Coming down the home stretch

I ran the last "tough" run of my half marathon training program before the big day today, a 30 minute tempo run that wasn't so great. It wasn't bad, but I didn't feel all that strong running. Maybe that has something to do with my being on a treadmill for the first time in a week, but sometimes you just have to accept it's your day for a bad run.

I made it about 4 miles with warm up and cool down, got some stretching in and in retrospect feel a little better about the day. Tempo runs are what you make of them anyway. Maybe I could have done this one in a way to make me feel better.

Tomorrow is an easy 2 miles, then a couple days of rest where my priority will be to stay warm and loose. Saturday I'm spending the night in a hotel in Frederick, MD so I don't have to drive there to pick up my race packet on Saturday, drive home, then drive back at 5:00am on Sunday morning. The race starts at 6:30, so it'll be nice to just be about a 10-15 minute drive from the starting line rather than an hour.

I'm oddly serene about this race. I'm not sure if that's good or bad. The week prior to my last half marathon I was a wreck. But that race didn't end the way I hoped, so maybe not being tensed up for a week will be a good thing for me.

To belt or not to belt

The biggest mistake I made in running my first half marathon several weeks ago was running the race differently from how I trained. In all my runs longer than 8 miles I wore a belt with two liquid flasks on it and a pocket to carry gels. I drank nuun-water from the flasks and took Powerade strawberry-banana gels when I needed them. It worked for me during training, but during the race I stuffed a couple gels I'd never taken before (Gu chocolate flavored, which were way too thick) in my shorts pockets and relied solely on the fluid stations on the course, which featured water and Gatorade.

The problem is that I can't drink from cups when I run (even pinching the cup) and I don't like to stop and walk while I drink because it slows my momentum and I never seem to get it back. Plus, running with walk breaks isn't how I train. So I was taking gels that I didn't like and wasn't accustomed to and couldn't get the hydration I needed from the fluid stations on the course. I believe dehydration is what killed me the last couple miles and resulted in severe cramping.

So I pretty much accepted that my belt will come with me this weekend at my half marathon, no matter how dorky I may look, but after going through a few posts on a message board about running marathons without or without a fuel belt, I'm starting to second guess myself again. Do I want the extra weight since I do have a time goal for this race? I'm looking at hauling around at least an extra pound and a half to two pounds due to the belt and water weight. How comfortable will the belt be if I'm trying to kick it into a higher gear to finish the race? How will I look in pictures?

I think it's normal to question, second-guess, and slightly alter race day strategy during the run up to the big day, especially when you don't have a lot of endurance race experience. But it's not fun, and it is nerve wracking. And, in the end, I'm sure I'll go with my plan to wear the belt and be glad that I did.

And it's much more better for me to worry about wearing a dumb belt for the race than worrying about everything race related like I did the first time. In a few more half marathons I might even go into them completely confident and ready.

Logging one last long run

I don't want to get too too optimistic with my half marathon on tap for next Sunday, but I feel that I killed my last long training run this morning, a 12 miler. I ran it at a 9:03 min/mile pace, which is great for me considering it was a pretty hilly route and featured the same 1.5 mile 4.5% grade uphill portion as my 11 miler last weekend. The mile that was on that incline, mile 6, took me 10:20 to run last week. This week I knocked it out in 9:57. Provided there's not a hill so drastic as part of the half marathon course (and judging from the elevation map there's not) I feel that I have a good shot at coming in at around 1:55:00, if not the 1:50:00 I'd really love to get.

Today after running 12 miles I feel great. No soreness at all and I think I found the hydration/nutrition mixture that works best for me. I started off with a gel and some water before warming up, then had another gel with some nuun-infused water at 45:00 and again at 1:30 as Powerbar suggests. A lot of runners may think that's a bit much, but it works for me. And considering the run this morning burned about 1700 calories I don't feel bad about taking in 300 or so calories in an effort to keep my endurance up. Like I said, it works for me.

This week is a pretty easy workout week. My longest run is 4 miles on Tuesday, with a couple of rest days before the half marathon on Sunday. My strategy this time, however, is to not take those two days off completely, but to walk a little to warm up and stretch really well both days.

But barring anything unforeseen, I'm ready to go for this half and am not nearly as anxious as I was for my first one. I count that as a victory right there.

