Motivation. As in what's next. Do I shoot for a single marathon in 2011 like I did this year, or do I go for more?
A podcast I was listening to on Tuesday and today provided a little motivation. I'm usually not big on external motivators like this, but the past few days I've felt like I received some good kicks in the butt from what others achieved and how they did it. Today's podcast mentioned living life on the edge and going for it when you can. Another one from Tuesday had a person talking about what it meant to her to be a runner. Good stuff except for the part where she poo-pooed religion and replaced it with running. Nevertheless, it was all motivating. Which is where Boston comes in.
I talked with the Virtual Running Partner last weekend and told him he has two choices. One is to qualify for the 2012 Boston Marathon this year or to train over the course of two years for the 2013 Boston Marathon. Either way, we're going to train for Boston. He chose the latter, which is probably the wiser since he has to knock over half an hour off his best time so far and I have to get faster by 20 minutes. This is the time to do it since we're both about to enter into the bottom of the next age bracket. More to come as we figure out how to train and what races we're going to run in the coming year.
Tuesday's run was great - great weather, relatively fast, and felt strong. Today's was even better even though it was windy and gusty. 6 miles each day and I'm feeling good. Not a bad way to close out the year.
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Sunday, December 26, 2010
Two More Times
Thursday I was off work, and a monumental wave of laziness settled in for the four-day holiday weekend. Plus the day was cold and windy, so the lack of external motivation was almost overwhelming. I managed to get it together for a run on the treadmill. I ran 35 minutes out of a planned 60 minutes, which probably covered somewhere between 3.5 to 4 miles. Clearly the wave of apathy had me in a strong grip.
My plan for Saturday was to enjoy a nice 8-mile Christmas run, but again I resisted and decided to put it off a day. Besides, my sister showed up and I didn't want to miss any time with her or the family. My delay turned out to be a good decision since today was much nicer than yesterday. Christmas was cloudy, windy, and bitterly cold. Today was the same without the wind, and the sun even came out (after my run, of course). The whole distance felt good and it was nice to get in a 'long' run before heading back to work on Monday. My thought is that if the weather is even close to not windy, I don't care because it's an opportunity to not run on the treadmill. Those opportunities will likely be fewer over the next couple of months.
My plan for Saturday was to enjoy a nice 8-mile Christmas run, but again I resisted and decided to put it off a day. Besides, my sister showed up and I didn't want to miss any time with her or the family. My delay turned out to be a good decision since today was much nicer than yesterday. Christmas was cloudy, windy, and bitterly cold. Today was the same without the wind, and the sun even came out (after my run, of course). The whole distance felt good and it was nice to get in a 'long' run before heading back to work on Monday. My thought is that if the weather is even close to not windy, I don't care because it's an opportunity to not run on the treadmill. Those opportunities will likely be fewer over the next couple of months.
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Back Out
A second day in a row of running, and it felt good. This time I went 6 miles, but not the usual route I run for that distance. I ran down Shoal Creek and then west on the new 96th Street almost to I-435 before turning toward home. I ran at a fairly quick sub-9:30 pace for an easy run, at times against a stiff breeze from the north. Toward the end I also ran a quarter-mile pickup and stretched out a little.
My hips still feel tight, and I think it's time to try out that yoga DVD. And to get back to my exercising. Some of it can be chalked up to the layoff, I'm sure, but I think some of the tightness still lingers from the race and the training that preceded it.
My hips still feel tight, and I think it's time to try out that yoga DVD. And to get back to my exercising. Some of it can be chalked up to the layoff, I'm sure, but I think some of the tightness still lingers from the race and the training that preceded it.
Monday, December 20, 2010
A Pleasant Winter Run
Hit the today for the first time in two weeks. And a day. It was a whole new world out there. My running partner was my 15-year old, who went along grudgingly three days post-birthday. I retooled with a fresh pair of Asics Gel Nimbus. And the route was brand new, as the main street to the highway that's been closed for the better part of the year finally reopened with more lanes and actual sidewalks. It almost sounds more eventful than it actually was.
The weather was nice, especially the day before the shortest day of the year (no, it's still 24 hours - as I told my daughter, that refers to sunlight). I put on my thin mittens about ten minutes into the journey just because I don't like having cold hands.
At this point I'm running to maintain, with no specific future race in mind. I'd like to run something in early spring, but I'm hobbled by the fact that I won't have any time off from February to May, so that means any race I enter pretty much has to be local. There's time to search, though, and if I can keep my long runs in the 10-12 mile range for a while I'll be fine.
The weather was nice, especially the day before the shortest day of the year (no, it's still 24 hours - as I told my daughter, that refers to sunlight). I put on my thin mittens about ten minutes into the journey just because I don't like having cold hands.
At this point I'm running to maintain, with no specific future race in mind. I'd like to run something in early spring, but I'm hobbled by the fact that I won't have any time off from February to May, so that means any race I enter pretty much has to be local. There's time to search, though, and if I can keep my long runs in the 10-12 mile range for a while I'll be fine.
