Wrapping up 2007

The year is coming to end, as all good things do. My training was good this year, but not great. I definitely broke through to another level after last winter's high mileage experiment, and something changed with that training that I don't think I've lost, despite the setbacks I went through over the summer, and the life change this fall that hampered training, but could in no way be called a "setback."

My son was born, and life is quite different as a result. The ups and downs of being a parent are exhilarating. When things are good like in the picture from my last post, life is awesome...when he was sick soon after he was born, I don't remember ever being so down. Intense stuff, this life.

My 8k in the spring was a full 1:42 faster than the same race in 2006. I set a ~20s PR in the 5k on a very windy day on a track, on a training run, running solo with my wife timing me.

By Dec 31st, I will have logged a little more than 2200 miles. Almost 500 less than last year, but not terrible given the circumstances of this year. I'll probably put together a "data" post after the new year, so I'll refrain from giving more stats at the moment.

Today's run was pretty darn good. I ran on the asphalt for a change, on the lakefront. Pretty soon I found myself hitting 6:30's, and I stuck with it.

Run:
13.1 with 10 miles in 1:05:20 (6:32 pace)
lakefront (asphalt) 23 deg windy from west
total time 1:27:30
I kept to a 3-3 breathing pattern, resorting to 3-2 from time to time in the last couple miles (where I was running more like 6:15's). I'll note that in fall 2004, I raced 10 miles in 1:05:11, and that was a decent race for me at the time. Neato.

Since Christmas:
12/26 10.4 on grass aerobic
12/27 8.4 on grass aerobic
12/28 10.2 on grass slow recovery

Merry Happy Day

My son's first Christmas was today. Loads of fun. He made it through about 3 presents before he got fussy, so he's napping now with the wife after we had champagne mimosas while opening gifts. Maybe he'll get to the rest of them this afternoon.

Hope everyone's having a good day. I made it out for an early am run on the grass along the lakefront.

Run:
28deg 15mph wind sunny lakefront path
8.4 miles 59:30 (7:05)

2 Week Streak

I was recently reading about streak running. No, not this kind...more like this kind. Mark Covert is the current leader, having run every day since July 23rd, 1968. That man has been running every day since almost 11 years before the beginning of my existence. This ESPN article is mainly about a guy named Kraft, but it also mentions Covert in a paragraph. Not only has he been running every day for more than 14,000 days, he's also been averaging 9.7 miles a day while he's at it. Unbelievable. He also finished 7th behind Frank Shorter in the 1972 Olympic Trials Marathon...a rather special year.

I'm not worthy. I've been running every day since Dec 11, 2007.

Run:
~25 deg and a little windy on the lakefront
10.7 miles 1:16:00 (7:07)
almost all on grass

The lake was completely calm as the wind was out of the West. It was almost eerie. Not Erie though. God that sucked.

Coolrunning is Back

So I've been checking in on the Coolrunning message boards this week, in the hope that order will be restored, and it looks like things are coming together again. AndyHass is back posting, Nobby is still there, and all of the old threads are back (with full search functionality).

While the look of the active pages leaves much to be desired, the part of the CR community that I engaged with seems to still be there.

Today I was hoping to go to the university gym for a treadmill run (17 deg and 40mph winds driving sparse snow was what I saw out my window), but alas there are no students left to swipe my card, and so I headed out into the wasteland. It wasn't actually bad at all. The wind was biting when it hit my face, but I dressed in a full winter running suit I was lucky enough to receive a couple of years ago for x-mas. I wore my old XC Championship gloves from my old team in Ithaca new York..."Upstate NY XC / The Provin' Grounds" screened on the knitting. Good memories. The snow was all gone from the 53 degree weather we had just yesterday.

Run:
cold and windy ... slow on grass
7.9 miles 1:01:45 (7:48)

Week in review:
57.3 miles 7.1 hours 7:26 avg pace

Christmas Crunch

Procrastinators unite! Okay, so we're trying to do all gifts, send out Christmas cards, and simultaneously clean the apartment up from its current dismal state. The Christmas cards that I picked out without my wife present are apparently hideous beyond all rational possibility, and so we had to go out and buy new ones.

Last night, after the fake tree that I bought made my dear wife cry, I went out and bought the real deal. I'm much happier with the result anyway. The smell of a Christmas tree is just too ingrained in my happier childhood moments to be satisfied completely with the plastic. It's a little tree, but a really full one. It's actually our first Christmas as a family unit. In previous years, we've always traveled to either of our places of origin. Somehow the prospect of airline travel this year just didn't appeal.

Running has been reasonable.

Today:
45! deg wind from south Lakefront Path
10.1 in 1:11:00 (7:01)
Felt kind of crappy on the way in. Probably dehydrated.

