Run Around North Asheville

The Workout:
5.86 miles @ 7:31 min/mile pace
(per google maps)

Ahhh finally. Today was my first run in a week. I didn't have much of a plan but ended up looping around North Asheville. I felt good the first half but then started to tire and backed off a bit on the way back up into town. I'd like to start working out more regularly again but not having a specific event to train for makes the motivation a little more challenging.

Post Half Run and Workout

Post Half-Marathon Run and Workout

The Workout:
2 miles - 8 min/mile pace
15 minutes of stretching
3 x 15 dips
2 x 25 sit-ups
1 x 20 crunches
3 x 20 pushups
3 x 10 pull-ups
1/4 mile slow jog back home

Today I ran around our back neighborhood ending at Johnston Elementary School. I took the first mile easy and then slowly cranked it up until I hit the stop sign at the top of the hill at the Johnston blvd, bear creek rd intersection. At the school playground, I stretched things out and did a few sets of dips and pull-ups on the equipment. After slow jogging back home, I finished up the remaining sets of pull-ups, push-ups and sit-ups.

It felt pretty good and I'm off for a protein shake.

Star City Half Marathon - Roanoke, VA

Star City Half Marathon - Roanoke, VA

The Workout:

Half Marathon 1:34:28 PR!

The ladies and I rolled up to Elliston for an early Thanksgiving dinner with Bethany's family this past weekend. Late last week, I was browsing BRO online, looking for race options for the weekend and came across the Star City Half-Marathon. I thought it would be cool to do a race totally unplanned for and decided to make the call when I woke up Saturday morning. Saturday morning came and I was up at the crack of dawn thinking about the race. Resolved to go run, I went downstairs and sucked back a quick breakfast of Cheerios and a banana. Ellie woke up while I was getting ready but fortunately for Bethany, Grandma and Papa Lonnie were already up and ready to play. Early registration started at 7am and I arrived just a few minutes after at Rockwood climbing gym to sign up. After registering, I had some time to kill so I just lounged out in the car listening to one of the XM radio comedy channels for the next hour. In between spurts of laughing out loud, I tried to develop a game plan for the race. Would I go out strong and try for a P.R. or just take it as a leisurely long run? Finally, I decided to just wing it and shoot for a nice medium pace of 7:30 miles. I also resolved to leave the batman belt and just use the supplies of water, gatorade and gu provided by the race support staff. Around 8:15 I went inside to get ready. Now was another tough decision... what to wear? It was about 40 degrees fahrenheit by 8:30 and most people seemed to be dressed for cold weather running with tights, long sleeve wind breakers and warm hats. At first, I resolved to run with gloves, tights, running shorts, a long sleeve underarmor shirt and a long sleeve tshirt. As the 9 o'clock hour approached, I must have changed clothes 5 different times as it got progressively warmer. With 3 minutes to go until the gun, I jumped back in the car and took everything off except for a pair of running shorts, a wicking short sleeved t-shirt and some light gloves. I was cold for the start but this ended up saving my bacon in the end as most people ended up being way overdressed when the sun popped over the ridge. Around 500 people assembled at the start line for the simultaneous release of the 5k and half-marathon races. The gun went off and we all shuffled along for the first 100 yds until things started to open up. I decided to take it easy for the first mile to get warmed up and then just play it by ear from then on. I kept the horses reigned in ok for the first half mile but the normal sensation of looking around and sizing up my co-competitors settled in. "I should be faster than that dude" so I would pass him. "That guy is old and I should be faster than him..." pass again. I did this for about 5 minutes until I came to the realization that most of the people I was passing that looked like they should be slower than me were actually running the 5k which followed the same course. I felt pretty silly as they peeled off for their last leg at the 2.5 mile mark. I was running around a 7:20 pace for those first few miles. As I got warmed up I started inching down closer to a 7:15 pace. Miles 4 and 5, I was running with some guys claiming to be shooting for an average 7:30 pace. Miles 5 and 6, they started to pull away. I thought to myself that they would die later in the race and that they were going too fast for their projected pace. By mile 7, I recalculated my pace and realized that it was actually I who had slowed down to the mid 7:20s and they had stayed consistently around 7:15. Around the halfway mark, there was a man rattling off times. As I passed, he looked at me and said 45:05. I couldn't believe it. That would put me on pace for a 1:30:00 finish if I sped up ever so slightly. I was baffled but stoked at the same time. I sped up a bit and caught up with a guy who reminded me of Lonnie, all bulked up and military looking but huffing and puffing. He was shooting for a 7:30 average and a PR performance. I noted that we were quite a bit ahead of that schedule and figured that he would probably drop towards the end. We talked for a while and then for some reason when we passed the mile marker 8, it hit me hard that there was only 5 miles left in this thing. I was feeling pretty good so I opened it up a bit. For the next 4 miles, I progressively sped up, dropping down to around a 7:05 pace. With one mile to go, I was very ready to slow down but just kept ticking off the minutes, knowing there wasn't much further to go. I was able to bag a few more positions and the last was the most strategic. I made the final turn with 1000 yards to the finish and just one person within reachable distance. I started to speed up but quickly realized that if I simply increased my pace to catch and pass him by the finish, he would naturally speed up and fight off the attack. My only hope was to break his spirit immediately and then hope he didn't realize that I had nothing left when I got in front of him. I realize that this was pretty silly seeing as how I was not in contention for anything and that guy probably didn't give a crap about beating me but it was fun to tap into my competitive spirit. I got the sensation that I was back in a high school track meet and everything was on the line. I pounded the pavement and hawked the dude down. He started to speed up but I was at almost a full sprint and passed him agressively and decisively. As I passed, I literally saw his head drop and shoulders slightly slump and heard him say "good finish". I held the pace just long enough to create a space of a few strides and then practically coasted in to the finish line with absolutely nothing left in the tank. I looked down at my watch hoping to have run a sub 1:30:00 but it told another story. 1:34:28... The time teller either had the wrong time, or was not at the half way mark because I ran the second half of the race much faster and was no where near the 1:30:00 I had projected. Never the less, I probably wouldn't have run as fast if I hadn't seen him and the end result was a personal best so I am glad he was there. I received my finisher's medal and ran a few minutes cool down jog on a soft soccer field resulting in some light calf cramping. This was another good sign and it felt good to think that I really left it all out there on the course. I grabbed a few oranges and jumped in the car to head to Thanksgiving dinner back in Elliston. The rest of the day was spent lounging in a lazy-boy nursing a bit of a dehydration headache, eating the biggest meal of my life and then later feeling much better, going out to see the 3D version of Beowulf with Jason, Lisa and Bethany. The movie was almost as entertaining as us cruising around Salem with our 3D glasses still on joking about how everything really did look 3D and was "super awesome!".

