13 Miles

Day 77.

The days are getting shorter, the runs should be getting longer.

I left the house a bit later than I’d hoped today. I left at 6:26 a.m. It was just getting light. It seems like only last week I was hitting the trail just before 5:30 and the sun was popping up. And I was still the only one on the trail running.

As I started running, I realized I had to go on the radio at 7:17, and didn’t think I’d be able to the five miles on the plan. So I just started running fast. I made it 4.5 miles, and it was a pretty good pace. It took less than 43 minutes. That’s under 9 and a half a mile.

I was doing some visualizing today. I was thinking about all the cheering fans (you know my Mom will be there, right?).

That got me thinking about track meets back in the day. It was great to hear someone yelling and cheering at every turn during an 800. There’s something about people cheering that keeps you going and gives you a boost. When I played football (which was at the end of most games) I never heard the crowd much. When I was on stage in a play or at a speech competition it was usually laughter I heard that helped, but not like the cheering from teammates at a track meet.

I hope there are lots of competitors and lots of watchers. Doing it in a crowd with a crowd will be nice. I’m thinking of great spots where people will be able to yell and cheer. Just thinking about them cheering is helping during the training, even when it’s still a bit dark.

And I’m the only one on the trail.

Twitter This

Username: Password:

Day 75.

Back on the bike. I took an 8 mile bike ride today for some cross training.

I’m noticing the weather changing. It’s not as hot as early in the day, and it has actually been chilly when I leave the house most mornings. That makes it nice. I’m guessing the weather for Aug. 30 will be nice and cool.

We are down to the wire here. Only 18 days until the half-marathon. I read one of my posts from early on in this training, and it’s amazing how much I struggled to run anything, just 70 days ago. But we still have 18 days to go, and another five miles longer than I’ve gone yet.

There is still a lot of work to be done.

Twitter This

Username: Password:

Day 74.

Back to the trail after two days off. Two and a half long days off eating. And eating. And rocking out on Rock Band. And eating.

BUT, after Friday morning’s successful six-mile run under an hour, I increased the speed today. I ran five miles, at a pace better than 9 minutes, 35 seconds per mile.

I’m pushing myself more each run, really trying to concentrate on good form while running, but more importantly concentrating on not letting up. What used to be normal was running hard, but not really pushing myself too much, not wanting to run out of energy and endurance before the end of the run.

Now, I’ve realized that I can push myself harder while I’m running, knowing I can still make it all the way. I’ve started focusing on something in the distance, then looking at only it until it gets close, then finding something else in the distance to focus on. I’ve found that helps me take my mind off taking time off from running hard. No relaxing.

I’m also, taking advice from someone who left a comment on this blog, telling myself to run harder than normal for this block, or around this turn, or until the turnaround point and back to here, etc. I try to stretch it out longer each time and take less blocks back to normal — not off, just back to normal — than before.

I must restate my prior commitment to not worrying too much about the time I run, just that I finish the 13.1 miles. But it would be cool to run it faster than two and a half hours.

Twitter This

Username: Password:

Day 71.

I did my 10k race today. Actually, I did 6 miles, which I guess is pretty close.

And I did it fast. Well, fast for me. I ran the 6 miles in 58 minutes 8 seconds. That’s right: Under 10 minutes a mile for the first time — and at a distance that almost means something.

I’ve taken into account many things I’ve learned from the comments I get on this blog from you guys. Setting a pace, how to think about the run and different ideas on speed, music and encouragement.

I also weighed in today. A BIG DAY TODAY: Under 200 lbs for the first time in a while. Down another four pounds. That makes 27 pounds in 71 days. Not too bad.

Now we’re getting close. But I thought a quick history lesson is in order. A friend told me about the true part of this when I first started running. I had to look some of it up and make some of it up, but you’ll get the point.

THE STORY OF PHEIDIPPIDES AND HIS HALF-BROTHER

Pheidippides, or Phil let’s call him, was a 40-year-old rather fit guy. It was 490 B.C. and he’d been lucky enough to have lived at the historic and celebratory “500 Years ‘Til Christ” ball drop ten years previous.

But things were not so great for Phil and his friends and Greek countrymen. They were raging in a war. The hated Persians were a much stonger army. They were winning the Persian War — so much so they had already won the naming rights.

Then came the Battle of Marathon. The outnumbered Greek army was going at it hard with the Persians. Phil was there. So was his half-brother Halphuslogallies, or Half for short. Whereas Phil had always been a go-getter, a do-everything-one-hundred-percent kind of guy, Half … not so much. Half always found a way to get the job done the easiest and most efficient way possible. He was though, as they say, a survivor.

