Weekend

Another wild weekend in Cleveland. At least the Cavs lost, so that's one less thing to be concerned about.

Friday we had Kathy and Mike over for pizza.

Saturday it was running on the towpath with Dave and Amy (12 or so at 8:45 or so pace). This was followed by work, then Austin's graduation party (good to see everyone), then Iris and Mike's for the final disasterous Cavs game (but good to see them too).

Sunday Dave and I did his 10 mile loop at better than 8:30 pace and then we worked on his deck for the rest of the day.

Speed and Strength

You guessed it: I need to work on both. It's tough to do both at the same time however. I usually like to have worked on strength throughout the winter, and then begin on the speedwork in the spring. This usually enables me to gradually work into the summer racing season, and then still do a marathon or two as they pop up. But with the injuries, sickness and travel, neither my strength nor my speed is where it should be. Not that I'm not working on them.

I showed up for Tuesday track determined to do better than last time. I should have been - I was fairly well rested this time. And I guess you can say it was decent. This time it was 200's with only a few seconds rest in between. I did ok, but of course I'm still the slowest, by far, of the faster group. I did about 17, but the rest of the group did 24. At least I'm moving in the right direction. I'm sure this Tuesday speedwork is or will be helping me.

This morning it was an attempt at strength: four 6-mile loops on the Lester Rail Trail. The only problem is that it wasn't very strong. At least the finish wasn't. The first three laps went swimmingly well: 52, 51 and 52 minutes, respectively. The fourth got to me though. It was as bad a death march as ever: 58 minutes and that didn't count some of the stops.. I should've quit after 18 instead of toughing it out. As it wound up, this was very nearly a PW on this course. Here are the numbers from my training log:


Date Distance Time Course ID
9/2/2005 24 207 Lester Rail Trail 24
9/6/2005 24 201.5 Lester Rail Trail 24
9/7/2005 24 199 Lester Rail Trail 24
10/19/2005 24 201 Lester Rail Trail 24
6/15/2006 24 186.5 Lester Rail Trail 24
7/7/2006 24 185 Lester Rail Trail 24
8/16/2006 24 185.5 Lester Rail Trail 24
4/14/2007 24 197 Lester Rail Trail 24
6/4/2007 24 201.5 Lester Rail Trail 24
6/11/2007 24 197.5 Lester Rail Trail 24
7/29/2007 24 209.5 Lester Rail Trail 24
8/29/2007 24 199 Lester Rail Trail 24
7/1/2008 24 202 Lester Rail Trail 24
7/14/2008 24 197.5 Lester Rail Trail 24
8/4/2008 24 213.5 Lester Rail Trail 24
9/21/2008 24 202 Lester Rail Trail 24
4/18/2009 24 212.5 Lester Rail Trail 24
5/28/2009 24 213 Lester Rail Trail 24

Other stuff going on: not much work, but I did join facebook. And --- I have lots of "friends"! There is also a great deal of activity surrounding the NorthCoast24 run. I talked to the Cleveland West Road Runners club about it last night.

I'll probably stay up to watch the Cavs one last time tonight. I guess..

Holiday Weekend

Lots going on. Valerie flew in on Saturday. After some middle eastern food, we went to Charles Elkins' wine tasting party to benefit the Colitis/Cron's Disease foundation. Besides Charles and Tara, we saw several other friends from the MCRR. And of course tasted some wine.

Sunday was barbeque day. But first, in the morning, Debbie, Valerie and I went to Hinckley to walk and run around the lake. Yes, Valerie is running again these days. The family came over in the afternoon and we had ribs and chicken amongst other stuff. All good, as always. That night was the Cavs game, and they lost. Bummer.

On Monday morning Valerie and I went for another mile run around the hood. Of course afterward I had to make the required banana pancakes. All too soon thereafter it was time to take Valerie to the airport for her trip back to Chicago. Debbie and I then walked a nice walk in the Wallace Lake area in Berea. In the evening we went to Kathy and Mike's for more visitationing.

Running wise, it was a good weekend. I've alredy mentioned the Wooster 5k in a separate post, as well as a couple miles with Valerie in this post. In addition, on Sunday I did my 11 mile loop at a little slower than 8 minute pace, and today I did the 12-mile North Park run in 95 minutes. That's a PR for that course, although I've only officially done it 4 times. Still pretty encouraging. Now I'm pretty tired and sore. I'll need a bit of downtime now. I'll go easy on myself until tomorrow's speedwork.

Wooster Wellness 5K

You knew this wouldn't be pretty. And it wasn't. But I was happy to just make it to the starting line - not to mention the finish. Why do 5K's seem so long?

It turned out to be a nice morning, probably in the low 60s. I did the first mile in 6:40+, the second hilly one in just over 7, and the last 1.1 in 7 and a half or so. I finished in something like 21:20. At least it's not a PW.

This was my first race in the Subway/Ohio Challenge Series. I won't be challenging too many folks this year - I was 5th or 6th in my age group. But I have to get 7 in, and this was a start.

Trails

Since my last post was called Track, I decided to name this one Trails. There aren't many trails within running distance, but I did get to some today. It's 4 miles to North Park, then 2 loops of 2 miles on the trails there before heading home. So only 4 out of 12 miles of dirt. At least it's something. I definitely need to start putting in a greater percentage of my miles on softer surfaces.

The 12 weren't bad at all - mostly at 8 1/2 pace or better. It helped that yesterday was an off day, and I'd only done 3 easy ones on Wednesday.

Still thinking about what to do tomorrow - probably a 5k in the race series.

Track!

Yes, two days after the marathon I was on the track. This after almost no speedwork all year. But peer pressure from Connie did it. As it turned out, it wasn't pretty, and I certainly didn't set any speed records. But I was happy to get out and do it anyway. It certainly beat the alternative.