Friday:
35 deg no wind
7.75 through snow 1:03:00
Nice run on the snow. Not really anything hardcore. A lot of it was melted already, but there were a few spots with deep drifts to wade through.

Not Much

to report. Calf is feeling good, I'm behind on x-mas cards and gifts, and a tad hung-over from a party at a friends house last night.

Run was uneventful except for a mid-course pit stop. Trudged about a half mile through the snow on the golf course to see how it was before getting back on the lakefront path. I might do an easy run through the snow sometime soon. I have a very talented Russian master's running friend who swears by deep snow running for improving efficiency. Once upon a time this guy ran 10 marathons in 10 days, all right around 3 hours. I was impressed.

Run:
34 deg Lakefront South light breeze
Aerobic 7.4 miles 54:00 (7:12) Avg HR 158

Philosophy of Science

“Philosophy of science is about as useful to scientists as ornithology is to birds,” said Richard Feynman. I just read this good NY Times article about this bad one among other things. While it is certainly fun to wax philosophical about the implications of some of the equations that seem to describe the universe pretty darn well, it isn't productive scientifically. If it can't be tested, it ain't science. That's the basic litmus test anyway.

The calf felt pretty good today, and the butt soreness I've had from doing the one-legged squats is happily gone.

Run:
Lakefront Path North 28 deg slight breeze
8.3 miles, 57:30 (6:55)

Slow Road to Recovery

So I felt good yesterday...this means that I didn't feel that good today. I was feeling peppy, and like I was past this calf injury thing, so when I hit the indoor track for what was going to be an easy run, I decided to pick things up for a mile. That mile went by in 5:47, and felt pretty good. The rest of the workout also felt good. Well, except for the fact that I forgot socks to wear, and so I went sans...a couple of hotspots afterwards, but nothing major.

Unfortunately, when I woke up this morning, the calf was tight and sore again. Hence a recovery run this am...mostly 8 min miles.

Today's run:
28F 10mph wind
7.3 in 57 minutes (7:48)

Yesterday:
Indoor track
~8.5 with 1 fast mile (5:47)
mostly around 6:50's otherwise

Cross Training

= Shoveling 6 inches of snow. Someone was supposed to come and clear up the condo building where I live, but they apparently had an injured foot. I helped out for a while after a morning trip to the gym. Today was a day for the treadmill, I decided, since it snowed pretty heavily last night. It looked like fun to play in, but I decided not to risk injury with a trudge through the winter wonderland.

I don't know what it is with this new neighborhood we live in, but it seems the city really doesn't care about us. The plows have not come by even once on our road, or most of the adjoining roads. Frustration...

Wife is out shopping while I watch the boy. This is a first, actually. She's been really nervous about leaving him. It's really good that she's getting out though. Don't want to make the wife crazy by being cooped up all winter like good old Jack!

Run:
7.5 on the treadmill at the gym. 52 minutes.
Core + weights afterwards, and then about 30 minutes of snow-shoveling.

Slow in Snow

So I'm starting to compile a list of running map links. This will make things much easier since now I won't have to copy over my bookmark list for every computer that I use (and there are quite a few).

We got a dusting last night, and so today's jog was very slippery. I stayed on grassy areas, since the roads were much worse for traction. It was about as uneventful as a run can be. Lonely windy and slippery, I seemed to be the only fool out there. With the Jackson Park Lagoon frozen over, and golfing an impossibility, there's pretty much nobody who wants to be in the park.

I took one little spill on some ice that was underneath the half inch of snow we got, but it wasn't a bad one.

I'm surprised I don't see other runners on the golf course in general (even when the weather's perfect). It's a lot nicer than the lakefront path, both scenery-wise and weather-wise.

Run:
7.4 miles slow on snow (HR avg 145)
1:00:45

The boy is doing great these days. There's been a recent phase transition, it seems. Suddenly he's realized that there are objects around, and that he can explore them. So he's been needing toys just in time for the holidays! It seems like his learning curve just got really steep all of a sudden, since he's interacting so much more with his environment. I'm sure all you folks with experience in this department already know all of this, but perhaps you remember how cool it was to see it happening for the first time in your first kid.

Hats On to Winter

Today was the first day I felt like I had to wear a hat. 25 F, -4 C. My butt is a little sore from the weights yesterday morning, but not too bad. Another sign that winter is here is that it is a lot more lonely on the morning runs. There are the couple brave souls that I see out there every day I make it out for a run, but not much more. I just read about this guy. 12,000 miles in one year is *damn* impressive.

Run:
5.5 easy HR avg 155
6:50's

Easy Days

Well, the day after my last post, my calf was really sore again. Too much too soon, probably. So I took the weekend off, missed monday because it's hard for me to get back in the rhythm again, and have been running easy since Tuesday. I've got to get this thing healed.