Last night, I finally got around to looking up the official race results and was surprised to find out that I came in 36th place overall out of 260 participants but more importantly, came in third out of the age groups from 20 to 29 yrs old. This would have actually earned me an award had I stuck around for the results. Se la vie', it was well worth the experience.

Tuesday Lunch Run w/ Ewing

Tuesday Lunch Run w/ Ewing

THE WORKOUT:

4 - 5 miles (48 minutes)
conversational pace
standard Montford -> WT weaver -> Charlotte St -> downtown loop.

John and I had a nice run over lunch. It was just what my legs needed to get loosened up from this weekend's hike. My quads are still pretty tight.

Greybeard Hike w/ Ellie

Greybeard hike w/ Ellie

THE WORKOUT:

Hike up to the top of Greybeard Mtn (5,376 ft asl) from Montreat trailhead (2,400 ft asl) and back.
30lbs of kid, water, food and clothing
5.5 hours round trip



Sunday, Ellie and I hiked Greybeard. I have previously always stopped at the AT shelter and cruised out to Walker's knob so it was nice to finally see the top. The view of the northern Pisgah mountains and Mt. Mitchell was spectacular as it was an uncommonly clear day. The temperature was perfect for hiking but I had to bundle Ellie up like a ball of cotton candy so she wouldn't get cold. She made a big game of high fivin' all of the blue trail markers along the way. We topped out around 2PM after coming across a 4 some of older folks on their way back down. I was seriously impressed as their mean age was probably late 60's early 70's. Ellie fell asleep on the way down and I essentially speedwalked the whole way back to the car. Afterwards, we kept up the tradition of eating at El Cocula Mexican restraunt in Swannanoah. Mmmmm mmmm good!

First Run After Shut-In

First Run After Shut-In

The Workout:
1 mile jog
20 minutes slow stretching
1.5 mile jog

I finally woke up without a fever after 3 days of being sick. I felt pretty good and the weather was nice so I took my legs for a quick spin over lunch. I felt good but managed to keep the pace down at an easy jog. I ran over to McCormick stadium and had a nice long stretch session in the sun. It was around 55 degrees but blue skies. After stretching I wound my way up Charlotte street and through downtown back to work.

