As always the Bridgeport Home Run was a fun 5K race. It is flat and fast and you can usually turn in a good time on it as a result. The weather was perfect with a bit of a tail wind on the way out to Seaside Park and a bit of a head wind on the way back into Harbor Yard.
I didn't expect much from my time since I have actually been training myself to run slower this year so I won't jump out fast on a mountain race and burn myself out. With that in mind, I finished okay with a time of 20:11. I placed 20th out of 425 runners and came in 6th in my division. The time was about 40 seconds slower than when I ran it last year but that was mostly expected. I was unhappy to finish over 20 minutes though so I will have to work a little harder next week at the Sprint for D.A.R.E. to break it.
My best fan (my wife Jan), was there to cheer me on and take a few pictures so I'll post a pciture of me running in the race wearing my shirt on my web site soon. Thanks for checking in! I'll write again after my race next weekend.
Monday, May 26, 2008
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Fundraising Progress Check
By the way... I am up to 15 people now who have expressed an intention to contribute or who have already contributed. More importantly, half of the back of my shirt is full but keep those memorials coming! I want to fill the whole thing and then move to the front if needed! I am over $600 in donations as of today with more in the process after just two weeks since I started my efforts.
Thank you so very much to all of you for getting involved! I know my causes are important to you as well just by you having visited my web site and blog, but the end result is really what is important... helping others by defeating cancer and providing a better environment for good families to flourish in. I am indebted to you all...
Thank you so very much to all of you for getting involved! I know my causes are important to you as well just by you having visited my web site and blog, but the end result is really what is important... helping others by defeating cancer and providing a better environment for good families to flourish in. I am indebted to you all...
A real scorcher!
Last night I needed a good run after long day of conferences out here in Las Vegas. It was not one of my better decisions in the last few weeks! When I got back from my conferences it was 6:30pm and the temperature outside was still a searing 106F. Of course, that did not intimidate me, I love running in the extremes so I chugged a bunch of water before I headed out and decided to run up the strip and back down the other side to give my shirt some publicity with the folks who had ventured out of their seats at the slots, roulette and craps tables. By then they probably had no money to donate, but what the heck ;-)
The first thing I noticed was it was hotter than just "hot" out there running (no kidding). The sun was low in the sky but it was still very hot on my face. The second thing I noticed was how many people were making wierd faces at me and making exasperated statements as I ran by. Apparently they didn't think I was in my right mind to be out running in this record heat. The third thing I noticed was that I did not really sweat. My brow was wet but the perspiration was evaporating so fast that I rarely had to even wipe the sweat off my forehead to keep it out of my eyes. As I slowed to work my way through heavy crowds at the Bellagio water fountains and Treasure Island's pirate ship battle, lots of people were checking out my shirt and commenting on it. Hopefully some of them remember the URL and visit my site. So if you are one of those people then... Thanks for noticing and visiting :-)
I got a good 10K (6.2mi) run in and though I was very hot, I felt fine. The temperature had cooled to a sping-like 105F (not!). It was after I stopped that the heat hit me. I was TOTALLY overheated and had to wet a big towel with ice cold water and wrap it around my neck and keep wetting myself down. It was amazing how fast it hit me when I stopped and how much worse I felt once I was no longer running. I have a HUGE amount of respect to those runners who ran the Olympic marathon in Greece a few years ago in 110F temps! And also the badwater ultramarathon which goes through Death Valley. How they run so long in these extreme temps is beyond me.
The first thing I noticed was it was hotter than just "hot" out there running (no kidding). The sun was low in the sky but it was still very hot on my face. The second thing I noticed was how many people were making wierd faces at me and making exasperated statements as I ran by. Apparently they didn't think I was in my right mind to be out running in this record heat. The third thing I noticed was that I did not really sweat. My brow was wet but the perspiration was evaporating so fast that I rarely had to even wipe the sweat off my forehead to keep it out of my eyes. As I slowed to work my way through heavy crowds at the Bellagio water fountains and Treasure Island's pirate ship battle, lots of people were checking out my shirt and commenting on it. Hopefully some of them remember the URL and visit my site. So if you are one of those people then... Thanks for noticing and visiting :-)
I got a good 10K (6.2mi) run in and though I was very hot, I felt fine. The temperature had cooled to a sping-like 105F (not!). It was after I stopped that the heat hit me. I was TOTALLY overheated and had to wet a big towel with ice cold water and wrap it around my neck and keep wetting myself down. It was amazing how fast it hit me when I stopped and how much worse I felt once I was no longer running. I have a HUGE amount of respect to those runners who ran the Olympic marathon in Greece a few years ago in 110F temps! And also the badwater ultramarathon which goes through Death Valley. How they run so long in these extreme temps is beyond me.
