Category: Run

Run, Run, Run, Run, Run

Get Thee Behind Me Slacker!

New month, new fiscal year, and a new outlook on life. I’m still behind on reading the current efficiency bible, Getting Things Done, but I think I’m beginning to get the picture – Zero Inbox means “Do It Now”. (And yes, Mark, this does apply to my column on CRN).

Ran Saturday – tough, tough run for reasons which I’d rather forget. Ran Sunday – the great “back home from Family Swim” run, on a day where our pastor had been firing on all cylinders, the clouds had broken and the sun seemed to shine with the clarity that can only be found after ritual cleansing.

Today, Jake had a soccer game. I was late, as always, but not tragically so, and after the game, Jake and I stuck around and kicked the ball until it was dark. The boy’s not much of a natural athlete, but then neither was I. But something seemed to click with him tonight – he started to get the whole idea of continuing to move with the ball instead of kick – run – stop – kick. And he also started to see how it’s more key to stay between the ball and the goal than it is to run straight up to the ball and try to take it away. Awesome.

But it was fun. One of the other kids on the team played with us for a while. 7 years old and he was close to being able to beat me. Amazing what a difference a year makes in being able to handle the ball and see the field. Really, really made me want to coach again.

Oh, and the last bit – November is National Novel Writing Month. My profile is here; you can track the excitement over at my Sandbox, where i plan on posting the whole shooting match.

Now, what can I drop 50K words on???

Things I need to re-learn

  1. 30 minutes is worth heading out the door. As a matter of fact, so is 20 minutes.
  2. Not going 5 miles in any given run is a far less egregious sin against Fitness than not going out at all.
  3. <Insert bit of gear here> is not a deal breaker for a run, provided that <gear> is something other than shoes and pants/shorts.
  4. 10 PM is a GREAT bedtime. Even better is 9 PM.
  5. 5 AM is a GREAT time to wake up.
  6. “Consistency is all I ask” sayth the Run (2 Dromeas 5:14)

To those of you still reading – thanks.

I did 4 miles yesterday on the way home from the office. The catch? I did them at the North Kingstown Rail Trail, and I did them fast. Well, fast for the Fall 2006 version of Jank. The total run was 33:20 for 4 miles; but the first mile was under 7:30! It just felt good to twist the throttle a bit. No negative split, but mile 4 was faster than mile 3.

So there’s 3 runs in my log book in the last 5 days, after a long dry spell in the middle of September. I don’t think I’ve lost much in the way of fitness, but I think I need to make sure to follow the advice in Dromeas (Click here to see to what that’s referring).

Oh, and I’m looking for a tagline a la The Penguin’s “Waddle on, Folks”. Suggestions?

For Bev

He thrusts his fists against a post; he still insists he sees a ghost.

All is well here – extremely well, in fact. Had supper with an old friend with whom I’d fallen out of touch tonight; am almost above water at the job; and ran almost 8 miles Sunday night, and another 2+ tonight.

List of dragons needing slaying:

  1. Online training at work (taking)
  2. Receipt of FY07 funding
  3. Cub Scout new leader training
  4. Painting the house
  5. Annual brush cleanup, bonfire, and marshmallow roast (this will be the smoke signals…)

Oh, and another for the good column – the annual Oxford American Summer Southern Music Issue came out last week – I’d kind of written off my subscription for the year assuming they’d gone under again. But they didn’t.

Which means there’s much running to do to fully grok the new tunes. Got my skillet good and greasy all the time.

Keep the rubber down. Bev – does this count?

Fall Hiatus

Hey, Folks.

Sorry for the following:

  1. Not posting much this week.
  2. Not reading your stuff. There is little that is more enjoyable than reading about daily small triumphs and races. Truly gets me out the door.
  3. Not writing about exactly how amazing it was to see Dianna, Jon, Danny and the crew from the Bronx, Michelle, Beth at New Haven. David made the trip to New Haven from Florida via Mystic, and we shared a great ride both to and from the race. THere are few people who are wonderful to see before 7 AM; David certianly is. The best part, though, was two hours with April-Anne. She and I had similar goals for the race (Finish! preferably in less than 2 hours), and had a great run, complete with her coaxing me into a sprint at the finish. COld beer, hand-rolled truffles, and conversation afterward. Awesome.

