Over The Hump & Going Strong

I've managed to stay true to my schedule over the past three weeks. Every scheduled run has been knocked out with great gusto. I've even seen my pace speed up on the shorter runs, much to the chagrin of my canine running partner. She liked it when I was slower so she had more time to play on the sides of the trails.

This past weekend I ran my scheduled nine mile long run. I was pumped to listen to my new playlist chock full of The Hood Internet remixes. Who doesn't love Notorious B.I.G. rapping over Miley Cyrus? Or LCD Soundsystem giving way to "Walk it out, now walk it out, now walk it out"?

I was sure to bump up the time so I wouldn't hear any repeats, but halfway through my run the playlist started repeating itself. This was almost completely detrimental to the run. How can I run 4.5 more miles if I don't have fresh music to pull me through the hills? I kept skipping songs and eventually heard a couple that hadn't already played. My little iPod was embarrassed about its errors, but I still had a long talk with him about the importance of proper shuffling techniques. If you haven't checked out The Hood Internet, I highly recommend it. They have a large archive so you can easily build a two or three hour playlist.

To top off the poor iPod performance, as I was pulling out a Clif Shot Block, I managed to drop my last one into a muddy puddle. I somehow managed to survive my run with only half a playlist and one less shot block, but it was one of the most harrowing experiences of my life.

Today is an easy five miles that I hope will be uneventful.

Day 73 - Five miles

Total Mileage - 144.54

Kids bounce, right?

On my short runs I cut through a park with a small creek running through the middle so the dog can get some water and splash around. This park also has a couple different playground areas, one of which has a climbing wall. As I was making my loop through the park today there was a little boy, no older than five, at the very top of the wall. This is no wimpy wall (like the one in the picture over there). This park's climbing wall is roughly 12 feet tall. If a kid falls wood chips will hopefully keep his bones from breaking, but still, 12 feet is 12 feet.

So the boy at the top of the wall cannot find his footholds and is yelling for his mom. I slowed down to see where his mom was, but couldn't find her. He didn't immediately yell again so I continued on to the water hole for the dog. I didn't even get to the water before the kid starts yelling for his mom much more rapidly and with fear in his voice. So I turned around and ran back to him. I asked if I could help him down and he said he'd really just like his mom. I asked him where his mom was and pointed over to a section of picnic tables. She was on her cell phone with her back to the boy. I ran over to her while the little boy continued to yell, but was shooshed with a finger when I reached her. She then held her hand up to her son to signal, "Give me a minute," before walking even farther away! I walked back over to her son (because why run? There's obviously no emergency here) and started to help guide him down by telling him where the footholds were. After he found the first two she had walked up and took over without a word to me. After he got low enough so she could grab him she plucked him off the wall and set him on the ground. She then turned around and walked away.

Nothing lady? Not a "thanks" or "sorry about that" or "I like your running shorts"? I guess the lesson learned today is when a kid is in peril and could possibly fall 12 feet but his parent obviously is not worried I should just keep running and assume the parent knows what he/she is doing. Does this mean that when I have kids I'm going to be worried about everything? Or was that lady just a jerk?

On a happier note I hit 100 miles in my training this past weekend.

Day 58 - Three Miles

Total mileage - 106.44

Running Ear

So I'm back in the saddle. Three days of running in a row. That is way more than I can say for the past couple weeks. Yesterday was a five miler and I just got back from my easy Thursday three miler. I took the dog with me to our usual trail and on our way back to the start this runner coming toward us said something that I couldn't quite make out. (Full disclosure: my hearing sucks so it may have been my ears that weren't working as opposed to his mumbling.) I asked him to repeat what he said as I came to a stop. He continued running and turned his head, mumbled again and sped off. I still had no idea what he was trying to communicate.

I kept the dog on the leash thinking he was warning me about something and started trying to figure out the sentence he had thrown my way. It kind of sounded like:

"Watch our for Green Peace. They're out to get you."

But I was pretty sure that had nothing to do with the remaining trail I was heading down. So then I thought he may have said:

"There's bees up there. They'll try to get you."

