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.

Aquarium Run 1/2 Marathon 2009

So, I guess about a month ago, a co-worker asked me if I was going to run the Aquarium Run 5k.  For those of you unfamiliar, the Tulsa Aquarium is newish facility in Jenks.  I've never been, but my feeling is ,due to excessive ticket prices, their is little need for a 5k fundraiser.  At any rate, I said no, probably not, but I'd think about it.  She gave me a flyer, I think, because she thought the prospect of free admission to the Aquarium would grease the wheels a bit in getting me to run the race.  It was not the free admission.  I didn't care.  No, as a matter of fact, it was the 1/2 marathon option that she hadn't mentioned to me.  Now I was intrigued.  A couple of days later: "I think I'm going to do the half marathon."

In the two weeks leading up to the race my running has been spotty.  I ran the 5k last week so ran accordingly, so I thought.  Who knows.  I know very little about proper training methods.  Anyhow, the week ending with the 5k, I only ran 21 miles.  Then this week I was only able to run six miles each - Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday.  I knew that was going to be the case, but I still would have preferred to squeeze one more easy run in on Thursday.  Not for the sake of the race.  I just need the miles.  I had too much going on on Thursday, so the run had to be sacrificed.  Boo.  

On Friday night, I ate spaghetti, because I guess that's what you're supposed to do.  Of course it stormed that night, and I went to bed not knowing if I would be running in the rain.  Thankfully, the rain had subsided by morning, but of course since global warming has an airtight grip on humanity (sarcasm) it was pretty chilly and just windy enough to be uncomfortable.  And check the date on this blog post: it's May freaking 16th!!!  But, it was dry.  And I was thankful for that.  I ate a bagel with a little peanut butter on it which may have been a little much around an hour-fifteen before the race which may have been a little too close.  

I got to the Aquarium which was where the race started around a half hour before the gun.  The race started at 7:30.  Now, my running partner, God bless her, invited me to start with her and her normal group that she runs with on Saturday mornings.  I had told her earlier in the week that I wasn't sure that was such a good idea because, frankly, she's a faster, more advanced runner than I am.  As I've said before, I can hang with her on the six milers, but I wasn't too sure about a.) a half marathon b.) any race setting in general.  She's a pretty fierce competitor.  Be that as it may, she was insistent, so I lined up with her and a few others whom she was familiar with.  We went out at a 7:20 pace.  I was pretty certain that I wasn't going to be able to hang with that for the entire race.  The second mile was more of the same.  At that point, I started to fall back.  What was slightly discouraging was that it was mostly involuntary.  I wasn't feeling great and it was only mile two.  I still had eleven miles to go, and I wasn't sure I was going to have enough in the tank for the next four.  For the third, fourth, fifth miles I steadied my pace, but I wasn't sure what it was because the miles weren't marked very clearly on the course.  Or at least I wasn't seeing them.  And this course--I'm sorry organizers--wasn't great.  Rather than one out and back loop we had to run what amounted to the same loop twice.  And that sucks.  I don't know if other people have a problem with it or even care, but I hate it.  So once I started to head north for the second time the wind was really blowing.  And it wasn't just the resistance.  You know, truth be told, it wasn't blowing that hard.  But it was out of the north, it was cold, and the front of my shirt was sweaty.  It's cold and miserable.  Despite this I felt that I had finally settled into my stride so my running wasn't quite as labored as it had felt for the first half.  I finally got a look at a discernible mile marker and seven and found that I was still comfortably under an eight minute pace.  Fantastic.  My goal at the beginning was to be somewhere between 7:38 and 8 flat (1:40:00 - 1:45:00).  The former a dream; the latter a realistic goal.  I figured if I was able to maintain this pace heading north, then take advantage of the slight tail wind heading south I'd be able to be somewhere in between.  As it turns out I feel like the quick start I got off to was a double edged sword.  Starting out that quickly clearly zapped a good amount of energy, but on the other hand it gave me two quick miles and some seconds to give when I was slowing down at the end.  But, I think that, ultimately, it was more to my detriment than my advantage.  Heading south was indeed a bit easier.  I was getting more and more tired, but I was able to stay on pace.  By the time I got to the finish line I was pretty beat, but I looked back and some dude was coming up behind me so, to be sure not to let him sneak in in front of me, I sprinted to the finish line for about the last 100 yards or so.  I was actually pretty surprised that I had the energy to do that.  Probably a little energy burst from seeing the finish line and the people standing there.  In the end I finished at 1:43:28 (7:55).  I'm happy with that.