Headed for the (training) finish line

Today is a glorious day off of half marathon training. I have been using the Hal Higdon intermediate half marathon training program, which calls for today being a day of rest. I picked this program up from week 8 after my last half marathon, for which I used Higdon's novice half marathon training program to train, because of the amount of time between my first and second halfs. The truth is, for me at least, the novice program was too easy. I'm not a novice and feel much better using the more advanced program. Unfortunately, I didn't really believe I was more of an intermediate runner than a novice one until I was 11 miles into my first half marathon.

Anyway, I am coming up on the weekend before my next half marathon. My last long run before the race is Sunday. It is going to be 12 miles and comes at the end of my toughest week of training yet. I did 10X400 meter intervals the other day at 5K race pace (for me that's at about 7:30 min/mile) on Wednesday, which felt good but wore me out. I'm getting a little old to run 400 meter "sprints" the day after running 5 miles and the day before running 3 and lifting weights.

To assist with my recovering from my last hard week of training (the week of the half marathon is pretty tame training-wise) and to be as prepared as possible for the rigors of running 13.1 miles -- in other words, to not suffer cramping over the last couple miles -- I'm focusing on my diet. I see lots of bananas, a fair amount of complex carbohydrates, fruits, vegetables, etc. I'm going to lay off anything fried, too much red meat, snacks, etc. I'm pretty fortunate in that I think I generally eat pretty well these days, and when I don't eat well running 30 miles a week compensates for it, but I have to make an extra effort to shift my calories from proteins to carbs this coming week.

Maybe I'm worrying too much about running "just" a half marathon, but this is the race where I want to make my goal (1:50:00), so I might as well do what I can to put myself in the best position to do it.

Which, of course, may include a beer the day before the race. Yay beer carbs!

Pricing my running person

There's always a time crunch for me to get my running in. Today I raced home from work, ran 5 miles around the neighborhood, took a shower, picked up my kids, went to little league, ate dinner, blah blah blah. Sometimes I get so lost in the routine that I never notice anything that's going on.

But then maybe because I was in such a hurry after my run I realized that I was taking a lot of junk off of me before I could get into the shower. So I decided to take an inventory of everything I ran with today and what it cost (to illustrate how "cheap" running is):

Under Armour Baseball Hall of Fame t-shirt - $22.50

Champion double-dry shorts - $14

Balega Hidden Comfort socks - $10

Saucony Pro-Grid Triumph 4 shoes - $120

Running hat - $22

Oakley Half Jacket sunglasses - $115

iRiver Clix (Gen 1) 2GB mp3 player - $115

Garmin Forerunner 305 (with heart rate monitor) - $200

RoadID Wrist ID Bracelet - $20

Total price paid for gear associated with 4/22 5 mile run - $638.50

Granted, the prices paid are not present values, nor can I say I haven't gotten my money's worth out of them or that they weren't good values, nor can I say that I can only use everything listed exclusively for running or that I bought them specifically for running, but wow, right?

Good thing that I either live in a decent neighborhood, or that muggers don't understand the value of what's on my person, or that everything is covered in my sweat.

I should probably be thankful for the small favor of sweat glands.

Running past a wall

I am 13 days away from my second half marathon. My first half marathon was ok, but the last 2 1/2 miles were pretty torturous, as I was suffering from severe calf cramping and had to stop-stretch-walk-run-stop-stretch-walk-run the entire way. It was a bitter struggle to even just run across the finish line. Because of those last couple of miles I finished more than 10 minutes slower than I wanted. I was very disappointed, although I was proud to just finish.

Based on that experience -- which was the first time I ever ran as far as 13 miles, I might add -- I've come to accept that there is a mental barrier for me when it comes to running over 10 miles. I don't know what it is, but anything over 10 miles just messes with my mind.

I'm taking a little different training tact for this upcoming half. My longest training run is 12 miles, as opposed to the longest run before my first half being 10 miles. Yesterday was 11 miles. And that distance played with my head. In fact, as I headed out the door I said to myself, "here goes nothing," and went on my way.

Curiously, I think the run went really well. Miles 5-8 were pretty much all uphill, including a 1.5 mile long incline at a 4.5% grade, but where a similar stretch during an 8 mile run in training for my first half almost broke my spirit, this one invigorated me.

