Gazelles Again, Mile Repeats at Zilker
Back with the herd again this morning after a full day of driving yesterday. I wasn't the only one there this morning who had played hard this weekend, so at least I wasn't alone feeling pretty tired. The folks who competed in yesterday's triathlon (a Gazelle won the event, naturally) were sent out to run a nice and easy 7-10 miles. The rest of us eased over to Zilker park for the road mile repeats. It was good to catch up with Jan, Frank and the gang as we ran along the trail.
The weather was really humid, but the temperature wasn't bad, in the low 70's. I felt better as we ran over there, so my mental outlook was improving as the morning progressed. Drills ensued, and then we grouped up for the mile repeats. As usual, it was on the rolling course at Zilker park, alternating directions on the loop each repeat. 2:00 between each repeat. Gilbert said not to worry about time, and maybe to take it relaxed on the first repeat.
My group was bigger than usual. My trail running acquaintance, Kim, was in there, along with Jan, Richard, Tess, Shannon, Tony, and a couple of others. They all lined up behind me and let me set the pace on the first repeat, which was pretty funny. Kim pulled out halfway through the repeat and went ahead of us, but everyone else just drafted off of me and we finished the first repeat in 7:47. Not fast, not slow, but a good warmup sort of mile all the same. I started feeling better, and after the rest interval, we were off again. During the second mile, we picked it up substantially, and kept the hammer down for the rest of the morning. There was some chatter as we ran, but less as the workout progressed. People started dropping out of the pack after 3 repeats, and by the last repeat, it was down to Tess, Kim and me. We blasted the last lap, surprisingly faster than the one before. My times were 7:47, 7:24, 7:21, 7:20, 7:17, which were very consistent after the easier first mile. I was very surprised at the quality of the repeats, considering how I felt this morning. Each repeat was faster than the one before, also a good sign.
I ran back afterwards with Sean, and we unknowingly ran pretty hard. Oh, well, so much for "cooldown." I took the time to find out what Tess was training for, since I figure she'll be in my pace group for most of these workouts.
At any rate, it was a good day at the running office, and I'm glad I dragged myself out there today. Tomorrow, it's back to the routine, so this should be a good week.
Tuesday, May 31, 2005
Saturday, May 28, 2005
Mississippi Trail Run [Entered Tuesday, 5/31]
Saturday morning, I finally rolled out and ran. I skipped the planned Friday easy run, but hey, I was on vacation, and there was a pool to sit beside, beer to drink, and games to play. Saturday, however, my friends Andy and Jeff were just getting ready to run when I peeked out of my door at 8:30 or so. So, I was busted, and was convinced to join them for their scheduled 6 miler (plus or minus). I threw on my camo shorts and a singlet, slugged down some water, filled a water bottle for the journey, synched up the Garmin, and we were off.
Leaving at 8:55 is not recommended in the warmer weather, but that's what it was, so we made the best of it. We were out in the countryside of central Mississippi, on a family farm, and so I took the boys on a tour of the rolling hills on the property. We cruised through a grassy field, a gravel road, and then around the edge of a field, through nettles and grass. It was so different than our normal street running that it was fun. After crossing an old creosote bridge, we were on a well-maintained road leading through the back part of the property where we've sold off some timber to paper companies. It was pretty sunny, but not crazy hot...yet. (Temperature range was 75-80 as the run progressed).
This was a part of the property that I hadn't seen before, at least not in its current form. We passed deer stands, several deer, and a couple of wild turkeys even crossed the roads in front of us, too. It was truly quiet and peaceful out there as we loped along up and down some surprisingly long hills. Sporadic shady patches helped things, and finally, we reached the end (and more) of the property, going through the land owned by a paper company and ending up in a little group of houses way out there. We took a quick drink of water there at the turnaround (3.15 miles), and then we headed back.
The pace seemed hard, but that could be from the general debauchery of the weekend, the late start for the run, the heat, or a variety of other factors. The terrain wasn't easy, but again, it was pretty cool to see this part of the property after all these years. I faded late in the run a little, but finished the 6.3 miles in 58:05, 9:13 pace. It was a good solid run during a vacation, always a little moral victory if nothing else.
Since it was Saturday, I did the full stretching regimen and even did the core/ab post-run exercises. It was a good bit of exercise, and I'm glad I did it.
Yes, we all had a great time the entire weekend, but any other stories resulting from that annual gathering are not publishable in this forum. :)
Saturday morning, I finally rolled out and ran. I skipped the planned Friday easy run, but hey, I was on vacation, and there was a pool to sit beside, beer to drink, and games to play. Saturday, however, my friends Andy and Jeff were just getting ready to run when I peeked out of my door at 8:30 or so. So, I was busted, and was convinced to join them for their scheduled 6 miler (plus or minus). I threw on my camo shorts and a singlet, slugged down some water, filled a water bottle for the journey, synched up the Garmin, and we were off.
Leaving at 8:55 is not recommended in the warmer weather, but that's what it was, so we made the best of it. We were out in the countryside of central Mississippi, on a family farm, and so I took the boys on a tour of the rolling hills on the property. We cruised through a grassy field, a gravel road, and then around the edge of a field, through nettles and grass. It was so different than our normal street running that it was fun. After crossing an old creosote bridge, we were on a well-maintained road leading through the back part of the property where we've sold off some timber to paper companies. It was pretty sunny, but not crazy hot...yet. (Temperature range was 75-80 as the run progressed).
This was a part of the property that I hadn't seen before, at least not in its current form. We passed deer stands, several deer, and a couple of wild turkeys even crossed the roads in front of us, too. It was truly quiet and peaceful out there as we loped along up and down some surprisingly long hills. Sporadic shady patches helped things, and finally, we reached the end (and more) of the property, going through the land owned by a paper company and ending up in a little group of houses way out there. We took a quick drink of water there at the turnaround (3.15 miles), and then we headed back.
The pace seemed hard, but that could be from the general debauchery of the weekend, the late start for the run, the heat, or a variety of other factors. The terrain wasn't easy, but again, it was pretty cool to see this part of the property after all these years. I faded late in the run a little, but finished the 6.3 miles in 58:05, 9:13 pace. It was a good solid run during a vacation, always a little moral victory if nothing else.
Since it was Saturday, I did the full stretching regimen and even did the core/ab post-run exercises. It was a good bit of exercise, and I'm glad I did it.
Yes, we all had a great time the entire weekend, but any other stories resulting from that annual gathering are not publishable in this forum. :)
Wednesday, May 25, 2005
Gym Stuff
It was a somewhat abbreviated gym visit today, with only 15 minutes on the bike to warmup. Legs felt tired after Wilke, but that's totally normal. Did the full ab section of the workout, even adding some reps in there. Then, just did calf raises and weighted lunges for legwork today, giving the legs a break after six straight days of work. Did full upper body regimen, even adding some weight to lat pulldowns. Once I got home, got to add some yardwork cross-training. Tomorrow's a travel day, and then a long and fun weekend will ensue. I'll catch up with the blogging on Monday. Have a safe holiday!
It was a somewhat abbreviated gym visit today, with only 15 minutes on the bike to warmup. Legs felt tired after Wilke, but that's totally normal. Did the full ab section of the workout, even adding some reps in there. Then, just did calf raises and weighted lunges for legwork today, giving the legs a break after six straight days of work. Did full upper body regimen, even adding some weight to lat pulldowns. Once I got home, got to add some yardwork cross-training. Tomorrow's a travel day, and then a long and fun weekend will ensue. I'll catch up with the blogging on Monday. Have a safe holiday!
Tuesday, May 24, 2005
W-W-W-W-Wilke!
It was time for Wilke again today. Alex, Frank and I ran the longer warmup and cooldown from RunTex, about 2.7 miles each way, instead of the shorter 1 mile warmup from closer to Wilke. I like the longer warmup and cooldown for this workout, and try to do it most times. At any rate, it was warmer, 75 or so, and humid as usual. We had a nice time chatting as we ran over to the scene of the workout proper. I remember doing this workout for the first time, and the long warmup was hilly enough for me at that time. Having to do the actual hill repeats on top of that was seemingly impossible way back when.
It was a much smaller group than usual, but for Wilke, that's about the normal turnout. It's easy to find a reason to miss this one. It was light enough for the drills that Gilbert could correct form for some folks. He prescribed 3-7 x Wilke, concentrating on high knees and form as usual. Then, we were to do 2 x half of Wilke running backwards uphill. I was feeling pretty good, but my legs were a little heavy still from the race. My mental note was to do 3, see how I felt, and have a top goal of 6 repeats.
I ran the first 2 or 3 with Chelsea, and we got each other up the hill in pretty good fashion. I was quicker up the hill than usual, and I wasn't hating it as much as usual. Still, it's a fearsome workout for me. I took a cup of Powerade after number 3. On number 4, I trailed along behind Gretchen, and by the end of that one, I was feeling the burn. So, on the 5th repeat, I pushed along, trying to stay close to Gretchen, and turned in my fastest repeat yet at Wilke. However, I was well and truly done after that, my fastest average on Wilke ever, with very consistent times for the 5 repeats, and I didn't even hate it!
Having done 5 quality repeats, I went back down, had another Powerade, and then made my way up to the start of the backwards repeats. I've often described those as feeling like you're dragging your car up the hill, and this time was no exception. Still, except for some form weirdness that Gilbert spotted, I was strong on these, and powered through them in good shape. To top off the Wilke experience, Gilbert had us do 3 shorter uphill striders on the steepest bit of the hill, the very top of it, using exaggerated high knee action and quick turnover. Those are actually sort of fun, because right when it starts to get hard, it's over.
As usual, after the repeats were done, everyone was all smiles at the bottom of the hill. We all took on some water and Powerade, and chatted for a bit. Gilbert made special mention of my good trail run finish, which was really nice of him to do.
The run back was really comfortable for a change. Alex had some venting to do about work, which probably made the run back harder for him than it was for Frank and me. We did a bunch of stretching, and then after Alex left for work, I did the core stuff, back up to the usual numbers.
It was a good day at the running office. Yet another in a long string of such days, it seems. When I look back at how I felt before, during, and after Wilke workouts last spring and then compare that to today, I can easily see how far I've come in a relatively short time. All the hard work is paying off, and that makes it all worthwhile.
Total workout day 7.8 miles, including warmup, cooldown, repeats, drills, and such. The rest of the running week is pretty relaxed since I'll be vacationing, unless I decide to do something crazy on Friday like a fartlek simulation of the 3-6 x 800m workout.
It was time for Wilke again today. Alex, Frank and I ran the longer warmup and cooldown from RunTex, about 2.7 miles each way, instead of the shorter 1 mile warmup from closer to Wilke. I like the longer warmup and cooldown for this workout, and try to do it most times. At any rate, it was warmer, 75 or so, and humid as usual. We had a nice time chatting as we ran over to the scene of the workout proper. I remember doing this workout for the first time, and the long warmup was hilly enough for me at that time. Having to do the actual hill repeats on top of that was seemingly impossible way back when.
It was a much smaller group than usual, but for Wilke, that's about the normal turnout. It's easy to find a reason to miss this one. It was light enough for the drills that Gilbert could correct form for some folks. He prescribed 3-7 x Wilke, concentrating on high knees and form as usual. Then, we were to do 2 x half of Wilke running backwards uphill. I was feeling pretty good, but my legs were a little heavy still from the race. My mental note was to do 3, see how I felt, and have a top goal of 6 repeats.
I ran the first 2 or 3 with Chelsea, and we got each other up the hill in pretty good fashion. I was quicker up the hill than usual, and I wasn't hating it as much as usual. Still, it's a fearsome workout for me. I took a cup of Powerade after number 3. On number 4, I trailed along behind Gretchen, and by the end of that one, I was feeling the burn. So, on the 5th repeat, I pushed along, trying to stay close to Gretchen, and turned in my fastest repeat yet at Wilke. However, I was well and truly done after that, my fastest average on Wilke ever, with very consistent times for the 5 repeats, and I didn't even hate it!
Having done 5 quality repeats, I went back down, had another Powerade, and then made my way up to the start of the backwards repeats. I've often described those as feeling like you're dragging your car up the hill, and this time was no exception. Still, except for some form weirdness that Gilbert spotted, I was strong on these, and powered through them in good shape. To top off the Wilke experience, Gilbert had us do 3 shorter uphill striders on the steepest bit of the hill, the very top of it, using exaggerated high knee action and quick turnover. Those are actually sort of fun, because right when it starts to get hard, it's over.
As usual, after the repeats were done, everyone was all smiles at the bottom of the hill. We all took on some water and Powerade, and chatted for a bit. Gilbert made special mention of my good trail run finish, which was really nice of him to do.
The run back was really comfortable for a change. Alex had some venting to do about work, which probably made the run back harder for him than it was for Frank and me. We did a bunch of stretching, and then after Alex left for work, I did the core stuff, back up to the usual numbers.
It was a good day at the running office. Yet another in a long string of such days, it seems. When I look back at how I felt before, during, and after Wilke workouts last spring and then compare that to today, I can easily see how far I've come in a relatively short time. All the hard work is paying off, and that makes it all worthwhile.
Total workout day 7.8 miles, including warmup, cooldown, repeats, drills, and such. The rest of the running week is pretty relaxed since I'll be vacationing, unless I decide to do something crazy on Friday like a fartlek simulation of the 3-6 x 800m workout.
Monday, May 23, 2005
Breaking News!!! Podium Finish at the Maze 10K Trail Run!
The results were finally posted for yesterday's 10K trail run (for results), and it looks like I finished 3rd in the Male Masters division. How cool is that?! I think I get a visor or something... I've grown so accustomed to all the fast runners in my age group that I sometimes skip out on the awards ceremonies, and I didn't find out about this until today.
Before you make a sarcastic comment, there were indeed more than 3 Masters Male runners in the race. I think I counted 21 in the division. :) This is the first time I've ever finished "in the money" in a race, so I'm pretty excited. I guess you could tell.
I finished 37/124 overall in the 10k. Looks like some Gazelles took home some hardware in the 30k, too. Ivi Kerrigan finished 2nd female in the 30k (and 16/134 overall), and I'm sure there are others that I didn't recognize right away. Those 30k folks are awesome. It warmed to well over 80 by the time even the faster 30k people were finishing up. 21 people didn't finish the 30k, so it got tough late in that race, for sure (there were 155 starters, 134 finishers).
The results were finally posted for yesterday's 10K trail run (for results), and it looks like I finished 3rd in the Male Masters division. How cool is that?! I think I get a visor or something... I've grown so accustomed to all the fast runners in my age group that I sometimes skip out on the awards ceremonies, and I didn't find out about this until today.
Before you make a sarcastic comment, there were indeed more than 3 Masters Male runners in the race. I think I counted 21 in the division. :) This is the first time I've ever finished "in the money" in a race, so I'm pretty excited. I guess you could tell.
I finished 37/124 overall in the 10k. Looks like some Gazelles took home some hardware in the 30k, too. Ivi Kerrigan finished 2nd female in the 30k (and 16/134 overall), and I'm sure there are others that I didn't recognize right away. Those 30k folks are awesome. It warmed to well over 80 by the time even the faster 30k people were finishing up. 21 people didn't finish the 30k, so it got tough late in that race, for sure (there were 155 starters, 134 finishers).
Gym-nastics
Today, I felt great after the two runs over the weekend. I'm a little tired, but not sore or stiff, so I took that as a good sign.
