H1413

Sorry for the absence once again. Just a quick note before I head off to sleep though. Tomorrow (Sunday, April 27) is the Oklahoma City Half-Marathon my sister and I are running in. It will be my first race of any kind since Jr. High. My wife will also be taking part in the 5k (untimed event). You may track my sister and I by logging onto www.okcmarathon.com , then clicking on the "participant tracking" then "half-marathon participant tracking." Once there you can enter my bib number H1413 for me, or H4951 to check on my sister. More blog to come tomorrow or Monday. For now I need to get some sleep because I will be getting up in 6 hours to head to the corral.

Embassy Eleven

Excuses, excuses! Sorry for the delay in posting this weekend. Yesterday was my wife’s drinking birthday and the first night of Passover. Passover services went much later than we expected and I was quite exhausted by the time we got home. After all, an 11 mile run can tire you out pretty well. That’s right; I said an 11 mile run. I was originally slated for 2 miles on Friday and 9 on Saturday, however, thanks to having to wait on the cable guy all day on Friday I never made it out for my 2 mile run. Wanting to get the miles in I just added them onto my Saturday run. Heck, it was only 1 mile longer than my longest run to date.

Now, one benefit to being home waiting on the cable guy Friday was that I was home when the UPS guy showed up and delivered my brand new Fuel Belt. Earlier in the week I had ordered the Terminator 6-bottle Fuel Belt for me to use on those longer runs. One challenge I had found out when doing my 10 mile runs was that my water bottle just did not have enough capacity to get me any longer. Therefore, I opted for the Fuel Belt, providing me with a few more ounces of liquid capacity. In addition, it also provides me with a little pouch to put my ID, cash, key, Gu Gel packs, and for those photographic runs I can even add in my compact camera (it will be handy passing through Disney’s Hollywood Studios towards the end of the Goofy Challenge).

It is time now to talk of the run. Despite my desire to wake early and get the run in before the heat I still managed to sleep in. By the time I had awoken the outside temperature had already reached 72 degrees. I ate my Power Bar, got dressed, slathered on the sunscreen, filled the Fuel Belt and laced up my Brooks. When I was finally ready to get out the door the temperature had risen another degree to 73. GARMIN took hardly any time to locate satellites this time. I was quite shocked. Could it have been the addition of the Fuel Belt? Just kidding. Locked in, I set out for 11 miles. At first I did not have a real plan of how I was going to break down the day’s run, but within a minute or two I devised a plan. I decided to try and work some speed into the beginning of my run rather than take the usual full 1-2 miles of warm up walking. This would work twofold. One, it would put some speed into my entire workout, but two, it would also help to reduce the time I would be spending in the higher temperatures. Knowing I would need to slow it down as the temperature went up I figured it would be better to more miles behind me before it got too hot. When you see my splits you will be able to see the results. Speaking of the splits, here they are:

Mile 1: 13:42
Mile 2: 13:54
Mile 3: 13:32
Mile 4: 12:26
Mile 5: 13:21
Mile 6: 13:16
Mile 7: 13:00
Mile 8: 13:25
Mile 9: 13:10
Mile 10: 14:16
Mile 11: 14:36

Accumulative Time: 2:28:43
Overall Average Pace: 13:31 / mile

As you can see, I did well until the last two miles. Today’s running route was along the Target Ten, only I went an additional half mile beyond it to where they are building the new Embassy Suites hotel here in Norman. Therefore, the name for this run is now the Embassy Eleven. When I reached the halfway point at the Embassy Suites the temperature had climbed up to 78 and I had consumed half the Gatorade in my Fuel Belt. Knowing it was approaching 80 I did not want to push it if my body was telling me not to. That is why in the last 2 miles the times were longer. Besides, the final mile I also intentionally planned to walk as a cool down. Also, I had a personal goal to want to try and get the first 9 miles in within 2 hours. Once I had achieved that the slow down began. By the time I finished my run the temperature had topped out at 84.

Wouldn’t you know it, the hottest run day this week there would be NO wind. After all the wind I had endured earlier in the week, nothing on this run but an occasional gentle breeze. Oh well! What’s one to do but drink more liquid? Speaking of drinking liquid, may I say how nice it was to not carry a water bottle in hand while running? It was quite enjoyable to be free of it. Here’s another question, kind of rhetorical, but also looking for insight. Why is it that I tend to find myself pushing harder and faster on the warmer days when I should be taking it easier and slower?

