As we neared the last leg of our journey, sweat dripping down our faces, the heat of the sun and weariness of our legs threatened to slow our pace. "I can't..." he said, wearily. "I can't go on any more. Leave me, go on without me..." His voice trailed off, too weak to speak. "No way," I said, renewed with determination. "We're doing this... together." The end was in sight. A crowd had gathered, we could see worried faces in the distance. As our legs somehow kept our feet slapping rhythmically against the hard concrete, we hear the crowd cheering. We cross the finish, the wave of accomplishment overcoming us. "We did it..." he panted, his voice barely above a whisper. Older women are weeping, younger women are throwing phone numbers written on underwear at us....
... ok, so this may be the highly dramatized version of my friend Jamie and my run last Saturday. I'm sure a movie will be made on our run based on this excerpt I wrote. I'm looking at you Hollywood. You can mail me the academy award. Our actual run was rather unexciting. Though, I did run so fast a cop gave me a speeding ticket. Well, he says it was for driving 15 mph over the speed limit (on the way to the park to run), but I think what he really meant was he was giving me the ticket because he knew how fast I was going to be running.
Overall, it was a very good run with Jamie. My concerns that I had brought up in my last post were nonexistent. We completed 6 miles at a pace of 9:50 per mile. Both of us felt pretty good about that pace. I really started feeling it about the 5 mile mark, but was able to finish with only minor difficulty.
Yesterday I got a new toy! My wife and daughter got me a Garmin Forerunner 405 for a combined Father's day/birthday present, and decided to give it to me yesterday rather than tomorrow (I'll let Susan tell the story). When it comes to Father's day, everyone knows that the rule is, the more expensive the gift is, the better the father you are. Period. End of story. Pretty obvious that expensive gift = love. In my mind, the decision to buy happened via a conversation between my wife and daughter that went something like this:
Hailey: You know Mom, Father's Day is coming up. We need to get Dad a present.
Susan: You're right, what should we get him?
Hailey: Well, he is the best Dad there is, providing so much for his family and incredibly loving and caring.
Susan: You're right, and he is also incredibly good looking and great in... um, never mind Hailey... So, what should we get him, a new laptop?
Hailey: Wait, wait, wait... lets not get carried away here mom... He isn't THAT awesome.
Susan: How about that GPS watch he wants?
Hailey: Bingo.
Yes, my daughter is only 17 months-old, but I'm still pretty sure this is how the conversation went. So, I went for my first run with it today and it is frickin' AWESOME! Garmin has its own run tracking software, so now I have a few decisions to make. 1 - do I continue to post runs to facebook and annoy my friends? This used to automatically happen via runkeeper, but now I will have to actively "share" my runs via the Garmin software. 2 - do I continue to track my runs in runkeeper? I can export the data and then import it into runkeeper... but I'm not sure why I would do this... so probably not.
So... running is going well, Cardinals are sucking bad, football is still on strike (or locked out, or whatever), and work is good. That about sums up my life right now!
-Doc
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Its getting hot out here!
Please don't take off your clothes. The people around may look at you funny if you did. Or maybe they wouldn't? In fact, go ahead, take 'em off. You can thank me later for the good time you are about to have.
So anyway, its regularly hitting the high 90s around here in the StL. Add 80% humidity and what you have is me melting into a puddle of sweaty goo around mile two. Awesome. I am officially in my (extended) training schedule, meaning the marathon is 20 weeks away. Nice.
As mentioned last post, today I wanted to touch on the topic of running with other people. Running buddies, if you will, but don't. To me, running with other people can be a mixed bag. On one hand, the company can be nice to have and keep you motivated to continue on. On the other hand, if you run with someone who is much faster, or much slower than you, it can be detrimental.
If you are the slower runner, your options are to try to run faster - wearing yourself out quicker and possibly getting angry at the faster runner for being better, or to force the faster runner to match your speed - ultimately feeling bad for holding them back. If you are the faster runner, you can slow down - resenting your partner for hindering your run, or keep your pace - and ultimately have to carry the heaving, wheezing, lump of quivering muscles that your friend will become.
Sure, this portrayal may be slightly dramatic, but the idea behind it is a solid one. I remember when Susan and I were starting our half marathon training way back when. At first, we would run together and all was good. Over time, my pace improved. When I would run alone I would feel like I had really good runs. When running with Susan, I didn't feel like I was getting all I could out of my run.