It felt really good to get out but I uncovered some soreness left over from the weekend. I'll probably take another couple of days off to be prudent. Hopefully I can make it to the pool tomorrow.

Shut-In Ridge Trail Run 2007

SHUT-IN

The Workout:

17.8 miles of running/hiking
5,000 cumulative vft of climbing
2,000 cumulative vft of descending

3 mile hike to Pisgah summit and back w/ 30lbs of kid, water, food and clothing in backpack.
800 vft each way







Saturday was an absolutely beautiful day with bluebird skies and temps in the 60s. The autumn leaves are absolutely amazing right now. At the bottom, most of the leaves were still on the trees, but at the top, most had already fallen providing long range views. I woke up totally in Zen mode and calmly went through my pre-race routine. The last thing I did before leaving the house was brush my teeth and for some reason, looking in the mirror gave me a brief spell of pre-race butterflies. That quickly subsided and we rounded up the family and headed to the NC Arboretum for the pre-race meeting.

After having a rough week and 3 days home looking after Ellie without much sleep, I had setup a couple of different objectives so that no matter the outcome, I would end up with a personal best of some sort. The first objective was to PR. If I made it to the halfway mark in under an hour and a half, the plan was to push it and go for the kill. If I was slower than that, I would fall back to objective 2, which was to run a medium pace and get to the top feeling good enough to toss Ellie in the babybackpack and hike up to the summit of the mountain with Dad and Bethany from the finish line. (The race actually finishes in the Mt. Pisgah trail head parking lot which is 1.5 miles one way and ~800 vertical feet up to the summit)

Dad (who is in town this week) met Bethany and I at the Arboretum to help juggle Ellie and help with my water/food stops. At 10AM the gun fired and we were off. The first 2 miles or so are pretty chill rolling hills. I “ran into” quite a few people I know and I mostly listened as they spouted off race gossip about the front runners. I was wearing a heart rate monitor and noticed my rate was up over 170. I have learned to use this as my power output meter to keep me from going out too fast in the first part of a race. My shut-in game plan is to keep my heart rate down under 165 bpm during the first half (except for the steep hills that send me through the roof).

I tried a few things including changing my posture, really optimizing my form, and then finally slowing down for about a minute on one easy section. I think of a HRM as being synonymous with the Windows Task manager that shows % CPU output. Through trial and error, I have a good idea how hard my CPU should be working during certain common tasks. Just like a computer, if the CPU is working harder than your benchmarks, you know some other process is using valuable CPU cycles from the rest of the system. No matter what I did short of stopping and doing some situps, my bpm stayed in the 170s. I felt pretty good so I just settled into a nice even medium pace and cruised along. I figured the most likely candidate was my immune system process mobilizing to fend off some stupid Ellie bug. Not much to do about that.

I stayed on pace and passed quite a few people on the hills. I knew it would be close as I clipped on in to the halfway mark at Bent Creek gap and made it there in 1:29:05 with 55 seconds to spare. Dad told me I was in 39th place. I was happy because a lot of people go out too fast during the first half and end up literally crawling hands and feet up the last mile long, ridiculously steep and sustained hill. I was also slightly bummed because my HRM was still not telling me good things. Whatever, I was feeling positive and rolled on.

By the 12th mile marker, I started cramping up slightly in both Quads… during a relatively easy flat section no less. Sh*t. Most running books will tell you this is most likely the result of running out of something. Dehydration and low electrolytes top the list. I immediately dumped both flasks of water/Gatorade from my belt down the hatch and slowed down. Within a half mile, I felt like I had two giant apples imbedded in my Quads right above the knee and was forced to stop, stretch and then walk a bit. It was very weird because my breathing was fine and I felt fine other than feeling like a young Forrest Gump wearing rusty metal braces impeding my mobility. At the next two aid stations I drank a lot, ate a banana and a PowerBar. Dad and Bethany just looked a mixture of sad and concerned as they watched me lope in to each aid station. I just smiled real big and said I was cool and that I just blew up and was in survival mode. I repeatedly told them not to worry. I would get there eventually.

