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Fairly busy day... after work I had softball practice, but I wanted to get my running in, too. I drove to the ballfields about an hour early and took a tour by foot of the nearest neighborhood. After 36+ minutes I'd covered 4.4 miles, which was nice because it sure didn't feel like I was holding that kind of pace. I changed at my car, transforming from runner into ballplayer and waited for my team to show up.
Within half an hour we were warming up our arms, and then shagging balls while taking BP. Surprisingly my legs felt great despite my pre-practice run - I was accelerating without problems, leaping high, etc. I even hit the ball pretty well considering I hadn't swung a bat since last August. My shoulder held up fine - in fact, I had better zip on the ball than last season; however, I still can't throw very far with a good heave.
So was this a duathlon? 4.4 mile run followed by two hours of softball? What's neat about this "du" is that softball was one of the motivators for me to start running again. Four years ago I played softball for the first time since college and got tired just jogging out to the outfield! Sad. I used to run all over the field and turn ground balls into triples, so I started running again partly to make sure that softball would never get me out of breath.
And wouldn't you know, four years later, here I am telling you all that today's run puts me at 401 miles on the year. :)
It seems most of my major hobbies had a big event recently:
Saturday - spent about 10 hours volunteering at the Pet Expo
Saturday - conducted my Mach League player draft 8pm-10pm
Sunday - went running TWICE for an hour each run
Sunday - fetched the dogs at the river before the Pet Expo
Sunday - between runs, volunteered about 5 hours at the Pet Expo
Monday - went to the softball managers' meeting after work, got home around 9:30pm
So there you have significant events for my hobbies of dogs, running, dog rescue, baseball, and co-ed softball. To top it all off, I'm a tad under the weather. This probably explains why my second Sunday run was so painful - my body was diverting its resources to my immune system, not to my "running" system.
I debated whether I should run today or take the day off, but since Amanda was feeling tired and sore and still went for her workout today, I figured I should get my work in, too.
It was very warm - 78 degrees - when Haven and I set foot (and paw) on the road, heading for the trailhead. Just before the trailhead we passed a couple kids playing with an unleashed dog in their driveway. Upon spotting us the dog - a border collie mix - started to follow us. She was very shy and Haven kept trying to chase her away, but this dog wouldn't go away. She had very bright blue eyes so I called her Blue Eyes. I suppose I could've been more creative but sometimes my mind turns off when I run!
Anyway, Blue Eyes followed us into the woods for about a 1/4 mile on the trail, so I decided I better bring her back to the kids. I walk up the driveway and ask the kids if this is their dog. They tell me no, that this dog came from down the road somewhere. Great. I checked for tags. Blue Eyes had a collar, but no tags. At least she was pretty submissive to both me and Haven and kept trying to play with Haven, so she was a friendly dog.
My next plan was to get her tired. One time a german shepherd followed Haven and I on a run and we got him pretty tired before his owner drove up to get him. We ran back into the woods and Blue Eyes followed; of course, border collies were meant to run. I exited the trail further up the road and decided to head back towards where the kids said she came, hoping to find an owner. Once on the road Blue Eyes took off, obviously familiar with her location and hopefully heading home. When she wasn't looking I unleashed Haven, pointed at the trail and said quietly but urgently "Let's go let's go let's go!!!" and Haven bolted down the trail with me in hot pursuit. I figured if Blue Eyes tried to follow us, she'd be less inclined the more distance we put between her and us.
It worked! No sign of Blue Eyes. Haven and I finished our work on the trails and headed for the river where we planned to meet Amanda and Beacon playing fetch. I could hear Beacon's eager screams half a mile away! Partly because of the strong NW wind that was bringing a cold front our way. Just before we saw Amanda and Beacon the skies opened up with big fat drops of rain!
