It's supposed to hit 70 degrees in Raleigh today. I don't know what this is but I kind of like it. Actually I'm hoping for a good hard freeze this month so it will kill off all of the insect larvae before they can hatch and we get overrun by mosquitos this summer. And if it's 70* today, it's going to get up to about 170* in August. So, pleasant as it may be, it could be more destructive long term.
That doesn't mean I won't put the top down when I drive out to lunch with some friends today.
So what happened in January? Well, there was a marathon and lots of yoga.
Swim: 10,400 yards, 4 swims
Bike: 82 miles, 4 rides
Run: 61.8 miles, 9 rides, 2 races
Strength: 5 workouts
Yoga: 26 sessions
Yes, I'm well on my way to the 300 yoga sessions on the year. I've really gotten the beginning Ashtanga poses down and can see some real progress in my flexibility, comfort and strength for those particular poses. That's really cool. The Charleston Marathon was great overall, but it should have been called the "North Charleston Marathon" because the majority of the course was outside of Charleston on rough unkempt roads that destroyed many body parts of the runners. It was great having that much time with our friends Joe and Gina, and we loved getting to hang out with my brother Michael and Summer, but I came home with a torn up foot, Gina tore up a foot too, and Kelley's knee is still trashed. Not Cool.
My other race was the Run for Young 5k that was also kind of a disaster, but still fun. The hills got me, and I missed the sub-20 goal by a long shot.
Overall I have to be pleased with the mileage for last month. It's not huge, but I don't need to put up 100+ mile months of running during the off season. February marks the time to start training for the spring tri's, so it's time to make some decisions, pay some entrance fees, and get back to work. Lots of short, fast runs, and getting back on the bike. Februaray's targets need to be 15,000 yards in the pool, 200+ miles of biking, and 80+ miles of running. And I still have to work the Myrtle Beach marathon in there and recover from it.
I'm starting to think that sub-20 5k and 3:30 marathon may not happen. I ran 5 miles on sunday in just under 41 minutes, and it felt ok. It had been 10 days since my last run. The foot was fine during the run, then started the inflammation again about an hour after I finished. My legs hit muscle fatigue really early, and my breathing was more labored than it has been at that pace in a long time. When you do marathons and ironman your overall muscular and aerobic capacity builds like you are climbing to the top of a mountain, and now it feels like I'm coming down the other side and losing all of that speed again. And that feels like a good thing. You take the time off to heal and recover, then come back and start climbing that hill again. Like you have to get slow to get faster. So if getting slow now means no sub-20 5k or 3:30 marathon (at least for the spring), then I'm ok with that. I have to be.
It should also mean a fast triathlon season in the summer. Maybe I'll crush some run splits there. The swimming is starting to feel really comfortable and fast this year. I'm still mentally having trouble getting back on the bike, but I'm sure that will pass in this warm weather. And I'm pretty sure this foot thing will heal up ok too in short order. Here's hoping that your January was that good! Now get on the mat!
p.s. I forgot to mention the new header image. Evil Genius came up to me while I was working the other day and showed me an MDot that she made out of play-doh. She was very proud that she made it, and I didn't prompt her for the idea or anything. It was so sweet I took a picture of it and turned that pic into an awkward blog header image. I wish I had zoomed out more, and made the image shorter and wider. Alas, my photoshop skills are not that good.
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Monday, January 30, 2012
Winter Inning
The Indian Princess people do the big winter event indoors, so they call it an inning instead of an outing. I thought that was cute. They filled the Dorton Arena with fun activities and we let the kids run wild. So much fun!
We ended up with an extra ticket so Bigun brought a friend of hers. Afterwards we all went out for pizza and back home for a nap. Everyone (including me) was completely exhausted. Evil Genius was totally fried, she could barely eat the pizza. And to think they were actually riding a mechanical bull earlier.
Sunday it marked 10 days since my last run, so I was getting anxious about getting a few miles in. I ran 5 miles in about 41 minutes which is pretty decent. I was surprised at how fast my muscular endurance went away. Those 5 miles felt like harder work than it normally does. The foot felt ok during the run, but then about an hour later the inflammation wonkiness started coming back. Not fun. But it really wasn't that bad. I'm going to take it kind of easy for another week just to play it safe. It felt good and strange to be back out there, like I couldn't really find my form easily. I know if I have some patience here it will come back so that's what I'm trying to do.
You will not believe what Evil Genius did on sunday. It requires its own post.
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| Bigun wanted a rainbow painted over her entire face. They used a marker, I still haven't gotten it to wash off. |
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| Bigun and Grace going up the hill slide |
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| Fun with a lemon head |
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| Evil Genius and I going up the hill slide |
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| She was so scared to come back down. |
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| Waiting in line for the Wizzer |
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| The Wizzer would spin us around really fast |
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| EG and I on the Wizzer. Fun ride! |
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| EG climbing her way up |
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| The whole arena packed with rides |
We ended up with an extra ticket so Bigun brought a friend of hers. Afterwards we all went out for pizza and back home for a nap. Everyone (including me) was completely exhausted. Evil Genius was totally fried, she could barely eat the pizza. And to think they were actually riding a mechanical bull earlier.
Sunday it marked 10 days since my last run, so I was getting anxious about getting a few miles in. I ran 5 miles in about 41 minutes which is pretty decent. I was surprised at how fast my muscular endurance went away. Those 5 miles felt like harder work than it normally does. The foot felt ok during the run, but then about an hour later the inflammation wonkiness started coming back. Not fun. But it really wasn't that bad. I'm going to take it kind of easy for another week just to play it safe. It felt good and strange to be back out there, like I couldn't really find my form easily. I know if I have some patience here it will come back so that's what I'm trying to do.
You will not believe what Evil Genius did on sunday. It requires its own post.
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Young and Old
It happened again. I got tagged by KDub and JoyRuN with an "11 things about me" meme. And since I rarely get tired of talking about myself I'll throw it out there. I still think that the last "10 things about me" post is one of the funniest things I've ever written so I doubt I can top that one. So you should really be prepared for disappointment now. Here are the rules:
1. Post these rules
2. You must post 11 random things about yourself
3. Answer the questions set for you in their post
4. Create 11 new questions for the people you tag to answer
5. Go to their blog and tell them you’ve tagged them
6. No stuff in the tagging section about you are tagged if you are reading this. You legitimately have to tag 11 people!
11 Random things about myself: (I'm going young and old with these, so nothing random about right now. all stuff when I was younger and people that are older than me)
1. Freshman year of high school I was on the wrestling team for three days trying to compete in the 120 lb weigh class. I was already almost six feet tall. That is anorexic kind of skinny. Not a good look at all, and I was really self conscious about it.
2. I also ran the mile on the track team that year. I ran in every meet, one time I beat one other kid. Every other meet (like 8 of 9 meets) I finished dead last, usually by a lot. My times ranged from 5:55 to 6:10, not bad by most standards. But my team also had a Feduric on there, and she won the state championship in the mile 6 years in a row (from 7th through 12th grade) with average times around 4:15. And I wonder sometimes where my competetive nature comes from?
3. Sophomore year I didn't feel like getting my butt kicked in the mile anymore, so I threw shotput and discus instead. Because anorexia runs rampant through the shotput community. WTF? I was throwing around 17 feet before the offensive lineman put out his 40 foot throws. I don't know why I thought I belonged in there, but again I competed in every meet. That was my last year on the track team (spring 1991), and the last time I tried to play sports at all until I found triathlon in 2008.
4. I graduated high school in 1993 at 6 feet tall and only 135 lbs. Mom still complains that I used to eat an entire box of cereal every night before bed. And I still couldn't put on weight. Oh the metabolism of teenagers.
5. A few weeks ago I advised someone that naturalized social and leadership skills would only develop properly when you were in an appropriate comfort zone. I never really felt accepted on any athletic team, and didn't have any kind of star qualities. I found my comfort zone in music, specifically chorus. And that's when I started to shine. Senior year I was the president of my school's Concert Choir, and my chorus teacher is retiring this year. I was the first student to make the SC Honors All-State choir all three years I was eligible to audition. I was accepted into every choir I auditioned for, and usually put into leadership roles like President, Jr Conductor, or Lead Choreographer. I even had one of the lead roles in Bye Bye Birdie the only year we did a school play.
6. Those leadership roles also gave me a lot of confidence and popularity. I did a lot of countywide and statewide music programs. My advise to single people? Confidence is all you really need to be attractive to others. Most people dated a handful of others in high school. I loved dating, and I like to think I was pretty good at it. I took over 200 different girls on dates back then. Greenville county had 14 high schools, I dated girls from 12 of them as well as from 3 other neighboring counties. Over 90% of these girls I met through a music program so we always had something in common. I found there was such a small percentage of people at my own school that I liked, it was easier to find the same small percentage at other schools and just keep dating than to tolerate other people I didn't like.
7. Finally senior year one girl snared me into a serious relationship. We actually stayed together for about 3 months and broke up after prom because she was valedictorian at her school and wasn't interested in going to Appalachian State like I was. So really she was too smart to stay with me. As much as I would love to reconnect with her on facebook or something, she's married with a couple of kids now and I haven't heard from her for almost 20 years. Still, you never forget that first love.
8. I never put on the freshman 15 at college. I may have found beer and lost my virginity, took five years to graduate, and changed majors once, but I never did gain much weight. Graduated in 1998 with a degree in radio and tv production at 6' 1" tall and 145 lbs. I only looked borderline anorexic then, with a BMI of 19.1, and anything below 18.5 is considered underweight. So I was right on the border of unhealthy and could do absolutely nothing to gain weight.