A few days before, Phil was in Athens. He had to run to Sparta to get help for the battle of Marathon. It’s 150 miles, but he ran it in two days. Now back in Marathon, and thanks to the help Phil rounded up, the Greeks were winning the battle.

And then they actually won the battle. Phil and Half were celebrating, when someone realized maybe they should tell everyone back in Athens. Phil and Half were recruited. They took off running to Athens to tell everyone the good news: The Persians were defeated.

Along the way, the two half-brothers began arguing. They argued over the conversion from miles to kilometers. Half was sure the 40 km were close to 26 miles. Phil insisted the distance was closer to 30 miles. To prove his point, Half stopped after 13 miles. He said he would stop there, get a horse from a local horse man, Odometrious, who happened to live exactly 13.1 miles from Marathon. The horse he was to borrow had a funny contraption Odometrious said would keep track of distance traveled. Odometrious said he’d have to wait an hour or so while the horse was getting ready. Since he was no longer going to be running, and he was quite thirsty, he decided to feast and drink with Odometrious, in a celebratory mannor.

Meanwhile, Phil had a mission to complete. He continued running. And running. And running. Finally, after what seemed like 26.2 miles, he reached Athens.

“We have won!” he yelled out to all those who had gathered around.

Then Phil died. He just dropped dead.

“Wow,” said the onlookers. “He just ran all the way to tell us that and died. What was he thinking? We live in 490 B.C. Instant communication will not be necessary for centuries. What was the rush? What a shame. He was a good guy, just a little obsessed with the running thing.”

About three hours later, a somewhat drunk Half rode into town on a horse. He had news to tell everyone. They had won the Battle of Marathon. When everyone responded with things like, “Yeah, we already know” and “Your brother died after telling us that earlier” and “Where did you get drunk?” he let them know something else. “There’s a big feast about … ” and he checked the contraption on the horse … “13.1 miles that way. Hey, what do you know, I was right. It was 26.2 miles from here to Athens.”

Everyone got on their horses and rode to the party near Odometrious’ place. It was decided that the efforts of both Phil and Half should be memorialized somehow.

Each year, runners would sign up to run either a Phil Marathon run (26 miles) or a Half Marathon run (13.1 miles). After the runners would complete their run, a feast would be had in their honor. For the first two or three centuries, no one signed up for the Phil Marathon in fear of death at the finish line. Most who ran the Half Marathon were quite happy with their decision.

Later, the Olympics people decided to go crazy, and made an event simply called the Marathon. It was 26 miles. The craziness caught on, and soon runners all over the world — who were in better shape by then — were running Marathons and NOT dying. It was a novel idea.

But even more popular are Half-Marathons. They take around two hours give or take and then there’s a celebration.

All in honor of our hero, Halphuslogallies.

I hope you enjoyed today’s history lesson.

Twitter This

Username: Password:

Day 69.

A long, long time ago…
this mornin’ I guess it was …
How that music used to make me smile.
And I once I got my running pants
I would find the trail an’ start to dance
And, maybe, I’d make it close to 13 miles.

But my iPod made a quiver
When the off button I didn’t remember.
Bad news on the pause hit;
I may not hear one more clip.

I can’t remember if I cried
When Led Zepplin electrified,
But something touched me deep inside
Before, the iPod died.

So bye-bye, shuffle iPod power.
Ran my knees through trees,
But the trees were quiet.
And them good old songs were echoin’ in my mind
Singin’, “this’ll be the run my iPod dies.
“this’ll be the run my iPod dies.”

Oh, and I was moving at such a pace,
Listening to “Pretty Vegas”
With no time left to play again.
So come on: jack be nimble, jack be quick!
Jack’s song stopped and he got sick
Cause music is the runner’s only friend.

Oh, some lady saw me when the last note played
My eyes jumped out in fists of rage.
No iPod born in hell
Could break that batt’ry’s spell.

And as I made my final turn of right
The silence was a scary sight,
I heard a dog panting with delight
The run my iPod died

He was singing,
“bye-bye, my shuffle iPod.”
Ran my knees through trees,
But the trees were quiet.
And them good old songs were echoin’ in my mind
Singin’, “this’ll be the run my iPod dies.
“this’ll be the run my iPod dies.”

Well, maybe that’s being over dramatic.

During the last leg of my five mile run this morning, my iPod battery clicked off. I had been listening to good music, running at a good pace, concentrating on good speed and good form.

Then …

Nothing.

It just stopped in the middle of a note during INXS’s “Pretty Vegas.” I knew there could have been a problem. When I got wired up before leaving, I realized the power was still on; I hadn’t turned it off Monday morning, only pressed pause. And I hadn’t charged it for a little while.

So I was silent on the last stretch. It was still a good run, but man, did I hear everything. My feet hitting the ground, my lungs screaming out loud, some lady say “hi” to me. It was weird.