Anyway, the gym workout was entertaining as usual. Solid cycle warmup, upping the time at the higher level, but I never was working really hard with that. It felt good just to let the legs spin the pedals without any pounding.
After that, I did a little stretching, and then launched into the exercises. The ab stuff was easier than last time, so I'm pretty much back up to speed there. I need to figure out some sort of twisting exercise to replace the one machine that my particular club does not possess, but that's not a terrible thing. I went slightly easy on the leg stuff, since we'll be doing Wilke tomorrow. Regular amounts of the first several exercises, but only one set of the 4-way hip machine, and I skipped the weighted lunges, again due to Wilke tomorrow. I cranked up some of the upper body stuff, which was fun. I can go pretty hard on that portion of the workout, since it doesn't directly affect my running the next day.
All in all, a good day at the gym. Tomorrow is Wilke, which will be loads of fun.
Today, I felt great after the two runs over the weekend. I'm a little tired, but not sore or stiff, so I took that as a good sign.
Anyway, the gym workout was entertaining as usual. Solid cycle warmup, upping the time at the higher level, but I never was working really hard with that. It felt good just to let the legs spin the pedals without any pounding.
After that, I did a little stretching, and then launched into the exercises. The ab stuff was easier than last time, so I'm pretty much back up to speed there. I need to figure out some sort of twisting exercise to replace the one machine that my particular club does not possess, but that's not a terrible thing. I went slightly easy on the leg stuff, since we'll be doing Wilke tomorrow. Regular amounts of the first several exercises, but only one set of the 4-way hip machine, and I skipped the weighted lunges, again due to Wilke tomorrow. I cranked up some of the upper body stuff, which was fun. I can go pretty hard on that portion of the workout, since it doesn't directly affect my running the next day.
All in all, a good day at the gym. Tomorrow is Wilke, which will be loads of fun.
Sunday, May 22, 2005
Weekly Stats and Stuff (May 16-22):
For the week, I finally have gotten back on schedule, after a week following the Indy Mini where I was pretty much without the desire to exercise. This week, 4 runs, 30 miles, one visit to the gym. Did the core exercises (post-run) after 2 of those runs (and why would I do them after the trail race, anyway?). One fun trail race, a solid 10.6 mile long run, and two Gazelles speedwork sessions to get back into the swing of things. A good exercise week, and I'm pretty happy about that.
Next week, the schedule calls for a couple of gym workouts and four runs, including the Wilke hill repeats, a short recovery run or two, and a medium long run while vacationing.
"Revenge Of The Sith"
We caught the last Star Wars flick yesterday with the family. I asked my Jedi Master, Yoda, to review the film for you. "Long, the movie was! Silly at times, the dialogue was! Powerful, the Dark Side is! Brave, Samuel L. Jackson and Jimmy Smits were, to tackle their lines!"
I give it a "Thumbs Up," for sheer bravura film-making. It is unbelievable looking, and the action scenes are awesome. Plenty of opportunities to slip out of the theater for snacks during some of the yacky parts in the middle of the film. I place it in my personal list of the Top Three Star Wars films, behind both "Empire Strikes Back," the hands down winner in my book, and the first Star Wars film, Episode IV, where we met the whole gang way back in 1977. "Return of the Jedi" gets downgraded for the stupid Ewoks, but is otherwise a pretty good film, too, coming in right behind "...The Sith."
For the week, I finally have gotten back on schedule, after a week following the Indy Mini where I was pretty much without the desire to exercise. This week, 4 runs, 30 miles, one visit to the gym. Did the core exercises (post-run) after 2 of those runs (and why would I do them after the trail race, anyway?). One fun trail race, a solid 10.6 mile long run, and two Gazelles speedwork sessions to get back into the swing of things. A good exercise week, and I'm pretty happy about that.
Next week, the schedule calls for a couple of gym workouts and four runs, including the Wilke hill repeats, a short recovery run or two, and a medium long run while vacationing.
"Revenge Of The Sith"
We caught the last Star Wars flick yesterday with the family. I asked my Jedi Master, Yoda, to review the film for you. "Long, the movie was! Silly at times, the dialogue was! Powerful, the Dark Side is! Brave, Samuel L. Jackson and Jimmy Smits were, to tackle their lines!"
I give it a "Thumbs Up," for sheer bravura film-making. It is unbelievable looking, and the action scenes are awesome. Plenty of opportunities to slip out of the theater for snacks during some of the yacky parts in the middle of the film. I place it in my personal list of the Top Three Star Wars films, behind both "Empire Strikes Back," the hands down winner in my book, and the first Star Wars film, Episode IV, where we met the whole gang way back in 1977. "Return of the Jedi" gets downgraded for the stupid Ewoks, but is otherwise a pretty good film, too, coming in right behind "...The Sith."
...And Now For Something Completely Different!
This morning, as an experiment, I ran the Rogue Trail 10k at "The Maze" in Walnut Creek Park. I've never done a trail race before, and this one looked like a good place to get my feet wet, so to speak. There was an accompanying 30k trail race that would have the folks doing 3 loops of our course. The usual trail run sorts of food and snacks were available, and the runners gathered were a slightly different lot than usual for road races.
I rolled up to the parking lot a little before 7:00, and saw Clemmie from an old running group. She's done a 50k Ultra before on modest trails, and would be doing the 30k today. I wished her luck, and then I sat down to await our 7:30 start. The surprisingly large group of 30k runners gathered loosely behind the start tree, and were off right on time, at 7:00. It's a really casual thing, these trail races, and interesting to observe.
At any rate, I chatted with some folks waiting for our race, and found that most of them were new to trail running, so I didn't feel so out of place. I wasn't going to be trying to race hard, especially after yesterday's 10 miler, but I still wanted to represent myself well today. I did some modest stretching and a tiny bit of warmup running, and moseyed over to the start area. Lined up about halfway back in the field of around 120 people...maybe more. Steve Sisson gave us the race instructions, including the whole trail running etiquette thing ("On Your Left"), as well as the trail markers and such. He said the water/snack station was about 3.1 miles, and that at the big creek crossing late in the race, we'd be about a mile from the finish. Okay. Promptly on time, we were off. No chip timing today, and the distances are approximate (more on that later).
The early trail was single track, and we were a long snaking line of people jogging along in wilderness pretty quickly. I took it easy early, and when the trail widened, I eased past folks who were obviously going slower than I was, but I didn't stress out over it. I moved gently forward in the pack until about 7 minutes into the race, when there was a really steep drop and climb through a dry creek bed. The line of runners stopped as people tried to pick a line down and up the obstacle. After negotiating that, I found myself with a little room to run. I picked up the pace just a bit, and started picking out people to catch ahead of me. I'd roll up behind someone, catch my breath, and then go around them when I had the chance.
All of a sudden, maybe 15 minutes into the race, I was in open space, with empty trail ahead of me. No, I wasn't lost, but I had worked my way past the slower initial runners. I enjoyed this stretch, mostly shaded, and rolled up and down the terrain having a good time. Finally, I caught up to 2 women running along at a good pace, so I tagged along with them for a while. We dropped one of them, and I stayed with the other woman until the refreshment station, which was up a rather nasty little climb. I took a few seconds there, in the sun, to drink a cup of Gatorade and to pour a cup of water on my cap to cool things down a little. Refreshed, I moved on. The full stop was 25 seconds. I was at 29:01 for the first "half," which I'll call 3.1 miles, 9:22 pace. That was the sort of pace I was shooting for. HR numbers had some high peaks on the climbs, but the average number was about like yesterday's long run. So far, mission accomplished. This was really different, my friends!
I caught and passed a bunch of folks coming out of the water station, and spent most of the second half of the race doing that sort of approach...find a new runner to chase, catch them, rest for a second behind them, and then go past. The whole run became more like a fartlek workout than a standard road race, which was pretty interesting. Hard efforts followed by "recovery," of sorts, and so on. The second half seemed to be hillier, and dancing downhill through roots and rocks was challenging, but I was having fun. I did have just one bit where I tagged a toe on a root, but I caught myself after a couple of big giant steps. That'll get your heart rate up!
When we crossed the larger creek on the big stepping stones, I was happy to think about just one more mile of running. However, I think it was a bit longer than that. I'd slog up a hill, then down, then up, and without mile markers, I was slightly out of my element. Hard to pace when you've just got your breathing to tell you what to do. I was working harder in the second half, and I know I was running faster, but it was still hard to figure out where I was. The course snaked around and around, with turns aplenty, so you never really knew which way you were headed. (Uh, that's why this particular course is called "The Maze," Jay!). A bit disorienting, but not terrible. I plodded on. I was caught and passed by a fast 30k guy somewhere in there (he was on lap two, and my headstart on him had evaporated), but I caught a couple of the 30k folks myself, so I consider it an even trade.
Finally, I heard the finish line sounds, I thought, and got excited that the day was nearly over. Right at that point, though, the course took a sharp downhill turn away from the sounds, which was particularly cruel. More runners were ahead, and I charged after them. I was finding that I was pretty good on the uphill bits, which was nice to see. Anyway, now we had to be in the homestretch, didn't we? The course twisted left, twisted right, twisted up and down, and then twisted some more. A second 30k guy came flying by in here somewhere. I kept looking ahead for the orange trail marker ribbons, hoping that I'd see the finish around some corner soon. More people to pass. Finally, there was a woman ahead of me, and we got to a point that the orange marker pointed us through a tiny trail that looked like only goats used it, with tall grass almost overgrowing it. That was our trail, though! Through that gap we went, and I went around that woman, the last runner I'd see on the trail. A last nasty climb was ahead, pretty rocky, and then I saw the finish area ahead. Finally! I zipped across the finish, they took my tear-off tag for timing (it's a trail run, friends!), and I was done. Second "half," including my 25 second rest stop, was 29:43. I was a little disappointed in that, if the course was exactly 10k.
More water to pour on my head, and I started cooling down. I chatted with a couple of folks, including a Gazelle named Susan, I think, and then got to the truck to change shirts, put on my sandals, and start my post-race Endurox. I enjoyed the post-race scene, and watched a lot of people finish behind me. Found more people to talk to, and discovered a fair number of people who don't run road races at all. One woman was a cyclist, and this was her "long run." Good for her. I saw Diane, from the Galloway people, who was helping direct people at the start/finish line ("10k to the right, 30k to the left!"). I resisted the urge to eat Gummi Bears and Oreos, but it was tempting.
Later, I saw Steve Sisson, the race director, and he said the course was long. Last year, he used a slightly different course, and people told him he needed to add some twists this year to make it long enough. So, he added the extra stuff, but he thinks it makes the course more like 6.5 miles. Therefore, my second portion was more like 3.4 miles, making for a pace of 8:40 or so after the water stop. Overall, I ran 6.5 challenging miles at a pace of 9:02/mile. I was really cranking it in the second half, according to plan. My legs felt just fine today, but I think my HR numbers were up a little due to residual fatigue from yesterday. That's okay with me.
It was a fun experiment. I might, maybe, possibly, do the second race in the trail series in a couple of weeks. It's near my house, but that course is supposedly crazy hard, with some technical uphill bits that you just have to walk. Fun? Maybe. But since I'm not training for a fall marathon, why not try something different?
This morning, as an experiment, I ran the Rogue Trail 10k at "The Maze" in Walnut Creek Park. I've never done a trail race before, and this one looked like a good place to get my feet wet, so to speak. There was an accompanying 30k trail race that would have the folks doing 3 loops of our course. The usual trail run sorts of food and snacks were available, and the runners gathered were a slightly different lot than usual for road races.
I rolled up to the parking lot a little before 7:00, and saw Clemmie from an old running group. She's done a 50k Ultra before on modest trails, and would be doing the 30k today. I wished her luck, and then I sat down to await our 7:30 start. The surprisingly large group of 30k runners gathered loosely behind the start tree, and were off right on time, at 7:00. It's a really casual thing, these trail races, and interesting to observe.
At any rate, I chatted with some folks waiting for our race, and found that most of them were new to trail running, so I didn't feel so out of place. I wasn't going to be trying to race hard, especially after yesterday's 10 miler, but I still wanted to represent myself well today. I did some modest stretching and a tiny bit of warmup running, and moseyed over to the start area. Lined up about halfway back in the field of around 120 people...maybe more. Steve Sisson gave us the race instructions, including the whole trail running etiquette thing ("On Your Left"), as well as the trail markers and such. He said the water/snack station was about 3.1 miles, and that at the big creek crossing late in the race, we'd be about a mile from the finish. Okay. Promptly on time, we were off. No chip timing today, and the distances are approximate (more on that later).
The early trail was single track, and we were a long snaking line of people jogging along in wilderness pretty quickly. I took it easy early, and when the trail widened, I eased past folks who were obviously going slower than I was, but I didn't stress out over it. I moved gently forward in the pack until about 7 minutes into the race, when there was a really steep drop and climb through a dry creek bed. The line of runners stopped as people tried to pick a line down and up the obstacle. After negotiating that, I found myself with a little room to run. I picked up the pace just a bit, and started picking out people to catch ahead of me. I'd roll up behind someone, catch my breath, and then go around them when I had the chance.
All of a sudden, maybe 15 minutes into the race, I was in open space, with empty trail ahead of me. No, I wasn't lost, but I had worked my way past the slower initial runners. I enjoyed this stretch, mostly shaded, and rolled up and down the terrain having a good time. Finally, I caught up to 2 women running along at a good pace, so I tagged along with them for a while. We dropped one of them, and I stayed with the other woman until the refreshment station, which was up a rather nasty little climb. I took a few seconds there, in the sun, to drink a cup of Gatorade and to pour a cup of water on my cap to cool things down a little. Refreshed, I moved on. The full stop was 25 seconds. I was at 29:01 for the first "half," which I'll call 3.1 miles, 9:22 pace. That was the sort of pace I was shooting for. HR numbers had some high peaks on the climbs, but the average number was about like yesterday's long run. So far, mission accomplished. This was really different, my friends!
I caught and passed a bunch of folks coming out of the water station, and spent most of the second half of the race doing that sort of approach...find a new runner to chase, catch them, rest for a second behind them, and then go past. The whole run became more like a fartlek workout than a standard road race, which was pretty interesting. Hard efforts followed by "recovery," of sorts, and so on. The second half seemed to be hillier, and dancing downhill through roots and rocks was challenging, but I was having fun. I did have just one bit where I tagged a toe on a root, but I caught myself after a couple of big giant steps. That'll get your heart rate up!
When we crossed the larger creek on the big stepping stones, I was happy to think about just one more mile of running. However, I think it was a bit longer than that. I'd slog up a hill, then down, then up, and without mile markers, I was slightly out of my element. Hard to pace when you've just got your breathing to tell you what to do. I was working harder in the second half, and I know I was running faster, but it was still hard to figure out where I was. The course snaked around and around, with turns aplenty, so you never really knew which way you were headed. (Uh, that's why this particular course is called "The Maze," Jay!). A bit disorienting, but not terrible. I plodded on. I was caught and passed by a fast 30k guy somewhere in there (he was on lap two, and my headstart on him had evaporated), but I caught a couple of the 30k folks myself, so I consider it an even trade.
