Marathoning Matters

Top 10 Signs You Need a New Pair of Running Shoes

1. The dual-density flubber in the midsole has lost some of the reverberation in its "boing."
2. Your current pair were made on Bowerman's waffle iron.
3. The last resoling doesn't seem as cushy as the first two resolings were.
4. When you hit the wall at the marathon your bare toes hit first because they stick out of your shoes.
5. They've outlasted 3 Nike+ sensors.
6. The red LEDs on the side don't flash anymore when you run.
7. An MRI reveals that your shoes have stress fractures.
8. Your shoe odometer just rolled over and went back to zero.
9. When you turn them upside down and shake them, more toenails fall out than you have toes.
10. The shoeshine guy can't make them really shine anymore.

Best Race Results Site is athlinks.com

Steve Hughes dropped by with a comment recently, sending me to a link that listed many of my races.

http://www.athlinks.com/racer.aspx?rid=96579856

I actually had a print out of those races from the site, but I had not taken the time to register and claim my races, and I'm glad Steve's comment prompted me to do it.

Athlinks.com was missing a few of my races, including my NY, Paris and Boston Marathons and many fundraiser 5K/10K races. But when I claimed the race results it had as mine, the site offered my out-of-state Boston 2003 and NYC 2008 Marathon as possible matches and allowed me to claim them.  I guess out-of-country is a little much to ask.

I also had credit for an 8k timed at 1:26 or a blistering 17:18 per mile, but I only ran the 5k that day. The site made it easy to delete that bogus result.

Another great feature is listing runners who live near you who've claimed their results.  What better way to find a running partner and connect with the local running scene?

Other services also have race results, but none that I know of do the hard work for you and make it easy to claim additional results.  I've paid for a number of races through Active.com, for example, and all of those times are available through Active.  But Active makes you search one at a time by race to claim your results.  WAY too much trouble.

If you're a race organizer, do all of your runners a favor by sharing your results with athlinks.com.

AND ... if you're from the athlinks organization, accept my kudos but get in touch by dropping me a comment. I'd love to get some of my best races in there (a 5 mile 32:03 in a Palo Alto Run Club race that Active still has on the books and the EIF Revlon Run/Walk for Women 5K in which I broke 20 minutes). 

 

You're Not the Runner You Were, You're the Runner Who's Going to Be

I can't explain exactly how, but the day got away from me and I didn't run until 11 p.m.    Down in the basement on the treadmill again.

I've a long way to go before I'm back in Marathon shape again, and doing 3 miles late at night is not particularly good progress, although I recall late night runs at 24-hour-Fitness when I was training for my first marathon.  So maybe it's not so bad.

On the other hand, it's easy to get a bit discouraged.  I finished my short run tonight by upping the speed to 8 mph for the last half mile, which equates to 7:03 pace.  It felt pretty good, but not sustainable for long, not even on a treadmill.  And 7:03 on a treadmill at 1 percent slope is still a heck of a lot easier than 7:03 on  flat ground.

My best marathon was 7:06 pace.  On flat ground.  For 26.2 miles.  Faster, actually, because I spent several minutes in a Porta Potty.

But I can't think that way.  Instead, it's hey, I just pulled half a mile at 7:03 pace.  I'm getting there.  Just need to keep at it until I can do it 52 times as long.   No problem.  That's the runner I'm going to be.

A Quick Run on the Dreadmill Is Better Than Dreading Run of the Mill

I always wanted to be better than run of the mill at everything.  As I get older I ruminate a bit more about not pulling that much away from the pack, if at all.

Best thing to do when that happens is to go for a run.  Even if it's just on the dreadmill down in the basement.  It's cool down there even when it's hot as hell in Woodland Hills.  Even when you're dreading being run of the mill.

Not that I minded running in 100 degrees when I was 20 pounds lighter and a few years younger.  Ah, there I go again.  Only this time it's more about being pulled back to the pack when I had actually separated from it as a runner.

I left behind the crazy day with the steady rhythm of the whirling belt carrying me away even as I stood still.  