We continued fetching with the dogs even as the pouring rain turned the surface of the river into what looked like a giant lemon zester! Despite the decreasing temperature and increasing mud and thunder we kept throwing sticks and the dogs kept fetching them. What a blast! We were soaked when we finally headed back to the car; when we got 100 yards away the rain simply stopped and within seconds the sun was out. Perfect timing!
Normally Amanda and I do our long workouts on Sunday mornings, but this morning we had a bit of a time crunch due to volunteering at the Pet Expo. I could only run for an hour so I planned to get in my long run via a "daily double" run.
This morning was 60 degrees and overcast; in fact, thunderstorms had just rolled through before sunrise. I got my running gear on, grabbed a water bottle and my iPod and hit the streets. Let me tell you, it was one of THE MOST ENJOYABLE runs I've ever had! Why this morning of all days? Perhaps the perfect running weather and the good music, but for some reason my feet were just floating. I was cruising along at just over a 9:00 pace and I felt as if I could've gone on forever. Never once did I feel even a hint of fatigue; I just ran and ran and ran for 7.3 miles, going faster every mile.
Before heading off to the Expo our dogs convinced us to let them get some activity, so we drove them to the trails to run around and fetch in the river for about half an hour. They would've preferred more, but it was all the time we had. Still, they were pretty happy. Dogs can be so easy to please! Then again, are we any different?
After the Expo it was time for the second half of my long run, and what a contrast! My legs were tired from the morning run, tired from standing at the Expo for hours, and here I am trying to make them run again. I eked out 6.75 miles at a 9:30 pace and barely made it! At least the weather was great: 75 degrees and partly sunny - perhaps the heat was part of my trouble for my winter-adjusted body? In any case, the first two miles my legs felt stiff, then for two miles I felt OK, then the last two+ miles my legs felt heavy and listless.
Hopefully one of these days I can figure out how to replicate the feeling of that morning run!
After spending all Saturday morning and afternoon at the Pet Expo, my day wasn't done yet. At 8pm was the annual player draft for my baseball league!
Ever since 1993 I've been part of a fantasy simulation baseball league. This isn't a rotisserie league; this is a keeper league that updates player stats every month and plays actual games using simulation software: the amazingly accurate and realistic Diamond Mind Baseball. Each week of the regular season we play six games for a total of 144 for each of the eight teams in the league. We use American League players only.
Mach League Baseball is our league; the name is an abbreviation of Machiavellian League Baseball, reflective of the ruthless tactics we used to use back in our high school and college days, exploiting every loophole and forming ad-hoc coalitions, etc. We've always had fun, but we're more laid back now. Since 2001 I've been the League President, which basically means I'm the one updating stats, playing the games, and most recently, organizing the player draft.
Each roster has 30 players, but in the off-season we can keep only 18 and thus have a 12-round player draft towards the end of Major League spring training. Back in the early years seven of the eight GMs (team General Managers, i.e. the league members) lived in Ann Arbor so we'd all get together and conduct a draft in person. It was great fun but soon we were off to college and scattered about.
Luckily the internet took hold around the same time and we began conducting our draft online using chat rooms. It was a great way to get people together but technical difficulties would bite us every year. This year we tried something new: a free telephone conference service and it worked like a charm!
It was strange to hear everyone's voice; many of my fellow GMs I haven't talked to in years despite keeping in frequent email contact. I was lucky to meet up with a couple of them over the winter holidays. In fact, a few of the GMs in our league I've never met in person before! We're not a public league and everyone who's been part has been a friends or family of someone already in the league; my high school friend Shane was one of the co-founders in 1990.
So there we were, all talking on the phone together and struggling to quickly learn how to recognize everyone's voice! It was a great time and you bet we'll be doing that again next year. Thinking about it, it blows my mind that I've been in this league going on 15 years now! We've seen many Major League careers come and go; I've watched as the rookies who used to be years older than me are now years younger!