On a sad note, a completely out of reach goal has been put even further out of reach. To qualify for the 2012 Olympic Trials, one now must qualify with a 2:19 or better. A 2:19 is quite a bit faster than 2:22.

Runs:
Today:
5.5 easy...running 6:40's or so
weights and core afterwards

Wed
5.5 easy about 6:50's

Tue
5.5 easy about 7:10's

Back Again

I've been out of the 'sphere lately...mainly due to injury and work. After Thanksgiving, a tempo run strained my calf (the same one I strained a couple of months ago), and I had to take some time off for it to heal. It's just about back to normal now, although it still creeps in during some runs. I'm also feeling a little under the weather at the moment, so I'm keeping this one short.

Run:
7 miles with a 4 mile tempo-lite thrown in
1.5 WU 6:23 (with hill), 6:07, 6:05, 5:57 1.5CD
Felt pretty relaxed and strong.

I've been doing some good strength training in the gym lately. Lots of core, and some weights. I think it's helping, but we'll see. There's snow on the outdoor track now, so I'll probably be heading to the indoor track once a week to get my "running economy" workout in.

The Calm After the Storm Before the Other Storm

So there's a bit of down time now as we dropped off my sister-in-law and 2.5 year old nephew at their hotel. Due to the nasty weather here in Chicago-land, my brother-in-law won't be arriving until tomorrow morning. My MIL and FIL are fading fast on the couch after arriving a few hours ago. Tomorrow will be even busier though, since I will be stuck driving around more than I expected.

One thing I can say with 100% certainty at this point is that wife and I are NOT ready to deal with toddler + infant. It may be in large part due to us not yet having toddler-proofed the house. It's interesting that something I'm looking forward to so much (crawling, forward progress for the boy) can also be dreaded in some ways.

I've been getting pretty stiff. I think it has more to do with the driving than with the workouts, but we'll see how tomorrow's planned tempo goes (especially with the crappy weather we've been having).

Anyway, enough blogging while under the influence of Fat Tires.

Run:
45 deg raining and very windy
10 miles AM slow (1:17:00)

Strength Training

Another strength workout today. Did the 4x(200 200 400) workout again, in about the same times as before. Then I headed to the gym for a long core strength session. I worked from Tuscaloosa's links to the running times winter strength training article (and , this one in particular) and added some moves to my routine. The one legged drills were quite nice. I really felt like I was getting something done, especially since I was falling over towards the end of some of them.

Also, I picked up family at the airport, and met with a perhaps future coach. I'll talk some more about it when I get a chance.

An Easy 10

Not too much time to write anything but the minimum.

Run:
10.2 miles easy
1:18

Did a bit of a progression again, but not as aggressive as yesterday. I ran with a guy who works in the same department as my wife, so things went a little faster in the beginning than I wanted. Due to fall closures of public bathrooms in the parks, I had to pay a visit to a cafe. Thankfully they took pity on me.

Progressions to Progress

I ended up running another progression run today. This is to be distinguished from a tempo run style progression...I guess I would call it an aerobic progression. I used the heart rate monitor today, and started out very easy, at 130bpm (about 65%), and over the course of 10.2 miles, worked up to 165bpm, or about 82 % max. It was a nice run, and it left me feeling refreshed.

My wife's family is making it into town this week, so it's time to scour the apartment, and make it look like we live like self-respecting citizens. Welcome to turkey week, everyone.

Run:
42 deg F windy
10.2 miles, 1:19 (7:45 pace, although much faster/slower towards the end/beginning)

WEEKLY TOTAL
74.5 miles total at an avg of about 7:40 pace

Thanks for Nothing

I already railed about this on a post on coolrunning some time ago, but I'm going to vent again. What is wrong with people's minds that they get it into their heads that a perfectly nice hard packed trail through the woods needs to be "improved" by dumping ton upon ton of that grey gravel bike path crap on it?

I'm referring to the Sag Valley Trail system in Palos Hills, Illinois. This ongoing project to "fix" the path (I run on the yellow trail) is a complete and utter failure. Even their intended purpose of making the footing better on the trail has backfired. This is due to the somewhat heavy use of the trail by people walking their horses. The new gravel stuff is churned right up by the shoes on the horses, leaving a path full of pits. The footing is now awful.

To add to this, they seem to be adding fancy bridges over streams that were never more than a tiny trickle. The heavy use of the path by construction vehicles has destroyed sections of the woods adjacent to the path (probably where they're turning the vehicles around). Just ridiculous. A large expenditure of effort and money to ruin something beautiful. Thanks for nothing.

