The Tao of Gunk

A Wardrobe Malfunction

2009-01-15T22:50:00.003-05:00

Or maybe a brain malfunction... No fines were levied and no animals were harmed in the process. The Pacers Fun Run tonight was sparsely attended, likely attributable to the 15 degree temperature and occasional wind gusts (They're calling for a wind chill of -5 overnight). I wore a few extra items tonight that I didn't wear on the 31st, but nothing new on my torso. By mile three (of five) I was feeling discomfort in the nether regions, and I'm not talking about chafing! By the end I was convinced I had a large blister on a place where no man should ever find a blister, and probably some sore or bleeding nips as well. We couldn't really stop as we weren't wearing enough to stay warm if we weren't running. Back at the store all it took was an oblique reference and Liza (Pacer's staff - she ran the Athens marathon last year!) headed for the men's section. Seems they make garments with a special wind-proof panel in the front for weather like this. The breathe-ability of technical fabrics also lets the chilly wind in places it has no place being!! They were out of them, but I'll make sure I get a pair before venturing out in weather like this again!

Finishing 2008 with a bang!

2009-01-01T23:45:00.003-05:00

2008 was a banner year for my running. I capped it last night by running the King Street Mile *and* the Fairfax Four Miler two hours apart.

Being that I am a distance runner I seldom have the opportunity (or desire) to sprint a mile. I usually run the last mile or so of a race at maximum effort, but that's after running many miles during which I had to keep a reserve. The luxury of toeing the start line and going all-out just isn't available in my usual fare, so I signed up for the KSM to see what I could do. I've never run just a mile so my only reference is mile splits during a run. My fastest split was mile 6 at the 2008 Marine Corps Butler Relay (a 10k) in March where I pulled a 7:30. That mile was mostly downhill too, so going into the KSM I was hoping to beat that. Mother Nature wasn't smiling on us as it was a nippy 15 degrees (F) with the wind chill (40 mph gusts) and we were running right into the wind. I parked near the finish and ran about 1.5 miles to the start to warm up. At the 'Go' shout (no starting pistol for us) I took off, quickly finding big, fast people to draft (watching all those NASCAR races taught me something!). I did a double-take as I glanced at my watch at the 1/2 mile mark and saw only 3:25 had elapsed! I was still feeling good so I kept it up. The last tenth felt like a huge alien was going to erupt from my chest, but I finished in 6:38!! Wow, great, now cool down a bit and head for the car as I have just under two hours to get over to the City of Fairfax for the Four Miler and traffic is all boogered up thanks to those winds knocking out power lines.

The Four Miler had challenges of its own. A tree fell across Old Lee Highway and brought down power lines, so the course had to be changed at the eleventh hour. It was now dark and even colder, with the wind chill hovering around 10 degrees as we completed four laps of downtown. Even so over a thousand people finished the race!

Blog updates

2009-01-01T23:06:00.006-05:00

I'll start by apologizing to my loyal readers (both of you!) for the lack of posts recently (yeah, over seven months). I've had trouble over the last month accessing the database on my hosting account so my posted run numbers haven't been updating. I finally fixed that this evening thanks to a delicate adjustment with a sledgehammer. I updated the Run Log to show two upcoming races instead of one (ohhhhhhhh, a 100% improvement!) and added a mile to the Personal Records section. I've also added a few items when you hover over items on the PR section.

For my geek readers, I ran into a few problems with the new year that required changes under the hood. Specifically, "last" week gets complicated on the first week of the new year as I can't just grab the week number and subtract 1. Supposing that I check for a week# = 0 result, then what do I set last week to, 52 or 53? Huh, week 53 you ask? Since our year doesn't divide evenly by seven we don't have the luxury of January 1st always being on Sunday and so on. This means we usually have a partial week at the beginning of January and another partial week at the end of December in a given year (part of the week is this year, part is next/last year). Now I could just hope that you don't look at the numbers this week or the end of December, but that offends the purist in me.

Digging into the issue, I found a lot of options. Seems that the week functions in MySQL have eight different modes depending on your first day of the week and what you count as your first week (week 1 is the first week with a Sunday in this year, or with more than 3 days in this year, etc). My logs are based on Sunday being the first day of the week, so with 2008 this week is actually the 52nd week of 2008 through January 3rd, 2009. January 4th will start week one for 2009. Just what I needed to start the new year, a little brain pain!

Two weeks, two halves, two PRs!

2008-05-19T22:45:00.006-04:00

Wow, what a race. The Marine Corps Marathon staff put on their inaugural Historic Half (marathon) in Fredericksburg, VA yesterday and with few exceptions it was top notch. 3822 runners finished the scenic but brutal course, yours truly being one of them.

I opted to sleep in my own bed Saturday night and left home about 5 am for the trip to Fredericksburg. Traffic was light and the State Police left us alone. It seemed everybody had the same idea and parked in the nearby Walmart parking lot. The crowd surprised a number of travelers overnighting in their RVs and some of them quickly packed up and left to avoid getting trapped! In addition to beating the road closures, I left early to give time for warmup before the start.

I usually use the first couple miles of the race to warm up, but I wanted to attempt a new PR and to possibly even break the two hour mark (my existing PR was 2:02:45) so I spent 20 minutes jogging about and then did some stretching. This worked well as my first mile was a 9:42 instead of the 10:53 at Frederick. In addition to the pre-race warmup I was using a different strategy because of a major hill between miles 10 and 11. I planned to build a comfortable cushion of time early in the race so I could slow down on that hill and still achieve my goals. Boy was I in for a surprise! Let's start with the published elevation profile:

Looking at this I see a slight climb in the first mile and then it's all downhill to mile eight with a big climb between 10 and 11. However; like statistics, the product is only as good as the data used. In this case it appears they calculated the elevation at each mile marker and then drew pretty blue lines between those values. Let's take a look at the *actual* elevation profile:

Those lines aren't so smooth anymore are they? Miles two, three, and four provided some unexpected climbs! Miles three to seven found me deep in the eights, the fastest mile being 8:25. The downhills stretches helped smooth the slower climbs, but the damage was done and by miles nine to twelve averaged 10:00 as I nursed a stitch. Somehow I managed a 10:10 between 10 and 11 on that mother-frakker of a hill, even stopping several times for short walks! I made it back into the mid eights for the last 1.1 miles and finished in 2:01:49.5, setting a new PR :) Unlike Frederick I was pretty spent at the finish line; I didn't have more to give those hills!

