Category Archives: Running

Running With Team D

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I’m spending a few days in Phoenix visiting with friends, and it worked well to catch today’s Saturday run with Team Diabetes, and it was the “holiday” run.

This meant instead of going for a set distance, our group was send otu for an hour afterward were we had a pot luck holiday breakfast. We met/started at the ADA office near 7th Street and Missouri, heading east on Missouri to 24th St. Supposedly, that is on the route of the full marathon, which means I ran on it two years agoi, but that whole experience is a hallucinogenic blur.

It sure was a lovely day, the thermometer said it was in the high 40s but sure felt warmer. A bunch of us took the option instead of looping back at 30 minutes to complete a loop by going south on 24th then west on Camelback, and then north again on 7th Street.

I had some bursts of feel good speed but settled into the regular slow cadence. My Nike iPod marked this as 5.7 miles, but I’ve been in denial that I know it is over estimating distance and meaning worse that my pace is slower than what Nike+ says. I ought to calibrate it on a track, but I shrug and say, “Well, I am looking at the improvement in pace, which says something”.

If I ever run again, I’ll likely switch to either w GPS watch thing (they still look bulky) or revert to running with my iPhone and use the RunKeeper app to measure distance.

This was a great day in getting to see people on the team, a few I know from years past, and a special treat to see the lady who’s spirit nver goes down, Dorothy, who must be in her 80s, and has walked every Team D marathon since they started. She recently took a spill and damaged her hip, but her eyes still twinkle with a lot of life energy.

I’ll be staying in town til I join the team Wednesday for the “long run”, our longest training run of the season, 12 miles for us halfies.

Not sure how ready for that O I am.

Looping, Looping

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I’m trying to get this training back on the tracks, this week I got in my Tuesday and today’s 40 minute outings, doing a loop I’ve perfected (meaning I know where every stick, rock, and beer bottle lies in the path). It’s interesting to see how the running goes when you loop in opposite directions.

On Tuesday, I took it counter-clockwise, which is usually faster since is mostly down will for the first half, but I was dragging so it was slower than usual route. At least it was pretty weather; sunny and around 60 degrees so I was in shorts, yet there was plenty of snow piled on the yards along the way.

Today, I took the clockwise loop, and did it a little better, and felt more into it.

I’ll be down in Phoenix for the weekend and beyond, so I get to run with Team D Saturday and then the long lovely 12 mile Big F****iung Run on Wednesday. That’s the longest one to date, after this, we go into tailing off the miles mode leading up to the race on January 17.

Stopping the Train

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cc licensed flickr photo shared by thomas.merton

Despite my best intents, I’ve been taking more rides on the Excuse Train than I ought to, and my training schedule has been on a slide since early November. This week the train tickets were due to travel to Austin for meetings- I got a nice run in Thursday afternoon down on the river trail. I lost Saturday completely due to the flight back and drive home (got here after 6:00pm).

Today had me ready to ride The Train with a morning of cold sleety rain that looked like it would make a day of it, but around 2:30pm, the sky broke open to the sun and blue skies. I got on twitter a message from 8th grade teacher Chris Harbeck, who’s chimed in on my tweetplaints (complaining via twitter about the running conditions where he is, somewhere on those frozen tundra plains of Canada:

Frosticles. It was a cold day for a run. Do yo look like that in Strawberry @cogdog ? -30c or -40c with windchill

along with a link to this photo, that shamed me right off the couch in front of the fire:

Frosticles

Ouch, frozen eye brows! And here it was a measly 40 °F (4 °C).

I was not sure I’d get to make up the 10 mile run I missed Saturday, and was dreaming of blogging about reaching double digits. I planned a variation of one of my regular routes around the neighborhood and our Fossil Creek Road, but with extra side loops through some other neighborhoods- this way, if I ran out of steam, I would not be stuck 4 miles from home.

It was slow and steady (that is how we are supposed to go on these ones), and I ran out of steam around 7.5, and with the darkness coming called it a day (walked another mile home).

