if nothing else, running can be said to be about starts and stops.
this, my friends, can thus be said to be one of those starts.
yesterday’s half marathon marks my official return to racing and these
words, my official return to the blog. after a couple false starts in
both departments it is time to get back to it.
so then, as for yesterday’s effort, it was…well…fun? nothing quite
beats the excitement and anticipation of race day. months of hard work
put to the test. friends and acquaintances abound. and of course, the
post-race postmortem.
i have come to the conclusion over the years that runners are
notoriously a self deprecating, perfectionist bunch. rarely do you hear
about how pleased someone was with their result. and yet we keep
coming back for more. which begs the question… why?
if i am to be honest i must admit that i was fairly disappointed in
my own outcome yesterday. it was a tale of two races. the first full
of easy strides and promising mile splits. the majority of the second
was run without the assistance of calf muscles as they decided to go on
strike due to the low wages and extreme working conditions. (see:
unoccupy Will street) thus a steady, painful decline in pace ensued.
so… what happened? why the jekll and hyde?
invariably races are a deep gaze into the training looking glass. as
such the answer to why the race unfolded for me as it did lies in the
preparation that preceded it.
after a couple midsummer bouts with injury and illness my training
took a fairly exclusive turn towards long slow mileage. in fact,
yesterday probably accounted for 5 of the fastest miles i’ve run since
july. therefore, the fact that those miles sent my legs into a tailspin
is not surprising. logic however, is rarely a remedy for frustration.
luckily it will become the fuel that shapes the coming months of
training as i prepare for this season’s ultimate goals at the full
marathon distance.
as i look forward to the next few rounds of races that rest on the
horizon i think the answer to why we keep coming back for more (despite
the obvious self selection towards masochism) is that we are also a
secretly optimistic bunch. we can do better next time. this belief
gets us out the door for hot and humid long runs, and laces our shoes up
after long days at work. and we get to commiserate about it in the
process. so here’s to doing better next time and enjoying the
commiseration in the meantime.
for my fellow number nerds out there who enjoy munching on the raw data:
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Saturday, June 18, 2011
race relations
last nights adventure on the track was nothing to write home about. it was fun, as most races are for me. i always have a good time watching people put themselves to the test, hanging out with the other strange folks who share my warped view of running as enjoyment, and of course there is the racing part. i ran both the mile and two mile (it was nice to run the full english measurements as most tracks are metric and opt for the more modern 1600m and 3200m equivalent distances).
it was clear from the start of the mile that there wasn't much in the tank and that the evening's races would be a struggle. for my efforts i was rewarded with a 4:48 in the mile and 10:16 in the two, in that order. not a terrible double but not much to celebrate either. i did get the victory in both but given my slower times and absence of the usual suspects that i find myself chasing, that was a small consolation. i could rattle off a laundry list of reasons for the slower paces but there's really no need. in the grand scheme of things this is just one more hand full of sand i will add to the castle i'm trying to build.
the wisdom of racing at this point of my training is questionable. with my eye on peaking in early december for a 26.2 mile race, one might argue the risks of running faster, shorter races in june may outweigh the benefits. that said, given my unique situation, i believe i can tip that scale a bit as long as i maintain the right perspective about it.
one of the drawbacks of racing this early in the game is that i am not primed to run fast times right now. i am still in my base phase of training, where most of the focus is distance, not speed. so trying to run fast, especially at shorter distances, is likely to yield discouraging results. thus, if i am going to race i need to keep that in mind. sometimes this is easier said than done. it can be difficult to convince myself that i will be able to run 5:19 pace (olympic trials qualifying time is 2:19.00, or 5:19 per mile) for the marathon, when i can barely run that for 3 miles right now. also potentially detrimental to my cause is the risk of injury. as i increase my weekly mileage, i become increasingly prone to overuse injuries and running fast is a very good way to exacerbate that. to counter act this vulnerability i need to be as proactive as possible to mitigate the risk. things that fall into this category are: wearing trainers in my races (as i did yesterday), instead of my less supportive racing flats, cooling down and stretching well after hard workouts and races, icing anything that hurts, and keeping properly hydrated to cycle the junk out of my system so i recover faster.
