents at Missy’s ma’s house, and then dragged out to the Texas Hill Country to spend the afternoon with my folks, and my granny. I am a bad grandson – my grandmother is the absolute sweetest woman on the face of the earth, and I don’t call her nearly enough. That must change soon.

Anyways, my brother and his wife were here. Missy and I got the spare guest room the first night, which coincidentally has the bed my wife bought out of college as her first piece of real furniture – an Ikea “Sven”, if you’re interested. Great sleeping, for what it’s worth…

The morning of the 26th, we headed over to some friends of my folks. Their house is RIGHT on Canyon Lake, about 3 miles from the ‘rents. My brother, Missy, and I ran over there. There are some days when running is just the greatest and most natural thing that one could be doing. This was one of those days – a bluebird sky as big as south Texas, gentle breeze, perfect temperature, no humidity – nothing better in the world.

Two Days of True Love

The way back was when I realized (again) that I’d married well – Missy and I ran back – my baby brother wussed out – something about needing to get back and take a shower, but i’m guessing it was more pain from the dearth of hills to run in Norman, OK(lohoma, where the winds come whipping ‘cross the plains!, and the waving wheat, it sure smells sweet, and the something’s fresh before the rain!)

But it was a great run – Missy’s gotten quick over the last year, and runs 8:30s like clockwork. There’s a couple of great hills between the lake and my folks, but we took ’em in stride. But running with the wife is my absolute favorite – we can talk, or we can run – there’s not much needed than just the chance to be together.

Wednesday, we slacked off – but to our defense, we did go walking at the San Antonio Zoo. Mitigating that was a late lunch at Tomatillos’, which, if you’re ever in San Antonio, should be on your short list of places to gorge.

Today though – left before breakfast so we couldn’t blow it off again. Missy had to turn back, but waved me on – sometimes just getting out the door is the most important part.

Epilogue

It looks like 2006 is going to end well. 2007 – I’ll put out a goals post in the near future, but the short list looks like:
1. More cross training
2. Lose the belly
3. Marathon! again.

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Four Fine Miles

So, we’re still stuck with unseasonably warm weather up here. Darn the bad luck.

And yesterday, I started off the new year early by getting in a run before lunch. Rock and roll. 4 miles along Burma Road, watching the geese gathering in the bay prior to migrating south, enjoying the blue sky and breeze, and wondering why life is sooooo good.

The only downside? No Lance or Paula in my ear telling me that this run was special for whatever reason. Luckily, the crap-eating grin on my face provided that feedback.

Happy Holidays to all, and Merry Christmas!

Three fine miles

I kind of fell off the wagon this weekend, and didn’t make either my long run (5 whole miles!) or my Sunday run. In my defense, though, my youngest son is spewing snot and has a cough that sounds like he’s been a pack-a-day smoker for the better part of 50 years. I’m kind of worried about catching anything this close to the holidays, so I figured rest wasn’t a bad idea.

But, today I jumped back on the wagon. Three miles at lunch. OK, 5K, but that’s just ’cause Nike+iPod has a 5K choice, otherwise, I’d have to manually dial in 3 miles. The extra distance is kinda like having to do “one for the Corps” at the end every time I do pushups.

Today was so beautiful I got worried that I’d get kicked out ’cause I hadn’t bought a ticket. OK, a terrible metaphor. But the day was amazing. Shorts and a long-sleeve t-shirt two days before the solstice. How sweet is that? Narragansett Bay was placid, the birds flew, the bees buzzed (OK, they’re hibernating), and the sun beat down on my ears.

I faded hard about 3/4 of the way through the run, and walked for a while, but still managed to put in a good effort.

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Things that amaze me

1. Sunsets. Yeah, I’ll admit it – there’s something about watching the sun slip behind the planet that works wonders for my mind. First, there’s the longer shadows, then the indeterminable period of golden light, the dip behind the trees, the brilliant gold fade to orange fade to crimson through pink, and the final fade through purple to blue to grey to night. Wow.

2. Running on trails. The trees, the quiet, the soft crush of leaves underfoot, and the slight slipping and sliding – puts a smile on my face every time. Dirt on my shoes? Even more of a plus. Man, I cannot get enough of this stuff.

3. Food. Food is good. Good food is great. And running only lets me enjoy more of it.

All right – enough of the digression.

So, the trip to Natick this week was excellent. THe class ended up being better than I could have hoped, and I think it’ll help me at the office. The running in Natick ended up being wonderful, too. The capstone was Thursday afternoon – got out of class before sunset, and went and parked on MA 135, which I believe is the Boston Marathon route. Ran through Natick Center, and veered up Marion Street. Marion Street climbs straight up a hill until it runs into the 100 Acre-Plus Town Wood, which is lined with beautiful, wide trails. Phenomenal.

Left the wood just after the sun dipped below the treeline, and made my way back into town, flashing the nod and half-wave to the other runners enjoying the fabulous afternoon.

By the way – running on Rt 135 was amazing, just thinking of the history and effort that’s gone into the 111 marathons that have passed that way. I had supper last night with a couple of fraternity brothers, and a friend of one of them who’s run Boston like 8 times. The first couple, he jumped in as a Maverick (or whatever), but he’s qualified for like the last 6. Then, thinking about Jeff and the other RBF types who have made the wicket – well, let’s just stay thinking. I need to hold the (waist)line through the holidays, then drop 20 lbs, make it through another marathon season, and then maybe, MAYBE, it’ll be worth a think.

The class was at the Army’s Soilder Systems Laboratory. We got to see a couple of pretty cool demos, including chewing on one of the new, high-tech “Shelf Stable” sandwiches, and a “Hoo-Rah” bar, the DoD’s version of the PowerBar, which is worth every penny they spent researching it – delicious.

Tonite? Took the boys to movie night at the elementary school. Missy’s off at her office Christmas party, and I’m playing with the refurbished Airport Express I just picked up. Actually, there’s not much “Playing with” that needed to be done – I plugged it in, plugged in the speaker cable and ethernet cable from my existing home network, and it works like a champ. Pretty freakin’ cool to be able to send iTunes to real speakers.

Now to build the built-in’s in the basement…

Enjoy the weekend, y’all

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