I had the pleasure of celebrating distance PRs with several friends in Fredericksburg as they ran their first half marathon. It's good to see that running is contagious!

Another record falls!

2008-05-04T16:50:00.004-04:00

This morning I smashed my half-marathon PR by 4 minutes and 29 seconds at the Frederick Running Festival. In its sixth year the festival has grown quite a bit but is still small and cozy. The course is fast and travels through downtown Frederick, lovely neighborhoods, and then took a spin through farm country before ending at the fairgrounds. Other than poor planning wrt ordering enough shirts in the popular sizes the event went off without a hitch.

I started with a 10:53 pace the first mile and quickly marched down through the 9's until mile 7 where I maintained about an 8:55 average for the last six miles. I never felt that I was pushing too hard and I didn't step it out the last mile or two as usual as I was already hitting a helluva pace. My Garmin has a nice feature called 'Virtual Partner' where you can program a distance/time combination and it will show two figures on the screen with the distance ahead/behind the virtual partner. I programmed my previous PR of 2:07:14 (~9:41/m) into it and by mile four I was shrinking Virp's lead. Since the GPS distance run is usually longer than the certified distance I knew I needed to be at least 1/10th mile ahead of Virp at the finish. Once I figured out that my knee was going to cooperate (more on this further down) I endeavored to build a comfortable margin so that I could ease off if the need arose. At mile 13 I was over half a mile ahead of Virp so no worries there! The finish festival was a cattle chute as usual but they get bonus points for having Munchkins - for some reason little donut holes seem much yummier, maybe because you get more sugar on them!

The best part of a distance run early in the morning is having a big breakfast afterwards, in today's case a bunch of goodies at Waffle House. The waitress looked at us a little funny when Kris and I ordered enough food (especially hash browns) for four people :)

Back to the knee issue, I'm suspecting that my new Brooks shoes are causing my knee to act up. Every Tuesday (and some Thursdays) I run 5-ish miles with a group from the Pacers store. Every Tuesday my knee acts up and every Wednesday morning I'm hobbling around. Today I decided to break out the old Mizunos (the pair I ran the Marine Corps in) and had only minor discomfort after 13 miles... I need to chat with Chris at Pacers about these new shoes!

Time for a well-earned 90 minute IPA from Dogfish Head :) In two weeks I'll run the Marine Corps Historic Half. I should have taken it easier today so that I won't have to work so hard then, but the urge to beat 2 hours is growing!!

More data!

2008-04-01T23:55:00.002-04:00

You may notice the new "Personal Records" section to the left. Since I set one last week I figured I should code something up to show me what they are so I don't have to query the database every time I want to know one. You can hover over some of the distances and headers for more information and if you hover over the times or paces you'll get the date that record was set. Red indicates this record is less than 30 days old (or maybe it's less than or equal to 30 days old, not sure which comparison operator I used!). I also added a 'Next Event' section to the Run Log.

For you geeks out there, I run with a Garmin ForeRunner 305. I upload the data into SportTracks, a Winblowz-based uber journal running in Parallels on my MacBook Pro. There is now a comparable MacOS program called TrackRunner, but I haven't had a chance to play with it much (or figure out how to transfer two year worth of data to it). SportTracks stores the track information and can overlay it on Google Maps as well as show elevation profiles, pace at any given point, and more. I then manually (another task I need to automate) plug a few data points into a MySQL database. A couple of PHP scripts query the database periodically and generate static html that is displayed when you view this blog. Given all the manual steps there will be times where data isn't uploaded for several days at a time. The new Garmin Forerunner 405 transmits data wirelessly when you get close to your computer, so maybe when the 305 heads out for it's ultimate ultra I'll get that one and try to fully automate the process.

Change is good?

2008-03-30T23:03:00.003-04:00

I celebrated yesterday's PR by running another 6 miles through DC with friends and then stopping by the new Pacers running store in the City of Fairfax. I've been a pretty loyal Metro Run and Walk customer for years, but this Pacers is a lot closer and like myself, is outside the Beltway. The helpful staff watched me walk and run, looked at my existing shoes, and then brought out a half-dozen pairs to try. I've only worn Mizuno Wave Inspires and was looking forward to trying the new Inspire 4s as they boasted a redesigned heel cup that might keep my heel in place without the need for special lacing. They did keep my heel firmly planted but the little seam just below the lace put some pressure on the top of my foot with no apparent method of relief. For those non-runner types, that slight pressure would likely result in some nasty blisters down the road - not fun! After trying on several other brands, the clerk (Jenna - she knows her shiat) brought out the big guns, the Brooks Infiniti. This is a new class of shoe, termed 'Guidance', melding stability with cushioning. It has a very different feel at the ball of the foot provided by the "stacked MoGo" that seems to facilitate a consistent toe-off. In English, the forefoot seems to keep the foot from rolling inward or outward as you push off. We'll see how well that works in practice. At $120/pair these shoes need to demonstrate a marked improvement from the Inspires or I will be cruising DSW to stock up on Inspire 2 and 3s!

An Encore Performance

2008-03-29T22:38:00.002-04:00

Buoyed by my recovery I've signed up for a number of half marathons on my road to the 2008 MCM. Most of them are because Krischelle is possessed, but it didn't take much arm twisting. Today we ran the Butler Relay at Marine Corps Base Quantico, a 10k team relay. I intended to take it easy, but ended up setting a PR!

