Seventy

Seventy is yet another number to live by. It's been my target for number of miles to run in a week for some time now. (Other numbers to live by are four, the hour I usually get up for my early morning runs, three, the number of months till Boston, and so on.) In the weeks leading up to the Freedom Park 24-hour Run, I had been doing seventy and more per week fairly consistently. Now in the weeks Since that run, I've still managed to maintain my mileage at that level. I think this is a good thing.

Good?: maybe; great?: we're not there yet. Determined not to fall into complete slug-dom as I did last winter, I've been trying hard to stay consistent. I've got a ways to go before I can say I'm doing a lot of quality stuff, but even in this area, at least I've been doing some hills. That's Hills with a Capital H, as in Heavenly, Hilly Hinckley, and the roads up and around Cuyahoga Valley National Park. The speed hasn't come around yet (and here's hoping that it will someday), and the weight, in the low 160's, is still a few pounds too high.

So the last few weeks I've done semi-long runs with friends on both Saturday and Sunday, followed by slightly shorter runs mid-week. I've usually managed to take two days off per week, and this is a good thing. It's enabled me to be at least a little fresh for the demanding weekend running.

Last weekend it was Debbie, Debbie, Dave and I who ran up and out of the valley to chalk up some big hills. And then I met Dan for 18 plus at Hilly Hinckley. I know: too many Debbies and Dans, but what can I do?

This weekend was even tougher. Dave and I ran with Connie, Bob and Frank at near-tempo pace for a good part of the first seven miles. Then Dave and I did 7-8 more. Today was the first of the Hinckley group runs that Connie and I are organizing for spring marathon and half-marathon training. I did 19 plus, mostly with Debbie and Debbie. To add to the fun: a nice, cold rain. My favorite running conditions. Oh, and did I mention the hills?

The plan is to keep this stuff up for another couple weeks, and then taking it easier for a couple weeks in mid-February. We will see how that all works out. Here's hoping I won't need much de-plumpification anywhere along the line.

I Hear that Train a-Coming

My normal 11-mile route takes me over some railroad tracks once, and then back over them about a half mile later on a different road. I've never been cut off by a train, but I've had some close calls. Today was one of those close calls; as I was about half-way in between the two crossings, I heard the unmistakable toot-toot of an approaching choo-choo. I picked up the pace the best I could. This was 7 miles into my run, which was preceded by eleven miles on the treadmill. The other limiting factor was the cold: it was about five degrees out, and until that moment, I hadn't been moving very fast. As I crossed the tracks, I couldn't even see the approaching train, so it turned out that I'd had plenty of time. The funny thing was that after that quarter-mile uphill sprint, I actually felt better, not worse. It was still a fairly slow run overall, but now I can at least say that I've done my first speedwork for the year.

Most of last week was not conducive to quality running. Of course I was still recovering from Freedom Park, but I did also want to keep my mileage up. The other problem was the weather: the snow hit us very hard virtually every day. Running wise, that meant lots of mill miles. I only ran outside once mid-week, and then again on Saturday with Dave. I did manage to keep that weekly mileage at seventy. I hope to continue to do that through January, even if it means more mill miles than I'd like; I usually can't wait to get off that dang thing after two days or so in a row.

I sure hope the weather is better for rest of the month.

Freedom Park New Year’s Ultra

Pain, cold and fatigue. It’s too bad to say so, but for most of the 24 hours at the Freedom Park New Year’s Ultra Run, that pretty well sums it up. This is not to say that there wasn’t some friendship, camaraderie and even some outright joy as well. Let’s start at the beginning.


Strategies

It’s already been well documented how this thing got started: December 1st or thereabouts, Ladd Clifford mentioned to me that we ought to consider this 24-hour run in Morganton, North Carolina. I immediately replied that I’d already thought about it. We decided to seriously consider it, and of course get Dan DeRosha involved. I saw Dan that evening, and then we had a quorum. Within 24 hours of Ladd’s mentioning it, we were beginning to get registered. There only seems to be a bit of disagreement on which way the peer pressure had gone. Mike Keller from Columbus decided to go along with us as we were making our plans.

Speaking of plans, there were plenty to be made. There were logistics, such as hotels before and after, and who would drive. Then there was how to train for a 24-hour race. Ladd and Mike had experience; Dan and I had none to speak of. Finally there was the strategy of how to actually run the dang thing. The logistics went well, as Ladd drove his pickup, and the rest of us piled our considerable amounts of stuff in the back. One problem there was that with the constantly changing forecast, we weren’t sure what kind of weather to prepare for. The training had been written about in my other blog entries, as well as those of Ladd and Dan. Suffice it to say that we took it all quite seriously for that month of December. Now, about that race strategy.

