Dave's Training Blog

The Day Before

2009-10-02T18:31:00.002-04:00

I forgot my traveling pen. The one I always use to write in my little Moleskine. I love looking back and seeing where my mind was the day before a race, so I figured I'd go ahead and spill the beans out here and see how it goes. The weather forecast has changed from dire to pretty awesome. Low 40s at the start (borderline on the chilly side - we've got to be out there for an hour or more - but perfect for the beginning of a race. Mid (and maybe high) 50s at the finish. Let's hope it's closer to mid. The sun will be up by then and, I found out today, it's a hot sun. Forecasts as of when I left were for good temps but for steady winds of 30mph gusting to 45-50. Directly into our faces. Yikes. That's total death. Wind forecast now? Max of 3-5 for the whole course! I'm very psyched about the weather. Not so entirely psyched about the course.

I've made the decision several times to run a particular marathon based on a "favorable" elevation profile. By that I mean: net downhill. Each time, I forget that the race directors have a product to sell and that the do their best to make their race the most appealing. They do things like show you the net elevation change for each mile. This does not, however, take account for the rolling or sometimes massive hills. If you go 500 feet up and then 500 feet down in the same mile, the net can still be naught. This is definitely the case for this course. There are several very intense hills. Mountains, you might say. This will, no doubt, be quite a test.

This is my excuse. Already. It's like I can't help myself. I'm setting the stage for when I don't achieve my goal. I really have vacillated though. When I chatted with the Clif Bar Pace Team (the guys that run a specific pace so that you can just follow them and not worry about pacing) at the Expo, I got really charged and KNEW that this would be the one. It's happened several other times randomly. I am in shape. I've got a little niggle in my left calf, but even that is much better than it has been recently. There's the aforementioned awesome weather. There's really a lot going for me this time around. So if I can just beat the course, then this time will be it.

Me against the course. Always me against the distance. Me against that little voice in my body telling me to stop.

I can't tell you how much I want to be writing another post here tomorrow brimming with post race ecstasy. If you've ever met me, you probably know. A coworker of mine predicted my time as 3:08:54. My response "If I run 3:08:54, I will buy you dinner." I've never wanted to buy someone dinner more.

It's Baaaaack!

2009-07-05T13:09:00.002-04:00

I'm watching the finals of Wimbledon right now. It's 14-14 in the final set of the longest match in Wimbledon Finals history. A true marathon match. Just crazy. And speaking of crazy...

I read a book yesterday ~~about running....~~ ~~about~~ ~~ultramarathoning~~... ~~about~~ ~~the evolution of our species and the meaning of life~~ ... called Born to run. Most books that have anything to do with running are, unfortunately written by runners. And, because of this, read like they've been written by, well... a runner. Born to Run was fortunately written by a journalist who happens to also be a runner. Ahhhh. Plot devices. Complex structures. Evocative diction. Suspense and Discovery. As this is a running blog and not a book review blog, suffice it to say that it was a page turner despite being about running.

More importantly for me, it put a new spin on things that managed to give me a great big warm and fuzzy. 9 times out of 10, when someone tells me that they are a vegetarian, it makes me want to immediately shut them out. I'm long since past the stage when it made me want to throttle them, but I usually can't resist the urge to ask them: why? If the whole of their answer is "because eating animals is cruel," it's over. The simple truth is that all omnivores and carnivores eat animals. Our unusually large brains became that way because we had access to the high fat / high protein source of sustenance provided by animals we managed to kill. Our species evolved as omnivores, not herbivores. This is what I would explain to the vegetarian, usually garnering a blank stare and a get-the-hell-out-of-my-face reaction.

Born to Run (BTR) also points out, rather convincingly, that our species evolved to run. But wait. Wouldn't the big muscles and big brains provided by mammoth meat just make us less efficient for running? Indeed. Think about it. Neanderthal man had the most solid body and the largest brain of any hominid species EVER. Yep, their brains were bigger than ours. Evidence suggest that they may have even had speech long before previously thought. But Neanderthal man wasn't our ancestor. Neanderthal man was a competitive species. And, contrary to what you see on Geico commercials, Neanderthal man no longer exists. Who does? WE do. And why? Because when the earth came out of the cold period, animals got nimbler on the plains opened up by the receding forests. The huge muscular Neanderthal man lost his element of surprise. The big game he hunted also lost the cover of the forests as well. As we all know, the predator goes the way of the prey. So instead of ambushing and overpowering big prey, hominids were forced to chase and out-endure their prey. So we evolved to run. And run long. Humans, in fact, can run longer distances faster than any species on the planet. Hands down. It's not even close. Game, set and match. That's why we live everywhere and have dominion over all other beasts. That's why we have civilizations and spaceships and food for everyone (well almost everyone).

But how does this have anything to do with vegetarianism, Dave? Well, I'm glad you asked. Gazelles are fast. Antelopes are fast. Out enduring an animal doesn't always work. And ALWAYS takes a ton of energy. So our endurance hunter ancestors had to fuel themselves somehow, right? Right. Nuts, berries, fruit, veggies, roots are all great sources of calories and can not only be grown and stored at home, but can also be found out on the trail while in pursuit of prey. So we fueled up on fruits and grains, set off in pursuit of an ibex, ran for a few hours, refueling on the run with berries and such, and, if we were lucky and smart, we were rewarded with a high protein and high fat snack. Otherwise, we'd go home, sleep it off and refuel again with the stand-byes at home. So that means that most of the calories on which our species evolved were of the herbivorous persuasion.

Fascinating stuff. Don't get me wrong, I know that those 9 out of 10 people I come across are not thinking of evolutionary morphology when they make the choice to become veg's. But now I must temper my distaste for their decision even more.

But that's all one. The real goods of BTR came in the form of 2 cold hard tips. Im not gonna attempt to sum up the first - the importance of mindset when it comes to running. The author sells his books because of his ability to use words to express the sentiment effectively. But, basically, I have, in a sense, re-discovered the importance of having the right frame of mind and motivation for running. The second nugget is a little easier to distill. Easy, Light, Smooth, and Fast. This is the basic formula for the most efficient stride for running. And, as one key character in BTR points out, you only have to master the first three, the fourth will follow automatically. There is, of course, lots more nuance involved, but this is, again, a blog, and not a book.

It's back. What's back, Dave? I don't know... Whatever it was that I had lost earlier this year. I was smiling for all 11 miles of my run this morning. I was singing in the shower after my run. I wasn't sore. I wasn't grouchy. I refueled with beans and rice and a banana. I feel great. Body and mind. I'm so excited. Sure, I can't wait to qualify for Boston. It's still my white whale. But, if life can be like this until I do?, then I'm not in too dire a hurry for the finish line. ... And, speaking of the finish line, Federer wins the 5th set - 16-14 - for his 15th major title. The most of any tennis player ever.

Commencement

2009-05-01T20:46:00.010-04:00

Ok. Let's begin at the end. Prologue: 21 posts along my journey to the Dublin Marathon. Epilogue: Yet another episode in the litany of weather-related impedance. A steady diet of 30 mph winds broke me down and relegated me to an official PR of 3:15. I was ready, but the cosmos was not. Or more more to the point, I wasn't ready for everything.

Words are funny sometimes. Sometimes we say words for concepts and ideas that are generally understood, but that most of us have never considered the meaning of the word intrinsically. We drive on a parkway. We park on a driveway. Wait, what? And, at the end of high school, we have a commencement. Sure, nothing funny going... WAIT. You commence with something at the BEGINNING! Commencement? What the hell? Hrmmm. Oh I get it, it's not to celebrate achievement, it's to commemorate the beginning of the next major chapter in life.