Finally, I heard the finish line sounds, I thought, and got excited that the day was nearly over. Right at that point, though, the course took a sharp downhill turn away from the sounds, which was particularly cruel. More runners were ahead, and I charged after them. I was finding that I was pretty good on the uphill bits, which was nice to see. Anyway, now we had to be in the homestretch, didn't we? The course twisted left, twisted right, twisted up and down, and then twisted some more. A second 30k guy came flying by in here somewhere. I kept looking ahead for the orange trail marker ribbons, hoping that I'd see the finish around some corner soon. More people to pass. Finally, there was a woman ahead of me, and we got to a point that the orange marker pointed us through a tiny trail that looked like only goats used it, with tall grass almost overgrowing it. That was our trail, though! Through that gap we went, and I went around that woman, the last runner I'd see on the trail. A last nasty climb was ahead, pretty rocky, and then I saw the finish area ahead. Finally! I zipped across the finish, they took my tear-off tag for timing (it's a trail run, friends!), and I was done. Second "half," including my 25 second rest stop, was 29:43. I was a little disappointed in that, if the course was exactly 10k.
More water to pour on my head, and I started cooling down. I chatted with a couple of folks, including a Gazelle named Susan, I think, and then got to the truck to change shirts, put on my sandals, and start my post-race Endurox. I enjoyed the post-race scene, and watched a lot of people finish behind me. Found more people to talk to, and discovered a fair number of people who don't run road races at all. One woman was a cyclist, and this was her "long run." Good for her. I saw Diane, from the Galloway people, who was helping direct people at the start/finish line ("10k to the right, 30k to the left!"). I resisted the urge to eat Gummi Bears and Oreos, but it was tempting.
Later, I saw Steve Sisson, the race director, and he said the course was long. Last year, he used a slightly different course, and people told him he needed to add some twists this year to make it long enough. So, he added the extra stuff, but he thinks it makes the course more like 6.5 miles. Therefore, my second portion was more like 3.4 miles, making for a pace of 8:40 or so after the water stop. Overall, I ran 6.5 challenging miles at a pace of 9:02/mile. I was really cranking it in the second half, according to plan. My legs felt just fine today, but I think my HR numbers were up a little due to residual fatigue from yesterday. That's okay with me.
It was a fun experiment. I might, maybe, possibly, do the second race in the trail series in a couple of weeks. It's near my house, but that course is supposedly crazy hard, with some technical uphill bits that you just have to walk. Fun? Maybe. But since I'm not training for a fall marathon, why not try something different?
Saturday, May 21, 2005
Stretching Out the Miles
Possibly for the last time before they start their fall marathon training, I met Jan and Frank at 6:30 for a medium long run through Austin. Henry joined us, too, for the first 3 miles of our journey, but then he made his own way back on a slightly shorter route. He's still working his way back into long run shape after his vacation to Italy...so much good food and wine, so little time!
At any rate, we started on the trail, and then turned up Lavaca to MLK, to Guadalupe, through the edge of the UT campus, up to 45th Street, where I had stashed some Accelerade and cups for a quick refreshment stop, then over to Duval and down along the Freescale course, through the UT campus, along by the stadium, over to Congress on MLK again, to the Capitol, where Jan and Frank dashed in for a quick water stop, and then down Congress to the trail. Jan ran directly back from there, and Frank and I did the trail for another mile and a half, finishing at Auditorium Shores. We did 4 striders, just in case Gilbert was watching (I always feel better after doing them, but those first couple feel really ungraceful...). It was a pleasant run, even with the heat creeping up into the low to mid-70's, bright sunshine. The route is largely shaded, which helps a lot.
The three of us talked about a wide range of topics, and had some good laughs as the miles went under our feet. It was one of those runs that makes you grateful for the ability to get out there and roll along with some friends. The social aspect of our running hobby cannot be underestimated. In many ways, running is our "therapy," where we can let the tensions of real life fade into the background as so much white noise, and just let our minds wander... I'll have to figure out how to join Frank and/or Jan this summer for portions of their longer training runs, or else I'll feel like I'm missing out.
We don't think the policeman at the Capitol grounds was watching videos, but he did have his car running with the air conditioning blasting away. I guess I don't blame him for that. It would be stifling sitting in that car with all that uniform and body armor.
Gilbert was still recovering from some minor surgery, but he showed up anyway to offer some personal instruction to folks while we stretched in the RunTex parking lot. We had maybe 30 people stretching, which made that a lot more fun. It was nice in the shade, and I think everyone was just enjoying the comraderie along with the good feelings that a solid stretching session give you.
Richard and I did the ab/core stuff after the stretching, and I got back to the regular numbers, doing 2 x 30 crunches/leg extensions, 2x20 "Jan" crunches, 2x20 "Canoe" crunches, 2x15 pushups, and 2x15 back raises. I know those exercises are helping my running form, not to mention my posture and such.
After that, it was good to see Patrick back out with us, so Jan and I hung out with him to check out what's happening in his life. He's on the road to recovery after messing up a calf muscle, and is able to run again, although he'll be gently working his way back over the next month. He'll be fine by the end of June.
It was a really nice day at the running office. The run was 10.6 miles, average pace 8:46/mile, with a long stretch in the middle where we were clicking away at 8:30-8:35 pace after a slower first couple of miles. Frank and I finished off the run with a last mile in the sub 8:00 range, which didn't really feel that much harder than what we had been doing.
Now, I get to see the new Star Wars movie this afternoon, and then it'll be time to rest up for the trail 10k in the morning. Should be fun on both counts!
Possibly for the last time before they start their fall marathon training, I met Jan and Frank at 6:30 for a medium long run through Austin. Henry joined us, too, for the first 3 miles of our journey, but then he made his own way back on a slightly shorter route. He's still working his way back into long run shape after his vacation to Italy...so much good food and wine, so little time!
At any rate, we started on the trail, and then turned up Lavaca to MLK, to Guadalupe, through the edge of the UT campus, up to 45th Street, where I had stashed some Accelerade and cups for a quick refreshment stop, then over to Duval and down along the Freescale course, through the UT campus, along by the stadium, over to Congress on MLK again, to the Capitol, where Jan and Frank dashed in for a quick water stop, and then down Congress to the trail. Jan ran directly back from there, and Frank and I did the trail for another mile and a half, finishing at Auditorium Shores. We did 4 striders, just in case Gilbert was watching (I always feel better after doing them, but those first couple feel really ungraceful...). It was a pleasant run, even with the heat creeping up into the low to mid-70's, bright sunshine. The route is largely shaded, which helps a lot.
The three of us talked about a wide range of topics, and had some good laughs as the miles went under our feet. It was one of those runs that makes you grateful for the ability to get out there and roll along with some friends. The social aspect of our running hobby cannot be underestimated. In many ways, running is our "therapy," where we can let the tensions of real life fade into the background as so much white noise, and just let our minds wander... I'll have to figure out how to join Frank and/or Jan this summer for portions of their longer training runs, or else I'll feel like I'm missing out.
We don't think the policeman at the Capitol grounds was watching videos, but he did have his car running with the air conditioning blasting away. I guess I don't blame him for that. It would be stifling sitting in that car with all that uniform and body armor.
Gilbert was still recovering from some minor surgery, but he showed up anyway to offer some personal instruction to folks while we stretched in the RunTex parking lot. We had maybe 30 people stretching, which made that a lot more fun. It was nice in the shade, and I think everyone was just enjoying the comraderie along with the good feelings that a solid stretching session give you.
Richard and I did the ab/core stuff after the stretching, and I got back to the regular numbers, doing 2 x 30 crunches/leg extensions, 2x20 "Jan" crunches, 2x20 "Canoe" crunches, 2x15 pushups, and 2x15 back raises. I know those exercises are helping my running form, not to mention my posture and such.
After that, it was good to see Patrick back out with us, so Jan and I hung out with him to check out what's happening in his life. He's on the road to recovery after messing up a calf muscle, and is able to run again, although he'll be gently working his way back over the next month. He'll be fine by the end of June.
It was a really nice day at the running office. The run was 10.6 miles, average pace 8:46/mile, with a long stretch in the middle where we were clicking away at 8:30-8:35 pace after a slower first couple of miles. Frank and I finished off the run with a last mile in the sub 8:00 range, which didn't really feel that much harder than what we had been doing.
Now, I get to see the new Star Wars movie this afternoon, and then it'll be time to rest up for the trail 10k in the morning. Should be fun on both counts!
Friday, May 20, 2005
Finally, Back to the Gym!
I didn't intend to stay away from the gym and cross-training so long...but it's been a while. Finally, I got my butt into the gym today after Jake's school awards ceremony this morning (First Honor Roll, Perfect Attendance, Gold Medal National Mythology Test...you'll have to indulge my bragging). Once I got there, I was glad to have done so. I did the full ab/core routine, and some of those exercises that had gotten somewhat easier were tougher today. This is, of course, a sign that I haven't been a good boy in that regard. I did the leg stuff, but only one set of the 4-way hip machine today. I'll get back to full double sets on that next week. On the upper body stuff, I had to make some adjustments for various reasons. They've gotten brand new fixed barbells in both straight bar and curl bar varieties in the Gym, which are nice, but they no longer go up in 5 pound increments. So, on bicep curls, I did a set at 40 lbs and then a set at 50 lbs. 50 lbs seems like a lot more than 45 did...but that may just be the fog of time talking. On bench, I took 5 pounds off, back down to 75 lbs., just for caution's sake. That was a good idea, as I huffed and puffed to get that second set done. By next week, I should get back up to 80 again. On tricep extension and other dumbbell exercises, they no longer have the dumbbells going up in 2.5 lb increments, so I've had to adjust the weights around to suit the various exercises.
The bottom line is that I did pretty well in there today. The bike warmup was nice and relaxed, just enough to get the heart pumping and legs moving around. My legs always feel refreshed after the leg weight work, and that was true today, too. Now, I just need to stay on schedule since I've finally gotten back into the swing of things this week.
Oh, yeah, on somewhat of a whim, I signed up for a 10k trail race in one of the city parks on Sunday morning. I know, I'm already running long tomorrow (10 or 11 miles), and I usually take Sundays off after that, but I promise to just use the trail race as a fun recovery effort, doing the first half at a nice relaxed pace, and then picking it up a bit for the last half, sort of a baby pace run. I'm also looking forward to getting a chance to use my trail running shoes in an actual trail run, and running through creeks and mud and stuff. I'll wear the Garmin just to see if it will hold a signal in the trees and such. They've promised that we won't get totally lost during the race, but the course is called "The Maze," so apparently, it's not exactly a simple thing to navigate. The race website says to print the map of the course, but that it would be useless during the event. Funny guys...
I didn't intend to stay away from the gym and cross-training so long...but it's been a while. Finally, I got my butt into the gym today after Jake's school awards ceremony this morning (First Honor Roll, Perfect Attendance, Gold Medal National Mythology Test...you'll have to indulge my bragging). Once I got there, I was glad to have done so. I did the full ab/core routine, and some of those exercises that had gotten somewhat easier were tougher today. This is, of course, a sign that I haven't been a good boy in that regard. I did the leg stuff, but only one set of the 4-way hip machine today. I'll get back to full double sets on that next week. On the upper body stuff, I had to make some adjustments for various reasons. They've gotten brand new fixed barbells in both straight bar and curl bar varieties in the Gym, which are nice, but they no longer go up in 5 pound increments. So, on bicep curls, I did a set at 40 lbs and then a set at 50 lbs. 50 lbs seems like a lot more than 45 did...but that may just be the fog of time talking. On bench, I took 5 pounds off, back down to 75 lbs., just for caution's sake. That was a good idea, as I huffed and puffed to get that second set done. By next week, I should get back up to 80 again. On tricep extension and other dumbbell exercises, they no longer have the dumbbells going up in 2.5 lb increments, so I've had to adjust the weights around to suit the various exercises.
The bottom line is that I did pretty well in there today. The bike warmup was nice and relaxed, just enough to get the heart pumping and legs moving around. My legs always feel refreshed after the leg weight work, and that was true today, too. Now, I just need to stay on schedule since I've finally gotten back into the swing of things this week.
Oh, yeah, on somewhat of a whim, I signed up for a 10k trail race in one of the city parks on Sunday morning. I know, I'm already running long tomorrow (10 or 11 miles), and I usually take Sundays off after that, but I promise to just use the trail race as a fun recovery effort, doing the first half at a nice relaxed pace, and then picking it up a bit for the last half, sort of a baby pace run. I'm also looking forward to getting a chance to use my trail running shoes in an actual trail run, and running through creeks and mud and stuff. I'll wear the Garmin just to see if it will hold a signal in the trees and such. They've promised that we won't get totally lost during the race, but the course is called "The Maze," so apparently, it's not exactly a simple thing to navigate. The race website says to print the map of the course, but that it would be useless during the event. Funny guys...
Thursday, May 19, 2005
Humid 400's
Today, the heat of summer peeked at us, delivering temps around 72 degrees and really high humidity. Better start getting used to it! Anyway, a fairly small group, about 20 folks, left for Austin High School right on time at 6:00. I ran over with Amy, Henry and Joseph today, at a more leisurely pace than on Tuesday (around 9:35 pace). A bunch of people were commenting on how sore they were after the extended circuit fun from Tuesday. I know my hamstrings were a little beaten up today. They loosened up pretty well, though, by the end of the drills. When we got to the track, a bunch of other people were there ready to go, including Richard, among others. Drills were drilled, and we were ready to go.
We were to do between 12 and 20 x 400's, 1:00 active rest between. No bonus walked laps this time. Pace was suggested for my group at 1:45. Poor Joseph was moved up to a faster group, with Alex, because he has been blasting the tempo runs. That's what you get for showing some speed to Gilbert! Anyway, my group was Henry, David, Amy and Richard. It seemed like I did most of the pace work, but that's okay with me. I was really locked in today, and it felt good to run a bunch of 400's under control like we did. Henry is just getting back to speedwork, and did 8 repeats, I think. David ran a 5k race last night, so he stopped after 10. Amy did 12 with us, and really cranked her last one, then she had to get going to work. Richard and I did the 13th repeat, and then I foolishly asked Gilbert how many we should do (thinking, perhaps, that he'd say that we'd done enough). Of course, he said to do 15. So, Richard and I rolled out the last two repeats. I think I put the hammer down a bit on those last two, but Richard hung in there pretty well, finishing only a few seconds behind me on those. For all the others, we were a nice tidy pack. I was very pleased with the numbers, both in their consistency and fine overall average pace. Richard is really fighting the humidity and heat after his 3 weeks in Europe and that nice cool weather over there, but he did well today in spite of all that.
The numbers, you say? 1:43, 1:43, 1:42, 1:43, 1:43, 1:44, 1:42, 1:43, 1:41, 1:41, 1:42, 1:41, 1:41, 1:38, 1:35. Average pace was around 1:41 or 1:42, right in there, 6:48 mile pace. After the first repeat, we just tried to stay at that number for a long time, and then we eased the pace quicker over the last half of the session. It was hard work, but not all out. Still, that pace is way faster than 10k or 5k pace right now for me! That 1:00 rest seemed shorter and shorter as the workout went along...but isn't that the way it always is?
I had not planned on doing quite so many, thinking I'd stop at 12, but it was cool to run so strong today. Gilbert talked to me about some form issues that he had noticed (I'm leaning backwards again...need to focus on that bit of form). After some water on the old noggin and some Powerade for the insides, I ran alone back to RunTex (everyone else either drove or had left earlier), and accidentally ran pretty quick. I thought I was going easier than I was... but it turned out to be 8:50 pace going back. With all the humidity, my shirt was soaked today. Harbinger of things to come...sigh...
For the day, 7.4 miles. 6000 meters of intervals at that 6:48 average pace, and the warmup/cooldown stuff was at 9:18 pace.
