Good Long Run

Took off this morning with some trepidation. My long runs of late have been pretty much a wash. Either I haven't been able to do the mileage or I've completed the mileage but had to walk. Last weekend, I had headed out for 12 miles but headed home early for 9 and, even then, walked a couple of times.

This morning, I felt good and planned to do about 12.75 miles -- I don't give up easily -- but just didn't know what would happen. I was running a route that I had run about a month ago and had really struggled, walking some during the last few miles. The temperature was a perfect 47° (cooled down to 44° by the time I finished) and 53% humidity, overcast skies, but a pretty good breeze in my face on certain sections. The route is pretty hilly.

It was hard but I ran the whole way -- a total of 12.9 miles at 8:23 mpm (1:48:16). That's almost the pace of my best half marathon. One thing that I think helped, besides the weather and my strong inner desire to complete it, was Gatorade'ing and Gu'ing. I decided to take a good swig of Frost Gatorade every 2 miles and eat a Gu (Chocolate Rage) at the halfway point of about 6.5 miles (do you really eat a Gu?). I seemed to feel the Gu kick in at about the 7.25 mile point. There was never a point where I was ready to walk -- there was a point at about the 5.5 mile point when I seriously contemplated cutting it short and heading home, to the point of calculating the approximate miles by doing that. But, I didn't do it.

So, I feel good about the run this morning and feel like maybe I'm back on track.

After running, we helped our daughter move -- she changed apartments. I was concerned that I would be in agony but the constant moving, even the up and down stairs, seems to have kept me from being too stiff and sore.

One month until the Ukrop's 10K. I'd love to set a PR and break 45 minutes. It's a pretty flat course and maybe my last chance ever to run this race.

Our Bible study class begins a study of Mark tomorrow and I'm leading. So, I'd best finish preparing.

Run well, y'all,
Bob

ZZZ-Mailing

If I ever send an e-mail that, the moment I hit "Send", I decide should not have been sent, I now have a plausible defense -- "zzz-mailing". This is great! The concept surely applies to other forms of communication, too -- zzz-Facebooking, zzz-blogging, zzz-training. I should never have to take responsibility for anything that I do, say, or write again -- Oh, you heard me say **that**? I must have been zzz-talking.

On a running note: I must admit that there's is a bit of perverse satisfaction in running in really cold weather, especially when you see the look of someone's face when they learn you ran this morning when the temperature was 19° (or 5° or whatever). There is definitely the personal satisfaction of having done it. But, I'm ready for some morning temps in the 30°s. I am most definitely NOT ready for summer -- I don't like hot and running in temps greater than 70° or so is more miserable than running when it's 5°. But, a tiny bit more warmth wouldn't be bad. This morning: 5.9 miles, 49:45, 19°F, 57% humidity.

Run well, y'all,
Bob

Tuesday at Tempo

Cold tempo run this morning -- 18°F when I left and 17°F when I finished. Goal was 6 miles total -- 1 warm up, 4 @ 7:27, 1 cool down. I got sidetracked on the first fast mile because of traffic and lost some seconds, but the whole thing was a real struggle and the first half of the last fast mile was uphill -- ughhh. Anyway, it was actually better than I thought. Here's the breakdown:

Tempo Splits
1.0 x 8:42.68 (warm up)
1.0 x 7:59.92
1.0 x 7:18.63
1.0 x 7:13.69
1.0 x 8:08.63
1.1 x 9:20.74 (cool down)

I am so bad at regulating my pace.

Run well, y'all,
Bob

Look Familiar?

This is an advert from the Flora London Marathon, but I've felt this way after a half marathon and even, one day, after a 7-mile training run. Oh, the joys of running:



Run well, y'all,
Bob

Cletus Take the Reel

If you like corny parody, then this might be right up your alley -- a parady of Carrie Underwood's, Jesus Take the Wheel. Personally, I love it:



Run, and fish, well, y'all,
Bob

Track Blowouts

I got to add another country to my list of Countries in Which I've Run -- Turkey. I was in a meeting last week in Belek, Turkey and ran 4 mornings. It was flat, flat, flat. The only hill was in the hotel parking lot. Actually, it was a good thing I ran -- those were the only times I even stepped outside the hotel. I saw a beautiful sunrise on Wednesday -- sunrise ahead of me, snow-covered mountains ahead and to the left of me.

Another set of track intervals/repeats out of the way. I got a call from our emergency answering service about 11:10 last night -- fortunately, it wasn't a major emergency but it did get my adrenaline going a bit. So, I was really tired. Fortunately, I knew there were people who would be expecting me so I got up and headed out in the cold (26°). The goal was to do the warm-up by running to the high school, then do 4 x 800 meters @ 3:20 with a recovery 400 meters between each, then to do the cool-down running home. On the recovery lap after the 3rd 800 meters, we decided to just do 400 meters for the last lap. These things are HARD!