there are some definite benefits though. since i have been away from regular competition for a long time it is important that i reacquaint myself with the process and it's challenges. just as vital as training the body to handle the rigors of racing, is the training of the mind. racing takes a good deal of getting used to mentally. it is a very unique experience for the mind to let go of its preservationist instincts in order to allow you to push it beyond its comfortable boundaries. so practicing that is a good thing. additionally, racing has its ritual and perfecting that ritual is very important. there are all kinds of variables that go into being at your best on the starting line. what you eat and drink the day before and of, amount of sleep, what you do during warm up, coping with pre-race jitters, etc. getting this routine down before a big competition will minimize the chances of problems on race day (which is why the prevailing wisdom is to avoid new things on race days). another small advantage is that i can get most of the same benefits of speed work in a much more enjoyable format. repeats can tend to get monotonous, especially if, as i often do, they are done alone. by substituting low key race days for speed days i get to prevent some of the mental fatigue and boredom that can settle in over the course of a long season.
next friday is another free track meet. i have not yet decided if i am going to jump in again or not. i am thinking it's best i make that call later in the week to see how i'm feeling. the mileage is scheduled to climb back over 60 for the week, i am working overnight 3 days this week, and the lovely lady in my life is sick. let the fun begin!
goal for the week:
stay injury and illness free!
some photos of race day, courtesy of Louisiana Running Company:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.153159994755061.39465.114724801931914&l=5190057ae4
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.153169048087489.39468.114724801931914&l=cd57cd86ca
post script: as you can see below, the garmin does not accurately reflect the distance when running on the track. i have tried several things to correct this issue including switching to "every second" recording and putting the watch on my right hand but neither seems to have done the trick. if anyone has any further suggestions on how to improve this issue i would love to hear them. thanks!
it was clear from the start of the mile that there wasn't much in the tank and that the evening's races would be a struggle. for my efforts i was rewarded with a 4:48 in the mile and 10:16 in the two, in that order. not a terrible double but not much to celebrate either. i did get the victory in both but given my slower times and absence of the usual suspects that i find myself chasing, that was a small consolation. i could rattle off a laundry list of reasons for the slower paces but there's really no need. in the grand scheme of things this is just one more hand full of sand i will add to the castle i'm trying to build.
the wisdom of racing at this point of my training is questionable. with my eye on peaking in early december for a 26.2 mile race, one might argue the risks of running faster, shorter races in june may outweigh the benefits. that said, given my unique situation, i believe i can tip that scale a bit as long as i maintain the right perspective about it.
one of the drawbacks of racing this early in the game is that i am not primed to run fast times right now. i am still in my base phase of training, where most of the focus is distance, not speed. so trying to run fast, especially at shorter distances, is likely to yield discouraging results. thus, if i am going to race i need to keep that in mind. sometimes this is easier said than done. it can be difficult to convince myself that i will be able to run 5:19 pace (olympic trials qualifying time is 2:19.00, or 5:19 per mile) for the marathon, when i can barely run that for 3 miles right now. also potentially detrimental to my cause is the risk of injury. as i increase my weekly mileage, i become increasingly prone to overuse injuries and running fast is a very good way to exacerbate that. to counter act this vulnerability i need to be as proactive as possible to mitigate the risk. things that fall into this category are: wearing trainers in my races (as i did yesterday), instead of my less supportive racing flats, cooling down and stretching well after hard workouts and races, icing anything that hurts, and keeping properly hydrated to cycle the junk out of my system so i recover faster.
there are some definite benefits though. since i have been away from regular competition for a long time it is important that i reacquaint myself with the process and it's challenges. just as vital as training the body to handle the rigors of racing, is the training of the mind. racing takes a good deal of getting used to mentally. it is a very unique experience for the mind to let go of its preservationist instincts in order to allow you to push it beyond its comfortable boundaries. so practicing that is a good thing. additionally, racing has its ritual and perfecting that ritual is very important. there are all kinds of variables that go into being at your best on the starting line. what you eat and drink the day before and of, amount of sleep, what you do during warm up, coping with pre-race jitters, etc. getting this routine down before a big competition will minimize the chances of problems on race day (which is why the prevailing wisdom is to avoid new things on race days). another small advantage is that i can get most of the same benefits of speed work in a much more enjoyable format. repeats can tend to get monotonous, especially if, as i often do, they are done alone. by substituting low key race days for speed days i get to prevent some of the mental fatigue and boredom that can settle in over the course of a long season.