I’m probably out of the picture for the next couple of weeks if not a month. Mingus, my iBook G3, died last week on my way to Maryland. The end of the fiscal year is upon us at work, and I’m changing jobs as a Reservist, which comes with its own learning curve. Plus, I’m behind on a training course, and have a technical class at the end of the month.

What all that means, is that my time to write Runmystic is severely curtailed. I’ll still be turning content for CRN, and still running. But this site will be sparse until I can get all my stuff in one sock, and my new MacBook running smoothly.

Enjoy the fall!

Dread

So it finally hit me this evening – I’m actually dreading the New Haven 20K. I am grossly unprepared, and know it.

I’m not dreading it as far as a social event goes – for that, it’s the apex of my running calendar for 2006.

I’m not dreading it for the course – looking back on last year, after running Mystic Places and NYC Marathon, the little hill through the park at about mile 10? No sweat. If anything, knowing the course is a plus – I’ve done it, I know what to expect, the forecast looks like beautiful weather – should be a great run.

No, I’m dreading it ’cause I’m not prepared. I’ve been pretty slack as far as training goes this summer. Not bad, mind you – I’ve been close to averaging 20 mile weeks, and haven’t gone more than a week without running for a while. But, the long runs have slipped in favor of the kids and the bed on the weekend, and the cross-training just hasn’t been there this year.

In short, running and I have been on a fling, and I love it more now than I have ever before, probably ’cause I’ve been approaching running on MY terms, not hers.

And next Monday she’s going to make me pay for not paying her full attention…

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Which will probably make me love her more.

Drive

Wow.

So, one thing leads to another (Thank You Easter Bunny), and I ended up with a promotional copy of The Crystal Method‘s “Drive” last week. As I’ve dealt with, in detail, in these pages – this weekend, running didn’t happen. Tuesday, Jon and I headed out at lunch, declared a truce, and had an exceptionally pleasant run.

This afternoon, Jake had soccer practice. Missy wanted to go (Who wouldn’t want to go sit in the late afternoon sun on a perfect New England summer day?), so I say “Hey, why don’t I run over to the field and meet you?” Kind of a reach – I hadn’t actually measured the distance to the field, but I was pretty sure it was close to the 6 I had on the schedule for today.

Took the opportunity to fire up “Drive” and see exactly how this Nike+iPod “Run” thing works.

It works well, assuming that other artists riff of TCM’s lead.

The general concept is sound – a unified sound, a biting rhythm, etc. And TCM execute it extremely well, both lyrically and musically. Just as I got to the first rise in the road, the track really kicked off with the “It’s Time” portion driving me up the first hill I came to. When I got to the just killer “wall” on Yetter Road, the remix of The Doors’ “Roadhouse Blues” started – skillfully mashed up to highlight “Keep your eyes on the road” while avoiding mention of “your hands upon the wheel”. Being a huge fan of The Doors, and probably a bigger fan of recycled and remixed memes – this part rocked.

In any case, I found myself 45 minutes later running into the Library parking lot (how cool is it that the Soccer fields are behind the Library?) with the next-to-last bit of the mix (Glass Breaker) and Charlotte Martin (who I’d never heard before) crooning into my ear. Yowza. Talk about finishing strong…

I dug the experience. I’ll admit, I’m a fan of electronica when it’s done with a strong nod to sounding like, well, actual music. (Jeeze – did I just write that? This must be where High School Bill comes forward to kick Future Bill’s butt and remind me that I used to be cool) (No, actually I didn’t). And this was exactly in that vein. The beat was constant, but changed up more than enough not to be monotonous.

And what a run! Late evening, and it’s mostly downhill from the house to the Library. But, I’m guessing that having a solid soundtrack also played a role in getting me down to SUB 8 MINUTE MILES! for the evening. I kid you not.

I’m excited about the whole concept – this might be the kind of thing that could revitalize the concept of the Album and save it from the tyrrany of the Single. Instead of just making one killer track, TCM here stitch together 45 minutes of coherent sound. Tough to grab a soundbite, but taken as a whole – exceptional.