Monday, May 19, 2008
Another day, another successful test!
Well I made it! I "ran" up to the summit of Bonanza Peak on Saturday. It was a blazing hot 98 degrees in Las Vegas when I landed and was a bit cooler when I arrived at the trailhead about 1 hour and 20 minutes northwest of Vegas. I headed out on my run at an altitude of about 7,500 feet in windless, sunny, hot weather and the trail was bone dry. My running pack was a little heavier than usual since I had almost 3 litres of water in my hydration bladder plus emergency stuff since there would be no water available on trail to drink if I were to run out.
I measured my pulse rate and blood-oxygen saturation before I started and my resting heart rate was up to 110bpm and my oxygen saturation was down to 93% already. Back at home at sea level it would have been 60bpm and 99%.
The first mile was brutal, it was hot and steep with lots of rocks in the trail to make it harder to keep a grip. The switchbacks were continual and after 0.25 miles I was gasping for air with my lungs burning. For a short amount of time I had doubts about making it up the mountain. My running was interspersed with fast walking while my pulse rate pushed up near 180bpm. My legs burned and my lungs seared for the rest of the first mile. Then the climate changed, as I rounded the mountain and ascended from a side protected from the sun and filled with Bristlecone Pines (which by the way are some of the oldest trees in the world), I encountered patches of snow on the trail which cooled the air around me. The snow slowed my progress down, I was continually stopping to scoop snow out from behind the tongue in my shoes and my pace slowed quite a bit. The snow covering got more frequent and deeper the higher I rose on the moutain side. At times I would sink up to my thighs in the icy cold frozen granules. I could see that an elk had very recently headed up the same path. Its tracks were fresh, and I was amazed such a large animal didn't even sink as deep as me when walking through the snow. I half expected to bump into the beast at any moment.
I could see the top of this mountain not far away, but I also knew that it was only the saddle, not the top of Bonanza Peak. As I came out of the tree cover at the top of the saddle the tempurature climbed decidedly but it was nice to get away from the snow patches which had slowed me down. At 2.6 miles I stopped to rest at the saddle. My pulse at rest was 100bpm but my oxygen saturdation was down to 82% at an altitude of 9,824 feet. The view was great but I could now see the top and I wanted to get up to the summit so I headed onward.
As the trail rounded the summit, I remembered that the map showed that the trail did not actually pass over the summit so I decided to go off trail and bushwack my way straight up the fall line to the summit. Boy was that hard going on my legs! The joke was on me though because when I scrambled up to the top of the rocky peak, I realized that I had not read my map close enough. About 1/2 mile away stood another peak which was about 100 feet higher in altitude... that one was Bonanza Peak! I scambled up to the wrong peak! I headed down to the trail and continued on until I got close and again set off bushwacking up to the summit, which by the way, was much steeper than the previous one. The summit was fantastic! I could see in every direction and especially the craggy peak of Mt Charleston, the highest peak in southern Nevada, and Area 51 which was almost dead north. There was a geocache box located in the cairn at the highest spot, so I sat down and wrote a little note in there for others who came along, took a few pictures (see my website http://webpages.charter.net/mtnrunner for those) and got ready to head back down. One last measurement showed my resting heart rate at 120 bpm and my oxygen saturation at 81%. I was at 10,406 feet above sea level and had run/climbed 4.71 miles and about 4,000 feet of elevation. Not a bad run.
One of the pictures I took at the summit was for a boy named Mikey C from New Canaan, CT. Mikey is friends with a friend and co-worker's sons and he is battling brain cancer currently. I have never met Mikey, but from the stories I heard about him, he is wise beyond his years and we could all use a little perspective like he has. He is beating the odds and I'll continue to think of him on my runs and carry his name on my back wherever I run. Never give up Mikey because we are all pulling for you! Even crazy people you have never met like me!
The run down was fast, I was decending with reckless abandon at times and was no longer worried about how cold the snow was. My legs and ankles actually ached with cold as I jumped through the snow banks. I hit bank at full speed and to my surprise, sunk up to my waist at full speed, which proceeded to stop me dead and I promptly face planted in the snow :-) My daughter Erica would have been proud! Of course this run through the snow had one bad effect, my shoes and socks were soaked and I could feel the chafing beginning but I just kept on flying down the hill to the car. In the end it was 8.63 miles round trip.
This run was a good test, but I have to say that adding another 4,000 feet of elevation to the run at Pike's Peak is going to make it SO much harder. I can't imagine how I will do it without walking at times. I know that I still don't fully comprehend the difficulty of the Pike's Peak Ascent but I did get a little sample this weekend!