The run went well:
38 deg F no wind
16.2 miles over somewhat hilly terrain
1:55:30
I ran the first half slow (62 min), and picked it up quite a bit on the second loop, (53:30).

More than a Hobby

I really enjoyed a recent post by Mike. The first paragraph was especially poignant, and I think it would be for many of us runners who have chosen to go above and beyond weekend warrior status to really see what we are capable of. The line that really got to me was: ...this running thing is still way more than a hobby.

I thought of it as I laced up my shoes after a morning physics workshop meeting, and headed out for an easy 8-9 mile run. I also thought of it as I was grunting with effort in my fourth minute long plank hold while doing core work at the gym this evening. Yeah, I guess it's a bit more than a hobby.

You can tell I'm getting tired when I just summarize somebody else's post. Goodnight.

Run:
42 deg F and windy
11:30 am
8.5 miles easy, 1:01
GI issues...probably due to weird schedule today (up early to get to workshop before first talk, and running close to noon, rather than early am, or before dinner)

Later:
7 min jog to gym
1 hr of core and weights
7 min jog home

Sleep, Relief, Farts, and Fartlek

For the first time in the past few nights, I slept somewhat restfully (save for a 5am waking due to my son explosively passing gas, at which point I was voted most able to change a diaper). The soreness of the past few days was making it hard to get to sleep and stay that way, but now I'm pretty much over it. Time to tear myself down again!

The workout this morning went very well. I ran an aerobic fartlek on the lakefront, and stayed on grass. I'll also make this an opportunity to give a shout out to the newest Nike Free's, the 3.0, which are fantastic. They are worlds better than the 5.0 (no more stupid stretchy sock heel material, more flexible, much lighter, lower heel). The only beef I have is that they pick up sticks and rocks even more than the 5.0's, but this is the price to pay. I wear them on grass, and on the track. They are perfect for those venues. They don't work on trails where there are mid-sized rocks...they almost punched straight through the sole when I tried.

Run:
38 deg F, windy out of north
8.4 miles with 4.5 miles of aerobic fartlek on grass
1:01 total time
5x(5min on 1min off)

I clocked a half mile split at 2:46?! on the second to last repeat.

Finding a Coach

So I may join Tuscaloosa as a non-school afiliated runner with a coach. We meet on Tuesday, and we will go over some of my plans and goals, and how to modify former to achieve latter. It should be interesting. He's got over 30 years of experience with triathletes and just plain runners. He seems to value core and strength work a great deal...something I definitely need to work on (seeing as it still feels like there is still an animal trying to claw it's way out of my abdomen from Sunday's workout).

Anyway, we'll see how Tuesday goes.

Run:
10.2 Easy jog on grass
1:18:30
HR avg about 150 (just for aharmer ;-) )

DOMS

Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness...is what happens when you throw an hour of core and weights at a body that hasn't seen them in about a year. It feels like somebody has been trying to force open my lower ribs with one of these things.

Running seems to help it, as it does many injuries. My chronic achilles tendonitis is actually absent when I'm running more than 50-60 miles a week, but it is terrible after a week or two off. Nobby has suggested on coolrunning that this is due to increased blood flow. That is probably part of it, as well as the flexibility of muscles and connective tissue that increases with training. Sometimes rest and recovery is not the answer, but it can be hard to pinpoint when this is the case.

Today's workout was another 4x(200m - 200m - 400m) with full recovery.

Run:
58 deg. 15mph winds out of south
8 miles total with 4x(200m - 200m - 400m)
1:10 total
33.3 - 34.5 - 72 - 34 - 35.4 - 71.9 - 35.5 - 35.9 - 72.6 - 35.2 - 34.1 - 69.2

The wind was a factor on the finishing stretch of the 400's, but not a big one. I'm happy with this workout, seeing as I'm still recovering from the weight session on Sunday.

Again to Carthage

So I've been out of contact for the last few days. Traveling with a 12 week old is not as relaxing as I thought it might be. Overall he's a great kid though, a real trooper. The only tough spots were getting out of the house, and getting back in at the end, so I can't complain. Anyway, here's my rather crummy review of Again to Carthage. I just don't have the time to do this awesome book justice, but hopefully I'll whet your appetites. It is a must read for every person who calls themself a runner, just as "Once a Runner" has become.

I purchased the book last Thursday night, and had finished it at 2am Saturday morning, just hours before the start of the men's US Olympic Trials Marathon. As with "Once a Runner," "Again to Carthage" is going to be a cult running classic. The novel continues on with the story of Quenton Cassidy, the runner who had been to the mountaintop and back. The runner who has submitted himself to the Trials of Miles, the Miles of Trials and come through with a trinket, an Olympic Silver medal from the 1500m.