But it wasn’t horrible.

Just different, the day my iPod shuffle died.

Twitter This

Username: Password:

Day 67.

My dad golfed as much as he could on the weekends when I was a youngster. When I got to junior high, I started learning the game myself. We’d go just about every weekend during the summer once I was in high school. By the time I was a junior or senior, my friends and I were going at least once or twice a week on top of that.

I really grew an appreciation for the game. It’s fun. It’s relaxing. It’s not easy, but it’s easy to do. Whether walking nine or riding 18, it’s a good day regardless of how many times you hit the ball.

I kept playing through a few years of college, then maybe once a year for a while after I was married and now my clubs sit idle in my basement, begging to be used.

And I’m sure I’ll pick them up some summer weekend afternoon, with a light breeze across the suttle hills and sunny sky above. I’ll swing off a bit, but for the most part, I’ll be right back on my game.

Because I’ll tell you it was so hot sweat was running into my eyes and I couldn’t see. The wind was a hurricane moving across the gigantic mountains I was playing through. The sun was shining and causing glare no matter where I looked.

Yup. I’ll be back on my game, without a hitch. I’ll hit 67. On the front nine. And have a 35 to boot. 35 excuses that is. See, that’s what I love about golf. So many things to blame your bad day on, so many things to take away credit for not having a good score, or, in my case, for not having picked up a club all month, winter or decade-to-this-point.

What does that have at all to do with running and training for a half-marathon?

I’m thinking excuses, just like I was on the course today.

I was pretty tired. It’s the first Monday I’ve run since early in the training now that I’ve switched my schedule around. You know how Mondays can be. The heat was killer. And the humidity. My goodness. I overslept a bit because I hit snooze too many times. I didn’t take my ibuprofin before I left, nor did I eat any breakfast. My legs were a little wobbly still anyway after Saturday’s 8-mile high. I was getting a side ache that wouldn’t quit. I was trying out a new music playlist on the iPod. The songs just weren’t right for a good run. Since I was running late, I didn’t have a lot of time to run before getting home so Melissa could go to work. It’s the first day of “Boys’ Week of Fun 2008″ and I didn’t want to be too tired for it. I didn’t sleep well. I was pretty tired … oh, already used that one.

See? That’s all from a 26 minute 41 second run.

To be fair, I did run pretty fast for the first half. I realized I needed to make it a short run when I wasn’t leaving until after 7. In all I ran 2.5 miles. A short run when I was supposed to run 4.5. But I’ll make up for it this week.

As I mentioned, it’s “Boys’ Week of Fun 2008.” BWOF started last year. It’s a week I take off work to do nothing but spend time with my boys. Last year we did things like go to library each day, go to the park, made a book (about BWOF), ride bikes, go to movies, etc. It’s a week of fun. This week, we’re going to do some of the same, plus a special project. We’ll end the week with a trip to their uncle’s house where they’ll get to have some extra fun. It’s a good time. We’ll make another book, too. Hopefully we’ll be lucky enough to continue BWOF for a long time. Maybe long enough to teach them how to play golf, and most importantly, how to make many excuses. Excuses are free, unlike muligans.

Twitter This

Username: Password:

Day 66.

A Sunday off. Ahhhhhhhh.

We’ve got 27 days until we run 13.1 miles, my friends. If you don’t know the route, you can get it by clicking here.

The route starts at the stop sign in the middle of the Fonner Park parking lot. It head north, across Fonner Park Road, up Pleasant View Dr. to Sunset Ave. Take Sunset east to Cherry (it isn’t a straight through, it goes a block, then half a block north, then another block over to Cherry). Then take Cherry all the way to the start of the trail. (This is the turnaround point for the 5K.) Then follow the trail all the way to College Park. Cross the highway and take the trail, it appears, until it comes even with the main museum building at Stuhr Museum.

Then turn around and do it all again backwards.

I’d like to do a 10 mile run the Saturday before, that will start at the beginning, go all the way to the end, then stop three miles short - which is around the ball diamonds at the Platte Deustche. Everyone is welcome to join me. It will start at about 7 a.m. Tell your friends.

I hope everyone who is planning to run the Bill Seymour is cool with me and my pace. I don’t think I’ll beat my friends’ times, and I don’t think it matters anymore. I just don’t think I can run it in under 2:10. Maybe closer to 2:25. That’s the time I want to beat. But we’ve got 27 days for me to improve on that.

27 days, my friends. 27 days.

Twitter This

Username: Password:

Day 65.

The longest run yet: 8 miles. The longest run yet: 1 hour, 26 minutes, 41 seconds. That’s better than 11 minutes a mile. That’s better than last week’s seven mile run.