If I were to make one recommendaiton, though, it would be to get the Run released as a collection of multiple tracks instead of one massive track. That way you could tailor the run – chop out a couple of sections to make it a 4 miler instead of a 5 miler, maybe reprise “Roadhouse Blues” again at the end to push the run up to 10K. YMMV. (Your Mileage Might literally Vary) If you want to DIY that hack, I imagine the track could be burned to CD, re-imported as an MP3, and chopped up using Audacity or something, though I’d recommend checking terms and conditions of the ITMS and the laws governing your jurisdiction before doing it.

At $10, the pricing seems pretty fair to me – you are getting an entire album’s worth of music, even if it is a single track. And, unlike a couple albums I’ve bought lately, all the bits are worth hearing, especially if you’re running.

(The ultimate irony? I can’t count this as a Nike+ run, as I’d left the receiver sitting on my desk at  work.)

So, if you’re a fan at all of dance/electronic music, and have $10 to spare, there are worse choices you could make than trying The Crystal Method’s “Drive” out. Help build a market – who else do you want to hear tackle this?

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Summer

So, I did make it out for a run yesterday afternoon, just not the lunchtime hammerfest. Decided to do 10K on the way home; felt REALLY good, so extended it to 7 miles. Got Lance Armstrong after the summary telling me I’d done my longest run ever. Think I preferred Paula.

However, I come not to blog about Billy, but to bury him… wait.

Anyway, Yesterday evening’s festivities were me as a spectator. We trundled on down to Old Saybrook so that Jake could run the L&M Hospital Kid’s 1/2 mile race (Can’t figure out why they’ve got him listed as living in Missouri), and Melissa ran the Comcast Shoreline 5 mile race. Jake gutted out his first ever side stitch to finish. Melissa ran strong through 4 miles (her daily routine) and gutted out the last mile.

The race rocked. Old Saybrook looks like it’s cut from a Norman Rockwell painting. The race starts on the town green, and runs an out-n-back course down to an old fort. The town does a summer concert series that the race coincided with, so the finishers got to mull about with live tunes, decent post-race grub, etc. There’s even a bunch of resturants and such downtown, so with a clean pair of clothes, a sink-shower, and lots of deodorant, you could make an evening of it. Plenty of parking.

This was the first race I’d gone to in a while as a pure spectator, and it was fun. Nate, Jake, and I ate sandwiches and drank juice boxes while watching the runners come in. Got to see the firetruck go out. Absolutely great summer evening.

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Betchya I’m Faster!

Monday, Lunchtime:

I set out with Jon to go run Burma. The breeze blew, the birds sang, and the sun beat down on our ears. It was an unusually cool day for August, a gift from our neighbors to the North – clear, with a fresh breeze blowing in off of the Atlantic. Absolute perfect weather to beat the snot out of each other.

One of the “real” runners in the office, Frank, was joining us on Monday, as his usual running buddy was off. But, Frank left his ID in the locker, and had to go grab it right after we started. We went ahead and continued on.

Man, what a day! There’s good ones around here much more often than people let on (Southern New England? Think “Gulf Stream” in the winter, “North Atlantic” in the summer), but this one was Primo, after a week or so of borderline “Hot” weather. Plus, we actually made it out of the office on a Monday, so it felt doubly like playing hooky.

A little after the first mile, Frank caught back up to us.

And something snapped – The juice kicked in (not like doping juice, just “the juice”, y’know?), and I thought to myself, “Self? Sure, you completely blew up last Thursday and Jon spanked you like a whiny child. But today’s a new day. Why not take a flyer off the front, blow out the carbon, go for broke? When you blow up, Frank and Jon’ll continue on and have a pleasant run, and you can run in peace.”

I couldn’t think of any reason why not, so I gradually upped the pace until conversation ceased and I noticed Frank and Jon a pace or two behind. “Great,” I thought, “Now just wait until I croak.”

We continued out until the iPod said “20 minutes”, then turned around. I started to pop almost immediately, but I think that Frank and Jon were, too.

About a mile into the “Back”, Frank finally catches back up and starts talking. Jon’s hanging in pretty well, but about 20 yards back. Frank and I run for a while, putting a little distance into Jon (We did call back after the turn; he told us to go on ahead if we had legs). After about a mile, Frank goes off the front on a gentle rise, and i watch him go, saving some energy for the hill at the end.