We love baseball, we're great fans, but we're not obsessed. You can tell when a GM is having a busy few years of life when their team begins to tank; they just can't keep up with baseball news to make informed decisions. Even though we make sure baseball doesn't get in the way of real life, many of us have been in the league for several years and managed to keep it up. I sincerely hope that our current crop of eight GMs will be able to remain in place for years to come because they are all great folks and even if we can only talk once a year, it's worth it.
We've had a busy weekend and hopefully I'll have time to write about everything tonight. First up is the West Michigan Pet Expo, a two-day event that Amanda and I attended as volunteers. Lots of people explored the dozens of pet-related exhibitors in the convention center and it was pretty crowded.
One of the dogs we were trying to adopt out was Lucy, a one and a half year old black lab mix. She was there both days and during our time there I grew quite fond of Lucy and she took quite a liking to me as well. It all started when I took her out for a walk, during which I ran her about 1/4 mile along the road. After that she would sit in her crate facing me rather than all the people who might want to adopt her!
She's a real sweetie. Occasionally we'd let her out of crate on leash to sit with us and she kept trying to crawl into our lap, and she's a 70 pound dog! Whenever kids would pet her she made sure to lick them solidly on the face. Over the two days I took her out for walks a half dozen times and each time I'd run her a 1/2 mile and she'd come back happy and tired. Problem was, nobody was interested in adopting her...
...until tonight! Someone took notice of her sweetness and Lucy got adopted! Lucky Lucy. :)
It's nice and warm here - almost 60 - so we took advantage of the weather to hike with the dogs and play a little fetch. I'm just going to write about the hiking part since I had the camera during that portion.
The Flat River is near our house and there's a nice little trail network that runs by it. You wouldn't think you'd have to climb a steep hill to reach a river, but that's what we're doing in order to access a nice flat spot for fetching. You can see how high we are above the floodplain on the far side of the river and we're just halfway up the hill.
Near the top of the hill we're much higher, but the view isn't quite as good since some cedar trees block part of the view. Still, it's this view is well worth the climb up the leaf-covered trail.
We call Haven a "mountain goat" because she has no fears or problems negotiating steep terrain. Beacon, however, prefers to avoid it. He usually watches from a safe position as Haven contemplates whether satisfying her curiosity will be worth the trip back up this steep slope.
It's even tougher to climb when the ground is soft and covered in dry leaves, like today. Amanda did a hill repeats workout earlier today so it's pretty impressive that she tackled this hill just a few hours later. Notice how dogs make hills look so easy to climb!
Haven has a very strong curiosity drive so while Beacon is dutifully retrieving sticks from the river, Haven occasionally takes little sorties through the woods. What she's chasing, who knows, but she's loves to just run around weaving among the trees. On the last photo I attempted to apply some artistic touch with Picasa's soft focus effect and I think it looks pretty cool.
After logging Tuesday's run with the dogs I noticed that one of them reached a milestone: Haven has passed 100 miles on the year! She has 102 miles under her pads. Beacon isn't too far behind with 71 miles, but he also can boast 85 minutes of swimming whereas Haven has just 20. They've each done this in about 15 hours of activity.
This is also good motivation for Amanda, who has 84 miles on foot this year. Haven is kicking her butt and Beacon isn't too far behind. Time to move to the head of the pack! :)
Woo hoo! I'm done with PT! I had my last appointment today and they declared me well enough recovered that I don't have to go back. Actually it was rather fun to go there but it's also expensive at $25 a visit.
My abs/rib injury has been healing nicely. While not 100%, I'm able to do most anything I want without problems. My shoulder is actually progressing more slowly but still making progress. It's not quite strong enough to do "step-ups" (in a push-up stance, walk my hands up and down a stairstep) - I can do it, but it causes pain in the front of my shoulder. I'll have to keep working on that.
The coolest part of PT today was when the PT handed me a baseball and a mitt and said "Let's go see how well you can throw!" Yes! He grabbed a catchers' mitt and we went out into a wide hallway at the fitness club to play catch. Bringing my elbow back and up caused a slight click in my shoulder, but the actual throw posed no trouble. That's good, because softball practice will start next week!
