Gone Somewhere

Yes, that time of year has rolled around. This weekend, the ING marathon will be winding it’s way through Atlanta.

I’m as ready as I’m going to be. I’m pretty sure I’ve gotten at least 20 miles of training this month, and probably 40 the month before, it’s looking like it’s going to be a long day.

Last weekend, I did swing by the storeand pick up some new shoes. This time around, I went with some Ascics DS trainers. These were the same shoes I ran NYC in back on ’04, and I was happy with them. They are pretty light weight, but more durable than flats. And the heel isn’ t over sized, which make walking easier. Plus, this year they have a bright green sole, and you know how I like color.

If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times. Get to know your local shoe person and get your shoes from them. Buying my shoes this time around, I found another benefit to this. Thinking my shoes were almost a year old, Ryan was able to look it up and give me an appropriate hard time when we saw they were in fact almost a year and a half old. (Uh, guess I went a little too long.) Yes, my old Mizuno’s were bought in September of 2008, and they are still wearable. (And didn’t have any cushion to start, so it’s not like that’s missing.)

But, back to the race…Given my abysmal training, my only goal for this is to beat the cutoff (7 hours). I’m actually planning on bringing my good camera this year, and doing a photo document of the whole race.  Yes, y’all can live vicariously, seeing what it’s like at the back of the pack.   Of course, this plan might change there’s a good chance of rain. 

But first, off to the expo…

I’ll admit…I have an addiction. For years now, when I’ve been out on walks or runs, if I see something interesting, then I’ll pick it up:

• Money – Usually small change, although I found a $20 once, then actually found the person it belonged to.
• Pictures – Usually people, but have found pictures from some car show where someone converted their car into a tank.
• Shopping lists – Okay, I usually skip the shopping lists, but I’ve seen a number of them laying around

At one point, I thought it would be neat to make a coffee table book of all the stuff (well, pictures of). I think someone did this a couple years ago (after I had my idea for it).

Yesterday, I headed out for a longish run, figuring I should do at least one this month. I probably did 10-11 miles.  Ah, it was nice and warm, with a comfortable breeze. I explored some new roads, and ran on some roads I don’t think I’ll run on again. (Braselton highway doesn’t have nearly enough shoulder.)

On a back road not too far from home, I found a cell phone. I grabbed it thinking I’d be able to turn it on, figure out who it belonged to, and try to get it back to them. Naturally, that didn’t happen because the screen was broken.

So, with nothing else to do before throwing it out, I pulled the memory card.  Now, I figured there would be no racy photos or videos, I was curious. Turns out there was some music.

Yeah, I think I scored big!  I’ve been wanting the Scooby Doo theme song for years!

It’s official. The 2 month weight loss challenge at work ended yesterday.

Today, the winner was announced.  It was close between the top three…but I pulled the lead with a loss of 14 pounds for the win!  WooHoo.

My co-worker and I have decided to continue the challenge through the rest of the year. Of course, after losing weight, a huge challenge is keeping it off, and that’s what we really want to do.  Ah, this should be fun (even though there won’t be a winners purse for this challenge.)

Today, someone asked how I did it. Well, that is, what was the work involved besides bringing in cake, cookies, scones, and brownies for everyone else.

The answer is pretty simple.  I increased the intensity of my workouts. (Instead of running 11-12 minute miles, I bumped it up to 9 minutes.  Sure, I couldn’t keep it up for more than a couple miles, but it did great for my heart.) And I reduced how much I ate most the time.  (Not all the time, just most of the time.)  And we switched to eating a lot more fruits and vegetables.

Pretty simple.

Wow, lately I’m getting bombarded by spam.  Well, I suppose they could be real comments, but my Russian is very rusty. (Yes, I actually took a year of Russian in college…more than a decade ago.)

So, I’ve made a few changes to the site, so you can only leave comments on recent posts. Most of the spam is coming in through really old posts, so hopefully this will help. 

On the running front, things are good. I’ve been increasing speed a lot, mainly on the treadmill. I’m running comfortably at speeds I haven’t seen in years. (I carried on a conversation the other day while  going 9 minute miles. Wow for me!)  Unfortunately, the distance hasn’t been happening, which is going to make ING one really long day.

