This Blog Has Moved

fairweatherben.wordpress.com

A Warning

Tuesday's workout: Speedwork at the Union High School Track

1 mile warm up, 8x800, 1 mile cool down. 8 miles total with recoveries.

Early on in the summer, my running partner and I decided that we wanted to start doing some speed work. The closest track to us was the Union Senior High School track so I did my due diligence and called the athletic department to make sure that it was open to the public. The nice lady in the athletic office confirmed that, indeed, it was. So we made our way out there one Tuesday in late May, and it's pretty much been a Tuesday ritual all summer long.

Well, summer is winding to a close (though the mercury disagrees), and with the end of summer comes football practice. I thought this might be an issue down the line, but I figured we would deal with it when the time came. Oh, boy, did we deal with it. We were only about a quarter of the way through our work out when the football players (junior high kids, mind you) began to amble there way across the lanes of the track to the infield. And when I say "amble" I do mean slowly. No regard for the two runners that are in lanes one and two 100 meters away...50 meters away...10 meters away...GET OUT OF THE WAY! But no, we didn't yell, we politely moved around them and kept going 'round.

And it wasn't just one team. No, no, no. It was three junior high teams; each with at least 25 players on the squad. I'm not too sure how many players a junior high roster carries these days. But the players were the least of our problems.

With junior high athletes come parents. And evidently with parents come the younger siblings. Lots and lots of younger siblings. Younger siblings who have nothing better to do than hang around on the track that surrounds big brother's football practice. Hey, and since your kid's going to be hanging around the track, why not bring his bicycle? That'll keep him busy and out of your hair. As long as he's out of your hair, what does it matter? You need a break from being a parent. I understand. Don't pay any attention to him whizzing in and out of each lane with no regard for the actual adults on the track who are using it for its express purpose. What's that you say, random inconsiderate parent? You're going to allow your ten year old son to drive a motoscooter around the track? Sure! Do it! I have no regard for my safety either. A moto-freaking scooter! Before I saw the scooter, I heard it, and I said, "Is there something motorized on this track right now coming up behind us? Why yes! Yes there is! It's a 10 year old riding a moto-scooter where normal people run."

But it wasn't all moving parts on the track. No, there had to be something else. The parents had to find as many ways as they could to not care about anything but themselves and their snotty little children. After a while, there was a child in lane 5. Laying there. Playing with his Nintendo DS. Sprawled out. Not a care in the world. Why should he have? He wasn't going to get stepped on. He knew that the only people in that facility who were inconsiderate enough to step on a child were his parents. And, clearly, they were nowhere near him. Play on, little child. Play on.

But don't get the wrong picture. It wasn't just the bicycles, the Nintendo, and the motor scooter. There were also children without any apparatuses to speak of. One little boy wandered crying because his mom wouldn't let him ride the other boy's motor scooter. Others stood in the lanes nonchalantly, as though they were challenging us to run over them. And, what did I hear from the parents? Amidst all of the anarchy (and it was anarchy), did I once hear any of the parents tell there children to be considerate of the runners? Nope. Did they ever attempt to rein it in just a bit? Nah. Apologize even a little for us having to weave in and out of their football funhouse? Nuh-uh. Bear in mind, that I did check with the athletic department, and we have every right to be on this field as well.

Kids are going to be kids. I can't blame them for wanting to let loose on that track. But, parents. Geez. And I'm not saying that all parents are that way, but, unfortunately, that was a pretty good sample size of people. So a word to parents. And if you weren't at the track on Tuesday, substitute the word "world" for "track" in the following statement. There were more people on that track on Tuesday than you and your kid. I know that you put your child before anyone else and all that nonsense, but I definitely do not exist for your child or to make sure that it's happy. I would like to go about my business and never know that it's there. And, honestly, that's my right as a non-parent. You had every right to be a parent and that's awesome. You exercised that right. I'm glad this isn't China. But with that right comes the responsibility to make sure it STAYS OUT OF MY WAY!!! I'm not the one who has to deal with it. You are.

Disclaimer: the statement above was theoretically directed toward complete strangers. Not friends and family with children. Your kids are angels.