Run 25, walk 5 (minutes), or walk five to ten minutes of each set of three nearly one-mile laps. Or even walk one entire lap for every two run. Strategies galore. Ladd and Mike (the experienced ones) were adamant that we should take those walking breaks early and often; that we should definitely pace ourselves. Would I listen? What do you think?

One other strategy that I had was to take one of my special pre-mixed super-carbo drinks and some electrolyte pills every six laps. I figured that this would work out to getting these nutrients every hour or so.




That First Marathon

After a brief meeting on the wet, slightly snowy grass, about 60 of us were off and running. The 12 and 6 hour runners would begin 12 hours later, at 8pm. Although it was a little cold and wet, with temperatures in the thirties and a ½ inch of snow, it was beginning to look like it wouldn’t be too bad a day, weather-wise. I’d been worried about the possibility of miserable, cold rain. There would be some very slight patches of drizzle and fog as the daytime temperatures of low forties eventually took hold. We ran counter-clockwise on the .98 mile asphalt trail around Freedom Park. I noticed the three hills right away. They were so small that it appeared that I’d be able to ignore them for most of the day. Yeah, sure.


Dan, Ladd and I ran together. Mike was using a slower strategy that included much more walking. The three of us also walked about 5 minutes of every third lap. Every sixth lap I did stop back at Camp Ohio for my carbo solution and electrolytes. Things were going swimmingly well for those early miles. At some point Ladd and Dan began to take additional walking and/or stopping, and I went on alone. Although I did continue taking the walking breaks, I changed my strategy a bit: I’d walk the three little hills every third lap, and that ought to work out the same way, right? By the way, those three pesky little hills were beginning to grow. And grow, and grow.

It’s not that I didn’t want to stay with Dan and Ladd; I knew they were doing the wise thing by taking their time. But by golly, I wanted to at least get up to 100 miles as soon as possible, and then take it fairly easy after that. I did try to force myself to stay with Ladd at times, but then found myself moving ahead again. I never said I was smart about these sorts of things.

As the day progressed, I achieved the marathon distance in a bit over four hours, and felt wonderful. By the time I got fairly well past 40 miles, my longest training run distance, I started to feel terribly lousy. I had been running well, and had even made the leader board by squeezing into fourth and fifth place at times. But now something was wrong. The problem was that I didn’t know what “it” was. I have, however, been there before: every footfall is simply a pain. Every bone in my body just plain hurt. I’ve been here before – at some of my really lousy marathons I’ve felt this same way. But then they were over and done with in three and a half hours or so.


When Math Doesn’t Work

Besides my Ohio friends, I’d been meeting plenty of others, new and old. Some, like Garth, Keith, Rosy, Shannon and Dave, I knew from North Coast. Others I knew by reputation or email. And some I simply met as new friends here in this interesting ultra universe. Some of those mentioned above were running very well. I myself had fallen out of the leader board, and was doing worse and worse as it got dark.

Another thing happened as it got dark: it got cold. I really noticed this when I decided to walk a lap to give my aching bones a slight rest from the hard running. It turned out that the hard walking wasn’t that much better. But what really hit me here was that bone-chilling, damp cold. Time to put on some more layers, and get back to running. That was better. Really.

Now I was still slowing down, but my rate of slowing had slowed. And I was feeling better doing it. Aaah, the inevitable math. I’m not as bad about it as some folks. Ladd (that eternal optimist) in particular stayed enthusiastically upbeat about our chances of doing well. As we progressed, he’d often say things like: “Dan, you did 65 (or whatever it was) miles in the first 12 hours; surely you can do way more than 35 in the last 12.” And yes, this does sound reasonable. But one thing all my years of experience have taught me is that the math never works.


No Longer Vertical

The friendly race organization folks had been doing a great job. They were serving food, but I hadn’t had anything other than some broth. My carbo mixture had been keeping me going. Or was it? After my resurgence from about miles 60 to 72, I was hurting, fatigued and cold once again. Did I mention cold? It was somewhere in the thirties, and there was an eerie fog and mist about. That damp cold may as well have been minus thirties for the way it felt to me.

As midnight approached, a race volunteer cheerily gave me a lei and tried to put a hat on my head. It took every ounce of will that I could muster to keep from saying or doing something mean to this nice person. Needless to say, I was too miserable to join the festivities, and just kept moving. I did hear the celebration and cheering from the other side of the park. Folks outside the park were boom-booming too. I hardly noticed.

What I did notice was that even as the New Year celebration ended, I hardly saw any other runners about. Where did they all go? I also noticed that I could hardly move in a straight line any more. It was time to get warmed up in the heated tent. Rhonda, the RD’s wife, helped me settle into a chair, and some kids got me some more broth. I wound up laying on a cold, uncomfortable metal bench with a couple space blankets from the Twin Cities Marathon wrapped around me. It was looking very much like I would not be able to continue running at all. Although I was far from comfortable, I dozed off for an hour or two.


