Running Addict

The Nation’s Triathlon was this past weekend and the race had a record number of finishers (2,396). The distances are 1.5k swim (in the Potomac), 40k bike and 10k run. Average finish time was about three hours. That seems completely doable to me. The winning time was 2:01. That might be a little tougher.

Anyway, I have always wanted to do a triathlon. I did a sprint tri in college (I rode the bike portion on my mountain bike) but haven’t done one since. Completing an Ironman is definitely on the list of physical challenges I want to complete before I am old and decrepit (Boston Marathon, 100 mile race being the two others that immediately come to mind.)

There is certainly a barrier of entry for triathlons. Bikes are expensive and I don’t know if I want to do a race on a bike from Target. I need to find a good site that helps guide you with preparing for triathlons on a budget.

Anyway, I did the elliptical for the fourth day in a row. I’m afraid to weigh myself, but the goal is still to be down to 165 by the end of the year. I’ll start a weight challenge next week after a monday morning weigh-in.

Just 13 more days until I can try and run again!

I suck at dealing with injuries. It’s incredible how fragile my psyche is when something happens and throws me off. It’s embarrassing that I’m not mentally tougher than this.

Since my last post I have withdrawn a ton - not worked out, eaten poorly, stayed up late. All the bad shit. The only thing that has kept me from completely going off the deep end has been coaching my kid’s baseball team. That forces me out of the house three to four times per week and keeps me moving around.

Anyway, enough whining and feeling sorry for myself. I finally got back to the rec center yesterday for 30 minutes on the elliptical and then went back this morning for another hour. It’s such a great workout (I can burn about 1000 calories in 55 minutes) but it’s pretty hard. If I can do this every day I should hopefully be in better shape when I start back running in October.

They key is staying in a routine. If I can get up every monring and do this, my day to day life is 100% better. Mentally, physically - all that stuff. Maybe Tom Cruise was right…exercise and vitamins, baby!

Well my stress fracture has not healed all the way. Since my last post I have been hobbling around and whenever I pick my right leg off of the ground there is a throbbing pain around the lower tibia.

My plan is to take September off and just do cardio at the rec center for an hour per day. Might even take this time to try out water running. For the most part though, I’ll be hitting the elliptical. Once October rolls around, I’ll try out Pete Pfitzinger’s “return to running after stress fracture” program. I’ll follow it religiously.

And if that doesn’t work, well then fuck me. I don’t know what I’ll do.

Just got back from a great run - and something I really haven’t done before. After work I drove straight to the parking lot near Chain Bridge, changed and then jogged down to the towpath for a six mile run. Went west this time - a route I had never taken before. At some point the Capital Crescent Trail disappears and you are just running a long the Potomac. It isn’t as wide open as the Mount Vernon Trail is along the Potomac, but there are definitely breathtaking views.

The run itself was good. I was running just beyond conversational pace. There was plenty of shade and the humidity seemed low. I don’t think I saw more than ten people either. A bike rider came up behind me and startled the crap out of me because I had been running along in peaceful tranquility for ten minutes.

The only downside - my lower right leg still hurts - worse when I am done with the run. Maybe it’s just soreness. I’ll take tomorrow off and get back to it on Thursday.

Coming to you from the sunny shores of Kuaui.  We’re here for a week for some solid vacation time.  That doesn’t mean it’s vacation from running or Running Addict though, yo!

We’re staying on the Princeville complex, which has several miles of pedestrian trails.  Perfect for running.  Yesterday morning, I ran about 4.5 miles from our villa at the Westin down to the Princeville Hotel and back. 

Today I wanted to run a 10-K in ode to the Human Race thing Nike is putting on…  I headed out about 7 AM.  People aren’t kidding when they say it’s not the heat, it’s the humidity.  It is freakin’ humid here.  So, I ran slow.  In no time, my shirt was absolutely drenched.  Finished up in about 54 minutes, so something like 8:45 a mile.  Probably felt slower than that.  Freakin’ humidity. 