9. The internet was just starting to gain popularity my senior year of college. We had email the whole time, which was kind of rare then. But I found a web site for the Dukes of Hazzard tv show, and that was the only site I read in college. once. Yes, I am that old.
10. Proof that North Carolina women are smarter than South Carolina women: I was only unattached for about 4 months in college. It was hard freshman year going from being king of the social castle to, well, being a freshman. Nobody dates a freshman. At the start of my sophomore year I started dating this crazy chick for about a year and half. So around new year's eve my third year in college I got rid of her and was blissfully dating again until April of that year (1996) when I met Kelley. Of course I wouldn't trade my sweet boo for any youthful freedom in the world, but damn. If I had known those would be my only 4 months of dating freedom I wouldn't have wasted any time grieving the loss of the crazy chick. Now I refer to those four months as "the fun times". Maybe that's just proof that NC women are more manipulative than SC women? I want to eat dinner tonight so we'll go with smarter.
11. Five months after I graduated college we got married. I was up to 180 lbs at that point. It was not a muscular 180 like I am today, but a flabby 180. So at 23, all of the metabolism powers I had dried up and blew away and I finally started gaining weight. Really skinny arms and legs, no shoulders, but a giant belly. That was 1998. I really think that 23 was waaaaaay too young to get married. but that's another post. The older I get the more I have to fight genetics and keep my weight in check now. It seems odd to be body conscious now, but I deal with getting old the best way I can. Stay active, know the difference between healthy and unhealthy, and make smart choices today.
11 random questions from the two people that tagged me:
1. Favorite vacation of all time (Karen)? Kelley and I drove in circles one weekend. Literally, we left Greenville on friday afternoon and went to Atlanta for dinner that night. Saturday drove up to Chatanooga TN and visited the Tennessee Aquarium, then on to Knoxville for saturday night. Sunday we drove across the mountains to Asheville and saw the Biltmore House before heading home to Greenville. A wonderful circle indeed.
2. Favorite Running workout (Joy)? Treadmill intervals. I can ladder the speed and hold a consistent duration. My absolute fav is to use half mile sets, where I run 0.3 miles fast and recover for 0.2 miles slow jog or walking. Increase the speed by 0.2 mph each set, start with half a mile warm up and half a mile cool down and you end up with a 4-5 mile total workout where you ran 0.3 miles at a blazing fast speed. My fastest is a 10.5 mph on the treadmill.
3. Do you track your dietary intake (Joy)? Not anymore. When I was losing weight to get fast last year I used training peaks to track everything, intake and workouts, and I absolutely love that software. Read my How I Got Fast Part 1 post for all the details.
4. What were you doing around this time 10 years ago (Karen)? In 2002 I was in my crazy weightlifting phase. I was reading Muscle & Fitness magazine, training like a bodybuilder and trying to add as much mass as possible. Really I was trying to take the rapid weight gain I found after we got married and turn it into something positive. I got over 200 lbs that year by chugging whey protien and creatine like they were going out of style. I was working for a consulting firm as the head of their software development department in my first professional management role (and I sucked at it). I got up to about 215 lbs, got laid off in 2003 and the rest is history.
5. What's your favorite cheat meal (Joy)? Five guys cheeseburger and fries. I know it's loaded, but I don't care. It's my reward meal after a big race or a comfort meal when I'm feeling blue. A close second is the cajun chicken sandwich, fries and a corn dog from the Cook Out here in Raleigh. So good, cheap, and I do that one about once a week.
6. What was your favorite memory of 2011 (Karen)? The ironman trip. Not just the race, or the finish line, but the whole thing was so special to me.
7. Have you ever been hospitalized and how were your nurses (Joy, she's a nurse)? In 2003 I had sinus surgery and a double vericocele removal surgery for male pattern infertility treatment. The nurses were great both times. Before the fertility surgery I remember calmly laying on the operating table and seeing how big the room was and was surprised at how many nurses there were for the operation. The bad part was that the nurses were all really hot (come on, you've had that fantasy too), so here I was getting a little chub on when they were about to operate on my sack! awkward!
8. Do you prefer to train alone or in groups (Karen)? Alone, for sure. It's just about timing. I'm not ready to workout until I'm ready to workout, so meeting someone else is usually impossible. Setting a specific time to meetup is useless, I'm going to be late. And I hate trying to match speeds with other people. Either they can't hang with me or I get dropped from the group ride.
9. What's a more appealing look, designer clothes or fit, workout clothes (Joy)? I love 'em all. If spandex makes your ass look good hop on that bike. My favorite part about a race is usually finding a hot chick running in a sports bra and bun huggers and just hanging behind her for a few miles. Casual office wear can be really attractive as well. But the clothes don't make the woman. Being nice, funny, and confident is what really makes you attractive.
10. What's your resting heart rate (Joy)? I don't really know, but the doctors usually tell me it's around 68? It's really unfair to compare resting heart rates or thighs with non-runners, so I try to avoid it.
11. What accomplishment makes you the most proud (Karen)? Last week Evil Genius was talking to Kelley about having her boyfriend over (she's only 4) while he stays with his dad for a week at a time. Normally we only get to see him when he's at his mom's. As Kelley was explaining this to her, she asked if we could have him over at least while his dad was out "to run, or bike, or even to swim"? My work here is done. She thinks every dad trains like I do. She thinks regular exercise is a part of how normal people live their lives. She will never know the fat chain smoking dad she used to have. I have affected her expectation of normal, and set her up for a healthy, confident, active lifestyle. That is my biggest accomplishment to date. You were expecting Ironman, weren't you?
Tag 11 more people and generate 11 questions for them? I don't think 11 people actually still read this, so I can't do it. I would love for Sophie and Caratunk Girl to give it a whirl. But I can't come up with 11 questions either, so steal the questions I answered. I know "total cop-out" isn't usually my style, but I've got to get back to work today.
1. Post these rules
2. You must post 11 random things about yourself
3. Answer the questions set for you in their post
4. Create 11 new questions for the people you tag to answer
5. Go to their blog and tell them you’ve tagged them
6. No stuff in the tagging section about you are tagged if you are reading this. You legitimately have to tag 11 people!
11 Random things about myself: (I'm going young and old with these, so nothing random about right now. all stuff when I was younger and people that are older than me)
1. Freshman year of high school I was on the wrestling team for three days trying to compete in the 120 lb weigh class. I was already almost six feet tall. That is anorexic kind of skinny. Not a good look at all, and I was really self conscious about it.
2. I also ran the mile on the track team that year. I ran in every meet, one time I beat one other kid. Every other meet (like 8 of 9 meets) I finished dead last, usually by a lot. My times ranged from 5:55 to 6:10, not bad by most standards. But my team also had a Feduric on there, and she won the state championship in the mile 6 years in a row (from 7th through 12th grade) with average times around 4:15. And I wonder sometimes where my competetive nature comes from?
3. Sophomore year I didn't feel like getting my butt kicked in the mile anymore, so I threw shotput and discus instead. Because anorexia runs rampant through the shotput community. WTF? I was throwing around 17 feet before the offensive lineman put out his 40 foot throws. I don't know why I thought I belonged in there, but again I competed in every meet. That was my last year on the track team (spring 1991), and the last time I tried to play sports at all until I found triathlon in 2008.
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| A crop from the team photo sophomore year track. Bushy head, skinny, with a mullet. oy. |
4. I graduated high school in 1993 at 6 feet tall and only 135 lbs. Mom still complains that I used to eat an entire box of cereal every night before bed. And I still couldn't put on weight. Oh the metabolism of teenagers.
5. A few weeks ago I advised someone that naturalized social and leadership skills would only develop properly when you were in an appropriate comfort zone. I never really felt accepted on any athletic team, and didn't have any kind of star qualities. I found my comfort zone in music, specifically chorus. And that's when I started to shine. Senior year I was the president of my school's Concert Choir, and my chorus teacher is retiring this year. I was the first student to make the SC Honors All-State choir all three years I was eligible to audition. I was accepted into every choir I auditioned for, and usually put into leadership roles like President, Jr Conductor, or Lead Choreographer. I even had one of the lead roles in Bye Bye Birdie the only year we did a school play.
6. Those leadership roles also gave me a lot of confidence and popularity. I did a lot of countywide and statewide music programs. My advise to single people? Confidence is all you really need to be attractive to others. Most people dated a handful of others in high school. I loved dating, and I like to think I was pretty good at it. I took over 200 different girls on dates back then. Greenville county had 14 high schools, I dated girls from 12 of them as well as from 3 other neighboring counties. Over 90% of these girls I met through a music program so we always had something in common. I found there was such a small percentage of people at my own school that I liked, it was easier to find the same small percentage at other schools and just keep dating than to tolerate other people I didn't like.
7. Finally senior year one girl snared me into a serious relationship. We actually stayed together for about 3 months and broke up after prom because she was valedictorian at her school and wasn't interested in going to Appalachian State like I was. So really she was too smart to stay with me. As much as I would love to reconnect with her on facebook or something, she's married with a couple of kids now and I haven't heard from her for almost 20 years. Still, you never forget that first love.