I finished it off with some good stretching and one set of the ab stuff that I've been neglecting. I talked with Pete, Gilbert and Paul while I was there, which is always a fun thing. Did 30 x crunches/extensions, 20 x Jan Crunches, 20 x canoe crunches. I can tell I've been away from those exercises.
At any rate, it was a good day at the running office. Tomorrow, I'll hopefully get to the gym, and then it's a moderately long run on Saturday.
Today, the heat of summer peeked at us, delivering temps around 72 degrees and really high humidity. Better start getting used to it! Anyway, a fairly small group, about 20 folks, left for Austin High School right on time at 6:00. I ran over with Amy, Henry and Joseph today, at a more leisurely pace than on Tuesday (around 9:35 pace). A bunch of people were commenting on how sore they were after the extended circuit fun from Tuesday. I know my hamstrings were a little beaten up today. They loosened up pretty well, though, by the end of the drills. When we got to the track, a bunch of other people were there ready to go, including Richard, among others. Drills were drilled, and we were ready to go.
We were to do between 12 and 20 x 400's, 1:00 active rest between. No bonus walked laps this time. Pace was suggested for my group at 1:45. Poor Joseph was moved up to a faster group, with Alex, because he has been blasting the tempo runs. That's what you get for showing some speed to Gilbert! Anyway, my group was Henry, David, Amy and Richard. It seemed like I did most of the pace work, but that's okay with me. I was really locked in today, and it felt good to run a bunch of 400's under control like we did. Henry is just getting back to speedwork, and did 8 repeats, I think. David ran a 5k race last night, so he stopped after 10. Amy did 12 with us, and really cranked her last one, then she had to get going to work. Richard and I did the 13th repeat, and then I foolishly asked Gilbert how many we should do (thinking, perhaps, that he'd say that we'd done enough). Of course, he said to do 15. So, Richard and I rolled out the last two repeats. I think I put the hammer down a bit on those last two, but Richard hung in there pretty well, finishing only a few seconds behind me on those. For all the others, we were a nice tidy pack. I was very pleased with the numbers, both in their consistency and fine overall average pace. Richard is really fighting the humidity and heat after his 3 weeks in Europe and that nice cool weather over there, but he did well today in spite of all that.
The numbers, you say? 1:43, 1:43, 1:42, 1:43, 1:43, 1:44, 1:42, 1:43, 1:41, 1:41, 1:42, 1:41, 1:41, 1:38, 1:35. Average pace was around 1:41 or 1:42, right in there, 6:48 mile pace. After the first repeat, we just tried to stay at that number for a long time, and then we eased the pace quicker over the last half of the session. It was hard work, but not all out. Still, that pace is way faster than 10k or 5k pace right now for me! That 1:00 rest seemed shorter and shorter as the workout went along...but isn't that the way it always is?
I had not planned on doing quite so many, thinking I'd stop at 12, but it was cool to run so strong today. Gilbert talked to me about some form issues that he had noticed (I'm leaning backwards again...need to focus on that bit of form). After some water on the old noggin and some Powerade for the insides, I ran alone back to RunTex (everyone else either drove or had left earlier), and accidentally ran pretty quick. I thought I was going easier than I was... but it turned out to be 8:50 pace going back. With all the humidity, my shirt was soaked today. Harbinger of things to come...sigh...
For the day, 7.4 miles. 6000 meters of intervals at that 6:48 average pace, and the warmup/cooldown stuff was at 9:18 pace.
I finished it off with some good stretching and one set of the ab stuff that I've been neglecting. I talked with Pete, Gilbert and Paul while I was there, which is always a fun thing. Did 30 x crunches/extensions, 20 x Jan Crunches, 20 x canoe crunches. I can tell I've been away from those exercises.
At any rate, it was a good day at the running office. Tomorrow, I'll hopefully get to the gym, and then it's a moderately long run on Saturday.
Tuesday, May 17, 2005
Back In The Fold (Circuit Workout)
After another 2 day vacation from exercise, I was back out there this morning, bright and early at 6:00 am, with the Gazelles. It was really fun to see most of the full gang out there, on a nice cool morning (it was in the low 60's). Of course, I ran too fast in the warmup to Austin High with Amy and Tony (new guy), and it seemed I never really let up until we returned much later.
It was getting light by the time we cruised through the drills, with a group that swelled from our original number due to the folks who drove directly to the track to save time later. The workout was the Circuit, 3-4 x 800m, with fun exercises in between. We were supposed to run the 800's at 5-10 seconds slower than our usual "10K" pace for 800's. Fat chance of that.
Somehow, Amy and I ended up leading a giant mob through the first 800, around 3:45. Then we launched into the circuit. It's been a while since I've done this, due to specific workouts for Indy taking the place of it, and I'd forgotten how tough it is to keep moving through the exercises while you're still winded from the 800's. At any rate, most of the exercises were pretty easy, in their way, except for the Superman jumps and the lunges. Right after the lunges, we had to immediately start running again. My times on the 800's drifted to 3:55 and finally to 4:00 (Alex, or was it Frank?, drug me through the last 800), but I was moving smartly through the circuit in between. My HR actually went down a bit during the running, which was amusing. After we were done with 3 circuits, Gilbert called us over for more fun stuff as a group.
I was still breathing pretty hard, but I was game. We did 1 minute of "Fast Feet," then 2 x 50-75 yard sprints while holding our breath. Then, of course, we repeated Fast Feet and the sprints, finishing off with one final round of Fast Feet. I was pretty well done by then.
Alex, Frank, Joseph and I ran back to RunTex together, too fast again, but we were glad to have done the workout. I did a tiny bit of stretching and hung out for a while talking with the peeps, and then headed home. It was really good to get back in the routine of Gazelles, and now all I have to do is get back on the full schedule with the gym, etc. Hopefully, I'll get motivated!
After another 2 day vacation from exercise, I was back out there this morning, bright and early at 6:00 am, with the Gazelles. It was really fun to see most of the full gang out there, on a nice cool morning (it was in the low 60's). Of course, I ran too fast in the warmup to Austin High with Amy and Tony (new guy), and it seemed I never really let up until we returned much later.
It was getting light by the time we cruised through the drills, with a group that swelled from our original number due to the folks who drove directly to the track to save time later. The workout was the Circuit, 3-4 x 800m, with fun exercises in between. We were supposed to run the 800's at 5-10 seconds slower than our usual "10K" pace for 800's. Fat chance of that.
Somehow, Amy and I ended up leading a giant mob through the first 800, around 3:45. Then we launched into the circuit. It's been a while since I've done this, due to specific workouts for Indy taking the place of it, and I'd forgotten how tough it is to keep moving through the exercises while you're still winded from the 800's. At any rate, most of the exercises were pretty easy, in their way, except for the Superman jumps and the lunges. Right after the lunges, we had to immediately start running again. My times on the 800's drifted to 3:55 and finally to 4:00 (Alex, or was it Frank?, drug me through the last 800), but I was moving smartly through the circuit in between. My HR actually went down a bit during the running, which was amusing. After we were done with 3 circuits, Gilbert called us over for more fun stuff as a group.
I was still breathing pretty hard, but I was game. We did 1 minute of "Fast Feet," then 2 x 50-75 yard sprints while holding our breath. Then, of course, we repeated Fast Feet and the sprints, finishing off with one final round of Fast Feet. I was pretty well done by then.
Alex, Frank, Joseph and I ran back to RunTex together, too fast again, but we were glad to have done the workout. I did a tiny bit of stretching and hung out for a while talking with the peeps, and then headed home. It was really good to get back in the routine of Gazelles, and now all I have to do is get back on the full schedule with the gym, etc. Hopefully, I'll get motivated!
Saturday, May 14, 2005
The Prodigal Blogger Returns
I've been less than diligent about my running this week, taking a short break from training after the Mini. But, this morning, I got back out there on a muggy morning with Frank and Jan. It was around 70 degrees. We did a 7 miler on the hike and bike trail, covering the distance in just over an hour. Our overall pace was 8:48/mile, and it felt pretty comfortable the whole way. It was nice to run without a serious training goal for the workout for a change. And, it was fun to have Jan join us, so that she could catch us up on the gossip amongst the Gazelles from the last week. We took just one brief stop for water at Mopac, about 1:50 in length, so it was a good continuous effort. We finished things off with 4 striders. I felt totally uncoordinated on the first one or two, but things smoothed out by number 4.
Alex and Liliana ran the Mt. Bonnell route today, so I hope Alex didn't push it too hard this soon after his half marathon race. There was a fairly small group afterwards that met for the Saturday Stretching Extravaganza, but we had fun. Pete showed us a couple of "bonus" stretches today, and I think I'll go ahead and add them to the mix next week.
I discovered today that the bright yellow shirt that I purchased at the Mini is staggeringly bright. I didn't realize how bright until I put it on after the run. It'll be a fun shirt to wear on long training runs once it gets cool again (November?).
As always, hanging out with my fellow Gazelles was the highlight of the morning. The workouts are nice and all, but it's the people that make the group so much fun. I can't wait to see Gilbert on Tuesday for the circuit workout!
I've been less than diligent about my running this week, taking a short break from training after the Mini. But, this morning, I got back out there on a muggy morning with Frank and Jan. It was around 70 degrees. We did a 7 miler on the hike and bike trail, covering the distance in just over an hour. Our overall pace was 8:48/mile, and it felt pretty comfortable the whole way. It was nice to run without a serious training goal for the workout for a change. And, it was fun to have Jan join us, so that she could catch us up on the gossip amongst the Gazelles from the last week. We took just one brief stop for water at Mopac, about 1:50 in length, so it was a good continuous effort. We finished things off with 4 striders. I felt totally uncoordinated on the first one or two, but things smoothed out by number 4.
Alex and Liliana ran the Mt. Bonnell route today, so I hope Alex didn't push it too hard this soon after his half marathon race. There was a fairly small group afterwards that met for the Saturday Stretching Extravaganza, but we had fun. Pete showed us a couple of "bonus" stretches today, and I think I'll go ahead and add them to the mix next week.
I discovered today that the bright yellow shirt that I purchased at the Mini is staggeringly bright. I didn't realize how bright until I put it on after the run. It'll be a fun shirt to wear on long training runs once it gets cool again (November?).
As always, hanging out with my fellow Gazelles was the highlight of the morning. The workouts are nice and all, but it's the people that make the group so much fun. I can't wait to see Gilbert on Tuesday for the circuit workout!
Tuesday, May 10, 2005
Just More Stuff...
I just noticed that by finishing 3416/25029 in the Mini, I probably passed between 2000 and 3000 people during the run. My bib number was 7962, and I was in a corral with that range of numbers (7,000's), so I estimate that I rolled by a lot of folks during the day. After the first mile or so, I really didn't get passed by too many folks, so I had a good day.
Yesterday, Monday, I took a full day off. I did some stretching and the ab/core exercises here at home, but that was all. I'll head out tonight for a nice easy 45 minute run to continue the recovery process.
I just noticed that by finishing 3416/25029 in the Mini, I probably passed between 2000 and 3000 people during the run. My bib number was 7962, and I was in a corral with that range of numbers (7,000's), so I estimate that I rolled by a lot of folks during the day. After the first mile or so, I really didn't get passed by too many folks, so I had a good day.
Yesterday, Monday, I took a full day off. I did some stretching and the ab/core exercises here at home, but that was all. I'll head out tonight for a nice easy 45 minute run to continue the recovery process.
Sunday, May 08, 2005
Recovery Run and Travel Tales [Posted 5/9/05]
Sunday morning, we got up and rolling about 8:00. Accelerade and a banana on the way to refuel the machine for me. The four of us went up to the Broad Ripple area, again, for a nice 4.7 mile easy run up and back on the towpath along the same canal that ends up in Indianapolis, some 10 miles downstream from where we were. Dead flat running, on crushed rock surface like the Town Lake hike and bike trail. I felt really good all along, which was surprising. My legs were a little heavy the first quarter mile or so, but I got rolling pretty well by the end of the run. 4.7 miles, 45:04, easy 9:35 pace overall. After that, we did almost all the extended stretching routine, except for the ropes bit. Andy and Jeff were gracious enough to let Alex and I do our stretching. Thanks, guys!
After that, it was time to eat again, at a local bagelry. Then, back to the hotel, cleanup time, followed by a trip out to the Speedway to watch rookie orientation and practice. It's the first time I've been to the Speedway with race cars on the track, and the noise was really amazing! We hung out in the infield on the grassy berm in turn 3 for a while, watching and listening to the scene. Among the funny things that I saw was a young kid, three years old (I asked), who was deeply asleep on a blanket out there with his parents. He had earplugs in his ears, but really now...falling asleep with that racket going on? We strolled around the grounds, which are truly gargantuan...there's a full Formula One road circuit in the infield, plus 4 holes of a golf course (the rest of the course is just east of the track), plus a pond or two, parking for thousands of cars, and parking areas for all the teams at the race and the TV folks. Just sprawling. We ended up over by the pit areas, right up against the fence, and listened to the cars and the action even closer than we were before. Alex and I took a bunch of pictures, and it was a really fun time to experience all that up close. We timed it, and those cars were ripping around the track in 38 seconds or so. It took me about 21 minutes to cover the same distance on foot the day before...perspective, huh?
After the Speedway visit, it was time for food again, then to the airport. I bid my goodbyes, and had no problem negotiating security again. I got a paper for Frank so he could read the race coverage, and settled at the gate. Made my Mother's Day calls that had not yet been made, and then had a comfy flight to DFW. I read most of my book, wrote down a bunch of notes about the race and the weekend (you don't think I just remember all this stuff that easy, do you?), and knocked out the Indy paper's Sunday crossword. My second flight, from DFW to Austin, was delayed quite a while, with us parked on the runway, while a storm cleared out of there. That was no fun. Then, once we got in the air, a storm was hanging out over Austin, and we had to cruise around a while waiting for that to clear, too. At any rate, I finally ended up landing in Austin two hours after schedule, but I got home before midnight, anyway.
It was a great weekend, though, despite the travel issues on the way home. I'm already excited about next year's race! My 5K and 10K times get me into the third seeded group right now for Indy 2006, and I could get a time at some distance that will get me into Seeded Group Two by the deadline for such things. I'm looking forward to nice relaxed running this week, and a return to Gazelles the following week.
Stats for the Week (5/2-8): 5 runs, 35.6 miles. PR half marathon race, and a handful of nice tuneup or recovery runs around that. Even got to the gym once. This week, it'll all be nice and easy running, and I'll do some solid gym work as well.
Sunday morning, we got up and rolling about 8:00. Accelerade and a banana on the way to refuel the machine for me. The four of us went up to the Broad Ripple area, again, for a nice 4.7 mile easy run up and back on the towpath along the same canal that ends up in Indianapolis, some 10 miles downstream from where we were. Dead flat running, on crushed rock surface like the Town Lake hike and bike trail. I felt really good all along, which was surprising. My legs were a little heavy the first quarter mile or so, but I got rolling pretty well by the end of the run. 4.7 miles, 45:04, easy 9:35 pace overall. After that, we did almost all the extended stretching routine, except for the ropes bit. Andy and Jeff were gracious enough to let Alex and I do our stretching. Thanks, guys!