Forgot about not getting started on a new project because I didn't get contacts from my customer. Forgot the crash of the scout training for dealing with weather that threw me back into the tornado section. Forgot the racket as the handy man fixed the leaky shower by grinding the gears that were chewing up the washer.  

Cooled down slowly in the shower but still sweated like a stuffed pig all the way to Dodger Stadium.  Made it to the stadium on surface streets without GPS, almost like I was a Dodgers and not a Giants fan. Split Gordon Biersch garlic fries with Theo. Stuffed pig feeling returned even though it was cooler by then.  Don't know if Theo was more impressed with the fries or when I called the home run Ethier hit on a 3-0 pitch and also the 2 out, 3-2 count steal of third by Kemp. Probably by the fries. All on the day that Frank McCourt probably gave up owning the Dodgers.  Getting pulled back into the pack.

Tomorrow will be better.  Run early, before it gets hot, and long, before my will weakens.    Before my resolve gives way and I fail to really get out and only slouch back down to the dreadmill for a few more miles in the cool and dark.

 

 

Sometimes Quick Runs are just the Beginning

I usually get out for a long run on Father's Day, but not this year.  Theo had a birthday party to go to about 50 miles away, so I only had time for a quick run up to the fire road at the local park.  But everyone went: the boys, Sylvia, and our dog Tyler.

Sylvia urged me to get a real workout and go off ahead, so I did. Unbeknownst to me, Theo and Zane tried to follow me up the hill.  They couldn't keep up, but they tried.  

I was surprised to find them so close to the top when I had started back down.  High fives, and then they joined me on the way down.  

It was steep and rocky. I urged them to be careful.  Skinny Zane shot out ahead, but I caught him on the one long uphill on the way back and blew by, just to show him that he was fast, but not the leader of the pack.  Not yet.  

I let Zane go on ahead on the downhill and waited a few seconds for Theo. He worked hard to stay with me.  Like me, he's put on a few pounds.

"Dad, I think I'm going to start running," Theo said.  "Maybe we can do the half mile loop we did on my science experiment to start.  And work up to something longer."

Working up to something longer with your sons.  Seems like a fine idea.  Sometimes quick runs are just the beginning.

After the run we convinced Zane to come along with us to Theo's party. It was at one of those places with gocarts, video games, lazer tag, and sundaes for 10. They're still too short to drive the gocart by themselves, but when we can race is when it will be REALLY fun.

We decided to make it an annual Father's Day Tradition.  I didn't mention it, but the tradition will include the run.  Here's to it being a race we run for many years to come.

Running a Watchless Workout in a Familiar Place

Today’s running lesson:  you can run a pretty precise workout even if you don’t have your GPS running watch with you.  But if you want a pure pleasure run, it might require running watchless in a completely new place.

I had driven most of the way to the Victory Avenue trailhead when I realized I didn’t have my trusty Forerunner 305 with me, or even my Droid phone with its running apps.  How in the world could I run without knowing how far I’d gone, what my pace was, my heart rate, the elevation change.  I was planning to do 8 miles and … maybe I better turn around and get it.

And then it hit me.  I knew where the 8 mile turnaround on the Victory Avenue trail was.  In fact, within a few hundred feet, I could picture:

• The 1.5 mile turnaround (mound on trail)
• The 2 mile turnaround (second dry stream bed)
• The 3 mile turnaround (rounding the corner after the killer uphill)
• The 6 mile turnaround (the steep downhill after the long gradual decline)
• The 8 mile turnaround (the second stream crossing where it’s really tough to get across dry)

I’d run that trail so many times with my watch and various distance goals, or had simply noted the distance where other runners turned around, that I knew the milestones.

And while I didn’t know how fast I was going on the way down, I knew on the way back that I was sticking close to the anaerobic threshold, the point where you go into oxygen debt and want to (eventually HAVE to) slow down.   And whatever my watch would have told me my pace was, that was exactly the pace I wanted to run.

On some other run soon we’ll go over a corollary to this one: if you want to run just for the pleasure of it, don’t run a route that you often work out on with a GPS running watch.  My true pleasure runs are watchless and run in a strange place.