Quenton has left running competitively, although goes out for the occasional 5 minute per mile "sanity run." No longer are zeroes in the running log viewed like tumors. 10 pounds of weight have decorated the body that, years earlier, had no part which would interfere with the fluid motion of running. Quenton is living his life, and is a successful lawyer.

While "Once a Runner" was a story of Cassidy the boy, Again to Carthage is certainly about Cassidy the man. The story is much darker. There is politics. Friends are lost. In the whole damn mess of it all, Quenton begins feeling his own mortality, and questions his place in the world. He decides to make another go at olympic glory, but in a much different kind of race. Quenton again submits his body to the day in - day out trials of rigorous training.

Denton is back again, as a friend, and as a coach. Andrea makes cameos. The issue of doping is brought up in a very amusing scene. The final race is told in chilling fashion, and I have to admit my eyes were not completely dry by the end.

There is no question that this is a book that is close to, if not the superior of "Once a Runner." It is the story of the incredible comeback, which I have a soft spot for.

I strongly advise you all to find your way to your local Fleet Feet Sports, and get a read, or wait for it to finally be available on Amazon (the end of the month, I think?).

Workouts the past few days:

Nov 9
10 miles high aerobic on the hills of Galena, IL after a long drive.
69 minutes
It was quite dark by the end, and I came close to getting myself good and lost. A fun run, but extremely hilly. My knees were visably swollen after the run from taking the steep downhills a bit too fast.

Nov 10
5 easy in the AM
Hungover from partying too late with graduate students in genetics the night before.

Nov 11
7 easy after driving home
was going to do a long run before leaving Galena, but I decided my knees weren't going to like it much, so put it off until after the drive home.
Did weight training for the first time in months, and now my lateral muscles are sore as hell. Once upon a time I could bench press 225 pounds at the meager weight of 145 pounds. Once upon a time...

For a rather crummy week of 45 miles. I was hoping to hit 50-55, but scrapped the long run plans on Sunday AM.
Time to begin a new week.

Nov 12
10.2 easy in the AM on grass
1:19
avg HR 147

Last 400 is always fast

So I'm backlogging workouts. This week has been rough with a local physics workshop, and my wife having a deadline to make a poster to present at a retreat we're going on this weekend (also work related). Blogging is the first thing to go, I guess, if I'm short on time.

Wednesday's workout went very well:
35 deg F slight breeze sunny
10 min jog, 10 mins of drills
4x(200-200-400) (sound familiar?) with only one 200 over 35s, the rest 33's and 34's. The 400's were 71,70,68,65
15 min cooldown

I felt pretty good, and there's none of the soreness that I had after a similar workout last week (this speedy stuff recruits a few different muscle groups and requires a bit more flexibility than the normal basebuilding workouts). The main point of my doing these workouts is not to train any particular metabolic system, but more to work on neuromuscular connections and strength. To become efficient at faster paces, I need to run at faster paces. So the rest between intervals is very long. A little less than 2min between 200's, and a little less than 4min between 400's.

Thursday:
42 deg F light breeze sunny
1:00 jog, with a friend in town for the workshop
probably about 7.5-8 miles
Kept HR under 150, but under 145 for the most part (aharmer will be proud!)

I'm struggling with the Again to Carthage review. I want to give it a great one, but I also don't want any spoilers in there. I'll have lots of free time this weekend, I'm hoping.

Goose Eggs and Baby Boys

Today is a zero, or a goose egg so far as running today is concerned. I was planning a day off at some point this week, so it might as well be the day that I'm coughing up unmentionables.

Today is my son's 12'th week birthday, and he's doing great these days. He's about 85'th percentile for weight, and a little above average for length. His smile is awesome, and his laugh is one of the funniest things I've ever heard, an uncouth mixture of open mouthed snorting and bleating that may be responsible for a respectable percentage of global heart warming.

I can't wait until he's old enough to watch his Daddy race. In the meantime, today's exercise consisted of a walk through the park with the boy in a sling type device, and embarassingly avoiding the stares and smiles evoked by the maternal instincts of passing female strangers.

No, no, not in the chest!

Okay, so now this annoying little illness that's had me under the weather the past week and half has made it's way into my chest. So tomorrow is off, and this morning I had myself doing the slowest running I've done in a while. My son caught a little bit of it, but seems to be better now, and the wife is so far healthy.

My mantra this morning was "Run Easy to Run Hard."

I kept my HR under 140 (avg 138)

Run:
49 deg F slight breeze
7.5 recovery miles, 1:03 (~8:26mpm)

I working on my review of Again to Carthage, so keep tuned. I actually finished reading it on Friday night, about 32 hours after I purchased it, and 5 hours before the start of the olympic trials marathon.