Non-running observations while out running yesterday. With the warmer weather it seemed as if everyone was outside. The parks were full of families picnicking, the skate park was packed full of kids on boards and blades, numerous runners and bikers were out along the route, and I even saw a gentleman and his dog out flying a kite. The funny thing about the kite flyer was he was using a fishing pole to reel in the kite.

I am sure to have forgotten something I wanted to add, however, it is time for me to pack up and head to the airport. I am off to Boston for the Patriot’s Day Red Sox game and cheer on the back-of-the-pack runners as they pass through Kenmore Square heading towards that ultimate goal of the finish line in the Boston Marathon.

Noble 8

Aah, another great day of running in the wind of Oklahoma. Just south of Norman, along OK-77, is a little town called Noble. Today's run took me out my front door onto OK-77 and southward to Noble, four miles away, where I then turned around and returned home. This is what I will for now on refer to as the Noble 8. Today's run was a simple out and back straight shot with some hills during the middle miles. Yes, we do have some hills here in Oklahoma! It's not ALL flat.

The temperature for today's outing started at 68 and rose to 73 by the end. The wind at the beginning was a 26 mph wind out of the South, straight into my face for the first four miles. And once again, wouldn't you figure, I turn around to head home and the wind is reduced to a gentle breeze, if existent at all.

My run actually started out as a fast walk heading into the wind. For much of the first 2 to 3 miles I was feeling the fatigue in my shins, a result from pushing myself hard in yesterday's 5k loop. However, somewhere in the latter stages of the third mile I started to feel loosened up and ready to go. After having reached the halfway point and making my way back, after mile 5 I decided to work in some speed work. Sure, it would have been nice to have the wind help push me home, but as I said, it pretty much died off when I turned around. Anyway, starting at the beginning of mile 6 I set out to run for 6 utility poles and then do a 3 pole recovery walk. I went on to do this for a total of 5 times. Feeling good about that I then upped the ante and ran for 8 utility poles and walked for 4. I did the 8/4 utility pole cycle 3 times. This put me at about 7.5 miles. As I was starting up a fourth cycle I decided to just go ahead and run the rest of the way to complete the 8 miles. At the conclusion of the 8 miles I still had another .17 miles to get back home so I used that to do a slower cool down walk. Here are the mileage splits for today's Noble 8:

Mile 1: 14:47
Mile 2: 14:42
Mile 3: 14:29
Mile 4: 14:08
Mile 5: 14:02
Mile 6: 11:34
Mile 7: 11:50
Mile 8: 11:27
Mile .17: 2:25 (14:45 pace)

The final three miles are the three fastest miles I have run to date. Almost all of my actual running during these three miles was at a sub 11:00 pace. During the final .5 mile run I had about a tenth of a mile stretch where I sustained a pace sub 10:00. I was excited to see myself achieve these paces and not feel exhausted and totally spent at the conclusion of my 8 miles.

I have two more runs this week, a short 2 miler and then a 9 miler on Saturday that I will be contributing my miles to the family multi-state fitness group. Will check in again this weekend.

Windy Running

Sorry for the brief absence. I was a little busy trying to get everything together for my taxes. Now that the bulk of that stress is behind me I can take the time to tell you about my newest stress--running in wind. Living in Oklahoma it is no surprise that it is windy here. Heck, for someone who chases tornadoes, a.k.a. wind, I know well enough it is windy here. However, this is the first windy season I have been running in it. My last three runs here in Oklahoma have been in a sustained wind of 20 mph or more with gusts continually at 30 mph or higher. Two silver linings in the wind are that it helps to keep me cool and when running into it it helps build upon my speed in the long term.

My last two runs I have headed out solo. On Sunday I put in 10 miles, running along the route I have dubbed the Target Ten. It is a five mile route from my house to Target and then a return trip along the same route. The wind was at my face coming out of the North for the first five miles. Wouldn't you know it that when it was time to turn around the 20 mph wind died off and was almost non-existant. So much for having it help push me home. I set out at the beginning in my usual walking to warm-up. About 1.5 miles in I decided to kick it up and begin the running. After I quarter mile of battling the wind I decided I would walk the rest of the day. I figured I had 10 miles to cover and with having covered 10 miles in the previous two days following a week of sickness there was no need to over exert myself. The end result of my run was 10 miles in a time of 2:20:52. My mileage splits for the Target Ten on Sunday were:

Mile 1: 15:06
Mile 2: 14:07
Mile 3: 14:23
Mile 4: 13:59
Mile 5: 13:51
Mile 6: 13:50
Mile 7: 13:49
Mile 8: 13:35
Mile 9: 13:49
Mile 10: 14:17

Looking at these numbers makes me feel great. They were done at a fast walk and the first five were into the wind. Mile 10 was slower because I was aiming for a cooldown.