The Phoenix

Yes, I arose from that near-comatose state. It took quite a while to figure out where the heck I was and how I got there. I was still shivering, and needed some calories, but at least I was awake and alive. In fact, I actually did feel a tiny bit better. I had previously done around 84 laps. With several hours left, I actually began to entertain thoughts about getting outside to do some more. It seemed to take about thirty minutes to go from a laying to a sitting position, and then another hour to get from that sitting position to the course, which was only a few feet away. It was around 4am, and getting close to my usual running time. Except I wasn’t running now. You would be hard-pressed to call it walking. It was taking between 20 and 30 minutes to complete each lap, and in addition, I was stopping for food each time around.

At one stop I put some more layers on. The frozen fog had begun to lift, but I was still cold. Now I started to feel even better. I met up with Ladd, and we walked several laps together. Within the last ninety minutes, we were taking the laps one at a time, figuring that we could quit and call it a day at any time. Finally, with about 20 minutes left, I did. I turned in my chip after completing 95 laps. That works out to 93.66 miles.


More

This is the lessons learnt part of this post. And that’s what I needed: more.

More calories. I thought I was getting plenty with my carbo mix, but I believe that I had developed a deficit as the day wore into night. I should’ve taken more solid food.
More caffeine. I was trying to take this drug of choice in moderation or not at all, but perhaps I overdid the moderation part. I took one 5-hour energy at about 10pm, but by about midnight it had stopped working. I probably needed another one at that point.
More layers. It took a long time to figure out that walking wasn’t generating the heat that I usually get from running. That’s when I should’ve added the layers, but I dithered too much, not adding the layers until morning.
More patience. Ladd didn’t have his best day either, but he certainly knew better about starting out conservatively. I was just too anxious to take the walking breaks seriously. The best 24-hour runners are those that start slow but keep going and going and going.


The Joy is in the Journey

I don't believe that any of us on Team Ohio did ran as far as planned. Not that we were disappointed; it was just tough out there. The top runners, including Shannon and Dave, all ran well, and it was exciting to watch them.

I've said it before, but it bears repeating: the joy is in the journey. I often don’t like training for ultras, just because it seems so tedious. My training for Freedom Park was indeed tedious as well; I ran 387 miles in December, one of my highest monthly totals ever. But I actually enjoyed these miles for some reason. I am not able to explain why.

And then there was the journey down from Ohio to North Carolina. Mike, Ladd and Dan were a great bunch, and a lot of fun to travel with. The trip itself was a real blast.

Thanks to Dan DeRosha and Mike Keller for these photos.

Some Doubts

After some long runs of 30, 30 and 40 miles, I was feeling pretty good about my chances of running well at the Freedom Park New Year's Eve 24-Hour Run in North Carolina. Inevitably, I'm not so confident as the day approaches. For one thing, as always I ate too much during the Christmas holidays, and I'm feeling sluggish as a result. But the worst thing is the weather. I've been saying right along that I wouldn't mind it being cold, but cold rain, snow or ice would be very bad. And guess what? That's what's in the forecast.

I guess I'll just have to make the best of what nature gives me. I need to relax and not worry so much about my performance. My mantra: don't worry about how far or fast, just run and have fun.

Last Saturday there were a bunch of us MCRR folks down on the towpath, and along with Dave, we did the usual 14 mile route. It wasn't as fast as last time, but it was still pretty good. I did nine on Sunday, including a 4-mile tempo run. And today I did 11 on the mill because there was yucchy snow outside.

Back to the holidays, they were really nice. Iris and Mike and Iris' Mom a couple days prior, Sandy and Nancy's for Christmas Eve, John and Jill's for Christmas day, then Val came in and we partied some more with folks coming over Sunday. Party, party, party. Now I'll party my way down to North Carolina!

The Voices and Me

They are nothing if not consistent, those voices. All week they’d been telling me to do a 14-miler on the towpath on Saturday, followed by a really long run of 30 to 40 miles on Sunday. They never wavered. Thus I found myself going a long, long way this morning. But let’s start at the beginning.

The voices can be good (“go for it - you can do it”), or evil (“you’re having a bad day, so you may as well quit right now”). Much of the time, I’m not entirely sure whether they are good or evil. When they say something like, run about 50 miles over a weekend, is that a good thing or a bad thing? Some would probably simply classify it as a stupid thing, and I don’t have a good come-back for that. Except perhaps to say, lookyahere: I’m planning to be running even more than that on New Year’s Eve, and I’ve got to be ready. I do know that I have to do what they say, because I don’t know what would happen otherwise.