I measured my pulse rate and blood-oxygen saturation before I started and my resting heart rate was up to 110bpm and my oxygen saturation was down to 93% already. Back at home at sea level it would have been 60bpm and 99%.
The first mile was brutal, it was hot and steep with lots of rocks in the trail to make it harder to keep a grip. The switchbacks were continual and after 0.25 miles I was gasping for air with my lungs burning. For a short amount of time I had doubts about making it up the mountain. My running was interspersed with fast walking while my pulse rate pushed up near 180bpm. My legs burned and my lungs seared for the rest of the first mile. Then the climate changed, as I rounded the mountain and ascended from a side protected from the sun and filled with Bristlecone Pines (which by the way are some of the oldest trees in the world), I encountered patches of snow on the trail which cooled the air around me. The snow slowed my progress down, I was continually stopping to scoop snow out from behind the tongue in my shoes and my pace slowed quite a bit. The snow covering got more frequent and deeper the higher I rose on the moutain side. At times I would sink up to my thighs in the icy cold frozen granules. I could see that an elk had very recently headed up the same path. Its tracks were fresh, and I was amazed such a large animal didn't even sink as deep as me when walking through the snow. I half expected to bump into the beast at any moment.
I could see the top of this mountain not far away, but I also knew that it was only the saddle, not the top of Bonanza Peak. As I came out of the tree cover at the top of the saddle the tempurature climbed decidedly but it was nice to get away from the snow patches which had slowed me down. At 2.6 miles I stopped to rest at the saddle. My pulse at rest was 100bpm but my oxygen saturdation was down to 82% at an altitude of 9,824 feet. The view was great but I could now see the top and I wanted to get up to the summit so I headed onward.
As the trail rounded the summit, I remembered that the map showed that the trail did not actually pass over the summit so I decided to go off trail and bushwack my way straight up the fall line to the summit. Boy was that hard going on my legs! The joke was on me though because when I scrambled up to the top of the rocky peak, I realized that I had not read my map close enough. About 1/2 mile away stood another peak which was about 100 feet higher in altitude... that one was Bonanza Peak! I scambled up to the wrong peak! I headed down to the trail and continued on until I got close and again set off bushwacking up to the summit, which by the way, was much steeper than the previous one. The summit was fantastic! I could see in every direction and especially the craggy peak of Mt Charleston, the highest peak in southern Nevada, and Area 51 which was almost dead north. There was a geocache box located in the cairn at the highest spot, so I sat down and wrote a little note in there for others who came along, took a few pictures (see my website http://webpages.charter.net/mtnrunner for those) and got ready to head back down. One last measurement showed my resting heart rate at 120 bpm and my oxygen saturation at 81%. I was at 10,406 feet above sea level and had run/climbed 4.71 miles and about 4,000 feet of elevation. Not a bad run.
One of the pictures I took at the summit was for a boy named Mikey C from New Canaan, CT. Mikey is friends with a friend and co-worker's sons and he is battling brain cancer currently. I have never met Mikey, but from the stories I heard about him, he is wise beyond his years and we could all use a little perspective like he has. He is beating the odds and I'll continue to think of him on my runs and carry his name on my back wherever I run. Never give up Mikey because we are all pulling for you! Even crazy people you have never met like me!
The run down was fast, I was decending with reckless abandon at times and was no longer worried about how cold the snow was. My legs and ankles actually ached with cold as I jumped through the snow banks. I hit bank at full speed and to my surprise, sunk up to my waist at full speed, which proceeded to stop me dead and I promptly face planted in the snow :-) My daughter Erica would have been proud! Of course this run through the snow had one bad effect, my shoes and socks were soaked and I could feel the chafing beginning but I just kept on flying down the hill to the car. In the end it was 8.63 miles round trip.
This run was a good test, but I have to say that adding another 4,000 feet of elevation to the run at Pike's Peak is going to make it SO much harder. I can't imagine how I will do it without walking at times. I know that I still don't fully comprehend the difficulty of the Pike's Peak Ascent but I did get a little sample this weekend!
Looking down from above
This post was written offline while I was flying from NY to NV on Saturday morning 5/17/08.
I flew over Pike's Peak today en route to Nevada. It was a beautifully clear morning with the sun shining so brilliantly below that it looked like Pike's snow-capped peak was glowing! My first reaction was one of excitement looking down so clearly on what I was preparing to ascend 3 months from now. However, then the awesome size of that massive mountain hit me. From above, it is plainly apparent that there is no other mountain in the area even close to its size. It's obvious height and girth makes it the big daddy of the mountains around Colorado Springs, and it was backing the clouds up as they tried to pass around and over it! What an incredible sight to see from 38,000 feet as we screeched by at 541 mph. If our approach to Las Vegas is on the vector I believe it to be, I think I'll be getting treated to looking down on Bonanza Peak the same way! I guess there is some good to having missed my flight last night due to Friday rush hour traffic in NY after all... had I flown out last night it would have been dark while flying over Colorado.