Today I set out for another 3 miles, again training in the 20 mph wind. Only this time I did not have to contend with the wind in my face for much longer than a half mile as my route took me along what I call the Home 5k Loop, even though it is slightly more than a 5k coming in at 3.3 miles. I did not really have a plan for today's run at the start. However, after the first tenth of a mile I decided to do something I have not done in the past. That was to run at the start. With a tenth of a mile walked behind me I went on to run and complete the first mile. I then took a two minute walk to start the second mile before I returned to running to complete the second mile. Once again I took a two minute walk to start the third mile before I ran the remainder of my 5k (3.1 miles). Once I clocked my fastest 5k time at 38:22 I proceeded to do a cooldown walk for the final .23 miles home. Overall I covered 3.33 miles in 41:30. Both times here were my fastest to date. My mileage splits for the 5k loop today were:

Mile 1: 12:21
Mile 2: 12:37
Mile 3: 12:20
Mile .33: 4:11 (12:44 pace)

One interesting note towards the end of the run is I found a comfortable groove and my pace was quickening. It is not uncommon for me to be faster towards the end as my muscles have stretched out and all, but for the final quarter mile of the running 5k I had a consistent pace below 12:00 with about half of it below 11:00. Two additional factors beside having been stretched out and warmed up to aide in the faster pacing are the wind was at my back and perhaps subconciously I knew I was nearing the end, therefore willing to draw more upon the tank.

With my first race in less than two weeks I only have a few more runs on tap. Wednesday I will be putting in 8 miles, Friday a short 2 miles, Saturday I hit it for 9 more. Next week I have a 2 and a 5 miler with the week concluding on April 27 with 13.1 miles at the Oklahoma City Memorial Half-Marathon. Stay tuned for more.

Slow, Windy Fat-Burn

With a 7 mile run yesterday and a 10 miler set for tomorrow I could have taken today off to give my body some recovery. However, I did not want to let my family down on what is now becoming our weekly multi-state fitness outing. My wife and I set out at 11am and logged ourselves 3.4 miles each in 55:00. The overall pace for the walk was 16:05. This definitely was one of my slower outings in some time, but that is okay because it is what I intended on at the start. With the longer runs on each side of today I wanted something slower and lower impact on my body. The slower pace I figured would be better suited on burning the harder to burn belly fat.

One real big challenge today was the wind. The winds were blowing at a 20-30 mph clip, gusting to 40.

As of this writing, my family's multi-state fitness has had 12 participants in 6 states accumulating more than 28.5 miles in just over 6 hours. I am sure there are a few more that have yet to report in. In all, more than 20 family members have banded together to be a part of our weekly multi-state fitness outing. It is great to have this family support.

Food Poisoning....Bad For Running!!!

After a great run last Saturday, contributing my 8 miles to the family multi-state relay, I decided on pizza for dinner. That proved to be the worst decision I made in my entire time in Tampa while at the Women's Final Four. Sunday morning I woke up around 5am with diarrhea and was unable to keep food in my stomach, losing my dinner out the other end as well. To attempt keeping this clean and not disgusting, I spent the entire day on Sunday this way. I was unable to keep anything in my body. I could not even sip and keep down water--it was bad. Monday morning, needing to get some nutrition, I consumed a Gu Gel pack (Just Plain) and chased it with some water. Afterward I was finally able to attempt resumption of consumption and was able to keep it down. That was at least a good step in the right direction on the road to recovery. My food intake was not great, but it was something. To wrap this up, it was Wednesday evening when I was finally back on track eating somewhat normal and it was Thursday before the diarrhea ceased. Now, you ask why you had to read through all that. The reasoning was that thanks to me getting a case of food poisoning I did not do any running for FIVE days. Unable to provide my body with any necessary nutrition I did not have the energy to sustain any kind of fitness. I was really frustrated with this because I wanted to run again in Tampa. I thoroughly enjoyed the run along the bay. It was very disappointing that I could not do so.

