Let's Roll

Boston is 20 weeks away. I averaged 40-45 miles per week each week but last week since Portland and ran 72 this week. I feel so much better getting in a run every day and 9 or 10 is kind of my daily base run. We run 12-16 on week day Team days and 20+ on Saturdays. I keep looking at the Lydiard Schedule that Steve gave us last year trying to figure out where I should be right now. I think I will just keep my regular routine going.

Mon 10 Tue 12-14 Wed 10 Thu 14-16 Fri 10 Sat 20-24 Sun 8-10. That will result in 85-95 miles per week or about 1,800 training miles for Boston. That will actually never happen because life does manage to get in the way of a few runs. I plan to race 3M so I won't go 22 on that Saturday. Probably.

Anyway, it is comforting in a way to have my plan. Steve will plan out the soul busting workouts. My teammates will push the pace occaisionally. I will run 2:58 at Boston. Let's Roll.

Geezer's Nekkid Run Part 1

Debra and Pragati from my Austin Marathon group joined by Mark from Team Rogue accompanied me on a barefoot run at Zilker Park this morning. It felt GREAT to once again feel the earth beneath my feet and the mud between my toes. I ran 8 miles, the last one with Bruno who has never run with me before. I was surprised that he kept up for the entire mile at my normal easy pace. I've been home for about 1 1/2 hours and he has been sacked out the whole time! I made a short little video of the group below. Mark was finishing up a 8 mile run and wanted to sample the barefoot running deal. Debra and Pragati have both tried it before in dealing with Plantar Faciitis. We talked a grat deal about barefoot running and minimalist shoes. All in all a great day in the park! Whoo Hooo.

I finished up the week at 72 miles. With the exception of Tuesday's fast pace I felt great all week. One small blister yesterday is the only ill effect.

Great Run - Empty House

I ran 20 miles today, I think. The winner of my forum contest to guess how I earned the name Geezer was Bill Durbin. His prize was ME. I offered to carry gu's discarded clothing etcetera figuring some beginner running 9 or 10 minute miles would be the winner. After declaring Bill the winner I started checking on who he was and got a little worried that I might be in for a tough run. Not to worry. Nothing to carry and no extra clothing at the start so I was off the hook there. All I had to do was keep up! We grabbed the 20 mile map but I don't remember seeing him check it. Bruce went with us planning to run 20 so I'm sure we were close. I thoroughly enjoyed our run. Great conversation, a decent pace and 20 miles of mostly Austin Marathon course.

Yesterday was interesting. I ran my 9 mile version of my DK plus Sadie loop. On the same run almost a year ago, I saw a petite, very fast woman running on my route. I sped up trying to catch up but couldn't close on her. About a week later I saw her again crossing my route but again I couldn't catch her. Yesterday, I saw her coming at me. We were both on the sidewalk and this time I flagged her down to introduce myself. She was older than I expected and said her name was Jennifer. She was wearing a 2008 Boston shirt so I asked her what she was training for. She said "nothing, I'm just lazy and fat out for a run". I laughed at that remembering I couldn't catch her the times I had seen her before and I'm telling you she was NOT fat.

Tomorrow, I am hosting the first Run Nekkid With Geezer event at the Zilker Park Great Lawn. I am hoping to introduce some of my athletes and running buddies to the joy of running barefoot in the grass. If you are interested, 7:30am at the east end of the ACL area.

Ruth Anne and Eileen went to Dallas this morning so the house is empty. I get to wash ALL of my clothes today! Whoo Hooo! I'll finish cleaning out the shower from my tile repair and watch the Texas game tonight. After the Nekkid Run tomorrow, Ruth Anne wants me to repair a couple of broken tiles in the other bathrooms so I guess I'll be busy enough.

Groovin'

I am back in the groove! I took the entire week off (except for the Hokahey 5K) as planned. Tuesday was test the hip day so I headed down to Rogue for the 5:30am run. The weather was cool and the youngsters where feeling friskie so we cranked out 12 miles at a ridulous pace in the low 7s. The hip was fine but my legs were shot! Wednesday morning was even colder but I didn't get started until 7:30 and got hot in the beautiful sunshine. I ran 9.2 at an easy recovery pace and felt pretty loose by the end. This morning, the alarm woke me up for the first time in weeks. I had trouble getting out the door but finally got out the door and headed to Barton Springs. 14 miles was the longest option and several runners indicated they were going 14. I ended up with a side stitch in the first 2 miles and had trouble holding the pace. By mile 5 I had caught up to the group just as those running shorter were turning around. By mile 8 Mike and I were running alone and at a comfortable pace. We ended up just short of 14 miles so I am sitting at 34.4 miles after 3 days. This mileage feels GREAT! I will try to get 8-10 tomorrow, 20 on Saturday then 5-8 barefoot miles on Sunday. That will net 68-72 miles for the week in 6 days. I will be getting 70-76 miles per week in until Boston in April. Feels so good, feeling good again!