Flying out the morning of my run instead of the night before leaves me considerably less time to get off the plane, drive a few hours outside of Las Vegas to the mountains and run up Bonanza Peak & back before it gets dark, so the pressure is on to keep moving and not waste time today. I have a ton of nervous energy building up inside me and I am ready to go!
I flew over Pike's Peak today en route to Nevada. It was a beautifully clear morning with the sun shining so brilliantly below that it looked like Pike's snow-capped peak was glowing! My first reaction was one of excitement looking down so clearly on what I was preparing to ascend 3 months from now. However, then the awesome size of that massive mountain hit me. From above, it is plainly apparent that there is no other mountain in the area even close to its size. It's obvious height and girth makes it the big daddy of the mountains around Colorado Springs, and it was backing the clouds up as they tried to pass around and over it! What an incredible sight to see from 38,000 feet as we screeched by at 541 mph. If our approach to Las Vegas is on the vector I believe it to be, I think I'll be getting treated to looking down on Bonanza Peak the same way! I guess there is some good to having missed my flight last night due to Friday rush hour traffic in NY after all... had I flown out last night it would have been dark while flying over Colorado.
Flying out the morning of my run instead of the night before leaves me considerably less time to get off the plane, drive a few hours outside of Las Vegas to the mountains and run up Bonanza Peak & back before it gets dark, so the pressure is on to keep moving and not waste time today. I have a ton of nervous energy building up inside me and I am ready to go!
Friday, May 16, 2008
Tomorrow is a big test...
It's lunchtime the day before my first real altitude trail run. I already feel the nervous excitement building in anticipation. This will be my last mountain run before I begin my IHT ritual.
IHT is short for Intermittent Hypoxic Training, which is essentially conditioning your body to operate more efficiently in an environment with significantly less oxygen... like a high mountain top. A fellow Scouter, Dave Mestre, turned me on to this concept when he was training recently to climb Mt Kilimanjaro. The idea is that you breathe through this apparatus that filters the oxygen out of the air for an hour each night while hanging out. Your body recognizes that it is regularly getting less oxygen so it begins to create a substance called EPO to help your lungs and blood be more efficient about using the oxygen you do get.
Yes EPO is also what cheating cyclists illegally inject to gain an unfair advantage in the major tours around the world, but there is nothing wrong with simulating altitude to get your body to produce it naturally. The WADA has approved training at altitude and using altitude simulation devices as legal even for world-class athletes (which I am not).
I am bringing a pulse-oximeter with me tomorrow to measure my blood oxygen content before I leave my hotel room, when I leave my car in the 100 degree heat, and when I reach the summit. I have also been measuring it when I do my hill workouts down here in the flatlands and it never goes below 96% at very strenous levels and hovers at 98-99% at rest. This baseline will help me measure whether I actually see benefit from using an IHT program by the time I reach Pikes Peak.
Think of me tomorrow while I am out there on the trail, TTFN! (That's a Tigger-ism for those of you without young kids)
IHT is short for Intermittent Hypoxic Training, which is essentially conditioning your body to operate more efficiently in an environment with significantly less oxygen... like a high mountain top. A fellow Scouter, Dave Mestre, turned me on to this concept when he was training recently to climb Mt Kilimanjaro. The idea is that you breathe through this apparatus that filters the oxygen out of the air for an hour each night while hanging out. Your body recognizes that it is regularly getting less oxygen so it begins to create a substance called EPO to help your lungs and blood be more efficient about using the oxygen you do get.
Yes EPO is also what cheating cyclists illegally inject to gain an unfair advantage in the major tours around the world, but there is nothing wrong with simulating altitude to get your body to produce it naturally. The WADA has approved training at altitude and using altitude simulation devices as legal even for world-class athletes (which I am not).
I am bringing a pulse-oximeter with me tomorrow to measure my blood oxygen content before I leave my hotel room, when I leave my car in the 100 degree heat, and when I reach the summit. I have also been measuring it when I do my hill workouts down here in the flatlands and it never goes below 96% at very strenous levels and hovers at 98-99% at rest. This baseline will help me measure whether I actually see benefit from using an IHT program by the time I reach Pikes Peak.
Think of me tomorrow while I am out there on the trail, TTFN! (That's a Tigger-ism for those of you without young kids)
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Bonanza Peak or Bust!