Since this was my first one, I know I can improve; however, I was not happy for most of this race.  Hopefully, it was a fluke, but I was in a fair amount of discomfort most of the way.  Duh, you're running.  But still.  I had previously been on two runs (non-race) of roughly this length, and I felt pretty good for both of them.  I'd love to run a marathon within the year, but if I had to dig this deep to run a half...I don't know.  I'm still setting my sights on that, but I just need to get more miles under my belt.  Definitely a higher volume of long runs as well.  For now, I'm done racing for a while.  I want to get back into the groove of running on a regular schedule.  I'm looking forward too, because we're going to start doing some quarters once a week.  So that should be fun and painful.

Overall, I'm excited.  I just ran a half marathon!  And finished with a pretty strong time, if I can say so myself.  Never, ever would I have thought that I would do this a year and a half ago.  Despite my misgivings about how I felt today, the only place to go from here is up.  13.1 t0 26.2.  It's gonna happen.

Weather Watching

I'm terrible at coming up with clever names for things. Case in point, the name of this blog. Fair Weather Runner implies that I only run when the weather is nice. Not the case. If it were, I would not have run here in Tulsa for the last month-and-a-half as it seems to have not stopped raining in that period of time. And before the rain came, it was still unreasonably cold outside. But still, in between storms or despite the cold weather, I would get out and run. Fair Weather Runner, in this case, simply means that I prefer to run in nice weather. Well, duh. Who doesn't? Not clever. It's so not clever and unoriginal that if you Google the phrase "fair weather runner" you get several, several resulting pages with that shared name.
The name does go a long way, though, in demonstrating how running has affected my thought processes. I am now obsessed with the weather. Honestly, it's not hard to be obssessed with the weather when it's as lousy as it's been in Tulsa recently. But I don't think a day passes that I don't look out the window from my little cubicle and make some kind of comment.

"Looks like the sun might be trying to come out."
"Aw, man it's raining!"
"But it was so sunny when I got to work this morning!"
"What is with this wind?"

And, do tell, what is with this wind? If someone says to me one more time, "Well you're in the wrong town if you don't like wind", I'm going to hurt their family. I understand. I'm in Oklahoma. It's windy here. I get it. But it's been excessive this year. As has the cold weather. It's May 13th and I could probably count the number of days that we've had 80+ degree weather so far this year on both hands.
That's right. I long for warmer weather. Anyone who knows me from my pre-running days would tell you that this is a big difference from my previous attitude. I used to loathe hot weather. I'm still not a huge fan of the heat especially the ridiculous triple digits that will be here probably before I know it. But running in cold weather is just so uncomfortable in such a variety of ways that it's just easier to run in the heat.

So today looks like it might just be alright. It was supposed to storm, but when I last checked weather.com (which I do multiple times a day) the rain had been pushed back to later this evening. Fantastic. So I'll get to get my run in today, and then I'll post tomorrow complaining about the heat.

**UPDATE**

It was H-O-T today!!  I was soaked.  What was I thinking wishing the cold weather away?

Touchin' Cotton

In a recent issue of Runner's World a reader who had written in was quoted as saying, "You're not a real runner unless you've pooped while out on a run.  It's a rite of passage!"  Thankfully, this isn't a rite that I have had to go through.  But there have been some close calls.  Today was one of those.  I knew all the crap that I had eaten over the weekend would come back to haunt me.  In particular, the chocolate cake and ice cream that I had eaten not once but twice.  

It's interesting, because I had been a little out of it all day because my allergies have been bothering me the last few days.  Also, I was still a little stiff from Saturday's race.  My fear was that one of these would have been my downfall today.  In fact, earlier in the day, there were a couple of times when I sort of felt like going home and calling off the run all together because my sinuses were so bad.  But I made it through the day, and felt pretty good if not fantastic going into the run.

