March | 2011 | Run Luau Run

Archive for March, 2011

Bounce

Posted in boston marathon, rest, training, tagged boston marathon, taper, training on March 31, 2011| 8 Comments »

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Do you feel that?

That almost rhythmic bounce? A rapid, nervous hammering?

Do you feel it?

Do you know what it is?

It baffles scientists every year around this time. It’s in the air, it’s in the ground, it’s in the pit of our stomachs.

I finally figured out what is causing it.

It’s the up-and-down movement of over 27,000 knees as runners preparing for the Boston Marathon enter their taper*.

***

Despite this being my 6th marathon in 18 months, I can already tell this taper is going to be the hardest yet. I’ve trained harder and run longer than any other training cycle – I just want Boston to get here.

What do you do to deal with the taper?

*For the uninitiated – the taper is the last 2 – 3 weeks of training for a marathon. During this time, runners reduce their weekly miles somewhat dramatically, leading to what many call Taper Madness – an overflow of nervous energy where runner don’t know what to do with themselves and often get a little grumpy.

Why do you run?

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Chicken or Egg

Posted in motivation, training, tagged Chicken, Egg, marathon, running, training on March 29, 2011| 9 Comments »

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Over 15 weeks down, less than 3 weeks to go. I’ve been diligent. I’ve stuck to the program. Whatever Pfitz has told me to do, I’ve pretty much done it.

And you know what? I feel pretty good. Over 700 miles into this training cycle and I’m feeling pretty damned good. Not that I was expecting not to, but after logging more miles in the last 4 month than I ever have in any given 4 month stretch, I wasn’t completely sure that my body was going to hold up. But, knock on wood, it has.

I love my training. I love training for the marathon.

But I wonder, am I training for the marathon or am I running the marathon for the training?

***

I started running two and a half years ago in support of my wife. She had signed up for the Hyannis Half-Marathon, and I just couldn’t let her run it alone. I had never run more than 4 or 5 miles at a time and I knew that 13.1 miles was going to be a long distance (especially in the middle of the winter on the Cape).

In this particular case I was training for the event. I knew that I needed to get in shape to be able to complete that distance. Despite not having a plan, I quickly went from running “0” miles per week to 30. With the half-marathon on the horizon, I kept pushing my distance just little bit with each subsequent run until I finally hit the 10 mile mark in a single run.

That’s when something clicked and I went from being someone who ran every now and then to a runner.

Though someday I would like to, I never did end up running the Hyannis Half. What I did take away from that stretch of time though was having a goal race on the calendar helped keep me motivated to get up and run every day. A few weeks before Hyannis, I ran my first 10K. A few months later I finally ran my first half-marathon. I immediately set my sites on a full and signed up for a fall marathon. The following year, 2010, was filled with almost a race per month. With each of these races I found motivation to keep putting in miles even when neither my body nor my mind wanted to.

As exhausting as the training could be, my soul was happy…full.

My training reached a high point last summer when I became hyper-focused on doing well at the Inaugural Smuttynose Marathon in New Hampshire. It was BQ or bust.

Even though my ultimate goal was to run a BQ at Smutty, I look back and wonder, was I training for the marathon? or had I signed up for the marathon so I would train hard?

In the end, it doesn’t really matter, right? The end result is the same. Whether you sign up for an event as motivation or are motivated to do well at an event, the goal is to do the best you can.

This winter I’m back at it. Training with a vengeance – looking to improve on my time at Boston. Still, I’m not sure whether it’s the goal or the training that’s driving me.

Do you train for marathons? Or do you run marathons for the training?

Why do you run?

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Hamlet

Posted in boston marathon, training, tagged GU, Hamlet, marathon, marathon training, running, to GU or not to GU on March 28, 2011| 11 Comments »

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To GU or not to GU, that is the question…
Whether ’tis nobler to hit the wall
or take on possible stomach issues

That is the thought that ran through my mind for nearly 13 miles of my run on Sunday. I have been a little gun-shy of ingesting anything other than liquid refreshment during my runs since my stomach disaster in New York back in November. That experience, though mildly triumphant, was physical misery.

I knew I was going to have to make a few adjustments for Boston.

The first adjustment I made coming out of New York was to give in to Gatorade. It was not my preference, but I knew that if I didn’t want to carry anything (i.e. a water bottle) at Boston, that meant I would have to take what they were serving. That transition went easily enough. I have to say, as much as it pains me to admit it, I have grown to actually like Gatorade.