The weekend of running began with Saturday’s run. At Station Road Bridge, I met up with Ladd, Debbie, Dan DeRosha and Chuck. We did what is a familiar route for me: south to Lock 29 in Peninsula and back. It’s 14 miles of familiar towpath trail. The inch or so of snow didn’t bother us as we started out slower than nine minute pace, gradually picking it up the whole way. Chuck picked it up even more with about 4 to go, and I went with him because the voices told me to. Our last three miles were all under seven minute pace, something I haven’t managed to do in a couple weeks. Would I be able to recover from this towpath trail tempo trot in order to run long the next day? I felt tired, but otherwise fine. Time would tell.

Good thing I got a nap because Saturday night’s MCRR party at Second Sole went on till 10pm – way past my bedtime. Good time, by the way. Why would my bedtime be so early, you ask? Because the voices are also consistent about telling me to get up extremely early for my runs, and the longer the run the earlier the start has to be. This is another area where the voices work in mysterious ways. My best guess is that they don’t want me to spend the entire day out running.

It was about 3:18am when first the alarm, and then the voices, told me to get out of bed. Even though yesterday’s run on an inch of snow on the towpath wasn’t bad at all, I wasn’t excited about seeing the same thing this morning. Actually the snow is fine; it’s the accompanying ice and slush that I dislike. The voices know that I feel this way, so they told me it was ok to begin my run on the treadmill. Working with the voices, I had refined my plan a bit: I’d do something on the order of six 6-mile segments. Yes, for some reason, 36 total miles sounded about right to both the voices and me. I had been thinking of doing my outdoor 6-mile loop those six times. Now on the mill, I thought I’d take a break every six miles, although I’d still have to figure out how many such segments to do before heading outside. At each break, I’d chug some Vitargo that I’d mixed on Saturday. Vitargo is pure carbohydrate with no sugar that you can supposedly take gallons of without upsetting your stomach. It has to be mixed well, preferably in a blender. Another thing going on was the brand new shoes: Nike Lunar Glides for the mill work, and another pair of Pegasus 25’s for the outside stuff. I’d really liked my previous pair of Pegs.

I fired up the mill at 3:55am, turned on a movie, and quickly got down to 7:30 to 8 minute pace with .5% elevation. I pretty much stuck to that pace and to my plan to break every 6 miles. I found myself staying on the mill longer than I thought I would. In the process, I watched a Val Kilmer movie where he was an assassin with amnesia who was supposed to kill the president, a really silly documentary where Ben Stein compared some professor’s firing to the Berlin Wall. The professor had taught about “Intelligent Design”. We don’t waste our time arguing about the world being flat, or at the center of the universe anymore because these concepts are so totally disproven; to continue their debate would waste everyone’s time. It’s exactly the same with creationism and climate change denial. There is simply no scientific evidence to support the concepts (they’re not even theories), and yet some people want to continue to ‘debate’ them. And everyone’s time is, indeed, wasted. Except mine; I was getting my miles in. I also watched part of a Denzel Washington / Whitney Houston movie, and a bit of Fox News, where they had a "debate" about whether climate change was real.

Before I knew it, I was getting a lot of mill miles in. The most I’d ever done was 24. This day I stepped off the mill at… 24 miles, and then prepared to finally go outside. It was 7:20 or so; I’d done pretty good so far. I think the Vitargo had helped. By the time I’d gotten my clothes over my sweaty body and got outside, over a half-hour had gone by. The other breaks had been much more efficient. I had also put the Pegs on – my feet had begun to take a beating from the Lunar Glides. The Pegs felt better.

As I started out, the voices informed me that it wasn’t a good idea to continue with the plan of doing two more six-mile segments. Since that last break had taken so long, perhaps it would be better to simply stay away from home for the entire final 12 miles. In retrospect, I think the voices were incorrect about this one, but at the time, I did as suggested.

Running through jello. Know the feeling? I knew those first few outside miles were slow, but I didn’t know how slow until I glanced at my watch at mile three: 28 minutes. It occurred to me that it would be a long morning. But then something funny happened: I started running faster. As I did one loop around the high school, and then ran up to and around North Park, the miles got faster and faster. Not blazing fast, mind you, but down close to 8 minute pace. The final four miles home were a little slower again, but still under nine minute pace.

Why did I think the voices were wrong about my ability to take a break and get back on the road? Because I was able to do so, for four more after the twelve. Even the extra four (on my familiar four-mile loop course) were pretty good – about 8:30 per mile. So the entire 16 outside miles were completed in two hours and nineteen and a half minutes. Add this to the 24 mill miles, and you have a pretty good day of running.

Now I think I’m ready for the 24-hour run, if only the weather will be good for us. Let’s hope the voices cooperate.

Donning Our Gay Apparel

Last night was the holiday beer/cheer run with the Medina County Road Runners. Everyone dressed for the occasion, including me. Yes, my apparel was pretty darned gay. But then, so was everyone else’s. I stayed away from the drinks at the couple of bars we visited, but I did partake in the running and caroling. Anyone who saw me would be hard-pressed to agree that I was really sober.