Getting in the Groove

Today's run was one of those where in the first 50 steps, you know it's going to go well. The weather was perfect this evening, just a bit before sundown. Not too chilly, and just a bit of a breeze out of the north. For this reason, I opted to go to the bike path, run on asphalt for a change, and do a measured aerobic run to evaluate my fitness after these 4 weeks of training. I kept my HR under 165 for the most part (80% of max), and ran 7 marked miles out of a total 10.

It's great when things align like this...your form and rhythm are just right, and your steps feel effortless despite the tempo. Getting in the groove is a big motivation for running for me. When these days come along, running is a complete joy. I don't think you can get the same feeling without banking the miles. It's a gift from the running gods for the hard work that you've done. And, more importantly, a gift from my wife and son, who let Dad take out an hour each day for an admittedly anti-social hobby.

Run
10 miles aerobic running
2m buildup to pace
2m 13:14 (HR 161 avg)
2m 13:05 (HR 163)
2m 12:46 (HR 164) wind now to my back
1m 6:27 (HR 164)
1m cooldown back home

I'm very happy with this (esp. after the 71 mile total in singles for this week...more than I've done in a while).

So now I'm at my target mileage. I'll see-saw again these next two weeks, and then try to remain at 70mpw for a bit doing a 2-1 or 3-1 base to recovery ratio depending on how things go.

Triumph and Tragedy

Saturday was a crazy day for me, so here's my Olympic Trials Marathon post a day late. It was well worth waking up at 6am on a Saturday morning, that's for sure. I went to NBC sports, and was able to get the live streaming video working correctly using Mozilla on an aging and close to non-functional laptop (IE just failed miserably).

The race went out slow, and things were bunched up for a while, but then a few of the "hopefuls" broke loose and started running some respectable mile splits (around 4:50-4:55). This group was made up of Hall, Ritz, Meb, Abdi, and later on, Dan Brown. During the race, they announced that Ryan Shay had been taken away in an ambulance, which definitely gave me pause, but I didn't dwell on it.

Sell hung back in the chase pack. Eventually, Cox, and then Khalid Kannouchi broke away, and started giving chase to the lead pack which definitely could have become interesting. Cox wasn't in it for long, and KK was doing a good job of eating up ground on the lead pack. Then at Mile 17, Hall changed the race. He dashed up a hill, and in the course of about 1 mile put 20 seconds or so on the pack. A few tried to give chase, but there wasn't much hope. Then the pack fell apart. Ritz did the best job of maintaining the gap that Hall just kept building. Abdi DNF'd, and Meb had trouble holding form due to calf tightness. Dan Brown similarly had some issues (and even stopped at one point to stretch) and eventually sacrificed his third place rank. Sell just ran "slow" and steady throughout the race, and it paid off as he eventually passed KK and Brown.

Hall was in a class of his own the second half of the race. Throwing in a 14:28 5k from 30-35, and running a 1:02:47 second half...an incredible negative split. That performance has to strike much fear into the hearts of his international competitors in Beijing. I just don't know what to say about him. He looked like he was out on a darn workout. His form was loose and completely relaxed, even in the final miles. It was like he didn't even run the first half of the race.

This glorious moment didn't last. It was soon learned that Ryan Shay had in fact dropped to the pavement with a heart attack, and was pronounced dead at the hospital soon after. I was in complete shock...here was as prime of a human specimen as you could find, 28 years old and in contention for a spot on the olympic marathon team. I just can't understand how it could happen, especially with the slow early miles of the race. Hell, my 5k time is faster than the time they ran for the first one...it should have been a walk in the park that soon in the race. Something doesn't add up. What was so special about those 5.5 miles compared to the thousands he's logged over the course of the years?

At any rate, this really shook me up. We try and project ourselves onto our heroes, measure ourselves against them, and their goals in a way become our own. To see the dreams of such a hero dissolve in the worst way possible is a blow. To those who knew and associated with Shay the grief is, of course, far more real and shattering. Along with the entire community familiar with Ryan Shay, I offer my condolences.


Run:
45 deg. F slight wind
16 miles at a very slow pace on grass
2:11 (8:12mpm)

Kept HR below 140 for first 8, under 150 second 8.

A Family History

Alberto Salazar has been all over the news lately with his recent spat of heart troubles. Most recently, John Brant (author of Duel in the Sun, the famous story of the 1982 battle between Salazar and Dick Beardsley in the Boston Marathon) has written a fantastic NY Times article about Salazar's life, his world-view, and the brushes with death that he has had.