After that, it was time to eat again, at a local bagelry. Then, back to the hotel, cleanup time, followed by a trip out to the Speedway to watch rookie orientation and practice. It's the first time I've been to the Speedway with race cars on the track, and the noise was really amazing! We hung out in the infield on the grassy berm in turn 3 for a while, watching and listening to the scene. Among the funny things that I saw was a young kid, three years old (I asked), who was deeply asleep on a blanket out there with his parents. He had earplugs in his ears, but really now...falling asleep with that racket going on? We strolled around the grounds, which are truly gargantuan...there's a full Formula One road circuit in the infield, plus 4 holes of a golf course (the rest of the course is just east of the track), plus a pond or two, parking for thousands of cars, and parking areas for all the teams at the race and the TV folks. Just sprawling. We ended up over by the pit areas, right up against the fence, and listened to the cars and the action even closer than we were before. Alex and I took a bunch of pictures, and it was a really fun time to experience all that up close. We timed it, and those cars were ripping around the track in 38 seconds or so. It took me about 21 minutes to cover the same distance on foot the day before...perspective, huh?
After the Speedway visit, it was time for food again, then to the airport. I bid my goodbyes, and had no problem negotiating security again. I got a paper for Frank so he could read the race coverage, and settled at the gate. Made my Mother's Day calls that had not yet been made, and then had a comfy flight to DFW. I read most of my book, wrote down a bunch of notes about the race and the weekend (you don't think I just remember all this stuff that easy, do you?), and knocked out the Indy paper's Sunday crossword. My second flight, from DFW to Austin, was delayed quite a while, with us parked on the runway, while a storm cleared out of there. That was no fun. Then, once we got in the air, a storm was hanging out over Austin, and we had to cruise around a while waiting for that to clear, too. At any rate, I finally ended up landing in Austin two hours after schedule, but I got home before midnight, anyway.
It was a great weekend, though, despite the travel issues on the way home. I'm already excited about next year's race! My 5K and 10K times get me into the third seeded group right now for Indy 2006, and I could get a time at some distance that will get me into Seeded Group Two by the deadline for such things. I'm looking forward to nice relaxed running this week, and a return to Gazelles the following week.
Stats for the Week (5/2-8): 5 runs, 35.6 miles. PR half marathon race, and a handful of nice tuneup or recovery runs around that. Even got to the gym once. This week, it'll all be nice and easy running, and I'll do some solid gym work as well.
Saturday, May 07, 2005
Indy 500 Festival Mini Marathon [Posted 5/9/05]
The first alarm went off at 5:00, and we finally rolled out at about 5:30. Accelerade, bananas, the usual pre-race nutrition... Then, the three of us went out for a warmup run at about 6:15, a nice easy 15 minutes or so along the finish of the course and then back to the hotel. We did our Gazelles drills (the "usual drills") in the parking lot, and then some minor stretching. I saw Andy and Jeff walking to the starting line and told them to have a good race, and then we went up to the room to put on our race gear (we were all sporting our Gazelles black singlets, of course!) and got our post-race stuff for the gear check trucks.
We strolled over to the huge pre-race scene, along with 30,000 new running friends. It was no problem at all dropping off my post-race bag, and after a last hydration adjustment (Frank laughs at this rather delicate description, by the way...), I took my pre-race GU and a last cup of water. Frank and Alex went way up to the "B" corral with the seeded runners, and I moseyed back to the "G" corral (they go back to "X," incidentally!). I was in the corral, sitting down and stretching, at 7:05. I had a long time to wait. Temperature was in the high 50's, but with the full sun, it felt a lot warmer than that. It would warm to about 65 degrees by the time I finished.
At about 7:15, I finally had to stand up, with the crowds starting to file into the corral in earnest. The usual annoying beachballs were being batted around, both really giant ones and normal sized ones. I kept trying to hit them back into the "H" corral or out into the crowd, but they kept coming back. Arrrgggghhh! We had "Back Home Again In Indiana," sung by a woman way up ahead, and then the national anthem. It was time. The wheelchairs went off precisely at 7:30, as scheduled, and we were allowed to surge forward as the ropes were removed between the corrals. I ended up standing at about corral "E" as the gun went off, perfectly at 7:33, as advertised. We walked, jogged, walked, stopped, and finally jogged to the start, and I crossed almost exactly 4 minutes after the gun. Time to get it on!!
My race plan was to run calmly in the first mile, and to settle into my pace after the course widened at one mile. It was crowded early, of course, but this year, I just stayed in my lane, and moved forward when an opening presented itself, trying not to do too much side to side running. In the first mile, there was a preacher with a mic, telling us how to live a more righteous life (I only got about 10 seconds of his sermon...sorry). After that, there was at least one more musical act, a guitarist with a drummer. The drummer was wearing a full Spiderman suit. At least that's what I think it was. We crossed a river, and passed in front of the Indianapolis Zoo. I reached the first mile in 8:54, slow, but plenty of time to pick it up from there. I turned that first corner, and up the very slight incline there, I passed a ton more people, as they were taken aback by the change in elevation. For me, it was time to enjoy the change. The second mile featured a couple of ladies singing religious pop against a backing track (they were actually pretty good), as well as a cool steel drum band and a guitarist who played against his own pre-recorded tracks. The last guy was doing Grand Funk Railroad's version of "Some Kinda Wonderful," and he wasn't bad. As we turned west again, there were a bunch of musical acts along the long straight there. I heard the Georgia Satellite's "Keep Your Hands To Yourself," then a keyboard guy (he had a big sign...something like "Fred Thompson, Musical Entertainer. Weddings, Parties...") who was doing some long jazz excursion on some tune that was lost in the riffing. My favorite deal was a little further down, where two acts occupied the very same parking lot. There was a young metal band, doing some typical thrashing tune, and right next to them was a group of bikers who were rocking out with "Born To Be Wild." And the points go to the bikers! Good job, boys!
I drank Gatorade about every 3 miles, and poured water on my head in between, but didn't slow too much at the water stops. There were 17 aid stations, I think ("Pit Areas," in the terminology of the race) spread over 13 miles, so there was no shortage of fluids available. I was running just like I wanted to by now, smoothly moving forward through the crowds of runners. As we turned north for a short stretch, there was a pretty good rapper doing some lyrics involving runners and "getting it done." That was followed by a band doing Stevie Wonder's "Sir Duke." At the four mile mark, we turned west again, and there were two bands there on opposite corners (we'd pass this spot again at about mile 10 on the way back, so the bands were ready for action going both ways). I was feeling strong and smooth, and I was clicking off the miles. 4 miles down, 9.1 to go.
Splits, miles 1-4: 8:54, 8:18, 8:18, 8:11. After that slow first mile, I had worked it back to 8:26 overall pace. I was totally okay with my progress, knowing that at that rate, I'd get my overall pace down even further before I was done.
The stretch from mile 4 to mile 6 included the lady cloggers, doing their thing to Bob Seger's "Old Time Rock and Roll." They're very serious about their art, and are pretty darned good at it. I also heard "TNT," the AC/DC song, "Born To Be Wild" again (not as good as that first band), a taped version of "You Shook Me All Night Long," lots of metal bands, and a pretty good version of "Rave On." Also a cool soul group doing "Ain't Too Proud To Beg." Entertaining, for sure. It's just unbelievable how many musical acts they get out for this race! First dose of Enervitene at about mile 5. Then, I rolled around the corner, and headed for the Speedway. Just outside the Speedway, I heard the bagpipers (they were standing right there about 3 feet away). I ducked down the short ramp under the grandstands, then powered up the equally short uphill ramp, and I was inside the Speedway for that part of the festivities. Time to do the Speedway Tour, on foot this time. The first of three groups of cheerleaders were right inside the Speedway at the water stop. After a short time on an internal road, we popped up onto the track itself.
Splits, Miles 5-6: 8:17, 8:24. Overall pace down to 8:24, right on plan, and improving.
Once on the track, the asphalt provided a lot more heat than we had up to that time. I was still motoring past folks, and by now, lots of people were stopping to walk or slowing considerably. The loudspeakers in the Speedway blared "Hot, Hot, Hot," then "Walk This Way," and then "You Shook Me All Night Long (again)." I crossed the strip of bricks at the track's Start/Finish line and continued on my merry way. My pacing was erratic on the track, apparently due to the slowing runners around me and the increased heat of the asphalt. I recovered after the slower mile 7, and then slowed back again on mile 9. As I exited the track, I saw the piles of runners just now entering the track, and I felt much better about my day. I just figured I'd be better once I got on regular roads. Even as I was going, I was still easily moving forward, through more and more runners. I turned at the Marathon Oil refinery, and headed to mile 10. Time to get going. Last year, I sort of gave up on the track, but this year, with a lot more experience and much better training, I was able to fight out of the Speedway funk.
Splits, Miles 7-9 (the Speedway): 8:36, 8:20, 8:36. Overall pace up to 8:26. Still on PR pace, and lots of time to whittle that down.
There was a shady stretch at the first half of mile 10, and that was welcome relief after the track. A guy with a 12-string guitar was doing Jimmy Buffett ("Margaritaville," of course), and then some metal bands. I crossed the median, and finally turned east into the bright sun for the home stretch drive. I took my last dose of Enervitene at the mile 10 water stop, doused my head with water again, and it was time to blast it! I was back on proper pacing now, and feeling much better. Another rapper was doing his thang in this stretch. I wasn't really sure how I was doing, overall, but I knew I was right around my 1:50 goal. I wasn't going to slow down now. Gilbert had told me to "GO!" at mile 10, and so I did. Mile 11 was straight into the sun, and apparently all the country and bluegrass bands were left for this stretch (same last year, too...). Another band did "TNT," this time with a girl singer (pretty good, though), and I heard a Doors tune ("Touch Me"). For the first time in a long time, someone passed me, 2 kids wearing their cross country camp singlets. They were probably 13 years old. I was doing all I could, so they went on by. We turned the corner, and were now going along the river towards the last bridge and the homestretch mile. I heard Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Susie Q" being pumped out by a live band, and that helped me, I think. The steel drum band was having fun, as well, and they took us to the bridge, so to speak. There were tons of folks just basically giving up by now, with lots of walkers all around. I was plowing through them, focused on the prize. I took a last cup of water on my head, and turned across the bridge. It was the last incline on the course, really. From there, it was a straight shot to the finish. Kick it!!
Splits, miles 10-12: 8:15, 8:09, 8:23. Overall pace now back down to 8:24.
I saw a guy on a stretcher on the bridge, but snapped out of that fast. Time to focus. One last rock band on the bridge doing Buddy Holly again. My body was screaming at me to slow down, but I ignored it. I saw the 3/4 mile to go sign, and kept looking for the 1/2 mile sign. It seemed like it took forever to get that 1/4 mile! I heard a woman singing Dixie Chicks songs ("There's Your Trouble") to a backing tape. Finally the 1/2 mile sign, the overhead walkway, and I focused ahead on the photographers' perch. The streets were lined with cheering spectators by now, and the grandstands were full of folks waiting on their friends or family. 1/4 mile to go. Then, the 13 mile marker. I kept narrowing my vision as the finish line loomed closer and closer, and then finally, I pushed across the line. I was done!
Split mile 13 and 13.1: 8:10 and 0:45 (6:53 mile pace). Final time 1:49:36, overall pace 8:22. Blasted my Masters PR by 3 minutes or so, and about a 13 minute improvement over last year's Mini time. I was a little let down that I didn't get to 1:48, but I'll take a big PR any day. I felt like I executed my race plan well, and had a lot of mental strength over the last 4 miles of the race. My last 3.1 miles were easily my fastest stretch of the entire race. More stats later...
I sucked down some oxygen (regular natural version...I didn't need any medical help), and made my way through the thick crowds, past the chip removal stations. I got my medal, and moved towards the food. The food delivery was very organized, again. You were handed a grocery sack (plastic) early, plus some water, then you went by tables and got bananas, apples, cookies, potato chips, trail mix and finally a cup of Gatorade. I sipped on my water, then drank down the Gatorade, got my post-race picture made, and shuffled into the park and the gear trucks. I got my bag inside of 30 seconds, and found a nice rock to sit on for a moment. I mixed up my Endurox and drank that down while I changed into a dry shirt. That apple was pretty good, too. Replenished, I went over to the Indy Runners tent to meet up with the rest of the boys.
The crowds in the park were amazing, and everyone seemed to be happy to be done. Jeff had a good race, and Andy ran his fastest non-downhill half marathon ever (he refuses to accept his Motorola Half Marathon time as "record-worthy," so this was his second fastest ever). Jeff told me that Frank and Alex had both snagged PR's, and Alex had dipped into the 1:30:xx range. Good for them! I did some stretching, and chatted with the locals a bit. I checked in with Mary Anne and wished her Happy Mother's Day, and was relieved to find out that the flowers had arrived as planned. It was getting warmer and warmer by now, and I felt sorry for those folks who were still out there.
Alex and Frank headed back to the room to get cleaned up, and I went with Jeff and Andy to meet Coach Hathaway, Jeff's first running coach. He's a really energetic 72 year old, a lot like Gene Woodruff here in town. I left them and headed back myself, pleased with the way that I felt. I did a little jogging on the way back, a quarter mile or so, maybe a half mile, just to loosen up the legs. I snagged a couple of Dr. Peppers once I got to the hotel, for Alex and me. Frank had plenty of his preferred drinks available already. We stretched, which was probably a good idea.
The rest of the day, we did a little more walking over to Bazbeaux's again for post-race nourishment. Frank and Alex were jonesing for another pizza and a Hennepin, and I tagged along for a sub sandwich and a Newcastle. Jeff and Andy met up with us as we finished up our lunch, and we headed back to the hotel, almost back to normal. Frank packed up his stuff, and we took him to the airport so that he could get home for Emma's first Communion. It was too bad that he couldn't stay with us for the post-race partying, but he vowed that next year he'd be there for the entire weekend.
After we dropped Frank off, we drove up to Broad Ripple for early dinner. On the way, we stopped at a neat little park and did some gentle hiking through the nature preserve there. I had forgotten about this sidetrip initially. Thanks, Alex, for reminding me! :) After sampling a great cinnamon loaf at a bread company, I purchased one of those monster loaves to take home to the family. It was really good bread, but seriously dense. I was feeling full after the sample alone! Another short walking tour of the area nearly did Alex in (he was pretty funny about his legs "burning" from the walking), but we soon enough settled in at Union Jack's pub for pizza and beer. Alex and I had the fish and chips and a Black and Tan, and Jeff and Andy shared a couple of pizzas with some of Jeff's Indy friends. It was a nice relaxing time, as we wound down from the morning excitement. Gilbert called us back while we were there, and we gave him the short version of our racing day. He was pleased with our runs, I think.
We bid the Indy locals adieu, and then returned to the hotel for a brief rest. Alex decided he'd had enough by then, and settled in with Nascar and the NBA instead of a last beer stop with Mark. So, Andy, Jeff and I joined Mark across the street from Bazbeaux's at a Scottish pub for a couple of late night beers. By the end of that, at about 11:00, I was pretty well done for the night, pleasantly buzzed, but not severly impaired either. Mark took us back to the hotel, and a long day was done. I watched the last bit of the Mavericks game (they destroyed the Rockets), and then I was asleep pretty fast, too. What a day!
Stats: In a funny turn of events, the official website has my time as something like 1:46:30. That's not right, but I'm flattered. My actual finishing stats are as follows:
The first alarm went off at 5:00, and we finally rolled out at about 5:30. Accelerade, bananas, the usual pre-race nutrition... Then, the three of us went out for a warmup run at about 6:15, a nice easy 15 minutes or so along the finish of the course and then back to the hotel. We did our Gazelles drills (the "usual drills") in the parking lot, and then some minor stretching. I saw Andy and Jeff walking to the starting line and told them to have a good race, and then we went up to the room to put on our race gear (we were all sporting our Gazelles black singlets, of course!) and got our post-race stuff for the gear check trucks.