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| Before my senior prom |
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| Before a 70's theme event. Yes we did 70's stuff the way you young people do 90's stuff today. It makes me feel old. |
8. I never put on the freshman 15 at college. I may have found beer and lost my virginity, took five years to graduate, and changed majors once, but I never did gain much weight. Graduated in 1998 with a degree in radio and tv production at 6' 1" tall and 145 lbs. I only looked borderline anorexic then, with a BMI of 19.1, and anything below 18.5 is considered underweight. So I was right on the border of unhealthy and could do absolutely nothing to gain weight.
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| I tried to gain weight by adding hair. |
9. The internet was just starting to gain popularity my senior year of college. We had email the whole time, which was kind of rare then. But I found a web site for the Dukes of Hazzard tv show, and that was the only site I read in college. once. Yes, I am that old.
10. Proof that North Carolina women are smarter than South Carolina women: I was only unattached for about 4 months in college. It was hard freshman year going from being king of the social castle to, well, being a freshman. Nobody dates a freshman. At the start of my sophomore year I started dating this crazy chick for about a year and half. So around new year's eve my third year in college I got rid of her and was blissfully dating again until April of that year (1996) when I met Kelley. Of course I wouldn't trade my sweet boo for any youthful freedom in the world, but damn. If I had known those would be my only 4 months of dating freedom I wouldn't have wasted any time grieving the loss of the crazy chick. Now I refer to those four months as "the fun times". Maybe that's just proof that NC women are more manipulative than SC women? I want to eat dinner tonight so we'll go with smarter.
11. Five months after I graduated college we got married. I was up to 180 lbs at that point. It was not a muscular 180 like I am today, but a flabby 180. So at 23, all of the metabolism powers I had dried up and blew away and I finally started gaining weight. Really skinny arms and legs, no shoulders, but a giant belly. That was 1998. I really think that 23 was waaaaaay too young to get married. but that's another post. The older I get the more I have to fight genetics and keep my weight in check now. It seems odd to be body conscious now, but I deal with getting old the best way I can. Stay active, know the difference between healthy and unhealthy, and make smart choices today.
11 random questions from the two people that tagged me:
1. Favorite vacation of all time (Karen)? Kelley and I drove in circles one weekend. Literally, we left Greenville on friday afternoon and went to Atlanta for dinner that night. Saturday drove up to Chatanooga TN and visited the Tennessee Aquarium, then on to Knoxville for saturday night. Sunday we drove across the mountains to Asheville and saw the Biltmore House before heading home to Greenville. A wonderful circle indeed.
2. Favorite Running workout (Joy)? Treadmill intervals. I can ladder the speed and hold a consistent duration. My absolute fav is to use half mile sets, where I run 0.3 miles fast and recover for 0.2 miles slow jog or walking. Increase the speed by 0.2 mph each set, start with half a mile warm up and half a mile cool down and you end up with a 4-5 mile total workout where you ran 0.3 miles at a blazing fast speed. My fastest is a 10.5 mph on the treadmill.
3. Do you track your dietary intake (Joy)? Not anymore. When I was losing weight to get fast last year I used training peaks to track everything, intake and workouts, and I absolutely love that software. Read my How I Got Fast Part 1 post for all the details.
4. What were you doing around this time 10 years ago (Karen)? In 2002 I was in my crazy weightlifting phase. I was reading Muscle & Fitness magazine, training like a bodybuilder and trying to add as much mass as possible. Really I was trying to take the rapid weight gain I found after we got married and turn it into something positive. I got over 200 lbs that year by chugging whey protien and creatine like they were going out of style. I was working for a consulting firm as the head of their software development department in my first professional management role (and I sucked at it). I got up to about 215 lbs, got laid off in 2003 and the rest is history.
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| I was very excited to get my first convertible in 2002, no matter how it looked. |
5. What's your favorite cheat meal (Joy)? Five guys cheeseburger and fries. I know it's loaded, but I don't care. It's my reward meal after a big race or a comfort meal when I'm feeling blue. A close second is the cajun chicken sandwich, fries and a corn dog from the Cook Out here in Raleigh. So good, cheap, and I do that one about once a week.
6. What was your favorite memory of 2011 (Karen)? The ironman trip. Not just the race, or the finish line, but the whole thing was so special to me.
7. Have you ever been hospitalized and how were your nurses (Joy, she's a nurse)? In 2003 I had sinus surgery and a double vericocele removal surgery for male pattern infertility treatment. The nurses were great both times. Before the fertility surgery I remember calmly laying on the operating table and seeing how big the room was and was surprised at how many nurses there were for the operation. The bad part was that the nurses were all really hot (come on, you've had that fantasy too), so here I was getting a little chub on when they were about to operate on my sack! awkward!
8. Do you prefer to train alone or in groups (Karen)? Alone, for sure. It's just about timing. I'm not ready to workout until I'm ready to workout, so meeting someone else is usually impossible. Setting a specific time to meetup is useless, I'm going to be late. And I hate trying to match speeds with other people. Either they can't hang with me or I get dropped from the group ride.
9. What's a more appealing look, designer clothes or fit, workout clothes (Joy)? I love 'em all. If spandex makes your ass look good hop on that bike. My favorite part about a race is usually finding a hot chick running in a sports bra and bun huggers and just hanging behind her for a few miles. Casual office wear can be really attractive as well. But the clothes don't make the woman. Being nice, funny, and confident is what really makes you attractive.
10. What's your resting heart rate (Joy)? I don't really know, but the doctors usually tell me it's around 68? It's really unfair to compare resting heart rates or thighs with non-runners, so I try to avoid it.
11. What accomplishment makes you the most proud (Karen)? Last week Evil Genius was talking to Kelley about having her boyfriend over (she's only 4) while he stays with his dad for a week at a time. Normally we only get to see him when he's at his mom's. As Kelley was explaining this to her, she asked if we could have him over at least while his dad was out "to run, or bike, or even to swim"? My work here is done. She thinks every dad trains like I do. She thinks regular exercise is a part of how normal people live their lives. She will never know the fat chain smoking dad she used to have. I have affected her expectation of normal, and set her up for a healthy, confident, active lifestyle. That is my biggest accomplishment to date. You were expecting Ironman, weren't you?
Tag 11 more people and generate 11 questions for them? I don't think 11 people actually still read this, so I can't do it. I would love for Sophie and Caratunk Girl to give it a whirl. But I can't come up with 11 questions either, so steal the questions I answered. I know "total cop-out" isn't usually my style, but I've got to get back to work today.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
A Week?
Anytime I think I'm having a rough year, I'm going to remind myself about Joe Paterno. He went from having the most stable job in the world 4 months ago, to scandal --> resigning --> fired --> cancer --> dead. In just over three months. Now that's what I call hitting a rough patch.
I went to a podiatrist-orthopedist yesterday to get my right foot checked out. They took some xrays to rule out a bone fracture, and they came out clean. There are two tendons that start outside of the ankle and wrap around the bottom of the foot. One of those is causing some swelling for some unknown reason. This inflammation is quite painful just walking around the house all day, I mentioned it briefly in the last couple of posts because I didn't want it to be a big deal. I don't think that it is a huge problem, but we'll see.
The first treatment option is ice, advil, and rest. No running for 7-10 days, and I have to wear supportive shoes around the house. Well, since I work from home I'm normally barefoot all day. The naturalist in me that wants to wear minimal running shoes for runs less than 10 miles doesn't want to wear supportive shoes all day. Barefoot runners would say that the foot naturally knows the best way to heal up and I need to go see the chiropractor. I tend to agree.
I can still swim and bike during the weeks' rest, and yoga/strength work is good too. Swimming will aggravate the tendon if it is anything worse than an inflammation, so that's a good test. If it hurts after swimming then something is more wrong. If I'm still having problems after 7-10 days the doc wants me to come back in for an MRI. There could be a slight tear in one of the tendons that could be treated by wearing a boot for six weeks, or it might have to be surgically repaired. But first I'm going to try the easy approach, not running for seven to ten days.
Not running is naturally not that good when you have another marathon coming up in three weeks. I"m just going to do what I can and take what I can get. At least I'm not having as bad a time as JoePa.
I went to a podiatrist-orthopedist yesterday to get my right foot checked out. They took some xrays to rule out a bone fracture, and they came out clean. There are two tendons that start outside of the ankle and wrap around the bottom of the foot. One of those is causing some swelling for some unknown reason. This inflammation is quite painful just walking around the house all day, I mentioned it briefly in the last couple of posts because I didn't want it to be a big deal. I don't think that it is a huge problem, but we'll see.
The first treatment option is ice, advil, and rest. No running for 7-10 days, and I have to wear supportive shoes around the house. Well, since I work from home I'm normally barefoot all day. The naturalist in me that wants to wear minimal running shoes for runs less than 10 miles doesn't want to wear supportive shoes all day. Barefoot runners would say that the foot naturally knows the best way to heal up and I need to go see the chiropractor. I tend to agree.
I can still swim and bike during the weeks' rest, and yoga/strength work is good too. Swimming will aggravate the tendon if it is anything worse than an inflammation, so that's a good test. If it hurts after swimming then something is more wrong. If I'm still having problems after 7-10 days the doc wants me to come back in for an MRI. There could be a slight tear in one of the tendons that could be treated by wearing a boot for six weeks, or it might have to be surgically repaired. But first I'm going to try the easy approach, not running for seven to ten days.
Not running is naturally not that good when you have another marathon coming up in three weeks. I"m just going to do what I can and take what I can get. At least I'm not having as bad a time as JoePa.