Frank slows up for me, and says “We were setting a pretty good pace on the way out. What happened?” I say “I just wanted to see how hard I could go. Dunno why, but I love to press on the out and suffer on the way back.”

We finish up, then walk back to Jon as we’re cooling down. 4.8 miles, 41.5 minutes. Freakin’ Awesome.

Round and Round

So, I’m working with an MIT grad student today who’s well on her way to being smarter and better credentialed than I can ever hope to be. We’re discussing her PhD thesis, and as I fly off onto another tangent, she leans back, looks at me, and says “ADD?” “You betchya!” I say, and plow on.

It’s not an ailment, it’s a blessing. Trying to keep up with my mind is a full time job.

MAN.

MAN.

Today was one of the days that was sooooo perfect, it ought to be illegal. Sunny, breezy (but not windy), 75 degrees. There outta be a law that work is prohibited on days like today. Days that reach a certain standard of perfection need not be squandered.

Jon and I ran at lunch again today. We started to do the out/back to the Gazebo on the Navy base, but A) ran into a bunch of sailors in cammies carrying guns who pointed us on down the road, and B) Ran through the end of the graduation of the Naval Academy Prep School and past the new pre-Plebes. Rather than interrupt anyone’s day again, we did the rest of the perimeter of the base instead of the usual out’n’back. (Mmmmm, In-N-Out, which gives me reason to think that Jeff has way, way more wilpower than me – no way could i be within 20 miles of one of those burger joints and weigh less than 250 lbs)

As we were heading up to the back gate, Jon decides to put the screws to me again as soon as we’re at the bottom of a decently steep hill. F***, I think, but gut it out and made it to the top of the first part of the hill about a half step behind him.

Rather than get stomped again on the last half of the hill, I take off as soon as we got to the base of the climb. My thighs and lungs wanted no part of the uphill sprint, but somehow I managed to open up a couple of feet. I slow down where the climb ends, and let Jon catchup. I swear – there’s something that clicks when we’re running- the whole “I’ll race you to the stopsign” thing that we lost somewhere in middle school. It’s great having a running partner on a similar skill level. Good to run with the big dogs, but sometimes nice to be able to push yourself.

5.4 miles in like 43 minutes. Haven’t hooked up the iPod yet. I love that it works without headphones.

On the way home, I stopped to see if it was time to get back on the bike after 3 weeks. Turns out I was right. “The boys” (not kids) did just fine.

And, Man, I still love the bike.

Rode the single speed road bike from Fort Wetherill out to Beavertail and back. 10 miles or so, 40 minutes – 15 MPH on a singlespeed over a couple of hills that I’ve been known to do in my granny gear on a geared bike.

Single Speed is bliss after a while off of the bike. Nothing to worry about except for pedal and steer.

OH, and i must apologize to the guy in the minivan at Beavertail – I wasn’t trying to be a jerk when you were trying to parallel park. I didn’t realize that was your intent, otherwise I would have gone around the other side of the van. However, it is somewhat your responsibility to turn on the blinker. Especially on a street with tourists and cyclists.

I do not apologize to the folks in the Lexus SUV who were stopped in the middle of the park road taking pictures. GET OUT AND WALK! There’s tons of free parking, the day was exceptional, and if you’re out of the cage, there aren’t A and B pillars in all of your vacation pictures.

The Lexus SUV, though, was one of the best bits of riding I’ve done in a long while – bunny hopped off the road, went around them on the grass, jumped over a little ledge, and bunny hop back onto the road. Man, I love the bike.

The singlespeed is so neat to ride after so long with gears. There’s the energy budget and strategy to actually get up hills. Limited top speed due to spinning out. AND, minus all the shifting gear, etc, the bike handles like a freakin’ dream! Light, responsive, nimble… all the things i’m not.

Finished with 5 minutes or so of snorkeling. Absolutely cool. Saw my first fish of any real size – a foot long panfish looking thing that went and hid in the grass. Oh, and to the scuba woman – I honestly didn’t see you when you started coming out of the water – turning around and seeing your legs and torso really did scare the crap out of me.

So, that’s that – what a day! This weekend is house painting, but I’m psyched about my long run on Sunday.