We strolled over to the huge pre-race scene, along with 30,000 new running friends. It was no problem at all dropping off my post-race bag, and after a last hydration adjustment (Frank laughs at this rather delicate description, by the way...), I took my pre-race GU and a last cup of water. Frank and Alex went way up to the "B" corral with the seeded runners, and I moseyed back to the "G" corral (they go back to "X," incidentally!). I was in the corral, sitting down and stretching, at 7:05. I had a long time to wait. Temperature was in the high 50's, but with the full sun, it felt a lot warmer than that. It would warm to about 65 degrees by the time I finished.
At about 7:15, I finally had to stand up, with the crowds starting to file into the corral in earnest. The usual annoying beachballs were being batted around, both really giant ones and normal sized ones. I kept trying to hit them back into the "H" corral or out into the crowd, but they kept coming back. Arrrgggghhh! We had "Back Home Again In Indiana," sung by a woman way up ahead, and then the national anthem. It was time. The wheelchairs went off precisely at 7:30, as scheduled, and we were allowed to surge forward as the ropes were removed between the corrals. I ended up standing at about corral "E" as the gun went off, perfectly at 7:33, as advertised. We walked, jogged, walked, stopped, and finally jogged to the start, and I crossed almost exactly 4 minutes after the gun. Time to get it on!!
My race plan was to run calmly in the first mile, and to settle into my pace after the course widened at one mile. It was crowded early, of course, but this year, I just stayed in my lane, and moved forward when an opening presented itself, trying not to do too much side to side running. In the first mile, there was a preacher with a mic, telling us how to live a more righteous life (I only got about 10 seconds of his sermon...sorry). After that, there was at least one more musical act, a guitarist with a drummer. The drummer was wearing a full Spiderman suit. At least that's what I think it was. We crossed a river, and passed in front of the Indianapolis Zoo. I reached the first mile in 8:54, slow, but plenty of time to pick it up from there. I turned that first corner, and up the very slight incline there, I passed a ton more people, as they were taken aback by the change in elevation. For me, it was time to enjoy the change. The second mile featured a couple of ladies singing religious pop against a backing track (they were actually pretty good), as well as a cool steel drum band and a guitarist who played against his own pre-recorded tracks. The last guy was doing Grand Funk Railroad's version of "Some Kinda Wonderful," and he wasn't bad. As we turned west again, there were a bunch of musical acts along the long straight there. I heard the Georgia Satellite's "Keep Your Hands To Yourself," then a keyboard guy (he had a big sign...something like "Fred Thompson, Musical Entertainer. Weddings, Parties...") who was doing some long jazz excursion on some tune that was lost in the riffing. My favorite deal was a little further down, where two acts occupied the very same parking lot. There was a young metal band, doing some typical thrashing tune, and right next to them was a group of bikers who were rocking out with "Born To Be Wild." And the points go to the bikers! Good job, boys!
I drank Gatorade about every 3 miles, and poured water on my head in between, but didn't slow too much at the water stops. There were 17 aid stations, I think ("Pit Areas," in the terminology of the race) spread over 13 miles, so there was no shortage of fluids available. I was running just like I wanted to by now, smoothly moving forward through the crowds of runners. As we turned north for a short stretch, there was a pretty good rapper doing some lyrics involving runners and "getting it done." That was followed by a band doing Stevie Wonder's "Sir Duke." At the four mile mark, we turned west again, and there were two bands there on opposite corners (we'd pass this spot again at about mile 10 on the way back, so the bands were ready for action going both ways). I was feeling strong and smooth, and I was clicking off the miles. 4 miles down, 9.1 to go.
Splits, miles 1-4: 8:54, 8:18, 8:18, 8:11. After that slow first mile, I had worked it back to 8:26 overall pace. I was totally okay with my progress, knowing that at that rate, I'd get my overall pace down even further before I was done.
The stretch from mile 4 to mile 6 included the lady cloggers, doing their thing to Bob Seger's "Old Time Rock and Roll." They're very serious about their art, and are pretty darned good at it. I also heard "TNT," the AC/DC song, "Born To Be Wild" again (not as good as that first band), a taped version of "You Shook Me All Night Long," lots of metal bands, and a pretty good version of "Rave On." Also a cool soul group doing "Ain't Too Proud To Beg." Entertaining, for sure. It's just unbelievable how many musical acts they get out for this race! First dose of Enervitene at about mile 5. Then, I rolled around the corner, and headed for the Speedway. Just outside the Speedway, I heard the bagpipers (they were standing right there about 3 feet away). I ducked down the short ramp under the grandstands, then powered up the equally short uphill ramp, and I was inside the Speedway for that part of the festivities. Time to do the Speedway Tour, on foot this time. The first of three groups of cheerleaders were right inside the Speedway at the water stop. After a short time on an internal road, we popped up onto the track itself.
Splits, Miles 5-6: 8:17, 8:24. Overall pace down to 8:24, right on plan, and improving.
Once on the track, the asphalt provided a lot more heat than we had up to that time. I was still motoring past folks, and by now, lots of people were stopping to walk or slowing considerably. The loudspeakers in the Speedway blared "Hot, Hot, Hot," then "Walk This Way," and then "You Shook Me All Night Long (again)." I crossed the strip of bricks at the track's Start/Finish line and continued on my merry way. My pacing was erratic on the track, apparently due to the slowing runners around me and the increased heat of the asphalt. I recovered after the slower mile 7, and then slowed back again on mile 9. As I exited the track, I saw the piles of runners just now entering the track, and I felt much better about my day. I just figured I'd be better once I got on regular roads. Even as I was going, I was still easily moving forward, through more and more runners. I turned at the Marathon Oil refinery, and headed to mile 10. Time to get going. Last year, I sort of gave up on the track, but this year, with a lot more experience and much better training, I was able to fight out of the Speedway funk.
Splits, Miles 7-9 (the Speedway): 8:36, 8:20, 8:36. Overall pace up to 8:26. Still on PR pace, and lots of time to whittle that down.
There was a shady stretch at the first half of mile 10, and that was welcome relief after the track. A guy with a 12-string guitar was doing Jimmy Buffett ("Margaritaville," of course), and then some metal bands. I crossed the median, and finally turned east into the bright sun for the home stretch drive. I took my last dose of Enervitene at the mile 10 water stop, doused my head with water again, and it was time to blast it! I was back on proper pacing now, and feeling much better. Another rapper was doing his thang in this stretch. I wasn't really sure how I was doing, overall, but I knew I was right around my 1:50 goal. I wasn't going to slow down now. Gilbert had told me to "GO!" at mile 10, and so I did. Mile 11 was straight into the sun, and apparently all the country and bluegrass bands were left for this stretch (same last year, too...). Another band did "TNT," this time with a girl singer (pretty good, though), and I heard a Doors tune ("Touch Me"). For the first time in a long time, someone passed me, 2 kids wearing their cross country camp singlets. They were probably 13 years old. I was doing all I could, so they went on by. We turned the corner, and were now going along the river towards the last bridge and the homestretch mile. I heard Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Susie Q" being pumped out by a live band, and that helped me, I think. The steel drum band was having fun, as well, and they took us to the bridge, so to speak. There were tons of folks just basically giving up by now, with lots of walkers all around. I was plowing through them, focused on the prize. I took a last cup of water on my head, and turned across the bridge. It was the last incline on the course, really. From there, it was a straight shot to the finish. Kick it!!
Splits, miles 10-12: 8:15, 8:09, 8:23. Overall pace now back down to 8:24.
I saw a guy on a stretcher on the bridge, but snapped out of that fast. Time to focus. One last rock band on the bridge doing Buddy Holly again. My body was screaming at me to slow down, but I ignored it. I saw the 3/4 mile to go sign, and kept looking for the 1/2 mile sign. It seemed like it took forever to get that 1/4 mile! I heard a woman singing Dixie Chicks songs ("There's Your Trouble") to a backing tape. Finally the 1/2 mile sign, the overhead walkway, and I focused ahead on the photographers' perch. The streets were lined with cheering spectators by now, and the grandstands were full of folks waiting on their friends or family. 1/4 mile to go. Then, the 13 mile marker. I kept narrowing my vision as the finish line loomed closer and closer, and then finally, I pushed across the line. I was done!
Split mile 13 and 13.1: 8:10 and 0:45 (6:53 mile pace). Final time 1:49:36, overall pace 8:22. Blasted my Masters PR by 3 minutes or so, and about a 13 minute improvement over last year's Mini time. I was a little let down that I didn't get to 1:48, but I'll take a big PR any day. I felt like I executed my race plan well, and had a lot of mental strength over the last 4 miles of the race. My last 3.1 miles were easily my fastest stretch of the entire race. More stats later...
I sucked down some oxygen (regular natural version...I didn't need any medical help), and made my way through the thick crowds, past the chip removal stations. I got my medal, and moved towards the food. The food delivery was very organized, again. You were handed a grocery sack (plastic) early, plus some water, then you went by tables and got bananas, apples, cookies, potato chips, trail mix and finally a cup of Gatorade. I sipped on my water, then drank down the Gatorade, got my post-race picture made, and shuffled into the park and the gear trucks. I got my bag inside of 30 seconds, and found a nice rock to sit on for a moment. I mixed up my Endurox and drank that down while I changed into a dry shirt. That apple was pretty good, too. Replenished, I went over to the Indy Runners tent to meet up with the rest of the boys.
The crowds in the park were amazing, and everyone seemed to be happy to be done. Jeff had a good race, and Andy ran his fastest non-downhill half marathon ever (he refuses to accept his Motorola Half Marathon time as "record-worthy," so this was his second fastest ever). Jeff told me that Frank and Alex had both snagged PR's, and Alex had dipped into the 1:30:xx range. Good for them! I did some stretching, and chatted with the locals a bit. I checked in with Mary Anne and wished her Happy Mother's Day, and was relieved to find out that the flowers had arrived as planned. It was getting warmer and warmer by now, and I felt sorry for those folks who were still out there.
Alex and Frank headed back to the room to get cleaned up, and I went with Jeff and Andy to meet Coach Hathaway, Jeff's first running coach. He's a really energetic 72 year old, a lot like Gene Woodruff here in town. I left them and headed back myself, pleased with the way that I felt. I did a little jogging on the way back, a quarter mile or so, maybe a half mile, just to loosen up the legs. I snagged a couple of Dr. Peppers once I got to the hotel, for Alex and me. Frank had plenty of his preferred drinks available already. We stretched, which was probably a good idea.
The rest of the day, we did a little more walking over to Bazbeaux's again for post-race nourishment. Frank and Alex were jonesing for another pizza and a Hennepin, and I tagged along for a sub sandwich and a Newcastle. Jeff and Andy met up with us as we finished up our lunch, and we headed back to the hotel, almost back to normal. Frank packed up his stuff, and we took him to the airport so that he could get home for Emma's first Communion. It was too bad that he couldn't stay with us for the post-race partying, but he vowed that next year he'd be there for the entire weekend.
After we dropped Frank off, we drove up to Broad Ripple for early dinner. On the way, we stopped at a neat little park and did some gentle hiking through the nature preserve there. I had forgotten about this sidetrip initially. Thanks, Alex, for reminding me! :) After sampling a great cinnamon loaf at a bread company, I purchased one of those monster loaves to take home to the family. It was really good bread, but seriously dense. I was feeling full after the sample alone! Another short walking tour of the area nearly did Alex in (he was pretty funny about his legs "burning" from the walking), but we soon enough settled in at Union Jack's pub for pizza and beer. Alex and I had the fish and chips and a Black and Tan, and Jeff and Andy shared a couple of pizzas with some of Jeff's Indy friends. It was a nice relaxing time, as we wound down from the morning excitement. Gilbert called us back while we were there, and we gave him the short version of our racing day. He was pleased with our runs, I think.
We bid the Indy locals adieu, and then returned to the hotel for a brief rest. Alex decided he'd had enough by then, and settled in with Nascar and the NBA instead of a last beer stop with Mark. So, Andy, Jeff and I joined Mark across the street from Bazbeaux's at a Scottish pub for a couple of late night beers. By the end of that, at about 11:00, I was pretty well done for the night, pleasantly buzzed, but not severly impaired either. Mark took us back to the hotel, and a long day was done. I watched the last bit of the Mavericks game (they destroyed the Rockets), and then I was asleep pretty fast, too. What a day!
Stats: In a funny turn of events, the official website has my time as something like 1:46:30. That's not right, but I'm flattered. My actual finishing stats are as follows:
- Overall: 3416/25029
- Male: 2820/12419
- Age Group (45-49): 340/1569
- Pace for first 7 miles: 8:25, pace for last 6.1 miles 8:17, a big negative split.
- First 5 miles 41:58 (8:24 pace), second 5 miles 42:11 (8:26), pretty consistent
- Last 5K was 25:27 (8:11 pace), my fastest stretch of the whole race.
Friday, May 06, 2005
Friday Reconnaissance Run and Carbo Loading [Posted Monday, 5/9]
We were up early, about 6:30, for our pre-race reconnaissance run. The five of us gathered outside, as all of the GPS watches (the Austin boys all had one...the Carolina boys eschew such running toys at this point) did their synch thing, and then we had a nice little run. We ran about the first mile and a half of the race course, then turned and ran the last mile or so, pointing out the markers for 3/4, 1/2, and 1/4 mile left to go. Especially useful was knowing just how far the finish line would be, and knowing the two spots where there were "false finish" lines (the photographers' perches over the course at about a quarter mile to go, and a pedestrian walkway at about a half mile to go). That's the main thing I want to know about any race: What does the last bit of the course look like? It makes a huge difference as you push hard down the last mile of a race if you know exactly the landmarks down that stretch. The run finished off with a nice little excursion down the canal towpath that winds through Indy. The weather was beautiful, maybe 55 degrees, with full sunshine. It felt warmer than that, though. We ended up doing about 3.3 miles at a comfortable 9:45 average pace. Frank, Alex and I did some striders in the parking lot, like good little Gazelles, and an abbreviated stretching session that we finished later in the room. I felt loose, and all systems said "Go."
After we got cleaned up, the traditional Einstein's bagel snack was next, and then we toured the giant Expo. Packet pickup was totally hassle-free. We picked up a few souvenirs and such at the Expo, and Frank and Alex even took the time to drive the racing simulator that was in the middle of everything. Jeff, of course, saw at least 5 people that he knew there. This wasn't a total surprise, since he is a former resident of Indy, and the running community was about like Austin's...we all sort of know the most active runners in town. The Elite Runners Coordinator was there (another friend of Jeff's), and she told me to tell Gilbert that she wanted him back up in Indy to run the race again. I promised to pass that message along to Coach.
A quick lunch was followed by a driving tour of the race course. As I remembered, it's really really flat. Just a few very minor bumps, but basically board flat. When we got to the Speedway, we went inside, on a whim, and took the van tour of the track. Our little bus held us and a bunch of Mennonite kids there on a trip. It was funny to try to imagine two more different groups of folks.
Once again, I was reminded that the Speedway is big. Really big. 2.5 miles of track, and we'd be inside the Speedway for longer than that. There would be three water stops inside before we exited on the east side. After the tour, we picked up a few souvenirs in the shop there, and then headed on out for the rest of the driving tour. In particular, we noted the 10 mile mark, where Gilbert had advised us to "GO!" for our finishing drive. A quick grocery visit allowed us to procure bananas, crackers, water, and other pre-race essentials. Again, it's all about food and hydration before the race.