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| She's such a camera hog. |
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| But hey, when you got it, flaunt it right? |
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| They got some new costumes from the Kids Exchange recently. They love them (Stitch and Buzz Lightyear), and it's too cute not to post a picture of. |
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| Just being goofy with Bigun. |
Thursday, January 19, 2012
What a marathoner (shouldn't) eat
I do this every time, and it drives me crazy. Marathons or other big races that you are prepared for but not conditioned to run every week have a short term impact on your mind and your metabolism. I average burning about 150 calories per mile that I run. It can be exactly calculated using a formula that includes your speed, body weight, and duration (the last mile burns more calories than the first mile), but I don't know the exact specifics for the formula. The treadmill does it for me. So running 26.2 miles will burn off about 3900 calories on that day, but the metabolic effects stay strong for about a week afterwards. This post is about what that does to my appetite.
Every time I eat through the roof. I love to eat, and I love the way eating healthy foods makes me feel. But for the week after a big race like ironman or a marathon, I always relax the rules and let that metabolism ride me through it. Here's what I ate after the Charleston Marathon on Saturday:
Saturday: ran the race in the morning. It was very cold and windy, temps in the mid 30's most of the time and I was out there running in shorts. We brought some chicken and dumplings from home, Kelley's recipe, which is not really health food but not as bad for you as most recipes are. I had two big plates, it was warm and wonderful. Then we took Michael and Summer out to a local seafood restaurant for a huge plate of fried fish, shrimp, french fries, and hush puppies. Huge plate VERY high in sodium. I finally felt full for about an hour. From volume, nobody should consume that much food in 4 hours, ever. I also had a bowl of cereal before falling asleep around 10 pm.
Sunday: Cereal for breakfast, then we hit up the Kickin Chicken for lunch. It's one of our favorite places in Charleston, the sandwich had fried chicken strips on it, buffalo sauce, and a side of fries. Fried stuff and hot sauce are both very high in sodium and fat. Drove back to Raleigh and had a Five Guys cheeseburger and fries for dinner. One huge fat cheeseburger and fries is my traditional reward meal after a big race or milestone. Breaking 4 hours in the marathon was that big race and milestone. More cereal before bed.
Monday: Oatmeal for breakfast. Finally something normal and healthy. I got scared after seeing the Monday Morning Naked Weight (MMNW). Leftover vegetarian shepard's pie for lunch. Imagine if you will, the hunger you get a few days after marathoning. Then go out for all you can eat tacos on monday night. This place near the house has $5 all you can eat tacos every monday. Normal sized meals would be maybe 3 of these tacos. I usually eat 5 or 6 when I'm hungry, but marathon hungry took that to 7 tacos. We fed the entire family for under $20. I love this place. I ate myself stupid and still had some cereal before bed.
Tuesday: Oatmeal for breakfast. My buddy Jeff wanted to meet up for lunch, I haven't seen him in a while so that was great. We met at a wing place with a 59 cent lunch special, so 10 wings had me way stuffed and over full. seriously. During the ironman training build phase I would get the same 10 wings with a side of fries and still lose weight. that's how much you work off during the ironman build. For dinner, Bigun had an Indian Princess meetup at a pizza place with the tribe, so I gorged myself on pizza there too. Pizza and wings are healthy right? That's like a 5000 calorie day. At least I skipped the cereal before bed.
Dehydration
Running will leave you dehydrated. Especially long runs like 26.2 miles. It was so cold and windy, my clothes were dry when I finished. But just because I didn't actually sweat I still lost a lot of body water through evaporation. It's more than you think. Cold races are still dangerous. You cannot possibly take in enough water with or without electrolytes to replenish what you lose during a marathon, so post-race hydration is so important. Electrolytes are salts, and you lose a ton of body salt during a race like that too. Even if it's not visible (sweat) it still happens. I promise.
My super secret recovery strategy is to drink three bottles of water at the finish line. Really as soon as you can swallow again, drink three bottles. of water. Then you can chase it with something else like chocolate milk, muscle milk, Endurox, Recoverite, beer, whatever. But it has to start with lots of water.
Since dehydration removes lots of water and salt from your body, the nature of recovery is to retain as much water as possible to prepare for the marathon you're going to run the next day. That's just how the body thinks. Even though you know you're not going to run another marathon the next day, that's still mother nature's reaction. So what do I do? I take in lots of salt from the fried foods, then lots of water, and the body goes into ultra storage mode retaining water like it's going out of style.
The crazy thing is that the way to get rid of all that retained water? Drink more water. It will eventually flush the salts and retention water from the cells in a few days. I think vitamins A, C & D help too, but I can't tell you why.
The weighty issue
Before that Ironman - a scant 70 days or so ago - my weight peaked at a low point like it should around 165 lbs, which is my ideal racing weight. I don't like to harp on numbers on the scale, but I'm trying to make a point here. 10 days after Ironman I was back up to 176 lbs. Same eating pattern as above. My comfort zone is officially 170 - 180 lbs, I like to be around 175 with a body fat percentage in the mid-teens. I'm 6'1", that's a normal weight for my height and a BMI of 23.
Before Charleston, I came in at 178 lbs and 18.4% body fat, which is pretty ok for a Friday. By the time I got this week's MMNW, I was up to 185.4 and 20.2% body fat. So how did I burn 3900 calories during the race and gain 7 lbs?
It's all water retention from the salt and fried foods. Monday morning at 6 am is only partway through the food log above. I start every morning with a 22 oz bike bottle full of water, then four cups of coffee after my oatmeal (don't judge me). Then another 32 oz bottle of water on my desk all day at work, sometimes I'll fill it up twice. Plus 3 more cups of coffee or tea in the afternoon and another bottle of water after dinner. That's a lot of hydration. It is flushing the retained water out though. Tuesday I was down to 183. Who loses weight after all you can eat tacos? Wednesday was 182, and today was 181. I should be back to normal in a few more days.
So don't freak out if you gain some weight during marathon training or put on a bunch of weight quickly after running the big race. Sure, I'm still freaking out a bit and I know better. Have you ever freaked out like that? it's tough mentally to deal with.
Other news:
As cold as it was during the race and all day Saturday, I forgot to mention that Sunday we woke up to bright, sunny, 61 degrees with no wind blowing. Perfect conditions. Where was that on race day?
I ran three miles yesterday very slow in recovery format. Just trying to work out the kinks. During the race my right foot got some new pain. There is a swelling/fluid buildup thing on the outside of my right foot, right in the middle where there is normally a joint of the foot bones. The pain went away (but not the fluid), but came roaring back with yesterday's run. So today I'm going to find a doctor to tell me what that is and how to treat it. I don't like this at all.
The yoga practice is going great. I took Saturday off as planned for the race, but still got on the mat Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and last night Kelley and I both went back for the yoga class we've been getting into at the gym. It has actually felt really good and helped the muscles recover from the marathon. I'm still in the beginning poses, so nothing harder than down dog or warrior 1. But it's a lot of fun.
Every time I eat through the roof. I love to eat, and I love the way eating healthy foods makes me feel. But for the week after a big race like ironman or a marathon, I always relax the rules and let that metabolism ride me through it. Here's what I ate after the Charleston Marathon on Saturday:
Saturday: ran the race in the morning. It was very cold and windy, temps in the mid 30's most of the time and I was out there running in shorts. We brought some chicken and dumplings from home, Kelley's recipe, which is not really health food but not as bad for you as most recipes are. I had two big plates, it was warm and wonderful. Then we took Michael and Summer out to a local seafood restaurant for a huge plate of fried fish, shrimp, french fries, and hush puppies. Huge plate VERY high in sodium. I finally felt full for about an hour. From volume, nobody should consume that much food in 4 hours, ever. I also had a bowl of cereal before falling asleep around 10 pm.
Sunday: Cereal for breakfast, then we hit up the Kickin Chicken for lunch. It's one of our favorite places in Charleston, the sandwich had fried chicken strips on it, buffalo sauce, and a side of fries. Fried stuff and hot sauce are both very high in sodium and fat. Drove back to Raleigh and had a Five Guys cheeseburger and fries for dinner. One huge fat cheeseburger and fries is my traditional reward meal after a big race or milestone. Breaking 4 hours in the marathon was that big race and milestone. More cereal before bed.
Monday: Oatmeal for breakfast. Finally something normal and healthy. I got scared after seeing the Monday Morning Naked Weight (MMNW). Leftover vegetarian shepard's pie for lunch. Imagine if you will, the hunger you get a few days after marathoning. Then go out for all you can eat tacos on monday night. This place near the house has $5 all you can eat tacos every monday. Normal sized meals would be maybe 3 of these tacos. I usually eat 5 or 6 when I'm hungry, but marathon hungry took that to 7 tacos. We fed the entire family for under $20. I love this place. I ate myself stupid and still had some cereal before bed.
Tuesday: Oatmeal for breakfast. My buddy Jeff wanted to meet up for lunch, I haven't seen him in a while so that was great. We met at a wing place with a 59 cent lunch special, so 10 wings had me way stuffed and over full. seriously. During the ironman training build phase I would get the same 10 wings with a side of fries and still lose weight. that's how much you work off during the ironman build. For dinner, Bigun had an Indian Princess meetup at a pizza place with the tribe, so I gorged myself on pizza there too. Pizza and wings are healthy right? That's like a 5000 calorie day. At least I skipped the cereal before bed.
Dehydration
Running will leave you dehydrated. Especially long runs like 26.2 miles. It was so cold and windy, my clothes were dry when I finished. But just because I didn't actually sweat I still lost a lot of body water through evaporation. It's more than you think. Cold races are still dangerous. You cannot possibly take in enough water with or without electrolytes to replenish what you lose during a marathon, so post-race hydration is so important. Electrolytes are salts, and you lose a ton of body salt during a race like that too. Even if it's not visible (sweat) it still happens. I promise.