next friday is another free track meet. i have not yet decided if i am going to jump in again or not. i am thinking it's best i make that call later in the week to see how i'm feeling. the mileage is scheduled to climb back over 60 for the week, i am working overnight 3 days this week, and the lovely lady in my life is sick. let the fun begin!
goal for the week:
stay injury and illness free!
some photos of race day, courtesy of Louisiana Running Company:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.153159994755061.39465.114724801931914&l=5190057ae4
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.153169048087489.39468.114724801931914&l=cd57cd86ca
post script: as you can see below, the garmin does not accurately reflect the distance when running on the track. i have tried several things to correct this issue including switching to "every second" recording and putting the watch on my right hand but neither seems to have done the trick. if anyone has any further suggestions on how to improve this issue i would love to hear them. thanks!
Sunday, June 12, 2011
goal orienting
new week, new shoes (thanks LRC!), new results, namely: 9:54. i got what i asked for. and thank goodness for that. since a certain, previously named, training partner of mine let my blog out of the bag to most of our local running community. one facebook post and a few hours later my warm up was peppered with a plethora of well wishers, and thus an unexpected added pressure for my humble sub 10 goal for the week. luckily, all's well that ends well.
assisting my efforts on wednesday were: a nice and needed reduction in weekly mileage (back down to the 40's) and the kind cooperation of our infamous local weather system which gifted us a slightly less sweltering eve than the week before.
afterward, this small exercise in goal setting got me thinking about that process in general and how important and integral a role it plays in achieving success in running (and elsewhere). goal setting is tricky business. aim too high and you may find yourself feeling perpetually unsatisfied with your results. aim too low and you may never achieve your potential. as such, i have come to believe, through lots of trial, error, and an occasional stumble across success, that effective goal setting needs a few major components. first is the willingness to take a risk. next is to balance that risk taking with the ability to maintain optimism and derive satisfaction from the effort even when the results don't cooperate with your plans. last, and perhaps most importantly, is the ability to be flexible since, as mr john lennon put it so eloquently, "life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans".
certainly in my life, where running is concerned, i have never been in short supply of tall aspirations. the earliest memory i can conjure from my freshman high school season was watching the varsity boys squad do repeats on the track and thinking to myself "i can beat those guys". little did i know at the time that those guys included a cross-country state runner-up who went on to run 9:09/4:12 in his senior season, a freshman with a mile PR in the 4:30's, and the squad as a whole was coming off a runner-up team effort at the California state meet. those guys were the real deal. but as i watched in awe while that elite flock made my fastest gears look effortless something inside me just saw a mountain to climb. looking back, i believe it was in this moment that my penchant for large goals was born. very little of that moment was conscious and i was still a few seasons away from truly understanding the science of goal setting my high school coach would prescribe and impart on us. but there it was, visceral and honest. and i believe that moment set the tone for my entire running career to this day.
as it turns out goal setting is not always best suited to this highly emotional and mostly illogical process i was giving in to. in many cases that can actually be very counter productive to ones ultimate success, as repeated perceived failures become internalized and a more negative self dialogue can ensue. there is a fine line to be walked between dreaming big and staying realistic. as you can probably deduce, i have leaned heavily towards the former in my career. in many ways that was a major contributor to the greatest successes i've enjoyed in the sport. even as many others looked at my goals and thought they were somewhere between misguided and out of touch with reality. i think the best example of this was the goal setting of my senior year in high school. at the close of my junior year i had run consistently in the top 2 or 3 for my cross country team, and on the track, had whittled my 3200m and 1600m times down to 9:28 and 4:24 respectively. yet somehow from this data set i extrapolated the following goals:
i qualify for nationals in cross-country.