Earlier this week I thought a 5k run in the neighborhood was my personal best and even celebrated that fact. Mr. Murphy eventually reared his head as I discovered my database did not contain my first 5k race way back in early 2005. Seems I was a fast(er) little fracker back then. Armed with that knowledge and pretty sure that my competitive streak would rear it's head come Saturday, I proceeded to do everything I possible to discourage myself from over-achieving during the relay. I stayed up late Friday night and had chili and drinks with friends. I woke up early on Saturday, denying myself a full night's sleep, and started at the back of the pack. Unfortunately, the pack was a bit more fit than I'm used to and I quickly found myself the second-to-last runner. My normal plan to start slow went right out the window, though my planned pace was more suitable to a longer distance event. The runners spread out pretty quickly and I spent the first three miles pretty much alone, passing only two other runners. Somewhere in there I managed to trip over a speed bump and gracefully recover, though nobody was close enough to witness my acrobatic prowess. Next up was the trail portion of the course and it provided some steep, slippery hills and a few more runners to pass. The last mile and a half was all downhill, steeply at times, and a lap around the track. My strategy validated itself here as I passed many more runners. Earlier in the week I made the mistake of looking up my 10k times and now was pretty sure a PR was in reach so I shoved some more coal in the boiler and ran like I stole it. My last mile was at a 7:30 pace and I finished with an overall pace of 8:58, an increase of 8 seconds over my unofficial PR (GPS) and 4 seconds over my official PR (chipped race). What could I have done hydrated with a good night's sleep?

The GPS results tend to be different because one actually runs further than the certified distance. The course is laid out by cutting the tangents, from corner to corner, taking the shortest path. A runner tends to weave about and may prefer to run up the center of a road (level surface) instead of diagonally across it, adding distance. So here the certified distance was 6.21 miles, but the GPS recorded 6.31 miles (there is also a margin of accuracy with the GPS), making for the 11 second difference in pace.

A Great Day!

2008-03-16T21:55:00.003-04:00

In the words of Joe Pesci, "I'm back..." It's been a rough couple of months as I recovered from illness and knee problems while trying to train for the Shamrock marathon. Today I ran the Shamrock Festival Half Marathon, posting a fantastic 2:13 (my half PR is 2:07). I also had the great pleasure of watching a friend qualify for Boston, another run her first marathon (and still want to run another afterwards), and a third set a PR (personal record for you non-running types).

Getting to the starting line this morning was really tough. I'm not talking about having to wake up and get ready without waking my friends running the later-starting marathon, or the gale-force winds that preceded the frigid break of day on the walk to my green-clad freak-filled starting coral, but of the physical and mental effort required to get to that point. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I contracted a nasty case of bronchitis in SE Asia last November. It took about six weeks to get rid of it and the upper respiratory infection that showed up for the microbe rave. This sapped my strength and I didn't put in enough weekly miles to support the long weekend runs. Toss in that I was never very good at stretching and that the weekly massage therapist visits stopped after the MCM and I ended up with Patellofemoral Syndrome in one knee and Iliotibial Band Syndrome in the other leg. Two bad long runs in January and I made an appointment with the sports doc. This lead to six weeks of twice-weekly physical therapy (with lots of homework) to strengthen muscles I didn't know I had and learn to stretch properly. About the time I was calling the doc I had to confront reality and accept that the 2008 Shamrock Marathon wasn't going to be on my dance card anymore. I walked away from the MCM feeling invincible and here was Mr. Murphy acutely demonstrating otherwise. It was incredibly tough to acknowledge that I wasn't capable of going the distance and I spent several days rationalizing it to myself, but in the end I made the call and transferred to the half marathon. The doctor validated this decision a few days later with his opinion that I should be able to train for that distance without compromising recovery. Happily he was right!

Unfortunately while I listened to my body, a friend didn't. Her leg/foot began to hurt about mile four and she kept going. She finished with a great time but now has a cute cast on her right leg as the broken tibia heals over the coming months.

A Long Break

2007-12-09T21:31:00.000-05:00

I haven't forgotten about you, both my loyal readers! After the Marine Corps Marathon I had Punkin Chunkin, Fall In, then left for two weeks in SE Asia. The trip included time in Vietnam, Bangkok, and Phuket, Thailand. I developed bronchitis in Phuket which slowed me down somewhat, but I'm about over that. I got back just in time to cram for my Vietnamese final (missing four classes on the trip and then one for weather hasn't helped!) and need to determine if I will be running any games at Cold Wars in March (submissions are due on the 14th).

Meanwhile I am diving into training for the Shamrock Marathon in March. Between the traffic and smog in Vietnam I didn't get to run there, then getting sick in Thailand meant that this past Friday was the first time I had run in almost three weeks. I am trying to balance the need to ease back into things with the need/desire to run a zillion miles! Mom says I am crazy, but we already knew that.

Quod erat demonstrandum

2007-10-30T08:51:00.000-04:00

For those of you non-conversant in dead languages, the title is Latin for "which was to be demonstrated". It's a flashback to my heavy math days when it was used at the end of a proof to show completion. In my current context it means that I have earned the title "marathoner", having completed the 2007 Marine Corps Marathon on Sunday in 4 hours 36 minutes and 44 seconds and have a big medal to show for it.

Now thanks to those ever so helpful knuckleheads in Congress I might have missed the start, or at the least, been late arriving and expended a lot of energy getting there. See, Congress decided to muck with Daylight Saving Time this fall and this had some pretty big consequences, namely that a lot of devices are hardwired to the old standard for DST which ended on the last Sunday in October. This used to cause some grief to MCM runners who didn't take this into account, but at least the change was advertised heavily. In my case, my primary alarm clock automagically rolled back an hour at 2am - didn't see any warnings about this possibility! Luckily I am both a Boy Scout and an IT-type and practice redundancy for critical events. In this case I had three alarms set so I got up at the right time, but not before staring at the clock and wondering WTF?

