Today: 3.0 miles
Week: 3.0 miles
February: 13.72 miles
2010: 91.79 miles

I know I could have taken today off without any guilt whatsoever, but I was so pumped from yesterday, I couldn’t wait to get out there and do a recovery run.

On my usual boring straight-out-and-back runs, I walk down to the corner, take a left and start running. Less than a block up on the right is an entrance to a trail that I used to run on last fall. Since the clocks changed in October, it’s just been too dark to run in there. But this morning, there was actually a touch of light in the sky. I looked down the trail entrance and could actually see stuff. I thought about it for a few seconds, and then turned back and hit the trail. What a fantastic change of scenery. It’s not super wilderness. In most sections, the trail separates the back yards of the houses on the left and right. But in a few spots it drops off on one side to some real woods. Anyway, there’s trees and rocks and dirt and wildlife instead of asphalt and concrete and cars and traffic lights. There were some pretty icy spots, but in most cases there was also enough open space beside the ice to keep running, and in the worst places, there had been enough foot traffic over the ice to give it enough texture to run on. I was going pretty slow anyway.

The trail only goes in about one mile before dead ending at a big set of steep wooden steps. From there I ran along a back road for a half a mile, then turned back and took the path home. There was a deer crossing road sign at the point where I turned back. I didn’t know we had any of those signs in Wellesley. I have seen deer a few blocks from my house, and my wife saw one in our back yard, but I didn’t know there were enough to warrant their own signage.

So far feeling pretty good after the race. Right calf is calming down. Left quads might be starting to act up a bit again, and left hip was a bit stiff. I did a bit of foam rolling after the run and will try to stretch throughout the day today.

Time: 25:48
Overall: 164 out of 681
Male 40-49 division: #18

I rock!

Hey, if I can’t blow my own horn today, when can I?

Last night I was a mess. Nervous as hell. Couldn’t fall asleep. Weird dreams. Woke up at 5 a.m. Once we got in the car to head into Boston, I felt a little better. Once I was there and warming up, I started to relax. Here’s the race report I wrote up for Daily Mile:

I was shooting for under 27, and vaguely hoping for under 26. So I’m very happy with that.
I lined up near the back of the pack but then a lot more came in after me, so I wound up about 2/3 back. Once we started moving, I passed a whole bunch of people. Continued a positive ratio of passing / being passed throughout the first couple miles.
First mile was 8:18 and I felt good. During mile 2 I noticed I was running sub 8 for a while. Knew this was a bit too fast, so took it a little easier and finished mile 2 in 8:12.

Mile 3 was where it started to hurt. My passing to being passed ratio started to reverse. Part of my brain told me that it would be OK if I wanted to stop and walk for a while. I kicked that part of my brain in the face and told it to shut up. Mile 3 took me 8:42.
With the finish line in site, my watch said 23 something. But there was a big loop I had to go around to get there. I gritted my teeth and attempted a sprint. I did the last 1/10th of a mile at a pace of 8:05.

Everything felt great throughout the run. The thing that got me the worst is that I have slight exercise induced asthma. It can kick in when I run in the cold. It’s actually gotten way better since I’ve been running. Most runs I don’t even notice it. But pushing it this hard really brought it on good. Plus, it was about 20ºF and the race was at Boston Seaport. Nice harbor breeze made it feel a lot colder.

Feel pretty good afterwards. Right calf has a nice knot. They served Legal Seafoods clam chowder and Harpoon Brewery beer. Free beer on Sunday morning? If this isn’t a reason to run, I don’t know what is.

I don’t really have much to add beyond that. I hung around for a while, looking for a couple of other fellow Daily Milers, but it doesn’t look like any of us found any others. Went back home, took a shower and changed and went out to IHOP to celebrate. Then came home and took a nap. Right calf is still tight. It’s the only thing that’s really bothering me though, so I’m cool with that. Then again, DOMS usually sets in 24 hours after exercise.

More pics from the race here.

Today: 0.62 miles (1 kilometer)
Week: 7.62 miles
February: 7.62 miles
2010: 85.69 miles

All I gotta do now is show up at the starting line.

Just about 12 hours to go. Nervous as hell. No idea why, but that doen’t help. It’s going to be very cold tomorrow. I don’t really care about that personally, but with my wife and daughter coming out, not sure how they’ll fare waiting for me. Anyway, got everything pretty much set to go. Going to turn in soon and see if I can sleep at all.

Took Kris out to the high school track this morning and ran a kilometer with her. Took the edge off for a little while. If it weren’t so cold out there now, I’d have half a mind to go run around the block right now.

Look what was waiting in the mail for me today.

This doesn’t mean I’m in. I paid hard cash for the shirt above and beyond my entry fee. Still gotta wait for the lottery results in late March. And from what I understand, many sign up, few are chosen. But the shirt is inspiring anyway. I’m in training for the NYC Marathon. I may be in training for the next three years. But I’m in training.

Yesterday: 3.0 miles
Week: 7.0 miles
February: 7.0 miles
2010: 85.07 miles

Race day approaches.

Feeling pretty excited. Some jitters I guess. I have NO doubts about my ability to finish, and I’m pretty sure I’ll finish in a respectable time, especially for a first race. I set my personal goal at sub 27 minutes, and at this point I feel that’s pretty conservative. I guess the jitters are just due to the fact that I really don’t know what to expect when I get there, during the race, and after. Where do I go, where do I line up, will people be friendly or competitive, what if I get lost on the way or take a wrong turn, what if there was some computer glitch and I’m not really registered, etc., etc. Most are completely ridiculous, I know, but this is what goes through my brain. It’s simply the fear of the unknown. I’m sure I’ll be fine once I arrive.

Left thigh has still been pretty tight and strange. I did a 3 mile easy run yesterday. It’s fine during and right after a run, but tightens up during the day. So last night I stopped by Dick’s Sporting Goods and picked up a foam roller. Figured out how to use it and rolled out my quads pretty well. A bit painful, but not as much as I’ve heard reports about. After that though, the leg felt pretty good. And I definitely noticed a difference this morning. This makes me happy. It hasn’t really been hurting, but has been tight and stiff. My guess is that I probably pulled it a bit a few weeks back on a speed run, and aggravated it more with other speed runs. And while it might be pretty much healed, it left a bit of a knot that the foam roller is good at working out. Not sure how scientifically accurate that is but hey, if it feels better, I’m all for that.

Anyway, I’m planning on doing a short couple of miles tomorrow some time, just so I’m not taking off two days in a row, and then giving it hell on Sunday morning!

Along with my LSD and Speed posts, I can only imagine how Google is indexing this site…

I already avoid regular soda and have for quite a while. I actually got to the point where I liked diet Coke / diet Pepsi better than the regular sugary stuff. But in the back of my mind, I knew it couldn’t be good for me. Around the end of December, I read a few articles about diet soda and Nutrisweet. Without doing a lot of research, it’s hard to get at hard facts that you can be sure aren’t biased. Some reports get pretty conspiracy-theory-ish and seem to imply that Nutrisweet is being pushed by some hidden government plot to undermine… something. As soon as I get the tone of those articles, I can’t help but tune out. Other reports are so squeaky clean as to be suspect themselves, implying that Nutrisweet has never caused any bad reaction in any life form whatsoever. I figure that somewhere in between those two extremes must lie the truth.

Anyway, I was drinking a lot of diet Coke/Pepsi (never had a huge preference one way or the other), sometimes 2-3 20oz bottles a day. I figure there’s just gotta be some health risk there somewhere. So, as a somewhat unspoken New Year’s resolution, I decided to quit.

It’s now been well over a month since I last had a soda of any kind (stopped in late December actually). At first, without noticing it, I started drinking extra tea. I quit coffee a couple of years ago, because I somehow, after being an addict since age 14, I just stopped liking the taste. Anyway, it dawned on me that I was compensating for the lack of caffeine in the cola by drinking about 3x the tea I had been. So I cut back on the tea and had a nice few days of caffeine-withdrawal headaches. Trying to drink mostly water, with some sports drinks on the days I run.

It’s hard to put a finger on any benefit or different feelings because of this change, given that I’m also in the middle of plenty of other ongoing systemic changes as I increase and improve my running and lose more weight. But I’m going to assume that I’m somehow more healthy for this change.

Today: 4.0 miles
Week: 4.0 miles
February: 4.0 miles
2010: 82.07 miles

I hate February. The autumn is ok. Leaves changing colors, cool air, my birthday, Halloween, Thanksgiving. Then December comes and you have Christmas and New Years. Somehow you make it through January with happy thoughts of a new year, new beginning. But February… theres… just nothing. OK, there’s Valentines Day, but as a guy that’s just a big bear trap waiting for me to forget about it and walk right into it and rip my leg off. For the most part, February is just something I grit my teeth for and try to make it through, while thinking about March coming in like a lion and going out like a lamb.

Running has added a new dimension to this. In December and January, it was kind of fun to get up and be out running at 6 a.m. in the pitch black with sub-freezing temperatures and whipping winds. Well, fun in the sense of, “Wow, this is crazy! I can’t believe I’m out here doing this!” But today I got up and got dressed and just kind of sat there for a good 8 minutes or so, not really wanting to leave my warm, bright living room to go out in the cold darkness.

Eventually I made it out of course. And it really wasn’t that bad. 18ºF, which is cold, but not mind-numbingly so. And actually, there was a tinge of pale yellow-orange on the horizon, and the sky was deep indigo, rather than just black. Perhaps it’s true, the days really are getting longer. By the time I got back, the sun was shining.

The run itself was fine. I was starting to get really worried about my left quads. I think it was bothering me more mentally than physically. Just worried about it messing up my race this coming Sunday. But everything felt pretty good today. Some residual tightness, but far less so than even two days ago on my last run. I did have a couple of twangs in my left knee during the run as well. I think this is probably related to the quad tightness. I’m not going to worry about it, just going to get to and get through this race in 5 days. And after that, only 3 more weeks of February!

Today: 6.0 miles
Week: 17.92 miles
January: 78.07 miles
2010: 78.07 miles

[Just edited weekly mileage. I was counting my weeks from Sunday to Saturday, but switching to Monday to Sunday to align with DailyMile's weeks. Hasn't mattered up to now, since I usually don't run on Sunday. So this 6 goes on last week, and this week starts at 0. - kp 2/1/10 ]

My left thigh has not been too happy since my last speed run on Wednesday. I took an easy run on Friday and took off Saturday to rest. I couldn’t stay in another day though, so went out today for a slow and easy 6 miler.

Earlier in the day, my wife and I were observing a Japanese tea ceremony class that we will probably take part in starting later this year. This involved kneeling on tatami mats and / or zabuton (thin pillows) for about an hour and a half. My feet fell asleep and my shins and calves were screaming, but I think it was also a great stretch for the quads, calves and shins. Once I could feel my legs again, they felt pretty good. I think I need to practice sitting like that if we are actually going to do the lessons.

Anyway, as this is my last run of the month, it’s time to take stock. 18 runs for a total of just over 78 miles. Target was 84 miles per month to meet 1000 for the year, so about 6 miles short on that. But since I’ll be ramping up as the year goes on (particularly once I start my half marathon in a month or so, and hopefully marathon training some time later this year), I gotta figure I’m right on track.

I also lost about 4 pounds this month, which is pretty good. I would have liked to break 200 before my race – which is one week from today, by the way. That’s looking pretty tight, but by mid February I should be there.

So, yeah, race time minus 7 days today. I get an adrenaline rush every time I think about it. I really have no idea what to expect. My own goal has been to beat 27 minutes (it’s a 5k). Some have said that based on the times I’ve been doing in my training, I’ll blow that away. That could be. For now, I don’t want to predict anything beyond 27. I’ll be happy beating that, and if I do completely destroy it, I’ll be blown away. Here’s the race. A nice flat course on the Boston Waterfront. OK, here comes the adrenaline rush again. Gotta go.

Today: 3.0 miles
Week: 11.92 miles
January: 72.07 miles
2010: 72.07 miles

Here’s my last week of runs:

Wednesday: 4.5 miles including speed work (and kind of overdone speed work at that)
Friday: 3.5 miles of unexpected hills
Saturday: 8 miles, many hills
Monday: 4 miles, ignored Garmin and ran faster than usual
Wednesday: 4.9 miles with more speed work

In short, there’s not really an easy run in there. Result is a left quadriceps that is not too happy. I don’t think it’s injured, but I know if I keep going like this, it will be. So today I decided to do a nice, slow 3 miles.

It snowed most of the day yesterday. Not a lot of accumulation, but the sidewalks are white. I woke up this morning to what sounded like a 747 winding up for takeoff in the street out front. It was just the wind. The Weather Channel app on my iPhone told me it was 10ºF before the wind chill. I could have gone out for a run, but I really had absolutely no interest in doing so. Instead, I embraced my inner treadmill runner.

I listened to an old episode of Phedippidations, about running legend Terry Fox, which was was intense enough to hold my interest for the 36 minutes I was down there. My Garmin foot pod and the treadmill’s display were amazingly in agreement today, on both pace and distance. And it felt about right from a perceived effort viewpoint too. Average pace was 12:02, which is a good recovery pace for me at this point.

Tomorrow I’m going to do a short long run, whatever that means. I just want to take it easy again, probably 4-5 miles, slow. Next Sunday, February 7, is my 5k race and I would like to get one more speed work session in on Wednesday. I want to make sure my quads are well rested before that. If there’s still any problem with them, I’ll skip the speed work and save them for race day. Last thing I need is an injury 4 days before my first race.

Today: 4.91 miles
Week: 8.92 miles
January: 69.07 miles
2010: 69.07 miles

Read the following this morning in The Competitive Runner’s Handbook. Taken out of context, it is pretty funny:

You need both LSD and speed. The key is blending them together into a balanced schedule. Experience teaches you what combination works best for you.

Here, of course, LSD is long slow distance running, and speed is structured fast running.

Today, I did some really good speed.

Scheduled called for:

1 mile warm up.
4x 5 minutes at tempo pace with 90 second jog between.
1 mile cool down.

If you recall, last week I did 5x 4 mins and based tempo on heart rate. Bad, bad idea. But I’m a quick learner. So I picked a pace I thought I could hold for 5 minutes without killing myself, but would still be a challenge. 9:00 per mile sounded good.

Did the warm up mile and started into the first interval. First check I did, I was running at 8:10. I slowed it down to 8:30 and was completely comfortable. I mean, I was obviously running a lot faster than my usual pace, and breathing a lot harder. But I wasn’t straining and gasping for breath and counting down the seconds til the interval was over. I was just running fast.

The next interval, I found I could even run a little faster without any real strain. And the third one even a bit faster. But at the end of the third interval, I did start to feel a bit tired. The fourth interval was tougher and was the only non-negative split. I slowed down a bit, but was still under 8:30. And even though I was tiring and slowing, it wasn’t the kind of all-out “ohmygodimdying” kind of tiredness I experienced last week. In fact, I even managed a bit of a kick during the last 30 seconds.

Average pace for each interval:

8:27
8:25
8:19
8:24

To be honest, I was totally amazed. I felt, compared to last week’s speed work, like I had stolen someone else’s body for today’s run. There’s no way that my body could do paces like that. I know, that for many, 8:30 is just a comfortable average run. It might even be your recovery run. But for me… it’s very satisfying progress.

Of course, my legs aren’t too happy about all this at the moment. My left quad has been grumbling under its breath all week, and today my hamstring feels kind of… sproingy. So I think I’m going to really let myself recover this week. Last week I followed up my speed day with a hilly 3.5 and a hilly 8. I think this Friday and Saturday I’ll find a relatively flat 3 and 5. I want to get one more speed session in next Wednesday and other than that, next week I’ll take it relatively easy too. Because next Sunday, Feb. 7, I have my first 5K race!