We didn’t run very far last night, but it’s been a good week, mileage-wise. I didn’t run last Saturday because I was flying back from Boston. So Sunday was to be another big day, and it was. Like the previous week, I started early at Hinckley, and was joined at 5am by Dan D. and Ladd (who was new for this week). Also like last week I did nine three+ mile loops and enough extra miles to call it a 30-mile day. But this 30-miler was much slower than that of the previous week: 4:50+ as opposed to 4:30. The reason for the slow running is the cold and freezing rain that was with us for most of the run. The worst part was the slippery footing. Good thing I had those other guys with me because on this day, it would have been really easy to quit and go home early.

Not only did Sunday’s run go slowly, it also beat me up quite a bit. I took Monday off, but managed to run 10-11 on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Some of those runs were pretty darn cold. No stellar performances, but I am getting those miles in.

Running in Beantown (no, it’s not the Big One)

The Big One will be next April. This was just a one-week gig for work. And speaking of work, I spent much of the time navigating my way between several offices located around the city. I decided to stay in Quincy because it was at least somewhat close to some of the offices.

Unfortunately, Quincy isn’t the greatest running area. Boston does have some wonderful running routes, but I didn’t think I’d be able to get to them from the hotel. But then things turned out slightly different than expected.

Wednesday’s run was about as expected. I wanted to get 10 in, and I did. Those 10 came and went without me going too far from the hotel. It was snowing when I started, and the snow became heavier throughout the run, so the last thing I wanted to do was venture too far. The solution was to run multiple ¾ mile loops around the office park. Add to those loops several runs up and down the hill leading to the Marriott, and you have your 10 miles.

Thursday’s run was more adventurous. Waking up at 2am, getting out of bed at 3:15, and out the door at 4:30, I thought I could get a long one in. And a long one it was, although I had to call it quits after 2 hours, 42 minutes. I simply ran out of time. So with the slow pace I’m calling it 18 miles. The course turned out to be a good one for running after all. Down Center Street into Quincy, then onto the Furnace Brook Parkway for several miles. Other miles along Quincy Harbor and Wallston beach. These all turned out to be pretty durn good routes for running. All-in-all it was a pretty nice run. Slow, but nice.

I'll probably do a couple more tomorrow.

FWIW

"How should I train for the 24-Hour Run?" wondered Dan DeRosha.

There's something about the phrase, "For What It's Worth", that I really like. It's a shorthand way of saying, "You may want to disregard everything I'm about to say, but in the event that you do still want to listen, here it is..." Or, "I may not be the best authority to give the following advice, here it is..." And so on... In this case, I certainly did qualify my response. Of course that qualification included the fact that my previous experience with 24-Hour runs has been to a) run one with really lousy results, and b) be the race director of one that I didn't run at all. With those caveats, I gave the following advice: "Run a lot."

Back in the seventies, when running was at best a fringe activity, and running marathons was truly "out there", a friend and I trained for and ran the first Cleveland Marathon. As someone queried, "Wow, a marathon! How did you train for it?", my training partner, who did not want to waste the effort of explaining his training regimen to someone who wouldn't understand, or really care anyway, answered, "I ran a lot". Now it was definitely not my intention to brush Dan off with such an attitude. In fact, I was quite serious: to train to run a lot, you ought to... run a lot.

And over this past weekend, run a lot we did. On Saturday we hit the towpath along with Dave. I did 14, while Dan went on to do several more. These miles were at a really good pace; well under 8 mpm for the last few.

Sunday Dan and I got together again, this time at Hinckley. It was cold and dark at 5am, but that was to be expected. We did seven (I think) 3+ mile loops around the lake. Some were on the all-purpose trail, and some on the dirt lake trail. I even did a couple more - enough to call it 30 miles in all.

Today I did 10 more miles. Although these were slow, I'm very happy that I could run at all, given the past weekend.

So yes, FWIW, I've been running a lot.

What Was I Thinking?

After some peer pressure from Ladd and Dan D., I signed up for the Freedom Park New Years Eve 24-Hour Run. To be honest, that peer pressure went both ways; I had been looking at the race myself. The problem is, now I have to train for it.

My first ultra, and my only other 24-hour run was Olander Park in Toledo, about 17 years ago. I had had a very good running year, but I did not take that particular race seriously. It was more of a lark type thing. As one may expect from such a thing, the run did not go well at all for me. I got 51 miles in, but I quit running and went home after 10 1/2 hours. I actually got depressed from running in the dark. Some of my other ultras have gone better because I've actually trained for them.

I pledge to train for this one. I plan to get a couple 30-mile runs in, but I'll have to make sure to have the time (and weather) on my side. If I mess up this one, it won't be for lack of training and trying.

