Summer Reading

I can remember when I was kid (probably age 10-14 or so) the public library sponsoring a summer reading program.  You know what I'm talking about - you would keep track of the books you read over the summer and not that it was a competition, but you'd see who would read the most during your summer vacation.

Yes, first and foremost I must admit that I was one of those kids who actively read during summer vacation.

Well, I'm doing it on my own this summer.  I'm going to keep track of all the books I read (or re-read) this summer and keep a running total here on my blog.

So far this summer I've read (and this is really just the month of May):

Once A Runner - John L. Parker

The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner's Semester at America's Holiest University - Kevin Roose

Marathon Woman:  Running the Race to Revolutionize Women's Sports - Kathrine Switzer

Personal Record:  A Love Affair with Running - Rachel Toor

Okay, yeah there's a theme there, but that's four and counting.

Three more are in the queue, but I'm trying to save one of those for the trip out west.  Not sure if it will happen.

And I'd love to see what, and how much, those 2-3 people who check in here are reading.

Finished Product

Here it is...finished. Finally.


A close-up that hopefully shows off the fine details he added on the face/hands at the end.


Hopefully the scale of her comes through in this photo. The most frequent comment I've gotten from people who have only seen pictures is that the scale is hard to pick up on in photos.

Milestones

I ran 4 miles on Saturday with Tonya.  Felt great.  My hip is about 90% now, so all the pain of ART was worth it.

Those 4 miles were pretty important though for another reason.

I started taking running seriously in the summer of 2004, July to be exact, after I ran the Butte To Butte 10k in Eugene.  I also started logging miles run then and just under 4 years later I hit 4000 miles on Saturday.  I'm still way behind my mileage goal for this year, but that's what injury and setback after setback will do to you.

Then I ran 6 miles yesterday.  First time I've run back-to-back days in since March.  So that's milestone #2.  Just hoping the string continues today when I head out in a few minutes.

Uh, I May Have a Problem

I've been told I'm not allowed to criticize/poke fun at/mention T ever having a lot shoes anymore.

Why?  Because of this photo...

These are my current running shoes.

From the left I have:

Nike Air Pegasus 25 - 447 miles (purchased July 2008)

Nike LunarTrainer - 374 miles (purchased July 2008)

Nike LunarTrainer - 106 miles (purchased Feb 2009)

Nike Air Pegasus 25 - 5 miles (purchased April 2009)

Not pictured are all of the dead running shoes that in the garage for cutting the grass, etc.

Like I said, I may have a problem.

Two Months

Two months.

61 days.

Just a blink of an eye until we get the chance to feel at home.

Miracles of Medicine?

I had a grueling ART session on my right hip yesterday...it's a really good thing that treatment technique works because good lord it hurts.  The hip does feel better - not a 100% yet but definitely improved.

However, I think I finally figured out what the underlying cause of my hip problem is last night.  My right foot.  I think I've mentioned it before on here but it's been bothering me pretty consistently since about February.  I talked to my live-in-health-care-provider last night and she and I agreed that my cuboid might be displaced.  So she mobilized it.  I think it was the second attempt that I felt a nice little "click-pop" as it went back to where it was supposed to be.  Since then, no pain/discomfort/locking feeling/anything in my foot.

4.17 miles this morning in 44:08 (10:36 avg/mile, 148 avg HR, 163 peak HR).  I ran the flat as a pancake 4 mile route.  Again I plan on using this week to just see where I'm at fitness wise, but today's run was really enjoyable.  No discomfort/pain in my foot and significantly less in my hip.

Is that the on-ramp for the road to recovery I see ahead?

Benchmark

4.15 miles today on the normal hilly route, 43:50, 156 avg HR, 174 peak HR, 10:34 pace.  I used today as a baseline run - no pushing the pace at all, just running easy - so that I can use the data as a way to gauge my progress over the next few weeks.  I also used today's run as a chance to get elevation data on said hills so I can choose the appropriate one for the hill sprints that I'll be incorporating this next training cycle (thanks to the Hudson book).

Then I came home and finished the workout with about 15 minutes of core/general strength and some stretching.  Oh, and I did a nice 10 minute warm-up before I headed out for my run.  Same stuff I've got some of my injured-nicked-athletes doing.

Now I'm off to work the last baseball game of the year.

ctl-alt-del...Vulcan Death Grip...Reboot

Today was a fresh start.  I ran 4 wonderful miles with T this morning.  Okay, wonderful psychologically, the hip was a bit achy, but I'm working on that, more later, but the weather was perfect, I was running with my favorite person in the world and we were out in the world before the world really started it's day.