Well I am ready to head off to NV on Friday evening and to run up Bonanza Peak on Saturday morning. It is supposed to be 100 degrees on Saturday in the dessert and will likely be about 30 degrees lower when I reach the summit. I am excited! The more challenging a run is the more I get excited about and this one should be a nasty one with the heat, the climb and the altitude :-)
My legs seem in good shape again right now. I took Sunday off totally and only did strength work on Monday with stretching. I ran a brisk 6 miles on Tuesday and felt great during and afterwards so I'm hoping my soleus cramping is behind me.
Watch for another blog entry Saturday or Sunday night on the results of my first climb at altitude. Getting up to 10,400 feet will be a big change from running at sea level!
My legs seem in good shape again right now. I took Sunday off totally and only did strength work on Monday with stretching. I ran a brisk 6 miles on Tuesday and felt great during and afterwards so I'm hoping my soleus cramping is behind me.
Watch for another blog entry Saturday or Sunday night on the results of my first climb at altitude. Getting up to 10,400 feet will be a big change from running at sea level!
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Race Stats on My Web Site
For those interested, I will be downloading my Garmin 305 GPS watch data from the race which includes my heart rate data as well as pace, grade, distance all graphed out. I'll start doing that for each of my big training runs and races going forwards.
One Down, Two to Go!
This will be a long post... a lot has transpired in the the past 24 hours since my last posting. I think someone was trying to send me a message not to run today... EVERYTHING went wrong leading up to the start.
I got a late start last night from home which meant I was not going to even arrive at my motel until 11:30pm. On the way I let my GPS talk me into taking the Taconic Parkway north to save time instead of my usual choice of the NY State Thruway (I-87) and while on a deserted section I got nailed in a speed trap allegedly doing 70 in a 55 mph zone. I tried honesty by telling the officer that I was not paying attention and realized I was going too fast just before he shot me. I also made sure he saw my Red Cross volunteer ID and Boy Scout membership card as I was getting out my license. As I was searching for my registration he asked me where I was going and I told him about the race and money I was raising for my two causes. I learned two things right then: I had no registration (I lost it a few months back and had not replaced it yet) and the officer giving me the ticket was not moved by my honesty or my propensity to volunteerism! I got a speeding ticket after all and he told me he'd cut me a break by not giving me a second ticket for not having my registration in the car. Some start to my trip...
This morning I woke up early, stretched and took a shower. It was then that I realized that I had forgotten to pack my running socks, and my tonic water, and my vitamins, and my magnesium... I think I remembered my brain but I'm not so sure. I had to wear my cotton socks from the day before since nothing was open before the race started at 9am... a great recipe for blisters!
I checked in at the race and found out that they had no shuttle coming back down from the top of the mountain and we all have to get back down on our own... oh yea, I also found out that the race was not 4.6 miles, but instead 5.7 miles! On any other day that wouldn't have even made me flinch, but with my calf problems it made a huge difference.
Warming up I mixed many short .25 to .5 mile runs with a lot of stretching and kneading of my lower legs, there was a sore spot deep in the outside of my right soleus that had been trying to work out sincec the night before and it was still there. I just hoped it would hold out for the race and decided that I woudl start very slow and see how things went and if I lasted 3 or 4 miles then I'd start turning up the heat a bit to test my legs out.
The gun went off at 9am sharp and I ran a very easy 8:40 pace for the first mile which is just a lazy hill. Lots of people were going out fast and I got passed left and right and it was hard to hang back, very hard. The second mile had some of the largest elevation gain and I slowed my pace to about 10:00 and was breathing extremely comfortably. At about 2.5 miles all those rabbits who passed me in mile 1 started coming back to me after burning out on the first hill. From that point on, not a single person passed me and stayed ahead of me the rest of the way. I continued to run easily through mile marker 4 and with 1.7 miles to go I felt good and relaxed so I started to speed up and passed more people. The last mile to the summit I started breathing hard and I pushed and 4 guys grouped up and pushed each other to the end. Two of us dropped the others and we see-sawed to the finish with me edging him out at the finish by a nose. It turned out that we were both in the same 40-44 division so that made the difference beween me finishing 5th place instead of 6th place in my division. I finished in a time of 53:16 for the 5.7 miles and 1,600 feet of climb. Not bad but I had a LOT left at the end since I really hadn't pushed myself at the start.
