After the B&N stop it was actually rather pleasant, but I’m not too delusional to admit that first 6 or 7 miles was tough. Lack of water sucked, and our city’s crappy sidewalks, and the clueless drivers and their fuming cars. And did I mention the 5 o’clock sun? No? Well, it was bright and yellow. I forgot my hat, wrapped my shirt like a turban and slogged on. Geez, it was only eleven miles, won’t be an every day thing, but I’ll do it again, wait until the Fall though. Did I mention the 5 o’clock sun?

Tempo this morning, new PR, big surprise that, a needed motivational boost. Driving in this morning I was preparing myself for a sub-par run. “I’m just getting slower and fatter. All this solo slow running is just making me … slow. And fat.” Slow Slow Slow. More cookies please? Sure, pie is fine. Throw in another nine minute mile while you’re at it.

Anyway, a relatively cool morning and no doubles this week conspired I guess for a good run. 6:17, 6:05, 5:45, 5:36. Gilbert yelled 23:47 when I crossed the line but I had 23:45 on my watch. Thanks to the guy I drafted off of (oh no, not that classy move again!) for pulling me to my first time ever under 24 minutes. Well, I didn’t really draft, I just couldn’t catch him (someone said his name was Scott?). I led the first mile then he took over the next 2.5 and ran like a champ while I was happy to be along for the ride. I never felt labored and hit it pretty hard the last 600 meters in my patented “let the other guy do all the work then pass him at the end” move. Gee, I can’t understand why people talk under the breath about me and never want to run with me. Really, I think I was just in a hurry to get home so Jessica wouldn’t be late for work and I could get the kids to school. After the finish I basically ran straight to my car and high-tailed it home.

So anyway, a couple of interesting runs. But the best one was yesterday, when I ran three miles with Jessica. Awww…..

Should I even bother with the running? 64 and 63 miles the last two weeks, I’ve never felt more tired, to-the-bone tired. Oh well, push through. Ten mile MGP run yesterday. (”What are you training for?” “Nothing.”) Three minutes slower than the same run at the same time last year. This year was effort, last year was energizing. Chalk it up to the heat? The lack of inspiration? Fourteen on the trail Saturday, from 10:30 a.m. to noon, stopped every 2 miles for water. Barton Springs never felt better. Never. Better. Anything else? Mile repeats last Tuesday, shock to the system. Running hard is hard. The mental battle is the toughest part, so used to easy, slow, solo runs. Battling through the urge to stop must be re-learned.

Talking recently with someone about running, I said, “I only run when I’m running.”

Is the library depressing? All those unread books, untold hours of toil and sweat by the authors, gathering dust and losing meaning. I imagine the author’s excitement as their baby was accepted by an publisher, as their words went to press, now just yellowed pages on the bottom shelf, thirty years old, irrelevant. Like this blog.

I’m going to run home.

Hmmm … Running? Workouts? Races?

I think my mileage has been 45, 51, 44 the last 3 weeks. Did a couple of doubles last week before my trip to Colorado to load up and counteract the looming beer and beef and BS. One afternoon I was planning on doing 7 and ran into Jorge on the trail and ended up with 11 or so for a 14 mile day. But it was worth it. I run alone so much these days it’s nice to run with others (even if they don’t necessarily feel the same about me).

I’ve run a couple of firecrackers and a couple six-mile MGP runs with Kevin and Sam. Why am I running MGP runs? Just because. I like them. Kevin is doing a lot of running right around 6:50 (hmmm, what’s that MGP for?) and I usually run the first 3 miles with him then try to negative split the last 3 miles. Last week was 6:36, 6:29, 6:26 or something. 6:30ish? MGP? Really? Well, you never know….

I got fourth again in the Blanco Mini Triathlon a few weeks ago. Twice as long as that family tri a week before, and yet my pace was faster. I was pretty pleased with my run I guess. Chased down a guy at the end.

Ran once in Colorado. Six miles, 47 minutes, 7500 feet. That first and last hill, there was one of those signs with a truck on a triangle that said “10% Grade”. Aw, crap. But it was fine and I didn’t really notice the altitude, other than feeling a little more dehydrated than normal. Ok, I did nearly throw up and was stuck in the bathroom for a while afterwards, but really, that was due to the previous night I’m sure. Oh, you mean the previous night when we hung out with the guy with spurs on his boots who smelled like horseshit and the lesbian cowgirls who had knives on their belts and the guy who fights in UFC and the dude who was offering blow all around? Yeah, that night.