This was going to be a six-miler.  My running partner, Jennifer, is a little more advanced than I.  She's run a few marathons, and, if I were to guess would say that she's quite comfortable running normally at a 7:15-7:30 pace (sorry if I'm selling you short, Jen).  When we go out we pretty generally stay in the upper half of the 7s.  Generally we're right around 7:40-7:45.  She pushes me much more than I ever push her.  It's great to have her around.  It was especially good today, even though I was a wreck by mile three.

So we start off and I can already tell that I'm going to have to push through some stiffness.  For the first mile I probably looked like a shuffling old man out there.  I was taking very tiny steps right up on the balls of me feet.  It was weird, but my calves we so tight it was all I could do get my heals to touch the ground.  Anyhow, that worked itself out after about two miles, but something else was trying to work itself out too.  The next four miles were going to be touch-and-go.  We run the third mile.  Thing is, I know that if was only walking right now there wouldn't be a problem.  It's my large intestine being jostled to and fro at a 7:45 minute/mile pace that' s making me to feel like I'm going unleash a chocolate dragon in my running shorts.  So I let Jennifer know that when we turn around after the third mile I'm going to have to stop for thirty seconds to take a little breather.  I really hate doing that.  Six miles these days is nothing.  The only reason I should be stopping is for traffic.  Nonetheless, I needed this pain to subside if only for less than minute.  Frankly, I knew it would come back with a vengeance once we started again.

The second half begins with an ever so slight incline that is the bane of my existence even when I don't have to take a chud.  But today every step up this takes just that much more energy and focus that I could be spending on pulling the pucker string.  And this incline honestly lasts for about a third of a mile.  I know, I know.  Boston Marathoners would scoff at a small 600 yard hill, but I was hurtin'.  

At this point, I've allowed the possibility that I may become a "real runner" today to enter my thoughts.  Three issues come immediately to mind when allowing this potentiality.

1. My Running Partner - How would I handle her?  "Please go on ahead, and I'll try to catch up to you."  "Cover your ears please.  I'm just going to go down into this creek for a second."  It's a horrifying thought.  Jennifer and I are good friends, but that's something that I wouldn't want to put either of us through.  Just the thought of having to tell the person that I'm running with that the next thing I'm getting ready to do is drop trow and lay some cable is horrifying.
2. Cleanup - I've always heard stories about people making waste in the woods and the various vegetation they've used to clean themselves with, and each sounds awful in its own way.  There's the one about the guy who unknowingly used poison ivy which led to obvious disaster.  Then I've also heard pine needles which I have never been able understand even remotely how that would work.  It sounds painful and terribly impractical.  Then there's the traditional leaves, and while I guess they would cover a fair amount of surface area they would seem to me terribly unabsorbant.  And you know what?  I still had three miles to run.  Leaves would not have been good.  Clearly, unless I took my shirt off and used that I would not get comfortably clean enough.  And I've already lost one shirt this week.
3. Location - This is a public trail.  It's a nice afternoon.  The thing's being used today.  And this is a trail that runs along the Creek Turnpike so there's rush hour traffic to my north.  To the south of the trail is a pretty solid line of houses.  Most with privacy fences; but still.  But the main problem as I can see it is the poor people who would be running, riding their bike, or taking their kids out for a nice after-school walk looking over and seeing some dude behind a bush droppin' a D.  I could potentially be arrested.

I'm not joking with you, all of these things are going through my head before I was even through that third mile.  It was bad.  I thought it was going to happen.  

Usually when I'm having a bad run a welcome reprieve is when we have to cross a major street at each mile.  We have to stop to look both ways, and at rush hour there can be quite a long pause.  But apropos of the run that I was having there was not a car to be found after mile 4 so we pressed on without pause.  Lucky me.  The silver lining was that I was getting closer.  Two miles.  I can do that backwards in my sleep.  The thing about my running partner pushing me: it's not as though she's a drill sergeant.  She just keeps the pace.  No asking what's the matter.  No looking back when I fall behind.  Once the run is over I always appreciate it.  But during the run I hate it.  I just want to stop and walk the rest of the way, but I can't.  That's something that running with a partner has taught me.  This isn't just my run.  Her miles are just as important to her as mine are to me.  And, let's face it, no one in good conscience would leave another person behind if he were to say, "I'm not feeling so well.  You just go on ahead."  Well, maybe they would.  We are runners after all.  I guess there would be worse things, but I wasn't going to say that.  So I pushed with my legs and lungs, clinched my butt cheeks, and made it through.  Somehow I still averaged a 7:43 pace.  