This week's running has gone better than last week's. I did a lousy 4 on Sunday, and then 22 Monday. That Monday run was broken up as two 6-mile loops and then 10 on the dreadmill. The outside stuff went well, but the treadmill part didn't. At least I got through it. Tuesday was better. I did 11 with the early morning Medina group, and then hit the track with them again in the evening for some 400s and 800s.

After a day off, I hit the roads again this morning for 13 miles, some of which were loops around the high school. I'm trying to get used to running in circles, you see. It wasn't a bad run - I averaged about 8:15 or so.

I may do my first 30-miler as early as this Sunday.

Thanksgiving Week

Yes, Thanksgiving, like Christmas, is more of a season than a day. And let me be clear: I like it that way. This is the holiday when it's only about family getting together. IMHO, it's the best of all holidays.

Veronica stayed with us for a week, and it was wonderful to have her around. She helped out a whole lot, especially with the preparations for Thanksgiving Day itself. Valerie and Barry made it in on Thanksgiving Eve, as did the usual bunch for Thanksgiving Eve dinner featuring my two lasagnas. We also had the usual bunch for Thanksgiving Day itself. Lots of fun and good food. No one starved.

Barry and Veronica ventured out before 5am on Black Friday. They did get the deals they were after, as well as a GPS for us. Then we all went to the Cleveland Botanical Gardens where they had Christmas displays and their usual indoor gardens. I think that turned out to be a good activity for everyone.

Valerie left Friday, and Barry and Veronica went home Saturday. The house is nearly (except for Mom) empty again. Sigh.

Did I run during the week, you ask? Yes, but poorly. After that pretty-good half marathon, my runs were slow and then got worse. Worst of all was an 11-miler on Black Friday morning. We got a snowstorm, with about 3 inches falling during the run. I often used to enjoy these kinds of runs in new snow, but I wasn't dressed properly, and this one turned out to be miserable.

To recap, it was a wonderful week with the family, not so wonderful running-wise. I did manage to get my 70 miles in however. And I should be thankful that I'm not injured. All I really need to do is continue to maintain this mileage level, and also lose those extra ten or so pounds.

2009 CWRRC Fall Classic Half Marathon

Ninety Minutes. It wasn't too big a deal for much of my running career. I even broke 90 for a tough half (Stomp the Grapes) last year. But this year has been even more mediocre than last, and I haven't come close for the two halves I've run. Therefore today's expectations weren't high: to run around 92 minutes. Even that seemed a bit ambitious. That's 7 minutes per mile, and it's what I did here last year on a cold day. Yes, if I could do 92 minutes today, it would be a good one.

Temperatures were nice - low 40s and some fog. I started a little too fast, but I felt good the whole time, so I stayed with it. I came through the half-way point at around 44 and a half minutes. This was going better than expected. I did begin to slow down a bit in the second half. A couple energy gels perked me up some, and I did pick it back up, but I never got the pace back to as fast as those first few miles.

I passed a few runners in the final miles, and was closing in on a guy who looked to be in my age group, when we suddenly ran out of real estate. He was in my age group, so I missed out on an AG win by about 10 seconds. Sound familiar? My last three longer races have been like that, except that I did win one of the three. Although I did not manage to break 90, my 90:42 time was a good one. I'll definitely take it.

One other thing to add: I absolutely love this race. I see so many new and old friends that it's like a homecoming run. I'll never stop doing it!

Long on Lester, Achieving Eightness, and Other Stories

After Saturday's 14 on the towpath I hit the trail again on Sunday. This time it was the Lester Rail Trail for my usual four loops of six miles. I say usual because that's usually what I do run there. It has, however, been a while since I've run there. It's much simpler to just run from home, but I like the softer surface of the trail as well as the lack of traffic. The goal was, as usual, to run each loop a little faster, and this time I succeeded: the approximate times were something on the order of: 54.5, 51.5, 50, 47.5 minutes. Good trend. I'm reasonably happy with it.

It took a lot, however, to get down to eight minute pace for that last lap. This has been the case quite a bit lately: it's just tough to run the kind of speeds that used to be routine a couple years ago. In fact, it wasn't so far back in the past when I would average eight minute pace for the entire year! This year my average pace per mile has been hovering around 8 and a half. Is it any wonder that my race times are also slower?

How was the rest of the week, you ask. It's been going ok, and I'm reasonably happy with it. Slow going Monday morning and then evening with the MCRR gang prior to the meeting (and it was a good meeting, with Mark Croghan as the speaker). A little better for Tuesday's twelve, and then better still today (Wednesday): I just barely managed a tempo run as part of the 11-mile course, which I completed, along with an additional three, at exactly eight-minute pace.