But how many calories am I really going to be able to replace with a sip or two of Gatorade every mile? Sure, I’ll be fine with the hydration aspect of the race, but if I don’t replace the carbs at a higher rate (8oz. of Gatorade has only 50 calories), it will be sooner rather than later that I hit the wall.

And yet, I put off incorporating any kind of gel or gu or semi-solid substance into my long runs.

I have been training hard this cycle. I’ve seen improvement and am feeling confident. Unfortunately, that confidence has been feeding into pushing off my GU dilemma. With each successive long run, I was finding that I was running faster, drinking less and feeling better and less fatigued at the end of each. I tried to convince myself that maybe I could just run Boston without any help. All of my runs of 17 – 20 miles have me ahead of pace, and for almost all of them, I’ve felt strong at the end. In one recent 18 miler, I drank a total of maybe 3 or 4 oz of Gatorade and that was it – and I felt great at the end.

I almost convinced myself. Almost.

What happens if I hit the wall at 23 or 24 or 25? Once you hit the wall, you’re done. Oh, you can still finish the race (see my marathon debut), but if you truly hit the Wall, it’s a death march the rest of the way, even if you do take something afterward. After the Wall, you aren’t gonna hit your target time.

And that thought haunts me.

How pissed would I be if I were cruising along to a 3:15, or dare I say it, a 3:10, and my body ran out of fuel somewhere in the last 10K?

So yesterday, with just over 3 weeks to go, I decided I would suck it up and re-introduce GU into my running.

Truth be told, I almost left them in the car, for fear of getting stomach cramps 10 miles away, but I thought better of it.

Now it became a question of when. Most gel-makers recommend taking one 15 minutes before race time and then once every 45-60 minutes thereafter.

***

I didn’t take one before my run.

***

When I hit 6 miles 45 minutes later, I didn’t take one.

***

When I hit 12 miles at 1:32 I still didn’t take one. I kept thinking, what if I get nauseous?

***

I realized that New York was playing with my mind.

I just had to do it.

So at mile 13, a full 1:39 after starting my run, I finally downed a Lemon-Lime GU.

And you know what? It wasn’t so bad – I’ll just have to make sure that I time it with a hydration station during the actual race – and maybe the GU had something to do with being able to rip off a 6 minute mile for mile 20.

So now I have to figure out just how many GU’s I will need. I’m leaning toward only bringing 2 with me – one for mile 10, and one for mile 20.

Any words of advice?

Why do you run?

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Predawn

Posted in other, training, tagged predawn, running poem on March 25, 2011| 19 Comments »

In the dark
Alone

Emptiness
Subsides

Energy
Restores

Soul
Renews

Before
Sunrise

I will walk tall
Another day

Because I run
Predawn

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Why do you run?

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Brad Pitt

Posted in boston marathon, Odd Ball, other, training, tagged boston marathon, Brad Pitt, running, training on March 23, 2011| 17 Comments »

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It’s less than 4 weeks away. It looms larger and larger with each passing day. The Boston Marathon will be here before we know it, and to be honest, I’m starting to get the butterflies.

But I’ve been training hard. Once or twice a week I’ve taken to running parts of the Boston Marathon course. The hills coming into Newton, especially after 17 miles, can be brutal whether in the race or on a training run. But I’ve stuck to what I said back in November – I have been trying to live by the mantra – Train for the Terrain. Hills have been part of my training.

What the hell does this have to do with Brad Pitt?

I want you to look at something:

What do you see?

Yes, yes, it’s Brad Pitt. Yes, it’s Brad Pitt with his past girlfriends. But take a closer look. In each of these pictures, you will see that Pitt has adapted himself to take on the look of his main squeeze of the moment.

Uh, right Luau. Been reading a little too much US Magazine lately? What the frak does this have to do with running and the Boston Marathon???

Well, it has less to do with the Boston Marathon specifically and more to do with Marathon Training in general, as in training for the terrain – adapting to the current situation. My hope is that I have managed to “Brad Pitt” my training and will be perfectly matched up for Boston – downhills early, uphills late, more downhill near the end.

My stated goal at the beginning of the cycle was 3:15 or better. That still remains the goal, though I’m gonna take a long, hard look at 3:10.

How’s your Spring Marathon training going? Have you Brad Pitted it? I wonder if you can work the verb “Brad Pitt” into a conversation today?

I guess the burning question now is – Is the Boston Marathon Juliette, Gwyneth, Jennifer or Angelina?

Why do you run?

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Names

Posted in motivation, other, tagged name calling, running, support on March 22, 2011| 9 Comments »

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Last week my friend, E, who I find to be pretty awesome, went out for a run. She hadn’t run in a while. She was pumped. She had found renewed energy and focus. She was happy to be out on the streets, putting one foot in front of the other. She was just finding her groove, battling a hill, when some jackass yelled out and called her a name.