Here are the splits:

1.50 mi x 12:31.87
 800 m x 3:20.08
 400 m x 2:27.49
 800 m x 3:18.90
 400 m x 2:28.83
 800 m x 3:21.01
 400 m x 2:31.62
 400 m x 1:33.52
1.50 mi x 13:10.99

Run well, y'all,

Bob

Snowfall

Well, Richmond is not a winter wonderland, if you define that as a place that has lots of snow. So, it doesn't take a whole lot of the white stuff to get me excited.

The prediction had been for snow but I really expected rain. So, when I got up and heard the sound of water falling, I got mentally ready to to to the YMCA and hit the treadmill. Grabbed my driving license and keys, opened the door, and was quite surprised to see the grass, steps, vehicles covered (albeit ever so lightly) in white stuff ... and more of it coming down with no rain mixed in. (The temperature was 33° so what I had heard earlier was melting snow falling off the trees.) Snow! Turned around, put the keys and license on the end table, grabbed my blinking light, head lamp, and gloves and headed out for a run in the falling snow.

Met up with couple of guys from our informal running group. They were running roughly the same route I had planned to run, so we stayed together and had a great run of 5.3 miles. (Thanks Drew and Owen.)

Run well, y'all,
Bob

Tempo Run

Today's run was a tempo run -- I had planned to do this on Tuesday but there is rain and freezing stuff predicted and I didn't want to miss the speedwork this week. The goal was 1 mile warm-up, 3 miles @ 7:26 mpm, and 1 mile cool down. I did it but wow! I had a cold last week and that's really sapped me. Here are the splits:

TEMPO SPLITS:
1.00 x 8:40.95 (warm-up)
1.00 x 7:28.46
1.00 x 7:21.32
1.00 x 7:15.26
1.26 x 11:25.64 (cool down)

To meet my goal time for the Ukrop's 10K, I have to maintain the pace of my 3rd tempo mile for the full race. I'm glad I still have 8 weeks to go -- even then it will be tough.

Run well, y'all,
Bob

Riddle Answer: The Opposite of Progress...

If con is the opposite of pro, then what is the opposite of progress?

Congress!

Run well, y'all,
Bob

Should I or Shouldn't I...?

Should I or shouldn't I workout today? If you'ver ever come to that moment in your day when you have to decide, but you cannot, maybe this will help (click on the chart to see it full size and actually be able to read it):This chart is stolen from courtesy of Merry, co-blogger of Cranky Fitness, a humourous, often irreverent blog on matters more or less related to fitness and health. I've only reproduced the chart -- you really need to click on the link and go read the real thing. It's worth your while.

Run well -- well, just run -- y'all,
Bob

Virginia Blood Services is Way High Tech

When I saw this placard, today, I knew that I had to post a blog. I'll make Paul Merrill proud because this is the kind of thing he seems to have a gift for seeing.

It seems that the Virginia Blood Services has made a break-through discovery. Maybe they're located in northern Virginia and have taken advantage of their proximity to the CIA, Pentagon, and other government agencies. I wonder if donating blood online is more or less painful than donating via the traditional process? A process this advanced would have to have been developed on a Mac. Will it work under Tiger or only under Leopard? I wonder if there is a Windows compatible version? Does it require Vista? What happens if you get the blue screen of death during an upload? OK, enough.

Run well, donate blood, y'all,
Bob

Track Repeats

Another day of track repeats. A couple of folks from my Wed/Sat running group joined me. That made the repeats more bearable -- I knew somebody else was suffering with me and we pushed each other a bit. Thanks John and Lynde.

The plan today was 2.12 miles to the track, 3 x 800m with 1 x 400m between each, 2.12 miles home. The target pace for the 800m intervals was 3:20. Here's the breakdown:

2.12 mi @ 18:01.32
800 m @ 3:33.27 (+0:13.27)
400 m @ 2:37.82
800 m @ 3:26.79 (+0:06.79)
400 m @ 2:46.32
800 m @ 3:18.73 (-0:01.27) (Av. 3:26.26 (+0:06.26))
2.12 mi @ 18:07.94

All in all, not too bad.

Run well, y'all,
Bob

The Opposite of Progress...

Great joke/pun/whatever from the movie, Reservation Road, (and totally out of character with the serious and sad nature of the movie...

If con is the opposite of pro, then what is the opposite of progress?

Any answers or guesses?