I was so glad that my leg held out but I was not looking forward to running another 5.7 miles back down the hill on pavement. One of the runners told me that if I went down the hiking trail instead it would only be about 1 mile straight down the mountain and no more than 30 minutes. It didn't take any more convincing and I headed down the trail... only to find out that it was very rocky, and for the most part a hike down the middle of a stream. After the rain the day before the water was taking the path of least resistance down the trail so by the time I got to the bottom my shoes were filled with mud and water and those day-old cotton socks had left some nice blisters on my feet :-(
All in all, the race turned out good despite the many mental lapses I had leading up to it. I was in the shape I had intended to be in... the training runs up Bear Mountain and Sleeping Giant as well as the long boring runs on my treadmill were paying off! I was surprised, though I noticed that many, many people were looking at my shirt and reading it, no one asked me about it.
Next up... 10,400 foot Bonanza Peak in Nevada next weekend...
I got a late start last night from home which meant I was not going to even arrive at my motel until 11:30pm. On the way I let my GPS talk me into taking the Taconic Parkway north to save time instead of my usual choice of the NY State Thruway (I-87) and while on a deserted section I got nailed in a speed trap allegedly doing 70 in a 55 mph zone. I tried honesty by telling the officer that I was not paying attention and realized I was going too fast just before he shot me. I also made sure he saw my Red Cross volunteer ID and Boy Scout membership card as I was getting out my license. As I was searching for my registration he asked me where I was going and I told him about the race and money I was raising for my two causes. I learned two things right then: I had no registration (I lost it a few months back and had not replaced it yet) and the officer giving me the ticket was not moved by my honesty or my propensity to volunteerism! I got a speeding ticket after all and he told me he'd cut me a break by not giving me a second ticket for not having my registration in the car. Some start to my trip...
This morning I woke up early, stretched and took a shower. It was then that I realized that I had forgotten to pack my running socks, and my tonic water, and my vitamins, and my magnesium... I think I remembered my brain but I'm not so sure. I had to wear my cotton socks from the day before since nothing was open before the race started at 9am... a great recipe for blisters!
I checked in at the race and found out that they had no shuttle coming back down from the top of the mountain and we all have to get back down on our own... oh yea, I also found out that the race was not 4.6 miles, but instead 5.7 miles! On any other day that wouldn't have even made me flinch, but with my calf problems it made a huge difference.
Warming up I mixed many short .25 to .5 mile runs with a lot of stretching and kneading of my lower legs, there was a sore spot deep in the outside of my right soleus that had been trying to work out sincec the night before and it was still there. I just hoped it would hold out for the race and decided that I woudl start very slow and see how things went and if I lasted 3 or 4 miles then I'd start turning up the heat a bit to test my legs out.
The gun went off at 9am sharp and I ran a very easy 8:40 pace for the first mile which is just a lazy hill. Lots of people were going out fast and I got passed left and right and it was hard to hang back, very hard. The second mile had some of the largest elevation gain and I slowed my pace to about 10:00 and was breathing extremely comfortably. At about 2.5 miles all those rabbits who passed me in mile 1 started coming back to me after burning out on the first hill. From that point on, not a single person passed me and stayed ahead of me the rest of the way. I continued to run easily through mile marker 4 and with 1.7 miles to go I felt good and relaxed so I started to speed up and passed more people. The last mile to the summit I started breathing hard and I pushed and 4 guys grouped up and pushed each other to the end. Two of us dropped the others and we see-sawed to the finish with me edging him out at the finish by a nose. It turned out that we were both in the same 40-44 division so that made the difference beween me finishing 5th place instead of 6th place in my division. I finished in a time of 53:16 for the 5.7 miles and 1,600 feet of climb. Not bad but I had a LOT left at the end since I really hadn't pushed myself at the start.
I was so glad that my leg held out but I was not looking forward to running another 5.7 miles back down the hill on pavement. One of the runners told me that if I went down the hiking trail instead it would only be about 1 mile straight down the mountain and no more than 30 minutes. It didn't take any more convincing and I headed down the trail... only to find out that it was very rocky, and for the most part a hike down the middle of a stream. After the rain the day before the water was taking the path of least resistance down the trail so by the time I got to the bottom my shoes were filled with mud and water and those day-old cotton socks had left some nice blisters on my feet :-(
All in all, the race turned out good despite the many mental lapses I had leading up to it. I was in the shape I had intended to be in... the training runs up Bear Mountain and Sleeping Giant as well as the long boring runs on my treadmill were paying off! I was surprised, though I noticed that many, many people were looking at my shirt and reading it, no one asked me about it.
Next up... 10,400 foot Bonanza Peak in Nevada next weekend...
At the Starting Line of Race #1
Well my first race tomorrow is looking to be cold and windy but at least dry. I am not sure how my legs will hold up though since I have only run a 1mi and a 0.5mi run in the last week due to my Soleus cramping and inflammation. I have gotten in Eliptical distance and pool running time as well as my normal strength training but that is not the same. I'll instead look on the bright side at this as a medically forced "taper" before the race!