My super secret recovery strategy is to drink three bottles of water at the finish line. Really as soon as you can swallow again, drink three bottles. of water. Then you can chase it with something else like chocolate milk, muscle milk, Endurox, Recoverite, beer, whatever. But it has to start with lots of water.
Since dehydration removes lots of water and salt from your body, the nature of recovery is to retain as much water as possible to prepare for the marathon you're going to run the next day. That's just how the body thinks. Even though you know you're not going to run another marathon the next day, that's still mother nature's reaction. So what do I do? I take in lots of salt from the fried foods, then lots of water, and the body goes into ultra storage mode retaining water like it's going out of style.
The crazy thing is that the way to get rid of all that retained water? Drink more water. It will eventually flush the salts and retention water from the cells in a few days. I think vitamins A, C & D help too, but I can't tell you why.
The weighty issue
Before that Ironman - a scant 70 days or so ago - my weight peaked at a low point like it should around 165 lbs, which is my ideal racing weight. I don't like to harp on numbers on the scale, but I'm trying to make a point here. 10 days after Ironman I was back up to 176 lbs. Same eating pattern as above. My comfort zone is officially 170 - 180 lbs, I like to be around 175 with a body fat percentage in the mid-teens. I'm 6'1", that's a normal weight for my height and a BMI of 23.
Before Charleston, I came in at 178 lbs and 18.4% body fat, which is pretty ok for a Friday. By the time I got this week's MMNW, I was up to 185.4 and 20.2% body fat. So how did I burn 3900 calories during the race and gain 7 lbs?
It's all water retention from the salt and fried foods. Monday morning at 6 am is only partway through the food log above. I start every morning with a 22 oz bike bottle full of water, then four cups of coffee after my oatmeal (don't judge me). Then another 32 oz bottle of water on my desk all day at work, sometimes I'll fill it up twice. Plus 3 more cups of coffee or tea in the afternoon and another bottle of water after dinner. That's a lot of hydration. It is flushing the retained water out though. Tuesday I was down to 183. Who loses weight after all you can eat tacos? Wednesday was 182, and today was 181. I should be back to normal in a few more days.
So don't freak out if you gain some weight during marathon training or put on a bunch of weight quickly after running the big race. Sure, I'm still freaking out a bit and I know better. Have you ever freaked out like that? it's tough mentally to deal with.
Other news:
As cold as it was during the race and all day Saturday, I forgot to mention that Sunday we woke up to bright, sunny, 61 degrees with no wind blowing. Perfect conditions. Where was that on race day?
I ran three miles yesterday very slow in recovery format. Just trying to work out the kinks. During the race my right foot got some new pain. There is a swelling/fluid buildup thing on the outside of my right foot, right in the middle where there is normally a joint of the foot bones. The pain went away (but not the fluid), but came roaring back with yesterday's run. So today I'm going to find a doctor to tell me what that is and how to treat it. I don't like this at all.
The yoga practice is going great. I took Saturday off as planned for the race, but still got on the mat Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and last night Kelley and I both went back for the yoga class we've been getting into at the gym. It has actually felt really good and helped the muscles recover from the marathon. I'm still in the beginning poses, so nothing harder than down dog or warrior 1. But it's a lot of fun.
Monday, January 16, 2012
Charleston Marathon Race Reports
We had a great time in Charleston. I finished the marathon in 3:54:10 for a nice 30 minute PR, and Kelley finished in 5:39:33 for a 17 minute PR. We had a blast hanging with my brother and our friends Joe and Gina, so it was a good time all around. Official Results are up here.
How did I do with the goals?
1. PR - a 31 minute PR no doubt is a success. Yes.
2. Go sub-4, beat The Snail. Yep, I put a few minutes on him. Success! I went sub-four, and beat Thomas's PR by about 5 minutes. But he deserves some serious props for running his first 100k in 12:57 on saturday too. He ran for almost my entire Ironman time!
3. I'm not overtrained 3:30? fail. I may be a bit overtrained or under-recovered, depending on how you look at it.
Friday we got out of Raleigh about 1 pm and made it into Charleston about 6 and went right to the packet pickup. We ended up meeting Joe and Gina there, got the packets and headed downtown for some dinner. We ended up at Joe's Pasta for some unbelievable chicken & pasta in a gorganzola sauce. Amazing stuff, and perfect for the night before a big race.
After dinner we made it out to James Island to Michael's house and visited with them some before crashing hard. I slept pretty good, Kelley did not. 6 am came around way too early Saturday morning.
Turns out, it was much much colder than I was expecting. I thought it was supposed to be in the mid-50's all day, turns out it was more like the mid-30's. Luckily, the race shirt was a technical long sleeve shirt, so I wore it during the race over the singlet and nip band-aids I had planned on wearing. Kelley happened to have a pair of non-throw-away gloves that I stole (she bought some toss-gloves at the expo), we grabbed all of the gear and got out there. Turns out it was only a 20 minute drive from Michael's house on James Island to the finish/parking area in North Charleston; I was expecting it to be longer than that.
It was only 36 degrees when we got there, but it felt like 27 with the wind blowing. And yes I was still running in shorts. There was a huge line for the bus from the finish area to the starting area in downtown, I think they had a lot more people running this year than they did last year and it caused some logistical confusion. The bus ride took about 30 minutes, and we got to talk to some nice people. But still, we arrived 2 blocks from the starting line. We had to stand in the line for the bus, then stand up on the bus because all of the seats were taken, then jog/walk the 2 blocks to the starting line, so we were already on our feet for about 45 minutes before ever getting to the start area.
Turns out, the bus ride was long enough that we missed the start. The race was chip timed, so our clock didn't start until we crossed the starting line. But there were an awful lot of people to pass. My plan to line up with the 3:30 pace group was completely hosed. There was at least one other busload coming in after us, so we didn't start at the very back, but it was far enough. There was also no pre-race excitement, nerves, jitters, hearing that gun go off, anything like that. it was so strange.
So the immediate job at hand was to pass people. I hit start on the garmin as soon as I crossed the line, and I knew I had to get up to my 8 min/mile pace and just try and hold it. All of the slow people that started in the back of the pack had a four minute head start on me. I caught them pretty quickly.
I caught the 4:45 pace group by the 1.1 mile mark. The course was absolutely beautiful. It started out in downtown Charleston, ran south by the battery (waterfront portion on the mainland), then all the way up King street towards North Charleston. I was watching my pace and the crowds pretty consistently. Downtown is clean and very historic, but not very wide. And with 3000 runners it got a bit congested at times. Sometimes I wished they would have let the half marathon people run the second half of the course instead of the first half. Ha! That would have made things easier.
The good thing about an eight m/m pace is that it's easy to calculate split times in your head. Five miles should be around 40 minutes. I hit five miles at 41 minutes. So I was a minute behind. blame the traffic, hold pace, don't sweat it. Actually, I wasn't sweating at all yet as it was still barely in the 30's. A 3:31 is still an unbelievable time. I caught the 4:30 pace group in mile 4 somewhere and passed them. By mile 8 I passed the 4 hour pace group. I know 8 miles should hit at 64 minutes in, and 10 miles should hit at 80 minutes in, but I don't remember my time when I passed the markers. That part of the course wasn't very well marked, I didn't see any mile markers or anything but the crowds were so big it's not like you were going to get lost.
I took a gel right on schedule at 4 miles, then the 8 mile aide station came at 7.6 miles and totally caught me by surprise. So I slammed a gel and stood at the aide station to get the water to go with it, then had to start running again after getting colder. Not fun.
Also, there was "that familiar grumbling" going on. I was planning to poop at the mile 8 aide station before I remembered to take the gel. Then I didn't see a port-a-let anywhere anyway, so I forgot about it and rolled on. Just before the mile 10 aide station, I found the crapper I was looking for. There was no line, and I saw somebody run out of there after it came into my view, so I thought I was in good standing. Then someone else jumped in, and someone else decided to start a line. I didn't have much of a choice but to stand there and wait it out. Needless to say it was still in the low 30's, quite windy on this part of the course, and these guys were taking forever! Other people suck. I finally got in, dropped my duece, and got back to running 200 ft before the aide station. Grabbed a couple of waters and had to re-warm up all over again. There's no way I was only one minute off pace now.
At 12.4 miles the half and full split. The finish line was in the Navy Shipyard in North Charleston for all the half, full, and 5k distances. Once the course got out of downtown, we occupied a four lane road with lots of abandoned industrial buildings. This is not a "nice" part of town. There was no tree cover so there was lots of wind. lots of wind. It was not pleasant or fast or pretty. But it was only for a few miles. Then the half people got out of the way and we ventured out to the second half of the course.
I know my half split should be at 1:45 for my pace, and I hit the half mark at 1:52. So I was now 7 minutes behind. Not that bad. Anything in the 3:3x frame would be great. I was also really feeling the day now. Still so cold and so windy. My legs had no feeling left at all. My right knee was hurting pretty good, and a spot on my right foot was also picking up some pain. There was certainly some muscle fatigue going on. Nutrition and hydration were going on plan, so that was great. But for the record, it's a bad idea to serve icewater at aide stations when it's only 36 degrees outside. When I grab a cup of gatorade that was not iced (pleasant) and a cup of water that gives me brain freeze from drinking it too fast, that's not cool. Not cool at all.