Run well, and laugh often, y'all,
Bob

25 Years of Macintosh

Tomorrow, 24 January, marks 25 years since Apple introduced the Macintosh. Though I've used Apple computers for 23 years, I didn't jump to a Mac until about 1994. Our first computer was an Apple IIe. We splurged an bought a whole megabyte of RAM and a revolutionary 3.5" disk drive. Four years later, we debated switching to a Mac but they were too slow -- processor speed and RAM hadn't caught up to the demands of the graphical interface. So, we stayed with the Apple II and bought an Apple IIgs. Each of those original computers was used for more than 10 years.

Since then, though, it's been Mac all the way. There are 4 in our house -- a non-working PowerBook G4, an iBook G3 that acts as a print server* on our wireless network, my 2006 MacBook Pro, and my wife's 2008 MacBook.

The Mac was introduced during the Super Bowl 1984 with this commercial -- a slam at IBM's everything-looks-alike corporate image:



Happy Birthday, Macintosh!

Run (and compute) well, y'all,
Bob

*I was surprised the other day by how cool this setup is. My wife had printed something, went upstairs to get the document, and came down with a database that she hadn't printed. I didn't recognize it at first. Then I remembered that earlier in the day, at my office downtown, I had tried to print a document and hit "Print" too quickly sending the document to the default printer, this iBook print server, rather than the one in our office. I thought it odd that that document wasn't stuck in my print queue but didn't think much of it. Turns out that the document had been sent via the internet to our house to that iBook. I had no idea that was possible.

A Dream Come True

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today. --Martin Luther King, Jr. (28 August 1963)

Martin Luther King Jr's dream hasn't come completely true but tomorrow, 20 January 2009, is a huge leap toward that dream.

Now, I don't agree with Barack Obama on a number of issues but wow! Tomorrow is an incredible day.

I'll reserve the right to disagree, just as I have disagreed with George W Bush. But, I will pray for President Obama -- that he will have wisdom that exceeds his experience, that he will have the courage to do the right thing, that he will seek God's will in every decision he faces, that he and his family will be protected both physically and spiritually.

Run well, y'all -- Govern well, Barack
Bob

A Frigorific Run

I knew it was coming, but when I looked at my wireless frigorimeter this morning and saw that it was 5.4°F and 44% humidity, I knew it was going to be a frigorific run. But, I was prepared and pulled on my stuff and headed out the door to meet the group that was crazy enough to run this morning.

It didn't take long to recognize that I had overdressed. I had not run in temperatures colder than 12° and had been cold during those runs. Here's what I wore:

Layer 1:

Asics boxers
LS cotton-feel tech shirt
Lite wool socks
Lite wool gloves

Layer 2:

Under Armor Coldgear tights
Cheap poly-cotton sweat shirt
Balega Trail-buster socks
*Insulated gloves

Layer 3:

*Medium weight poly-cotton warmup pants
*Heavy fleece jacket
Acrylic knit toboggan cap with ear flaps
Etonic Jepara 2 SC shoes

Items marked with "*" are the things I would change. I think I would wear a light-weight glove -- maybe the convertible half-finger/mitten gloves. I would wear my light-weight wind pants rather than the knit warmups. And, I would go with my lighter-weight fleece. Yesterday evening, I tried to buy a head covering that would cover everything except my eyes but the VA State Police got to Dick's Sporting Goods before I did and bought all that they had (there were probably 75 of the coverings in the store on Thursday evening).

I had frost on my jacket before the end of the first mile. I think that means that my gear is wicking the sweat away from my body and that's a really good thing. When I finished and was cooling down, I passed some folks who were beginning their 10K training. One of the guys commented that I looked like I had been in the Arctic.

The run, itself, was pretty tough. My legs felt dead -- don't know if it was the weight of all the extra stuff or the short night of sleep or just one of those days. Ten miles is a long run but it's not like I don't do those on a regular basis. Our overall pace was 8:33 mpm, about what we were shooting for but it included 3 or 4 walk breaks for me. Oh well, it was still a satisfying run -- to do it in this kind of weather.

Run well, y'all, and stay warm,
Bob

TIART -- 5K/10K

Runner's Lounge sponsors a Take It and Run Thursday each week, inviting lounge participants to contribute by posting on their own blog and posting a link on the Runner's Lounge site. This week's topic is 5K and 10K races.

When I started running again 5 1/2 years ago, my goal was to lose weight and get in shape -- I wanted to be more healthy. I wasn't particularly interested in racing except for one race. I had seen a blurb somewhere about a Candlelight 5K run in Greenville, SC. I grew up in Traveler's Rest, just north of Greenville and my parents now live in Greenville. The run was originally scheduled for early March and start time was 9 pm. The original course wound through the old, historic section of Greenville, through Cleveland Park, and was marked by candles in bags along the course. All in all, there was a lot of appeal for this particular race both in its uniqueness and its nostalgia. So, I determined that if I were ever in the US when this race was run, I would visit my parents and participate.