I read that magnesium chloride tablets and vitamin E help to prevent cramping. One of the owners at Woodbridge Running Company (my favorite local running store) told me that bananas and Tonic Water with quinine helps as well. Further research on the internet uncovered Epsom Salts (magnesium sulfate) baths help cramping and sore muscles as well. Finally my Dad told me that slurping a packet of yellow mustard relieves a cramp almost instantly at the time it is occurring. I decided to use the shotgun approach... I bought "SlowMag" and Vitamin E tablets, a hand of bananas, a box of Epsom Salts and a six pack of Tonic Water... sorry Dad I couldn't bring myself to slurp mustard during a race... I'd end up blowing chunks on the side of the road :-(
I'm loaded up with ammunition and ready to make the long drive to Lake George tonight for a 9am start!
Well, I forgot to hit "Publish Post" last night so although the date may say Saturday 5/10/08, this was actually written last night before I headed out to upstate NY.
I read that magnesium chloride tablets and vitamin E help to prevent cramping. One of the owners at Woodbridge Running Company (my favorite local running store) told me that bananas and Tonic Water with quinine helps as well. Further research on the internet uncovered Epsom Salts (magnesium sulfate) baths help cramping and sore muscles as well. Finally my Dad told me that slurping a packet of yellow mustard relieves a cramp almost instantly at the time it is occurring. I decided to use the shotgun approach... I bought "SlowMag" and Vitamin E tablets, a hand of bananas, a box of Epsom Salts and a six pack of Tonic Water... sorry Dad I couldn't bring myself to slurp mustard during a race... I'd end up blowing chunks on the side of the road :-(
I'm loaded up with ammunition and ready to make the long drive to Lake George tonight for a 9am start!
Well, I forgot to hit "Publish Post" last night so although the date may say Saturday 5/10/08, this was actually written last night before I headed out to upstate NY.
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
And Another Thing...
I shouldn't have posted so fast before... I forgot to tell you all that I did my first iteration of my race shirt for this weekend! My test on an old polyester running shirt that I have way, WAY overworn (but its SO comfortable) didn't do so well. The transfer peeled right back off. I panicked because I had no options for creating a shirt otherwise (crayons were looking pretty good for a while). I decided that having my shirts redone professionally each week or two would get very expensive to do so I found a really nice bright yellow shirt made of 100% recycled polyester that is soft and light and then by ironing on the design myself I figure I can save some money. Alas I tried ironing it on the actual shirt I planned to wear, and ironed it more, and then just a bit more! Thank goodness it mostly took, I have a fairly decent front now and I'll finish the back tomorrow night when I get the details from the first few people who are honoring their loved ones on the back of my shirt. Thank you to each of you! I'm on my way to my goal! I'll put some pictures up on my web site when I do the back... don't forget http://webpages.charter.net/mtnrunner
One Step Forward and One Step Back
Well this week has been both frustrating and rewarding so far. I felt so glad to have my blog up and my web site mostly complete. It was very rewarding to have such positive feedback from my first few e-mails to my friends and co-workers and folks started to write on my wall of my web site with encouragement which always helps! But this week has been frustrating as well, I have been very tired all week and no matter what I eat, I have a craving to eat more which is not very good for my balanced diet since what I crave is junk! I think I got a little overzealous last week and overtrained and it is manifesting itself in a number of ways including my diet. I also only got 0.5 miles out on my run Monday and had to turn back on a beautiful day made for a nice long run! My soleus muscles in my calves knotted up and I could barely move by the time I hit the entrance to Great Hollow Lake (the local park). The urge was to keep going and hope it would clear up as my muscles warmed up, but I did the smart thing and turned around for home. 1.1 miles isn't even worth getting into my running shoes for, but that's all I had to show for my run and I was furiously icing my legs when I got home. I could barely walk all evening, and yesterday (Tuesday) I didn't dare try to run yet though I felt somewhat better... I did strength work only and was careful not overdo it on my calves.
Even today (Wednesday) I did not run, I brought my Aqua Jogger belt with me to Boston for work and spent 50 mind numbing minutes in the company pool doing pool running. It was a good workout and I felt good as a result, thank goodness my friend Paul Moyse turned me onto pool running as a zero impact alternative last year! I hope to run in the morning and see how my legs fair as I am only 2 days away from the first mountain race in the Adirondacks this weekend. Say a prayer for my legs! They feel normal tonight and I'll stretch again and hope for the best tomorrow.