Hokahey 5K

Our new business is keeping me busier than I ever imagined. For the first time in many years, I am fully engaged from the time I get up until falling into bed. I had forgotten the thrill and energy produced by taking on a new challenge. I have even come up with a new marketing ploy based on my running. I'm thinking of contacting all of the fast guys in my age group and offering to reduce my commissions if they will let me sell their house in Austin and refer them to an agent in say Portland. In a couple of years, I could start walking away with some age group awards!

Speaking of running, I actually haven't done much lately. In the days following the IBM 10K I noticed some tightness in my hip. The location was in the same general area that took me out of the 2007 Boston training and trashed a year of training. I began a concerted effort to address the issue before it become an injury. By Monday of this week it had reached the point of pain during my run so I cut the run short and developed my plan of attack on it. I notified my running buddies that I was taking a week off. I scheduled a massage with Lisa, the Mistress of Pain, and hit it with Aleve on day one then Advil and Tylenol after that. At my massage, Lisa was amazed at the lack of knots in my calves and at the vastly improved range of motion in all of the major joints. She agreed that the barefoot and near barefoot running has transformed my lower body and that it seems to be the right approach to running for me. Then she got busy on my hip. I had been dreading this because I hadn't done a massage in over 8 months BUT we were both surprised at how easily the muscles released. I left with a little bit of soreness that was nearly completely gone by the time I reached the office. No running on Friday. I had no time to really think about the Hokakey 5K that I had entered for Saturday.

The Hokahey 5K was not really a "race" after all. This was an opportunity to come together with the friends of Dan Keitz and raise funds for his battle with ALS. As I got ready for bed, I didn't know if I would race or not. The thought even occur ed to me to try running barefoot. I decided on the drive out to Oak Hill that I would run it barefoot if the pavement looked smooth. When I got there they were handing out chips with the bibs. Hmmm, hadn't thought about attaching a chip without shoes. Ok, lets run some of the course and decide what to do. I jogged out for what I thought was about a mile and found the pavement to be pretty rough so shoes were staying on.

I seeded myself near the front and decided to just see what I had when the gun went off. I knew Kurt M. would go for the win and there were several buff looking high school XC guys with that look in their eyes. When the horn sounded I found myself running in 5th place with Kurt and 3 XC guys out ahead. I was breathing heavy within 20 seconds while these guys seemed to be just cruising. At what I thought should be about the 1st mile I sneaked a peak at my watch and saw 4:20 so I knew I was in trouble. I was feeling like we had run a mile already but we had only run 3/4 mile if that! Then I saw the HILL. Where in the hell did that come from? I dug in and passed one of the XC kids but Kurt and the other two were now pulling away. Going down the backside was no fun because I could see we had to come right back up in short order. From this point on I could hear footsteps right on my heels. I never looked back though. On the return trip up the hill, I got passed by some guy named Larry. Why do they always seemed to be named Larry? He passed me like I was standing still. I figured I would now get passed by 5 or 6 more before we finished as I was beginning to run out of steam. I could hear footsteps getting closer and closer as we neared the final stretch. With about 200 meters to go, I felt someone try to pass me. I dropped whatever hammer I had left knowing it wouldn't be enough if it was one of the young guys. After about 50 meters, I heard them back off and knew that I had broken them. I pushed to the finish vowing to NOT look at my watch crossing the line. I looked up and saw Dan at the finish line so without thinking I jumped and gave Dan my best salute. I had my usual couple of minutes of dry heaving before I realized I hadn't stopped my watch. I don't yet know what my time was BUT I managed to hold onto 5th place overall and 1st masters! Kurt held off the 2 XC guys for the win and Larry must be younger than 40. I spent about an hour visiting with Dan and many of the folks from our Pikes Peak training. It was good to see people that I had not seen in 2 or 3 years. I'll be back to run this race next year!

RESULTS:
Hohahey 5k
Austin, TX
14 Nov 2009

1 0:18:42 Kurt Mohlman M 29
2 0:19:01 John Vogt M 31
3 0:19:27 Larry King M 43
4 0:19:40 Matthew Nyfeler M 17
5 0:19:50 Geezer Collins M 46
6 0:19:50 Cody Castelline M 15
7 0:19:56 Michael Wedel M 34

Essential Lydiard

Thank you Mike for forwarding this article! Anyone who has read my blog for any length of time knows I have struggled with the mental and physical aspects of becoming a marathoner. Not running a marathon, that was actually pretty easy, but becoming a marathoner. Shedding the excesses (shoes, technology, fueling, hair) and learning to simply run by feel has been the hardest thing I have done in my life except perhaps raising kids. So I plan to read this article a few more times. I hope it puts some of my rambling and disjointed blogging into perspective for me as well as you!