Gone Somewhere

“War! What is it good for? Absolutely Nothing!”

Today, a hearty group of 6 took off up Currahee Mountain. (Brad, Duane, Dustin,  Keith, Ryan and myself. El Goat was awol again.)  This mountain, the southernmost peak in the Blue Ridge mountain range, gives us a bit of history in the area. Back in World War II, there was a paratrooper training camp here. The soldiers used to run up and down this route, giving the saying “3 miles up, 3 miles down.”

As you can probably guess, the road to the top is around 3 miles long. And it’s uphill. You turn around, it’s down hill for 3 miles.  In reality, the first two miles give you a bit of a rolling climb, and actually isn’t horrible. Tough, but not insane. However, at one point, you hit a switchback, then start going up. And up. Then up some more.  Overall, I believe there is over a 900 foot gain, and I’d guess the majority of it is in that last mile.

At the top, there were a bunch of local high school kids screwing around and painting their name on the rock. Apparently, this is the right of passage tradition up here. From the pictures, you can get an idea of the height and the artistic ability of the local kids.

Although many profound things were said on this trip, the quote to remember came from Coach K: “It’s bigger an I thought it would be.” In the front seat of the car, we could only assume he was talking about the mountain you could see out the front window. Duane was too busy laughing to confirm this, and Brad in the back with him was staying suspiciously quiet.

This run was also a Run for the Fallen group run. Today was their final run across the country in memory of all the soldiers killed in Iraq. I had planned on a run today for this, and talking to our group ahead of time, they concurred that I could share this time on this run to think about this. 

At the base of the mountain, there is a small memorial for the regiments that trained here. I was going to give a speech and talk about the current war, read off the number of dead, and all that. But in the end, decided not to. We all have our personal thoughts on it, and that’s enough. And hence, the quote from the song at the top.

Let it be known that yesterday, August 19, 2008, was a good day.

First off, I woke up. And as we all know, that’s a great way to start the day.  Heading off to work, which isn’t bad, since I don’t hate my job, I went to workout at lunch.  After taking an easy walk day yesterday, decided to run a little.

I ran a little, and it was good. So I ran a little more. Still good. Eh, speed up a bit, run a bit. Speed up a bit more, run a bit more. In all, I did a little over 3 miles at an increasing rate. As we in the hobby call it, I had negative splits. I started at 12 minutes per mile, andd finished around 9:50 mpm. Felt good, leg didn’t hurt, and got some good miles in.  (Hey, it was day 15 or so of my running streak. Sad that two weeks in and I can’t even remember how many days it’s been. So much for my math skills.)  And hey, I was watching the Olympics while I was running, one of the few advantages of a treadmill.

I finished out the day at work, then hopped on the van to go home. (I take a vanpool, one of the things that make my job just a little better.) Instantly fell asleep and had a power nap.

After a bite to eat, off for bowling.  The second night of the season, so no pressure. Practice was good, since it was only a couple of us. (For some reason, alot of people weren’t practicing last night. I always go as much as I can, since I want to get my moneys worth. Plus, I go through a set of drills to try to learn what I’m doing.)

Game one starts. Ball one, not so good. Oh well.  Ball 2, I start picking up spares, and that carries for for a few frames. Frames 5-7 was a turkey! Holy cow, all last season, I only did that once. (3 strikes in a row.)  A couple spares follow, then I finish off the tenth frame with at least 1 strike. (honest, I can’t remember.) 

Holy cow, I just bowled my first every 200 game! Woo Hoo!

The next two games weren’t as good, but still above my average.  Now, that rounded off a good day.

And for the record, today wasn’t bad either. Did a couple miles on the treadmill a bit faster than yesterday. Some lady put on E! news, which makes me feel like brain cells are dying every time I see it. But, they tried to interview Michael Phelps, and I gotta give the kid credit.  They tried asking him if he was single, and he said “My private life is private.”  They followed with “Does that mean your single or not?”. He responded with something like “yeah, pick whichever you like, it’s private.”

(Well, he gets some credit for winning all that gold too.)

Oh, for anyone who cares, and wants to join, the plan for this Sunday (August 24, 2008) is to run up Curahee Mountain. This will be a training run for our Blue Ridge Relay team, but it will also be me doing my own Run for the Fallen. I can’t think of a better place to do it then an old WWII paratrooper training camp.

Saturday brought our merry band of runners together for an evening of camraderie and sweat.

Most of us started the morning with our usual group run, a casual 5 to 8 miles followed by the breakfast of soon-to-be champions. (Mcdonalds.)  From there, we went our separate ways for the day, and reconvened at 7:00 PM.