Anyway, so I guess we finished the workout, and I suppose it was pretty good. 8x800 is no walk in the park. But it wasn't made any easier by those around us. Needless to say, we are going to make different arrangements for speedwork during football season. The little terrorists have won.

Week in Review

Not a lot of time to write this morning, so here is this past week's events in brief:

Monday - Early morning run.  7 miles - 1 hour flat.  No encounters with dogs but I'm now running with a canister of mace and will be all too happy to give a dog a face full of it with extreme prejudice if provoked. 

Tuesday - 6 mile speed workout.  1 mile warm-up, 4x1200 meters, 1 mile cool down.  It was 101 degrees.  Pretty brutal, but I actually enjoyed the longer splits.  Prefer the 1200m to the 400m. The workout seemed to go much faster.

Wednesday - 6 mile at 8:40 pace.  All I can say about this one is that I'm glad that I was able to get it in.  I went after work, and it was HOT.  Just glad to have made it all the way.

Thursday - 6 miles indoors on a treadmill.  This was a last minute decision .  I went around 8:45 that evening, because I just wasn't feeling an early morning on Friday.  Without getting into much detail, I had a gastro-intestinal emergency whilst running on the treadmill. Luckily I was inside so I was able to make it to a bathroom with relative ease.  If I had only waited until Friday morning that wouldn't have happened.

Friday - OFF

Saturday - 12 miles at 8:35 pace.  SO glad that I went out early this morning.  Let me tell you it is no fun getting up at 5:30 in the morning on Saturday, but once I finished my run around 8:15 (I started at 6:30) it was already starting to get hot.  The run itself was pretty uneventful.  Lots of people out early this morning.  Everyone was anticipating the insulting heat awaiting us later today.  In truth, at 6:30 it was already 83.

So there's the week that was.  I now leave you with this because in about three to four weeks this is going to become a running/college football blog.  It's going to be a great season for all three of Oklahoma's teams.  

In any other context I would hate this song and think it was ridiculous (especially Cowboy Troy.  What a 'tard), but darn it I can't help myself during football season:

 

Never Not Glad

Funny thing, this running.  There are days when I just don't want to do it.  I don't have any energy, or I'd like to sleep a little longer, or I'm hungry, or I'm feeling a little queazy.  Somehow, though, I make myself get out there and once I'm done I'm glad that I went.

Today was one of those days.  I had a long, but fun weekend catching up with high school friends at the Wright Christian Academy reunion (Cori if you comment on this post I promise to respond).  By the time Sunday night came around I really did not want to get up at 4:45 Monday morning.  Luckily the temperature for Monday was forecasted to be 90 for the high.   So it was settled.  I was running Monday evening.  Well, I was still groggy when I got up this morning.  It was all I could do to keep my eyes open at my desk.  Mondays are weights day at lunch when my running partner and I go to the crumby little fitness center in our office building and do some light weights.  Additionally, we do three sets of lunges which always makes my legs feel heavy.  As the afternoon wore on, the sun really never saw its way out into the overcast sky.  I checked weather.com, and, sure enough, it was predicting thunderstorms for after work.  Darn.  Maybe I won't be able to run.

I bobbed my head a little in a joyful fashion at the notion of maybe not having to run today.  Suddenly...  

Angel over my right shoulder: No, but that would be bad!  You took yesterday off!

Demon over my left should: It would be nice though to go straight home and lay on the couch.

Angel:  It's really not even raining that bad.

Demon: Don't you remember the last time you ran in the rain?  It ended up being one of the worst storms of the summer.

Angel: It's four o'clock you seem to be perking up a bit.

Demon: Almost time for dinner.

Angel: Let's go run.

Me: Yes, let's.

I got up from my desk feeling uninspired, yet determined.  Once I set out on the trail it was still raining a bit.  But it was the perfect kind of running rain: keeping the air cool but not heavy in the least.  The first mile felt like I was shuffling.  I didn't feel like I was able to pick my feet up very far off the ground, but, as it turns out, I was a hair under 8 minutes.  As I kept running my legs became looser and looser.  It turned out to be one of my top 5 runs of the summer.  I ran the third mile in 8:26.  From there on out I ran negative splits ending up with a 7:17 mile for my seventh and final!

Predictably, I was glad that I had gone for my run.  I didn't get struck by lightning.  I didn't fall or get chased by a dog.  I just went out and had a near perfect summer run.