Upon my return home from Tampa I weighed myself. I looked at the scale and was half surprised to see it read 234. Now, I have not seen 234 with me standing on the scale since November 2002. The reason I was only half surprised at this weigh-in is because not having eaten much of anything in three days my body had turned to the stored fat to get me through when I could not eat. This weigh-in meant that I had lost 7 pounds in the 9 days I was on the road traveling. I figured that I would regain some of that weight as soon as I began eating normal again. Here I am two days later and this morning I weighed in at 235 lbs. I am happy with that and that is what I am calling my current weight.

Having food poisoning that prevents me from meeting my running objectives for the week by keeping me off the road for five consecutive days really stinks to say the least. With a full day of eating normal yesterday I finally had the energy to get out there and run today. Reworking my run plan for the week I managed to get in 7.3 miles today in a time of 1:37:09. Here are my splits:

Mile 1: 14:37
Mile 2: 12:18
Mile 3: 14:31
Mile 4: 12:32
Mile 5: 12:37
Mile 6: 13:28
Mile 7: 12:39
Mile .3: 4:23 (14:43 pace)

My overall pace for the 7.3 miles was a 13:18. The breakdown here is I walked Mile 1 for warm up. Aside for having to stop for traffic lights and crosswalks I ran the whole Mile 2--that might be why it is my fastest mile to date. Mile 3 I returned to walking. Starting at Mile 4 I ran until I was at about Mile 5.75 when I returned to walking. Wanting to finish strong I went ahead and ran the majority of Mile 7. It is great for me to see these times at what they are, consistency and improvements. For much of my training I was focused more on getting my endurance up for the distances to be covered, not speed. Therefore I was primarily walking, albeit at a fast rate. Now I am trying to transition into actual running and seeing how long I may maintain the steady speed over distance. Ultimately, this will increase the weight loss, thus allowing me to go faster, which in turn allows for more weight loss and then I cycle through it all over again.

With 7.3 miles in the can today, I plan to contribute another 3.3 miles tomorrow during my family's multi-state fitness day and then another 10 miles on Sunday. Last week the family multi-state fitness relay incorporated 15 members totalling more than 46 miles. We now have accumulated more than 20 family members into the mix. Whether we are walking or running, skating (ice hockey) or swimming (water polo), or whatever tickles our fancy, we are all getting out on Saturday to do something that will help get us and keep us fit. The family outpouring for this now weekly event has been tremendous.

Sunday will mark 2 weeks to my first race, The Oklahoma City Memorial Half Marathon. I am getting excited to finally have a race under my belt, and furthermore, an official time.

The Joys Of Running

Today was a day filled with joy throughout. My day began waking up at 5am. While taking time to eat a Power Bar I laced up my BROOKS running shoes and then headed for the elevator. With GARMIN, Gu gel and some Gu 2 Go in the water bottle I set out for an 8 mile run. The concierge at my hotel recommended crossing over the Hillsborough River to get to Bayshore Drive and run along the 4.5 mile sidewalk along the bay waters. At 5:30 am I was on my guard heading out because it was still dark. Once on Bayshore I became a little more relaxed, as the safety appeared a bit more evident. On one side of me I had water gently sloshing up along the sea wall. On the other side I had four lanes of nearly empty roadway with an occasional passing car. Separating me and the roadway was a 20-30 foot grassy section with a few interspersed palm trees blowing in the breeze. Along the way I passed numerous stretching and exercise stations, in addition to waste bins (which made it easy to throw away empty Gu gel packs), and best of all, water drinking fountains. This was a definite runners spot. By 6am I had begun to see other runners. By 7am there were numerous runners. Unlike my run in Austin there were no dogs this morning.

The entire run along Bayshore was lit with street lamps spaced about every 50 yards. I mention this because after my first two miles I decided to get in some interval work during my run. I started out with running two light posts, then walking for two. I repeated this four times and then stepped it up to three run and one walk, again repeating four times. After that cycle I remained in a walk mode for a bit while I consumed a gel pack. Shortly afterward, I went to a run four light posts and walk four. I did this until I reached my four mile halfway point. Upon turning around I wanted to push a little harder and went to a run six light posts with a three light post recovery. I did this for nearly three miles.

