Monday, October 24, 2011

Why it's time to take a break in spite of great progress

Last week I mentioned that I knew there was a bit of respiratory issues (read: a cold) hitting me. What I hadn't anticipated was going down for the count. By going down, I mean Wile. E. Coyote get hit by a ton of bricks going down.

Yes, it was a "touch" of the flu. The aches, the pains, the fever and the "shoot me now... please" feeling that goes with all that. While the fever has finally broken and it appears as though my appetite is close to returning, I'm still pretty weak. The cough is finally starting to subside and hopefully I'll be up to walking again before the week is over. Once I'm breathing freely again, i can rebuild my running stamina.

This is going to be a long recovery until I run again after getting so close to be able to start training for Hyannis at the end of February. But here's the thing, I can adapt things. This is just minor set back to a long term goal. I can't help but feel that I recovered as quickly as I did because my body is becoming stronger.

They say the definition of success is getting up one more time than you get knocked down and I'm working on getting back up again.

Monday, October 17, 2011

Wishing for the sun, watching my watch

I can feel the beginnings of a cold. The rumbling in my chest this morning was the early warning signal for me to break out the zinc. As a result I decided to alter my plans from a 20 minute run segment to run a lap, walk a lap. Some how I still managed to cover 2.5 miles during my half hour run this morning. Not bad at all for me.

But here's the thing, going out at 6 am the sun should be up, but it's not. In fact, the entire time I was out this morning, I needed to use the light on my watch. As I wrapped things up at 6:30, the sun was finally coming up enough to be able to see the numbers on there without the light.

One of the cool things about running at that time of day is watching the world wake up. If I run at the high school track, I start to see lights come on in the building one by one. On the street it's the single runner her and there. Every so often a car will go by. By the end of my run I start to see kids heading for the high school, teachers starting to arrive at various schools in the neighborhood, people heading for the earlier commuter trains, busses and other methods of getting to work.

It won't be long before the leaves start falling and I have to break out my running tights. In the mean time, I'll settle for pushing the button to light up my digital watch to keep track of time and stuff.

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Running dark

I took off just before 6 am for a w5+r20+w5, it was dark when I went out.

Recently I've been running on the local high school track. It makes sense since I can run on the sidewalks to the track and then, on the track, I don't have to worry about vehicles and such. It's nice and even with a forgiving surface. As a result I can run at an even pace. Today it was an 11 minute pace. :)

My goal is a 10 minute pace, so I'm coming much, much closer. Pretty soon I finish the 12 week program and I'm able to just feel comfortable running again. The long term goal is to be able to go for a nice long run on a weekly basis. Probably a 7 miler on Sunday mornings, we'll see. Right now I am able to run 20 minutes without stopping and it's a good start.

The sun didn't come up until after I was back home, making coffee and hitting the showers. Like running through the leading edge of the hurricane a month or so back, I feel really bad ass. :)

Now it's time to get a move on the rest of the day while I think about tomorrow and speedwork. Today was a good run, it reassured me that I can do this.

Running dark

I took off just before 6 am for a w5+r20+w5, it was dark when I went out.

Recently I've been running on the local high school track. It makes sense since I can run on the sidewalks to the track and then, on the track, I don't have to worry about vehicles and such. It's nice and even with a forgiving surface. As a result I can run at an even pace. Today it was an 11 minute pace. :)

My goal is a 10 minute pace, so I'm coming much, much closer. Pretty soon I finish the 12 week program and I'm able to just feel comfortable running again. The long term goal is to be able to go for a nice long run on a weekly basis. Probably a 7 miler on Sunday mornings, we'll see. Right now I am able to run 20 minutes without stopping and it's a good start.

Now it's time to get a move on the rest of the day while I think about tomorrow and speedwork. Today was a good run, it reassured me that I can do this.

Thursday, October 06, 2011

Hello Goodbye

Today was w5+r15+w5 for 2 miles, not bad for the first cold morning of the season. But it was a bit bittersweet as I ran, as usual, listening on my Apple in-ear headphones to the playlist on my iPhone that tracked my stats on my Nike+. I thought a great deal about the man responsible for those things - and so much more.