Well I guess commencement day for me over the past few years has been the day when I get home from my last marathon and sign up for the next. Everything is fresh and new and I'm ready to take on a new cycle. A new way of looking at things, a fresh approach. When I got home from Dublin, my legs felt pretty good. I took a few weeks off, but I jumped right back into running. I ran a fast 10k and took that as a sign that I hadn't lost fitness. I signed up for a spring marathon and started training. I'll spare you the details of the "fresh" approach that I took but the basic idea was that I knew what I needed and to hell with a 'program.' Things never felt quite right. I had a sinking suspicion throughout that something was wrong and, in Mid-February, those suspicions came to life.

Everything broke down. I was exhausted. Nothing was 'injured' per se, but I couldn't run. I just couldn't. My legs hurt. A LOT. My body hurt. A TON. But, infinitely more importantly, I hurt. My 'being' hurt. I wasn't enjoying forcing myself to run. This was a first. In 5 years of marathon training, not ONCE did I feel like not running. In times of injury, I knew that I shouldn't run. But that's totally different from not wanting to run. And I'm not talking "It's 5:30 in the morning and I had 3/4 of a bottle of wine last night" not wanting to run. I'm talking about "I'm done with this shit. I hate how I feel and I just wanna go do nothing" not wanting to run. I tried taking a week off. I tried taking two weeks off. Two weeks turned to three. Three weeks turned to 4 and I had already reached as far as I had ever gone without running since I started.

A little less than two MONTHS after stopping running, the 2009 Boston Marathon was contested. Aww hell. The excitement. The anticipation. The drama! Two Americans with legitimate shots at winning. I took a half day off work to stay home and watch. By the time the little montage introduction to the race had finished (and I finished wiping away a little tear of confused emotion), I had almost made up my mind that I would be running a marathon in the Fall. The brain started coming around. I was excited. The Americans came in 3rd, mens' and womens'. To get in the mood, I had gone for a run the Saturday previous. All of my aerobic fitness seemed to be gone. I still had my pace, but I got winded after only a few miles. I knew I'd have to start slow. But I knew I had to start. A few runs later and I pulled out the books and materials.

I started a training cycle with a plan a week ago. Today, however, is commencement day. Today is when my body felt the groove, and it felt good. Not the groove of the run, but of routine. It felt really good. I was excited to get up at 6 this morning because I knew at the end of a short run, I was allowed to do a few hill sprints! I was excited that one whole week of mileage was under my belt and I hadn't broken down. I was excited to get home and read more of the Brad Hudson training book from which I'm deriving my training plan for this cycle. It felt good that, even though it's a Friday in spring, that there's nothing important on the social schedule for the weekend. That all I need to worry about is keeping healthy for my long run Sunday and for my key workouts next week. It felt so good that I had to share. Maybe this time will be the one. Hope is a pretty awesome thing.

Welcome to Commencement Day. Let's try this again.

21 Posts

2008-10-16T17:43:00.002-04:00

My blogging tool informs me that this is my 21st post. 21 is my lucky number. And speaking of numbers, I got my confirmation email from the Dublin Marathon Organizers; I'm bib number 759. A goodly number. I don't know why. At least it's not 666, or 0, or 13 or anything. I digress...

In recent weeks, I feel like I have been lacking a signature workout that gives me a sense of security going in to the race. For the most part, I've done all the work. But none of my recent workouts have really knocked it out of the park. I did a 20 miler with 15 of those miles at marathon pace, but I really had to work for some of those miles. My tempo runs were going well, but at only 7 miles of tempo, they're not exactly world class (Ryan Hall runs 15 mile tempo runs!). When planning out my workouts for this week, I remembered an old favorite called Yasso 800s. I read about them way back when I first started training for marathons. If you check out the date of the article, it was published before I started running. It's a great article but, since you don't even read this blog, I'll give you the Cliffs Notes. A man named Bart Yasso figured out by pure dumb luck that it just so happens that there is one particular workout that is a great indicator of marathon fitness. It is both training tool and planning tool in one. The math, though, is the magical part. Basically, the goal is to run 10 times 800 meters at the pace that corresponds to your goal time in the marathon. That is, if my goal is to run a 3-hour 10-minute marathon, then I run my 800s in 3 minutes and 10 seconds. I know! It really is cool! ...and pretty hard to believe. But study after study has backed it up.

Quick calculations brought me to the fact that 10x800m = 5 miles. Add a few for warm up and cool down and it's exactly what I was looking to run. The workout was an unexpected success. Not only did I comfortably complete the workout (which I've never actually done before), but I paced with an avg below 3:00! Check out the splits from my watch.

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not waltzing to the start line or anything. But, man, I really needed this. I needed something to bolster my fickle confidence. The hay was already in the barn. But there was nothing really satisfying in the way of indicators of fitness. My ambitious resting heart rate goals are way off the mark. My weight is still at an immovable 150. But this, this is meaty. Maybe most importantly, it's solid enough that I wont be stupid and push myself any more before race day. All easy stuff from now on.

The weather is looking like it's gonna be colder than expected. Maybe even some 30s. This is an entirely new ball of wax. There are still 11 days until the race, so I'm sure it will change about 11 more times. But I need to start thinking about being prepared for the chill. Confidence is high, anxiety is lower. Crunch time is here. Can't wait to get it done!

The Hay is in the Barn

2008-10-07T18:05:00.005-04:00

Alright faithful non-audience, the hay is in the barn. From this point on out, I will not tax my body in any new way. I will not perform any harder workout. I won't increase distance. I will do no full-intensity workouts. That's not to say that I can take the next 19 days off. (19 days, that's it!) Just that for the remaining 3 weeks, the goal is to repair and maintain.

Repair

Starting with the massage I endured (yes, endured, details to follow) yesterday, my legs, joints, connective tissues and psyche will have 19 days to repair and refresh themselves before I put them to the test on Oct 27th. I have been continuously introducing my body to new stressors for the last 21 weeks (or 4 years, one might say) in the hopes that my body would adapt to each new stress and be able to handle the progressively tougher load. There have been 'micro'-cycles of tearing down and repairing stronger at least 2 times per week, every week (the so-called "quality" workouts of the week's training). In each of these cycles, I broke down my muscles and subsequently slept and fed and stayed off my legs giving my body time to repair all of the damage and make them stronger. All of these cycles add up to the 'macro'-cycle that is my 24-week training plan. The macro-cycle starts with all of the micro-cycles of the first 21 weeks and, mirroring the microcycle, finishes wth a final 3 weeks of sleeping and feeding and "staying off" my legs to let them repair.
To kick off the repair process, I elected to get a massage. The masseur was the former massage therapist of the Hungarian National Team. Both of my hands could fit loosely into one of his and two of his fingers could crush my bones without much effort. I have several very stubborn muscles, so a strong therapist sounded like a good idea. As I write this, I am bruised and sore as if I have just played a game of tackle football. The massage could be described as ... punishing. tolerable. exhausting. Not words usually associated with massage. I left the office tired and beaten, wondering if I had made the right decision. Only time will tell, but he was able to work out all but one of my major issues. The remaining issue, I believe, is caused my my seated position at work. Today I modified my desk, chair, keyboard/mouse configuration and have hopes that will do the trick.

Maintain

As I mentioned, I can not just take the final three weeks off. Just as during the micro-cycles, I didn't simply run the two quality workouts and call it a week, I ran 3-4 more times during the week to maintain the levels of fitness that I was achieving. To stop now would allow my body to start using all of the resources I have been using to repair (i.e. get stronger) for other things. That is to say, I'd lose muscle strength and fitness. So, for the next 3 weeks, I will run similar workouts to those I've already run. Workouts to which my body has already adapted. That way, my body knows that it still needs to be able to do all the things that it has been doing - with the added benefit of not stressing it further. There is, of course, a fine line to this tapering business. The jury is still out as to the extent of benefit from tapering. But all agree that some form of tapering is absolutely essential for peak performance. I'll do my best with the information I've gathered and hopefully that will bring me the desired result.

So there you have it. The hay is in the barn. All of the hardest physical work is done and now I need to just relax, prepare mentally, and allow my body to do what it does. 19 days, folks. 19.

Now It's Getting Close

2008-09-07T20:09:00.002-04:00

49 Days. 7 Weeks. 3 of those are tapering, which means for those three: no improvement, just repair. 4 weeks. That's less than a month.
I think I have the calf thing figured out. The legs were already fatigued from high mileage. They were also locked into the "easy" stride that carried me through all of those miles. That stride left me on my heels and overstriding, leaving my feet on the ground for a long time. It was ok, because I had built up a tolerance, if you will. I had built up all of the muscles that would support such a stride. But with the new speedwork the week of the injury, I changed into both new shoes (the racers) and a new stride. My calves were just not used to either yet. My brain was, though. Even after that day, I kept running with the new stride. I hadn't - and haven't quite - built up my calves to handle the full load of the new stride, but I am getting there. My long run of last night (yeah, night, cuz Tropical Storm Hanna kinda messed with my plans) was done fully in the new stride. It puts me on the balls of my feet. I feel like my feel actually feel the ground. Pretty cool. Maybe it's all in my head. Heh. Even if it is, things feel good right now. I feel like im back on track. I had never made it to that speedwork I hoped for last week. In fact, after being so distraught because of a 4 day hiatus, I followed it up with another 4 day break. 5 good days of training over the last week though, so looking good.
Looking towards the future. 49 days. Let's do it.

Calving Calves?

2008-08-25T15:48:00.004-04:00

Hey faithful readers. I know it's been almost another three weeks, but I also know that no one reads this, so I don't feel so bad :) Let's see, in the past three weeks...
I finished that awesome week I was having when last I wrote. 62 Miles and an awesome 20 miler. Probably one of my best weeks of training ever. However, it had taken a toll on my body. I caught a cold. I get sick very rarely, so this was indeed a bummer. But the combination of the hard week and staying up late every friggin night to watch Michael Phelps win yet another gold medal just didn't let my body recover like it needed. Luckily, for the most part, I kept up with my key workouts while I was under the weather. The 20 miler the following weekend didn't feel nearly as spectacular though. I got through it and pushed onward. On the following Wednesday, I continued to test myself. I was worn down after a week of being sick and a second 20 miler that took a lot out of me, but decided to go ahead with a very tough Tempo (speedy) session. The session went swimmingly, splits like I rarely see! But after slowing down, my left calf staged a coup. It was done. The union strike continued that night. And when I tried to force the strike to end the next morning, the union rallied back. My first purely injury related down time of the training cycle. 4 days. 4 days off with no running. Not quite as bad as the dreaded Montezuma break, but time off is always hard for me. I ran a great 5 miles this morning. And hope to be up for another Tempo workout on Wednesday morning. (the forecast is for mid-to-low 60s!)

In general, right now, I am tired. Like full-body-and-mind tired. But at least those NBC-ruined Olympics are over and I can get back to full nights of sleep. I think that alone will go a loooooong way to getting me back to normal. Only time will tell.

In other news... I have decided on a path of full teetotaling abstinence until race day. I have already abandoned my friends to an extent that stretches any sort of loyalty to the breaking point. That being the case, I absolutely have to achieve my goal this time around. Consequently, I have to eliminate ALL of the factors that may jeopardize the goal. No booze of any sort. No going out of any sort. No bedtimes after 9-9:30pm each night. No missed workouts of any kind (save for injury). I spoke before of sacrifice, of choices. This is really where/when this gets put to the test. I am making the decision that this is it. I WILL achieve my goal this time around. Now I need to make the choices at every step of the way to get me there. I said before that, even if I don't make it this time, that I now know HOW to make it next time. But those sound like justifications, like reasons and rationalizations for not stepping across the finish line in less than 3:10. No excuses. Like Yoda so famously and eloquently commanded, "Do or do not. There is no try."

Half and Half?

2008-08-06T19:39:00.003-04:00

Yo Peeps. Good to see you again. I know it's been entirely too long since last we spoke, but I'm back. When last I wrote, I was questioning the authority of running shoe store employees. Well, question them anymore I shall not. My very unscientific results indicate that neutral cushioned shoes should not be worn by your trusty host. Basically, after the last blog post, my legs went to goo. I had trouble running even 5 miles and I felt a kind of pain that I had never felt before. Whole leg pain. My whole legs hurt, both of em. It felt like shooting pain, which I am totally used to, but it completely blanketed my legs from toe to hip. In the week leading up to the NYC Half Marathon, I think I ran about 18-20 miles. If that much. I probably could have run more, but I figured my body was trying to tell me something and that if I really took that week to rest, I might be able to salvage a respectable race that Sunday. So, back to the Kayano's ... But first!

July 27th, 7am, 78 degrees, rain showers, 80% humidity.

NYC Half Marathon. At go time, I had already broken two cardinal rules of racing. The first of which I was previously aware and had chosen to break. The second of which almost got me disqualified. Even the greenest of competitors in a race of longer distance knows that you never try anything new on race day. No new foods, no new vitamins or drugs, no fad shortcuts, no new outfits, and most importantly, no new shoes. I had never even worn my brand new Asics Gel Bandito racing shoes on a training run. Hadn't even worn them out of my apartment. But there I was on the starting line in shoes light as a feather. The second rule that I broke was exiting the starting corrals. My awesome family (Mom, Dad, Aunt Mary, Uncle Bobby, cousin Emma, and buddy Sean) had made the trip up from the District to watch me race and had somehow managed to find the starting corral in which I had been seeded. They shouted out their support and, seeing as the gun was not to go off for about 5 minutes, I jumped the fence and a rope... and another fence to try to climb up the hill where they were perched. This was apparently a big no-no. A race marshall quickly called me out and radioed my bib number to the race hq and indicated that I had been DQ'd. I made my way back down the hill with about 3-400 runners watching my walk of shame and crossed my fingers that my complete embarassment was punishment enough. The race went great though. One whole loop around the entire Central Park, dodging a sea of wet, steaming horse manure - up and down hills I didn't think were possible in the midst of a big city. The second time around (not another full loop), the manure was good and trampled, so no one bothered to avoid it. Out the south end of the park onto 7th Avenue into a sea of screaming fans. Just awesome. Probably only matched by the sound I heard in Chicago at the finish. Straight down the middle of one of the most famous strips of road in the world to Times Square, where the sound and the crowd redoubled. I wasted probably a mile's worth of energy speeding up and cheering and flying around with my arms out like an airplane. Out 42nd street to the Hudson river and all the way down to the tip of Manhatan Island at Battery Park. The numbers from my run can be seen in their entirety here. And my results made me very happy - 1:29:48 for 398th out of 10,506. At the finish, my Aunt Mary asked me what happened. Not entirely sure what she meant, I recounted what happened in the race. But she stopped me and pointed downward at my foot. "This is why one never wears new shoes to a race." I was a bit battle worn. Heh. Good times.

The Second Half of the "Half and Half" is the fact that I am now in the Second Half. My official training cycle started with 24 weeks to go. I am now past the hump, with a little less than 12 weeks remaining. As of this morning, I am back to feeling great. My 18 mile run on Sunday felt totally solid and I had a great speedy session this morning. There is absolutely no pain, soreness, or stiffness in my legs and my energy is fine during the days. I really think the combination of the time off because of the race and the switch back in the shoe department have brought me back to where I need to be. 8 easy miles tomorrow, then rest up on friday for a 20 miler on Saturday. If both of those go well, I will be at 62 miles for the week which is just about as high as I've ever gone in the past. Rock and Roll. With a 62 and a solid 20, I will feel confident that my foundation is all there, and not worry about mileage totals anymore. I can focus on speedier stuff, race specific stuff, and things like fueling and routines. The excitement is back, after being on hiatus for a while.
I've got 81 days of training left to add the two halves together to make a whole lotta noise in Dublin. Bring it on.

Neutral

2008-07-12T16:55:00.002-04:00

Hey, Peeps. Long time, no blog. My apologies.
Several years ago, sitting in a lecture given by Arthur Lydiard, I was told that choosing a shoe is easy. "Have as little under your foot as is possible to keep you from getting injured." That's it. Since then, I've wanted to follow his advice, but I always heard conflicting opinions from the experts at the shoe stores. They seemed believe that my stride requires manufactured stability to control minor over-pronation of my foot. (Pronation is the natural rolling movement of the foot while it is in contact with the ground. Too much or too little can cause issues from the ankles all the way up.) For about a year now, I have suspected that my stride is much more neutral than I've been lead to believe. So, armed with a coupon that was in my Cap. Hill 10k race packet, I made my way thursday to the City Sports in Chinatown to experiment with neutral-cushioned shoes. I found one that lived up to its name, the Asics Nimbus, by feeling as soft as clouds underfoot. With today's 16-miler in mind, I wore them around all day yesterday to try to get a feel for whether they would cause issues. Everything felt peachy. I was a little tentative when I set off this morning, having not worn them for a run before his long one. But they didn't disappoint. The case is not closed yet, though. I will need to wear them consistently for a week or more before I can conclude that my stride is, in fact, more neutral and that I've been duped for years. Duped into thinking that I need to pay for the extra devices for control in my shoes. During the run, actually, my stride felt more balanced than ever. And the post-run stress and soreness is finally equal in both legs! Heh. Am I the only person in the world who gets excited that both my legs are sore? The other news to report is that I am back on track in terms of training. Even after losing an entire week to illness, I managed a 54 mile week this week. 54 is 90% of my goal of 60 a week. I've got 15 more weeks of training to go, so I am right on schedule. My goal for the coming week is to reapeat 54. Should I be able to do that successfully, I will have a week to cut back and recoup a bit before the NYC Half Marathon at the end of the month, and then jump right back in at 60. From there, it will be smooooth sailing. No increases in mileage, only increases in intensity (speed). I've got about 400 Miles in the legs so far for this go-'round. The rest of training will add anywhere from 600-900 more. That will EASILY be enough "hay in the barn" for me to feel confident toeing the line in Dublin. All I have to do is stay healthy. Sounds so easy!

5k from Saturday

2008-06-30T13:53:00.003-04:00

Hey peeps. Just a quickie to update. I ran a 5k this weekend. It's called the Harbor Hustle 5k. From the Tennis Center in Rock creek park, down 45 meters in elevation to Beach Dr., then back up. A toughie, no doubt. I came in 5th, which sounds good until you consider a few things: a) there were only 175 finishers, b) last year I came in 3rd, and c) I ran 30 seconds slower than last year at 19:06. I was very disappointed at first. But then I plugged that number into the race equivalent calculator (these things are remarkably accurate) and it came up with a Marathon equiv of 3:06. Now, I surely would not be confident running the marathon right now and hoping for a 3:06. But if you consider that a) I have 17 full weeks of training until my real marathon, and (more importantly) b) I have done exactly ZERO speed or hill workouts at all, then the picture becomes a little more positive. So, to recap, I am not ready to either run a fast 5k OR run my goal marathon, but the race was a very positive indication that I have good fitness and that I am ready to begin speedwork and hill training so that I will be ready to run my goal marathon in 17 weeks. Check out the Garmin output from the race.

$#!++y...

2008-06-25T12:58:00.003-04:00

A week, ladies and gentlemen, a week. Normally, breaks in training for me have been caused by overtraining. I train too hard just one time too many and get whistled into the penalty box until my body can catch up. During these times, when I am good, I can cross train. Abdominal work, some biking, swimming, etc. But last week I was introduced to a whole new world of hiatus. No running. No training. No walking. No sort of exertion at all.
Salmonella.
I don't know for sure where it came from. But it made its presence known quickly and painfully. It started with my run last week. For the first time I can remember, I was forced into an unceremonious pit-stop. Thank Jeebus the merciful Park Rangers had opened the facilities at Haines Point. I'll spare you all the most gory details. But a 104 degree temperature, several pints of blood, and an entire week of no-training later, I was finally able to run this morning. For the (almost) 2 months of training before this past week, I kept wondering when I'd be writing my first had-to-take-a-day-off blog post. Everything had just been going so well. I hadn't missed a single workout. The good news though, is that I still haven't missed one due to injury. I've got my fingers crossed that the week off also gave my muscles and connective tissues time to do some repairing of their own. Although I am sure that most of my body's resouces were occupied with repairing my woebegone intestinal tract. I was tentative this morning. But once the rust got busted, the legs felt great and a quicker pace felt easy. I am very interested to see how both my legs and my gut react to running a full-effort 5k this coming Saturday. I'm a little behind schedule miles-wise but I'm gonna tell myself not to worry about that. It's beyond my control and I can't go and try to play catch-up and turn this into an injury. I'm just gonna be a week behind. Who cares? I'm already in great shape (unless I've lost a lot over the last week - I don't think so). It actually looks like I should be able to hop right back in on pace for correct mileage. We'll see. Later, Kids.

From the Horses Mouth...

2008-06-17T16:30:00.001-04:00

Two posts ago, I said that I had a post brewing. I wasn't referring to the the last post (the quickie) but, rather, to this one. It has been brewing for a few weeks now. As I begin to write, I imagine this post being less polished, less pithy, and more ...stream-of-consciousness. We'll see. I wanna address the issue of socialization - or lack thereof - during training.
Let's rewind a few years. In high school, I could be found out and about at least 3-4 nights a week. Bed time was somewhere in the Midnight-1am range during the week and the 3-4 range on the weekends. In college, the concept of time pretty much went out the window. I was livin' it up 4-5 times a week and it really didn't matter what time it was - save for when I was at work, school, or rehearsal. My friends got used to this. When I graduated and found a steady full-time job, a lot of that subsided, but there was still tons of the partying. I would go out and drink at least 2-3 times a week. Anything less would be a disappointment. To whom? I don't know.
And then I started running...
About 4 years ago, after admiring my Uncle Bobby and cousins and my Dad (he ran when he was younger) for running local races and wishing that I could be a part of it, I let them convince me that I could do the same. I registered for the 2004 St Patty's Day 10k in DC and started to run with more regularity to get myself ready. To make a long story short (too late), it was nothing short of an amazing experience. I was hooked. Shortly after, I made it a goal to run a marathon. Not just any marathon. The Boston Marathon. So that fall I started training. It never occurred to me to limit bar time to better my training but, as a matter of course, I would skip a trip out here or there as a result of a long run or as a result of being tired. Over the course of 8 marathon training cycles prior to the present one, I have had varying degrees of social-ness. I've tried completely leading the lifestyle of my choosing and seeing how that affected my running. I've tried restricting myself as best I could from any sort of alcohol or staying out. And everything in between.
And I've caught varying degrees of shit from friends and family. Mostly I get "Dave, it's ok, we want you to achieve your goal." This is usually followed by 15 not-so-veiled quips about how it would be better if I broke my leg so that they could have their friend/sibling/cousin back. I have, in a sense, abandoned some very important people in my life. I am sure that this is how it seems to them. I am not sure how I feel about this opinion.
2004 Olympic Silver Medal Winner in the Marathon, Deena Kastor, once said (please pardon the slight paraphrase) "I don't believe in sacrifices. I don't make sacrifices. There are choices I have to make. I make those choices everyday. If I had to make sacrifices, there's no way I could do this for this long. I do what I love to do."
Training takes a lot of energy. I am regularly tired. I am regularly sore. I am regularly hobbled. I am regularly lazy. I go through patches during which I lose all motivation to be productive in any other way but running. I choose to run, though. I really do love it. It has given me so much. I have taken so much. And all it asks in return is patience and commitment. This time around, I really feel like I am starting to give it just that. It helps that my friends and family have been subjected to this 8 times before. I haven't really gone out at all since I started training. I have barely had a sip of anything with alcohol. But this time it's not because I'm consciously making a restriction on myself. Each time I have been confronted with the choice, I have made the decision against. Because I want to do well. Because I want to be able to do what it is that I love. And to do that, I know that it's an "either/or"... not a "both." I wake up every morning at 6 for my run because, in the summer, that is the coolest part of the 24-hour day. When I'm training, I need TONS of sleep every night. So that means being in bed by 9 or so. It seems that, at this time, most of my peoples are just settling in for a few hours of the tube and a snack before even thinking about bed. Or just getting ready to go out! But I know that, if I don't get all the sleep I need, I will either get sick or get injured... or both. Again, though, it's a choice. It doesn't feel like a sacrifice to go to bed that early.
There are repercussions, though. As I've already said, my relationships with my loved ones suffer. They are strained. Sometimes to the point of total estrangement. This is tough. But I have faith that the ones who really know me, who really care for me, know that it's not because of them, but rather, they understand that it's because I'm doing what I love. That I'm working towards my goal. That I'm working towards a source of happiness all the while reaping happiness from the journey. But even beyond those relationships that already exist in my world, I am deferring on those that could be. Next year, I will be 30 years old. THIRTY. 30. When my parents were thirty, they were married and had three kids. Both of my siblings are married with children. I am to the point in my life at which I am one of the only single people I know! When I was a teenager, I figured that, by 30, the only thoughts on my mind would be how I would be paying for my kids' college tuition and what I was gonna do once I retired. If running prohibits me from even maintaining the relationships I have with those I love - with whom everything is easy and comfortable- how in the world would I have energy to meet new people?! I haven't yet figured out the answer to that rhetorical question. Don't get me wrong. Sometimes I very much miss going out and getting blindly drunk, making poor decisions, and feeling horrible the next day. And, I know that I have missed out on some awesome events and games and parties. I have missed out on meeting some great people. On meeting people that might have one day been my lifelong companion. I don't know if I have really been making some choices that have prohibited me from other lifelong goals such as finding a wonderful woman with whom I can settle down and make beautiful pale babies.
But I don't think I have. I think things will come when they come. Right now, this is my focus. This is what brings me joy. It is healthy. It keeps me from unhealthy things. And I can only do this now. My body will only be young for so long. My mind will be with me until I'm gone. I know this is getting WAY too long to remain interesting. My apologies. Brevity is not my forte. I'll stop this one for now, but I would LOVE to hear your reactions, criticism, advice, arguments, compliments ;), or whatever else you'd like to say after reading this record of thoughts. You can use the "Comments" link below if you don't mind it being part of a discussion, or you can always email or IM/Txt me directly. Really, I would love to hear what you have to say.

Quickie

2008-06-13T13:13:00.003-04:00

First I just wanted to say that this is the 11th Blog post. This is only important because now the oldest posts start falling off. They are still available, but they no longer remain on the home page. So Happy 11th, everyone! To celebrate, I will make this one a quickie. I don't want everyone to think I'm going all fatalist on you, but I have made some realizations over the past couple of days. When I spoke before about the importance of Phase 1, I wasn't speaking from a place of experience but, rather, from a place of researched knowledge. As my own Phase 1 is coming to a close, however, things have changed. My whole perspective on training has changed. I am pretty confident that, barring freak accidents between now and October 27th, that I will be able to achieve my goal. But, should I not be able to do so, I now know what I will need to do in the future with 100% certainty. If I had 10 more weeks, I would add all ten to Phase 1. Running in this manner has allowed me to sustain mileage totals never before achieved without injuring myself. I am healthier now than I have ever been 6 weeks into a training cycle. I have literally not missed a single workout. This is crazy. I feel that, if I had another 6 weeks, I could add another 15-20 miles per week to my totals.
I am content, elated really, with the success so far in my training and, as a result of the respect I have for the new process, I am not going to push it or deviate from the plan one bit. Next time around, though, I feel like I can really break through some barriers and elevate above some of the plateaus that I have hit. Phase 1 will encompass all of the available time between the end of my recovery from this marathon and 18 weeks out from my next marathon. 135 days, 19 hours, 19 minutes to go...

June

2008-06-11T15:22:00.003-04:00

So, regardless of the fact that Summer doesn't officially start for a further 10 days, Summer is here. The heat index got above 103F for the past 4 days. That's Summer to me. A mysterious thing happens though when we get the first heat wave of the summer. More people run. What the hell, people? It's above 90F at 6:30am. Stay indoors. Crank the air conditioner. Cover yourself in ice. For Pete's sake, what would make you want to run in this?! Hands down, I would rather run when the wind chill brings the temps below 0F. It only takes about 5 minutes before your body is creating enough heat to keep you cozy. But you can only take off so many layers in the heat. I must be a sight to see. I've heard children gasp. "EWWW, that hairy man was all wet." I'm not kidding. "Did you see that?! Ewwww!" Honestly, I couldn't care less. When the mercury rises above 70, I just can't be comfortable running with a top on. On Saturday, we broke the records for that particular day in June. National Airport officially reported 98 degrees, but everyone knows it was closer to 151. And the humidity is the worst part. There was just no escaping it. I soaked completely through my shorts with sweat, and completely through my socks and shoes. After the run, my shoes couldn't even dry out because there was too much moisture in the air for anything to evaporate. Yikes. By Tuesday, my body was just starting to adapt. I was able to run without wanting to cry. Great. Just in time for the heat wave to abate. When I woke up this morning, it was a chilly 75! A week ago, I would have absolutely bemoaned a morning temp of 75 degrees. The high for today was forecast to be only 88! 88?! A week ago, 88 would have been blistering. With my new perspective, I was wondering if I should don long sleeves this morning. I guess what I'm saying is that I'm done bitching about the hot weather. It's another element of training to which my body must learn to adapt. If the heat continued all summer, it would just be that much easier to run my fastest race in cool cloudy Dublin. So BRING IT ON. (Just kidding. I also like the lower temps :) )

I guess the only other updates are the boring ones. Still on schedule. Still running 6 days. Still healthy. 43 Miles last week. Time is flying for me at this point. Only the rest of this week and next week to close out Phase 1. Jaysus. That is a scary thought. I've got my fingers crossed that my body will be able to adapt to the new stimuli. Phase 2 will introduce strength work and a bit of speed and get my legs ready for the peak mileage and long tempo stuff of the ever important Phase 3. I've got a 5k scheduled for the 28th of June. I ran the inaugural Harbor Hustle race last year and I had my first (and only) podium finish (I sneaked in with a bronze). The 5k doesn't necessarily fit into the training but the siren call of another possible high finish is just too alluring to avoid. How stereotypically male.

Soooo... Not much substance in this post. My apologies. I've got one brewing though, I hope to have that to you within a few days. Until next time...

Dave Runs Manhattan!

2008-06-03T09:46:00.003-04:00

First things first. I just received notice that I made it through the lottery system for entry into the New York City Half Marathon! This is not a big deal in that I had to qualify or anything - it's purely random - but tons of people apply for this race, and only a small percentage get in. The reason so many apply is that it's not every day you get to shut down a city of 8 million people to run around central park, down Broadway/7th Ave through Times Square to 42nd Street and then all along the waters of the Hudson to the very tip of the island at Battery Park. Yeah, you heard me right :)
Almost as importantly, as you may or may not know, this is the last season for both Shea Stadium and Yankee's Stadium. There is a lot of history in both of those parks. So I'm going. And, as if the fates knew something I didn't, Major League Baseball happened to schedule the Yanks at home that weekend against none other than our beloved Baltimore Orioles! My buddy Sean is comin' up with me. We're biting the bullet and staying at the Marriott on the Upper East Side. Just 6 blocks from Central Park. The New York Road Runners (NYRR - who turn 50 this year), who are putting on this race, arranged for discounts at hotels in Manhattan and it turns out this is actually one of the best deals I could find. Short of staying in a hostel, of course.
Lots of other news, I'll try to be brief. I checked this morning after receiving an email from the Dublin folks: 145 days 23 hours 5 minutes and 45 seconds until the marathon. Yikes! I ride - daily, it seems - a roller coaster of sentiment. Sometimes I want this thing to be upon me, that I'm ready. Sometimes I feel like I don't have enough time! Sometimes I feel like I'm in great shape. Sometimes I wish I had another month to get in shape. (Right now I feel great, btw).
150 Miles in the first calendar month of training (May). This is not a high, by any means, but it's certainly a high for a first month. I owe it all to consistency. I've only had one other complete 31 day month of consistent training and that was during a 4-day-a-week training cycle. I was doing the math on my run yesterday. If I stay completely on schedule for June, I will set a personal high at 190-ish miles. July and August would both be significantly above 200, which is uncharted territory for me. But I'm trying not to get too far ahead of myself. One day at a time. One run at a time. One recovery at a time.
The Men's and Women's Olympic Marathons are both set: Aug 24th and August 17th, respectively. If you didn't already know, I am ridiculously zealously over-enthused about this year's Olympic Games and, of course, the Marathons are the centerpieces. These two people are legitimate shots at medaling or even gold in the marathons this year. Seriously. If you need motivation to get pumped to watch the Olympics this year, watch the VISA "Go World." videos. They are insane. I am more excited about 8.8.08 than I am about... well... I dunno, anything. Ever.
Corre, Mundo. Corre.

Eagerness

2008-05-24T18:28:00.003-04:00

This training cycle is keeping me eager. I've written already about patience. I am learning that patience must be applied on each and every scale. From patience minute-to-minute in a workout, all the way to patience in the year-long and lifelong goals in running. The patience I'm learning right now falls in the middle of the micro-macro scale.

I've never used a 24-week plan before in training. Quite honestly, I've never really had the time. Between recovery and/or time off, it always seemed to work out that my marathon training cycles were 16-18 weeks. I really feel like I have been doing myself an injustice. Phase I (of a 4 phase - six weeks per phase plan) is all "easy" paced work. Too oversimplify, "easy" pace gets a runner going fast enough to sweat, but never fast enough to breathe heavily. The reason for not running faster is so that your body can adapt to consistent mileage. There are TONS of physiological (as well as psychological) changes that are taking place during this phase. But, at the highest level, you are building up your mileage capacity. Consistent(-ly slow) gradual increase in mileage is the goal. In a 16 (or even 18) week plan, there seems to just be no time for a Phase I. You must get going on the speedwork while simultaneously building up your mileage. But with time for a phase I, you can increase your weekly mileage without the stresses of speedwork! This dramatically decreases the probability of injury. I have been basebuilding (another word for phase I) for a month now and have no signs of injury. In fact, my legs feel great! I ran 38 miles this week, which sounds low to me but, in actuality, is dead on schedule.

This is where the need for patience kicks back in. Even though I've been running for a month, I will still be in phase I until the end of June. June! My legs feel great, my workouts are getting easier. My ego is telling me to run faster, farther. I am eager for more hard work. I am eager for the gaudy numbers that I've never been able to hit without injuring myself.

I must exercise patience and stick to the plan. I must. Stick. To the plan. Boston or Bust. To hell with ego. To hell with what I want right now. Stick to the plan. This is it. I can do this. Patience. 40 miles this week. Slow and steady. Ok, enough pep talk. Shut up and run.
...Slowy.

Race (Updated) and Dublin Intrigue

2008-05-19T13:44:00.007-04:00

Update: Check out brightroom.com's picture listing for the race! They must have thought I was pretty. They used my picture for their race website. AHhaha. You can put in bib number 85 in the form and see all the pics they took of me.

I haven't run a competitive 10k in a looooong time. I don't think I've been under 42 minutes since at least 2006. And, seeing as I have done exactly zero training above "Easy" pace in this entire cycle, I had no idea what to expect from my legs. Yesterday I ran the Capitol Hill Classic 10k race. I took from it some good things and some disappointment. If you want exact numbers, you can look here. My final time as reported by Washington Running Report was 40:48. This was the positive. I placed 59th among men and only 4 women crossed the finish line before me. This is out of about 2000 finishers. With no speed training at all, I was able to average 6:34 miles for the duration of a course with 2 significant hills. They don't call it Capitol Hill for nothing! The disappointment comes, almost exclusively, from hindsight. If I had known that I could run decently like that, I would have pressed a little harder in the beginning to see if I could dip below 40. Dipping below 40 for me is always a success. The other disappointment for me was the utter collapse I faced coming back up Capitol Hill. No one passed me on the hill, but it felt like I was running through molasses. I was red-lined for the duration of the hill. Granted, the hill is (in)conveniently situated in the latter part of the sixth mile of the course, so I had reason to be tired but, still, no excuses. Davey-boy definitely needs to work on his strength.
I just thought of another positive, though. That positive was this morning's run. Not because it was fast, however. Rather, because it was my slowest and shortest run yet! Patience reigned supreme and I was able to run slow and only for about 4 miles. All too often, if I make it out the door the next day after a hard workout or race, my legs want to run fast again. The faster stride feels natural. This, inevitably, ends in me injuring myself. But, this morning, I just jogged. And it was nice. It was a gorgeous (albeit chilly) clear cool morning and I just enjoyed the morning scenery. By the time parts started to hurt, I was pulling up to the finish line. Ok. That's it. Tooting of my own horn over for the day.

