The Lone Wolf

I don’t know what’s wrong with me.

I follow a lot of runners on teh Twitterz, and I can’t help but notice how much joy so many of them get from finishing a key distance, setting a new PR, or simply getting it done on the road.

I have none of that.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m very pleased with myself when I achieve something as a runner, but I don’t have nearly the emotions that most runners do when it happens. I think the most emotion I’ve ever showed in a race was when I raised my arms in triumph as I crossed the finish line at the Marine Corps Marathon last year.

Maybe it’s because I’m a running loner. I train by myself, I’ve never had a “running partner”, I rarely go to a race with someone (not even my wife and son), and I’m always looking to do better. Maybe it’s because I’m socially awkward, and really dread the thought of being “the new guy” in a large running club, so I do it all alone.

Here’s an example: I go to a race, and run it well. I break my PR, but you wouldn’t know it when I cross the line. I get my water, bagel, and banana, eat it, then get in my car (or get on the Metro) & go home. All the while, focusing on my next training run, my next race, my next goal.

As a “lone wolf”, I train at my paces, and at my distances; everything works for me. I was briefly in a running group last year, and suffered because of my attempt to keep up with a group of much faster runners going distances that weren’t in my training plan. I didn’t want to slow anyone down. I’m sure all of that partially explains my aversion to running clubs and the desire to train on my own.

But sometimes, I just wonder what it’s like to cross the finish line, see a familiar face, and let out a big “Yeahhh!!!” as I crush another PR.

So enjoy it, everyone; bask in it!! Keep celebrating!! One day I hope to join you.

Race-iversary

A few weeks ago, when I started my old political blog back up, I noticed in my archives that I did a blog posting when I began running back in 2008. It's very comical to look back on it now (especially writing that a 5K is 3.2 miles, haha), but what caught my mind was seeing that I was training for a race on November 27th, 2008, the inaugural Lansdowne Turkey Trot. Today marks the 4th anniversary (or, race-iversary, if you will) of that momentous (for me) occasion.

It has also caused me to look back on how far I've come as a runner in those 4 years. That first race, for example, I ran it in 30:47 (gun time, as the race was not chip timed), which, from what I have been told is not a bad time for your first 5K. The course was hilly, but it was in my neighborhood, so I had been running portions of that course for the 2 1/2 months preceding the race. It was at that moment that I began to think of myself as a runner, and the next day I went to the local running store to get properly fitted for a pair of running shoes.

34 races later, that 30:47 5K time has been replaced with a 25:04 5K time, an improvement of over 5 minutes in just 4 years. I've run fourteen 5K's, six 10K's, three 10 Milers, 5 Half-Marathons, and one full Marathon. That first 5K was simply a bucket list item, and it's morphed into something more substantial, 4 years of hard work, fitnress, and a love of running.

And I don't want to stop.

Post script to yesterday's blog post

My Twitter friend "Tai Fung" asked me yesterday what was it that spurred my son to want to participate in the Gingerbread Man Mile last week? So I went to the source, and asked him.

Was it because Daddy is a runner, and he wanted to be like me? Did he think that running a race would make me happy? Or was there some other underlying reason?

His answer was simple: he said, "I just thought it would be kinda cool to run a race."

Yeah, it is kinda cool.

Rounding Out 2012

With the Marine Corps Marathon in my rear-view mirror, I can now return to 'normal' training. My focus is now on recovery, a gradual build-back of miles, and even a couple of races before we ring in 2013.

I signed up last week for the 3rd Annual Ringing in Hope 10K in Brambleton/Ashburn, VA on the afternoon of New Year's Eve. I ran the inaugural event, and set what at the time was my 10K PR in the process. It's a nice rolling course, but not very scenic. Basically it's an out-and-back, run through a housing complex, then on to a 4-lane divided highway, and back. Not terribly difficult, so my goal for this race would be to go sub-53 (8:31-ish pace), which would be a PR for me. It's also a race where a lot of the local Northern Virginia Daily Milers congregate, so I should get to meet some of them.

That was going to be it for the year, but I had a little conversation with my Twitter and Daily Mile pal Jennifer S., who informed me that 3-4 weeks out from a marathon is a good time to try for a 5K PR (evidenced by her smokin' time this past weekend at the Anything is Possible 5K in Georgia ). I was originally going to sit out this Thanksgiving, but I found a race in nearby Vienna, VA, the Giving Thanks 5K, that just could be PR-worthy. It has early hills in the first 3/4 mile, then it makes its way to the relatively flat W&OD Trail for the remainder of the race. Plus, the race benefits Wounded Warriors and the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund, so it's also for some good causes.

I'd really like to work on increasing my weekly mileage to about 35 per week, as well. I have found during marathon training that my body responds better to higher mileage (i.e., I eat a lot, and 35+ miles a week doesn't let see any weight gain). Plus, if I'm going to focus on Ten Milers in 2013, having those weekend 12-13 milers every week will allow me to work on increasing my speed rather than a mileage build-up.