The original plan was to watch Running on the Sun, a documentary about the Badwater ultramarathon. Some of the group have seen it already, and said it was really good. Unfortunately, the disk was so badly scratched up, it wouldn’t work. Instead we ended up watching the first hour of the womens marathon in the Olympics.  We were sad to see Deana Kastor drop out early, and theorized that it’s because she didn’t eat her secret recipe enchilandas. Our very own Coach K provided additional commentary on the race, although I’m not sure that he knew what he was talking about, since he kept mentioning Jack Daniels.

As it started to get darker, those of us continuing with the evenings plans changed into the proper outfits and we discussed the drive the the boonies. As part of the training for the Blue Ridge Relay, we wanted to get a group night run in to test lights and flashers and everything else. Originally, we were going to run one of the routes we usually run, but Keith was nice enough to invite us up to his place, where we were virtually guaranteed no traffic and street lights.  A quick group shot, and we were off.

Upon getting there, Dustin (The Rookie) was waiting for us, unwinding from a long day of digging through dirt looking for bones.  Yes, that’s really what he was doing all day. He’s a detective with a local police agency, and a construction crew found a femur while demolishing a house. Dustin was called to the scene, and with an experts eye, not only did he find a sock full of foot bones, but also a skull. (”Alas, poor Yorick.”)

The plan was for me to do the first mile with them, then I went back to get the car and follow as a support vehicle in case there were any problems. (After all, that’s what I’ll be doing during the relay. Plus, we’d probably still be out there if I were running.)  The first mile went well, except for Little Bertha, the hill we had to run up.  Luckily, I didn’t have to run up Big Bertha, the 2 mile long climb that finished the run! 

Getting back to the car, then trying to catch up and take pictures was a blast. I was having a great time, and was glad I didn’t have to the the miles on the dirt road. During the day, I’m sure it’s nice, but at night with no lights, I was sure I was going to start hearing the banjos playing at any minute. (Or the bears growling.)

Being dark, unfortunately, my focusing skills are usually put to the test, and fail horrible. (Autofocus doesn’t work with no light.) But a few shots came out, with the gang looking like ghosts in the night.

Finishing was much better, since I set up the tripod and actually had time to setup like I knew what I was doing.  Heres the first two finishers. A car came by just as they were getting to me, providing a little extra light.

Keith held a flashlight the whole time, which providing a cool pattern. (Again, a car came right them.  Strange, the road was completely deserted while I was waiting. I think the neighbors were coming out to see the running freaks.) 

And, here’s the team at the end.  (Well, except for the trusty driver.)  One member of our team made some excuse for not making it out, so we had to make do with the closest likeness we could find of him.  (I think his excuse had something to do with sucking peach wine coolers from a kids sippy cup, but I may have misheard.)

Well, it’s that time of year again. The bowling league started up again, and now I have plans every Tuesday night for the next 35 weeks. (36 week season.)  Woohoo.  The exciting thing last night was I got an award I earned last year.  The guy who dropped it off proceeded to give me a hard time, because it’s still a pretty low scoring award. (I think he said something about how “only seniors get this kind of award” or something like that.)  Oh well, I’m still happy with it. 

I’ll be honest. This morning I was sore when I got up.  The calves were pretty dang sore, and I had every intention of taking it really easy today.  I laced up my racing flats, since I left my usual trainers at the office (working from home today), and out the door I went.  I could have put my trail shoes on, but figured the lighter ones were better.

Off I went, and after a couple hundred feet, I felt pretty good. I kept going. I still felt good.  How strange.  A mile later, I was still running, and still feeling good.  So I turned around, ran the whole way back and finished up.  Heck, I don’t know when the last time I actually ran 2 miles straight is.   Looking at my time, it wasn’t even that bad for me, 11:21 average.

While I was running, I got to do some thinking, as I often do.  Today, I was thinking about these guys, Run for the Fallen.  They are running across the country in memory of soldiers killed in Iraq in the last few years. (I’ve been following their progress over the summer.)  Their final run is on August 24th, and people around the country are also doing a mile or so on that day.  So I started thinking that maybe I’ll put something together in my community.  As I decide what, I’ll post something here.

(I’m thinking an easy mile, 4 times around the downtown Lawrenceville main square, which I’m guessing is about a 1/4 mile loop. Anyone up for meeting me?)

Also, today was day 10 of my streak.  I’m joining Ted in his effort to avoid being chicked by Michelle. (But they’re planning on stopping at the end of August, whereas I’ll keep going.)

Anyone how wants to see my running log can look at RunnerPlus for now. I’ll do my own version one of these days.  (Note it may be a day or two behind since I can’t sync the IPod from work anymore.)

A couple days ago (Saturday), I was sitting around talk to the wife after dinner. Originally, I wasn’t planning on running, but as I was talking to hey, I mentioned that I’ve done 5 days in a row. Maybe I should just see how long I can keep it going. 

