First 80+ Mile Week.

Received our coaching assignments for this weekend today and I have water stop duties on Saturday. No big deal since I was kind of dreading trying to hang with the train for 24 miles. Hopefully someone will be running long this Sunday. This week is shaping up as my first week over 80 miles since last August. I'm having no pains but I am definately slower than last summer. On Thursday, I tried sleeping 30 minutes longer before workout and it was a bad idea. My coffee never kicked in and I just couldn't get moving for the steady state run. I will be getting up at my normal 4:20am time from now on.

Back with the team

Joined the team for the first time this morning. 16 miles that tested me several times. As always, the group thinned at each surge and at the turn around I began to struggle with the pace. The traffic and lights actually conspired WITH me today and I managed to finish with the group. By my watch we ran a 7:34 pace. Since I have not been wearing a watch I now know that I was NOT running as fast as I thought. We pick up the steady state runs starting this Thursday so that will get the turnover rate going again. I think the best way to descibe my current place in the group is that they all graduated with the class but I got held back a year. They all know if they get tired of my whining they can drop me at any time. And I now know that I'll have to work damned hard to keep that from happening!

Ending a week at 3M

Managed to keep my daily 10 miles up to Thursday. Friday I was in deposistions all day and did not get a run in. Saturday I debated how far to run then got a better offer from Eileen to go to WF for breakfast and skipped my run to join Ruth Anne and Eileen. Sunday was 3M and I had decided to race it and see if I could better my previous PR of 1:29:05. I secretly wanted to go under 1:27 but I've done no speed work for nearly 3 months and had no idea how I would feel at a 6:35-6:37 pace since I haven't even worn a watch for the past month. I ended up averaging a 6:43 pace except for mile 2 ran in 7:29? Where did that come from? Anyway, I PR'd by 1 second in 1:29:04. As usual, my splits varied from a fast 6:21 to that WTF 7:29. Mile 13 in 6:30 tells me I wasn't out of gas so I basically just relaxed to much in mile 2 and cost myself 30-45 seconds. Mileage for the week was 55.1 miles. I ran my Monday 10 miler this morning feeling no ill effects from racing. I saw lots of folks out on the course cheering and heard my name a few times when I never saw who called out. After finishing, I found Ruth Anne and Eileen and we cheered until everyone from my group came in. I think nearly everyone from my group who ran PR'd and felt good about the race.

After the race, we went trail riding. Things were going pretty good until both horses became very agitated about something. They were prancing around and looking back over their shoulders. After we turned around to head home, I spotted a dog that had been following us down the trail. As we got closer, it was a young but big pit bull and he just stood in the trail blocking our way back. I was riding Al who seemed raring and ready to go after the dog.



Normally, I would have just pointed him and charged but I have never actually encountered a pit out in the wild and certainly not on a horse. While Al and I stared at the dog, Ruth Anne called the house and my dad came down in is truck to chase off the dog. We will be working on a plan for this type of encounter before we head out on our next ride.





On another note, I always check out the race pictures to look for clues on my form and see if any of the pictures turned out. Usually, I am caught in a wierd stance or have snot flying. This picture from the M.A.D.D. Jinglebell Run in December is one that I actually like. It makes me look like I'm running fast! To put it in perspective though, I am running a 5K (3.1 miles) at a 6:21 pace and the world record pace for a MARATHON (26.2 miles) is around 4:38 pace!




I'd kill to run a single mile that fast!

A Week of Running

I waited until finishing my run today before posting my summary of the past week of running. Yesterday I wanted to run with Jeff from my group to hold him back a bit on his 24 mile run. I didn't know how far I would go and ended up cutting off less than a mile going 23.4 and finishing up the week with 78.8 miles. I was dead the rest of the day afterward and quite sore as I went to bed. This morning though, I woke up feeling pretty good and headed out on my "no more than 10" run to see how my legs would feel. After 2 miles I felt slow but otherwise fine so I completed my 10 miles. By the end I was back on my normal 7:30 pace and nothing hurting. So last week's log: Mon 6, Tues 10, Wed 13.2, Thurs 10, Fri 10, Sat 6.2, Sun 23.4. I've managed to run 13 of the past 14 days completing 129.6 miles. Still not running off a formal plan BUT seem to have settled in to running my 10 mile route every day plus a long run. That should keep me in the 80MPW range until I get back on a real training schedule. I have been thinking about how I could run Boston on a low budget. Since I know I won't be up for a 3 hour attempt, I may fly out Sunday and back on Monday after the race. There is a powerful pull to run Boston even with everything else going on.

Running Toward The Light

I suppose some of you have wondered what happened to A Geezer Running Amok. Quite simply, like our current economy, my life crashed on December 14, 2008. Had I been looking, I suppose the signs were there. I took down this blog to remove any temptation to post a comment that could only make things worse.

My running is so integrated into my life now, that as personal problems worsened, so too did my running. On a run just after Christmas in fact I discovered that I just couldn't do it and walked away. For 11 days, I woke up every morning with no desire to run and a real fear that I might never run again. On the first day of the 2009 Team Rogue training, I sat down and wrote an email to Steve and let him know that I was just not able to get running. After I sent it, I just got angrier and angrier at myself for allowing events largely outside my control to take such a toll on me that I couldn't even run. So, I cut my hair with a #2 guard pulled on my shoes and went for a run. I made 6 miles. I hurt. But I had run.

That night I made myself a deal. I would try to run every day. I would not wear a watch or follow a plan. I would run whatever distance I felt like running. I would run as fast or as slow as I felt that day. That was 10 days ago and I have logged 90 miles. I have run to work and home. I have run to Whole Foods downtown for breakfast with Ruth Anne and Eileen. I even ran 9+ miles of the RunTex 20 miler. I still have no plan. I am signed up for the 3M Half Marathon on Jan 25 and I am registered for Boston but I don't know if it is smart to race either.

I don't even know if I will keep up this blog.