We took some time after getting back to prepare our Accelerade and/or Endurox for the next day. We also laid out our gear for the race, and pinned our numbers on the singlets. It never hurts to prepare ahead of time. All my stuff was neatly laid out on one half of my bed.
As an aside, I was amused all weekend watching five different runners all trying to observe their own specific pre- or post-race rituals and timing. I could detect occasional times where one or more guys were having to adjust to another's patterns, and it was sort of a quiet contest of wills to see whose schedule would be followed the closest. I think I was the least structured guy in the bunch, willing to go along with pretty much any time schedule, but I might be wrong about that. :)
After that, we met up with Jeff's friend, Mark, and we had a nice pasta dinner. The waiter was just goofy, though, telling us that he just couldn't understand why anyone would want to run "13 and a half miles [sic]." We all drank water until we couldn't stand it, and ate a couple of helpings of the really good bread, along with our meals. While we waited in the parking lot to leave, we called Gilbert, and got our last words of wisdom from Coach. We were all pretty excited and keyed up by now, with the race less than 12 hours away. By the time we got back at about 9:00, it was time to shut it down. We had set my watch alarm, plus the alarm clock in the room, plus an emergency backup alarm on Alex's phone. Finally convinced that we'd get up in time, it was time for lights out at 10:00. I did a little more reading, but succumbed to sleep pretty quickly.
That proved to be illusory, however. Alex's phone rang at about 11:00, as his Mom called him to return the call that he had made about 3 hours earlier. Alex was so asleep that he thought it was time to get up already. We all crashed pretty quickly after that, though. Then, at 2:50, a loud ringing alarm went off in the room. I thought it was the alarm clock, and in my grogginess, started slapping the clock, trying to turn off the annoying alarm. Frank got up, and he and Alex started staring at Alex's phone, thinking it was Alex's alarm going off. Finally, Frank woke up enough to figure out that it was the fire alarm blaring away. While he went to the door to see what was up, Alex and I started figuring out what we needed to take with us if we had to evacuate (race gear first, of course! :)). The alarm turned off after a while, then popped back on, but it finally quit for good by 3:00. Convinced it was a false alarm, we crashed back into slumberland. It was sort of funny, if we had only been awake enough to appreciate our respective actions. Time to sleep really fast for 2 more hours!
We were up early, about 6:30, for our pre-race reconnaissance run. The five of us gathered outside, as all of the GPS watches (the Austin boys all had one...the Carolina boys eschew such running toys at this point) did their synch thing, and then we had a nice little run. We ran about the first mile and a half of the race course, then turned and ran the last mile or so, pointing out the markers for 3/4, 1/2, and 1/4 mile left to go. Especially useful was knowing just how far the finish line would be, and knowing the two spots where there were "false finish" lines (the photographers' perches over the course at about a quarter mile to go, and a pedestrian walkway at about a half mile to go). That's the main thing I want to know about any race: What does the last bit of the course look like? It makes a huge difference as you push hard down the last mile of a race if you know exactly the landmarks down that stretch. The run finished off with a nice little excursion down the canal towpath that winds through Indy. The weather was beautiful, maybe 55 degrees, with full sunshine. It felt warmer than that, though. We ended up doing about 3.3 miles at a comfortable 9:45 average pace. Frank, Alex and I did some striders in the parking lot, like good little Gazelles, and an abbreviated stretching session that we finished later in the room. I felt loose, and all systems said "Go."
After we got cleaned up, the traditional Einstein's bagel snack was next, and then we toured the giant Expo. Packet pickup was totally hassle-free. We picked up a few souvenirs and such at the Expo, and Frank and Alex even took the time to drive the racing simulator that was in the middle of everything. Jeff, of course, saw at least 5 people that he knew there. This wasn't a total surprise, since he is a former resident of Indy, and the running community was about like Austin's...we all sort of know the most active runners in town. The Elite Runners Coordinator was there (another friend of Jeff's), and she told me to tell Gilbert that she wanted him back up in Indy to run the race again. I promised to pass that message along to Coach.
A quick lunch was followed by a driving tour of the race course. As I remembered, it's really really flat. Just a few very minor bumps, but basically board flat. When we got to the Speedway, we went inside, on a whim, and took the van tour of the track. Our little bus held us and a bunch of Mennonite kids there on a trip. It was funny to try to imagine two more different groups of folks.
Once again, I was reminded that the Speedway is big. Really big. 2.5 miles of track, and we'd be inside the Speedway for longer than that. There would be three water stops inside before we exited on the east side. After the tour, we picked up a few souvenirs in the shop there, and then headed on out for the rest of the driving tour. In particular, we noted the 10 mile mark, where Gilbert had advised us to "GO!" for our finishing drive. A quick grocery visit allowed us to procure bananas, crackers, water, and other pre-race essentials. Again, it's all about food and hydration before the race.
We took some time after getting back to prepare our Accelerade and/or Endurox for the next day. We also laid out our gear for the race, and pinned our numbers on the singlets. It never hurts to prepare ahead of time. All my stuff was neatly laid out on one half of my bed.
As an aside, I was amused all weekend watching five different runners all trying to observe their own specific pre- or post-race rituals and timing. I could detect occasional times where one or more guys were having to adjust to another's patterns, and it was sort of a quiet contest of wills to see whose schedule would be followed the closest. I think I was the least structured guy in the bunch, willing to go along with pretty much any time schedule, but I might be wrong about that. :)
After that, we met up with Jeff's friend, Mark, and we had a nice pasta dinner. The waiter was just goofy, though, telling us that he just couldn't understand why anyone would want to run "13 and a half miles [sic]." We all drank water until we couldn't stand it, and ate a couple of helpings of the really good bread, along with our meals. While we waited in the parking lot to leave, we called Gilbert, and got our last words of wisdom from Coach. We were all pretty excited and keyed up by now, with the race less than 12 hours away. By the time we got back at about 9:00, it was time to shut it down. We had set my watch alarm, plus the alarm clock in the room, plus an emergency backup alarm on Alex's phone. Finally convinced that we'd get up in time, it was time for lights out at 10:00. I did a little more reading, but succumbed to sleep pretty quickly.
That proved to be illusory, however. Alex's phone rang at about 11:00, as his Mom called him to return the call that he had made about 3 hours earlier. Alex was so asleep that he thought it was time to get up already. We all crashed pretty quickly after that, though. Then, at 2:50, a loud ringing alarm went off in the room. I thought it was the alarm clock, and in my grogginess, started slapping the clock, trying to turn off the annoying alarm. Frank got up, and he and Alex started staring at Alex's phone, thinking it was Alex's alarm going off. Finally, Frank woke up enough to figure out that it was the fire alarm blaring away. While he went to the door to see what was up, Alex and I started figuring out what we needed to take with us if we had to evacuate (race gear first, of course! :)). The alarm turned off after a while, then popped back on, but it finally quit for good by 3:00. Convinced it was a false alarm, we crashed back into slumberland. It was sort of funny, if we had only been awake enough to appreciate our respective actions. Time to sleep really fast for 2 more hours!
Thursday, May 05, 2005
Thursday In Indianapolis [Posted 5/9/05]
I'm writing the posts for the weekend trip to Indy in sequence, but posting them all on Monday, now that I'm settled back in here in Austin. It makes for more chronological reading that way. As always, my Truth In Blogging standards require me to reveal when I play fast and loose with the posting time and date. :)
I took care of a few last errands on Thursday morning, finished packing, and headed out to the airport to meet up with Frank for our flights to Indy. I had no trouble at all with security or checking in, and we noshed on some sandwiches as we whiled away the time before our flight. It's fun to travel with someone, even someone you think you know pretty well, because in all that time, you still find out stuff that is interesting. Frank and I had fun talking about a whole kaleidoscope of subjects, including, of course, our training, our race plans, and race goals. The first flight was exceedingly short, long enough to reach cruising altitude and then immediately begin our descent. We had a short connection in Dallas, and the fun there was this guy who nearly freaked out trying to get out of the airport train at a second terminal. I swear he was going to climb up and over me, even though I was having to wait for a long line of people at the other end of the car to clear out so that I could move out of his way. Some people...
I knocked out the airline crossword puzzle (only one small marked-through correction in the whole thing) on the longer flight to Indy, while Frank got a quick nap and listened to his mp3 player. As we banked over Indy for our landing, we saw the Speedway, and I was able to point out much of the course for the Mini through the window. Once we got there, my Carolina friends, Jeff and Andy, were waiting at baggage claim as planned, standing there with Alex. We piled into the rental vehicle, and were off to downtown Indy. There was lots of talk about running, racing, and food (isn't that always the way around the time of a longer race?). Our hotel was right at the finish line, maybe one block away, which was really cool. Frank, Alex and I shared a room (young Alex got the rollaway bed, naturally).
We took a short walk to the finish area, and saw one of the directors painting markers on the street for the finish line. The massive logistical efforts required for a race containing 30,000 runners were evident, some 36 hours ahead of race time. Tables, tents, fencing, barriers...giant piles of stuff stacked around the park and finish area, just waiting to be set up. The grandstands were already up along the finishing stretch. We walked through Memorial Park, to show Alex and Frank our meeting place for after the race, saw the start line, and then wandered back uptown for pizza. We had a nice stroll through downtown to Bazbeaux's Pizza, and then proceded to annihilate several pizzas. My ham and pineapple pizza was wonderful. The other guys had shared tastes for 'za, and knocked out large double thick crust pizzas. Andy and Jeff shared a Hennepin beer, a big 750 ml bottle of beer, and Frank, Alex and I had a token one beer each to celebrate the weekend early. Full and happy, we enjoyed the cool night as we walked back to the hotel.
I did a little guitar playing with Jeff, as we worked on our limited repertoire of tunes, and we started planning our new songs for guitar camp later this summer. By the time I got back to the room, Alex and Frank were deeply asleep, so I quietly settled in and read for a while until I crashed about 11:00. A good first day.
I'm writing the posts for the weekend trip to Indy in sequence, but posting them all on Monday, now that I'm settled back in here in Austin. It makes for more chronological reading that way. As always, my Truth In Blogging standards require me to reveal when I play fast and loose with the posting time and date. :)
I took care of a few last errands on Thursday morning, finished packing, and headed out to the airport to meet up with Frank for our flights to Indy. I had no trouble at all with security or checking in, and we noshed on some sandwiches as we whiled away the time before our flight. It's fun to travel with someone, even someone you think you know pretty well, because in all that time, you still find out stuff that is interesting. Frank and I had fun talking about a whole kaleidoscope of subjects, including, of course, our training, our race plans, and race goals. The first flight was exceedingly short, long enough to reach cruising altitude and then immediately begin our descent. We had a short connection in Dallas, and the fun there was this guy who nearly freaked out trying to get out of the airport train at a second terminal. I swear he was going to climb up and over me, even though I was having to wait for a long line of people at the other end of the car to clear out so that I could move out of his way. Some people...
I knocked out the airline crossword puzzle (only one small marked-through correction in the whole thing) on the longer flight to Indy, while Frank got a quick nap and listened to his mp3 player. As we banked over Indy for our landing, we saw the Speedway, and I was able to point out much of the course for the Mini through the window. Once we got there, my Carolina friends, Jeff and Andy, were waiting at baggage claim as planned, standing there with Alex. We piled into the rental vehicle, and were off to downtown Indy. There was lots of talk about running, racing, and food (isn't that always the way around the time of a longer race?). Our hotel was right at the finish line, maybe one block away, which was really cool. Frank, Alex and I shared a room (young Alex got the rollaway bed, naturally).
We took a short walk to the finish area, and saw one of the directors painting markers on the street for the finish line. The massive logistical efforts required for a race containing 30,000 runners were evident, some 36 hours ahead of race time. Tables, tents, fencing, barriers...giant piles of stuff stacked around the park and finish area, just waiting to be set up. The grandstands were already up along the finishing stretch. We walked through Memorial Park, to show Alex and Frank our meeting place for after the race, saw the start line, and then wandered back uptown for pizza. We had a nice stroll through downtown to Bazbeaux's Pizza, and then proceded to annihilate several pizzas. My ham and pineapple pizza was wonderful. The other guys had shared tastes for 'za, and knocked out large double thick crust pizzas. Andy and Jeff shared a Hennepin beer, a big 750 ml bottle of beer, and Frank, Alex and I had a token one beer each to celebrate the weekend early. Full and happy, we enjoyed the cool night as we walked back to the hotel.
I did a little guitar playing with Jeff, as we worked on our limited repertoire of tunes, and we started planning our new songs for guitar camp later this summer. By the time I got back to the room, Alex and Frank were deeply asleep, so I quietly settled in and read for a while until I crashed about 11:00. A good first day.
Wednesday, May 04, 2005
Odds and Ends
I'm done with my pre-race preparations here in Austin, and now all that's left is to pack and get on the aircraft with Frank. I'm excited about the race, of course, but I'm also looking forward to meeting up with Jeff and Andy, my Carolina running friends, and introducing Alex and Frank to them again. We'll probably observe the Thursday pizza dinner ritual, then we'll have the easy Friday run (maybe we'll coax Jeff and Andy into stretching afterwards?) followed by the first bagels of the weekend. The expo after that, and then some low stress activity for the afternoon, including a possible driving tour of the race course. Friday night is pasta night, as surely as the sun rises each morning, then Race Day. It should be a lot of fun, and I'm hopeful that we might go 5 for 5 on PR's for the group. A full report will follow, of course, but that'll have to wait until Sunday.
I think you'll be able to track the race at www.500festival.com/marathon if you want to try that. The other four guys are all seeded runners, starting waaaaaayyyyyy up ahead of me. I'll be probably 5-10 minutes behind them getting to the start line. The race starts at 7:30 Indianapolis time, which I think is the same as 7:30 am Austin time on Saturday.
Indy race goals, you say?
Reasonable Goal - 1:50:00 (8:24 pace) - Masters PR (actual Masters PR is 1:52:55 - 8:36 pace)
Leapfrog Goal - 1:48:05 (8:15 pace) - faster still, and even faster than my current 20k PR. Would be my second fastest half marathon ever (see below)
Chart Goal - 1:46:30 (8:08 pace) - According to McMillan tables, this is my equivalent half marathon for my current 10k race PR
Dream Goal - 1:44:48 (8:00 pace) - Nice round pace number to shoot for...but I should note that my lifetime best at this distance, way back in 1993, was 1:44:04 (7:56 pace) at Atlanta. I weighed 151 pounds then, 12 years ago...but wouldn't it be cool to top that?
I'm going to go out and run as I feel, and try to trust the training to get me to the finish line. I'd love to have a negative split, and I certainly want my last couple of miles to be my fastest ones.
I'm done with my pre-race preparations here in Austin, and now all that's left is to pack and get on the aircraft with Frank. I'm excited about the race, of course, but I'm also looking forward to meeting up with Jeff and Andy, my Carolina running friends, and introducing Alex and Frank to them again. We'll probably observe the Thursday pizza dinner ritual, then we'll have the easy Friday run (maybe we'll coax Jeff and Andy into stretching afterwards?) followed by the first bagels of the weekend. The expo after that, and then some low stress activity for the afternoon, including a possible driving tour of the race course. Friday night is pasta night, as surely as the sun rises each morning, then Race Day. It should be a lot of fun, and I'm hopeful that we might go 5 for 5 on PR's for the group. A full report will follow, of course, but that'll have to wait until Sunday.