I didn't become a "real runner" today, but I'm actually pretty happy about that.  So is everyone else who runs that trail.  They just don't know it.

Happy Mudda's Day to All you Muddas

No run today. 

I'm always kind of down on myself on days off.  It's definitely necessary, but at the same time I only ran a 5k yesterday which puts me at...(doing math in my head)...20 or 21 miles for the week.  Argh!  That's horrible.  My gut wants to hit it pretty hard next week, but I've got to take it easy for at least the last part of the week to get ready for the half marathon Saturday morning.  I guess that will be a good mileage boost.  And my knee is giving me fits today-- from the race, I suppose.  

For the record, let's just review the last 24 hours: ran a 5k, ate a whole plate of cheese fries, went to church this morning, ate cake and ice cream at lunch, and ate cake and ice cream tonight after dinner.  That's a whole lotta eating, and not a whole lotta running.  That's going to hurt tomorrow.

I have to go to the bathroom.  

  

RIP Nike Running Shirt

I barely knew you.  I saw you hanging on the men's "active tops" rack at Ross Dress for Less and I knew that we were were meant to be together.  You were light weight, you were 100% polyester, and I knew that you wouldn't chafe me like a cotton shirt.   We had several great runs together.  Then I wore you to the Full Moon 5k last night naturally assuming that we would be going home together.  How wrong I was.  I'm sorry that I took you off and put on the dry t-shirt.  I was just so sweaty!  It was getting a little cold since the sun had gone down.  I hope you believe me when I say I was thinking about you when I slid the warm, dry cotton over my head.  I had you firmly in my grasp the entire time I tried to find my group, but somewhere in the midst of all of those people at this race I slung you over my shoulder like a dish rag.  You're just so lightweight!  What I loved about you was what ended up undoing us.  I didn't feel you slip off of my shoulder and onto the unforgiving ground.  I try not to think about the throngs trampling over you, confused and alone, in the cold night.  But those thoughts are only natural.  And they're so pervasive.  I try to think that maybe someone who needed you stumbled across you and, assuming they weren't completely grossed out by the fact that you were covered in man sweat, took you home and can give you the love and attention that I was never able to.  We had some good times together didn't we?  I just look forward to the day that I can laugh again.  

I love you Nike Running Shirt.  

PR at the Full Moon!

Alright.  So I straight up MURDERED my previous personal best at the Full Moon 5k here in Tulsa tonight.  My previous PR, 23:40, was set at the Race for the Cure back in September.  Since then I have run two other 5k's.  The Jingle Bell Run at Christmas time was incredibly windy and it had some pretty nasty hills around between 2k and 3k.  No good.  Don't even remember my time.  Then it was the Saint Patrick's Day 5k on Brookside here in Tulsa.  That one was disappointing because the course is flat, flat, flat.  Unfortunately, due to very poor judgement on my part the night before, I wasn't feeling well enough to go all out.  I finished that one in just under 26 minutes.

So here we get to today.  The weird thing about the Full Moon Run is that it takes place at night.  I know that's not unprecedented, but I'm just not sure how to prepare over the course of a day to run a race at night.  It just feels weird.  I didn't try to eat light today, per se.  Just reasonably.  We had been advised when registering to get to the race site early as this year's field was either bigger than it had ever been or had been in a while.  So we show up an hour-and-a-half before the gun.  This was a little excessive.  We parked easily, got our time chips, and then just kind of stood around for a while.  Finally, around 7:15 (the race started at 8:00) I went for a little warm up jog.  This was the first time that I had every actually warmed up in this way before a race.  I truly think that it was the key to setting the PR.  It was nothing major.  Just about a mile and a half in about 14 minutes.  It stands to reason.  My regular weekly runs rarely start off strong.  It's only after I've been out for a mile or two that I fall into a rhythm.