We’ll see what the next couple weeks bring.

Having just had a birthday, I decided to head out to try to run a really long ways…the plan was for either 8 hours or 41 miles, whichever came first.

Arriving at the park where I was going to run to find Beth M and Ryan R waiting to do a little bit with me. Todd M showed up a couple minutes later, and after a few minutes of chatting, off we went.

The first lap (each lap is 2.2 miles, plus a 1/10 of a mile to get to the car/trail) was quick.  The first mile was about 10:20, and the whole lap in 23. Yeah, that might not be fast compared to what some of you run, but for me, that’s flying.  It was also exciting, because believe it or not, that’s the first time that I’ve ever run the entire lap. Yeah, I’d think as many miles as I’ve put in there, I’d have done that before, but I don’t think I have.

The one thing we all noticed right away was that it was cold and windy. The weather report the day before said it was going to warm up a bit. I eagerly awaited that.

We also noticed the flooding. The water lever was up probably a good foot, and the base of trees we normally see were underwater. At the dam, you could see where the water level had gone 10-15 feet up the embankment higher than usual, and has come back down. 

About 3/4 of the way through the second lap, Ryan K showed up.  Kindly, he gave me a hard time about being old. Apparently, this is my mid-life crisis.

Matt showed up to do a couple laps too. (But I don’t remember exactly when.)

Our next lap (with Beth, Ryan and Todd), we walked most of. Half way through, we ran into Helen and stopped for a moment to say hi.  I had to laugh as everyone gave me a hard time about walking too fast and they had a hard time keeping up.  (Note to self: I really should work on my walking to be able to maintain the speed a lot longer.)

And then, it was just me and Ryan for the next lap.  The wind starting to pick up more each lap, and at this point, it definitely felt colded. As Ryan was getting ready to leave, he offered to bring me back some coffee or hot chocolate, which I happy accepted. So at the end of the next lap, I had a nice treat waiting.

The next lap was a lot colder and I was definitely starting to feel the mileage.  The knees were aching a bit from the concrete, and the bottoms of my feet were sore.  Oh yeah, it was still cold out, and at this point I was annoyed at the weathermen, since it hadn’t warmed up at all.

As a couple more laps went on, I was really starting to feel the fact that I hadn’t done ANY distance training, but less on pavement, in a long while.  So, after 18ish miles, I decided to call it quits for the day. I feel like I got the training out of the day that I wanted, and the next day, I’m a little sore. (Telling me I stopped at the right point.)

David C, Carol, and Beth M (again), who were going to come out in the afternoon, thanks.  (David called right as I was pulling out of the parking lot.) Beth is planning a long run on the silver comet in April, so I may try this distance again then.  (After ING, I might be done for a while.)

A glutenous burger at Red Robin finished off the day. For those interested, if you sign up for their email, they give you a burger every year on your birthday.  (And Waffle House will give you a waffle.)

I’m planning on a long, slow, really boring run Saturday to celebrate getting old. 

Plan is to do the lake loop at Little Mulberry Park, Hog Mountain Entrance, starting at 7:30, going for 8 hours or 41 miles, whichever comes first. I’ll be going slow, as usual.  (Figuring 2 laps per hour in the second half, if that fast.)

Please feel free to join me for all or some of it.  Since I’ll be going around the lake, either direction will find me. (And I plan on changing direction every couple of laps.)  I’ll be wearing either my bright yellow vest or the orange (rust) one that looks like fleece.

I plan on having having minimal aid in the car. (Water and pretzels.  Maybe something else if I think of it.  Feel free to bring something.)

Why the loop route?  It’s relatively flat, but big enough to not be horribly boring.  And I need to get some time on concrete to get my legs ready for ING.

Heck, I’ll probably be posting updates to facebook during the run, just cause it’s kinda fun to do.

Whew.  For those of you who don’t remember, way back when, I started running the stairs in my building every Tuesday.  The goal was to get to a sub 4 minute time.

Yesterday, I finally managed 3:59.7 seconds!

Pretty good month, if I say so myself.