Monday, December 6, 2010
White Rock Marathon
When we hit the 20-mile mark we still had a chance to make the finish line in under four hours. It was a remote chance and it was going to be close, but we still had a chance. That hope quickly faded as we headed away from White Rock Lake into the home stretch.
The beginning of the race was, in a word, cold. We bypassed a lot of the traffic backed up on I-30 and got to Fair Park in Dallas in plenty of time. We whiled away some time by watching the pilot of Big Bang Theory on my virtual running partner's iPhone. I almost made a totally stupid mistake, although I'm not sure it would have been fatal. The race used the timing chips that are plastic strips, which you thread into one of your shoe's laces and it forms a loop. They're disposable and you don't have to return them. There are two parts to these, one of which has the instructions. I looped that part through my left shoelaces and was trying to find the print that said "This side up." I couldn't find it and figured, oh well. When we were climbing out of the truck to head for the starting line, I looked down on the cab floor and realized the one I actually needed was lying on the carpet there. I suppose if we'd made it to the start and I realized my error I would have just run without it since there was no way I was going to walk all the back to the parking lot to retrieve it.
We stood in the bathroom line for a good half hour or so. By the time we got into our corral I was experiencing some intermittent shivering. The temperature was about 34 degrees with a 10-mile an hour breeze making it colder than the air temp. Once the elites took off it was another 24 minutes before our corral was allowed to take off. The only thing that I didn't like about the race was the distance from the start/finish back to the parking lot.
With about 25,000 people running and lots of spectators, we were never alone. As usual, the first several miles rolled by quickly. The course took us toward downtown, then a little north and finally east to White Rock Lake. The half marathoners peeled off from us at the 8.5 mile mark, and strangely enough, their path never took them to the lake. We reached the lake about mile 11 and circled it until about mile 21. There was one point about mile 18 or so where the route had us running toward downtown, which was hazy in the distance. We commented on how crazy it was that we'd run that far and still had plenty to go.
Our goal was to finish under four hours, and I had high hopes we could make it. Alan experienced some back spasms in the latter half, and we had to walk through those. Then his right knee started really bothering him, and our goal quickly went away in the breeze. We finished in a time of 4:10. That's okay - we'll try again next time. For me personally, I need to get some good calf stretching exercises. If I'd been running faster I could tell my calves would have cramped up worse than they did, which was bad enough. Having endured this for the last couple of races I think it's time to figure out a solution. My hips were also hurting the rest of the day and into today. No surprise there, but again, a good stretching exercise seems to be in order.
As compared to the Big D we ran last year, at least these guys were organized enough to still have food and drink for us at the finish line party. Unfortunately it wasn't real varied, with an unripe banana, oranges, and some Quaker Oats bars as the choices. We weren't interested at all in the MGD 64 they had, either. The race was plenty organized, but the biggest complaint we had was the long walk back to the truck. That was pure torture after the pain of the race, and it was actually more of a hobble than a walk. We saw shuttles running, but they apparently weren't running to our parking lot. Once we got there we never saw any shuttles, so I don't know who and where they were shuttling to and from.
I guess it's time to shut down the running for a couple of weeks and let my body have some rest time to heal. I'm sure I'll be itching to hit the road before Christmas. And I did get in a marathon in 2010. During my down time I can determine a strategy for next year, including how much to run and where. At times this year running only one marathon didn't seem like enough, but then there were times where it seemed like too much. It's certainly clear why the half is a more popular race since it doesn't put anywhere near the same wear and tear on a person's body. But there's time to ponder all this in the coming days. For now, I'm glad this one is over. It was a good, tough run, and I think it's given me some things to improve upon. Marathon #7 is in the books.
The beginning of the race was, in a word, cold. We bypassed a lot of the traffic backed up on I-30 and got to Fair Park in Dallas in plenty of time. We whiled away some time by watching the pilot of Big Bang Theory on my virtual running partner's iPhone. I almost made a totally stupid mistake, although I'm not sure it would have been fatal. The race used the timing chips that are plastic strips, which you thread into one of your shoe's laces and it forms a loop. They're disposable and you don't have to return them. There are two parts to these, one of which has the instructions. I looped that part through my left shoelaces and was trying to find the print that said "This side up." I couldn't find it and figured, oh well. When we were climbing out of the truck to head for the starting line, I looked down on the cab floor and realized the one I actually needed was lying on the carpet there. I suppose if we'd made it to the start and I realized my error I would have just run without it since there was no way I was going to walk all the back to the parking lot to retrieve it.
We stood in the bathroom line for a good half hour or so. By the time we got into our corral I was experiencing some intermittent shivering. The temperature was about 34 degrees with a 10-mile an hour breeze making it colder than the air temp. Once the elites took off it was another 24 minutes before our corral was allowed to take off. The only thing that I didn't like about the race was the distance from the start/finish back to the parking lot.