Now back to the good stuff. We could not have asked for a better day to run. It was a little on the chilly side for spectators, but perfect for runners - there's cameras all over the course, who wants to get their picture taken soaked in sweat? The number of runners and spectators was staggering (some 21k and 80k+ respectively) and both contributed a lot of motivation and energy. How the miles seemed to fly by! I started out in the company of four lovely ladies; Lisa, Beth, Katie, and her friend Cecile. We lost Beth on Canal Rd., Lisa in Haines Point, and finally I fell back from Katie and Cecile as we entered Crystal City. They were both fantastic for slowing up that mile or two to keep me going until I met up another friend, Laurie, who was waiting to run the final miles with me. Seeing Laurie standing there was like a second wind and she paced me to the base of the hill at the USMC War Memorial. I stormed the hill and crossed the finish line in front of hordes of cheering spectators. Thanks Laurie!

Crossing the finish line, if you'll pardon the pun, was a moving experience. I've wanted to run the MCM since watching my friend Karen F. run it last year. As I moved about the course following her progress I got a taste of the MCM experience, but I did not realize the journey to get there would be so powerful. The coaches and staff behind Marathon Charity Partners are an incredibly selfless group of people, giving so much time and energy to their runners and their charities. The Saturday training runs became not just a venue to pound out the miles, but an eagerly anticipated event - group therapy, improv, and an outlet for accumulated stress all rolled up into one. As I mentioned in an early entry, we aren't interesting in stopping this, so we've all signed up for another marathon this Spring! Then there's next year's MCM to look forward to.

So two days later the high of finishing is still with me. The coming month will be busy with lots of fun that will keep me from running with the team, but I look forward to December when we once again will find ourselves rising early and coming together on the trail.

I would like to thank everyone who provided support, encouragement, and contributed to Big Brothers Big Sisters in my name. I'm not able to call you all out by name, but here's a few... Thanks to Nick and Kevin for your coaching, patience, and introducing me to the insanity that is an ultra-marathon; Lisa for barely blinking before hopping on the bandwagon when I suggested running your first marathon with me; Krischelle for your endless movie quotes and tourette episodes on and off the trail - your blog also inspired me to start this one; Beth for those great conversations and colorful socks; Katie for your incredible smile and being there when I needed a boost, I'm looking for a pair of steel-toed running shoes for ya; Dan for your mentoring ; Satya for bringing me into Tom's Run and the incredible experience of running at night far from civilization; and finally to Karen for bringing me into the running community and then introducing me to the Marine Corps Marathon last year.

And for something totally different...

2007-10-23T11:57:00.000-04:00

In a departure from my standard running fare, check out Honor, racism, service rifles and assault weapons: One black cop's view, where a cop rails on anti-gun police officers. A *very* long read, but good stuff.

Bring on the straightjacket!

2007-10-22T22:34:00.000-04:00

I just signed up for my second marathon, having not even completed the first yet! The genesis of this was my friend Katie. She signed up for the MCM as relationship therapy and recently professed that she wasn't ready to stop after this Sunday. She spoke for a lot of us when she said that. The marathon will be a great accomplishment for us, but along the way we've found the camaraderie of the training to be addictive, fun, and cathartic. So we've picked our "Spring" marathon, the Virginia Beach Shamrock Marathon. It doesn't hurt that it falls around St Paddy's day and that there is plenty of free Yuengling beer at the finish festival! Coach Nick has graciously offered to provide us with advice, he understands our psychosis!

Reflections

2007-10-22T14:51:00.000-04:00

About 6 days remain before the Marine Corps Marathon and I am ready in all respects. Physically I am in excellent shape. I dealt with a few injuries during training, but those are all behind me. I began tapering two weeks ago after running 20 miles - twice. The second 20-miler was a race and I had enough left to sprint the last mile, so adding a *mere* 10k (6.22 miles) will not slow me. Mentally this is not the daunting trial I faced five months ago. This is a regular Saturday training run with a few more friends (some 30k) and a lot more logistical support. Add 100k spectators and one could probably run the course on the energy in the air alone!

By race day I will have run almost 700 miles this year, over three times my distance last year. Looking though my run log, that's some 119 hours of meditation, bliss, punishment, pain, blood, sweat, and fun. I've run in freezing weather with ice on the ground, in sizzling heat with humidity at the upper end of the scale, in the rain, during the night on a desolate trail with nothing but a headlamp to light the way, and in smog so thick my eyes burned. Locations have included Virginia, Maryland, the District of Columbia, Mississippi, (where I ran through the devastation of Katrina, still obvious two years later) and Hanoi and Saigon, Vietnam. I've met some incredible people on the run and now know some of them better than most of their family as no subject seems to be off limits as the miles roll by. Next week's marathon isn't the end of this journey, but rather a beginning!

Final Exam

2007-09-30T21:03:00.000-04:00

Today was the our final exam in the training program, the National Capital 20-Mile Run. I actually ran 20 miles two weeks ago, but that was at training pace and had the stigma of being the first run of that distance. Today provided a race setting to prepare us for the MCM - arriving in the cold dark, deciding what and how much to wear (the temp was 20 degrees higher when we finished), and running in a much larger pack, at least in the beginning. This race has a four-hour limit and you aren't supposed to enter if you can't make that. They extended concessions to our group allowing some an earlier start. Based on my run two weeks ago I was confident that I would make the four hours, but opted for the early start to finish earlier (and get to do so among the faster runners - gotta look good for the spectators!) and spend less time in the sun. Unfortunately they limited the earlier starters and coach Nick kicked some of us out for being too fast. I was happy to discover that my friend Katie registered yesterday and she joined Lisa, Katrina, and I to form our pace group. The four of us stayed together for 10 miles, then we urged Katrina to go on as her pace was increasing beyond our capabilities. Lisa hung with Katie and I until somewhere between 15 and 16, then Katie stepped it out around mile 17 leaving me to my own devices. One of a runner's worst enemies can be their own mind. One starts to feel phantom pains, urges to slow down or walk, maybe even voices at times ;) Running with others provides distractions, all sorts of juicy gossip (nothing is really off limits after miles of blood, sweat, and tears), and encouragement. I knew I wouldn't be able to keep up with Katie so I started picking off other runners ahead of me, imagining a rubber band connecting me to the next runner, pulling me towards them and then slingshoting me past. The last mile is always easier because it is the last mile, and today we finished with a lap around the track at a school. Entering the track I was greeted with shouts of encouragement from the coaches and other team members. Coach Nick's encouragement was pretty succinct, "Pass four or five more people on the track!" I managed four :) After a couple cups of Gatorade and a slice of pizza I queried Mr. Garmin and was surprised to discover that Katrina had been pushing us in the beginning - I ran 20.57 miles (the 20 mile course is measured by cutting the tangents, not easy to do when there is other traffic on the course) in 3:22:27, 17 minutes faster than last week (and almost 1/2 mile further) at an average pace of 9:50 (10:53 last 20-miler)! My original goal for the MCM was 4:30:00 (about 10:15 pace) and in recent weeks I seriously doubted I would make that, look like it is still a possibility :)

Now we begin four weeks of gradual tapering, cutting back our distance to give the body time to heal. More soon...

A different mindset

2007-09-05T19:00:00.000-04:00

Last Saturday morning (getting up at 5am makes it seem more like Friday night!) as I drove to our training run the 'Check Engine' light on my dashboard came on. "Lovely" I thought, though the engine didn't throw a rod, blow a seal, or perform any different that it did before thus not giving me a way out of the 18 miles I was about to run. Luckily one of my neighbors has the right zillion-dollar cable and software that allows mere mortals to determine why the CE light came on. In my case the Air/Fuel sensor was experiencing a main bus undervolt (or what that Apollo 13?), or in normal speak, it done broke. This meant my emission control system would not work properly (take that you tree-hugging wackos!) and depending on whose post I was reading, either nothing would happen or my fuel economy would but cut in half and my catalytic converter (car-speak for expensive thingie) would be damaged. There wasn't much I could do over the weekend except locate the culprit. It's a sparkplug-sized thingie plugged into my exhaust system in a very hard to find (and reach) location. Not much I could do about it over the weekend or holiday, so I use the motorcycle for the rest of the weekend. On Tuesday I called the friendly folks at SubaruParts.Com to find out how much this sensor would cost and get an idea how much trouble it would be to replace it. Those kind folks offer up information and parts at a pretty good discount via mailorder. The part listed for $200, but they had it for $152. Their response to my question about installation effort was "the guys in the shop made a special tool for that, might not be so easy to do at home...". Given that I am headed for Richmond on Thursday and need the car, the decision was made to let the dealer handle it. Luckily they could fit me in on Wednesday, now I just have to schedule it around everything else I have going on. A quick check of Google Maps shows the dealership to be 4.7 miles from the house. At this point I begin to realize how messed up us runner types are. There was no hesitation, no consideration, just the mental statement "I'll run it"! It actually would work out well as I needed to run 12 miles to replace the Saturday run I would miss in Richmond, so what better way than running 7 in the morning and 5 a couple hours later?

So all ends well, especially for the dealer. That $199 part somehow costs $245.94 here in Virginia, plus labor and misc fees; total price $375. I got my twelve miles in and would get to sleep in on Thursday. The icing was an older gentleman at the dealership asking me, "You a power walker or something?" It actually came out more like, "ewwww a powr walka or sumtin?" I explained that I was training for a marathon and he realized what my Fuel Belt was "ahhh, dems wader boddles..."

A Triple Play

2007-08-20T22:39:00.000-04:00

Today added two new notches in the proverbial belt, three runs in as many days and a good soaking rain. I spoke recently (okay, so it's been two weeks since I last posted - come catch me on the trail someplace and you can bitch about it!) about adding a run on Sunday to increase mileage and help get used to running in a fatigued state. Normally you should have at least a day between hard runs, be them distance or speed, if for no other reason than you need some time to drink and stay up past 10pm! We ran 16.5 on Saturday, mirroring just over half of the actual marathon route, then I ran four miles yesterday whilst still enjoying the very not August weather we've had this weekend. After getting home and ignoring the increasingly obvious signals that the kitties were giving regarding their desire to fed, the siren sound of rain on the roof drew me to the window. The steady rain sang its siren song for me, and faced with the alternative of waking an hour early tomorrow to run, I succumbed and put in three soggy miles. It felt pretty good except that water-logged shoes and clothing add several pounds to the mix. I could have fixed that by removing my shirt, but Endeavor has enough things to worry about right now without adding an extra landing beacon to the mix! Next time I'll take some laundry soap so I won't need to throw anything in the washer afterwards.

Running Rollercoaster

2007-08-05T22:44:00.000-04:00

The Marine Corps Marathon is twelve weeks from today (assuming I get this done in the next 75 minutes!). Since the formal kickoff on May 12th I've pounded out 235 miles with somewhere near 300 more to go. Until the week before last this was all in familiar ground as the half-marathon I ran last September represented my distance PR (personal record). Last week I ran 13.5 to make sure I broke that record and yesterday's run was 14. In the coming weeks we will ride a running rollercoaster, diving to 12 miles every other week while we climb two miles the middle weeks (12, 16, 12, 18, 12, 20, 12, 20) before tapering down. It's borderline insanity when we look forward to running "only" 12 miles!!

I remain in awe of people that can run a marathon (or more), but our training program builds you up such that the big day is really nothing more than a slightly longer training run with 30,000 extra runners and 100,000 spectators showing up! I sure hope they all RSVP'd so that the coaches show up with enough food. In training we are encouraged to try different foods, sport beverages, gear, etc before/during/after our runs so that come race day there is no question what should be used. We've learned what chafes (everything) and where (everywhere), what it feels like to submerge your lower body into a tub filled with ice water (duh, frackin cold!), the effect that heat and humidity have on performance (slow down or bonk), and how exquisite a simple chocolate chip cookie can taste when you've been savoring it for hours! You could train for this alone, but I would hate to learn all of this the hard way. This means I won't have any issues to distract me from my real mission, basking in the adoration of 100,000 fans!

eye-phone

2007-08-02T18:27:00.000-04:00

It probably doesn't surprise any of you that I have an iPhone. As we watched Steve Jobs announce it at MacWorld in January my friend Tom and I looked at each other and said we had to have one. It's not that Steve is a good salesperson, but the iPhone is what a smart phone should be. My previous phone was a Treo 650 and it provided me with synchronized contacts, calendar and limited access to email, but it was a relative brick in size and appearance. Apple advertises "Touching is believing"; it is so true. Once you play with one of these you'll understand, things work like you think they should, not like some socially inept geek thinks they should. There are complaints about the lack of certain features, but what's included works and works well. There is certainly more functionality coming. The other big complaint was price, $599 for the 8 gb version. That didn't bother me very much as my phone is an integral part of my digital lifestyle and I expect to spend several hundred dollars every couple years to upgrade. My friend Mylac put it into perfect perspective though. We were having dinner with another friend, Irina, and Irina commented that $600 was a lot of money for a phone. Mylac responded, "That's a purse." It's great too because it goes with all of my outfits, not just one or two!