But even if 2012 were to end today, it's been my best year in the 4+ years I've been running. I'm extremely satisfied with what I've achieved, and I look forward to more of the same in 2013!

After The Thrill Is Gone

For the past 20 weeks (and more likely, since March), my mind has been consumed with one thought: finishing the Marine Corps Marathon. Now that the end is near, in a week I will be faced with the post-marathon blues. What do I have to train for now?

I have been giving that a lot of thought, and as of today, I think my plan will be to run a number of 10-milers next year. It's my favorite race distance, and to date, I've only done 3 of them. The races I'm targeting:

1) Cherry Blossom Ten Miler: a signature event for the Washington, DC, metro area, and a race that I've never tried, usually due to conflicts with other Spring half-marathons I've been training for.

2) Broad Street Run: Back in 2009, this was my first race over the 5K distance, and with it being held in the area where I grew up (Philadelphia), I hold a special fondness for this race. Plus, the course is flat-to-negative sloped, so it's easy on the legs.

3) Army Ten Miler: another great race in our Nation's Capital. I ran this in 2010, and thoroughly enjoyed everything about this event.

4) Reston 10 Miler: this race is in my current hometown, and although it's hilly, I ran it well preparing for the Rock & Roll USA Half Marathon this past March. I have to support the local races.

I also believe that I should take the remainder of 2012 to get in the habit of doing core work and restarting my strength training workouts. These are areas that would help me improve if I were to just put in some effort. I am guilty of neglecting these 2 areas and focusing just on roadwork.

As for other race distances, I don't think I'm going to try another marathon again anytime soon. The time it has taken away from my family wasn't something my wife was particularly happy with, so I think I'll just cross "finishing a marathon" off my bucket list and focus on races up to 10 miles, and throw in an occasional Half Marathon when the occasion suits me. I enjoyed the challenge of marathon training, but there are more important things in life.

One thing that I'd like to explore, though, and would need to discuss with my family beforehand, is possibly training for a 50K in 2015 (the year I turn 50). I believe that could be a rather unique way of celebrating a half-century on this planet, but we shall see. Until then, I will be focused on continuous improvement and overall fitness.

Constant Improvement

I was looking at my running statistics this morning, and I noticed a number that I had never seen before:

88.6

That's the number of miles I logged in the month of March. That's also a personal high - I ran 71.4 this past January, and 69.1 last June; those were my top monthly totals before then. Of course, running and training for a half-marathon is what contributed to that number, and also not being injured helps. I'm trying to keep my weekend long run at least 10 miles, since I'll be running another half marathon in less than 6 months.

I'll have to keep that monthly pace up if I want to reach my goal of running 1,000 miles in 2010. Hopefully, with the bilzzards past us, training for another half, and as long as I stay healthy, I don't see a problem reaching that goal.

The Courage to Start

OK, that's not an accurate title. I'm not trying to put myself in the company of real courageous runners (like Jen McDevitt); it's more like I'm being sarcastic about my level of wimpiness when it comes to running in adverse weather.

Here in Virginia, we got pelted yesterday with another 6 inches or so of snow. I was scheduled to do an 8 mile long run today, and I was miserable at the thought of having to do it on the treadmill again. You see, I don't particularly care for running in bad weather, be it rain, cold, or snow.

But this morning, as I was shoveling the inch or so of snow we got overnight, I came to the realization that it might not be all that bad to run on the hard-packed snow on the street. Forget the fact that it was 19 degrees; I've been very careful not to put myself in a predicament where I could strain my calf again. So after shoveling, I got ready to run.

And you know what? It wasn't that bad. There were sections of street where the snow was soft & slushy, which made it feel almost like running in sand. There was a good stretch of dry blacktop (thanks to the snow plows), and the rest, mainly was simply hard packed snow. The morning sun was blinding, and about 3 miles in, I felt that I had overdressed, since I was working up quite a sweat. But I finished the run with no complications, no muscle strains, and a nice, easy, 10:29 pace.

The difficult part for the rest of the week is going to be getting in my Tuesday and Thursday 4 1/2 mile runs. I'm assuming that the remaining snow on the streets will freeze, thaw, and re-freeze before I get out again, which will make it for some tricky footing at 4:30 AM. I just may have to revert to lunch time runs this week so I can see what's underfoot.

Running In The Dark

With my hectic schedule, the majority of my weekday training runs take place at 4:30 AM, which means "in the dark". Running at that time of morning leaves someone very vulnerable to a distracted driver hurrying to work. I always use a reflective vest when I run that early, but I recently added another safety device to my running apparel that I hope will keep me even safer.

Its called the "Firefly Supernova", distributed by RoadID. This handy device is a small light that clips on to your apparel, and emits a rather bright light that the RoadID website says is visible from up to a mile away. I was skeptical about this claim.

Until I went out this morning.

