Sorry folks, I'm so far behind. I've tried to stay up on reading, but it's been long stretches in between. Same old same old on this end, working, traveling to no place particularly exciting.
I'm still stuck on my 3 mile limit each time I run. LHR pace is 10:30-ish now. I wish I could get it down below 10:00. It's been warm even in the mornings, and I think the weather is easily offsetting any meager efficiencies my heart is gaining.
I've got El Scorcho coming up July 20. It's 20K. I'm screwed.
NYC registration closes tomorrow. Then I wait to see if I get in this year. If I do, I've got to start training July 1. I'm screwed.
I think I'll go take a nap and sleep on this ...
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Opryland
I'm back from a week-long annual sales conference in Nashville last week with my new employer. It wasn't the boondoggle I've experienced with other companies. A maniacal boot camp would be a much more apt description.
Starting Sunday night, it was close down the bar, get up early, work sessions all day, dinner, back to the bar. In anticipation that each passing day would make it more difficult to run and drink, I dragged myself to the hotel gym at 5:30 am on Monday, ran outside at 6:00 am on Tuesday, 6:30 am on Wednesday, and threw in the towel after that.
We were at the Gaylord Opryland all week, which was quite nice actually. Regrettably, the crazy schedule didn't allow me to meet up with Rae and Brent. I did run by the cultural highlight of their town, I think, as the Grand Ole Opry was right next to the hotel. Not that exciting though, at the crack of dawn.
All was not lost, as I stumbled across this gem on the outskirts of the hotel, which I think would be exciting at any time of day (and twice as much on Daisy Duke day):
Starting Sunday night, it was close down the bar, get up early, work sessions all day, dinner, back to the bar. In anticipation that each passing day would make it more difficult to run and drink, I dragged myself to the hotel gym at 5:30 am on Monday, ran outside at 6:00 am on Tuesday, 6:30 am on Wednesday, and threw in the towel after that.
We were at the Gaylord Opryland all week, which was quite nice actually. Regrettably, the crazy schedule didn't allow me to meet up with Rae and Brent. I did run by the cultural highlight of their town, I think, as the Grand Ole Opry was right next to the hotel. Not that exciting though, at the crack of dawn.
All was not lost, as I stumbled across this gem on the outskirts of the hotel, which I think would be exciting at any time of day (and twice as much on Daisy Duke day):
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Heart Don't Fail Me Now
When I'm within sight of a 5K finish line and my lungs are on fire, there's always a few more drops of gas to be found to power me on home.
When I've busted through the wall on a marathon and my legs are screaming bloody murder, it's still possible for the mind to tell the body what to do. Not easy, but possible.
Yet when I'm barely breaking a sweat but my HR is too high, no amount of mental toughness can get the heart to beat any slower than it wants to. It just doesn't work that way. Invoking every cuss word I know doesn't work either. Feels like it should work, but has quite the opposite effect on the heart. Dammit.
After 7 consecutive weeks of steadily decreasing average mile pace (12:21, 12:03, 11:40, 11:28, 11:26, 11:10, 11:02), my 2 runs this week were back at 11:30 pace - why, I have no clue. It's like my heart forgot how to run. I'm going to blow this week off and start again next week.
When I've busted through the wall on a marathon and my legs are screaming bloody murder, it's still possible for the mind to tell the body what to do. Not easy, but possible.
Yet when I'm barely breaking a sweat but my HR is too high, no amount of mental toughness can get the heart to beat any slower than it wants to. It just doesn't work that way. Invoking every cuss word I know doesn't work either. Feels like it should work, but has quite the opposite effect on the heart. Dammit.After 7 consecutive weeks of steadily decreasing average mile pace (12:21, 12:03, 11:40, 11:28, 11:26, 11:10, 11:02), my 2 runs this week were back at 11:30 pace - why, I have no clue. It's like my heart forgot how to run. I'm going to blow this week off and start again next week.
