Born Again Runner -

The Importance of Post-Race Recovery

steve — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 16:25:19 -0400

Nike+ Human Race

steve — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 23:37:14 -0400

Today was the big day for the Nike+ 10k. I had originally planned on running it this morning, but having imbibed a little too much last night, I wasn't really feeling my best when I woke up. As a matter of fact, I felt kind of "off" the entire day. I'm not really sure what it was, but I actually considered bailing on the race.

We went to my parent's house this afternoon for some Labor Day festivities meaning I didn't get out for my run until about 9pm. And of course I made the brilliant race day decision to have about 20 hot wings for dinner!

Why yes, that IS a vat of hot grease burning a hole in my stomach! So kind of you to notice.

So after putting it off for about as long as I possibly could, I headed out the door, did a quick warm-up jog and started my race.

My goal was 50 minutes, so I knew I'd have to hit 5:00 per kilometer. I went out pretty fast and felt alright, but right around 2.5 miles I hit a big hill and the pace slowed to about 5:30 per km. Things stayed right around there for pretty much the rest of the race, or until the last mile or so. I was able to pick things up at the end for an official time of 52:18. (No, I still haven't calibrated my Nike+)

When I got home and mapped out my route on mapmyrun.com, it came out to about 6.8 miles, which comes out to a 7:40 pace which would've been good for a 47:43 10k! Either way, I'm happy with my result, and really just happy that I finished it!

Worldwide Festival of Races 2008

steve — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:02:32 -0400

I was innocently listening to my new favorite podcast, The Runner's Roundtable, when I heard them mention the Worldwide Half. I remember Nigel talking about it a number of times on his podcast last year, so I was at least aware of it. But when they said it was coming up in October, I was a little shocked.

Apparently I signed up for the half-marathon back in June! Well, that certainly changes the training plan doesn't it?

At this point, it's probably too late to do any proper training for it, but I'll do it anyway. There aren't any local half-marathons scheduled for that weekend, so I'll just run a 13.1 mile route around here and see how it goes!

Not the way I envisioned my half-marathon debut but such is life!

Ready for Sunday

steve — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 22:58:04 -0400

In preparation for Sunday's Nike+ Human Race, I thought I'd go out tonight and give my planned 10k course a test drive. I've never raced a distance longer than 5k, so I wanted to try and see how I would feel keeping the pace around 8:15 - 8:30, which would be pretty close to my anticipated race pace.

It was around 75 degrees with low humidity by the time I started around 8:30pm. Surprisingly enough, my legs felt pretty fresh after yesterday's 9-miler. I was worried that my Achilles would start bothering me again, or my quads would feel dead, but overall everything felt really good!

I started out the first mile pretty conservatively just to get the legs warmed up but picked up the pace for miles 2 and 3 because that part of the route is fairly flat, and I knew I had a couple miles of hills (both up and down) coming up that could (WOULD) slow me down.

I managed to keep the pace pretty steady through the toughest part of the course and had enough left for the last mile and a half, which is mostly downhill or flat! I ended up finishing in 48:38, which is way faster than my goal of 50:00 so I'm pretty confident going into Sunday.

However, I face the Nike+ dilemma in that my Plus is STILL not reporting distances properly. For example, it reported tonight's run as 5.52 miles. So, I decided that if I'm not able to get the thing properly calibrated before Sunday, I'll run the 10k according to the Nike+ even though that will give me a slower time. I think that's the only way I can really participate anyway. Oh well!

I have one more short run planned for this week and then I'm going to take Friday and Saturday off from running to rest up for the race. It should be a fun one, even if I'm running it alone!

Longest Run Yet

steve — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 23:13:44 -0400

Yesterday's 9-miler was postponed to today for really no good reason except I was being lazy. I'll admit I was a little worried about this run since I haven't really tried to run for more than an hour at a time in pretty much forever. And as a diabetic, I really have to be concerned about my blood sugar levels during exercise, especially on long(er) runs. I carry my glucose tablets on every run and thankfully have not had to use them yet.

It's also a little concerning since I usually run at night, and even though I run on moderately trafficked roads, there's always that fear that my blood sugar is going to drop and I'm going to pass out in a ditch or something.