For about a week before the race I was battling a sore left IT band, then I must've overcompensated and caused some sore calves. I took it easy leading up to the 5K and it really paid off as my legs were able to recover. After the race my calves were a bit sore, but not as bad as the day before so that was cool.
Yesterday was my first run after the 5K, running with the guys from work. We managed a 9:00 pace over 5 miles and it felt pretty good and my legs were hardly sore afterwards. Still, I'm going to continue with a lighter training load this week to make sure my IT band and calves get all healed up before I crank up the intensity again.
That doesn't mean I won't run! All day at work today I felt like running so when I got home I packed the dogs in the car and drove to a nearby trailhead. It's only a half-mile away but it's a paved half-mile; I didn't want the pavement pounding my legs in trail shoes and I didn't want two big dogs dragging me around in their excitement, so I wussed out and took the car.
No worries though - once there, we ran. This way Haven and Beacon could spend the entire outing off leash and boy did they have some energy to burn! They were burning up the grass as I slowly jogged in pursuit. Three miles and 30 minutes later none of us were tired, but I wasn't going to push my legs today so we hiked to the river and I played fetch with the dogs.
Before I threw the first stick Haven was 50 yards down the riverbank, rolling in something in the bushes. I called her and waved the stick, but instead Beacon ran off to join her! Continuing to disobey, I ran after them and found the object of their desire - a stinky, rotten, dead catfish! Gross. Or "bogus" as we'd say in elementary school. Using a stick I pushed the carcass into the river and ran back to our fetching area waving the stick excitedly, leaping over a stream along the way.
Beacon as you may recall is a fiend for fetch. Haven usually just wades but this time she went after a stick in the shallows while waiting for Beacon to swim back. Next time I threw Beacon's stick far out into the river to give Haven more retrieving time, and threw her a stick pretty far out, too. Without hesitating she swam out and brought it back, and even enjoyed it!
Part of what I think has helped Haven is that when she brings a stick back, I get REALLY excited, jumping around and saying things like "wooooooooooo good girl, you got the stick, woo hoo woo hoo shake out that water shake shake shake WOO HOO!" I suppose if anyone saw me they'd think I was Daffy Duck going loony. But it worked! She started to get spooled up and was fetching sticks thrown as far as Beacon's were thrown. Both dogs are sound asleep right now, so I bet they had fun!
Thanks to Google I've since learned that the guy who won the race I ran Saturday is a world-class Kenyan runner who now lives in my hometown of Ann Arbor. Here's a good story and interview with Boaz Cheboiywo. Sounds like when he's ready to apply his speed to a marathon, he's going to race in Chicago!
The Irish Jig 5K is a much larger event than I expected - almost 2500 runners! I'm sure St. Patrick's Day is part of the draw since it provides a good excuse for those who want to drink on a Saturday morning. It was COLD, too! This past week we saw temps in the 50s and 60s but it wouldn't last. While we had clear skies, a bright sun, and light wind to cheer us up, the 20-degree air wasn't exactly ideal. Of course, I wore shorts.
Several of my co-workers were there, most of whom I never was able to find among the huge crowd. I did get to talk to a few both before and after the race, however. A couple of them were my lunch-hour running buddies so we'll have a lot to talk about during Monday's run.
My goal for this race was to get under 22:00, a goal I failed to reach in my last 5K. This wouldn't be easy, as my modern-day (i.e. after high school) PR for a 5K is a dog-assisted 22:42 last October. There was such a throng of runners that it took me 40 seconds to reach the start line! In the first mile I passed literally hundreds of runners, so while I may have started too far back I think the real problem was the slow runners starting from the front. I suppose they didn't know any better, but it was still a pain to weave past these folks.