Saturday, March 29, 2008
MS Run Walk 5K
The forecast called for thunderstorms last night, with more showers today. Neither happened. Instead, under an overcast sky, I reached the race site at 6AM this morning as organizers and volunteers were scurrying around in the darkness. We've only had 4 planning meetings leading up to this event, and I missed #2 and #4 because I was out of town. Even so, despite countless emails and calls, it wasn't clear what I was supposed to do today, until, well, about this morning. Somehow, it all came together when it needed to.As the only volunteer on the committee assigned to work with the local race company (Racing Systems), I was supposed to make sure they did what they needed to do. Turns out that once the MS Society signed them up, Racing Systems pretty much ran on auto-pilot. They showed up a little past 6AM and started laying down the timing mats and usual stuff. The course was already laid out, and I went out with one of their guys to lay down cones. Ryan has a day job and works with Racing Systems on the weekends. He also trains runners for RunOn, and has a 3:18 marathon PR!
The course is a simple out and back. I stationed myself at the halfway point turnaround and waited for the run to start, along with Dennis the City of Addison cop, and Jeff with the City of Addison Streets Dept. I was going to comment that do you really think we needed to stand there in case anyone didn't know what to do at the turnaround, but if you look closely at the sign, it really is quite confusing.The runners came through fairly quickly. There were only 130+ of them. The winner finished in 20:23. After that, the walkers came strolling by, and that took forever! It's all for a good cause, so the more the merrier, but I was out there from 8:00 until almost 9:45 waiting for the walkers to finish. Finally, Ryan swung by again to get me, and we picked up the cones on the way back.
Back at the finish, the usual festivities were going on, including these:
Er, don't ask me, that must have come up in the meeting I missed! All in all, I'm glad I volunteered for this. It was much less work than I expected, and I was happy to help out any way I could. I'll probably sign up next year again!
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Boston
I haven't BQ'd (yet), but I'm getting closer to Boston. I started my new job this week and the company is here in Boston. While flying up on Monday morning, I received a voicemail that we had been acquired - not exactly the day 1 event I had envisioned! Turns out it's a good thing, and I'm more than happy with the company I joined and the company that intends to acquire us. I'll still be based out of Dallas, but look forward to occasionally spending time in Boston.
In running news, my LHR training has finally begun to show some results. I've tried to run consistently the past few weeks, at least 4-5 runs a week, although all are pegged at only 3 miles each while trying to stay under a 141 HR. My pace has been steadily coming down each week. Here's my average pace starting from 4 weeks ago:
Week 4: 12:21 (5 runs: 12:21, 13:01, 12:33, 12:26, 11:23)
Week 3: 12:03 (5 runs: 12:00, 11:48, 12:17, 12:15, 11:54)
Week 2: 11:40 (4 runs: 11:55, 11:24, 11:34, 11:49)
Week 1: 11:28 (2 runs: 11:44, 11:13)
There was a cold drizzle coming down last night, and I ended up running in the hotel gym. It was the first LHR run I've done on a treadmill, and I was surprised to be able to get it down to the low 11:00's. I had a work related dinner tonight, at the Cheesecake Factory no less (I was good - no dessert), but I'm going to try that treadmill again tomorrow morning!
In running news, my LHR training has finally begun to show some results. I've tried to run consistently the past few weeks, at least 4-5 runs a week, although all are pegged at only 3 miles each while trying to stay under a 141 HR. My pace has been steadily coming down each week. Here's my average pace starting from 4 weeks ago:
Week 4: 12:21 (5 runs: 12:21, 13:01, 12:33, 12:26, 11:23)
Week 3: 12:03 (5 runs: 12:00, 11:48, 12:17, 12:15, 11:54)
Week 2: 11:40 (4 runs: 11:55, 11:24, 11:34, 11:49)
Week 1: 11:28 (2 runs: 11:44, 11:13)
There was a cold drizzle coming down last night, and I ended up running in the hotel gym. It was the first LHR run I've done on a treadmill, and I was surprised to be able to get it down to the low 11:00's. I had a work related dinner tonight, at the Cheesecake Factory no less (I was good - no dessert), but I'm going to try that treadmill again tomorrow morning!