Running a long run on Saturday rather than Sunday is nice. Now I’ve got the entire weekend ahead of me to relax.

Here’s what I realized today: The 13 mile route is getting shorter. For a while there I was questioning my old phylosophy that familiarity shortens distances. Now it’s getting there. I ran to the start/finish of the Bill Seymour at Fonner Park today. It’s the second time I’ve run that stretch, plus I biked it once. I’m getting comfortable with the route. I’ll do the other half this week to get comfortable with that stretch.

But I’m tired. 8 miles is a long way. It’s the way back, at least, in the 13 mile run.

Twitter This

Username: Password:

Day 64.

Down a pound this week. It got me thinking about what it takes to lose weight.

I looked at a calorie burned calculator on a Web site. I’m not sure about the results.

It said I burned about 2,200 calories yesterday. But I probably took in more than that. It then said I had to burn 3,500 calories to lose one pound.

Sounds fine.

Except I lost like 5 pounds a week there for awhile. That means I was burning 17,500 more calories those weeks than I was bringing in. Say I ate 2,000 a day. That means I burned 31,500 calories that week, 4,500 a day.

I’m not so sure about that.

Here’s what is funny: It doesn’t matter. I still lost the weight. I’ve lost 23 pounds in 64 days. I’ve run like 80 some miles, watched my calorie intake and cut out some crap from my diet. The actual number burned must be about 80,500 more than I’ve taken in.

And only about that many more to go to get to a healthy weight.

A NOTE ON MUSIC: Thanks to those who have left notes on running music here. Keep them coming. I’ll try some new songs and eliminate some old ones. Still curious if it’s better to have a playlist or play ‘em random and be surprised.

Twitter This

Username: Password:

Day 63.

I’ve once again caught music madness. Now that we’re getting close to the Bill Seymour — less than a month people!! — I’m going to start testing songs. I ran 4.5 miles today, and re-realized the power a song can have on your pace. So now, as I listen, I’m going to ask a few questions:

1. Can I run to this? If the song is great, but too slow or to mushy, I won’t be able to run to it. Likewise, if it’s too hard to listen to, then I can’t run to that either. Examples of songs off of my list: “Beth” by Kiss; “Without You” by Motley Crue; “9 in the afternoon” by Panic At the Disco (see earlier post.).

2. Do I like this song? If the song has a good beat, but I really don’t like it, it has gotta go. This may sound overly philosophical, but I don’t like songs I don’t like. “Bad Day” by Daniel Powter is a song I really don’t like. Sorry. I’m not going to run to you.

3. Does the song make me depressed? I’m running for God’s sake. Do I have to feel depressed too? Sorry, but I can’t listen to Buck Cherry’s “Sorry” or “Hate Me Today” by Blue October. Give these guys a hug.

4. Am I tired of this song? There are some great songs, that aren’t too slow or depressing that I like, but I’ve played them too many times. I can’t let the music numb me out so that I don’t listen to it and then pay attention to the fact I’m running. Sorry, but “Jaded” by Aerosmith and “Photograph” by Def Leppard are out.

5. Is the song just too long? I can’t get bored with a song. It’ll make it feel like I’m not getting anywhere. So, a lot of epic songs are out. “Hey Jude” by the Beatles, any early Metallica are out.

So what’s good?

I do like a lot of hairband stuff. I like fun stuff, fast stuff, poppy stuff.

“This Love” by Maroon 5, “My Own Worst Enemy” by Lit, “Inside Out” by Eve 6, “Cumbersome” by Seven Mary Three, “Machinehead” by Bush and “Hey Baby” by No Doubt are some that I really like.

But there are some inspirational songs for runners I’m not sure about. “Run” by Collective Soul is on the bubble. Kinda slow.

I’m also not sure about “Born to Run.” I’ll try it out.

Let me know what you listen to. And I’d like to know your thoughts on a playlist vs. random order. Is it better to know it’s coming or be surprised. I’m leaning toward surprised, but it might be nice to plan a rhythm for the long run to keep pace. Your thoughts?

BY THE WAY: I’m changing my schedule. Since the half-marathon is on a Saturday, and I’m struggling to get enough sleep on Monday nights, I’m reworking the whole thing. Actually, I’m just moving it up a day. Saturdays will be the big run, Sundays will be rest, Mondays will be 4.5 or 5 miles, Tuesdays will be cross training, Wednesdays will be 4.5 or 5 miles, Thursdays will be rest, Fridays will be weigh-in and light cross training, and back to Saturdays.

AND: I’d like to get a 10 mile run for the week before the Bill Seymour. If others would like to join, leave a message here. We’ll make some plans. But you’ll all run faster than me. And I’m alright with that.

Twitter This

Username: Password: