Month: March 2008

Some updates..

(1) Posted a bunch of photos to the Go ahead and look. You know you want to see what Weazer & I have been doing. (hint: Easter celebration, new bathroom, trip to Key West)

(2) We are headed out to Mesa AZ for my step-mothers wedding. Yeah, I know it sounds weird. You have to understand my family tree. It’s pretty weird. I’m scheduled to do a 3 1/2 hour run on Sunday. That will have to change to Saturday. The heat will certainly be a factor. I’m thinking that I’ll have to do multiple loops in an area with access to water.

(3) My new gig has me learning a bunch of new stuff. Like SAML, and Semantic Web, and Open Innovation. All very cool stuff, but a HUGE amount to learn. In my last 8 years managing IT projects in the Pharmacovigilance space I’ve lost touch with technology advances. I feel like I’m training for a second “mental” Ironman. The upside is that our big projects in this space don’t really kick into gear until Q3. I’ve got a little time to get prepared.

A couple of weeks ago, the TRI-DRS Friday 5 included listing the top ten ‘to-dos’ on your bucket list.

That got me thinking about my list:

1. Dive the Great Barrier Reef
2. Dive Truk Lagoon
3. Own/Race historic cars (Lotus Super-7’s rock my world!)
4. Sky Dive
5. Learn a second language
6. Learn a musical instrument
7. Quality for & race at Kona
8. Live out my days on an island in a sunny location.
9. Hang Glide
10. Bicycle across USA

I’m not too sure about the order, and this is certainly not the total extent of my list. There are a whole bunch of other goals mixed in here.

But the concept of a list got me thinking about how little time I really consider the quickly passing days, and making the best use of the days to come. I’m not a long term planner. The extent of my active planning is about a year. Beyond the next 12 months, I’m not all that sure what I’m going to be doing, in any sort of detail. I’ve got some general ideas about retirement and a second career, but nothing solid. More like a bunch of dotted lines heading off in different directions, starting from differing points in time.

It’s probably another feature of my ADD; too many distractions to focus on on a single path to the future. I’m not sure if that lack of focus is a good thing or a bad thing, but I’m ok with it, and it seems to work for me.

Something must have happened to me at the E Murray Todd 1/2 this past weekend.

I went out for my Friday run around 1:30pm. While I had several good bikes & swims, I hadn’t run since the 1/2 mary on Sunday. I still had a lot of nagging soreness in my right arm, shoulder and right calf through out the week. I have a tendency to get sick if I push my workouts too fast after a major effort, and there have been a LOT of sick folks at work. But I really needed to run today, so I figured I would just suck up the soreness and run my usual 1:15 route.

Here is what happened:

Lap time dist avg max
1 8:55 1.00 131 144
2 8:42 1.00 142 147
3 8:30 1.00 143 151
4 8:18 1.00 145 151
5 8:14 1.00 145 149
6 8:33 1.00 147 152
7 4:34 0.54 150 157
8 7:45 1.00 156 161
9 6:57 0.89 162 169
10 4:59 0.58 153 163

Lap 7 is where I started my 15 min acceleration. Lap 9 is where I ended it. Lap 10 was last 5 minutes… 8:21 for 9 miles, AVG HR 147. Solid aerobic pace, Here is the kicker.. It was a SOLID 22 sec/mile faster than I’ve ever run this route for the same level of effort.

At about the 5 mile point today I felt like I was standing on the other side of a brick wall. There was a gaping hole about the same size and shape of my body. At my feet were broken brick and dust. There was a weird glow all around me. I think that’s called a breakthrough. Damn, that felt good.

Since I’m lazy, tired and it’s pretty early in the morning, I’m going to post the e-mail I sent my about the race:

E. Murray Todd 1/2 Marathon Race Report..

I’m feeling pretty good about the race in general. I would have liked to hit 1:45, but I’ll take these results. No shame in a 8+ minute PR!.
Pacing was tough. I felt really strong through about 7 miles, then it felt like the wheels came off:

Mile 1 7:41
Mile 2 7:58
Mile 3 7:55
Mile 4 7:54
Mile 5 7:49
Mile 6 8:01
Mile 7 7:54
Mile 8 8:23
Mile 9 8:17
Mile 10 8:57
Mile 11 8:16
Mile 12 8:45
Mile 13 8:22
13.1 7:55

1:46:54 211/501 total, 33/59 AG

Now these aren’t bad numbers, (for me) but it just seemed like a hit a big brick wall. One minute I’m cruising along, and the next I couldn’t get my legs to spin any faster. What’s weird is my HR stayed at 160-162. Once again, when I tried to push past 164-166, I started to get nauseous. I had a good breakfast, took 2 Race Caps (30 min before race) and 3 Anti-Fatigue caps (1 hour before race). I took a Hammer Gel right before the race, and another right past the 7 mile mark. I used a similar protocol prior at the 24 hrs of Allamuchy last year, and had good results with my first two laps (about 2:15 total race time). So I’m thinking that something in my normal diet is causing the nausea problem. I never felt like I was even close to a bonk. I’m going to really focus on what I’m eating between now and NJM, and see if that helps.

The 2nd half of the race, and most of the race past 10 miles felt like I was beating my legs with a small bat. I’m pretty sure that’s because I’ve done a LOT of treadmill running. I was really, REALLY surprised at how tight and sore my legs felt during the last 3 miles. I’m pretty sure that’s because almost ALL my Z4 runs have been on the treadmill. I need to get more Z4-pavement miles and weight-work into my legs to deal with the pounding.

It probably sounds like I’m disappointed with the results. I’m not. I was damn close to the stretch goal I set for myself. I’m pretty sure I know what I need to work on for NJM. I’m feel great (relatively) and am focused on the next goal…