When it was over my muscles were a little tweaked as I stretched, but today there's no soreness and no real sign in my body that I put 11 miles on a pair of shoes yesterday. That leaves me cautiously optimistic that my half in a couple weeks is going to end much better than my first one, but I'm trying hard to not get too confident because 13.1 miles is really far when you think about it, and anything can happen.

But if I get close to my goal time in Frederick (1:50:00) I'm going to be really, really happy. After yesterday I'm a little less afraid to think it might be a possibility.

A 5K race comes to my 'hood

I was really excited to learn that there is going to be an inaugural 5K race in my very own hometown on May 17. It's going to start and end at a place that I run past frequently and it'll be nice to not have to do much more than roll out of bed and hit the starting line on race day.

There was some controversy over this race because it is replacing an arts festival that one group of merchants wanted to continue, but there was something about the local Chamber of Commerce wanting to go in another direction and blah blah. I'm not sure what happened and I'm not really interested in the politics associated with the creation of this race, but I'm in.

While I know the road the race is going to be run on, I've never run it. But reading the description of the course made me think, "hmm." Especially this part:

The course has rolling hills and is very scenic.

That sounds only partially true. I mean, once you get past the library and the elementary school and the baseball fields and the synagogue I guess it's very scenic. But I wasn't sure. So I went to take a look and brought along a camera.

The course does have some beauty. You run past a farm pasture and stuff, and you get to run along a route that features this view:

And this one:

And this one:

But by the same token, you run along and see stuff just as prominently along the course such as this:

And this:

And this:

And especially this:



Additionally, I think the course has more than "rolling hills." It's pretty doggone hilly and doesn't look like a lot of fun. And it's scheduled for a week before I'm running a half marathon, so I should be running more along the lines of 11 or 12 miles that morning and not 3.1. But I was seduced by its proximity to my abode and I've already registered so there's not much left to do but ignore the ugly parts, imagine the hills are fluffy, soft clouds of fitness and think about the bagel at the end of the run.

I can't help but think this is going to turn out to be a leaped when I should have looked kind of thing, but on the upside it'll all be over in about 23 minutes.

Running on by

Yesterday I left work during the day for an appointment that happened to be near where I live. After the appointment, and since the weather was perfect, I thought it'd be neat to take lunch at home and get in my scheduled 5 mile run during a weekday mid-day, which I don't get to do very often, before I headed back to work.

The run itself was great. 8:26 min/mile pace and 5 miles completed in just around 42:00. And that was with me stopping to help some old guy in a car who needed directions back to the main road. Something I never deal with when the running the roads during the early morning or evening.

The "highlight," however, was when I ran down a road where some lady and a little boy were at their mailbox. You have to imagine me, wearing a backwards cap and shades, shorts and a t-shirt, an mp3 player, huffing and puffing and completely oblivious to the world around me, running on a stretch of a road that isn't exactly isolated. Then picture me coming up on these two, but moving over some to give them some space at their mailbox, and then, when I got within about 10 feet of them, the little boy screaming, at the top of his lungs:

"NO! GET AWAY FROM ME! GET AWAY!"

That little kid made me jump a foot. And my mp3 player was loud.

Look, I'm all for parents teaching their kids to not trust strangers. Heck, I'm a parent myself and this kid, ordinarily, would have made the parent in me proud. However, I believe it's also incumbent on parents to teach their children when to react in addition to how to react, and while standing at a mailbox with your mom as some guy runs past wearing minimal clothing and well out of arm's reach is probably not the time to fear a stranger and react as trained.

But that's just my opinion, and you know what they say about opinions...

Myth: Running is free

Technically, the only thing you need to start running is a pair of shoes. And that makes it the most affordable sport to participate in, and the one in which your equiment requires the least maintenance. While I was at the NCR Trail this past weekend, the maintenance people were performing on their bikes before they even hit the trail seemed to take as a long as my run.