Getting back up to speed!

2007-07-31T12:40:00.000-04:00

This morning I indulged myself in something that I haven't done in this month, speed work. Training generally consists of a long slow run on Saturday and several sessions during the week, at least one of which should be speed work. A ankle injury earlier this month resulted in some missed runs and a slower pace overall, so speed work got neglected. After a few miles on Sunday with no pain and no post-run swelling I felt confident that I could step training back up a bit. This morning I ran four miles, one for warmup, the next two at 9:08 and 8:30, then a cooldown mile and it felt great. The injury meant my July mileage was only one mile more than my June mileage, but I prefer that to a lingering injury! This month promises steadily increasing Saturday runs of 14 and 16 miles with an 18-miler on Saturday, September 1. September promises a pair of 20-milers before tapering down for the big day on October 28th!

60 seconds

2007-07-26T20:47:00.000-04:00

How is it that 60 seconds can seem so long when you are running yet be so short when you are walking? I was up at 0445 this morning to knock out 13.5 miles before leaving for Historicon tomorrow morning. Sleep has been elusive the last two nights for various reasons, so that didn't set a good stage. I did wake up five minutes before the alarm clock and had 'Eye of the Tiger' bouncing around my head as I rousted Irina and got ready. Temperature was a wonderful 69 degrees but ole Mr. Humidity was in full force in the high 80s. It was still dark when we started but there were other runners about. Adhering to the K.I.S.S principle I opted for three loops of my 3-mile loop, one of my 4-mile loop and an extra half mile to make sure rounding error on the gps wouldn't snatch my distance PR from me. Things went pretty well, though towards the end Irina starting trying to practice Vietnamese with me - that doesn't work so well when the mind is already numbed in an ice bath. I cannot remember ever having sweat this much - my shoes and socks were almost soaked through! I drank close to 80 ounces during and right after the run, ate half a banana and a number of gels, and still lost a pound in the process (that means I didn't drink enough - I needed to add 16 ounces, I opted for a quart just to make sure the dipstick was at full). There were several points where I walked for as much as two minutes, that's where 60 seconds can go by in a flash.

One of the nice things about a really long run is being able to eat just about anything you want afterwards. For breakfast I settled on four sausage patties, four waffles, two mini-bagels and a banana. Yum yum! Then off for an ice bath, shower, and work. How many people can say they burned off the equivalent of a super-sized quarter pounder value meal before work, or willing submerged themselves in a tub of ice water?

Time to change things up a bit...

2007-07-22T22:29:00.000-04:00

My running schedule has been Tuesday and Thursdays (usually morning) and then Saturday morning for the long run. However, the weekly mileage is getting high enough that I need to add another day to fit things in. The midweek runs are supposed to be where you work on speed, hills, etc, but as the mileage gets higher those things would need to fall by the wayside. I ran four miles early this afternoon to inaugurate the Sunday "recovery" run. Recovery is a bit of a misnomer as a recent study found that there aren't any recovery-type effects, rather it just trains your body to work better whilst still feeling he results of the previous day's long run. Now don't get this confused with running after a night of little sleep and lots of drinking - that's a whole different style of recovery!

This week marks a change in my long run as well. I'll be at Historicon this weekend and the thought of going to bed early on Friday night so i could run a half-marathon on Saturday morning was driving me a bit (more) bonkers. My friend Lisa provided the much needed external review (along with a slap to the back of the head) and suggested that nowhere was it carved on stone tablets that the long run had to occur on Saturday! Duhhhh! I'll be running the 13.11 miles (probably 13.5 to make sure I set a new distance PR) on Thursday morning. My friend Irina (who is training for the Army 10-miler) will bike alongside to provide support and encouragement, or more likely, laugh and tell me how insane I am. This means I won't have to endure the ribbing that would ensue should I depart the festivities at 10pm on Friday. I'll have to use this again in September; the first Saturday I have a wedding in BFE, South Carolina and the second Saturday I'll be in Richmond for the NASCAR race. The latter will be really brutal as that is scheduled for 18 miles - gotta start rounding up some support for that one!

It's Official!

2007-07-22T21:54:00.000-04:00

I've been dutifully showing up for our MCP training runs and slogging through the miles knowing that I would get a number for this year's MCM (as long as I can persuade enough people to donate to Big Brothers Big Sisters), but today I actually have confirmation from the MCM that I am registered. Never mind that the spam filter took one look at the message and dumped it into the special folder on Thursday where I wouldn't find it unless I looked. You can get away with training a little less than you should, but without a registration you're just a spectator. Fourteen more weeks, 400 or so more miles and I'll be looking for a Halloween costume!