Part 2 - Dublin update. Seeing as this coming weekend marks my first long(er) run, I wanted to check to see what the water stations at the Dublin Marathon would be providing. I like to train with the same drinks and fuel that will be available along the course so that there are no surprises on race day. The following is an excerpt from the Marathon Website:
"Pure clear still water in plastic bottles will be provided at the 8 water stations."
... and? ... Really? That's it? No Gatorade? No gu? Nothing? Uh oh.
I emailed the race directors to see if there had been an omission. Nope. Just water. And at just 8 stops along the 42.2 kilometer course. Since I'm always looking for the Yin and the Yang, the good news and the bad news, let me proceed to the good news. I have 23 weeks to prepare myself to race with those circumstances! I want to experiment with just Gu (energy gels) and water. And with bringing along gatorade powder to mix in the bottles. The other good news is that the water will be served in 8oz bottles. It will be easy to meter out Gatorade powder for such a bottle. It will also be easy to calculate consumption during the marathon. 8 aid stations, 8oz per station, 64 oz (2 liters) of "pure clear still water" during the race. I'm quite sure that there will be myriad postings about caloric absorption rates and resulting race fueling strategies to come, but I have a good feeling about the symmetry of the 8 8oz bottles that will be available to me.

Goals

2008-05-14T10:03:00.005-04:00

The term "Bucket List" has been added to the popular lexicon since the Jack Nicholson/Morgan Freeman movie of a few months ago. In my day, it was just called "goals." About 4 years ago, when I ran my first race of any kind (it was the St Patty's Day 10k), I set down a goal to qualify and run in the Boston Marathon. For those of you who don't know, the Boston Marathon is pretty much the only Marathon race in the world that you need a qualifying time to enter. It is also the oldest continuously run marathon in the world. I love Boston. I love running. I love marathons. It fits. It just makes sense to me. But it's not easy. It's such a huge goal. To get there, I need to run a marathon in 3 hours and 10 minutes or less.
The Chinese in the image above is (roughly) pronounced Nai Xing. It (also roughly) translates to patience. The symbol on the right derives itself from 'heart' and the symbol on the left derived from 'the blade of the knife.' Basically, the symbols are the illustration of how difficult it is to practice/realize the virtue. Trying to achieve this goal of mine has lead me to the waters of the patience lake. I fully expected to run my qualifier on my first try. In real life? 4:08. That's quite a ways from my goal. The Dave of yesteryear would most likely have given up at that point. "It's just too far out of reach." But this one, for some reason, wasn't even a question. "I'll try again in the fall." 3:32. "So close, I'll try again in 3 months."... 3:26.
Burnout.
"But I want to go to Boston NOWWWW!"
Patience, Dave. Patience.
All of those were in 2005. A novice runner like myself is only supposed to run 2 hard marathons per year. To allow proper time for training and recovery, there's just no sensible way to fit in more than that. But I've been the King of instant gratification. If I can't get what I want right now, I don't want it. But, again, this one is different. I realized that I overdid it after my third attempt in one year. So I took it easy in the Spring of 2006. As a result, I had my first DNF (Did Not Finish) in May of '06. It was grand. My family and friends had all come out to watch for the first time (it was in Wilmington, DE) and I had to quit at mile 21. Nai Xing. Blade of the knife through the heart. Patience, Dave. Patience. I began training immediately for a Fall marathon. This time in the Great White North. 4 full months of solid training and a fresh taste of DNF still in my mouth pushed me to train hard and put myself in the best position yet for achieving my goal. Everything had come together. I had been patient in my training, had picked a very fast course, and all but eliminated travel worries from the process. I was on pace through 21 miles when a gale-force wind picked up. 3:24. "Damn You, Mother Nature!" A month later (to the day) I ran the Marine Corps Marathon. Not knowing how my body would react so soon after my last marathon, I just ran casually. This one wasn't for time at all. This one was for fun. I latched on to a runner at about 13 miles and figured I'd just run with her until I hit the wall, then crawl the rest of the way like I had in all of my previous marathons. Mile 20 passed. 21, 22, 23. 24 passed and I was hurting, but I was still with my mate. She kicked hard up the final hill, and I lagged just a bit, but we crossed the finish at the same time. Even splits, no collapse. It was fun! This lark of a race that I had chosen to run stood up as a prime example of what can happen if I actually practice the virtue of patience. It also renewed my faith in my ability to eventually achieve my goal. For 2007, I decided that, rather than making a plan for the season, I would make a plan for the entire year. I picked a fun marathon in the spring to keep me involved and interested in training. After running in Eugene, Oregon in the Spring, I would immediately start training for the second fastest marathon in the World - The Chicago Marathon. Chicago would be it. With a year-long plan, I couldn't fail. I would be in great shape and be on the perfect course in the perfect weather. In Eugene, I hit the wall pretty hard at mile 22, staggered for a minute, but then ran right through it. No stopping. I had a shot! I was right behind goal pace. I crossed mile 26 at precisely 3 hours and 10 minutes. Unfortunately, marathons are 26 miles, 385 yards. I walked in a daze for the last bit and crossed the line at about 3:16. All was going according to plan. I was in great shape and could go right into training for Chicago. I toed the line in Chicago the fittest I've ever been. Unfortunately, my toe was sweating in the 80 degree 90% humidity. The hottest Chicago on record was shut down mid-race because people were dropping like flies. Already accustomed to disappointment in marathon running, I shut 'er down at about the 10 mile mark and merely soldiered my way to a 4 hour finish. I knew there would be another time. Patience.
Marathon running has taught me that I don't get whatever I want whenever I want it. For some reason, though, I want to achieve this particular goal more than anything else I've ever wanted. Maybe it's because I've been at it so long. Maybe it's because I've gotten so close. Maybe it's because I view it as an achievement that is unique and outstanding. Maybe it's because I feel like I owe it to marathon running to pay back for teaching me the virtue of patience.
I will qualify for Boston. If it takes me the rest of my life, I will.
Patience, Dave. Patience. Nai Xing.

New Gear

2008-05-12T15:08:00.004-04:00

Many articles have been written on the virtues of running as an inexpensive sport. "All you need is a pair of shoes and some will." The extension of those articles is always to satire the geared-out runner. The copy is usually pretty comical because it is usually very close to the mark. Without fail, at least 2-3 times per run, I will come across someone who has spent more on what adorns them for their run than I have for my car. The sellers of said gear promise huge returns. Braces that keep you from injury, clothes that keep you warm in the winter and cold in the summer (all while looking fabulous), gadgets to track your every step, waterbelts to hold a camel's hump worth of fluids, your wallet, carbs, and a mobile hospital, iPods and accessories to keep your mind on everything but running, headgear, the WORKS.
Personally, I have always been resistant to becoming a cyborg while I run. Mainly for financial reasons but, more importantly, because I do actually enjoy running. I enjoy listening to things that are happening around me. I enjoy watching things go by. Watching people interact around me. Watching animals go about their business. I tried to run with headphones once. My run actually did go at a little faster pace. But I certainly got no particular enjoyment from the run. And I probably missed a slew of fascinating things that happened in the real world around me!
I am not, however, immune to the hype. Saturday was my first day with a new pair of running shoes. I paid $115 for them. They retail for $135. They boast an august nomenclature: Asics Gel Kayano XIV. At this point, you are undoubtedly asking what in the world could be so special about these shoes that could make them cost that much. My answer is that I'm not entirely sure. What I do know is that my legs felt awesome after both my Saturday and Sunday runs. My feet didn't have blisters and my toes were pointing forward. Could this have been the case if I had just bought new pair of the current shoes I had worn out (for about $80-$85)? Maybe so. Who knows? But I will give in to the hype and continue to wear these expensive shoes until, in my mind, they disappoint me for some reason.