Of course, as we all know, I don’t always run. sometimes I walk. Heck, I’ve even been known to skip on occassion. (But it’s been at least 10 years). So, as my wife says, “I go out and pedestrian-ate.” She said sounds like fun, so out the door I went to do a quick mile and a half. 

(Yes, in our family, it’s perfectly acceptable to make up words as they are needed. After all, that’s what makes Yinglish so great.)

 So, on Sunday’s long run (almost 10 miles), on day number 7, I gave it some more thought and decided to keep it going some more. I have my own goals I’ve set for when I’m planning on stopping, and hopefully I’ll reach them as some point. (Otherwise, 50 years from now, I’m going to be really dang tired!)

Figure my rules are simple. Must do over a mile. Can be walking, as long as there are at least a few steps of running included to get the heartrate up.  Why a mile? Well, because that’s what the streakers expect.  My official start date was Monday, August 4, 2008. I don’t need any other rules. 

Today’s mile was spent on a treadmill, watching Olympics, womens water polo. (Not something I’ve ever watched before.)  Day number 8. 

Cheers.

Follow-up note (15 minutes after originally posting this):  Oh, we talked, and figured I’d probably be better off with a stretching streak…so I’ll try to stretch every day too.

And my funny story: During yesterday’s run, a biker was coming up on me. He yelled to his buddy “Runner Up!”. Not being quite on top of my game, I responded “yeah, I’m standing.”  The better response, which I thought of as the second biker passed, was “I’m not the runner up. I’m the winner!”  Dang, I cracked myself up on that one.

Took a Saturday off from running this morning, as Runners Fit was doing the timing for a local 5K at Flowery Branch High School. A few of the gang were running in, and a few more of us volunteered to help out.

I like to volunteer at a race once or twice a year. I think it’s a good way to give back to the running community that I’m part off. And every time I’ve done it, it’s been a lot of fun. (And for you who care, I first met my wife volunteering at a race. Matter of fact, this morning, I got to do the same job I did when I met her. How sentimental.)

This morning, after “helping” Sarah enter everyone’s names into the database, I was given the important task of calling numbers. As people cross the finish line, one person writes down the numbers in the order they cross. Since that person needs to look at the paper to write them in the correct order, they get a caller to tell them the numbers as they come in. Yes, it’s a tough job…staring at  chests numbers, making sure I have a good view of everything.

Post race, I also got to go post the results.  Talking about feeling important…carrying the sheet of results to post up, everyone stares at you. Well, it was fun.

I’d like to point out the guys did good. Both “The Goat” and “The Reptile” made great showings, winning their age groups. Reptile actually had a PR.  Way to go guys, showing those kids who’s boss. (They also were in the top 10 or so overall.) “HillHater” made a strong showing too.  Wow, our Blue Ridge team is gonna kick butt. (And hopefully I’ll be awake to appreciate it.)

Oh, the post race food had, of all things, wings. A couple of us went to try them out, and they were good. (Guess that’s what happens when a BBQ place is a sponsor. If I knew the name, I’d given them a shoutout.)

Well, that’s it for now. Back to watching the Olympics opening ceremony on the Tivo, and rest up for tomorrows long run.

Everyone who’s spent time running knows that you will sometimes see strange things. There’s a lot of blog posts about this. Well, today I got to see something new.

I headed out at lunch down the street on my usual course. All is well, and to be honestly, I’m actually just walking because the 95 degrees+humidity+smog is not something I want to screw around in. After a while, I turn around and head back.

About 5 minutes from the office, I see a firetruck ahead and a police car stopped with it’s lights on. A firefighter it talking to the cop in the car, and traffic is stopped.

Getting closer, I notice a sound, that I jokingly thought to myself sounded like a geiger counter. As I walk past the firefighter and cop car, the guy stands up and the following conversation took place:

FF: ”Sorry sir, I can’t let you continue.”

ME: “Okay, why not?”

FF: “There’s a blow transformer up there. Where do you live?”

ME: “Oh, that’s exciting. I live in Lawrenceville.”  (I looked up, and saw the tranformer with giant electric arcs shooting across some electrodes. Looked pretty cool, so bad I didn’t have a camera.)

FF: “???” (As I realize he want’s to send me home instead of letting me down the street.)

ME: “But I work right over yonder.”

FF: “Okay. Walk up there”, pointing to the houses off the street, ” if this thing explodes, we don’t want the boiling oil splattering all over you.”

ME: “Uh, yeah. That would be bad, but at least make for some good lunchtime conversation in the hospital”.

I walk up the lawn, and over to the house that’s being built, and all the guys are out watching the action. As I pass one of them, he’s on the phone in a not-quite paniced voice: ”Hey Steve, are big blue sparks shooting out of a electric transformer bad?”