All that being said, I went for my run anyway! I wasn't really shooting for any specific pace, I just wanted to finish, so I tried to keep things slow. Things felt pretty good until about mile 2 when my left Achilles/calf started bothering me. This has happened before and I know that if I keep running, it usually loosens up and the pain goes away.

Then at around mile 3 I started feeling weird, almost light-headed. I considered stopping, or cutting my run short, but instead decided to pop in to Rite-Aid for a Gatorade G2 and a Soy Joy bar. I downed the Soy Joy and about half the Gatorade and continued on my route. That seemed to do the trick, as I felt much better over the last 2/3 of the run.

Once I finished, I was pretty happy to see my time (1:24:06) which works out to a 9:38 on the Nike+ (9:12 when adjusted for the incorrect distance reported by the Nike+). It's funny that 9:12 is exactly what I would need to run a half-marathon in 2 hours. Not that I'm planning on running a half-marathon anytime soon, but still.

Even more impressive were my splits.

Mile 1	9:36
Mile 2	9:37
Mile 3	9:30
Mile 4	10:18*
Mile 5	9:44
Mile 6	9:27
Mile 7	9:37
Mile 8	9:26
The last bit	9:23

Pretty sweet, especially considering I wasn't really paying much attention to my time or pace during the run. Oh, and that 10+ mile in Mile 4 was the part where I walked for a little bit while I had my Gatorade.

Right towards the end my legs started feeling really dead, and my knees were starting to get a little sore. Nothing major, and I probably could've continued for a couple more miles, but I didn't want to get too crazy and injure something, so I stopped.

It felt good to get this run under my belt! Maybe I'll do a half-marathon after all!

Better Late Than Never

steve — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 17:25:54 -0400

I just came across this the other day: The Diabetic Runner Challenge.

I got a late start, having only really begun running in late May, so I signed up for the 500 mile challenge. At this point, I'm just about one third of the way there and I'm confident I'll reach my goal, even as we move into the cooler (COLD) months. If I can average 20 miles per week, I should be golden.

As a diabetic, running is now more important to me than ever. It's a great way to get my muscles to consume all that extra blood sugar that's flowing through my blood stream. I'm very fortunate that I'm able to run and that I enjoy it (sometimes!). Combined with some dietary changes and a little bit of medication, I've been able to get my waking blood sugars right around the 110 range, which is pretty much ideal.

Challenges like this are great to help keep me motivated. It also helps that I have a great running support group in my wife, my dad, my uncle, and even my 20-month-old daughter who was running with us at the track last night!

So, if you're diabetic, take the challenge. It's not too late. Hopefully there will be another one next year and I can take on the 1000-mile challenge.

10 Days To 10k

steve — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 00:11:02 -0400

We're 10 days away from the Nike+ Human Race and I'm starting to think about my goals for the race. This is my first 10k, and even though I'll only be racing against the clock, it's nice to have something to shoot for.

First things first, sometime in the next 10 days I need to calibrate my Nike+, otherwise I'll have no hope of reaching my goal. In addition, I have to plot out my course. There are a lot of hills around here, and while I know I won't be able to avoid them entirely, I'd like to try and find something that's not all uphill (both ways...in the snow...with no shoes!!).

Ever since switching to Genny Light (which I'm now calling Genny "Light"-ning In A Can), my training runs have sped up. The last two, around 5 & 6 miles each, were run at around an 8:10/mile pace. I was pushing the pace during them, but I wasn't totally dead at the end so I think I can do better in "race" conditions. So my goal for the 10k is 50:00 or under, which works out to an 8:02/mile pace.

I'll admit, one reason I'm shooting for 50 minutes is 50 is a nice round number to hit, but the real truth is that I noticed on Viper's Booze Hounds Inc blog that 50 minutes was his 10k goal a few weeks back and I want to beat him! Sure, he drinks better beer than I do, but maybe, just maybe, I could beat him in a race to the beer store!

6-mile detox run

steve — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 15:55:33 -0400

After yesterday's beat-down of my elders at the Ivyland 5k, I celebrated with way too much of the cheapest beer I could find. Well, not quite the cheapest, but close enough to make me feel vaguely like death this morning.