Monday, March 03, 2008
Frosty
I finally got my act together on LHR training. I strung together 5 runs last week, which equaled the number of runs in the prior 3 weeks combined. Just when I'm on a roll, this happens tonight:
In these here parts, that frosty dusting's a veritable blizzard. While the rest of Big D wakes up to lockdown mode, I think I might enjoy an early morning run for a change.
In these here parts, that frosty dusting's a veritable blizzard. While the rest of Big D wakes up to lockdown mode, I think I might enjoy an early morning run for a change.
Monday, February 25, 2008
Sunday, February 24, 2008
I'm Not Doing Anything After Midnight On July 20th Anyway
So I signed up for El Scorcho, organized by ultra-monster Gandaman. No ultras for me though, I'll be doing the 25K. I can think of a few things I'd rather be doing from midnight to 2:30-ish AM, but you only live once, ya know? That's me, living on the edge, a real risk-taker.
Note to self - get off your a$$ and get moving with the low heart rate training already!
In less traumatic news, I'm on T-shirt Thursday. Thanks Kara!
Note to self - get off your a$$ and get moving with the low heart rate training already!
In less traumatic news, I'm on T-shirt Thursday. Thanks Kara!
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Bling It On!
A big thank you to the Black Knight, Bex, Running Jayhawk and TxTriSkatemom for sending in their bling! Go on over to 26.2 Bling to check out their pics. We've got 10 different marathons represented so far from 1990 to 2008.
Alright people, I know there's more shiny stuff of yours waiting to get displayed. Start digging out those closets and shoeboxes! And fer sure, there's gonna be some new ones this weekend - good luck to Austinites Runner Susan and TxTriSkatemom, and Mr A1A David. Bring it on home!
Post update: just in case you're wondering, there's no exclusive limit - send in your pic even we have already have your race represented. I think it's just as cool to get little known obscure races as it is to see how many people ran the same race you did!
Alright people, I know there's more shiny stuff of yours waiting to get displayed. Start digging out those closets and shoeboxes! And fer sure, there's gonna be some new ones this weekend - good luck to Austinites Runner Susan and TxTriSkatemom, and Mr A1A David. Bring it on home!
Post update: just in case you're wondering, there's no exclusive limit - send in your pic even we have already have your race represented. I think it's just as cool to get little known obscure races as it is to see how many people ran the same race you did!
Monday, February 11, 2008
Slowing Down
Things have slowed down since my last race. Down are the number of runs per week. Down too the number of official and unofficial meals a day. Most of all, down is the heart rate. Yup, I've started low heart rate training.
The only thing up so far is my pace, going up in the wrong direction! Granted I've only got 4 very short runs under my belt with this, but the first one was a shocker at 13:12/min mile average pace. My last run was better, at 11:52/min miles. I won't belabor the details, except to say this is the fastest I can go while still keeping my heart rate at 141 - presumably my aerobic threshold.
If all goes well, after a minimum of 12 weeks at this, I'll be running more efficiently, burning fat (gasp!) instead of glycogen, able to go farther and run longer. Most appealingly, the afterburners on a long run will have a reasonably full tank of glycogen to dip into, instead of my usual fumes! Sounds almost too good to be true.
The only thing up so far is my pace, going up in the wrong direction! Granted I've only got 4 very short runs under my belt with this, but the first one was a shocker at 13:12/min mile average pace. My last run was better, at 11:52/min miles. I won't belabor the details, except to say this is the fastest I can go while still keeping my heart rate at 141 - presumably my aerobic threshold.
If all goes well, after a minimum of 12 weeks at this, I'll be running more efficiently, burning fat (gasp!) instead of glycogen, able to go farther and run longer. Most appealingly, the afterburners on a long run will have a reasonably full tank of glycogen to dip into, instead of my usual fumes! Sounds almost too good to be true.
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