i am state champion in cross-country.
i am state champion in the 3200m.
i break 9:00 in the 3200m.
in the end i accomplished only the first thing on this list but i came very close to the others. the lesson i took away from this season was that lofty goals made me work harder and through hard work i could at least come close to accomplishing most anything i put my mind to. sounds great, right? well, not quite so fast. there is a good deal of truth to that logic but as i turned the page to the collegiate chapter i came to find out that truth isn't absolute.
my first year in the college ranks was a rude awakening. suddenly, instead of competing to win championship races i was struggling to place in the top 100 at mid season invitationals. eventually i adjusted and over the course of 5 years (including a redshirt season) and became fairly competitive again. but the results, as compared with my goals, never quite matched up as well as i had come to expect from my high school experience. there are an infinite number of variables that could have contributed to those results but i think a significant factor was the following cycle: i set goals, i trained hard, i failed to exceed those expectations, i felt like a failure, i set bigger goals, trained harder, and began the cycle anew. eventually i would break my goals from previous seasons but by that time i had already come up with a new set of circumstances to judge myself by.
essentially what i think this all boiled down to was a patience problem. i had high expectations for myself based on my marks going into college. and rather than taking a step back to adjust to the new surroundings and looking for reasons to be excited about my progress, i continued to double down, confounding the problem. in other words, i neglected two thirds of the goal setting process. i was willing to take the risk but failed to maintain optimism/derive satisfaction from the effort because i was not flexible.
anyhow, now that i have made a short story long, my point is this: goals are important but just as important is your relationship to them. as such i am doing my best these days to not put them on a pedestal. they are there to give me purpose and direction, not to be a shadow to be lived under. so, as i hurl myself towards this new, very small target, i will keep in mind that qualifying for the trials would be amazing and a dream come true but not any more amazing than the willingness to take the risk to try and all the wonderful things that will come along the way.
goals for the week:
sub 4:40 mile at the track meet on friday.
assisting my efforts on wednesday were: a nice and needed reduction in weekly mileage (back down to the 40's) and the kind cooperation of our infamous local weather system which gifted us a slightly less sweltering eve than the week before.
afterward, this small exercise in goal setting got me thinking about that process in general and how important and integral a role it plays in achieving success in running (and elsewhere). goal setting is tricky business. aim too high and you may find yourself feeling perpetually unsatisfied with your results. aim too low and you may never achieve your potential. as such, i have come to believe, through lots of trial, error, and an occasional stumble across success, that effective goal setting needs a few major components. first is the willingness to take a risk. next is to balance that risk taking with the ability to maintain optimism and derive satisfaction from the effort even when the results don't cooperate with your plans. last, and perhaps most importantly, is the ability to be flexible since, as mr john lennon put it so eloquently, "life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans".
certainly in my life, where running is concerned, i have never been in short supply of tall aspirations. the earliest memory i can conjure from my freshman high school season was watching the varsity boys squad do repeats on the track and thinking to myself "i can beat those guys". little did i know at the time that those guys included a cross-country state runner-up who went on to run 9:09/4:12 in his senior season, a freshman with a mile PR in the 4:30's, and the squad as a whole was coming off a runner-up team effort at the California state meet. those guys were the real deal. but as i watched in awe while that elite flock made my fastest gears look effortless something inside me just saw a mountain to climb. looking back, i believe it was in this moment that my penchant for large goals was born. very little of that moment was conscious and i was still a few seasons away from truly understanding the science of goal setting my high school coach would prescribe and impart on us. but there it was, visceral and honest. and i believe that moment set the tone for my entire running career to this day.
as it turns out goal setting is not always best suited to this highly emotional and mostly illogical process i was giving in to. in many cases that can actually be very counter productive to ones ultimate success, as repeated perceived failures become internalized and a more negative self dialogue can ensue. there is a fine line to be walked between dreaming big and staying realistic. as you can probably deduce, i have leaned heavily towards the former in my career. in many ways that was a major contributor to the greatest successes i've enjoyed in the sport. even as many others looked at my goals and thought they were somewhere between misguided and out of touch with reality. i think the best example of this was the goal setting of my senior year in high school. at the close of my junior year i had run consistently in the top 2 or 3 for my cross country team, and on the track, had whittled my 3200m and 1600m times down to 9:28 and 4:24 respectively. yet somehow from this data set i extrapolated the following goals:
i qualify for nationals in cross-country.