When we took a temporary position in Richmond, VA in May 2005, I knew my chance had come. So, I signed up for the 2006 race. When I signed up, there were only about 4 weeks remaining until the race and I had done nothing toward getting ready. I was participating in the Runner's World Beginning Runners' forum at the time and got some prep advice from others. They said the best thing I could do was to run 5 x 1km repeats at goal race pace. I made a beginner's mistake and set my goal for too quick a pace and couldn't maintain that pace for 5-1km intervals. Fortunately, the race was rescheduled for early June and I had some more time to prepare. Though I didn't hit my "Wow!" goal, I was pleased with my time (22:46), coming in 76th overall and 5th in my age group.

Since that race, I've run in two 10K races and three half marathons. All of those were chosen because of something unique about them. Whatever success I've had in those subsequent races came as a result of what I learned in my novice preparation for that first 5K race -- the value of speedwork. As I've prepared for each 10K and half marathon, I've continued to do track work (either 800m or 1600m repeats) and longer tempo runs. Besides training my body and mind to run faster, I think one of the big benefits of speedwork is that it breaks the sameness of normal training runs that tend, at least for me, to be at a steady pace -- speedwork provides some needed variety. So, my advice to new runners who are getting ready for a 5K or 10K is to do some kind of speedwork during each week leading up to a race (except for a lower mileage rest week every 3-4 weeks).

Run well, y'all,
Bob

Be Careful What You Chase ...

... you might catch it.

This is hilarious. In all my years (you don't want to know how many) of watching Road Runner cartoons, I had never seen this one.



Run well, and fast, y'all,
Bob

My Most Dreaded Workout -- I Won Today!

I'll make no secret about it -- I don't like track repeats. They're just plain hard. Basically, you run almost as hard as you can, jog slowly, and then do it again, and again. I'm now following a training plan to get ready for Richmond's Ukrop's 10K. I would really like to break 45 minutes. The plan called for a track workout session this week and today was the best day for that.

So, 5:10 and 28°, off I went to the track. I was supposed to do a 1 mile warm-up, 3 x 800m intervals at 3:20 each with a 400m recovery job between each, and end with a 1 mile cool down. I didn't want to do the warm up/cool down on the track (running in circles is barely tolerable for the repeats themselves), so I ran from home. My warm up and cool down were more like 1.8 miles each.

I surprised myself on the intervals:

800 x 3:22.05
400 x 2:31.63
800 x 3:19.42
400 x 2:30.06
800 x 3:16.25

The first 800m was a touch slow but the last 2 800m's made up for it. Hard but quite satisfying.

Run well, y'all,
Bob

Running for Dollars (Zim Dollars)

[The picture comes from CNN's web site.]

A news snippet I caught on CNN this morning: the situation in Zimbabwe continues to deteriorate. Personally, I don't know how it can get much worse. The economy is in absolute shambles. Inflation is estimated at an unbelievable 231,000,000% (no, that's not a typo -- it's 231 million percent). That's totally unfathomable to me but this example helps. When the Zimbabwe government printed a new $10 billion note 3 weeks ago, it purchased 20 loaves of bread (if you could find bread). Now, it will purchase a half loaf of bread.

The government announced that it is printing a new $50 billion note (again, not a type -- that's a B). That will currently purchase about 2 loaves of bread. That note is worth US $2.00 today. At the current hyperinflation rate, within 24 hours after its release, the new $50 billion note will purchase a few crumbs of bread (1/316,438th of a loaf) -- a full loaf of bread will cost Zim $15,821,917,808,200,000.00 if the price of bread rises like everything else. That's almost Zim $16 quadrillion!! Sheesh!

[DISCLAIMER: I reserve the right to have my figures wrong. This is so bad that I'm having trouble figuring it out.]

And that's just one facet of the economy. I haven't (and won't) even mentioned the political situation and all the horrible things that are going on in that country. Pray for the people of Zimbabwe. I honestly don't know how they are surviving. Some very courageous colleagues of mine continue to live and work in Zimbabwe doing what they can to provide hope to the people of that beleaguered country.

Running seems somewhat trivial when I think about the people of Zimbabwe. None the less, I did run this morning -- 11.7 miles at an average pace of 8:14 mpm. Great run in chilly (36°) weather.

Run well, y'all, and pray for Zimbabwe,
Bob