I wanted to start out fast and see how long I could keep it up - I figured that if I crashed, at least I'd know my limits but no way was I going to start slow and finish with too much in the tank. I was hoping to get close to a 7:00 pace and was shocked when I passed the 1 mile mark in 6:50! Sweet.
Now I just have to maintain that pace... while it was certainly easier said than done, I was still able to hold a good pace. I was still passing people frequently, yet a few others passed me. For a while along this stretch I was following a young girl who must've been three feet tall! She was amazing - she couldn't have been older than 10 - wearing little pink sunglasses and a day-glow jacket that was probably necessary so that other runners wouldn't step on her! The course wound through a residential neighborhood with a fair amount of spectators, so I wonder what they though to see this bright little girl being chased by a guy twice her height wearing black. :)
Finally I passed the 2 mile mark at 13:50, which means I ran a 7:00 second mile. Not bad! Going up a slight hill I passed the little girl but just a minute later I was feeling TIRED. There aren't supposed to be any walls in short races but it felt like I was running through mud. One of the neighborly spectators was sitting in his driveway playing a well-known tune on his bagpipes! Awesome. I wanted to say something but I could barely breathe.
Actually it was all I could do to keep my pace up. If my attention lapsed for a minute I found myself unwittingly slowing down so I had to frequently remind myself to push the pace. I started looking for the 3 mile marker at around 15:00 - WAAAY too early but I was dying for the finish to be near. For inspiration I started thinking of my dogs and how excited they get when running - it kept my mind smiling rather than thinking about how much pain I was in!
I finally reached the 3 mile mark and looked at my watch, but I couldn't do the simple math to calculate my split and for the life of me I can't even remember what the time was. My mind was turning to mush. It was already a slight downhill at this point (thankfully) and I was picking up speed knowing that the finish was near. I rounded the last corner just 50 yards before the finish and kicked in the afterburner. Holy cow, doing that on a downhill can really make me go fast! My legs almost got away from me and my mental reaction time was so slow that I was afraid I'd crash into someone at the finish.
Almost there - just 50 yards from the finish line!
Luckily I squeaked into the chute without incident. Did I mention that my mind was completely gone? Amanda was photographing along that home stretch but I never saw her. At the finish I forgot to stop my watch and I never noticed the giant clock they have there, so I had no clue what my finish time was. Amanda thought she saw me cross at 21:47, which would be sweet if true. Unfortunately I had to wait until they posted the results online to know for sure.
The results are in - I finished in 21:07!!! Wow, that's much faster than I'd hoped. Before the race I would've predicted 21:45 to 22:15. Amazingly a 21:07 is a 6:49 pace, so I must've been pushing hard in that last mile. Needless to say I'm very pleased with my effort today. The results put me at 28/191 for my age group and 237/2488 overall.
That's almost enough for me to feel a bit fast, until I look at these guys below... Amanda got photos of the top four finishers and they all crossed the line under 15:00! Wow. The winner blazed in at 14:23!! Unreal. He finished 30 seconds after I crossed the 2 mile marker! Now those guys are FAST.
The overall winner in a time of 14:23!
These guys finished (left to right) 4th, 3rd and 2nd, all under 15:00!
(Now I've got that U2 song "Ultraviolet" stuck in my head!)
Once again Haven and I took to the streets of Lowell in the pre-dawn darkness for a 3-mile run. I run in the streets instead of on sidewalks because the latter can be very uneven, booby-trapped with low-hanging tree branches, or might not even exist in front of the older houses. The streets here are safer, day and night, but in darkness I want to be sure I'm visible.
Passive visibility - the type provided by reflective items - is certainly valuable but it requires someone else to shine a light on me. A car might not see me approaching on a perpendicular path, or another unlighted jogger or cyclist (I've seen both) could be a risk as well.