One of the greatest surprises I have received while out on a run came when I turned around at the halfway point of the day’s run and began my second four miles back to the hotel. When I turned around, still in the dark but with a slight glimmer of daylight beginning to crack the horizon, was the beautiful nightlight skyline of Tampa, Florida. Seeing it just overpowered me. I was blown away with the sight. I guess because inside I was thinking "Wow! I ran that far? " Knowing I was staying in Downtown Tampa, the center of the skyline I was gazing upon, it just amazed me I had gone out so far.. It just sort of put the distance traveled into a different frame of light. What made this sight even better was that I got to look at it for the next four miles as the sun began to come to life on the horizon.

With a great feeling of energy at the conclusion of my run I made my way back to my room to clean up and head off to work. I can tell you today’s run was by far the sweatiest I have ever done. I do not think there was an ounce of dry clothing on my body, including my Fenway running hat. Something I may take as a lesson is to have a visor as opposed to a cap when on my warmer weather runs. I found myself to be a lot warmer wearing the hat, where a visor would allow more heat to escape the head while running. Now I just need to find me an appropriate visor to my liking. After the shower, I did a quick download of GARMIN to the computer. Here are my mileage splits today:

Mile Time
------ ------
1 16:11
2 14:57
3 13:26
4 13:19
5 12:52
6 12:31
7 12:35
8 12:40

In addition to analyzing my split times, I got a better sense of the elevation graph today. Normally when home in Oklahoma I run at an altitude between 1100 and 1200 feet above sea level. Today I ran between 5 and 40 feet. It also made me realize that next weekend will be a bit tougher as I will be running in the mile-high air of Denver, Colorado.

Done with the initial analyzing, I packed up the computer and walked close to another ¾ miles to work at the St. Pete Times Forum, host location of the Women’s Final Four. This is where the day really became joyful. A quick back story first. Last weekend three of my sisters, in three different states, set out on a run together at the same time. It was to be a family support fun run. Knowing someone else in your family was out there running with you, but not with you, was to give you the extra boost to keep you moving along. Upon their completion of their runs they found out another sister and I had completed our runs within an hour of theirs as well. It all sounded pretty cool and we decided to do it again this week. Now, back to today. Four of the five from last week committed to today’s run. In addition, we recruited a few more family members (cousins, parents, siblings and spouses). We started the day with what we thought would be seven runners. With us in different time zones and different work and immediate family time requirements we were not all able to run at the same time. Therefore, we decided to email and text one another when we set out for our runs. My cousin in Oregon I am sure to say was happy to receive my text at 230am his time when I set out on my run. Throughout the morning hours while at work I was logged into my email, reading everyone’s mention of heading out to run. As people began to conclude their runs they emailed or texted their mileage total, some included their time. With each report that came in I would calculate the time and distance and send out an email update. I half jokingly asked if we would be able to complete a marathon today with the seven of us running. The day moved along, the updates kept going out, and to my surprise, more and more reports kept coming in. One even got on the treadmill for a couple of miles in guilt for not taking part. By the day’s end we had had 15 family members take part in our relay fun run. Not only did we make the marathon, we surpassed the Disney’s Goofy Race and Half Challenge distance of 39.3 with an accrual of 46.18 miles in an estimated 11 hours of run/walk time. In all we had participants in seven states: Florida (1), Louisiana (2), Kansas (1), Maine (3), Massachusetts (5), Oregon (2) and Texas (1). It was so heart-warming to see the family support grow throughout the day as more and more people took part. The end result of it all was a successful one because we got people up and moving. There was no shame in the distances traveled or the time it took to cover it. Everyone was very supportive. I am hoping next week we may reprise the family run again and maybe shoot for the 50 miler, or better yet, the double marathon (52.4).

With all the joy in the day, I almost forgot the little bit of frustration with GARMIN. I am really getting tired of it taking so long to locate satellites. When I am ready to go for my runs I am far too often finding myself having to wait anywhere from two to five minutes for GARMIN to lock in. It gets aggravating when I am ready to go. Also, I once again point out that GARMIN does not function well in the city – at least around tall building as they warn (this is true for my auto GARMIN as well). Once I did finally lock in the satellites and set out on my run it would tell me to speed up or slow down. It would tell me I traveled five feet, then nothing, then ten feet, then nothing. This morning it was really acting stupid until I got out away from the buildings. I am finding that not only does it have difficulty finding the satellites, but the tall buildings bounce the signals around, ultimately confusing the machine, therefore frustrating me. Okay, rant over.

Thank you for taking the time to read. See you again soon on the runners’ blog.