This set of stories has brought to focus one of my reasons for keeping up with running and overall fitness. Many runners have at some point heard of the Fixx phenomenon. Jim Fixx, author of The Complete Book of Running, became an icon with his inspiring story of going from an overweight 2-pack-a-day smoker to a fitness guru. However, a massive heart attack during a 1984 run in Vermont ended his life at the relatively premature age of 52. A genetic predisposition as well as his mid-life health transgressions may have played a significant role, as his father had suffered from a heart attack as early as age 35 (and died at 42 of another cardiac arrest).

Salazar has a similar genetic background, and (so far as I know) did not have a period of very unhealthy behavior besides his tenacity, and willingness to sacrifice himself for his racing goals.

I'm now 28 years old. My father at age 52 already has a stent put in, after suffering a heart attack at age 50. My uncles on my father's side (there are 4) are not faring that well either. My grandfather had several bypass surgeries (although he survived to a rather ripe old age). Genetics may not be on my side. The episode that I described two posts ago really scared me.

Can I outrun my genetics? I don't know the answer. Fixx might have left this world at 45 had he continued on without turning his life and behavior around. I do know that I want to be around a lot longer than 22 more years. I feel like running is doing something good for my body even if it occasionally sends me into the red-zone (or drives me anemic).

While less running would probably do the trick of giving a layer of protection, it's not in my personality. To be honest, I have to say I probably wouldn't run at all if it were only for my health. I'll save motivations for some other day.

Run today:
1pm 55 deg. F slight wind
10.6 miles moderate effort
1:12 (6:47 avg)
Just felt like going kind of hard today. Maybe it has to do with the fact that I plowed through 106 pages of Parker's new novel last night.

Things are looking grim weather-wise for our strongest men marathoners tomorrow. 45 degrees, 27mph winds, and rainy. Things look better the next day. I'm really looking forward to seeing Paula racing again.

Not in the Chest

There's a rule of thumb for running while sick. The "rule" is this: Go ahead if the cold is above the neck, but take some days off if the cold is in your chest. Fever is the trump that says no running no matter where the cold is. I've been feeling a little under the weather for the past week, but in the last two days the symptoms have reared their ugly heads...thankfully above the neck. 10 miles yesterday was just fine.

Happily, the boy and wife don't have what I have (yet).

I let myself sleep in a little later this morning, so I put in my run after work. It was actually a nice run, and it was the best I felt all day. My sinuses cleared out, and I kind of got into a groove.

After the commute back to the city, I stopped by Fleet Feet and picked up my copy of Again to Carthage, John L. Parker's sequel to the cult running classic, Once a Runner. It's still pre-order on Amazon, but Fleet Feet Sports has advance copies. Also, Fleet Feet is the only place I know of where you can get brand spanking new copies of the original book, Once a Runner, for cover price. Look forward to a review sometime in the near future.

Today's Run:
5pm about 55 deg. F no wind
8.2 miles 59:30 (7:12 pace)

My Heart Works!

I thought I'd put into writing what I went through earlier this year with doctors, big machines, and radioactive isotopes in my bloodstream.

Background:
I'd been running quite a bit over the course of winter '06-'07. I maxed out at 112 miles per week, and averaged over 100mpw for 4 weeks straight. Coming out of winter, I was feeling awesome. I had started adding tempo runs, and was hitting 5:40 pace with my heart rate below 175. I ran a 16:41 5k on the track while my wife filmed and timed me. A week later I ran a 27:01 8k.

One more week later I was toast. I couldn't run tempo anymore below 5:55 pace or so, and I felt like crap doing it. The temperatures were fine, but I couldn't muster aerobic runs below 7:30 pace without feeling like I was pushing it.

I scheduled a doctors appt, convinced I had a some early stage anemia. The numbers were:
RBC 4.70mil/mcL (a little on the low end of normal)
Hemoglobin 14.9 g/dL (right in the middle of normal)
Hematocrit 44.6 % (right in the middle again)

Iron panel:
Iron 88 mcg/dL (low end of normal)
IBC 277 mcg/dL (low end of normal)
% saturation 32 % (middle range)

Ferritin 27 (below normal range of 30-300)

This was all after about 2 weeks to a month of recovery period where I was just resting and recuperating. It looked like I might have had some mild anemia.

But...they also did an electrocardiogram to check my heart out, and there were some abnormal readings. This set off lots of warning bells for the doctor (they don't like having 27 year olds who have funny ECG's). So they had me go in for some more advanced testing.

The first test was a transthoracic (through the chest) echocardiogram, which is an ultrasound of the heart. This was maybe 2 weeks after the first visit where the bloodwork was done. They took all kinds of pictures and videos of my heart in action. I also brought along my own blank CD, and they gave me the complete data set as well (I was going to mail it on to other doctors in case there was bad news...and get a second opinion). This is fun to look at. Thankfully the test came back with normal results. No problems there. The doctor wanted to make absolutely sure though.