i am state champion in cross-country.
i am state champion in the 3200m.
i break 9:00 in the 3200m.
in the end i accomplished only the first thing on this list but i came very close to the others. the lesson i took away from this season was that lofty goals made me work harder and through hard work i could at least come close to accomplishing most anything i put my mind to. sounds great, right? well, not quite so fast. there is a good deal of truth to that logic but as i turned the page to the collegiate chapter i came to find out that truth isn't absolute.
my first year in the college ranks was a rude awakening. suddenly, instead of competing to win championship races i was struggling to place in the top 100 at mid season invitationals. eventually i adjusted and over the course of 5 years (including a redshirt season) and became fairly competitive again. but the results, as compared with my goals, never quite matched up as well as i had come to expect from my high school experience. there are an infinite number of variables that could have contributed to those results but i think a significant factor was the following cycle: i set goals, i trained hard, i failed to exceed those expectations, i felt like a failure, i set bigger goals, trained harder, and began the cycle anew. eventually i would break my goals from previous seasons but by that time i had already come up with a new set of circumstances to judge myself by.
essentially what i think this all boiled down to was a patience problem. i had high expectations for myself based on my marks going into college. and rather than taking a step back to adjust to the new surroundings and looking for reasons to be excited about my progress, i continued to double down, confounding the problem. in other words, i neglected two thirds of the goal setting process. i was willing to take the risk but failed to maintain optimism/derive satisfaction from the effort because i was not flexible.
anyhow, now that i have made a short story long, my point is this: goals are important but just as important is your relationship to them. as such i am doing my best these days to not put them on a pedestal. they are there to give me purpose and direction, not to be a shadow to be lived under. so, as i hurl myself towards this new, very small target, i will keep in mind that qualifying for the trials would be amazing and a dream come true but not any more amazing than the willingness to take the risk to try and all the wonderful things that will come along the way.
goals for the week:
sub 4:40 mile at the track meet on friday.
Saturday, June 4, 2011
things are heating up
this week cranked up the heat, literally and figuratively. summer weather is officially upon us here in southern louisiana, my weekly mileage has managed to climb over 60 and just for good measure i got to throw in a two mile road race mid week. each of these brought some challenges and in each of those challenges i saw small signs of progress. despite the heat i ran my biggest mileage week in years and still felt great and a 2nd place finish in the two mile didn't hurt either. it has been a long while since i felt this strong. i'm not going to break any records at the moment as my 10:13 is still 16 seconds shy of my first ever two mile in high school and 1:10 away from a PR but hey, progress is progress. and i get another shot at the distance next week to try and bring that down even more. also, to help keep things in this positive perspective, a high school kid came up to me after the race, with eyes wide and a firm but nervous handshake, to congratulate me on my performance and to say that he wished he could run like me someday. i was too stunned to say much of anything at the time. i'm not even sure if i was able to get out a thank you before he vanished into the crowd. but kid, you made my week and i hope you run much better than me one day. in the meantime we both need to find a way to beat this heat.
now, i am no stranger to long, hot summers. where i grew up in southern california we routinely endured months of 100 plus temps that often extended into the 115 range. but this new orleanian version is a different story with a one word title: humidity. the weather report uses a sort of conversion to attempt to translate this story into terms a native to my more arid homeland would understand. but it doesn't take long to realize that these apples are not those manzanas. and running seems to clarify just what is lost in that translation.
for example, this week (on race day no less) the heat index tried to tell me that our 94 degrees with 70% humidity "felt like" 102. maybe this was true for the fist 30 seconds after i walked out the door leaving air conditioned rooms behind. but once that walk quickened to a run it "felt" nothing like back home. the sweat beads were almost instantly apparent and not long after, became drops, which turned into streams, and so on, and so on. i wanted a squeegee.