The second half of the course got up through lots of new residential development, some parks and greenways, and lots of school grounds. There was lots of circles and out-and-back spurs, so when I was in mile 14 I saw the leaders coming back in towards the finish. The crowds were very thin and manageable here, so I was able to just hold my pace as best as the wind would allow. In mile 17 I was coming back down when I saw Kelley coming up the course, so I got to see her for a quick kiss. I was really feeling slow and beat up at that point, so I was really very glad to see her and get a little pick me up. Guess what she told me?
I have to take a shit real bad.
Uplifting message received. Now I was ready to slug out the last 9 miles. ha!
While we were still in the pretty parts of the course, all of a sudden there were tons of walkers. I knew there was a time cutoff, and anyone who missed it would be given a shortcut to get them back to the finish line. So I thought these were the people missing the time cutoff. Turns out it was the walkers in the 5k race, as we had caught up with their course. I was not exactly enthusiastic about suddenly having about a hundred people walking in front of me that I had to dodge on this narrow greenway winding through a park with lots of fun turns. Sharp turns. I'm not going to admit to running into some of them, but I came close.
The course came out of the pretty parts and back into the industrial parts. The Navy Shipyard was as pretty and colorful as you would expect an abandoned navy shipyard to be. That is, not at all pretty. There was nothing but abandoned buildings, unmaintained roads, and train tracks for miles. I knew the 20 mile split should be at 2:40, and I hit it at 2:55 instead. 15 minutes behind is still not too bad. Not as bad as I felt. I knew I could knock out the last 10k under 1:05 and still break 4 hours. How many 10k's did I run under 45 minutes this year? surely a 1 hour 10k is within my grasp. This gave me confidence to finish strong.
In mile 21 we ran very close to the finish line. The last part of the course was an out and back spur on some old roads. I twisted an ankle on some train tracks in the shipyard, that wasn't fun. But it didn't really hurt or slow me down much either, it just took me by surprise and forced me to pay attention to my footing. I decided then that court was in session, and I was totally going to put my speed on trial. Here goes nothing (and I mean nothing, I was totally gassed).
Much to my surprise, the 8 m/m pace came quite easily. I just knocked it down. I looked at the garmin and saw 7:57, then 8:02, then 7:55, checking every few minutes. I felt the way you are supposed to feel 23 miles into a marathon, not totally hitting the wall but I knew I was putting some work in. Then I found out why.
Towards the end of mile 23 I hit the turnaround and started coming home to the finish line. The 8m/m pace I hit so easily on the "out" part was thanks to a tailwind, that was now a headwind, and slowing me back down to a vomit inducing 9:30 pace when I was able to look down at the watch. I saw 3:30 come and go, then 3:45 just watching the overall time. That headwind didn't play games. And it wasn't the time to play games either. I did listen to tunes the whole way, and I heard five of Michael's songs come on. The last one was right after the garmin rolled over to 24.1 miles, that headwind had slowed me to a walk, and the first line of the song was "I fucked up".
poetic, no doubt. That's why he won all of those songwriting awards - for his comedic timing.
I battled heartily with the "back" part of that last spur, made the last turn to be able to see the finish line chute, and pushed hard to get there as quickly as possible. Stopped the garmin one second too late, apparently. I had a nice 31 minute PR and broke four hours for the first time.
Chip time: 3:54:10, gun time: 3:57:33
8:56 per mile pace
264/850 overall (top 31%)
34/76 Male 35-39
I'll take it and I was glad to be done. Now the fun part starts. I have to wait on Kelley and Gina to finish. At least I can enjoy some of the free beer and food before they get there. I didn't expect Kelley to finish until they got closer to 5 hours. I grabbed some water, caught my breath for a bit, found a cup of coffee (thank God) and started to pull myself together. It only got up to about 45 degrees, so I was still freezing. Never really broke a sweat. But I knew I was dehydrated anyway. Seriously, how do you run a full marathon without just being drenched? it was that cold out there.
Of course since we got there that early, hopped in line for the bus, I drove and still had no idea where we parked. So I spend the next hour mindlessly roaming a huge parking lot looking for ours among 3000 other cars. Turns out I ran into a guy from Durham that has done a lot of the same races I have, so we talked for a bit. Mind you, I have pants in the car. That was my only focus. Find the pants. Find the sweatshirt. Get the camera and get back to the finish line before Kelley crosses.
Turns out we parked behind a building that was next to the big parking lot. No wonder I couldn't find my ride. I did hear the race announcer call out "you guys still broke four and a half hours" and then later "and you guys still did better than 4:45" before I ever found the car. It's still 45 degrees, and I'm still in shorts.
Found my pants. Found my warm shirt. Found the camera.
I talked to Joe then since my phone was also still in the car. I saw him walking at my mile 20.5, and he said he saw Kelley and Gina near that same spot a little while ago. So Kelley was in mile 22 then and Gina was about 10 or 12 minutes behind her. This is a surprise because Gina is typically matching my speeds. Joe was going to walk it in with Gina so I knew I had some time. I got in the beer line. There was still plenty of food, but the beer line was slow so I got one and abandoned. Back out to the finish line.
Here she is! Bring it on home girl.
Kelley crossed in 5:39:33 chip time, 5:42:57 gun time, 794/850 overall, 51/58 in her age group for a 13:05 pace. Guess how she could have sped up? Well, turns out that in mile 22 she got bored, so she called her cousin for some motivation. Then found an aide station with muffins. That was on the last out and back spur on the course, so she was walking back, talking on the phone while eating a muffin and getting lots of strange looks from the other (but still slower) runners. Don't hate unless you're faster than she is - other people on the course.
She collected herself at the finish line area and we hung out waiting for Gina to come in.
We also found our friend Charlotte and hung out with her for a while too. Gina's husband Joe ended up walking over 11 miles trying to find us on the course, he still had blisters on his feet poor guy. By that time, they had run out of shrimp and grits at the finishers tent, but we still grabbed a couple of extra beers each. Then they packed those away, and we sat in a few chairs before they could pack those up too. With a 6.5 hour cutoff, most people had already abandoned. We hung out for a bit and then headed back to Michael's, getting there about 2:30.
After showering, we had some chicken and dumplings that Kelley made (before driving to Charleston) as our primary recovery food. We also got to go out to dinner to Bowen's Island seafood, which was really good. Nothings better than salty fried stuff when you're dehydrated, right? We tried to watch the patriot's game after that, but we both fell asleep about halftime. Slept for 12 hours each, got up and drove back to Raleigh.
Overall, the race went through some rough parts of town so I'm not sure we'll do this one again. The 5k results show that a sub-25 minute time would have given me an age group award, so I might give that a try next year. This weekend was fantastic, and overall the course was beautiful and I am satisfied with my results. Good times all around.
How did I do with the goals?
1. PR - a 31 minute PR no doubt is a success. Yes.
2. Go sub-4, beat The Snail. Yep, I put a few minutes on him. Success! I went sub-four, and beat Thomas's PR by about 5 minutes. But he deserves some serious props for running his first 100k in 12:57 on saturday too. He ran for almost my entire Ironman time!
3. I'm not overtrained 3:30? fail. I may be a bit overtrained or under-recovered, depending on how you look at it.
Friday we got out of Raleigh about 1 pm and made it into Charleston about 6 and went right to the packet pickup. We ended up meeting Joe and Gina there, got the packets and headed downtown for some dinner. We ended up at Joe's Pasta for some unbelievable chicken & pasta in a gorganzola sauce. Amazing stuff, and perfect for the night before a big race.
After dinner we made it out to James Island to Michael's house and visited with them some before crashing hard. I slept pretty good, Kelley did not. 6 am came around way too early Saturday morning.
Turns out, it was much much colder than I was expecting. I thought it was supposed to be in the mid-50's all day, turns out it was more like the mid-30's. Luckily, the race shirt was a technical long sleeve shirt, so I wore it during the race over the singlet and nip band-aids I had planned on wearing. Kelley happened to have a pair of non-throw-away gloves that I stole (she bought some toss-gloves at the expo), we grabbed all of the gear and got out there. Turns out it was only a 20 minute drive from Michael's house on James Island to the finish/parking area in North Charleston; I was expecting it to be longer than that.
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| Self portrait in the car before the start |
It was only 36 degrees when we got there, but it felt like 27 with the wind blowing. And yes I was still running in shorts. There was a huge line for the bus from the finish area to the starting area in downtown, I think they had a lot more people running this year than they did last year and it caused some logistical confusion. The bus ride took about 30 minutes, and we got to talk to some nice people. But still, we arrived 2 blocks from the starting line. We had to stand in the line for the bus, then stand up on the bus because all of the seats were taken, then jog/walk the 2 blocks to the starting line, so we were already on our feet for about 45 minutes before ever getting to the start area.
Turns out, the bus ride was long enough that we missed the start. The race was chip timed, so our clock didn't start until we crossed the starting line. But there were an awful lot of people to pass. My plan to line up with the 3:30 pace group was completely hosed. There was at least one other busload coming in after us, so we didn't start at the very back, but it was far enough. There was also no pre-race excitement, nerves, jitters, hearing that gun go off, anything like that. it was so strange.
So the immediate job at hand was to pass people. I hit start on the garmin as soon as I crossed the line, and I knew I had to get up to my 8 min/mile pace and just try and hold it. All of the slow people that started in the back of the pack had a four minute head start on me. I caught them pretty quickly.