So I then went in one month later for a nuclear stress test. It sounds like something that goes on at Los Alamos National Lab...but the procedure was this:
At rest, they inject me with a trace isotope which follows blood flow, and they are able to see how blood gets to my heart at rest. Then when the imaging is done (under a rather claustrophobia inducing device). Then they put me on a treadmill and try to take me to maximum exertion. This was fun. I lasted 20 minutes on the TM before they decided I was done (I had at least 3 minutes more left in me!) and injected me again with a new isotope. They were really impressed with my treadmill test...apparently Michael Jordan only lasted 16 minutes. The imaging was repeated, and now they had a picture of how blood was getting to my heart when it really needed to do some work.

Again, no problems, and I was given the free and clear to run again. This was great news, although I was disappointed to lose so much fitness in the meantime. At any rate, the fatigue issues were mostly gone by this point, and now I was just out of shape. For completeness, I also got my cholesterol profile done:
Total 156 (optimal < 200)
HDL 54 (optimal > 60)
Triglycerides 74 (optimal < 150)
LDL 87 (optimal < 100)
Again, no issues, although it would be nice to get the HDL up higher.

After all this, I put in a month of decent training (50-60 miles a week). I ran a HM in 1:19:14 which wasn't that bad considering I hadn't been training very much. Then my son was born. A few days off, and I tried to get back. Then my little boy spiked a fever, setting off an awful chain of events that happily ended well, and will maybe make for another post later. But that killed running for another month.

I've been back running for 3 weeks now, with mileage of 52 - 63 - 52, and all seems to be going well. I'm trying to decide what exactly I'm training for at this point...do I run Boston, or do I hold off until fall for another marathon, and pick up where I left off this spring. That is, do I spend some months working on my speed while building up more base. I'm currently leaning towards the latter. I don't feel like running a marathon again until I think I can go under 2:40, and I don't think I can do that until I have a low to sub-16 5k, a 33:30ish 10k, and a 1:15ish HM.

Run this morning:
7:40am (late) about 55 deg. F medium wind
10.2 miles easy, 90% on grass
1h 15 min (about 7:20 pace)

I felt really tight and sore from the workout yesterday, so I started out pretty slow, but gradually found my stride about 3-4 miles in.

The Principle of Least Action

The principle of least action is a concept which has proved quite useful in physics since the days of Isaac Newton. Essentially, the principle is a statement that whenever the universe does something, it does it in the laziest way possible. In flat space, the "best" way to get from point A to point B is a straight line. The action for a particle (or field) is a mathematical function of things such as its velocity, and by minimizing this function, you can derive the previous (rather obvious) statement.

This is a horrible way to live your life, however, so far as I'm concerned. We know that point A is birth, and point B is death. I'll leave point C up to whoever has knowledge about such things (as a devout agnostic, I firmly believe that the set of such people has measure zero).

So one of the principles I try to apply to myself and the points between my own personal A and B is a principle of most action. I'm a theoretical particle physicist, a mediocre runner, and a father of a really awesome 2 month old baby boy. I commute about 2.5 hours to work. I'm trying out this blogging thing because I also like writing, and writing is something that I don't get a chance to do much of in my other occupations.

I'm choosing not to put up my name just so this page won't show up under a web search of my family name. I have my reasons. Any reader could find out who I am through 2 minutes of homework anyway.

I'm not going to go into detail about my work. I'll let that part of my life just manifest itself as an unbearable geekiness in my writing style. I'll probably focus on my running and the experiences of fatherhood, and the struggle to make it all somehow work.

A quick runner bio:
In high school I ran "middle distance," and this is when I posted my 800m and mile personal bests. I grew up in Massachusetts, and ran for a Division I high school that was a testosterone-fest run by the Xavarian brothers.

In college (California) I ran for about 1 month, and then quit to focus on school work and trying to maximize the time spent not doing schoolwork. I resumed halfway through my Ph.D. program in the land that letsrun.com now occupies (about a 6 year break), and took up longer distances since nobody that isn't elite or in school trains for anything shorter than a mile in the US. Since then I've run as much as 112 miles in one week. I've run a few marathons, but I've only left one 26 mile and 385 yard long course with my dignity intact.

I ran this morning:
7:30 am 48 F
14 minute jog to track
6 minutes of drills
4x(200m - 200m - 400m) at mile race pace with equal distance rest
Times: (34.6 - 36.6 - 73.6 - 35.3 - 36.4 - 71.0 - 35.6 - 36.1 - 70.3 - 34.6 - 34.3 - 69.0)
15 minute cooldown

I called it 8 miles for lack of anything better.

I also did lots of sit-ups. I have an 8-pack. Maybe if I do enough, the hair on my head will grow back.