What a morning!

Alright, well, slightly gay that I posted a clip from Oklahoma!, but this morning was one of the best morning's I've had for a run in a while.  And--a little secret--when I run in the morning and the weather is nice, this song is on constant repeat in my head.  And it's very specifically Hugh Jackman singing it.  I just like the way he says "meada" instead of meadow.  I'm fairly certain that's how Oscar Hammerstein wrote the lyric anyway, but I digress.

It's days like this that remind me of why I love to run.  Unfortunately, I haven't gotten that reminder a whole lot this summer.  But this morning -- 70 degrees, blue skies, a slight breeze -- you can't ask for better conditions.  Not surprisingly, this was the best run I've had in a long time.  I went twelve miles (no breaks. Yay!) at an 8:18 pace.  Clearly, the weather makes all the difference in the world.  I already knew that, but, you know, actually seeing it gives you a little more confidence.  I thought that I had taken several steps backward since the weather turned.  I'm still not quite where I'd like to be, but once fall comes back in twelve years I should be able to get back on track.  

Previous to the last couple of days (Friday morning was also fantastic), it was HOT this week.  My mileage suffered.  Tuesday's track was brutal, brutal, brutal.  We ended up only doing 8x400 because not only was it 102, but there was a 17 mph wind coming out of the south gusting at 25.  It was miserable.  Trying to run at all in wind like that sucks, but trying to run fast?  Please.  It was too much.  Plus I was having some pretty harsh heel pain that day.  It wasn't so bad during the run, but I was kind of afraid I had plantar fasciitis.  It's abated since, but I'm going to keep an eye on it.  Then Wednesday, I tried to go six miles but it was even hotter.  I turned around after I had run out 2.35 so I only totaled 4.7 mi.  That's fine, but I haven't gone out and run for less than 5 miles in ages.  I might has well have stayed home.  I took Thursday off, and Friday  (after the weather had turned) I ran 7 mi in the morning.  Like I said, it was great.  If today's weather was a 10 yesterday was an 8.  I finished up with an 8:28 average pace.

So despite a rough beginning I was able to end the week on a good note.  It would be great if this weather would stick around for a while, but, then, there's still August.  Boo.

Musings on an Early Morning Run

Welcome back to my woefully neglected blog.

Well, I got my wish.  It certainly got warmer.  In what seemed like a one-week period it went from a sort of would-be-warm-if-it-weren't-for-the-wind-coming-out-of-the-north climate to a it's-so-hot-that-this-light-breeze-doesn't-even-feel-good climate.  It's been a miserable summer so far here in Tulsa.  It got hot early and stayed hot.  So what do I do now?  I mean besides lose 30 to 45 seconds a mile because of the arm-pittish humidity?  I get up at 4:45 in the morning to run these days.  Yes, you heard your robot read that off of your computer screen correctly.   4:45.  It's the only way that I can get the miles in!  

I know that I'm not the only runner to get up early to run, but what an adjustment.  Now, granted I don't do it for every run because sometimes it's not feasible.  I've still been doing my speed workouts with my running partner on Tuesdays after work, which is murder.  But for the six milers throughout the week...if I can get 'em done in the morning that's when it happens.   

When I get up in the morning I don't exactly have time to drive out to a trail so I've carved out a path in the neighborhood across the street from my apartment.  It's just easier to run right out the door.  The neighborhood just so happens to be the neighborhood that I grew up in.  It's fun because I pass all sorts of places that I used spend time.  Houses where childhood friends used to live; the man-made creek that we used to play in and hunt for crawdads.  That's also the creek that my friend Steve accidentally stabbed his little sister in the eye with a pocket knife.  True story.  What's really beginning to irritate me about the neighborhood, though, is all the freaking dogs that are just running around free.  For a while there were these two little yappy dogs that I can only assume kept getting out of their back yard and would camp out in front of the house.  For several mornings in a row, I would pass that house and they would chase me for about 10 yards.  I wasn't afraid of them.  It's just that their little annoying barks were a little much at 5:15 in the morning.  This morning, however, was a different story all together.  I had already gotten turned around once (it's dark and I lack depth perception without my glasses), but I had gotten back on track.  I was running on a straight-away that I would say is about a half mile.  Out of nowhere I hear a not so friendly big dog bark.  Sure enough, he was free and he began to chase.  I swore.  Sorry.  But it happened.  I had no idea what I was going to do if this dog caught up to me.  I had a feeling it was a kill or be killed situation.  I heard his nails grind against the asphalt behind me as he pursued.  Luckily, I guess he was just trying to scare me away from his house.  Good tactic because it worked.  I got away from him, but there was no way that I was going to go back that way, so I had to take a different route back.  I weaved my way back but every time I thought I had reached the outlet to my regular route, I had to take a turn in the wrong direction.  By the time I got back on track I was pretty spent.  But I still had about a mile and quarter to get back.  Oh, and during this whole adventure, I somehow--earlier in the run--forgot to start my watch again after I had stopped to tie my shoe.  Grrrr.  My watch only gave me credit for 5.35 miles when I'm fairly certain I went at least 7.  Ah, well.  