I caught the 4:45 pace group by the 1.1 mile mark. The course was absolutely beautiful. It started out in downtown Charleston, ran south by the battery (waterfront portion on the mainland), then all the way up King street towards North Charleston. I was watching my pace and the crowds pretty consistently. Downtown is clean and very historic, but not very wide. And with 3000 runners it got a bit congested at times. Sometimes I wished they would have let the half marathon people run the second half of the course instead of the first half. Ha! That would have made things easier.
The good thing about an eight m/m pace is that it's easy to calculate split times in your head. Five miles should be around 40 minutes. I hit five miles at 41 minutes. So I was a minute behind. blame the traffic, hold pace, don't sweat it. Actually, I wasn't sweating at all yet as it was still barely in the 30's. A 3:31 is still an unbelievable time. I caught the 4:30 pace group in mile 4 somewhere and passed them. By mile 8 I passed the 4 hour pace group. I know 8 miles should hit at 64 minutes in, and 10 miles should hit at 80 minutes in, but I don't remember my time when I passed the markers. That part of the course wasn't very well marked, I didn't see any mile markers or anything but the crowds were so big it's not like you were going to get lost.
I took a gel right on schedule at 4 miles, then the 8 mile aide station came at 7.6 miles and totally caught me by surprise. So I slammed a gel and stood at the aide station to get the water to go with it, then had to start running again after getting colder. Not fun.
Also, there was "that familiar grumbling" going on. I was planning to poop at the mile 8 aide station before I remembered to take the gel. Then I didn't see a port-a-let anywhere anyway, so I forgot about it and rolled on. Just before the mile 10 aide station, I found the crapper I was looking for. There was no line, and I saw somebody run out of there after it came into my view, so I thought I was in good standing. Then someone else jumped in, and someone else decided to start a line. I didn't have much of a choice but to stand there and wait it out. Needless to say it was still in the low 30's, quite windy on this part of the course, and these guys were taking forever! Other people suck. I finally got in, dropped my duece, and got back to running 200 ft before the aide station. Grabbed a couple of waters and had to re-warm up all over again. There's no way I was only one minute off pace now.
At 12.4 miles the half and full split. The finish line was in the Navy Shipyard in North Charleston for all the half, full, and 5k distances. Once the course got out of downtown, we occupied a four lane road with lots of abandoned industrial buildings. This is not a "nice" part of town. There was no tree cover so there was lots of wind. lots of wind. It was not pleasant or fast or pretty. But it was only for a few miles. Then the half people got out of the way and we ventured out to the second half of the course.
I know my half split should be at 1:45 for my pace, and I hit the half mark at 1:52. So I was now 7 minutes behind. Not that bad. Anything in the 3:3x frame would be great. I was also really feeling the day now. Still so cold and so windy. My legs had no feeling left at all. My right knee was hurting pretty good, and a spot on my right foot was also picking up some pain. There was certainly some muscle fatigue going on. Nutrition and hydration were going on plan, so that was great. But for the record, it's a bad idea to serve icewater at aide stations when it's only 36 degrees outside. When I grab a cup of gatorade that was not iced (pleasant) and a cup of water that gives me brain freeze from drinking it too fast, that's not cool. Not cool at all.
The second half of the course got up through lots of new residential development, some parks and greenways, and lots of school grounds. There was lots of circles and out-and-back spurs, so when I was in mile 14 I saw the leaders coming back in towards the finish. The crowds were very thin and manageable here, so I was able to just hold my pace as best as the wind would allow. In mile 17 I was coming back down when I saw Kelley coming up the course, so I got to see her for a quick kiss. I was really feeling slow and beat up at that point, so I was really very glad to see her and get a little pick me up. Guess what she told me?
I have to take a shit real bad.
Uplifting message received. Now I was ready to slug out the last 9 miles. ha!
While we were still in the pretty parts of the course, all of a sudden there were tons of walkers. I knew there was a time cutoff, and anyone who missed it would be given a shortcut to get them back to the finish line. So I thought these were the people missing the time cutoff. Turns out it was the walkers in the 5k race, as we had caught up with their course. I was not exactly enthusiastic about suddenly having about a hundred people walking in front of me that I had to dodge on this narrow greenway winding through a park with lots of fun turns. Sharp turns. I'm not going to admit to running into some of them, but I came close.
The course came out of the pretty parts and back into the industrial parts. The Navy Shipyard was as pretty and colorful as you would expect an abandoned navy shipyard to be. That is, not at all pretty. There was nothing but abandoned buildings, unmaintained roads, and train tracks for miles. I knew the 20 mile split should be at 2:40, and I hit it at 2:55 instead. 15 minutes behind is still not too bad. Not as bad as I felt. I knew I could knock out the last 10k under 1:05 and still break 4 hours. How many 10k's did I run under 45 minutes this year? surely a 1 hour 10k is within my grasp. This gave me confidence to finish strong.
In mile 21 we ran very close to the finish line. The last part of the course was an out and back spur on some old roads. I twisted an ankle on some train tracks in the shipyard, that wasn't fun. But it didn't really hurt or slow me down much either, it just took me by surprise and forced me to pay attention to my footing. I decided then that court was in session, and I was totally going to put my speed on trial. Here goes nothing (and I mean nothing, I was totally gassed).
Much to my surprise, the 8 m/m pace came quite easily. I just knocked it down. I looked at the garmin and saw 7:57, then 8:02, then 7:55, checking every few minutes. I felt the way you are supposed to feel 23 miles into a marathon, not totally hitting the wall but I knew I was putting some work in. Then I found out why.
Towards the end of mile 23 I hit the turnaround and started coming home to the finish line. The 8m/m pace I hit so easily on the "out" part was thanks to a tailwind, that was now a headwind, and slowing me back down to a vomit inducing 9:30 pace when I was able to look down at the watch. I saw 3:30 come and go, then 3:45 just watching the overall time. That headwind didn't play games. And it wasn't the time to play games either. I did listen to tunes the whole way, and I heard five of Michael's songs come on. The last one was right after the garmin rolled over to 24.1 miles, that headwind had slowed me to a walk, and the first line of the song was "I fucked up".
poetic, no doubt. That's why he won all of those songwriting awards - for his comedic timing.
I battled heartily with the "back" part of that last spur, made the last turn to be able to see the finish line chute, and pushed hard to get there as quickly as possible. Stopped the garmin one second too late, apparently. I had a nice 31 minute PR and broke four hours for the first time.
Chip time: 3:54:10, gun time: 3:57:33
8:56 per mile pace
264/850 overall (top 31%)
34/76 Male 35-39
I'll take it and I was glad to be done. Now the fun part starts. I have to wait on Kelley and Gina to finish. At least I can enjoy some of the free beer and food before they get there. I didn't expect Kelley to finish until they got closer to 5 hours. I grabbed some water, caught my breath for a bit, found a cup of coffee (thank God) and started to pull myself together. It only got up to about 45 degrees, so I was still freezing. Never really broke a sweat. But I knew I was dehydrated anyway. Seriously, how do you run a full marathon without just being drenched? it was that cold out there.
Of course since we got there that early, hopped in line for the bus, I drove and still had no idea where we parked. So I spend the next hour mindlessly roaming a huge parking lot looking for ours among 3000 other cars. Turns out I ran into a guy from Durham that has done a lot of the same races I have, so we talked for a bit. Mind you, I have pants in the car. That was my only focus. Find the pants. Find the sweatshirt. Get the camera and get back to the finish line before Kelley crosses.
Turns out we parked behind a building that was next to the big parking lot. No wonder I couldn't find my ride. I did hear the race announcer call out "you guys still broke four and a half hours" and then later "and you guys still did better than 4:45" before I ever found the car. It's still 45 degrees, and I'm still in shorts.
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| Found my sweatshirt, self portrait with the medal |
Found my pants. Found my warm shirt. Found the camera.
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| Finish time on the garmin with the medal. My distance was 26.53 miles. Notice the shorts. The yellow is the bib on the race shirt, it was the only tech long sleeves I had. |
I talked to Joe then since my phone was also still in the car. I saw him walking at my mile 20.5, and he said he saw Kelley and Gina near that same spot a little while ago. So Kelley was in mile 22 then and Gina was about 10 or 12 minutes behind her. This is a surprise because Gina is typically matching my speeds. Joe was going to walk it in with Gina so I knew I had some time. I got in the beer line. There was still plenty of food, but the beer line was slow so I got one and abandoned. Back out to the finish line.
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| Coming into the finish area |
Here she is! Bring it on home girl.
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| Crossing the line! Well done! |
Kelley crossed in 5:39:33 chip time, 5:42:57 gun time, 794/850 overall, 51/58 in her age group for a 13:05 pace. Guess how she could have sped up? Well, turns out that in mile 22 she got bored, so she called her cousin for some motivation. Then found an aide station with muffins. That was on the last out and back spur on the course, so she was walking back, talking on the phone while eating a muffin and getting lots of strange looks from the other (but still slower) runners. Don't hate unless you're faster than she is - other people on the course.
She collected herself at the finish line area and we hung out waiting for Gina to come in.
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| Bring it on home! Gina finished in 6:18:39 |
We also found our friend Charlotte and hung out with her for a while too. Gina's husband Joe ended up walking over 11 miles trying to find us on the course, he still had blisters on his feet poor guy. By that time, they had run out of shrimp and grits at the finishers tent, but we still grabbed a couple of extra beers each. Then they packed those away, and we sat in a few chairs before they could pack those up too. With a 6.5 hour cutoff, most people had already abandoned. We hung out for a bit and then headed back to Michael's, getting there about 2:30.
