What's Next, Daisy?

Daisy had a rough start. Before she turned two, she had already delivered a litter, been abandoned overnight at an animal shelter with her puppies, contracted heartworms, and was severely underweight. After we adopted her, we spent the next twelve years trying to make up for those first two. I like to think she’d say we did her alright.

Daisy left us last week. Our Crazy Daisy is gone.


The night she passed away, I lit a candle for her in our bedroom. Her bed was still on the floor next to our fireplace, where a few hours ago Daisy had taken her last nap. I put the candle in the fireplace, switched off the lights, and was stunned to see a sight we had never seen before. That single flame picked up the curling fleurs-de-lis pattern in the fireplace screen and projected a magnified silhouette of it across the entire room, floor to ceiling, and all four walls. In silence, we watched as the flame flickered, and the whole room came alive as the shadows tossed and swayed all around us. After nine years with us in that room, Daisy had left us one more surprise gift.

The next morning, we found two ducks swimming in our pool, a rare but not uncommon event. Since then however, one of both of them has returned every morning, waddling around, swimming a few laps, and generally resting in a patch of thick groundcover next to the pool. I went out yesterday and found a nest with 4 eggs in the groundcover, now up to 5 eggs after this morning’s visit. Could it be another Daisy surprise?

We didn't call her our lovable Crazy Daisy for nothing. Bye sweetie.

Pick Wisely

My first instinct after NYC's 3rd strike was to sign up immediately for a replacement marathon, like I did in 2006 (MCM) and 2007 (Memphis + Disney). I needed an outlet, something to focus on, anything. Only one problem - my LHR training - had yet to deliver the goods and was stuck in a bad rut. I did some soul searching and decided I had 2 options:

1. Suck it up and just run another fall marathon = probable Disney crash 'n burn sequel
2. Suck it up and re-commit to LHR training = possible early 2009 marathon PR

I picked #2, got in touch with my friend B. who first introduced me to LHR training, and he agreed to train me if I agree to put in the effort - no cheating on schedules, put in the miles, stay on pace, work within the HR. He gave me a new LHR training plan, mixing up different runs at different heart rates.

So my next marathon won't be until 2009. Big deal. If there's a PR at the end of that wait, I'm all in baby!

3rd Strike

In just three short years, I've earned (paid?) my way into NYC. 3 strikes, I'm out. They don't call it a "lottery" for nothing.

NYC 2009, here I come! Who's with me?

Where Am I

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 ...

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):

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.

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!

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!

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.

It's.Up.To.You.New York, New ...

Strike 1:

Strike 2:

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