The good news that's come out of the heat wave, is that somehow I've managed to keep about a 35-mile a week average.  I just hope that once the weather cools down, I'm able to get my speed back.  These nine-minute miles just aren't working for me.  I ran twelve on Saturday morning and managed an 8:40 pace, so I guess it's not all bad.  But I was so much faster when the weather was cooler.  

That's what I get for complaining.  

Interesting Week

Maybe I should have given myself a little more time to recover from the half marathon, but the past week started off a little shaky.  I did take Sunday off, but then went out for six on Monday and finished averaging an 8:05 pace.  Not ideal for a six miler, but as my running partner said, "You don't want to go out too hard so soon after a long race".  Fair enough.  Tuesday we hit a high school track for some speed work.  We had been planning on doing this for a while.  We decided to start small to give us time to get used to running fast in the heat, so we did a 1600m warmup then ran 8x400.  I guess that was a wise decision because we felt like we would not have been able to do any more than that.  We pretty consistently ran 1:37 intervals.  The problem that we both had with this was that as tired as we were, we weren't happy with the lack of distance.  All said with warmup, intervals, recovery jogs, and cool down we ran, aggregate, no more than 4.5 miles.  We're planning on keeping it up for a while, but I'm dubious as to the benefits.  Wednesday I went out on my own and ran eight.  Fortunately, I finished with a sub 8 minute pace, but only just.  And I had to haul for the last mile to get that.  Thursday, I gave my legs a much needed rest.  They were feeling heavy.  I had Friday off from work so I went out that morning planning on not running any more than six because I knew that I was going to run somewhat long on Saturday.  It was a leisurely 8:04 pace, and I wish that I could say that it was so on purpose.  But that's all right.  So Saturday morning I went ten and ran it at an 8:10 pace.  So, clearly, last week was just about grinding.  I ended the week with 34 miles which isn't terrible.  But hopefully with the half marathon now over a week behind me, my legs will start to feel a little fresher.  

I took yesterday off after the ten miler.  As I thumbed through the Sunday Best Buy ad (a generally fruitless weekly ritual), I saw that they had the Garmin 405 on sale for $250.  Long story short, I got it.  I've wanted one for a while, and $50 off of the normal hefty $300 tag was enough for me to suck it up and drop the money.  I went on my first run with it this afternoon, and, in short, it's awesome.  It's so nice to have my distance and pace right there with me every step of the way.  And the Garmin Connect website that I can now upload my runs to is fantastic.  So much fun.  I can't wait until I've logged several miles using it.

As for the run itself, I don't know if I was trying to impress my new watch or what, but I ran a relatively fast seven miles.  According to my nifty new toy, my pace was 7:45 and my best pace was 6:09.  I must have been running down a short hill when I hit that pace.  One thing that I didn't do was set the watch to record each mile as a lap.  I know there's a way to do that because my running partner does that with hers.  I'll figure it out, though.  Shouldn't be too difficult.  But, good, right?  This week has started off on a much better note than last.  Probably going to the track again tomorrow.  Maybe we'll be a little faster a week later.  Who knows?

So this past week has been interesting to be sure.  I'm looking to push my mileage to somewhere between 35-40.  Shouldn't be too hard.  I'm already 1 mile ahead of where I was last week.