The real body banger from Colorado was the two hour football game with my friends. Again, the altitude didn’t affect me (my friends on the other hand… whoa….), but I’m not trained for sprints and cuts and jumps and, you know, actually doing stuff. Two days have passed and I struggled on a 30 minute run today. My hamstrings felt like, well, actual hams. But at least they’re not torn and I still have my wedding ring, so I consider this trip a success.

Check out this video of Shalane Flanagan (the women’s American record-holder in the 5K and 10K) doing a sick workout. There are so many things I love about this video. Seven mile tempo. Circuit training. Socks. Shalane. Anything else?

There are other good workouts on that same page. Check out Leo Manzano’s 9×300. I saw Leo running up Shoal Creek Boulevard a week or so after the Olympic Trials when I was dropping my kid off for camp. I wanted to yell “Go Leo!” or some other dorky thing but I didn’t. I hate it when people yell at me, though of course they’re usually yelling at me from an El Camino to “get outta the f’ing way”. So I looked around for someone to tell (”there goes an Olympian”) but I don’t think anyone other than me would have known who he is.

Have you been reading the new blog on the block? It has the knob of approval.

This is my knob.

but here we are. we’ll see.

i think my weekly mileage has been 13, 40, 37. i had a surprisingly good tempo run in the heat. i sucked balls in the shortest tri ever. my kids are awesome and kicked butt in the same triathlon. another triathlon for me this saturday. why oh why? i hope to kill it again in august.

jessica made me join facebook. ugh.

here we are.

A repost of an email race report:

Conditions were nice and humid, legs are dead from moving and running too much. plan was just to take it easy and hold on to 2nd place in the series. i had like a 1:40 lead over third place.

So the start is on a road, not a trail, and people just take off flying. i’m quickly back in like 6th place, then we hit the single-track trail and i’m stuck behind a guy who went out at 5:30 pace and is now doing 7:30 pace. i’m behind this guy for a long time. the top 3 guys have disappeared.

Finally get around him and see third place in front of me. david grice, he’s also in 3rd overall for the series, so i just have to stay within 1:40 of him to beat him. we come to the aid station, which is 2.5 miles in at about 16:25 which is like 6:30 pace, which really seems too fast for me on a trail race. anyway, i take some water, round the corner, go down a hill, look at my watch … and … down … i … fall … in … slow … motion …. a hard fall too, like i’m sliding into third base.

I scramble up and can’t see grice anymore. but about 20 seconds later Gate Davis comes running up. Gate is the overall leader and has won each race by at least 2 minutes. as he passes he says, “wrong turn”, and i’m sure he must be talking about me. i guess when i fell i missed a turn and that’s why i can’t see grice anymore. so i cuss and bitch and start jogging in. geez, not again!

I’m jogging for about a minute when the 5th place guy comes running up. he says, “what’s wrong?” and i say, “i took a wrong turn” and he says, “no you didn’t, gate took the wrong turn.” really!? oh crap! i better start racing again. between the fall and the jogging i’ve probably lost a minute and a half to grice.

So i really pick it up on the last half, and on one of the switchbacks i think i see grice, which gets me moving even more. i finally do see him at the finish, where i think he only beats me by 40 seconds or so. my final time is 41:05 or something (6:36 pace?), so if you account for the lost 1:30-2 minutes, i had a pretty good race.

I thought the course was on par with the Loop, maybe tougher, because it had a couple of really long, hard uphills. one was basically wilke with loose rocks and limestone step-ups. i might as welll have walked up i was going so slow. on the other hand, there was a fair bit of downhills and flat straights. whatever, it was hard.

So i was 4th overall today, but i still wasn’t positive i held on to second for the series. but i showed up for the award ceremony at the rogue store tonight, and did get 2nd for the series, something like 10 minutes behind gate and a minute ahead of grice. got a nice metal object that says “ROGUE” in big letters.

My body is bruised and battered from the fall. didn’t notice while i was running, but as soon as i finished my knee started swelling and is pretty stiff. probably won’t be doing much running for a few days.

Back to the blog: knee still hurts, tired from moving, no running this week, I feel fat and unmotivated. Summer of? Inconsistency?

The Friday night run, I just took off from my office building directly after work and ran up the Shoal Creek trail. I’d never run that stretch before and I’d highly recommend it to anyone looking for a new route. Sort of a cross between Lady Bird and the Greenbelt, but shorter and less crowded. I felt like a million bucks, the trail speeding me on. I attribute a lot of that to the environment, the scenery, maybe just the newness. Glad to be out of the neighborhood jogging doldrums.

Saturday morning Jessica ran so I only managed a late morning five-miler. It’s pretty hot this time of year.