To punish myself for my overindulgence, I decided to go for a 7-miler at the hottest time of the day to try and sweat out the booze.

Things felt pretty good for the first mile or so, but once I reached the Cherry Tree 1.5 mile hill, I knew my legs were toast. I started walking at around 2.5 miles and from there on out it was walk/run/walk/run. I even cut the run short, coming in at 6.02 miles at a 9:47 pace on the Nike+ (add on my Nike+ 10% differential and it was more like 6.6 miles at an 8:55 pace). Considering how much I walked, I guess that's not too bad, but I really need to start getting better at these longer distances for the 8.31.08 10k! And I need to cut back on the Genny Light!

Ivyland 5k Race Report

steve — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 11:28:59 -0400

Today was the Ivland 5k. Ivyland is a bit more than a stone's throw away from me so I got up at 6am to make the 45 minute drive out there. I had some toast with peanut butter and a banana for breakfast, hoping that would give me enough energy to make it through.

I arrived with plenty of time to spare and picked up numbers for my Dad and I. Mom and Dad (and Uncle) showed up a little later and we hung out for a bit talking about why the 1-mile run is called the fun run. Is that to imply that a 5k isn't fun? Then we wondered if the fun-runners got first dibs on the post-race pancake breakfast!

We took our places towards the middle of the pack and waited for the race to begin. As usual, I got caught up at the start of the race going out way too fast, but I caught myself and slowed things down a little bit. My goal was to go out at around an 8:30 - 8:45 for the first mile. I think I ended up doing like a 7:30 or 7:40, which was a little surprising but I felt good so I decided to stick with it for as long as I could.

I kept my Uncle and my Dad in my sights the whole time. I think I passed my uncle close to the 1 mile mark, and starting making progress on my Dad. I think at about the 1.75 mile mark I passed him. Keep in mind that I haven't beaten my Dad legitimately yet. Usually he just runs with me the entire race (even though I'm slower than him) and let's me win when we get to the finish. Once I passed him, my goal was to keep everyone that I passed behind me, and I almost succeeded. One kid blew by me around the last corner.

As a sidenote, a couple of posts back I was complaining about my lack of speed. Well, I think I know where it went...my Nike+!! I really need to calibrate that thing. This is the second 5k in a row that it reported as only being 2.79 miles. That's 10% off! No wonder my training paces are slow.

Anyway, I managed to keep my pace up, it helped that the course was relatively flat. There were some hills but nothing like what I deal with around here. Also, the weather was beautiful. Especially for a mid-August day.

Even though my final time of 22:59 wasn't my APB *, this was the best I've felt during a race. I started out at a decent pace and was able to stay with it (or even possibly increase it) throughout the race and I didn't totally die at the 2.5 mile mark like I usually do.

I'm not sure when the next 5k is. Probably the Nether Providence Run for First Responders in October. That's a pretty flat course too, maybe I can get down into the 21s!

* APB - Adult Personal Best
Since I ran XC in high school and my 5k times were in the 18s, it's doubtful I will ever again achieve a Personal Best. So I invented the Adult Personal Best, or APB. This way, I can still get a Personal Best without actually having to run an 18:03 or whatever! Soon, I will have PB categories for individual years/months/etc! Anything to get a PB!

UPDATE: I know it's ridiculous that I'm so proud that I beat two 60-year-old+ men. Whatever. Let me enjoy my "victory".

A Fast(er) Five Miles

steve — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 00:13:35 -0400

Tonight it was back to the speedwork. I did five miles with 4 6-800 meter repeats at (or around) race pace. I felt pretty good, especially considering my 7-miler yesterday. My intervals were around 7:45 - 8:00 pace and my pace over the whole run was 8:49. Not horrible.

I'm trying to figure out a strategy for this weekend...yeah, besides the whole "try not to die before the finish line" strategy that I've employed in races past. I think I'm going to shoot for 8:30 in the first mile, 8:15 in the second, and whatever I have left in the tank for the third. Supposedly it's a fairly flat course.

Tomorrow I'm taking off and I'll do a 3-4 mile run on Thursday and that's it until race day!

The way I treat this stuff you'd think I was actually good!!!