so yes, it is hot and uncomfortable, so what, right? running is about adversity. figuring out how to do what you haven't done before despite an ever changing set of conditions. weather, injury, illness, work, love, fun...hurdles of every variety daring you to jump. here is the latest hurdle. so then, how do i prepare to best jump this thing?
as my high school coach used to preach: "practice does not make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect". so rather than bullheadedly putting up with this adversity and blindly flinging myself at this hurdle with a stubborn tenacity i decided to add a little research into the formula.
i began with my favorite question: why. why did this heat feel worse. much of the answer was obvious but interesting none the less. the story goes something like this: running produces heat (duh) through muscle contractions. that heat increases core temperature. the increase in core temperature triggers physiologic responses to reduce core temperature to maintain homeostasis (ideally around 98.6 deg F, give or take). two of the major responses include increased sweat and increased blood flow to the skin. so then, how do these things cool us down?
increased sweat
sweat alone does not do the cooling trick. it is actually the evaporation of sweat that causes the major cooling effect.
increased blood flow to the skin
this allows the body to bring that hot internal temp out to the surface. in the same way your morning cup of coffee transfers heat to the mug and gradually loses its scalding properties. this process is called convection.
ok then, we produce heat, we move the heat to the skin, convection carries it away, we sweat, it evaporates, we lose heat. now we add high temperatures and high humidity and it is easy to see why it feels so miserable. if we are trying to lose heat to the surrounding environment through convection and evaporation but the surrounding environment is hotter than our internal environment AND the air is already too saturated with water to allow for much evaporation, we have a cooling problem. we have our why!
now what to do about it. the easy and more obvious things are a good place to start. i run early or late avoiding the hottest part of the day. i stay in the shade when possible and hope for cloud cover. i try to stay away from the pavement as that radiates more heat than say, grass or dirt. i wear as little as possible (short shorts are my friend, shirts are not). a bandana helps quite a bit to keep the sweat out of the eyes and i have taken to twisting the thing up for reduced skin contact and thus reduced heat trapping. hydration before and after is a must, during is even better, though presents some challenges. i feel this is most needed and most difficult to accomplish on the long days. last sunday, heeding the advice of my very wise and seasoned marathon runner girlfriend, i brought along my debit card. about 60 minutes in my training partner and i found our way to a grocery store, downed a 32oz sports drink and kept the vegetable refrigerator company for a few minutes. while this was a small slice of heaven at the time, it is a bit disruptive to the run and fails to prepare us for the type of hydration situation we will encounter on marathon race day. a better system is in the works.
notable marks of the week:
62 miles in the last 7 days.
10:13 two mile road race. two mile PR is 9:04. hopefully i can improve upon that time this week.
goal for the week:
sub 10 two mile
latest workout:
now, i am no stranger to long, hot summers. where i grew up in southern california we routinely endured months of 100 plus temps that often extended into the 115 range. but this new orleanian version is a different story with a one word title: humidity. the weather report uses a sort of conversion to attempt to translate this story into terms a native to my more arid homeland would understand. but it doesn't take long to realize that these apples are not those manzanas. and running seems to clarify just what is lost in that translation.
for example, this week (on race day no less) the heat index tried to tell me that our 94 degrees with 70% humidity "felt like" 102. maybe this was true for the fist 30 seconds after i walked out the door leaving air conditioned rooms behind. but once that walk quickened to a run it "felt" nothing like back home. the sweat beads were almost instantly apparent and not long after, became drops, which turned into streams, and so on, and so on. i wanted a squeegee.
so yes, it is hot and uncomfortable, so what, right? running is about adversity. figuring out how to do what you haven't done before despite an ever changing set of conditions. weather, injury, illness, work, love, fun...hurdles of every variety daring you to jump. here is the latest hurdle. so then, how do i prepare to best jump this thing?
as my high school coach used to preach: "practice does not make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect". so rather than bullheadedly putting up with this adversity and blindly flinging myself at this hurdle with a stubborn tenacity i decided to add a little research into the formula.