I signed up for the Fall Classic Half this Sunday, and then just yesterday learned that there's a little 5k in Brunswick on Saturday. Now running the 5k would probably slow me down to some extent for the half. But I'd like to do the 5k, and I really don't know how much slowing would occur. Decision time.

Floors and Countertops and Appliances, Oh My

As with the countertops, the floors - just finished a couple days ago - look great. The scary part is that some of the bills are now starting to come through. Then there's the really scary electrical problem the other day - the light fixture in the back bedroom shorted out two circuits. Oh and the weird car problems. You'd think it was Halloween again. I got it- it was all the stuff leading up to yesterday: Friday the Thirteenth. Scary.

We visited with Mike and Iris and Bob and Linda at the Rafalski's last night. Lots of laughs.

Taking Mom out for her birthday tomorrow.

Recent Running

After Monday's long run, I took Tuesday off, ran my 11-mile loop on Wednesday, including a pretty-good tempo portion, and then on Thursday drove to AND FROM the Stop&Go to run with the MCRR gang. I also ran a few extra with Ladd afterwards. Friday was an off-day, so I felt fairly well-rested for today's run on the towpath with Dave. We did the usual - from Station Rd. to Peninsula and back for a 14-mile total. And it wasn't a bad run at all - about 61 minutes out and 54 back. Now I will try to recover for a long run tomorrow.

The Joke and The Challenge

After last week's fiasco with being locked out of the car and having to run home, Ladd, Chuck and I joked about me running all the way to the Stop&Go, running the loop with the MCCR gang, and then running back home for a grand total distance of 26 miles.

But then yesterday I started to think about it. I had been considering a long run for sometime during the week. Monday would be a good day for it because the weather would be good and I could work around any possible conflicts. And I like to try different things to inject some adventure into my running. Some, but not too much. So at some point during my muddled thinking yesterday, this whole concept began to change from a joke to a challenge. It would be tough: I'd have to leave the house by 3:30am to arrive in time for the 5:05am start. I'd have to plan for my hydration, fueling and bathroom needs. I'd have to run fast enough to get there on time, and then fast enough to get home by 8am. Yes, it would be a challenge for sure.

Awake before 3am, I was out of the house and running by 3:33. I didn't think that nine minute miles would be a problem, but there was that pit stop along the way. Arriving after everyone left would be a disappointment. I had started fairly slowly, but got faster as I went on. I could still feel yesterday's race in my old legs. But at least I was moving in the right direction. I made it with a couple minutes to spare.

Jeannine, Ladd, Marsha, Steve, Chuck, Shelby and I had a nice run together. The only thing was that it felt like a fast pace but it turned out that it really wasn't. We were several minutes slower than last week's run, but it still felt pretty durn fast. Of course everyone thought I was nuts. "Last week I forgot the keys, this week I forgot the car." And so on. Afterwards we talked a bit, and Jeannine donated some water. I took a gel and used the restroom before continuing my Odyssey.

Now I had to get home, and I had an hour forty-five to do it. At least I knew the distance. I started slow, but once I got north of the Medina square, I felt better and began to run better. I took one last gel with some water at the golf course and then embarked on the final 4.5 mile leg up Hamilton and Substation. By about 7am, the traffic was picking up, making the running less safe and definitely less pleasant.

By about 7:45am, I was back home. The last 10 were a bit slower than the first 10, but not by much. The challenge was met. I don't think I'll feel the need to do this particular sort of thing again, thank you. Now excuse me; it's time for a nap.

Dick's Horseradish 5K

Run the course, run the race, run the course. That always seems to be the plan for 5k runs, especially when Connie is involved. Today it was Ladd, Chuck and I, along with Connie making the trip to Canton to run Dick's Horseradish 5K. The weather was perfect - just about 50F and clear.

After the warmup run of the course, we started the race. As always, there was a mad sprint at the start. I was determined not to start too fast, and I didn't. The first mile, the hilliest, as in about 6:27. The second mile was close to the same. I felt pretty good, so I tried to pick it up for the third mile. It turned out to be only a little faster than the first two, but just enough to pass a few folks, including Connie just before the finish. "You're not going to let an old man beat you, are you?" I shouted as I went by. She only replied, "you're not old!". I think she lies. I was also trying to catch Ladd and Chuck, but I wasn't able to.

I hit my watch as I crossed the line: 19:59. I usually lose a second or two somewhere, and sure enough, the official results did show me at 20:02 or something like that. Oh well. I wound up second in the age group. Don Cassidy was first. Oh well.

It was my best 5k in a couple years, so I'm pretty happy with it.

I

Stupid Dan Tricks, Number 3,247

Today's plan was to run 6.2 miles at 5am with some of my MCRR friends. We met at Stop&Go at Sturbridge and Rte 3, south of Medina. And we had a very nice brisk run, finishing the hilly 10k loop in a bit over 50 minutes. Afterwards, we talked for a couple minutes and everyone left. I then realized I had locked my keys in the car.