But the madness doesn't stop there. Anyone who knows me on a personal level knows that I obsess about running. Hell, I even have a blog about it that, most likely, no one actually reads! Part of the obsession is the numbers game. Part of the fun of running for me is trying to manage the intricate balancing act of obsessing about paces, mileage, duration, hydration, nutrition, etc, etc, etc, ad nauseam, and just letting everything go and enjoying the primal side of the act itself. When I flounder too far to the former side, I do things like buying this. The Garmin ForeRunner 405 is a watch that secretly houses some insanely advanced computing. To make a long story short, I hit start when I begin my run and stop when I finish my run and I'm rewarded with a cornucopia of information. Do I need all of this information? No. Have people run for millennia without this sort of feedback? Yes. But damned if it isn't cool. Since what adrons my wrist is no bigger than a typical watch, I justify it in my mind. I can completely forget about it while I'm running... And then allow the obsessing to commence when I get back to my computer. A taste of the multitude of information I get from my watch looks like this:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/68045
I hope to post these on my blog whenever I have a particularly interesting run (be it particularly good or particularly bad). I think it will really help to bring to light what it is I actually do - you know, for those of you who aren't along with me while I'm actually doing it. Check it out, it's really pretty neat.
This post has gotten a little long, so I'll go for now, but there will be plenty more where that came from.

Running in the Rain

2008-05-10T08:15:00.003-04:00

After an entire week of utterly perfect weather, we have been rewarded in DC with the most consistent rain we've had in several years. It just... Keeps... Coming... Never fear. Running in the rain can be awesome. First and foremost, it keeps you cool. It's ready-made sweat in cool refreshing form. The other cool thing about running in the rain is the paring down of company on the streets. Those who normally walk to work take Metro or drive in. Dog walks are cut short. Leisure strollers take the morning off. And so do the non-interested runners. The National Mall at 6:15am on a rainy day is like a ghost town. Normally blanketed with tourists and locals alike, a rainy day Mall sees only a few visitors. And those visitors are the best. Lemme 'splain. There are only a few types of people that tread the gravel on the Mall. 1) the awed and curious tourist 2) the harried and combative tourist 3) the hurried and preoccupied fed. 4) the I'm-gonna-get-in-shape-this-year runner and 5) the runner. That's it. Everyone, to some degree, fits into one of these 5 types when it comes to the Mall. Of course, you have the homeless and the scant others... but in general, just those 5. On a typical morning, I see somewhere in the neighborhood of 200-300 people on the Mall. Few allow eye contact. Fewer will be receptive to a "Good Morning." Even fewer will offer one. The only smiles you see are on the faces of the Type 1's but, this early in the morning (before the Museums open their doors), there are very few of those.

Ohhh, but the rainy days...

It's just the runners. Just the #5's. The #4's see the rain as an excuse not to have to torture themselves again. The 1's, 2's, and 3's all find other ways of getting around (and who can blame them?). During the time I spent on the Mall yesterday, I saw only 4 other people. 4! Down from 200-300! Each and every one gave an enormous knowing smile and a verbal greeting. Each "Morning!" or "Howyadoin?!" sounded like the vernacular greeting but, in reality, each was dripping with subtext. "Hey! You're a fellow #5! Isn't it awesome to run in the rain!? I know our shoes will be soaking wet tomorrow when we lace 'em up for another run, but it's sooo worth it! It's awesome to be out here, isn't it?! Just enjoying what we do, no matter the circumstances?" Those awesome bursts of energy from interactions with fellow runners get punctuated with quiet serene intervals when nothing is heard but the sound of infinite drops of perfect clear water hitting leaves and blades of grass and the sound of my solitary footfalls. The muted light and matted palette leaving nothing for the eye to focus on.
...until another #5 comes along. I love running in the rain.

Day 1c

2008-05-09T19:33:00.004-04:00

HahAH. I feel like im gonna blow my load on the first day, but everything is fresh in my mind right now. I'm super excited about visiting the North Atlantic. As of last Wednesday, 90% of the travel arrangements are set. My buddies Trevor and Tom are coming with me to cheer me on (well they're goin for the pubs, but they might also show up on race day). We're staying in Dublin from the Friday before the race until Wednesday. We will try to see as much of the Green Isle as we can in that time. The at the crack of dawn on Weds, we catch a flight to Edinburgh Scotland. We load up on Scotish experiences and scotch (we're going to the Glenlivet Distillery) until Friday morning and jet back stateside on Halloween.

Day 1b

2008-05-09T19:07:00.003-04:00

The thing that really lit the fire under my ass for this blog was taking my RHR (Resting Heart Rate). At the precipice of beginning my "real" training, my RHR while sitting at my computer was 51. It was 60 about 4 weeks ago, so I am thrilled. This is definitely a result of consistent 6-7 days a week training. Since, to get an accurate RHR, I am supposed to take it when I first wake up, I'm gonna go ahead and assume 50. In addition, my scale just told me I weigh 152 pounds. Yeah, beotch, down 8 from just a month or so ago. Of course, my weight fluctuates 5 pounds in a day, but still.. I think I am actually somewhere in that neighborhood. I write these stats up here not to brag or anything but, rather, because I am also using this blog for personal reasons. I want to be able to chart progress and find trends, in addition to having a personal record for the training that got me to Boston. For the record, I'd love to get my RHR below 50 (45 maybe?) and my weight down to 143-145-ish. I've never actually had the rate that low or weighed that little, so we'll see. But I think I have at least that much to lose. Cutting weight means less to keep in motion but, just as (or even more) importantly, it means less weight to bear on impact of footfall. Less impact on the legs = less injury. Less injury = Goal.

Day 1

2008-05-09T18:37:00.005-04:00

Not Day 1 of training but, rather, Day 1 of the blog. Let's get to it. I have been consistently running since April 25th. That’s a little over two weeks. In general, I had become pretty out of shape. Building up to the National Marathon, I ran two consecutive >60 Mile weeks and had never even run 1 genuine 60 before then. I topped it off the next week with a Half Marathon race - B&A Trail Half. The following Tuesday after the Half, I went out for a recovery run and basically tore the shit out of my left calf. I couldn't walk, let alone run. No Marathon for me. Long story short, I kept pushing and re-injuring and eventually ended up taking about a month off with no activity whatsoever. I was forced (luckily) to rehab smartly. I started by observing the direction of my feet. My left foot out at an acute angle. It should stick straight out. From this I gleaned that my muscles in my left leg had never fully reformed after an injury in High School (sorry, kind of a jump, but I'm trying to keep this to less than novel length). I basically ran and walked with a permanent limp. So, for the time that I could during my injury, I did exercises to build up the right muscles and regain correct motor control of the affected area. Then I started running sporadically to get myself back into the running mindset and to start to get back into shape. I weighed about 160 and felt totally lethargic after all the downtime. I knew that at this point I had PLENTY of time to train, so I began researching new training plans that allowed for the longer training duration. This is when I re-discovered the Daniels method. Jack Daniels (no relation) was named by Runner's World as the greatest track coach of all time. I read his book Daniels' Running Formula. He believes in a 24 week plan. I was, at the time, 27 weeks out. Kismet. Awesome. The first of the 4 phases of the training is the Basebuilding Phase. This is consistent with about 90% of all training programs in use today and derives mainly from the teachings of Arthur Lydiard (I went to a lecture/class given by the man himself several years back. He, unfortunately, died recently from complications of a stroke. His theories form the foundation for almost all running coaching today). Daniels basically suggests that, for as long as the calendar allows, you run absolutely no faster than conversational pace. The purpose of this is to establish a foundation for the rest of the specific training to follow. The object is to run as consistently as possible, to increase weekly mileage, but to never stress the body too much. I FINALLY have the time to do this right! In all training cycles past, I have rushed this phase and combined it with the specific faster training. And, 9 times out of 10, I have been injured during training. This coming Sunday (May 11th - Mother's Day) starts the 24-weeks-to-go thick of this training cycle.