Bees are possible, but with all the rain and cold I was pretty sure they weren't out in bee mobs attacking hapless runners. Then I started thinking that everyone should know sign language. I wouldn't be trying to figure out what was going to attack me if he would've signed it to me. As this thought was crossing my mind he comes roaring back up from behind me and flies by. I still have no idea what he said, but I think it was something like:

"You better keep your dog on the leash because I'm going to turn around and came racing as fast as humanly possible to blow by you in about 30 seconds. Watch out for Green Peace, they have attack bees!"

p.s. The sign language up there actually says something, but don't spend much time trying to figure it out as it's nothing very exciting.

Day 34 - Three miles

Total mileage - 72.74

I Run Like I Blog

I always start with good intentions and then end up slowly tapering off. The past couple weeks have seen my marathon training take a drastic nose dive. I've missed two long runs and four short runs. All totaled, I suck. And my blog documenting my rise to marathon stardom has also tapered off dramatically. These lapses can still be overcome this early in the game, but come March I need to be on a serious roll as far as training goes. So tomorrow the running shoes are being laced up again and I'm hitting the trails. Regardless of the torrential downpours I'll be out tomorrow. I promise you.

Who Needs Lights?

I was feeling pretty proud of myself yesterday. I have never changed the tires on a bicycle before, but in the attempt to convince Kim to ride her bike while I run I spent a couple hours replacing the tubes and the tires on her bike. Two hours and several blisters later I came out victorious. I was so excited about my accomplishment that I asked if she could come home early to accompany me on my run before it got dark. She said she'd try.

She got home a little early and I already had the bike loaded in the back of the car. A quick change and we were headed to the trail. Not even 800 meters in and she was rolling through darkness. Between the dog running in front of the bike and the headlamp that doesn't project farther than 12" in front of you, she was not having a very nice time. We cut the run by one mile (which I'll make up today) and decided to pay better attention to the sun's position in the sky before we attempt another dusky ride. But on the positive side, the bike is fixed and I have a five mile run this weekend that she can take part in!

When I was training for my first half-marathon she would ride with me on a lot of my runs acting as my pacer and water carrier. We even had other runners comment on the my luckiness in having a constant coach telling me what my splits were and advising me to take a suck on the CamelBak. After that first half-marathon we moved to a new condo with no local trails we can walk to so the bike accompaniment came to a halt. Having the bike back in working order (after hanging in the garage for four years) has me excited to do my long runs. I'm glad to have you back partner! I promise we'll only run during daylight hours going forward.

Day 18 - four miles

Total Milage - 40.88

Hypoglycemia Shmypoglycemia

The mileage is bumping up little by little. My long run for last week was seven miles. I haven't run seven consecutive miles in a long time. I decided the best thing to do was have my wife drop me off seven miles from home. As I watched her taillights grow smaller in the dusk of a small country road it dawned on me that there was no stop button for this run. I couldn't call it quits early and turn around. I was seven miles from home with a wife headed out of town. It was me and my feet.

So I started running (which would seem obvious since that is why I had her drop me off in the first place). I felt good throughout the entire run. The iPod played LCD Soundsystem's All My Friends (my favorite running song) twice. The weather was cool. The sun was setting. Everything was adding up to a great run. I made it home in just over an hour (1:05 and some change). This is where my troubles started.

Let me rewind the day so you know how I prepared for my run. Breakfast was two cups of coffee and a bowl of cheerios. Brunch was a piece of this amazing tarte tatin. Lunch was a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. That was my prerun energy load. No water and not much else in the scheme of having to run seven miles. When I came in the door I was hoping that dinner would be done, but it was running about an hour behind schedule. "No worries," I thought and proceeded to walk the dog, shower, do laundry and check e-mails. While I was checking e-mails the wave of nausea slammed into me. I went from feeling great and getting chores done to lying in bed nibbling triscuits and sipping water. My father-in-law (an ER Dr.) thinks I was hypoglycemic and after some research I think that could definitely be the case. So my solution to this is to eat more and eat smarter. I knew I had a long run, but the food part never really occurred to me. While I never did vomit, I did take a nice little knowledge nugget away from the experience. I need to eat better. So today I'm off to the store to pick up some margarita shotblocks (another favorite) for my long run this weekend.

Day 17 - Four miles

Total Mileage - 37.87