Oh yea, I got my story posted on a blog site called the Good Guy Club... http://www.thegoodguyclub.com/blog/ thanks Rob! The more people that hear about what I'm trying to do the more people might be interested in getting involved! I'd love to have my shirt PLASTERED with tributes and have to start adding them to my shorts too :-)
Even today (Wednesday) I did not run, I brought my Aqua Jogger belt with me to Boston for work and spent 50 mind numbing minutes in the company pool doing pool running. It was a good workout and I felt good as a result, thank goodness my friend Paul Moyse turned me onto pool running as a zero impact alternative last year! I hope to run in the morning and see how my legs fair as I am only 2 days away from the first mountain race in the Adirondacks this weekend. Say a prayer for my legs! They feel normal tonight and I'll stretch again and hope for the best tomorrow.
Oh yea, I got my story posted on a blog site called the Good Guy Club... http://www.thegoodguyclub.com/blog/ thanks Rob! The more people that hear about what I'm trying to do the more people might be interested in getting involved! I'd love to have my shirt PLASTERED with tributes and have to start adding them to my shorts too :-)
Sunday, May 4, 2008
Lets get it started!
Well I've been training for 5 months now so its not like you'll be able to follow me from the very start of my journey but at least you can tag along with me for the most important part!
Up to this point it has been rather boring... running miles and miles outside, or dying of boredom through the winter on the bad running days by spending time on my treadmill or eliptical in my basement workout room. Monroe has no sidewalks or shoulders on the road so when there is snow on the ground it gets too dangerous for my taste to run outside most days. I am now a week away from my first real mountain race... the Prospect Mountain Road Race which is relatively easy. It's only 4.5 miles with a 1,600 foot elevation gain in the Adirandack range of NY so it's not long, not very steep and not at altitude, but it is a start to gauge how I have trained to date.
Since the spring has come I have run each weekend on trails in the "mountains" of northwest CT. I ran over our highest mountain peak, Bear Mountain, at 2,300 feet last weekend so they are not REAL mountains but again, its a start for a flatlander like me. During the winter when running trails would have been suicide, I was forced to put my treadmill on the max incline (12%) and just start running for 3 or 4 boring miles each week (it's all the mind-numbing, running in place on a "hill" I could take).
I have been struggling with various shin, achilles and ankle ailments for the last 2 months and they wont go away. The days I run trails I have no issues but when I hit the roads they come right back. I sure hope I can find a way to get rid of them, because it is holding me back a bit right now. I have numerous pairs of running shoes for the road and none seem to help or hurt me in any different way. My NewBalance 1223s are absolutely the most comfortable but rather heavy and my Asics Gel Landreths are light but not as cushioned. I will say however that I LOVE my trail running shoes... they are awesome! I have a pair of Solomon SpeedCross 2 shoes that have superb support, cushioning and protection from rocks on the trails. They also have the best footbed of any running shoe I have ever owned and they are light to boot!
Gotta get to bed so I can get out on the trails early in the am!
Up to this point it has been rather boring... running miles and miles outside, or dying of boredom through the winter on the bad running days by spending time on my treadmill or eliptical in my basement workout room. Monroe has no sidewalks or shoulders on the road so when there is snow on the ground it gets too dangerous for my taste to run outside most days. I am now a week away from my first real mountain race... the Prospect Mountain Road Race which is relatively easy. It's only 4.5 miles with a 1,600 foot elevation gain in the Adirandack range of NY so it's not long, not very steep and not at altitude, but it is a start to gauge how I have trained to date.
Since the spring has come I have run each weekend on trails in the "mountains" of northwest CT. I ran over our highest mountain peak, Bear Mountain, at 2,300 feet last weekend so they are not REAL mountains but again, its a start for a flatlander like me. During the winter when running trails would have been suicide, I was forced to put my treadmill on the max incline (12%) and just start running for 3 or 4 boring miles each week (it's all the mind-numbing, running in place on a "hill" I could take).
I have been struggling with various shin, achilles and ankle ailments for the last 2 months and they wont go away. The days I run trails I have no issues but when I hit the roads they come right back. I sure hope I can find a way to get rid of them, because it is holding me back a bit right now. I have numerous pairs of running shoes for the road and none seem to help or hurt me in any different way. My NewBalance 1223s are absolutely the most comfortable but rather heavy and my Asics Gel Landreths are light but not as cushioned. I will say however that I LOVE my trail running shoes... they are awesome! I have a pair of Solomon SpeedCross 2 shoes that have superb support, cushioning and protection from rocks on the trails. They also have the best footbed of any running shoe I have ever owned and they are light to boot!
Gotta get to bed so I can get out on the trails early in the am!
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