While maintenance is indeed minimal, here are a few expenses that I was surprised to discover were necessary to maintain comfort and increase performance in my "free" sport:

• Shoes: You can buy a pair of $40 running shoes off the rack, but your hips, knees and ankles will feel it in very short order. So you really have to hit up a running specialty store and get your feet and gait examined and have people who know what they're doing bring out shoes that work for your feet. You owe it to your body to get good shoes, but they will run between $90-120. You can always get your feet checked out, try on shoes, find the right pair and search for them elsewhere cheaper, but it's my belief that if you rely on someone to help you and they spend the time and effort to find what's perfect for you, you kind of owe it to your sales person to give him or her your sale. To make matters worse, if you plan to run 4-5 days a week you really need two pairs of shoes so you're always running in a fresh pair (did you know it takes the soles of your shoes a full 24 hours to decompress after a run?), and that'll double your shoe expense.

• Apparel: Like cheap shoes, you can buy cheap clothes to run in, but nothing is worse than soaking a cotton shirt with sweat and having it get all clingy and heavy on your body. And you don't want shorts that rub between your legs and chafe. So you might want a moisture-wicking type shirt to run in. There are plenty brands out there for that, such as Under Armour, Nike, adidas, etc. The problem is that they're all ridiculously overpriced. C9 clothes at Target are pretty good, and you can get them pretty cheap on clearance, but they'll still cost you more than cotton. Then there are compression shorts and socks that are equally important, and equally expensive.

• Nutrition: If you're going to be an hour or less runner you're fine with water, but if you want to start running more than 6 or 7 miles and/or run half marathons (13.1 miles) and beyond, you have to be able to get nutrition and hydration on the run. There are gels and jelly beans and shot bloks and drinks and everything else to help you out. None of them are cheap. I use Powerbar gels from Wal-Mart that cost about $5 for 6, but if you buy somewhere else or choose some other gel or nutritional supplement, they'll run you around $1.35 per serving. For a half marathon I consume 3-4 gels. That's a few bucks just during the race, not to mention training. For hydration, I choose nuun added to water, which is pretty economical for how much it makes, but it's still $20. Additionally, there are vitamins and other supplements. I take a multi-vitamin supplement that's formulated especially for runners in training. That's $30 a month. Plus I take a glucosamine and condroitin supplement that costs about $15 a month. And the truth is, I can't even tell you if they work. But since I feel good and have no pain when I run or after, I can't say they don't. Oh, and let's not forget the fuel belts you'll have to buy to hold all the supplements and liquids you'll need while out on your longer runs.

• Race fees: It's very hard to run just to run all the time. That's what called logging junk miles. You have to work toward a goal. For me, those goals are races. During the spring and fall you can run a race pretty much every weekend if you want. And it's a great motivator to know that you're committed to running, say, a 5K race and that you'd like to either finish, or finish without walking, or finish with a personal record time. There's something you can push for in every race you run, no matter how many you've run. But most 5K races alone will cost $20-30 each. True, you normally get a t-shirt and post-race refreshments, and a good portion of your race fee usually goes to some worthy cause, but if you wish to run races regularly, you're going to be out hundreds of dollars a year. And the further the distance, the higher the cost. I was looking into running a half marathon in New York City and they want $85 for admission. To make matters worse, the closer you get to race day the higher the entrance fee is. I'm not sure what the point of that is.

• Other: While not really necessary, if you get a little more serious about running you're going to want to analyze what you're doing in order to try and improve. That's where electronics come in to play. If you want to make sure you're burning calories most efficiently in order to lose weight you'll want a heart rate monitor. If you want to listen to something other than your own breathing when you run there's the iPod/mp3 players, and what it costs to put music on them. If you want to find like-minded people to hang around and train with you can join a running club, and they're not free (although probably worth the cost). Then there are hats to keep sunburn away, cold weather gear, wet weather gear, night time running gear, etc.

All tolled, running can be very expensive. For me, it's been worth it. But to think running is a cheap and easy way to get or stay in shape is one way to make sure you won't stick with it for long. In my opinion, at least.

Race Day Recap

Today was the Orioles Advocates 5K race, which started and ended in beautiful Camden Yards near the Baltimore inner harbor. It was my first 5K race of the year and the conditions were perfect. It was cloudy and probably around 50º. I ran in shorts and a short-sleeve t-shirt, but I did have to wear gloves since my hands always seem to be freezing first thing in the morning these days.