i began with my favorite question: why. why did this heat feel worse. much of the answer was obvious but interesting none the less. the story goes something like this: running produces heat (duh) through muscle contractions. that heat increases core temperature. the increase in core temperature triggers physiologic responses to reduce core temperature to maintain homeostasis (ideally around 98.6 deg F, give or take). two of the major responses include increased sweat and increased blood flow to the skin. so then, how do these things cool us down?
increased sweat
sweat alone does not do the cooling trick. it is actually the evaporation of sweat that causes the major cooling effect.
increased blood flow to the skin
this allows the body to bring that hot internal temp out to the surface. in the same way your morning cup of coffee transfers heat to the mug and gradually loses its scalding properties. this process is called convection.
ok then, we produce heat, we move the heat to the skin, convection carries it away, we sweat, it evaporates, we lose heat. now we add high temperatures and high humidity and it is easy to see why it feels so miserable. if we are trying to lose heat to the surrounding environment through convection and evaporation but the surrounding environment is hotter than our internal environment AND the air is already too saturated with water to allow for much evaporation, we have a cooling problem. we have our why!
now what to do about it. the easy and more obvious things are a good place to start. i run early or late avoiding the hottest part of the day. i stay in the shade when possible and hope for cloud cover. i try to stay away from the pavement as that radiates more heat than say, grass or dirt. i wear as little as possible (short shorts are my friend, shirts are not). a bandana helps quite a bit to keep the sweat out of the eyes and i have taken to twisting the thing up for reduced skin contact and thus reduced heat trapping. hydration before and after is a must, during is even better, though presents some challenges. i feel this is most needed and most difficult to accomplish on the long days. last sunday, heeding the advice of my very wise and seasoned marathon runner girlfriend, i brought along my debit card. about 60 minutes in my training partner and i found our way to a grocery store, downed a 32oz sports drink and kept the vegetable refrigerator company for a few minutes. while this was a small slice of heaven at the time, it is a bit disruptive to the run and fails to prepare us for the type of hydration situation we will encounter on marathon race day. a better system is in the works.
notable marks of the week:
62 miles in the last 7 days.
10:13 two mile road race. two mile PR is 9:04. hopefully i can improve upon that time this week.
goal for the week:
sub 10 two mile
latest workout:
Sunday, May 29, 2011
inertia
a few months ago i finally restarted running down a path i had always dreamed i'd explore again one day. it has been a solid decade since my last attempt, which ended in injury and the bitter disappointment that comes as a package deal. but all these years later i have somehow found my way back to the trail head. and as i am now a few months in i feel i can safely say that i believe i have found the inertia needed to make this a real effort.
the journey in this somewhat extended metaphor is the road to the Olympic Trials Marathon. perhaps needless to say, this will be no small task. i am many years removed from the fastest of my running days. i can barely run for one mile what i used to average in a 10k. i have recently moved to a place with no hills and an unforgiving hot and humid climate for a large portion of the year. maybe i am delusional or perhaps just foolish but if i remember correctly those were some of the qualities brought me the most success in my early days. after all, how logical is running to nowhere and back or in endless circles or pushing yourself into levels of pain many would rush to their local ER for? yes, we runners are a special breed but to paraphrase the late great coaching legend Bill Bowerman, "running, one might say, is basically an absurd pastime upon which to be exhausting ourselves. but if you can find meaning in the kind of running it takes to (be successful), chances are you will be able to find meaning in another absurd past-time: Life."
so here i am, excited, hopeful, foolhardy, and trying again to beat the clock. my hopes in detailing this adventure are that my setbacks and successes will be a learning experience for you. that i will have an invaluable journal of this crazy process. that i may share some of the many things i have learned over the years about this sport i love and that you may share some of your experience in return. that i may shed some light on the immense challenges that many post collegians in this country face in moving to the next level of competition. and maybe that it will be a bit interesting in the process. it's going to take a lot hard work, support, stupidity, and some good luck. so...wish me luck?
notable marks of the week:
4:44 mile on the track last week. my mile PR is 4:11. i have some work to do.
if you would like to peek into my daily workout regimen you can find my Garmin running log here:
http://connect.garmin.com/explore#owner=wbernaldo&sortField=relevance¤tPage=1
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