I bought two "Fireflies", put one on the front of my vest (actually, a "Y" vest) and one on the back. To make the light flash, one simply twists the light clockwise, and the blinking begins (a counter-clockwise turn keeps the light on constant; no blinking). As I started out on my run, the light was oblivious to me as it was centered on my chest (pop-culture alert!!), looking like Ultra-Man searching to renew his lost energy. But I did notice that the flashing was visible on the reflective street signs on my run, so I assume that it was visible from quite a distance. So combining the Firefly with my reflective vest, I should be fairly well-protected on the early morning runs.

RoadID is more commonly known for their line of identification bracelets and ID's that can be attached to your shoe (which I have). I strongly encourage all outdoor enthusiasts (not just runners) to invest the modest amount and get a RoadID product, simply because in case of an injury that leaves you incapacitated, the emergency personnel can have the necessary data available. I have an emergency contact listed, as well as telling that I have no known allergies or drug allergies, and my blood type. It's just another measure of safety that gives both me and my wife a degree of comfort when I'm pounding out the miles.

National Half Marathon

I signed up today for my first race of 2010 (OK, technically my second, but the New Year's Day race was cancelled), the CareFirst Blue Cross Blue Shield National Half Marathon (jeez, could the title get any longer?) on March 20, 2010. This will be my second half-marathon; my first, the Philadelphia Distance Run last September, was marred by the recurrence of a strained calf muscle on mile 5 (of 13.1). So I had to run-limp the last 8+ miles. For this one, I'm hoping to go in pain- and injury-free.

The problem I'm experiencing is not being able to find an appropriate training program for someone of my ability. I'm what could be called an "advanced beginner". I could probably break off an 8 or 9 mile long run right now, but many of the 12-week "beginner" programs I'm finding have long runs starting out as low as 2-4 miles. That's a normal run day for me, so those don't work.

Conversely, at the other end of the spectrum, the advanced (or intermediate) programs all incorporate some measure of "speedwork" every week. This is how I injured myself last year preparing for Philly. I'm not really looking for a specific time, just to run this race in a manner that satisfies me, namely, finishing in a run, not a limp. So I'm not really keen on getting on a track and running "880's at 5K pace with 440 jogs in between". I'm willing to do tempo runs or tempo intervals to work on my speed, but I want to first make sure I'm going in healthy.

So I decided to incorporate methods from a few of the plans I saw, and I'm going to be running 3 days a week, for 4-6 miles per session (at about 70% of my heart-rate reserve), and doing a Sunday long run starting at 6 miles, progressing to 13 miles in Week 8, before tapering. I'm hoping that sort of mileage, with a weekly tempo run mixed in, will get me to where I need to be to complete the National.

What Am I Going To Do??

The snowstorm that blanketed Northern Virginia with over 20 inches of snow this past weekend is going to wreak havoc with my training regimen for a while.

I was driving to work this morning, scoping out the streets in search of something uncovered in icy slush so that I could go for a run this week. No such luck. The streets of Lansdowne are partially covered in ice, some side roads are down to one passable lane, and the temperatures at dawn are going to be in the low 20's anyway.

So it looks as if I'm off to the treadmill for the time being. Cross-training, I'm fine. I have my stair-stepper (which I used this morning) and my weight set in my basement gym, so I'll have to trudge over to the Potomac Club to use one of the treadmills.

I also got to wondering, how will this snow affect the Rotary Resolution 10K Run in Leesburg on New Year's morning? The course is about 75% cross-country (aka, trails), and I don't believe that 20+ inches of snow are going to miraculously melt in 10 days. And even if it did, the course would be a sloppy mess.

Packet pick-up is this weekend, so I assume the organizer will have some further details. But for now, it's working out like a lab rat for me. Thank goodness for my iPod.

My Introduction

I love to run. That much is certain. So now I've decided that I'm going to start a blog about my running exploits. I'll post about training days (good and bad), races I've run, equipment I'm buying or looking to buy, and basically anything else having to do with my running.

I'm addicted. I've been a runner for a little over 15 months now. I began on a whim, at a Labor Day picnic in 2008. I talked with a couple of guys about wanting to run a Turkey Trot, went out for a run the next day with one of the guys (we went 3.9 miles), and I've been hooked ever since. I've logged a lot of miles, suffered a few injuries, and ran a few races along the way.

I'm not particularly fast. My easy and long runs tend to be at a 10 minute plus per mile pace, and I run 5K's currently at just under a 9:00 mile pace. My first goal for 2010 is to run at an 8 minute per mile pace for a 5K.

One day, I'd like to possibly run (and finish) a marathon. My half-marathon experience this year was marred by a pulled calf muscle at mile 5, and I limped the last 8.1 or so miles. I was running at about a 9:45 clip when the injury occured, which, if I kept steady, translates to a finish time of about 2:07:45. I'll try another "Half Mary" in 2010 to see what I can do.

Enjoy the ride.