Where Can I Find Payne?

I parked on Payne Street, east of East 13th street for today's Cleveland Marathon. It turned out to be a long way from the start, and a much longer way from the finish. Not that the start and finish are that far apart, mind you. More on this later.

The Medina County Road Runners met up at the Free Stamp for a group picture. I just made it after a good warmup run from my faraway parking spot. Good to see everyone. I also saw plenty of my other good friends at the starting area. I told everyone that I wasn't in shape and just wanted to finish. When pressed, I said that maybe I'd go out at 8:30 pace.

Well that didn't happen. I went out at just under 8 minute pace. And I felt good. The temperature, which was in the upper 40s and lower 50s was great. It was sunny and clear. The only problem was the wind. It was tough the whole way, and never felt like it was at my back. But I held that 8 minute pace through 23 miles before the wheels fell off and I started my death march. Those last 3 were simply awful. Nothing particularly wrong - I was just shot. I finished in 3:35 or so. SO... Better than expected - but I didin't like that march of death at the end.

As soon as I finished, I talked with a couple friends a bit and then had to get to the store. That's when I couldn't find Payne. As mentioned, it was a long way, and it doesn't go all the way through to downtown. There I was, limping around and asking anyone else I saw if they knew where Payne was. "Where can I find Payne?" I would say. (I actually did add "street"!) All they had to do was point to me.

I did eventually find it and get to the store. And now I'm still in Payne.

Yiannis Kouros, Bart Yasso, and other Stuff

I had a nice conversation with Yiannis Kouros. He happens to be the greatest ultramarathoner of all time. After Joe Jurczyk had initially contacted him, I was trying to get him to do the NC24. It was a nice conversation, but he needs his expenses paid as well as appearance money, and we're still a poor race without sponsorship, so it won't work for now. Oh well - maybe some day we'll get that sponsorship.

I had a nice conversation with Bart Yasso. This was actually part of his speaking engagement with the MCRR. It was a nice talk. I'll also email him about his take on sponsorship after talking about it during the meeting.

Other stuff going on:

I ran abour 4 miles with Ladd, Marsha and some of the other MCRR gang before the meeting. I also did 2 more this morning. Got the Cleveland Marathon tomorrow.

Speaking of the marathon, I'm just hoping to avoid a PW.

Also speaking of the marathon, I volunteered to help with packet pickup this morning.

Also speaking of the marathon, I have to work at the store immediately afterwords tomorrow.

I haven't been around there much for the last few weeks - first there was Hawaii, then Peru, and last week I was swamped with work.

Achieving Eightness

Oh, I do it now and then. It's fairly common on the dreadmill, and I've done it on shorter runs. I also do it for parts of longer runs. But it's still fairly rare these slow days, and it's even rarer to do it for an entire run of any decent distance.

So I was happy to do 10 miles in exactly 80 minutes today. Now that included a little light speedwork, but it was still a pretty decent accomplishment for 2009.

My speedwork was 4 x 1200 at about 5:25 pace. Pretty pedestrian, but any speedwork these days is better than none.

Egads, I've Got a Marathon in a Week. I'd Better Train

Yes, the rest theory will be put to the test for my run at the Cleveland Marathon on Sunday. Altough I tried to get moving yesterday, I could only manage 4 miles. Today I was actually able to run 20 - 10 out followed by 10 on the mill. Not one of my greatest runs, but I managed to get through it. I have the morning time because I'm working 10-7 all week. Good for finding time to run, but very bad for everything else in my life. At least I'm home.

Running in Peru – My Final Run for the Trip and Sort of a Summary

I’d had hopes of doing another long run this week - the Cleveland Marathon is looming. But those pesky Peruvian germs got me again - yesterday I caught a sudden cold. I wasn’t about to miss this final opportunity for a run during this trip, but I would probably have to do it slower and easier than I would’ve liked. So I start slowly down the hill from the hotel and then onto the now familiar road that loops around the golf course.

I can’t say that my running in Peru has been great. My post about my first run here chronicled my circuit along with the accompanying pollution and traffic challenges. I’d gotten some decent mileage in that first week, including a slow 20-miler. That’s when the germs got me the first time causing that major GI problem. By the time I recovered, I was in Cusco, where at 11,000 feet, all I could do was shuffle around for a couple miles. (The picture above is actually of me shuffling in Cusco.) When I returned to Lima, I was suddenly running better than before I was sick. Monday I did 4 of the 2.85-mile golf course loops in record times, and Tuesday I also ran well, logging a solid 9.

Yes, after 15 to 20 circuits, the old loop around the golf course is very familiar now. The golf course, like everything else in Lima, is surrounded by walls. Starting at 5:30am, there is very little traffic, and I can do some of the running on the asphalt roads. Later, as the traffic builds I have to move to the concrete sidewalks for the entire way. There are four places where I have to cross the road, and this gets more dicey as the morning wears on – the traffic volume reaches a crescendo by 7am, but I’m finishing up by then. I run by the walls, the armed guards at the gates, the other runners (Peruvian and not) and of course the increasing traffic. Today I do 3 circuits, each one a bit faster. The last two loops are under 23 minutes – pretty good for me in this day and age.

Now it’s light out and I’ve got between 8 ½ and 9 miles in. I’ve got a little more time but I don’t want to fight the traffic and exhaust on another loop of the golf course. Instead I finish up on a 2++ mile loop of the mountain road by the hotel. It’s not really up on top of the mountain – it’s really just built into the side of it. It’s winding and hilly, and the traffic isn’t bad. I finish this in a decent 19 minutes to give me 11 total miles in 90 minutes. With my cold, this was better than expected, and the best pace for any of my running in Peru.

For more on Peru, See the old travel blog, horvaths travels.