AWOL

The desire to write blog posts comes and goes, and when it comes, the will to actually sit down and write something usually isn’t there, which is why I can go for months without writing anything here.

But the running still continues, and much like with writing, the desire to do that comes and goes as well.  For the most part I’ve been able to make it out the door when I’ve needed to.  Staying gone for as long as planned happens most of the time, so you could say that marathon training is going ok. 

When I got out of college, it was the first time in 9 years that I’d been a runner without a coach and I didn’t really know what to do with myself.  I’ve always described myself as a ‘dumb runner’, someone who can be a decent runner as long as someone’s telling me what to do.  So after college, I read books about running.  And internet forums, which may have been a step backwards in some cases.  But I tried to educate myself.  And the more I learned, the less I ran.  So now I have a new approach:  just run, man.  It’s working out ok so far.

So that’s the update.  I’m running.  A fair amount.  I’ll run some more.  And three months from this weekend, I’ll be running a marathon.  With a 2-4 week old daughter cheering me on.

Until next time, which may be tomorrow.  Or three months from now. 

Taking the Plunge

I have an email sitting in my inbox right now. This is what is says:

Don’t be fooled by the “& Half Marathon” part. I’m signed up to go the distance. It’s a big deal because it’s marathon numero uno for yours truly. I’m looking forward to it.

I spent yesterday working on my ‘training plan’, a term I use loosely. I'm going with a 22wk, self modified version of Jack Daniel's Marathon Plan A, which you can find in his book "Daniel's Running Formula". The next four weeks are essentially going to look like the last 12, just some miles. Regardless, this…

…is the first run in this whole ordeal.

I haven't set a goal for the race yet, but I'd like to see if I can nail down a BQ. I know that by the time the '09 Tallahassee Marathon kicked off, the '09 Boston race was full, so qualifiers were qualified for the 2010 race. That would work out just fine with me since in April I will have a 4 month old and I imagine it'd be a little difficult to just jet up to Boston. But hopefully it's an option for 2011. Then my plan would be to run the Columbus Marathon in October, 2010, then in April, 2011 run Boston. Then maybe give triathlons another shot? Maybe.

(Training log excerpt is from my BT log. You should try it, lots of neat features.)

Lately...

Whoops.

Normally I try not to go two weeks without posting something, because then two weeks turns into a few months, and then that turns into...you know the drill. Sorry about that. So here's one of those 'grab bag' type blog posts to hold over my 3 or 4 readers. Enjoy...

6. I built a crib today. Normally I half ass furniture building, but this time I kept thinking about my daughter sleeping in this particular piece of furniture, so I spent a little extra time on it. If a hurricane comes in the next few months, I'm hiding under the crib, because I'm pretty sure it'll make it. I'm sure my wife will mention more about the crib later if you're into that kind of thing.

5. College football also started today. This is actually a warning to you. There might be one or two posts about the Buckeyes, who managed to avoid being upset today. Consider the next month or so a training exercise, as hockey season is around the corner and the Red Wings posts will get obnoxious. A word about the game, I'm not worried that the Buckeyes couldn't stop the run today. Because our next opponent, #4 ranked Southern Cal, doesn't seem to run much. Today, they only had 340 rushing yards and 5 rushing touchdowns. That's no biggie. Excuse me while I go throw up.

4. Running has been...eh. You know, sometimes you just have a few 'eh' weeks of running. I've had a few more 'eh' days than normal lately, but it's all good.

3. Did I mention that college football started? Did I mention that my alma matter, Western Kentucky, moved to Division I-A? They played Tennessee today. UT scored 63 points. WKU scored 7 points. Maybe we can at least get Big Red to win the Capital One Mascot of the Year competition.

2. September might be one of my favorite running months, regardless of where I'm living. The weather lately has been awesome. Cool mornings, warm evenings...awesome. The only good news about the passing of September is that October gives stiff competition in the 'Best Running Month' contest.

1. And speaking of obnoxious, did anyone see the score of That School Up North's game?

Some Running Notes, Some Walking Notes

Well, four more weeks of running down. It feels pretty weird that I’ve been back to running for pretty much three months after the plantars fiasco. It seems much shorter. Anyway, on to the specifics.

The last four weeks of running, the yellow/orange line being what I had planned to run and the blue bars what I actually ran. So yes, time to fess up that week 3 did not quite meet the standard. I had an issue that particular Thursday that ended up with me being in the ER and subsequently taking two days off. It was no big deal, I think it was an asthma attack of some sort (I’ve never been diagnosed with asthma) but I have an inhaler thing and a doctors appointment to get it all cleared up next week. Other than that Thursday, it hasn’t bothered me at all. I toyed around briefly with switching week 3 and week 4 around, but I figured it was better just to leave it as is in the grand scheme of things.

Alright, so here’s where we’re planning on going for the next four weeks. I should get back to where I was pre-plantars as far as weekly mileage goes, so I’m pretty excited about that. Also, September 19 I’m going to run a 5k, so I should get a pretty good gauge of where I am fitness wise, which should be very helpful. No goals for that yet.

Speaking of races, I added a few more to the schedule on the right to make up for some of the ones I missed over the summer. One more 5k, a 20k, and a 10 mile race. Really looking forward to the 20k, as I’ve never done one of those before.

In other news, it was a fabulous day here weather wise (see picture above for proof), so we took advantage of it by taking our world champion squirrel hunter for a walk. I leave you with some pictures for his failed attempts to climb trees. Have a good week!

PS – As always, the graphs are from my training log at BeginnerTriathlete.com. One of the best online training logs I’ve ever seen and although the website as a whole is geared towards triathletes, it’s very helpful for just running as well (or just cycling and swimming for that matter). Head over there and check it out!

Win Yourself Some Gu!

Some of you may remember that time I tried to win a gift card to an online shoe store from Steve in a Speedo’s blog (key word here is tried to win).  I also tried to win this bike from Fat Cyclist’s blog a couple weeks ago (not winning the bike wasn’t as bad because the money was for a great cause:  fighting cancer).

Well I’m at it again and this time letting you in on the secret (but only because it increases my chances of winning).  Just a few weeks ago I found a running blog called Chasing the Kenyans, which is a pretty good read (and she’s in Kentucky to boot, win-win).  She’s now running a contest to win some Gu stuff since her blog is a year old.  Like with Steve’s contest, there a few ways to enter which include leaving a comment on her blog, following her on twitter, and writing a blog post about her contest.  So head over to her blog and win some free Gu!

World Track and Field Champions: A Casual Fans Observations, Part 2

Day 3 and 4 of the World Champs has happened, which means the Men’s 10k final has been run and the Men’s 100m final has been dashed. My favorite event, the 10k, and the (arguably) most glamorous event, the 100 meters.

100m Dash – Bolt actually runs to the finish line

If you watched the 2008 Olympic 100m dash, you were probably left with two thoughts: “that’s the fastest I’ve ever seen anyone move”, and “how much faster could he have gone if he had run the whole way?”. Becoming the first man to ever break 9.7 seconds for 100 meters, Bolt did it while showboating the final 5-7 meters. Of note in that final was the absence of 2007 World Champion, Tyson Gay.

For the finals of the 100m of this years World Championships, fans were treated to the head to head match up between Bolt and Gay and also allowed a glimpse of what can happen when Bolt races the entire 100 meters. There won’t be any of the post-Beijing speculation of ‘how fast could he have gone?’ this time around, although Bolt has claimed he can run 9.4 in the past. Tyson Gay, a fellow product of Kentucky high school track (along with me, not Bolt), ran quite the race, finishing second in a new American Record of 9.71. The Sports Scientists have a great write up of the event here. You should check it out, as you should check out most of the stuff they put out.

10,000m Run – Bekele wins

While it may be awhile before we see another great rivalry like the recent one between Kenyan Paul Tergat and Ethiopian Haile Gebrselassie, Zersenay Tadese did his best to break the string of world titles won by world record holder Kenenisa Bekele of Ethiopia. I was able to time my lunch break so that I got to watch the entire race (except for the intermittent Women’s triple jump attempts) via Universal Sports, and I’ve now got a lot of admiration for Tadese. (See, I don’t require much. Just run a sub-27 minute 10k.) The pace was relatively cool for the first 3-4k or so when Tadese and his younger brother Kidane moved to the front. (Actually, the Tadese brothers immediately went to the front off the stagger, but relented pace making duties to two athletes from Qatar shortly thereafter.) Bekele queued up behind him with just about every other East African in the race and the attempt to break Bekele was on. The pace went from 65-66 seconds per lap down to about 64-63 seconds per lap (per my possibly inaccurate memory). Runners started dropping out of the lead pack immediately. Impressively, Americans Dathan Ritzenhein and Galen Rupp were able to hang for a couple laps before being dropped.

Eventually, the party was down to four runners, including Tadese still sitting in front and Bekele, bidding his time in fourth position. Once Tadese took the lead, he assumed all pace making duties, and I believe I only saw him glance behind him for help once. (Watch highlights of the race here.)

By the 9k mark, it was only Tadese and Bekele, and it was becoming more obvious that Bekele was in his comfort zone. They hit the 23rd lap in about 24:46 and after allowing Tadese one more lap in front, Bekele took the lead with the bell and ran the last 400m in about 57 seconds (by my math) to take the win.

Before the race started, I was betting on a pack of runners holding it together for 8500 – 9000 meters, maybe even longer, before the big names started kicking for the end, so I was pleasantly surprised to see Tadese make a run at it so early in the race. He never seemed to put Bekele in discomfort, but nonetheless is was nice to see it happen. Also nice to see was Ritzenhein hold on for sixth place.

Other World Champs highlights and links

Isinbayeva no heights in the women’s pole vault.
Kenyans take 3 of 4 places in the men’s steeplechase. Close finish!
Drug testing? How about gender testing.

Letsrun.com
The Sports Scientists
IAAF World Championships Home Page
Universal Sports World Championships Home Page

Beach Running

So it’s been a week or so and I haven’t mentioned anything about our vacation to St. George Island.

We’ve been going to St. George Island for 5 or 6 years now, maybe even longer, and I remember the first day we were ever there I had aspirations of heading down to the beach and taking off for a 10 miler.

Fail!

See, after you get past how wonderful it must be to go flying down the beach with the vastness on the ocean on one side and the wonderful beach houses on the others, there are a lot of things that suck about running down the beach. Like deep sand. And seashells that threaten to cut your bare feet. And jelly fish. And the quicksand at the waters edge that masquerades as an inviting running surface.

Now I’m sure there are many runners that enjoy morning runs on the beach, but me? I’m not one of them. I almost made an exception our third morning of vacation. I was up and at ‘em and ready to hit the road, and so was my dog, Potter.

As soon as I was up out of bed, he was up off his pillow, following me to my shoes, following me to the edge of the bed and watching me put them on, eating his breakfast with one eye on me so I wouldn’t sneak off. I actually had leash in hand one morning and entertained briefly the idea of taking him for a trot down the beach. But then I remembered the quicksand, and what happened to me the last time I ate breakfast and then immediately went for a run and thought better of the idea.

So I stuck to the roads of St. George Island all week, which themselves are just as rewarding as the beach.

Now, the most important thing about running on vacation is getting up and doing it early. Which is tough to do on vacation, so you have to have reasons to get up and do it. Like sunrises.

Or the idea of jumping into the ocean right after running, when the water is still nice and cool.

But the best part about running early in the morning while you’re on vacation is the part when you get to spend the rest of the day relaxing…

And that was pretty much the story of my vacation. Wake up, run, head to the beach and relax. Repeat from Saturday to Saturday. Once we discussed renting some kayaks and taking them out for a bit. But the idea of relaxing on the beach was more appealing, so we kept relaxing. It was quite possibly the best vacation I’ve ever been on, which is good, because I imagine next year’s beach vacation will be slightly less relaxing with an 8 month old in tow.