With 3 miles to go, I began recovering and loosening up but people were still passing me left and right. I heartily encouraged them all on their way and kept putting one foot in front of the other, sometimes jogging and sometimes walking. One friend I’ve destroyed the last two years came steadily along and then what seemed like a whole slew of old fogies and women of the non-badass variety came on through. Haha. I laughed out loud when I thought how similar to getting the slow Go-Kart at an amusement park this felt like. I felt great driving and had no lack of competitive spirit but my wheels just sucked. By the time I made it to the last 2 mile section, I had for the most part recovered from cramping. Few people passed me and I passed quite a few. (most of which were moaning and groaning “When will this hill ever end! while intermittently crawling). My co-worker came with in 30 yards of me at one point but I fended off the 0.5 mi/hr attack by keeping my walking pace even with his. As I hit the last crest and prepared to roll downhill the final ¾ miles to the parking lot, I was in unbelievably good spirits. I passed around 5 people, all who were just dying. 20 yds short of the finish, still obscured by the trees I did something strange. I stopped and let one dude who beat me to the high point pass back by and finish ahead of me, saying “You earned it man, Good job”. That felt good. I wasn’t in position to PR but was a couple of minutes faster than the first year I ran it.

My finish time for the 17.8 miles was 3 hrs 20 minutes and a few milliseconds. I looked this morning and was surprised to find that I finished in 50th place. It sure felt like more people passed me than that after the half way point but who am I to complain :o)

I have never finished a Shut-In Race feeling better, physically and mentally. Both Dad and Bethany noticed me jovially walking around and congratulating those people I knew and made comments that I must not have run hard enough if I felt so good. I still don’t think they understand. I would love to bust into the awards and have and will work my butt off to do it. I still can’t feel bad about just enjoying the hello out of the run. Soooo….after a bit of negotiation and me offering to carry food, water and Ellie, I convinced Bethany and Dad to hike up to the summit with me. The view was spectacular for 360o. Dad got all sentimental as he could see his old flying romping grounds. Bethany had a great time and enjoyed taking lots of pictures. Ellie just chilled out and enjoyed the walk.

All in all, it was as good an experience as I could have asked for.

I still felt awesome for another two hours, like I could to go home and repaint the house or tile the living room entry way. After a delicious lunch at a local Greek shop, we finally went home. Once there, exhaustion hit with me like a ton of bricks. I took a light 4 hour nap, woke up for dinner and went back to sleep for the night. Sunday I slept in until 11am (including the time change) and then lay around all day on the couch feeling sore from head to toe. Not muscular sore, but the kind of feverish soreness that feels like every hair follicle on your body has been ripped out of its socket and inserted somewhere else. Whatever my body had been fighting had taken the upper hand and I fell into a 103o fever that didn’t break until early this morning. I’m at work now but wearing a big jacket in a room full of honkies in t-shirts. I still say it was worth every second :o)

Shut-In Tune up run.

Wednesday Shut-In Tune up run.

The Workout:
30 minutes jogging around Malvern Hills during Halloween.

Friday Hashville Harrier Run

Friday Hashville Harrier Run

The Workout:
6 miles of dashing about and silliness
1 mile run back to car 6 min/mile pace
Many 12 oz curls

This weeks hash run was awesome. Gary and I acted as "Live Hares" and took off about 10 minutes ahead of the hounds. Since this hash was a Halloween themed event, everyone graciously showedup with a wide variety of costumes. In the picture above, I'm barely visible in the black Batman costume behind Gary the ninja. The whole run was about 4.5 miles along the true trail but most of the FRBs probably put in closer to 5 or 6 miles. We led them through all sorts of weird nooks and crannies of North Asheville including the Montford Cemetery, the Amphitheatre and a dozen or so unknown backalleys, cut-throughs and greenways. The hounds followed our trail of crude markings made with white flour sprayed in dots and symbols from the 6 or so water bottles we carried. The first beer stop was at a Hasher house. We had a keg, a trampoline and tons of snacks from the dollar store there. We again took off ahead of the crowd and it was fun keeping the hounds at bay with many false trails and dead ends. The final party destination was at another gracious host's house who had a nice fire going. After the usual cerimony, much drinking and singing, several of us headed out to Westville Pub in full costume to crash "Trivia Night". The last thing I will say is that if you have never run through a cemetery at night with a full moon overhead wearing a superhero cape... You have got to try it!

For those of you unfamiliar with "Hashing", check one of the following links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hash_House_Harriers
http://half-mind.com/Hashing/who.htm#2

On On . . .