The race was really fun except for the stretch on cobblestone and running through the fumes and smell of the underbelly of Oriole Park. The course was mostly pretty flat but had a couple small hills and inclines, the worst being the Hamburg St. bridge leading up to the front of M&T Bank stadium at about 2.5 miles.

I finished with a chip time of 23:09 (gun time 23:11). That's 10 seconds off my personal record for a 5K race, but since it was my first 5K race of the year I'm not too disappointed. I was also 19th out of 96 in my age group and I was pretty pleased with that.

After crossing the finish line you were herded up to the post-race party where there was a nice spread. I didn't stick around for the award ceremony or door prizes or anything though because I still needed to run another 10K for the day.

I grabbed a half bagel (which was delicious) and a water, along with some other junk I stuffed in my pockets for later, and got right into my car and headed to the NCR Trail in Cockeysville. There I ran exactly 10K in about 54 minutes, which is a pretty ok time for me, especially considering I had already run 5K at about a 7:30 pace, cooled down and then started back up again.

Thankfully, tomorrow is a non-running day. I'll be in the gym doing some extra stretching and weight lifting.

Three weeks to my next half marathon. I'm still not sure how psyched I am for it. 13.1 miles is far.

Weekend at the races

This weekend is my first 5K race of the year, the Orioles Advocates 20th Annual 5K Home Run/Fun Run/Walk. Whew, that's a mouth full. 5K races are fun. They only take a little while, you get a cool t-shirt (most of the time), and there are usually snacks and refreshments to steal when it's over.

I'm especially interested in this 5K because the finish line is on the warning track in center field of Oriole Park at Camden Yards. From what I understand, they don't let you hang out for too long after crossing before they shoo you off the field, but I think that's neat nonetheless.

The problem with my 5K this weekend is that my half marathon training (for the one I'm doing on May 4) calls for 9 miles this weekend. So I have to account for another 6 miles. I think I'm going to run the 5K, get some water and a snack and hightail it up to the NCR trail for the rest of my run for the day. It's flat (for as long as I'll be using it) and should be easy enough.

5K used to be so daunting. Now it's not enough of a workout. Funny how that works.

First post - a running moron primer

I used to be in great shape. Then I turned 11. Ha.

Seriously, I used to do everything to stay in shape, except run. I'd lift weights, ride bikes, swim, whatever it took to keep me from pounding the pavement.

Then one time I was out riding a bike when I hit a curb while going too fast, flew over the handlebars and fractured my shoulder. Not only did that hurt immeasurably, but it also stopped me dead in my tracks when it came to lifting weights, riding bikes and swimming.

While recovering I porked up something fierce. Something I discovered was that as long as I was always exercising I didn't have to worry about my weight much. But without the exercising I needed to worry about my weight a lot.

A while after my accident my shoulder wasn't right (and, truthfully, it's still not and probably never will be), but it was right enough for me to join a gym and ride recumbent stationary bikes and use elliptical machines.

After using those machines for a while and losing some weight I was desperate enough to try something different to stave of the monotony of my workouts. That's when I felt the siren call of the treadmills.

It started with me walking on a treadmill slowly. Then a little faster. Then for a longer period of time. Then jogging slowly. Then speeding up. Then jogging at a moderate pace for a decent amount of time. Then jogging for as long as I wanted.

Eventually, I wanted to run out on the road to see what that was like. So I did. I remember my first outdoor run was 3 miles around my neighborhood and it almost killed me. But I felt great.

So I did some research, found a local 5K race, and kept running outside in preparation for the race. The race came, and while I was and never will be a threat to win, I didn't embarrass myself and had fun.

That first 5K race was in July 2007. Over the rest of the year I ran five more 5K races and a 5 mile race. My collection of race t-shirts got pretty impressive.

My first race of 2008 was also my first half marathon. I would have preferred to finish a little faster than I did, but it was an entirely new experience and required an entirely different approach than running a 5K, and I liked that challenge.

So much so, I guess, that I have two more half marathons on the near horizon. And possibly a full marathon in the fall.

I'm feeling pretty good, looking pretty good, and no longer too worried about my weight. I don't really consider myself "a runner," and definitely don't think of myself as an athlete, but the more I think about it the more I believe I'm both. It's a weird feeling. Especially since I'm pushing 40.

Welcome to my chronicle of training, races, and other things associated with both.