If anything spoke to the elegance and understanding of design, it was my run. An article in Wired about 18 months ago spoke of how he was at Nike visiting his friend, Phil Knight and Nike's clumsy and/or failed designs to deliver music and record stats for runners. Lo and behold, the iPod Nano and Nike+ were born. The real reason I have an iPhone is because they added Nike+ capabilities 2 years ago and given how I had gone down twice on a run with no cell phone, it was a no-brainer.

The playlist I chose this morning is one I put together for the Tufts 10k a couple of years back. It is a combination of music used in Apple commercials and music from a Joan Benoit training mix: think Warped tour at the Apple store. What made me smile though was the Fratellis. When I started working at the Apple store years ago, the Fratellis' song "Flathead" was in the overhead mix. I remember telling my co-workers that it was my "happy running song."

It still is.


Steve Jobs is partly responsible for getting my butt out on the road and keeping it going. So as I type this on my little black macbook, moving around the page with my Apple wireless mouse, I say thank you to the man that, in spite of being CEO of one of the most successful companies in the world, took the time to send me an email telling me he didn't agree with my opinion on a company policy.

So.... so long Steve, and thanks for all the fish.

Wednesday, October 05, 2011

Speedwork works, who knew?

Today was a w5+(r1+w2)+w5 day. The whole run 1, walk 2 thing is a form of speedwork. Me, normally I use hills as speedwork in disguise, but this is the plan so I followed it and put in 2.5 miles. One of the things I noticed was that I was covering more and more ground in those little 3 minute stretches.

I've been running on the local high school track lately. The gate has been open and there have been folks making use of it again. So it was easy to see the speed differentials on the track and it's markings. Because the sun is rising later now, I actually had to use the light on my watch for the first half on the run to check my timing. It wasn't until the 20 minute mark or so it hit me, "Oh, I can read the numbers!" So I guess there's no turning back, it's really fall.

So in the cold, dark, damp fall morning, I managed to move my butt along... all in all a good work out.

Monday, October 03, 2011

Holly Hill Farms Discover the Woods 5k


I've never done a trail race before. My son is the XC runner and this is really his sort of thing. But I have always wanted to try one. Now, living in New England I can honestly say there are certain things to be expected: there are hills, there is dirt and there are rocks. After several days of rain, that dirt turns to mud.

Most trail racers revel in these realities. Me, I now see the appeal but I"m not sure if it's my thing.


Sunday was overcast and fall like. After all the rain, I knew it was going to get muddy so I packed a change of clothes knowing that I would need a shower and met up with my sister and niece to go to the race. This was on a community farm in Cohasset that has over 130 acres of woods. Four years ago they started this race to let the local community become aware and explore the woods. There were maybe 75 or so people that turned out, several had done this race before. My sister and I started in the back of the pack and my niece ran with the bulk of the pack. We rounded the first bend and it was pure, deep mud. It was deep enough that the one passable spot required carefully balancing yourself in a narrow one foot after another passage.

We rounded that first veggie patch and circled past the start line and into the fields to the woods. There were lots of rocks and roots. Not surprising, after all, it was a discover the woods trail race. We ran the better part of the first mile, but after slipping a bit in some mud, both of us quickly came to the conclusion we were walking this race. It wasn't worth hurting ourselves, so we'd enjoy the surroundings and push when we could other wise, we wouldn't sweat it.


About a mile and a quarter in, we heard someone huffing and puffing behind us. Both of us were surprised as we thought we were the last, but another woman ran past. Then, crossing a bridge over some water, she started walking because she didn't want to hurt herself either. We caught up to her quickly and the three of us walked the last half of the race together. All of us were glad we didn't wear our "good" running shoes. We joked that we were surprised they hadn't sent out a search party for us.

Just as we were coming up on the 3 mile point, I saw my niece jogging at us and we started laughing. She had tried to explain to the race organizers that we were fine, but they were concerned someone might be hurt. We crossed the finish with a lot of laughter at the 55:59 mark.

Yes I was covered in mud and yes there was definitely dirt in the skirt; however, it was a good run. I did figure out I'm not really warrior dash material - no matter how much fun it looks. I haven't caught the trail bug... yet, but it was certainly a good time.