For the weight challenge we’re having at work, for the [not quite] halfway point, I’ve lost 9 pounds. I know my buddy lost 6, and a bunch of people haven’t done squat. I feel pretty good, and although I’m hungry sometimes, I dont’ feel like I’ve starved myself at all (or eaten unhealthy).

For running, it’s been pretty good…I’ve actually gotten some miles in. Over 50, I think.

Today I went out to the woodlands behind us to survey damage from the recent rains. It’s not nearly as bad as I thought it was.  A whole lot of underbrush has been cleaned out, and there’s a lot more sand back there than I thought there would be.

Now here’s the interesting thing.  While out there, not far behind my fence, I found a hunting camera.  I think they’ll have a few good pictures of me taking video of the area.  There was also some sort of feeding bucket, and a 100 ft downstream or so, a wooden lean too.  At first, I thought one of the neighbors must just be watching what wildlife we have. (Something I’d do.)  But then talking about it when I got home, we realized that no, people are probably hunting back there. (Yes, we’ve heard gunshots.  Then I figured that the lean-to must be their hunting blind.

Now, I’m not sure about y’all, but I was a bit shocked to think that people were hunting in my subdivision. 

From there, I did an easy 3 miles on the road.  It was real nice, and I actually ran almost the entire time, even going up the hills.  I guess the strength training that I’m doing with the diet is helping too.

[I did some video in the woods, but haven't looked at it yet. I might put it up later.]

I was happy flipping through channels the other day and saw a commercial. Imagine this:  You see two blonde’s hamming it up in mini skirts. A second later, you see them charging through some woods. Not just any ol’ woods, but something that looks impassable. (Kinda what I imagine the Barkley course looks like.) And there’s a old western looking dude on a horse chasing them.

Yeah, I had to set the DVR to record this. The show is Mantracker, on the Science Channel.

The premise is pretty simple. A team starts off, and has a destination to get to. The tracker tries to capture them before they reach their destination.

In the episode I watched, the trackers started 2KM away from where the girls started. (Sisters, ones training to be an opera singer, the other’s a fitness instructor and pole dancer.) He didn’t know their exact location, but flares were set off at the beginning to give him an idea of where to go.  (He also had a sidekick who knew the local area really well.)

It was fun…the girls were seriously bushwhacking, and the trackers caught up to them pretty fast, then lost them again. It went on for a 2 day chase.  They had to make it 19.3 miles (straight line distance).

Of course, I was watching thinking, hey, it’s only 19 miles…That’s barely a warm-up before breakfast. Well, okay, it’s a little farther than that, but still, it’s a sub marathon distance, “on trail”.  Seem’s easy enough.  I’d like to see one where Mantracker is chasing down a couple of good ultrarunners…you know, like some of the readers of this blog.

I’ve set the DVR to record the next few upcoming episodes.  Besides being a nice change from the Food Network, it’s looks like a lot of fun.

In other news, thinking about doing a birthday run next Saturday (2/6).  Will post something here soon if it looks like a go.

Yesterday, I made it out to the group at Runners Fit.  Matt, the sales rep from New Balance was there to let us demo some new models.  He had the 760 and 1268 (if I remember correctly).  I chose the neutral shoe.

We headed out for a nice 6 miles on the “new” group run course. Since the store moved a few months ago, I hadn’t been able to make the group runs much, so it was a nice change of pace. The new route has some pretty good hills in it, so made it a bit of a challenge.

As a nice change of pace, I had someone to run with the entire time.  Jason, a recent transplant from Texas, was there, and we run pretty close to the same speed, so we hung together the whole time getting to know each other.  He had me running up some hills where I probably would have talked, so it was good to be pushed.  (But on the other hand, I walked up some with him running beside me, proving that I can walk just as fast I can run.

The shoes rode pretty good. They had a bit more cushion than my Mizuno’s, which was nice. My only complaint was that there was an odd lump in one of the insoles. I think it’s an arch that’s put in right behind where the toes bend, but for me, it was too far back. (I’ve noticed this on other shoes on occassion.  They were a shiny silver, so I felt like I had some bling on…yeah, I’m do hip!

If I could get rid of that lump, I’d happily wear these shoes. 

Doing the road miles was good. I’ll need to bump them up a bit by the end of March to be ready for ING.