It doesn’t matter what the name was – suffice it to say, it was hurtful and demoralizing. By the end of her run, my friend was alternating between tears and anger.

When I read what had happened I was furious.

On the micro-level, I was furious that someone would belittle my friend, a woman who was working hard to better herself.

But there was a whole other macro-level of furious that boiled up in me. As the parent of a girl with autism, I know that I have become overly-sensitive to the concept of name calling. Words like “retard” make me want to grab the speaker by the shoulders, shake them and then pop ’em in the kisser with a left-cross (and my left-cross is pretty good). I usually take a deep breath, take stock of the situation. If it is the only time I have ever heard this person say it, then I usually let it go, but if it becomes a regular thing, that’s when I kindly ask them to stop. The wife actually wrote a very good post on the topic. You can read it —>HERE<—.

But I digress.

I know in this day and age, it ain’t cool to be PC, and quite honestly, I tend to think that as a society, we tend to over-think things a lot. There are a lot of PC concepts that I just can’t get behind (everybody wins all the time? does that teach anybody anything?). But the truth is, words hurt; words scar. And if you are particularly insecure about certain things, certain words can cut even deeper and leave scars that take a long time to go away.

So when I heard this story, my heart went out to E.

She wrote that it might be a while before she gets out there again with running shoes on. My hope is that she can find her inner duck and let the name calling roll off her back. When she runs, she inspires more people than she knows. She may not be fast – in fact, I think she would be the first person to admit that – but she runs, and through her running and her humor she brings smiles to faces and gets people thinking about health and fitness.

I hope she will Tai Chi the crap out of the hurtful words, turning its energy against itself, turning it into something positive. I hope she gets angry instead of demoralized. I hope she decides to take the power away from the jackass and make it her own. I hope she remembers that running is cleansing and can wash away the dirt people throw at us.

I hope to see you out there running soon E.

You can check out Miss E at – http://fromfat2fab2009.blogspot.com/

Why do you run?

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Light It Up

Posted in other, tagged blue, light it up blue, president Obama, white house on March 17, 2011| 2 Comments »

We interrupt your regularly scheduled running blog for this message –

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A couple of days ago, my wife was asked to write a letter to the President…yes, that President!

The point of the letter was to tell President Obama why she thought that he needs to light the White House blue on April 2nd in support of World Autism Awareness Day.

She did a fabulous job.

Ideally, there will be enough comments left in the comments section of this letter that our President will feel compelled to do it.

I’ve been reading through the comments though…so many. I have noticed that the voices are mostly those of mothers, sisters, aunts and grandmothers…where are my fellow fathers, brothers, uncles and grandfathers? Come on guys! Your lives are just as affected and your voices can be just as effective.

Please read her letter and leave a comment —>HERE<— and tell President Obama to light it up blue!

Why do you run?

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“Click”

Posted in motivation, tagged click, clicking, running, satisfaction on March 17, 2011| 4 Comments »

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Inspired by a tweet from my friend @BklynRunner

“Click”

It’s a very satisfying sound. Your seat belt, the front door, the battery cover of your remote control, your mouse. There are dozens of things in our lives that we can derive small amounts of pleasure from when they simply go “click”. But it is the more abstract “clicks” that can lead to happiness and general good feelings – a relationship, a blog post, a project at work. When those things “click”, man does life feel good!!!

Of course, some things will click and some things won’t. When they don’t, it hurts. Not necessarily the “I’m gonna jump off a bridge” kind of hurt, but it still hurts. You look back and wonder, what could I have done to make that relationship work or make that blog post resonate or make the boss really like the end product?

The same thing happens in running. Some runs are awesome. When a run “clicks”, you get your full dose of endorphins, you feet don’t touch the ground and you feel like you could run forever. When the inverse happens, you wonder what the hell you’re doing. Why am I running? Your feet feel like bricks, your breathing is labored and every mile feels like ten.

Here’s what I have learned from running though – just because a run doesn’t click today, doesn’t mean it won’t click big time tomorrow. In fact, it is rare that I ever have two bad runs in a row (and let’s be honest here, a bad run is a lot better than no run at all!).

This past Sunday I was lucky enough to enjoy a run that really clicked. I had an 18-miler on the schedule, 14 of which were supposed to be at marathon pace. Although my best marathon is a 3:19 (equaling a 7:37ish pace), I have been training with the assumption that I have the ability to run a 3:15 – that would translate into about a 7:25/mile pace. I ended up running the entire 18 miles at a 7:05 clip, with the middle 14 coming in at under 7 minutes per mile. I felt like I was flying. This came on the heels of what one could call a less than stellar run the previous day.