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| Me, Gina, and Kelley with the finishers medals on. |
After showering, we had some chicken and dumplings that Kelley made (before driving to Charleston) as our primary recovery food. We also got to go out to dinner to Bowen's Island seafood, which was really good. Nothings better than salty fried stuff when you're dehydrated, right? We tried to watch the patriot's game after that, but we both fell asleep about halftime. Slept for 12 hours each, got up and drove back to Raleigh.
Overall, the race went through some rough parts of town so I'm not sure we'll do this one again. The 5k results show that a sub-25 minute time would have given me an age group award, so I might give that a try next year. This weekend was fantastic, and overall the course was beautiful and I am satisfied with my results. Good times all around.
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Goals for Charleston
Saturday Kelley and I will both be running the Charleston Marathon in Charleston SC. It will be my fourth marathon, and her second. We are setting some goals to reach out for.
Kelley's first marathon was Myrtle Beach in 2009, she ran a 5:56 that included time stopped chatting and hanging out with her family on the course. This time she's going to line up with the 5 hour pace group, but I feel confident she'll finish before then. My prediction is a 1 hour PR for Kelley.
My first marathon (if you haven't been reading since 2009) was the Hatfield/McCoy where I finished in 5:07 and ended up in the emergency room in middle of nowhere West Virginia with extreme dehydration and heat exhaustion. That was fun. Then in 2010 I smashed the 5 hour barrier with a 4:31 in the Tobacco Road marathon, which I loved and will be returning to this year. That was a March 2010 full, and I didn't run another full until November 2011 in Ironman Florida. During that 20 month span between marathons, I lost a bunch of weight and got fast. So I actually set my marathon PR during the Ironman while trying to hold back and run as slow as possible to avoid hitting the wall. PR 4:25 set a few months ago.
Goal #1: PR
Sounds simple enough. Surely if I take a smaller warm up than that 2.4 mile swim and 112 mile bike ride I can pull a 4:24 or faster.
This also includes my normal every-time goal of Finish, Don't Die. This is the first race in our attempt to qualify for the Marathon Maniacs, where you only have to finish (preferably alive) to qualify.
Goal #2: Sub-4
Right now The Snail is sitting on a 3:59:56 PR from his marathon in Savannah the same day I ran IMFL. We have mutual targets of beating the other one by 5 seconds. So if I can go 3:59:51 or faster it's a win. Granted he's all into trail ultras this year, which is cool, but I still want to pwn him at this distance. by 5 seconds.
I'm-Not-Really-Overtrained Goal: 3:30
All of my run training before and after Ironman has been focused on 8 minute miles or faster. Finishing the marathon in 3:30 is exactly an 8:00 per mile pace. If I start out too fast, I'll bonk out at the end. I've finished plenty of 20 mile runs in 2:40 and I think I can hold the same pace for another 10k, but you never really know until you get there.
They have a 3:30 pace group listed out. I'm going to line up in that group at the start and try not to get ahead or behind. I will have the garmin on, and will note my important mile splits. The plan is to take GU's every 4 miles, advil and Endurolytes as needed. They have aide stations every 2 miles until mile 21, and every mile after that. 4 miles at an 8 m/m pace should mean that I'm gelling every 32 minutes with one other water stop in between. This should keep me with enough electrolytes to be good for the duration, as long as I can also get enough water.
Part of me still has the haunting suspicion that I didn't take enough time to recover from the Ironman. I've been fighting some of the signs of overtraining, like insomnia and fatigue. The speed and comfort isn't always there when I expect it to be, like it was before Ironman. One of my old coaches even warned me on facebook that I might be overtrained. So I'm just going to pay attention to the 8 m/m pace. If it's not there, I could bring some serious wrongs by pushing it too hard that could screw up the whole year. That's not the goal. So officially I'm going for a sub-3:30, but I will not feel guilty about slowing it down if I think it's going to wreck my season. There are still two more marathons in the next two months to finish.
It's supposed to be sunny with a high of 53 on Saturday in Charleston, so it should be great conditions for a marathon. The course is very flat, incredibly scenic, and goes through lots of downtown and historical Charleston without leaving the mainland. We're staying with my brother Michael for the weekend, and our friends Joe and Gina are also coming down. Gina's running, they've never been to Charleston before so they are in for a treat. Lots of fun with friends and family is the name of the game.
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On another fun note, the Bone Island triathlon exists now. Full and Half Iron races, and it's the second full Iron triathlon put on by Setup Events director Jeremy Davis. He's also the race director for the PPD Beach 2 Battleship that I wanted to run as my next full iron race. Bone Island is Jan 12, 2013 (one year from today), it's the first year for the race, and it's in Key West Florida. Registration is already open, and it's only $400 right now. Racing ironman on Jan 12 means the last weekend of the build phase is going to be Christmas weekend, then it makes for a tough time to go out binge drinking on New Year's. But then, starting a new year with a fast ironman also has some appeal. I've never been to Miami, but always heard great things about it and I have some friends down there that I haven't seen in a long time. Setup doesn't produce a bad race. This has some appeal. But it still requires five levels of approval signatures and a mental acceptance.
Kelley's first marathon was Myrtle Beach in 2009, she ran a 5:56 that included time stopped chatting and hanging out with her family on the course. This time she's going to line up with the 5 hour pace group, but I feel confident she'll finish before then. My prediction is a 1 hour PR for Kelley.
My first marathon (if you haven't been reading since 2009) was the Hatfield/McCoy where I finished in 5:07 and ended up in the emergency room in middle of nowhere West Virginia with extreme dehydration and heat exhaustion. That was fun. Then in 2010 I smashed the 5 hour barrier with a 4:31 in the Tobacco Road marathon, which I loved and will be returning to this year. That was a March 2010 full, and I didn't run another full until November 2011 in Ironman Florida. During that 20 month span between marathons, I lost a bunch of weight and got fast. So I actually set my marathon PR during the Ironman while trying to hold back and run as slow as possible to avoid hitting the wall. PR 4:25 set a few months ago.
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| Marathon Death March at mile 25 of Hatfield/McCoy |
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| At the finish line of Tobacco Road marthon in 2010 |
Goal #1: PR
Sounds simple enough. Surely if I take a smaller warm up than that 2.4 mile swim and 112 mile bike ride I can pull a 4:24 or faster.
This also includes my normal every-time goal of Finish, Don't Die. This is the first race in our attempt to qualify for the Marathon Maniacs, where you only have to finish (preferably alive) to qualify.
Goal #2: Sub-4
Right now The Snail is sitting on a 3:59:56 PR from his marathon in Savannah the same day I ran IMFL. We have mutual targets of beating the other one by 5 seconds. So if I can go 3:59:51 or faster it's a win. Granted he's all into trail ultras this year, which is cool, but I still want to pwn him at this distance. by 5 seconds.
I'm-Not-Really-Overtrained Goal: 3:30
All of my run training before and after Ironman has been focused on 8 minute miles or faster. Finishing the marathon in 3:30 is exactly an 8:00 per mile pace. If I start out too fast, I'll bonk out at the end. I've finished plenty of 20 mile runs in 2:40 and I think I can hold the same pace for another 10k, but you never really know until you get there.
They have a 3:30 pace group listed out. I'm going to line up in that group at the start and try not to get ahead or behind. I will have the garmin on, and will note my important mile splits. The plan is to take GU's every 4 miles, advil and Endurolytes as needed. They have aide stations every 2 miles until mile 21, and every mile after that. 4 miles at an 8 m/m pace should mean that I'm gelling every 32 minutes with one other water stop in between. This should keep me with enough electrolytes to be good for the duration, as long as I can also get enough water.
Part of me still has the haunting suspicion that I didn't take enough time to recover from the Ironman. I've been fighting some of the signs of overtraining, like insomnia and fatigue. The speed and comfort isn't always there when I expect it to be, like it was before Ironman. One of my old coaches even warned me on facebook that I might be overtrained. So I'm just going to pay attention to the 8 m/m pace. If it's not there, I could bring some serious wrongs by pushing it too hard that could screw up the whole year. That's not the goal. So officially I'm going for a sub-3:30, but I will not feel guilty about slowing it down if I think it's going to wreck my season. There are still two more marathons in the next two months to finish.
It's supposed to be sunny with a high of 53 on Saturday in Charleston, so it should be great conditions for a marathon. The course is very flat, incredibly scenic, and goes through lots of downtown and historical Charleston without leaving the mainland. We're staying with my brother Michael for the weekend, and our friends Joe and Gina are also coming down. Gina's running, they've never been to Charleston before so they are in for a treat. Lots of fun with friends and family is the name of the game.
------------
On another fun note, the Bone Island triathlon exists now. Full and Half Iron races, and it's the second full Iron triathlon put on by Setup Events director Jeremy Davis. He's also the race director for the PPD Beach 2 Battleship that I wanted to run as my next full iron race. Bone Island is Jan 12, 2013 (one year from today), it's the first year for the race, and it's in Key West Florida. Registration is already open, and it's only $400 right now. Racing ironman on Jan 12 means the last weekend of the build phase is going to be Christmas weekend, then it makes for a tough time to go out binge drinking on New Year's. But then, starting a new year with a fast ironman also has some appeal. I've never been to Miami, but always heard great things about it and I have some friends down there that I haven't seen in a long time. Setup doesn't produce a bad race. This has some appeal. But it still requires five levels of approval signatures and a mental acceptance.
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