I think you'll be able to track the race at www.500festival.com/marathon if you want to try that. The other four guys are all seeded runners, starting waaaaaayyyyyy up ahead of me. I'll be probably 5-10 minutes behind them getting to the start line. The race starts at 7:30 Indianapolis time, which I think is the same as 7:30 am Austin time on Saturday.
Indy race goals, you say?
Reasonable Goal - 1:50:00 (8:24 pace) - Masters PR (actual Masters PR is 1:52:55 - 8:36 pace)
Leapfrog Goal - 1:48:05 (8:15 pace) - faster still, and even faster than my current 20k PR. Would be my second fastest half marathon ever (see below)
Chart Goal - 1:46:30 (8:08 pace) - According to McMillan tables, this is my equivalent half marathon for my current 10k race PR
Dream Goal - 1:44:48 (8:00 pace) - Nice round pace number to shoot for...but I should note that my lifetime best at this distance, way back in 1993, was 1:44:04 (7:56 pace) at Atlanta. I weighed 151 pounds then, 12 years ago...but wouldn't it be cool to top that?
I'm going to go out and run as I feel, and try to trust the training to get me to the finish line. I'd love to have a negative split, and I certainly want my last couple of miles to be my fastest ones.
Fartlek Tuneup Run
I met the 9:00 Gazelles so that I could do my fartlek run at Town Lake today. Before the run, I talked with Gilbert for a while about race strategy and my specific goals, and I left that conversation feeling more positive about my chances on Saturday. Gilbert told me to just run as I feel on Saturday, without being a slave to the watch, and to check out my progress every 5k (or 3 miles) instead of obsessing over every single mile split. I'll still take the mile splits, but I'll try to take a longer view of things on race day. He told me not to panic if I see that I ran a sub 8:00 mile during the race, as long as I am running smoothly. So, the question for Indy is how much I'll break my existing half marathon PR, not IF I'll break it. I'm glad we talked. With my fitness apparently coming to a peak right now, I really will be running blind a little bit at Indy, into the unknown, so I'll have to have my mental game ready more than anything else, I think.
Anyway, the fartleks went great. It was strange running without my usual posse, and stranger still to do them alone, but it went well. I ran easy on the I-35 loop until I finished up the I-35 bridge, and then started the 10 x 1:00 fartleks. I averaged 8:11 pace during the 2.35 miles of fartleks, and 8:32 pace for the entire 5.2 miles of running, including cooldown and warmup (I cut across at the Pfluger bridge and then took an extra loop around Auditorium Shores for my route). It was really humid today, but not too bad temperature-wise. I did some moderate stretching afterwards, and then went into RunTex to spend the rest of a gift certificate that I had, purchasing some running glasses. I've gotten tired of buying cheap sunglasses for running and replacing them every year.
Now, it's time to finish up my long list of pre-race stuff around the house, including a little cross-training with mowing the yard this afternoon. :)
I met the 9:00 Gazelles so that I could do my fartlek run at Town Lake today. Before the run, I talked with Gilbert for a while about race strategy and my specific goals, and I left that conversation feeling more positive about my chances on Saturday. Gilbert told me to just run as I feel on Saturday, without being a slave to the watch, and to check out my progress every 5k (or 3 miles) instead of obsessing over every single mile split. I'll still take the mile splits, but I'll try to take a longer view of things on race day. He told me not to panic if I see that I ran a sub 8:00 mile during the race, as long as I am running smoothly. So, the question for Indy is how much I'll break my existing half marathon PR, not IF I'll break it. I'm glad we talked. With my fitness apparently coming to a peak right now, I really will be running blind a little bit at Indy, into the unknown, so I'll have to have my mental game ready more than anything else, I think.
Anyway, the fartleks went great. It was strange running without my usual posse, and stranger still to do them alone, but it went well. I ran easy on the I-35 loop until I finished up the I-35 bridge, and then started the 10 x 1:00 fartleks. I averaged 8:11 pace during the 2.35 miles of fartleks, and 8:32 pace for the entire 5.2 miles of running, including cooldown and warmup (I cut across at the Pfluger bridge and then took an extra loop around Auditorium Shores for my route). It was really humid today, but not too bad temperature-wise. I did some moderate stretching afterwards, and then went into RunTex to spend the rest of a gift certificate that I had, purchasing some running glasses. I've gotten tired of buying cheap sunglasses for running and replacing them every year.
Now, it's time to finish up my long list of pre-race stuff around the house, including a little cross-training with mowing the yard this afternoon. :)
Tuesday, May 03, 2005
Easier Gym Work
Today, I just went to the gym for some somewhat relaxed workout. I did a really easy 30 minutes on the cycle, as usual, to get the blood flowing. Then, I did the full ab/core routine, the full arms/upper body routine, but no leg work. It was a more efficient workout, and I was out of there just under 1 1/2 hours, including the cycle. It felt good to get the body working.
Afterwards, I made it over to Ron for a tuneup massage. He found a couple of knots in my left hamstring, which he worked out by apparently reaching in there through my skin and grabbing the hamstring muscle...or at least that's what it felt like, a little. :) I felt a lot better after he got finished. Just one easy fartlek tuneup run tomorrow, and I'm basically ready for the race on Saturday.
I've been making my list of things to do before I leave, including a list of stuff to pack. I'm just that way. It's going to be very exciting this weekend to challenge myself at the half marathon, and I hope to be able to really push myself mentally and physically at Indy.
Today, I just went to the gym for some somewhat relaxed workout. I did a really easy 30 minutes on the cycle, as usual, to get the blood flowing. Then, I did the full ab/core routine, the full arms/upper body routine, but no leg work. It was a more efficient workout, and I was out of there just under 1 1/2 hours, including the cycle. It felt good to get the body working.
Afterwards, I made it over to Ron for a tuneup massage. He found a couple of knots in my left hamstring, which he worked out by apparently reaching in there through my skin and grabbing the hamstring muscle...or at least that's what it felt like, a little. :) I felt a lot better after he got finished. Just one easy fartlek tuneup run tomorrow, and I'm basically ready for the race on Saturday.
I've been making my list of things to do before I leave, including a list of stuff to pack. I'm just that way. It's going to be very exciting this weekend to challenge myself at the half marathon, and I hope to be able to really push myself mentally and physically at Indy.
Monday, May 02, 2005
Running With A Different Herd...
This morning, I got to run with the 9:00 M/W group of Gazelles. The morning was glorious, once again, nice temps around mid-60's, sunny and clear. There were only 6 of us, and we headed over to Zilker Park for our 1000m repeats. I ran over with Greta, and we had a nice chat as we cruised over to the soccer fields. After some stalling around, we did the drills, and then gathered with Coach up at the top of the 1000m course. This is the easiest of the "road" courses for intervals that we do with the Gazelles, with a gentle downhill start and then flat from about a tenth of a mile onward. Gilbert assigned between 3 and 5 repeats for everyone at 10k sort of pace, but only 3 for me, at something like half marathon race pace. I figured 5:00 per repeat would be about right, 8:00 mile pace. The trick would be to find that pace.
Without other familiar peeps to help pace, I took off for my first repeat. I think I got caught up in watching the group ahead of me, and crossed the finish line in 4:27 (7:10 mile pace). I was a little miffed about that, but Gilbert told me that I looked smooth running, and not to worry about it. I jogged across the grass, and then knocked out the second and third intervals. Times on those were 4:39 and 4:34, better pacing, but still quick at 7:30 and 7:21 mile pace. I felt fine on these, but I was still a little put out with my internal pacing clock for not getting me to a nice even 8:00 pace.
After a few minutes of chatting with Gilbert, I headed back to RunTex by myself, since I had to get to McCallum High School to teach my guitar class. I ran too fast going back, doing 1.7 miles at about 9:00 pace. Oh, well. I felt fine, it was just a little fast for a true cooldown effort.
I had just enough time at RunTex to do a quick stretching session and then the full post-run exercise regimen. 4x30 crunches/leg extensions, 2x20 "Jan" crunches, 2x20 "Canoe" crunches, 2x25 back raises, and 2x15 pushups. I was breathing pretty hard doing all those crunches, but it felt good to get them done.
It was a good day at the running office. I only have a couple of runs left before Indy, including a fartlek tuneup run on Wednesday and a true easy 3-4 miler on Friday before the race. I'll be ready for action on Saturday, that's for sure! The rest of the week is all about rest and recovery. Totals for today were 5.8 miles, with the 3000m of intervals at an average pace of 7:20/mile.
This morning, I got to run with the 9:00 M/W group of Gazelles. The morning was glorious, once again, nice temps around mid-60's, sunny and clear. There were only 6 of us, and we headed over to Zilker Park for our 1000m repeats. I ran over with Greta, and we had a nice chat as we cruised over to the soccer fields. After some stalling around, we did the drills, and then gathered with Coach up at the top of the 1000m course. This is the easiest of the "road" courses for intervals that we do with the Gazelles, with a gentle downhill start and then flat from about a tenth of a mile onward. Gilbert assigned between 3 and 5 repeats for everyone at 10k sort of pace, but only 3 for me, at something like half marathon race pace. I figured 5:00 per repeat would be about right, 8:00 mile pace. The trick would be to find that pace.
Without other familiar peeps to help pace, I took off for my first repeat. I think I got caught up in watching the group ahead of me, and crossed the finish line in 4:27 (7:10 mile pace). I was a little miffed about that, but Gilbert told me that I looked smooth running, and not to worry about it. I jogged across the grass, and then knocked out the second and third intervals. Times on those were 4:39 and 4:34, better pacing, but still quick at 7:30 and 7:21 mile pace. I felt fine on these, but I was still a little put out with my internal pacing clock for not getting me to a nice even 8:00 pace.
After a few minutes of chatting with Gilbert, I headed back to RunTex by myself, since I had to get to McCallum High School to teach my guitar class. I ran too fast going back, doing 1.7 miles at about 9:00 pace. Oh, well. I felt fine, it was just a little fast for a true cooldown effort.
I had just enough time at RunTex to do a quick stretching session and then the full post-run exercise regimen. 4x30 crunches/leg extensions, 2x20 "Jan" crunches, 2x20 "Canoe" crunches, 2x25 back raises, and 2x15 pushups. I was breathing pretty hard doing all those crunches, but it felt good to get them done.
It was a good day at the running office. I only have a couple of runs left before Indy, including a fartlek tuneup run on Wednesday and a true easy 3-4 miler on Friday before the race. I'll be ready for action on Saturday, that's for sure! The rest of the week is all about rest and recovery. Totals for today were 5.8 miles, with the 3000m of intervals at an average pace of 7:20/mile.
Sunday, May 01, 2005
Weekly Stats and Stuff:
For the week, April 25-May 1, I got 30 miles of running, two good gym workouts, and a nice rest day. Last long run before Indy was a solid 10 miler, two really strong speedwork sessions, the second one a little more restrained than the first, and a recovery run after the Bun Run.
For the month of April, I got 126 miles of running, and a bunch of gym work as well. I snagged a big PR at 5K, which was really great. I was pretty good about the post-run exercises, and I did well getting to the gym. I give myself a B+ for the month, since I did have a spotty week the week leading up to the Bun Run.
I feel really good, really strong, and I can't wait for Saturday's race to test my newfound confidence. It'll be fun to be on a running roadtrip with Alex and Frank, along with my North Carolina friends Jeff and Andy. That's a lot of guys hungry for pasta, pizza and beer!
This week is mostly tuneup stuff. The fastest I'll go is half marathon race pace, whatever that is, and only for 1000m at a time. Even my gym sessions will be moderate, to allow my body to store up energy and to fully recover for the half marathon this weekend.
Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy
Since I'm a geek and nerd of longstanding stature, I'm naturally a huge fan of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy "trilogy" of books, and it was with some trepidation that I went to see the movie adaptation of the first book on Saturday. The verdict? Well, part of the charm of that wacky sci-fi series is the goofiness and disconnectedness of the writing. To streamline it into a movie for both hardcore fans and for newbies took some of that away from the screen. It looked great, though, and there were enough zany bits that I left the movie feeling entertained. It wasn't a home run, but it wasn't a disappointment, either. The Vogons were expertly realized, and I think the movie's cast was well-chosen. Special effects were top-notch. I hope they get the chance to make the second movie!
For the week, April 25-May 1, I got 30 miles of running, two good gym workouts, and a nice rest day. Last long run before Indy was a solid 10 miler, two really strong speedwork sessions, the second one a little more restrained than the first, and a recovery run after the Bun Run.
For the month of April, I got 126 miles of running, and a bunch of gym work as well. I snagged a big PR at 5K, which was really great. I was pretty good about the post-run exercises, and I did well getting to the gym. I give myself a B+ for the month, since I did have a spotty week the week leading up to the Bun Run.
I feel really good, really strong, and I can't wait for Saturday's race to test my newfound confidence. It'll be fun to be on a running roadtrip with Alex and Frank, along with my North Carolina friends Jeff and Andy. That's a lot of guys hungry for pasta, pizza and beer!
This week is mostly tuneup stuff. The fastest I'll go is half marathon race pace, whatever that is, and only for 1000m at a time. Even my gym sessions will be moderate, to allow my body to store up energy and to fully recover for the half marathon this weekend.
Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy
Since I'm a geek and nerd of longstanding stature, I'm naturally a huge fan of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy "trilogy" of books, and it was with some trepidation that I went to see the movie adaptation of the first book on Saturday. The verdict? Well, part of the charm of that wacky sci-fi series is the goofiness and disconnectedness of the writing. To streamline it into a movie for both hardcore fans and for newbies took some of that away from the screen. It looked great, though, and there were enough zany bits that I left the movie feeling entertained. It wasn't a home run, but it wasn't a disappointment, either. The Vogons were expertly realized, and I think the movie's cast was well-chosen. Special effects were top-notch. I hope they get the chance to make the second movie!
Sunday At The Gym
Today, I spent a fair amount of this afternoon in the gym, doing the full extended version of the workout routine. It took a while, a little over 2 hours, but it sure felt good to get all that work in. 30 minutes on the cycle to warm up, watching the NBA playoffs on one of the screens in front of me. The gym was fairly empty, since it was such a pretty day outside. No doubt, Alex is out on his bike on some sort of long mountainous "recovery" bike ride.
It was a good long workout, and I was glad to have done it. That full battery of ab/core stuff takes a while to do, but it's worth it. At any rate, it was probably the last long gym workout before Indy. I'll go on Tuesday, but it will be a slightly abridged visit, leaving out some leg stuff to help recovery for Saturday's race. Tomorrow, I get to join the 9:00 Gazelles for my easy 1000m repeats at half marathon pace, just 3 of them.
Today, I spent a fair amount of this afternoon in the gym, doing the full extended version of the workout routine. It took a while, a little over 2 hours, but it sure felt good to get all that work in. 30 minutes on the cycle to warm up, watching the NBA playoffs on one of the screens in front of me. The gym was fairly empty, since it was such a pretty day outside. No doubt, Alex is out on his bike on some sort of long mountainous "recovery" bike ride.
It was a good long workout, and I was glad to have done it. That full battery of ab/core stuff takes a while to do, but it's worth it. At any rate, it was probably the last long gym workout before Indy. I'll go on Tuesday, but it will be a slightly abridged visit, leaving out some leg stuff to help recovery for Saturday's race. Tomorrow, I get to join the 9:00 Gazelles for my easy 1000m repeats at half marathon pace, just 3 of them.
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