With about 25,000 people running and lots of spectators, we were never alone. As usual, the first several miles rolled by quickly. The course took us toward downtown, then a little north and finally east to White Rock Lake. The half marathoners peeled off from us at the 8.5 mile mark, and strangely enough, their path never took them to the lake. We reached the lake about mile 11 and circled it until about mile 21. There was one point about mile 18 or so where the route had us running toward downtown, which was hazy in the distance. We commented on how crazy it was that we'd run that far and still had plenty to go.
Our goal was to finish under four hours, and I had high hopes we could make it. Alan experienced some back spasms in the latter half, and we had to walk through those. Then his right knee started really bothering him, and our goal quickly went away in the breeze. We finished in a time of 4:10. That's okay - we'll try again next time. For me personally, I need to get some good calf stretching exercises. If I'd been running faster I could tell my calves would have cramped up worse than they did, which was bad enough. Having endured this for the last couple of races I think it's time to figure out a solution. My hips were also hurting the rest of the day and into today. No surprise there, but again, a good stretching exercise seems to be in order.
As compared to the Big D we ran last year, at least these guys were organized enough to still have food and drink for us at the finish line party. Unfortunately it wasn't real varied, with an unripe banana, oranges, and some Quaker Oats bars as the choices. We weren't interested at all in the MGD 64 they had, either. The race was plenty organized, but the biggest complaint we had was the long walk back to the truck. That was pure torture after the pain of the race, and it was actually more of a hobble than a walk. We saw shuttles running, but they apparently weren't running to our parking lot. Once we got there we never saw any shuttles, so I don't know who and where they were shuttling to and from.
I guess it's time to shut down the running for a couple of weeks and let my body have some rest time to heal. I'm sure I'll be itching to hit the road before Christmas. And I did get in a marathon in 2010. During my down time I can determine a strategy for next year, including how much to run and where. At times this year running only one marathon didn't seem like enough, but then there were times where it seemed like too much. It's certainly clear why the half is a more popular race since it doesn't put anywhere near the same wear and tear on a person's body. But there's time to ponder all this in the coming days. For now, I'm glad this one is over. It was a good, tough run, and I think it's given me some things to improve upon. Marathon #7 is in the books.
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Falling Behind
Blustery wind has been the name of the game since Monday. I've fallen behind this week in my logging, so let's catch up real quick, shall we?
The Wife and I went out for a run on Monday like we usually do, and let's just say that didn't go well. We completed 2.5 miles in a strong wind from the NNW that was over 20 miles an hour. I think my lips were about to freeze off and she wasn't real interested in helping me keep them warm at that point in time. So we cut short the run and headed to Granite City for dinner and a nice relaxing evening. I was glad we did.
Tuesday night was more of the same, except I was running solo. It was my last planned speedwork before the race. I ran 5.5 miles in the exact same gusting wind and cold temps. What was left of my lips was definitely frozen at that point.
Tonight was a short 4-miler, and for a change the wind wasn't blowing as bad. The temperature was still freezing, but that lack of wind makes a big difference. This was my last run before Sunday's race since we'll be traveling the next couple of days.
Last night I was talking with my virtual running partner and he's feeling like this is the best he's ever felt before a race. Which is good, since we're gunning to get him to the tape in under four hours. I, on the other hand, don't feel quite as good. My diet hasn't been as good as it should be, and I also don't feel like I've hit my stride with the speedwork. The long runs went okay, but my left shin and calf are giving me a little trouble. In other words, I feel like I've been training for a marathon. I'm looking forward to the race, but this time I think I'm looking forward to the rest period after the race even more. It's been a stressful year and I think my body needs a bit of a break. So onward to Dallas and then some downtime!
The Wife and I went out for a run on Monday like we usually do, and let's just say that didn't go well. We completed 2.5 miles in a strong wind from the NNW that was over 20 miles an hour. I think my lips were about to freeze off and she wasn't real interested in helping me keep them warm at that point in time. So we cut short the run and headed to Granite City for dinner and a nice relaxing evening. I was glad we did.
Tuesday night was more of the same, except I was running solo. It was my last planned speedwork before the race. I ran 5.5 miles in the exact same gusting wind and cold temps. What was left of my lips was definitely frozen at that point.
Tonight was a short 4-miler, and for a change the wind wasn't blowing as bad. The temperature was still freezing, but that lack of wind makes a big difference. This was my last run before Sunday's race since we'll be traveling the next couple of days.
Last night I was talking with my virtual running partner and he's feeling like this is the best he's ever felt before a race. Which is good, since we're gunning to get him to the tape in under four hours. I, on the other hand, don't feel quite as good. My diet hasn't been as good as it should be, and I also don't feel like I've hit my stride with the speedwork. The long runs went okay, but my left shin and calf are giving me a little trouble. In other words, I feel like I've been training for a marathon. I'm looking forward to the race, but this time I think I'm looking forward to the rest period after the race even more. It's been a stressful year and I think my body needs a bit of a break. So onward to Dallas and then some downtime!
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