Glad to know I'm not (yet) the craziest

2007-07-15T13:00:00.000-04:00

In an earlier post I mentioned Coach Nick's desire to run 44 miles for his 44th birthday. I know, most people go out and celebrate, throw back a few drinks, etc for their birthday. Nick is the first person I've come across that tries to punish himself to celebrate! Now this isn't the first time he's run this distance, he's run the JFK 50-miler twice, but somehow this tradition got started and now he can't stop. The run was timed to meet up with our marathon training group and finish by running the 12 mile training run with them. I had a lot of fun on Tom's Run, especially the nighttime portions, so I volunteered to provide bicycle support for the first 32 miles. We started at the Belle Haven Marina at 12:54am (where the MCP training run would start 6 hours later) and headed up the Mt. Vernon trail, crossing over the Memorial Bridge and touring the monuments, East and West Potomac Park, and the Capitol before retracing our steps back to the Marina. For those of you who may not have tried it, running (or biking in my case) at night is a very different experience. Washington is a beautiful city by night with the monuments and Capitol building standing out. Things are much quieter, traffic is minimal, wildlife comes out to visit, and it isn't so fracking hot! It also makes stopping to urinate much easier :) The sun rose for us as we crossed back into Virginia and headed down the Potomac. Arriving back at Belle Haven after 32 miles I did a quick-change into running gear, we all topped off the fuel belts and headed out for the last 12. Nick surprised us at mile 11 (43 for him) by stepping it out and hauling ass - I tried to keep up and ran the last mile in 8:30, I couldn't catch him! He had some pretty powerful motivation though as Lisa provided a cake (half chocolate and half yellow flavored) with the good full-sugar frosting. 44 miles in 8 hours 23 minutes 30 seconds - it'll be a little while before I'm that crazy!

Lawyers vs. Darwin

2007-07-11T21:15:00.000-04:00

It's a crying shame that our society has gotten so litigious that companies must warn users about every potentially harmful use of their product. Last week I had the opportunity to give a Honda Aquatrax F-12X a spin in Biloxi, MS. The Aquatrax is a personal watercraft powered by a 1.2 liter turbocharged 4-cylinder engine. Think of a tiny boat with a motorcycle seat for up to three people with a lot of power. This beast easily bore my friend Chau and I to speeds in excess of 60mph - that's really damn fast when you consider the only protective gear worn is a pair of glasses and a life jacket! So at some point I took a moment to read the multitude of warning labels describing the things that should not be done on this powerful steed (the moment being after I had done most of the things it warned you not to do.) The label intoned that you should not go fast (never mind that you have a *huge* turbocharged engine), should not jump waves or wakes, or make sharp turns or any turns at speed. There were many many more warnings, but I will save you the agony of reading them all. Basically, people do stupid stuff and injure, maim, or kill themselves, then they or their families sue whomever they can for whatever they can get. This leads the corporate lawyers to suggest "safety" features and more warning labels than one can count. Summing up all the warnings from the Aquatrax, the safest way to "enjoy" it would be to straddle the seat on dry land and make engine noises with your mouth - while wearing a life jacket, partial wetsuit (seems that a bathing suit doesn't provide sufficient protection for the lower body), goggles, and a helmet. Oh, and the Aquatrax should probably be embedded in a concrete base so it doesn't shift on the trailer while you are "enjoying" your $10,000 purchase!

Don't get me wrong, the Aquatrax and others like it are a fracking blast to play with. In the course of a couple hours we jumped waves and wakes, did high-speed doughnuts, slalomed crab trap buoys, and were involuntarily separated from the seat a couple times losing a pair of glasses and two fishing poles in the process. (Bad Gunk!!) It's just sad that our legal system forces corporations to protect themselves from stupid people. There are legitimate issues that arise from poorly designed products, but compensating a family because their loved-one (or even unloved - money can inspire a lot of love) became a Darwin Award nominee by failing to exercise common sense or recognize limits just breeds more of the same, not to mention fueling an undesirable (under)arm of the legal profession. This process drives up costs and likely stifles innovation, keeping cool new crap from those who might properly appreciate it. Let's see some meaningful tort reform and make a TV show out of the candidates and their final acts. There's a documentary I would watch!

Jeepers Creepers Batman!

2007-07-10T15:58:00.000-04:00

I was just perusing the MCM message boards and found a link to an interactive map of the 2007 course. I knew it would be changed slightly from 2006 as the Rock Creek Parkway is under construction, but this was the first I had seen of the new route. I zoomed in and tracked the course and was surprised to find my palms were clammy and my heart rate elevated - just from looking at the silly map!!

The 2007 course has several changes. The start line is moved back to the Pentagon parking lot, so that means you can't get off the Metro at Rosslyn and walk (assuming you come in on the Orange line from VA), but have to transfer to a crowded Blue line train. This won't matter much at the ungodly hour that I will be get there, but going home it might be challenging. The more significant change is mile 25-26 which takes you one-half mile *past* the turn to Iwo Jima and back before climbing the hill and crossing the finish line. That's just cruel!

Remember my friend Mr. Humidity?

2007-07-08T21:52:00.000-04:00

Mr. Humidity invited his extended family to visit yesterday during my long run. I was in Biloxi, MS with some friends (and met many new ones in the process!) for the holiday and was thus unable to run with the team for the 10 mile training run on Saturday. I should have run on Thursday too, but an involuntary dismount from a personal watercraft on Wednesday left an already tender ankle swollen and protesting, so I had to take a pass. Saturday morning dawned at a respectable 77 degrees, but with humidity in the high 90 percentile. In a previous post I described the effect of humidity on perspiration; well, it was much much higher on Saturday. I carry six 8-oz bottles of water and Gatorade, usually good for 10 miles or so. Saturday it barely lasted five and that was without pouring any of the water over my head (gatorade has a similar cooling effect when used this way, but then I have to beat off the dogs who want to lick the residue off me!). My friend Chau, riding alongside, was guiding our path through the parts of Biloxi most affected by Katrina. We stopped at a convenience store to restock and then at a Budist temple where Chau paid his respects and I garnered a smile from a monk with my halting Vietnamese. I then capped my run with a header on the sidewalk in front of a casino. Luckily casinos don't have many windows so few witnessed my ungraceful interaction with a piece of pipe running across the sidewalk. It was another couple of miles home, but they seemed to pass in a sweltering blur.

This was the first long run I've done alone in crappy conditions and definitely missed having the the rest of the team along for support! I'll have to do it again later this month when I am in Lancaster, PA for Historicon and get to run a half marathon alone (that's 13.1 miles)!

Summer is upon us!