No more worrying about the last race or how far I'm behind my mileage goal for the year (okay I'm still thinking about that a little) I'm looking forward.  I've plotted out a running/race schedule for the summer/fall and I'm addressing some supplemental things like core, general strength, flexibility as I get everything healthy and ready to go to start that training plan.

So, I'm hoping to be posting a bit more regularly on here just how my runs/workouts pan out.

Today's stats:  4.14 miles in 46:55 (11:21 avg pace).

Better Late Than Never

Glass City Marathon...the marathon that wasn't.

Short Version - DNF.  Did.  Not.  Finish.

Longer Version:

In October I made a commitment to this marathon because a friend was planning on running her second marathon.  Just happens that she lives 3 blocks from mile 21-ish of the course for the Glass City Marathon.  It would be perfect for her (she has some real life things to deal with that complicates undertaking such an endeavor) and since she's someone I like running with I told her that I'd run with her - she could pick the distance, half or full.

T and I spent the weekend with her, the rest of her family, and a host of friends.  Best pre-race dinner I've ever had (thanks again Kath and Brian!!!!) at her house the night before.  It was nice not to have to rush and get ready to only stand around for 45-60 minutes at the start line.

T, and another friend were running the half so they were dropped off at the start of that race (at the 13.1 point of the full course) and Kath and I made our way downtown, parked and started towards the start line...okay, so we were running a few minutes late but still I wasn't expecting what happened next.

We arrived at the hotel (the starting line was directly outside of it) to meet some friends...went up to their room and she wasn't there...went back to the front desk and retrieved the key she left.  Dropped off some stuff for after the race, used the bathroom one last time.  Arrived in the lobby, hooked back up with Kath, dropped the key off at the front desk and headed out to the start.  Neglected to notice that the door I tried to exit through wasn't a door, but a window.  Loud thump as the window stopped my progress.  I saw some heads turn, and heard some laughs, but hell I deserved it.

Made it outside only to discover that we missed the start.  Head to what we thought was the start only to find out it was behind us.  Turned around and headed to the start.  By the time we "started" the race we were 9 minutes behind everyone.

Hit the starting line on the street, started my garmin and we were on our way.  Only we had to make it through the people that were running the 5k.  Up on the sidewalk, past the motorcycle escort and continued on our way.  We got some interesting looks from the police holding traffic back, yeah we knew we were behind everyone.  About 5-6 minutes later all the 5k people started passing us.  Finally made it to the point were we turned and left the 5k folks behind.  We think the police (or someone) radioed ahead to let the people know there were two more marathoners coming because as soon as we got to the high level bridge in town and turned on it, the sag wagon fell in behind us and they opened the bridge to traffic.  Great photo of this below.

It was on the bridge that we finally saw some other marathoners.  Made it over the bridge and as we turned onto the road by the Maumee River it felt like someone turned the fan blowing hot air on in our faces.  Did I mention that the time of day was 8:45 a.m. and the temp was 80F?  Yeah.  Fun.

Passed our first runner around mile 7 (he was running the relay) and we were finally able to ditch the sag wagon.  It was about this point that I started to think "I'm not having a lot of fun right now" and started to slow down.  Kath moved ahead of me sometime around mile 9 but I managed to catch up with her at the 2nd relay zone - she was talking to a couple friends of ours - and we set off again.

Did I mention it was really hot?  I had some stomach issues between mile 10-12, nothing too serious but I felt like I was gonna throw up (which has never happened on run/race).  We stopped right around mile 12 because Kath's sister was waiting for us with some water and food for Kath.  I think it was at this point that we both started thinking "today ain't our day".  I noticed Kath seemed a bit "off" but didn't say anything.  Hell I probably seemed "off" too.  Had my second bout of I'm-gonna-throw-up right after stopping.  But we kept going.

Hit a water stop right before the halfway point and I knew things weren't good when Kath went to thank the young man for the water and some gibberishy words came out.  We both sort of looked at each other and knew the day was done.  So we stepped off the course and walked about 1.5 miles up on the course where her husband was waiting for us and went home.

And I don't regret it at all.

Now, keep in mind what my profession is (for those of you who know):  I'm convinced had we kept going there was a trip to the med tent and possibly the hospital for one or both of us.

We did the smart thing.  Thing is, a friend of ours was also running the full.  She stepped off the course at mile 15.5 for the same reasons.

So that's how it became the marathon that wasn't.

On the bright side of things:  T ran a 2:25:something HM, which was only about 1-2 minutes off her PR.  On a really hot, shitty day she ran well, and I'm proud of her.