I rewarded myself when I got back to our villa complex by immediately hopping into the pool.  Pretty awesome way to end a run.

So I went out for one of my favorite runs on Saturday - across the Chain Bridge to the C&O Canal towpath. First I drove down and parked next to the bridge.

Man van in full effect.

I did a tiny little bit of stretching and started making my way across Chain Bridge.

Virginia side of Chain Bridge

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I ran 2.5 miles last night to get back into the swing of things after the race on Saturday.  I had walked the mile loop with the dog on Sunday, but this was my first run.  My quads felt like jelly.  Really slow run.

Tonight I upped it to about 4.5 miles at the Rose Bowl (one and a half trips around).  My legs still felt pretty heavy, but a noticeable improvement from Tuesday.  My Garmin’s batteries were dead, so I don’t know what kind of pace I ran.  Sometimes that’s a good thing.  We’ll call it comfortable. 

Good to be back at it.

So I am trying to ease back into running so I don’t have to go through another bout of sitting out with stress fracture awesomeness. Right now the plan is to run every other day and to stay off roads and sidewalks. At this particular moment my lower leg doesn’t hurt. Woohoo!

The downside is that I am trying to strengthen other muscles by cross training on the in between days. This morning I went to the local rec center (where I have a seldom-used membership) and hopped on the elliptical. I did a hill program for an hour and burned a ton of calories. I had my ipod. So really, no reason to complain, right? Well exercising inside in a gym sucks. Just repetitive non-stop expenditure of energy with no break in the landscape. Might as well get one of those kickass Rowdy Gaines Endless Pools!

The advantage (aside from the whole fitness thing - whatever, overrated) is it probably toughens you a little mentally. If you can do an elliptical or bike or treadmill for an hour, I am pretty sure you can crush Western States. Okay, maybe more like a 50 mile ultra - but the point is, running outside is crack for the soul.

Okay so I am probably behind the curve on this one, but for Father’s Day my wife gave me Sub 4:00: Alan Webb and the Quest for the Fastest Mile by Chris Lear. I finally got around to reading it during a recent west coast trip.

The book takes place primarily in 2002, Alan Webb’s first (and only) season at Michigan. It also profiles several other members of the Wolverine running community, including Nate Brannen, Kevin Sullivan, Tim Broe and coach Ron Warhurst.

Webb came to Michigan as the high school record holder in the mile (3:53.43) and paired with Brannen (who also ran a sub 4:00 mile in high school) to form one of the best recruiting classes in collegiate middle-distance history. The two were drawn to Ann Arbor for a number of reasons, including the opportunity to train under the highly regarded Warhurst and alongside several post-collegiate Olympians (inlcluding Broe and Sullivan) that still trained in Ann Arbor under Warhurst.

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Ridiculous that I have lived in this area since the middle of 1993 and save for a few poorly-run marathons, I have never done the glorious route I ran this morning.

I was up at 5am and hopped in the mini van to drive the 10 minutes down to Chain Bridge so I could run on the C&O Canal. I park my car and jog down to the end of the bridge and am suddenly struck by a) how effing dark it still is and b) how not really safe it seems down on the canal towpath some 20 feet below me. I stretch out a bit but decide that I’m simply not going down there and running in the dark by myself. If it was a neighborhood I guess it would be different, but right now the creepy factor is getting to me.

I jog back to the minivan and drive over the bridge into DC. I drive around for 15 minutes and finally find a parking space along the Potomac near the FDR Memorial. The sign says I can park there at 6am. My watch says 6am. Good to go.

The air is cool and I start running. Over the next 50 minutes I pass the Lincoln Memorial, Korean War Memorial, WW II Memorial, Washington Monument, the Smithsonians, the Capitol, the Supreme Court and the Library of Congress. It’s a big six mile loop and the majority of it is dirt and gravel. The whole time I am thinking the obvious question - why don’t I do this more often? I don’t know. It’s all of eight miles from my house to drive and park where I did. The Mall area in DC couldn’t be safer.

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