2007-06-28T14:30:00.000-04:00

Gone are the glory days of 50 degree mornings - so comfortable to sleep with the windows open and perfect to run on. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I try to run in the morning. Well, this morning was a pleasant 77 degrees at 0700, but our dear friend Mr. Humidity was hovering around 80%. This means that the air is 80% saturated with moisture and cannot absorb much more. To someone exercising, this means that your sweat does not evaporate very well and provide the necessary cooling effect to your body. Sounds like fun huh?

This morning I set out to run five miles and rounded that up to six because I was in mental lala land and didn't turn at the right point. (BTW, this was the same point that I didn't look at Monday night to keep from cutting my run short!) The run went much better than Monday night, though I did go ahead an take two short walk breaks to further explore that training method. Coach John writes about the Galloway method in our weekly newsletter. Mother Nature exhibited her cruel sense of humor by conjuring a pleasant breeze toward the end; fantastic in that it helped cool things down, but of course it was a head wind!! Six more under my shoes, one zillion remaining.

Walking isn't so bad!

2007-06-25T23:21:00.000-04:00

I headed out this evening for seven miles of sweat-soaked bliss with the temperature a balmy 90 degrees and the humidity too far up the scale (no, not a tad of sarcasm in there!). I've been trying to run in the mornings as it's generally cooler and the events of the day will not have an impact, but my choices were tonight or tomorrow morning. Tuesdays are long right now with my Vietnamese class lasting until 9:30pm so running early almost guarantees I'll be nodding off instead of spouting off. That's not going to help me understand what the barbers are yakking about instead of paying attention to my hair! So tonight it was. The first three miles weren't horrible, but they weren't normal either. I blamed it on the heat. Early in mile four I just lacked the drive to keep running and stopped to walk. This wasn't 'hitting the wall' as I have been there and really have no desire to visit again! This was huge though as I haven't stopped to walk during a run since getting a stitch in my side during the Marine Corps Half Marathon last year. I walked for a bit and contemplated cutting my run short, but that just meant I'd have to make up the miles at some other inconvenient time. I sucked down some Gu, had some Gatorade and consciously didn't look to the right as I passed a street that would quickly take me back home. The remaining miles were a mix of running and walking. Even the siren song of Wegmans wasn't enough to keep me running continuously. Upon finishing I was surprised to see that the walking did not have a significant impact on my pace. I typically run in the 9:45 to 10:00 per mile range; walking five times for just over four minutes total, a distance of one quarter mile, dropped my pace to 10:38/mile. Not horrible, but not something I want to get used to! I celebrated my finish with a potato pancake and some chicken parm from Wegmans.

Miles and Miles and Miles...and Miles

2007-06-22T16:57:00.000-04:00

I've been exchanging mail today with the coaches from my Marine Corps Marathon (MCM) team, Big Brothers Big Sisters Run for Kids (BBBS and RFK for short). The exchange started with a discussion about one coach's (Nick) goal to run 44 miles for his 44th birthday next month. And you thought I was crazy!! That discussion turned to my training and I discovered that matching mileage with the Saturday long runs (10 miles on Sat means 10 more miles during the week for a total of 20) was the minimum that I should be doing! Our other coach Kevin indicated that ideally I would be doubling that mileage every week (so 30 miles on a week with a 10 mile long run)! Thankfully, one shouldn't increase their weekly mileage more than 10% a week, so I will be slowly adding an extra mile here and there instead of cramming 10 in today!

Stay tuned for more on the "44 on the 44th"...I'm off to add a couple miles today.

Graduation, from elementary school???

2007-06-21T13:00:00.001-04:00

What the heck? A coworker related that he had recently been called upon to assist with "Advancement" ceremonies at his daughter's elementary school. I've come across news articles about graduation from junior high and even kindergarten recently, this is getting ridiculous! Is it not gratifying enough to realize that school is over for the year and that you successfully avoided summer school? Do our children require this extraneous pomp and circumstance to prop up their self esteem or motivate them to pass the standardized tests? Perhaps those anti-depressants aren't doing the job? I'll probably get grief for parroting my elders, but back in my day there was only one graduation, high school. Industry has to love the opportunity to market caps, gowns, cards, and gifts for the additional ceremonies! I imagine naming rights are right around the corner too, doesn't your child want to walk across the Fedex stage at their advancement ceremony?

Sprint for the Cuppa

2007-06-21T11:38:00.000-04:00

As if NASCAR fans don't have enough changes to cope with this year, the possibility of another name change to their premier series might be too much. An article on ESPN.com citing multiple high-ranking industry sources says the Nextel Cup Series would become the Sprint Cup Series in 2008. In 2004 the series changed from the Winston cup to the Nextel Cup, reflecting a change in title sponsors. I didn't find this to be a terrible change as the tobaco industry is not to be found on my list of things to support, but the Nextel brand has become a comfortable fit (even though I do not subscribe to their service). The article indicates the series would become the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series in 2008. That just doesn't roll of the tongue very well and conjours images of little go-karts or amateur league racing. My friend Karen predicted this early last year with the prediction that the 'Chase to the Cup' would become 'Sprint to the Cup' because it was just too good an opportunity to pass up.

My three cents...stop mucking with stuff and let us enjoy the sport! I support this year's change allowing winning drivers to get a few more points, but this name change goes on my list of unfavorable changes along with allowing twelve drivers into the Chase. Let's not get into how I feel about AT&T rebranding Jeff Burton's Cingular 31...

A larger audience!

2007-06-17T22:34:00.000-04:00

Friends have long been encouraging me to take my show on the road so that others might share the suffering. I've had access to the Internet since 1990 and have somehow managed to never publish a public webpage! Well, that changes today. A friend indirectly inspired me to finally make the plunge by detailing our recent adventure on Tom's Run, a 200 mile relay along the C&O canal. Send her flowers or point your plasma cannons her way, your call.

I briefly considered some advice from an old boss concerning web page design, something about yellow text on a pink page, but my brain hurt just thinking about it, so I'll spare you the horror.

Stay tuned...