The Full Moon Run is very much an event.  Nearly two thousand runners, a Led Zeppelin cover band, jupiter jumps in various different shapes for the kids, and free beer for the runners afterwards.  Once the run is over, runners, their families and friends stay for who knows how long to enjoy the party.  I enjoy this aspect of the race.  What I don't enjoy is the starting line and the lack of etiquette (I'm talking to you walkers!) on the part of those who should very clearly be further back.  Look, I'm not a speed demon.  I'm not an elite runner, so I don't line up with those guys at the very front.  I line up further back so that they can have room to run just as the woman who was walking not 50 yards from the start of the race.  Anyhow, once I got a little room to run, I took off. 

I wasn't sure from the beginning if I was going to be able to maintain this pace.  I debated as to whether or not to back off.  But I persevered.  At the 1k mark my watch said 4:30.  I knew I was in good shape based on that time, because the last couple of times I had been at pretty much 5:00 flat for the first kilometer.  I just tried to maintain that pace and take advantage of any downhill stretches to steal a couple of seconds.  After 3k I was starting to feel a little drained.  I took the foot of the gas a little at that point; however, once I started the the last kilometer I was at something like 17 minutes which was a 4:15 average kilometer.  I honestly didn't take the time to do that math while I was running.  All I knew was that I had 6:39 to run that last k and set the PR.  And, I don't know, I was able stay strong and maintain a relatively strong pace to finish in.....wait for it.....21:26!  Honestly, I was hoping for 22 flat at best.  God is good.  I though that I was really going to have to put the brakes on for the last 2k, but I had enough left in the tank to take a samurai sword and wallop 2:14 off of my previous PR.

Another Running Blog

That's right.  It's here.  The 1,264,563rd blog about running by a mid-pack amateur runner .  Truth is, I haven't really read any of the other blogs thoroughly enough for inspiration.  I just like talking about this weird obsession of mine, and can always feel the eye rolls of the non-runners that I'm surrounded by when I mention how long I ran over the weekend or my total miles for the week.  At least with the blogging I won't be able to see the eye rolls.

So here I am.  I've been running for just under a year and a half, and I've learned many, many things over that period of time.  About running and about my body.  When I first started, it was on a treadmill at the gym; two miles at a time at over a 13 minute pace.  I weighed 240 pounds, and I had been spurred into action by a couple of friends who had convinced me to participate in a triathlon "relay" that never actually took place.  Strangely, that's what it took to shake off 26 years of inactivity.

Currently, I'm running between 35-40 miles a week.  I average, more or less, an 8:15 pace.  But you know how it is; some weeks are better than others.  

This week has been a little weird.  I've committed to running a 5k which is tomorrow night (Saturday the 9th), and next weekend I'm going to be running in my very first Half Marathon.  With those two events on the immediate horizon, I've been trying to balance easy runs and rest, but don't know that I've been all that successful.    I've only managed to squeak out 19 miles up to this point this week.  I've still got tomorrow and Sunday, but tomorrow's weird because of the race.  I anticipate that I'll run at least a couple of miles to warm up for the 5k tomorrow, but still haven't decided on how much to run on Sunday.  I need to taper before the Half, but how do you taper off of a week where you didn't really run that many miles to begin with.  I think I'll just have to settle for my weekly miles to be funky until after the Half Marathon.  That's fine.  

Today I ran a trail that I haven't run in what seems like a month.  I like the trail, but it's kind of a drag because there are no mile markers, and I don't have a Garmin (....yet.  I want one so bad my hair hurts), so it's not my trail of choice.  At any rate, I ran it and felt terrible for some reason.  About 12 minutes in I was having crazy side pains which rarely happens.  I stopped for a couple of seconds and they subsided, for the most part, after I resumed my run.  But it still didn't feel quite right.  I ended up running for just under 38 minutes which, ultimately, had to have been under 5 miles, when 6 is pretty generally my standard.  That's fine though.  I'm shooting for a personal record tomorrow, so I didn't want to push it too hard today.  Truth is I probably shouldn't have run the day before a race, but I missed yesterday.  And the race tomorrow isn't until 8 P.M.  Yuck.

Can't wait to post my latest 5k time tomorrow.  Until then...