Yeah, True Story!

After the post the other day about contests and cookies, I had the urge for them last night. So, out come the ingredients, and a while later, fresh baked cookies. Yummy!  Now, knowing that I’d eat them all if they were here, I continued baking the whole batch to bring to the running club in the morning. Yay for the club.

Now, I was also bringing my camera to the run, since I wanted to get a few pictures of the gang as we prepare for the Blue Ridge Relay in a month. Cool…cookies and pictures. It’s a plan.

I showed up around 6:15, to late to catch the early group (who met at 6-the freaks!).  I started out, got around the corner of the building, the decided to take some pictures of the sunrise instead.  It was pretty nice:

Now, that out of the way, I headed out running. The first mile was good, at a sub 10 pace. (Fast for me). The next 2 miles I took easier, and finished around 3 miles just in time to meet everyone else and get 20 minutes of rest before the “real” group run.

I took off a few minutes ahead of everyone else to get in place. Although no gun sounded, I managed to figure out when everyone was coming. (Well, I saw them heading around the corner.)  It was a smaller group this week compared to what kind of turn-out we’ve been getting, but still a fair number of people.

Here’s the lead group.

And the not lead group:

After they passed me, I packed up the monopod and tried to catch up. (Took about a mile, but I did.) I hung out with a new guy, Paul for almost the entire time. We were taking it easy, walking as we felt like it, and running the rest. After making it to the entrance to The Legions course (around 2 miles), we turned around, and I started paying attention by looking behind me every few minutes to watch for everyone heading back.

Eventually, our fearless leader came cruising by. A poor kid was desparately trying to keep up with him. (I won’t embarass him by posting his picture.  See, I’m so nice…well, you can see it in the photo gallery.) As time went on, everyone else started to come by, and I split up with Paul so I could get pictures. The last half mile was pretty casual.  This section of the run comes out to around 4 miles, so I got my well earned reward.

Yeah, it was good!  (And around 7 miles total.)

For the group, the photos are in the gallery, photos.gonesomewhere.com. Look under the date in the group run section. If you want a higher quality picture, send me a message and I’ll email you.  And feel free to leave comments on the photos so we can all laugh at each other.

Yeah! Hey you! Notice this!  YoooHooo!

Okay, really, I don’t feel the need to shout from the roofs “hey, read my blog.” Afterall, I realize that if you’re not interested in reading it, you won’t, and if you are, you will. (Yeah, sometimes I’m so profound.)

The reason I’m writing this though, is because Sheamus, over at irun365.com, is having a contest. The purpose, of course, it to get people to read his blog. You can sign up here. And he even has prizes to hand out. Woohoo for prizes.

Now, Shea is doing something I’ve thought about doing. He’s going for a 1 year streak, and as of today, he’s on day 60. He’s using his blog as motivational tool, logging each days run.  Good luck.

Now, for those of you who’ve read this far, without popping over there to sign up, stop. go click on the link above. Write a comment saying you’re signing up. Now, continue reading here.

Now, let me go see if I have anything to give away for a contest….hmmm, maybe some fresh baked cookies or something….

(Hey, we’re starting to plan a movie night at Runnersfit to watching some running documentary. That should be exciting.)

My brother called me the other day on his way home from the Race Across Oregon. For those of you who don’t know, he owns a recumbent bike shop in Los Angeles, Bent-up Cycles. His team entered the race this year as a two person team, and so the story goes, did extremely well. Yay for him!

(Photo courtesy of Raoterri.) (8.8.08-Edit: Replaced picture with one of Dana.)

Both of us have had similar years; we both had some bad knee problems and both got hit by a car while doing our respective sports. As we were talking, he told me recommended Active Release Therapy.

The theory, as I understand it, is that scar tissue gets built up underneath muscles. By doing deep tissue massage while the muscle is in use, it breaks up the scar tissue and gets rid of it. Although it’s not pleasant during the therapy, he swears it worked miracles.

(As with deep tissue massage, the key word is “deep”, as in it’s none of this trying to make you feel good crap, it’s therapy. And it can hurt! I once had a roommate who was in massage school. I was the test-dummy, since no one else was dumb enough to volunteer…man, I was in pain! But it sure felt good the next day.)

I’m a fan of chiropractic care, even if I think most of them are brain-washed idiots. (But not my guy! I’m going to do a review of his practice over on my other site one of these days.) I also really like massage, although I never get around to going. So, this whole thing makes sense and I can grasp the concept.

So, my question I’m throwing out there for my blog reading friends, has anyone tried this? Specifically, has anyone done something like this for running injuries? How’s it work for runners knee?  What other therapies have you used?