Now it was a bit after 6am, and I was ten to twelve miles (wasn't at all sure) from home. I didn't want to wake Debbie up, but I did have to get home by 8am for a meeting. Would I make it? Only one way to find out.

Luckily, it wasn't as far south as I thought, and I was into Medina in no time. Then it was past Walmart, Second Sole, and up to Hamilton. At this point I knew I was only 4.5 miles from home (via Substation) and I'd been running at a good clip, so I'd make it in good time. Of course I did slow down for those final miles on Substation, but I did make it.

Final tally: 9.91 miles in 83 minutes. Only the final four were slower than 8 minute pace.

Other stupid Dan tricks: after Sunday's marathon, I did a couple on the mill on Monday and didn't feel too bad. On Tuesday, I DID feel bad as I did my 11-mile loop at an excruciatingly slow 9 minutes per mile. Wednesday was decidedly much better: I did my 12-mile route to/around North Park under 8.5 minutes per mile, with a nice strong finish.

Now I have almost all the miles I wanted for the week and it's only Thursday. I DO need a rest.

Inland Trail Marathon

I've said this before, but it bears repeating: *almost* nothing feels as good as running strong at the end of a marathon. It had been a while: nearly all my recent efforts have been marked by either a gradual slowdown or an outright crash and burn. But I was determined not to let that happen at today's Inland Trail Marathon. I would be running it for the third consecutive year of the four years of its existence. It is fairly scenic, very straight, very flat and very well managed for such a small race. I always run fairly well there, in part because the weather's always perfect.

Today was no exception on any of those counts. The weather was once again exceptional: mostly cloudy with very light winds and temperatures in the forties. I ran most of the first half with Chuck D. We both wanted to pick it up about half-way, but we both figured that Chuck would pick it up faster than me. I hit that half-way mark on this out and back course at about 1:42. I had been thinking that it would be 1:40 and that a 3:20 finish would be nice. Regardless of the time, I just wanted to be strong through the finish.

Chuck was well ahead of me as I turned and picked it up to a 7:30 to 7:45 per mile pace. He ended up with a great second half and a great all-round effort. I think I hit mile 20 at about 2:33 or 2:34, and I picked it up just a bit more, to 7:30 or better for each of the final 6 miles. I passed several people, including one guy who turned out to be in my age group. I finished very strong and crossed the line in 3:20:30, good for the age group win. Note that the opposite occurred (I was the one passed in the final mile) at the Towpath Marathon a couple weeks ago.

It may be obvious, but I'm very happy with this one. I finally did what I thought I was capable of, and I actually got that rush as I finished strong. Just to temper that optimism just a bit, here's a disturbing trend of my Inland Trail times for the past three years: 2007: 3:14, 2008: 3:17, 2009: 3:20. I'll try to reverse this in 2010.

Near Tempo Experiences (NTE's)

Near Death Experiences (NDE's) are well documented cases where people near death experience various visions. You can guess what a Near Tempo Experience would be - a close, but unsuccessful encounter with a tempo run. Not to put too fine a point on it, but I've always defined a tempo run as three or more consecutive sub-seven minute miles. Tempo runs were never really easy, and I've had other attempts that failed. But by and large, most of the time, when I wanted to do one, I could do it.

Not so lately. I've recently had more failures than successes. A failure would be any of the three miles at over seven minute pace. Today's run was a case in point. Twice I tried to get down to seven-minute pace, and twice I failed. Not that the ten-miler in 79 minutes was bad, mind you, it just wasn't as good, or as tempo-y as I wanted.

Signing up for Sunday's Inland Trail Marathon. It won't be one of my fastest.

Felt Like I was Flying

I felt surprisingly good this morning. Got out early and did my 11-mile loop, followed by my 3-mile loop. The running was strong and smooth, and I felt like I could keep on going and going. That's the good news. Only one little problem: these things called chronometers. They time your activity, and when that time/duration is combined with a known distance, your running speed is determined. And that running speed on this day when I felt like I was flying, pretty much told me just the opposite: that I was grounded. So whereas, for these sorts of training runs, on a good day when I'm in really good shape I'd average around 7:30 per mile, and on a good day when I'm in decent shape, which is as good as I got this year, I'd average about 8 minutes per mile, and on a good day these days, I averaged about 8:20 per mile. A month or two ago, I'd be disappointed to run so slow when I felt so fast, but today I'll just have to take what I can get.

Since I did feel so good for today's run, I probably *will* run the Inland Trail Marathon this Sunday. I'd been leaning against it, but now I'm leaning the other way. It'll be slow, mind you. Very slow. But it would be nice to run a smooth, strong, pain free marathon, regardless of what the chronometer says.