Not great, but better than riding the Excuse Train.

It was time to stop the train.

In the Groove

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Cue the music….


cc licensed flickr photo shared by miikkahoo

Today was an unexpected day on many fronts. On Monday, I drove down to Phoenix to take my Mom to the airport. We got out in time, as it was only raining (alot, clouds hanging low around the base of Mt Ord); much later there was a big dump of snow. Unfortunately, Mom’s flight out of Phoenix was later, which would mean she’s miss the one connection to Ft Myers, so they rebooked her flight for today, and I checked us in to the Hilton near the Phoenix airport.

For Mom, the hotel amenities were almost the top highlight of the trip (besides winning $120 at the casino near Payson). Last night there were major power outages; our hotel was pitch black for several hours, but the morning looked clear and bright, so I went for a run in the industrial/business park area around the Hilton, looping up past Avnet (some computer electronics firm that was hot in the late 1990s) and then south of University on 48th, circling down to near the AZ 143 / I-10 cloverleaf, and waving hello to the headquarters of the University of Phoenix.

It felt a steady pace, but was actually even better than I thought. It almost felt…. no I wont go as far as to say, “good”– I am not about to change the name of this blog!

Ran Outta Gas Running

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cc licensed flickr photo shared by jypsygen

I had two good strong midweek runs (under 10:30 pace) but I’ve not been getting enough sleep lately, like 4 or 5 hours per night for at least a week. It must have caught up because I just had no gas on today’s run.

It was supposed to be a 7 miler, and I set up to run a route I did 2 weeks ago, but right out of the gate I was dragging. All I could think about was the title of this blog. I tried listening close to the music, looking at houses, working through some work projects in my mind, all of which were not much help.

I got out past the end of the pavement on Fossil Creek Road and did my turn around, but it was about half a mile past the old school house that I just felt I was not getting much and stopped the Nike+ sensor, and walked the last 1.3 miles home.

This week has some more travel (Austin Wednesday through Saturday) so next week’s 10 mile run might have to be pushed to Sunday. The weeks are counting down to race day!

I also want to thank my Mom who is visiting, who donated $50 today and pushed me over the $2500 mark, my goal for fund raising this year. There’s still time to push my higher!

Back on the Road (after being on the road)

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With that last 2 week travel stint behind me, I’m ready to kick the training schedule back into gear- the long travel (one day as 27 hours of transit, sigh), jet lag, miscellaneous excuses, the training graph got a big valley in its curve.

It’s a glorious sunny warm day in Strawberry, Arizona (in the 70s, up from 31 degrees in the morning), and I had a steady solid run; looping around to AZ87 and then baclk down Fossil Creek Road out to past the paved the segment and back. Since the longer runs are supposed to be at a slower than race pace, I kept it easy at a little under 11 minutes per mile, and the best part was going the whole way non-stop. I miscalculated turn around point, so went a bit farther then the 6 miles scheduled for today.

In past years, I find November training one that takes a dip; sometimes it is the work travel, in 2007 it was the shin splints, and maybe it is just a tinge of boredom. But I’m kicking the throttle back to get this thing back on the road.

Treadmill is as Treadmill Does

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Have I written enough/too much of my disgust for running on treadmills? Here’s another one…

I’m currently in Doha, Qatar (find it on the map) for the World Innovation Summit for Education. This place of something like 1000 skyscrapers being constructed in the sand next to the sea is unlike any other place I’ve been too.

But that’s another topic.

The customs here seem to make it not a place to go outside for a run, plus it is humid AND hot.

The long plane ride and the ensuing jet lag have dented the training schedule but nabbed an hour to hit the gym at the Sheraton- one of the biggest and equipped hotel gyms I’ve seen anywhere. I managed to get a 40 minute slow run in, and not go too loony trying not to look at the readout (actually I liked this treadmill since the tv screen wipes out the digital read out).

But a treadmill is a treadmill is a treadmill- it goes round and round and round.

10 Things That Make Me Run Faster

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  1. Running in a new city, state, or just a new route.
  2. Snarling dogs not constrained by a fence or leash.
  3. Not reaching the turn around point before sun down.
  4. Running on a windy country road with almost no shoulder and on-coming traffic.
  5. Seeing the finish line.
  6. Seeing the cold beer sitting behind the finish line.
  7. Having to pee.
  8. Getting passed by a wheezing 80 year old using a walker.
  9. Getting just a whiff of runner’s high.
  10. An attractive runner with a nice smile.

    I have to say today that I hit numbers (1), (3), and (4) — hitting for the first time a sub 10:00 minute per mile pace, and getting a chipper boost from Tiger Woods letting me know he was timing me and his stopwatch had my fastest mile time yet (that comes from the Nike+ iPod).

    Things that don’t make me run faster include

    • Treadmills
    • Smiling runners going fast who look like they are having fun, and smell like soap
    • Gel, goo, or other potions
    • Expensive shoes
    • Moisture wicking material (but you look cooler)
    • My nike power song
    • Images of myself qualifying for Boston
    • Self delusions that I enjoy running.
    • Hallucinations of running another full marathon

    The next week is going to be challenging in terms of keeping to schedule- on Saturday I leave on a trip that will take me to Doha, Qatar for a week, so while I maye get the new scenery boost, the 20+ hours of plane travel and accompanying jet lag will be looming out there.

10k On (an) Oregon Trail

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cc licensed flickr photo shared by cogdogblog

Today, the Team D run in Phoenix is the New Times 10k, but being here in Oregon, I had to arrange my own. The weather today was relatively clear (meaning it was cloudy, but not raining), and by 2pm there was actually some blue-ish sky. I did a trail along the trail system on the Willamette River that runs past downtown Eugene, a great, wide trail, that winds along the banks of this big river, under canopies of trees just past their autumn prime season.


cc licensed flickr photo shared by cogdogblog

I felt mostly good on the way some bursts of faster pace, some slower, trying to keep it an easy run. I feel sure if I was in the competitive mode at the New Times run, I might have had enough juice to bring my time under an hour, but as I was not really racing, I kept the pace easy.

There are tons, tons of trails of all kinds in this area, a lifetime of ones to explore, and since my lifetime here is only 2 days this time, I’ve got some good sampling done.

Reversing the Loop Makes it Faster?

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Before the recap of today’s run, first some good news!

Since my laser surgery back in 1993-1994 for diabetic retinopathy, I have seen a specialist on a yearly basis from the same office (Retinal Consultants of Arizona). I may be now on my 6th doctor, having outlasted the other 5 (and sadly outlived- the first was a very young doctor who died in a car accident; but 1 retired, 1 moved out of state, and one… not sure what happened to him). Anyhow, until August, my yearly visits have been routine– get dilated, wait in the office for 1-3 hours, get a 5 minute exam, and “looks good, come back next year”.

I thought the last checkup might not be good since I had started seeing a few more floaters, and sure enough, they said there was some small bleeding in my left eye, and they wanted me to try and do better with the glucose control and return in 3 months.

Today was three months and… Great news! The bleeding had cleared up. They still want to check again in 3 months, but… it might mean that running has been good for my sugar levels. I may hate running, but I like what it is doing for my health.

By late afternoon, the dilation had worn off, and since it is still unseasonably warm, it was time to RUN.

I decided to do my regular 40 minute loop through the neighborhood, but reversed the direction. This made it interesting, because since the placement of hills was different, my 5 minute markers were different. I did feel ahead of the pace, but expected the last stretch from “Al’s Barber Shop” up sharp hill, then up a hill on 87, then up a hill on Louthian– and still I got back to my start point 45 seconds earlier then going in the other direction.

And I cannot explain how one direction could be different, but oh well, that’s how the run bounces.