This weekend I plan on running with my friend Jamie (@speedymick). Jamie is a much better runner than I. He's in much better shape and has already run one marathon (not to his full ability, true). He probably weighs 50 lbs and a strong wind would blow him away. My pace the past few weeks has been lacking, so this may end up being a painful run. Hopefully I don't slow him down too much. Probably will. Either way, we will be two hot and sweaty dudes.
-Doc
So anyway, its regularly hitting the high 90s around here in the StL. Add 80% humidity and what you have is me melting into a puddle of sweaty goo around mile two. Awesome. I am officially in my (extended) training schedule, meaning the marathon is 20 weeks away. Nice.
As mentioned last post, today I wanted to touch on the topic of running with other people. Running buddies, if you will, but don't. To me, running with other people can be a mixed bag. On one hand, the company can be nice to have and keep you motivated to continue on. On the other hand, if you run with someone who is much faster, or much slower than you, it can be detrimental.
If you are the slower runner, your options are to try to run faster - wearing yourself out quicker and possibly getting angry at the faster runner for being better, or to force the faster runner to match your speed - ultimately feeling bad for holding them back. If you are the faster runner, you can slow down - resenting your partner for hindering your run, or keep your pace - and ultimately have to carry the heaving, wheezing, lump of quivering muscles that your friend will become.
Sure, this portrayal may be slightly dramatic, but the idea behind it is a solid one. I remember when Susan and I were starting our half marathon training way back when. At first, we would run together and all was good. Over time, my pace improved. When I would run alone I would feel like I had really good runs. When running with Susan, I didn't feel like I was getting all I could out of my run.
This weekend I plan on running with my friend Jamie (@speedymick). Jamie is a much better runner than I. He's in much better shape and has already run one marathon (not to his full ability, true). He probably weighs 50 lbs and a strong wind would blow him away. My pace the past few weeks has been lacking, so this may end up being a painful run. Hopefully I don't slow him down too much. Probably will. Either way, we will be two hot and sweaty dudes.
-Doc
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Sorry, can't work today, running
I've discovered what may be the downfall of my training: work. Being a hospitalist my hours are varied, having day, evening, and night shifts. I seem to mostly work evening shifts, and I'm completely fine with this. I am not a morning person. I prefer sleeping in a bit, working in the afternoon, and then going to bed after midnight. True, this schedule does not fit in well with having a 17 month-old and a wife, but I make it work best we can.
As I am finding out, working the evening shifts also works better for my running schedule. Running before work = awesome. Running after work = sucks. I've been on day shifts this week, and after waking up early, sitting in traffic getting to work, running around the ER for 8 hours w/o stopping to eat/drink/urinate, then sitting in traffic on the way home from work, I've found my legs have been less than ready for a good run. I set out for a three mile run on Tuesday and after 2 miles my legs just wouldn't go any further. I wanted to make up for the loss of mileage and so I ran 5 yesterday rather than 4, but my pace was horrendous. 11:30/mile? Really?
I'll have to push through best I can, but this is just the pre-training running. I'm envisioning a long day of work and then having to come home and run 8-10 miles and my heart sinks a bit. I'll probably end up having to wake up extra early and running before work, and the thought of that makes me die a bit inside. I repeat, I am not a morning person.
On a side note, according to my records, I ran 63.9 miles last month! That is 20 more miles than I did in April. I'm on a regimen of 3/4/3/6 until my training officially starts on 6/20 (which technically begins at 3/3/3/6) - so I should hit around 70-75 miles for June.
-Doc
Next topic: Running with friends
As I am finding out, working the evening shifts also works better for my running schedule. Running before work = awesome. Running after work = sucks. I've been on day shifts this week, and after waking up early, sitting in traffic getting to work, running around the ER for 8 hours w/o stopping to eat/drink/urinate, then sitting in traffic on the way home from work, I've found my legs have been less than ready for a good run. I set out for a three mile run on Tuesday and after 2 miles my legs just wouldn't go any further. I wanted to make up for the loss of mileage and so I ran 5 yesterday rather than 4, but my pace was horrendous. 11:30/mile? Really?
I'll have to push through best I can, but this is just the pre-training running. I'm envisioning a long day of work and then having to come home and run 8-10 miles and my heart sinks a bit. I'll probably end up having to wake up extra early and running before work, and the thought of that makes me die a bit inside. I repeat, I am not a morning person.
On a side note, according to my records, I ran 63.9 miles last month! That is 20 more miles than I did in April. I'm on a regimen of 3/4/3/6 until my training officially starts on 6/20 (which technically begins at 3/3/3/6) - so I should hit around 70-75 miles for June.
-Doc
Next topic: Running with friends
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