There will be more bad runs – it happens – but I know I can draw on this one from Sunday when the going gets tough.

And when things get tough in the real world, outside of running, I will know that by pushing through the tough things, I will get to the good ones.

If things were good all of the time, we wouldn’t appreciate them for what they are.

I hope things click for you today.

Why do you run?

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Push

Posted in boston marathon, motivation, tagged feel good, motivation, push, running on March 15, 2011| 11 Comments »

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The alarm goes off. I blink my eyes a couple of times.

4AM already?

I blindly reach in the dark for my phone to turn off the snoring sound (yes, my alarm is a snoring sound). I move my stiff legs and body off of the bed and to the bathroom where I find my shorts and socks waiting for me. I stare at them.

Do I really want to run this morning? 8 miles? Really?

I ignore my brain and change. I head downstairs for some oatmeal, a banana and some coffee – my legs are still sore and tight from Sunday’s hard, fast 18-miler.

This is gonna hurt.

I slowly down the pre-workout meal, delaying the inevitable. Part of me wants to go back to bed; part of me knows Boston is less than 5 weeks away. The schedule calls for 8 miles with 5 intervals of 600 meters at 5K race pace. I don’t have it in me to run outside this morning so I trudge down to the treadmill, trying to get my brain to convert the numbers into something I can use.

600 meters…400 meters is about a quarter mile…0.25…add half of that…0.375…how the hell am I supposed to use that?

I settle on running 0.40 mile intervals at the treadmill’s top speed (10mph) with a 0.20 mile recovery in between.

This is gonna hurt.

I pop the TV on and stretch a little, not really wanting to do this. At that moment, all I want to do is crawl back into bed and sleep for another 3 hours. I look at the clock – 4:35 – it’s time to go.

Pain. Not the sharp, oh crap I’ve injured myself kind of pain. Just pain.

Just under 57 minutes later I am done. Sweat is dripping off my body like I’m a hose with holes in it. I am spent.

But the endorphins kick in and I can’t remember that feeling I had before the run. I don’t remember NOT wanting to run.

All I know is DAMN! This feels good!!!

This definitely feels good.

Hope you got your feel good on today.

Why do you run?

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36K for Miracles Challenge

Posted in boston marathon, tagged 36K for Miracles Challenge, boston marathon, Children's Hospital, Really Not A Runner on March 14, 2011| 3 Comments »

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There are many of you out there that are running Boston this year. Some (including myself) are running as qualifiers. Others (like I was fortunate enough to last year) are running on an invitational entry. And yet others are doing double duty preparing for the marathon this year by running for charity. Say what you will about Boston Marathon charity runners, the one thing that cannot be disputed is the hard work these runners put in. Not only are they running the daily miles the rest of us are doing, they are also having to spend lots of time raising money for their chosen charity. What is often forgotten by others is that these runners are putting their own bank accounts at risk. Every charity that receives bibs for Boston requires each of their runners to raise a minimum amount of funds by a certain date. If the runner is unable to do so, guess where the balance comes from? That’s right – them. If the required number is $2600 but only $1300 is raised, the rest comes from the runner’s credit card.

So they must get creative.

My friend Doug, who still claims to be “Really Not A Runner”, has come up with a pretty creative way to do just that.

Next Sunday, on March 20th, in his effort to raise $10,000 for Children’s Hospital (as part of their Miles for Miracles Program), he will be hosting a fund raising virtual race, aptly named: 36K for Miracles. Doug is going to run a 5K, a 10K and a Half-Marathon, in order. YOU can race against him in any or all of these races from wherever you are in the world. There is an entry fee for each race, and prizes will be given to both the male and female winners in each race, in addition to the overall winners who run all 36K. Anybody who beats Doug will receive a winner’s certificate (Winning!), and all participants will receive a thank you note from him. Also, anyone who enters and either tweets something about it, posts it on Facebook or dailymile or their own blog, will be entered into the “door prize” raffle for prizes from Doug’s sponsors.

You can register —>HERE<— or go directly to his fund raising page —>HERE<—.

I’ve got a 20-miler that day, so I may break it down and run a 10K and then a Half-Mary, but who knows, maybe I’ll throw in the 5K just for good measure. I hope you will at least check out Doug’s blog and consider running part of the 36K for Miracles Challenge.

You were gonna run that day anyway, right? Might as well throw in the added bonus of doing it for a good cause!

Why do you run?