Active visibility - the type that provides its own light source - is what I recommend for running in the dark. Let me tell you about the three lights that Haven and I use when we're out before sunrise. The effect of these lights can be seen in the photos below:
Haven is wearing a blue-and-white Bling Bling Blinker, which I wrote about recently. It's a small but quite bright clip-on light that strobes between a blue and a white LED very rapidly. For good measure Haven also has a generic orange reflective sporting dog collar. Keeping us together is a Just-a-Cinch leash, which was designed with built-in reflective piping and I reviewed it here.
On my head is a Princeton Tec EOS headlamp that I originally purchased for adventure racing. It runs on three AAA batteries for about 1-2 hours on maximum brightness, which will give you good visibility 100 feet ahead of you and will illuminate reflective items (e.g. street signs) about 150 yards away. It has three brightness settings; in the photo you're seeing the dimmest setting so that I don't blow out the camera. It can last for many, many hours on the dim setting, but I always use the brightest and use rechargeable batteries. This headlamp is simple and comfortable and even waterproof! I can attest to that after falling overboard during a 4:00am canoe leg down an obstacle-ridden river... what a way to start a 15-hour race!
The red light you see on the back of my head is a simple Fun Source Safety Light clipped to the headband of my headlamp. This serves as my "tail light" for anyone approaching from behind. I don't think it's waterproof but it survived my dunking that I described above! I've used it for two years and haven't had to change the batteries yet.
Some of these items are cheap. The Bling Bling Blinker and the Fun Source Safety Light were $5 each. The Just-a-Cinch leash retails for $20 but I bought that more for utility than visibility. The Princeton Tec EOS headlamp set me back $40 (plus another $25 for batteries and a charger) but it's well worth it - the headlamp is the most important item to have when running in darkness. Why? Because it'll show me the cracks I'm about to trip over, the ice I'm about to slip on, and the people walking nearby that otherwise look like shadows. Plus it grabs the attention of motorists when you point the beam right into their windshield.
In fact, the first time I ran with Haven in the dark I had nothing special except the headlamp. When cars approached, I would face the beam towards the car, then point it down at Haven so they were aware I had a dog with me. Now that she's illuminated, I don't have to do that but having a powerful, directable beam is quite useful.
Ideally I'd like to have some reflective clothing - most of my running garments are the cheap kind, but the good ones usually have some reflective elements built right in.
Come to think of it, running in the dark can be just as safe as running in the daylight. First of all, there's less traffic in the wee hours. More importantly, an actively illuminated runner is very eye-catching at night - think of how often you notice the guy wearing blinking lights in the dark as you drive to work versus the average daytime runner. So yes, it can be very safe running in the dark if you choose it to be. Best of all, you get to enjoy the stillness and solitude of running without the sun!
At work today I ran the usual 5 miles with the peeps, but for the first time in weeks we were able to use the sidewalks! For some reason they don't bother clearing the snow off sidewalks around here; in fact, snow from the road is actually piled onto the sidewalk! So we've been running laps along the loading docks of a shopping mall, where the pavement is both plowed and salted. Crazy world.
Once I got home from work Amanda and I took the dogs to some nearby trails. Beacon is DRIVEN to retrieve from the water. Haven not so much, but she LOVES to explore and satisfy her curiosity. The four of us were doing things that we do well: Amanda was taking photos, Beacon was fetching, Haven was exploring and I was throwing sticks. Here are some of Amanda's photos...
Beacon the Loch Ness Dog waiting to ambush the stick I'm about to throw
Haven the Recon Dog returning from a mission exploring the woods
Impatient Beacon implores me to throw that stick!
Now that the weather is nice (if you call upper 30's nice, that is) and the roads are clear of snow, I finally got to make use of the great outdoors for my weekend long run. Lately I've been running for an hour on the treadmill with Amanda, but this time I took on one of my usual routes from last year, a 14.4 mile out-and-back on rural country roads.
Boy was it difficult! I never felt comfortable even in the beginning, so it was just one of those days I suppose. The last hour really sucked and it's probably because I haven't run more than 1:15 since running 2:08 on January 7, a 12-miler on trails. Today's time was 2:30, a 10:26 pace, a tad slower than the 9:30-10:00 that I would expect. I just never felt in rhythm and my legs complained the entire time, those wusses. My legs must've forgotten what it takes to endure a long run!
Luckily Amanda brought home some Subway sandwiches after adopting out Amber. That right, Amber found a home! I'm going to miss her and her crooked ears.
I forgot to mention earlier that on Thursday morning I went running with Haven; yes this was the same day that I also did some speedwork on the treadmill. It was a calm but chilly 10 degrees, with clear skies allowing the moonlight to help add some glow to the darkness.
Because of this darkness I recently bought a little Bling Bling Blinker for Haven to make her easily visible to any traffic. I've already had my own headlamp and taillight, but our dogs deserve a similar measure of safety. We bought the blue one, which blinks an alternating blue and white light.
These lights are bright and flash very rapidly, giving the effect of a strobe light at a disco. If you ever take one of these into a dark closet and turn it on I bet you'd have a seizure! Luckily out on the road there was enough other ambient light (the moon, my headlamp) to soften the effect of the hyper strobe, plus the openness of the outdoors reduces the amount of reflection.
Haven didn't seem to mind at all except when trying to navigate the dark garage with just her seizure light for illumination. Now we're all set - I'm lighted, she's lighted, the Just-a-Cinch leash is reflective. It's hard to get up that early for running, but it sure feels good sitting at work in the morning, recovering from a nice run with my dog.
An article in the latest Runner's World mentioned that all elite runners who compete at distances from 5K to marathon run at a cadence of about 180 steps per minute. Interesting.
Today on the treadmill I tried this out - an easy method is to count just my left foot for six seconds, then multiply by 20; e.g. if my left foot strikes nine times in six seconds, that's 180 spm (steps per minute). Warming up at a 9:00 pace my cadence was 140 spm. I upped it to 180 but that didn't feel right; maybe 9:00 is too slow for my long legs.
I bumped it up to an 8:00 pace and settled into about 160 spm. Then I upped it to 180 spm and sure enough, it felt pretty good - quick, but easy. However, my plan for the day was speedwork so after five minutes of warming up, I throttled up to a 6:00 pace. I maintained it for six minutes - that means I ran a six-minute mile in the middle of a workout! Yep, cool beans.
What I noticed was that to run that fast, I was striding at 180 spm without even thinking about it. In fact, anything 7:30 pace and faster and I was naturally doing 180 spm. After recovering a bit, I then tried a 5:30 pace. I only held that for two minutes but I found myself striding 190-200 spm - perhaps that means that a 5:30 pace is too fast for me to run aerobically? Such a fast turnover probably uses too much of my inefficient fast-twitch muscles.
Slowing back down to an 8:00 pace, without thinking I settled into a 180 spm rhythm so I think my legs like that cadence once they've locked into it. It truly did feel comfortable. I still couldn't maintain that turnover at 9:00 pace, though, but I was doing 150-160 as opposed to the initial 140.
One amazing thing about running that 5:30 pace... after I slowed back down to 9:00 pace, it felt so agonizingly slow that I sped it up to 8:30... then 8:00, then 7:45, then 7:30 and it still felt slow. A 7:30 pace is supposed to be fast for me, but at that moment it actually felt easy. I knew it wouldn't last long, but I was enjoying the feeling so much that I kicked it up to a 6:30 pace and even that felt somewhat comfortable for the three minutes that I held it. So if you want to feel fast for a brief amount of time, run REALLY hard for a couple minutes then run slow for a couple to recover a bit then speed it up and that medium-fast speed will feel relatively easy for a while. I wonder if that's how elite runners feel when they're running 3-hour marathons at a 6:30 pace?
Woo hoo! I just logged today's run and noticed that it put me over 300 miles on the year.
In 2004, the year I started running again, I ran a total of 284 for the entire year and I thought I was cool beans.
Just keep running, just keep running, just keep running...
I was feelin' pretty good on the treadmill this afternoon. After warming up for 10 minutes at a 9:00 pace, I did a tempo run by cruising 20 minutes at a 7:30 pace. Not finished, I ran a 9:00 pace a couple minutes then charged into a 7:00 pace for a few minutes, then another 9:00 recovery and finally a 6:00 pace for a couple minutes! I got tired, but not worn out, so I was pretty proud...
Except for the fact that the guy on the treadmill next to me was running pops, doing the fast portions at a 5:00 pace!!! He kept this up for an hour, while I lasted only 45 minutes.
Note to self: Speed is relative. No matter how fast I feel, there are still thousands of people out there who can kick my ass. Some of them don't even train.
I guess the important thing is that I'm faster than Andrew of the past (except for the 1993-1994 Andrew and his 20:08 5K, who I'm trying to beat this year). If I can do that, then I'll be history's fastest me.
I ran 7 miles on Friday at work and the time just flew by - a co-worker were having a great discussion (i.e. debate) about space exploration and the consumption of resources on the planet. Pretty heavy stuff! We were having so much fun talking that we just kept running - my co-worker Ty hadn't run that far in years.
Today was another "treadmill date" with Amanda. I kept it easy today doing a 9:00 pace, planning to go 7 miles. I felt so good at the end, however, that I kept going until 8.5 miles. I stopped then because Amanda and I had errands to run, but my legs were begging to continue.
When we got home today we played with Haven and Beacon in the backyard. I found some gigantic icicles hanging off the carport and brought them out for the pups, and boy were they excited to see me holding a couple huge "treats" over my head! They sat obediently, hoping to impress me enough to earn a reward:
One icicle was about three feet long and must've weighed ten pounds! The other was only two feet long but almost as heavy. At one point Haven ran off with the big one, clearly happy but protective of her prize:
Beacon had been content with his icicle until he spotted Haven with an even BIGGER one, and naturally he became jealous. He transformed into predator mode, crouching low and staring intently before chasing after Haven and mugging her for the goods:
Satisfied that he now has the biggest and baddest icicle, does Beacon chomp down like a vicious predator? No, he wants to savor his treat just like a kid with his popsicle at the Tastee Freez:
Wet dogs: Beacon and Haven after running with me in freezing rain.
Driving to work in the dark this morning was exciting - not because the road was covered in ice, but because the sky would frequently glow pink due to lightning! It was raining steadily and the temperature was about 30 degrees. Rain was freezing to my car's body panels as I drove. Sometimes little ice pellets would be mixed in with the raindrops. I cracked my window open so I could hear the rumbles of thunder. Icy roads, snow on the ground, and thunder in the air! Very cool.
When I left work it was still raining, but the temps had climbed to 34. By the time I got home and changed into my running gear, it had dropped back to 32 - right at the freezing point. Anything above 30 is warm enough to wear shorts; my legs were going to be plenty warm anyway running hill repeats. I decided to leash up both dogs and into the weather we ran!
There's a residential street right next to my house with a .25 mile hill that ascends 80 feet in the first .15 miles before cresting and descending slightly, maybe 10 feet, over the last .10 miles. I ran up that thing seven times, running hard until I reached the crest and then walking or slow-jogging the flat. Then I turned around and jogged back down, then up I went again without rest. The first two ascents I felt surprisingly strong compared to last fall when I ran the hill. The last three I felt OK until I reached the top, then I could barely walk I was so out of breath! At least I can see my improvement, though.
Haven and Beacon couldn't figure out why I kept turning around. They're also not that fond of the rain but the heavy stuff let up a bit after the first two ascents. The dogs got to have their fun and now they're enjoying a well-deserved sleep, just as I'm about to.