Sunday I toughed my way through a twelve-miler. Didn’t start until 9am or so, and it was another ‘hood run, but I spiced it up with some local trails. Of the twelve miles, probably half of it was on a trail of some sort. For you Southwest Austin folk: from Arbor Trails (Costco) to Villages of Western Oaks to Slaughter Creek and back. Last mile in 6ish range. Plodded through the first 11 and finally said fudge it and started running. Run by feel, that’s what this summer is about. Again, was somewhat warm by the time I finished.

Monday morning, in keeping with the Summer of… schedule, a tempo was on the slate. Not wanting to run the firecracker at an insane 5:30am, I found yet another neighborhood route. The run started, continued, and finished strong. Interesting that I woke up excited to get started, and that lasted through the run. Most morning runs are labors to get going. This morning couldn’t wait to hop to it. The route had something to do with that. Here is the elevation map:

My advisor had suggested I incorporate a weekly run to the top of Red Bud Trail and back, but this was the best I could do in my neck of the woods. The highest point on that graph is Convict Hill, near our new house. The 8 miles accomplished in 56 minutes, with the first three of it around 7:30ish, the last six somewhere under seven. Never felt strained, wasn’t a Gazelles-type time-trial tempo, ’twas more of a true tempo. Most excellent run. Another three last night, 25 minutes (slow eh?), felt the effects of the morning run.

Ten solo on the trail this morning. First half ugh, second half yay!

Of the thirteen runs in the past nine days, twelve have been solo, with the lone exception being the Gazelles 700s last Thursday morning. It’s not that I don’t want to run with others, it just doesn’t work out. Or no one likes me enough to want to run with me. I’m ok with that.

The schedule doesn’t feel like a chore. Yet. The body seems to be holding up pretty well. So far. A few niggles and tweaks here and there. Strangely, the part that pains the most is my left shoulder. Longer runs and it’s quite painful. Attribute it to that stupid medicine ball misadventure from a couple weeks ago. Damn you core! Damn you!

I tried to swim a couple of laps (six) the other day. Arms burning, out of breath, nearly drowned. Yikes.

I eat like a pig. Or a goat. Or whatever omnivorous animal eats PBJs and not enough veggies. I do eat a fair amount of fruits, and avocado is a staple, a stray carrot here, a leaf of spinach there, but other than that it’s all carb-o-licious. No desire to become a slave to diet though.

Glad to see Andre and Michelle back in the blogosphere.

Joshua is funny. Some recent choice bits:
“Mrs. Paidle has good ear-sight.”
“What is that, an egg yog?” (yolk)
“Pandemonium? Is that like an angry mock?” (mob)

Joshua: How do you make friends?
Elijah: I guess if you and someone else like the same things…
Joshua: No, how do YOU make friends?
Elijah: Well, if they’re doing something I like or we’re on the playground, I just go up to them and say, “do you want to be friends?” Why, how do you make friends?
Joshua: I don’t make friends. Everyone else makes friends with me.

If this post seems more bland than usual, I apologize, just trying to chronicle my “Summer of…” experiment. Try to return soon with more witty anecdotes, less training log tedium. Probably no poetry, though I do appreciate it. :)

Sun: 11am; slow, last 2 ok, hoping to get tired before week to come
Mon: 5am/4pm; am included 2 mile tempo harder than should have been
Tues: 10am; first 7 fine, last 3 a long, slow, blistery slog.
Wed: 5noon/3pm; feeling some aches, slight return of shin pain (from last fall)
Thur: 10am; 7×700 on the track, not fluid, no pain in legs but still tired

It feels good to be back to the routine, back to pushing and feeling tired. See how long this keeps up. Four days is pretty good so far. At least through the final trail race, he hopes.

Knob rode his bike to work last Friday (13 miles, 55 minutes, in the rain) and ever since he has felt some IT band pain in the right knee. He also got a flat on the way home (”Dadgummit! Blow out!”), with no spare, so that little eco-friendly experiment will be put to bed for some time.

Knob and Juice continue to laugh over the major award from last week. It’s… it’s… it’s indescribably beautiful! It reminds them of the Fourth of July! If you know of any other neighborhood kiddie races, let Knob know so that he may dominate as many eight year olds as possible.

It bothers some people that Knob speaks in the third person. Knob makes no apologies.

Look at the size of that thing! It’s so ridiculous I can’t help but keep laughing. I put the gallon of milk next to it so you could get an idea of the gargantuan size of this thing. The smaller trophy is Joshua’s for finishing second in his 0-6 age group.

At the start I just started jogging hoping someone would “take it out” and I could just jog with them. Some high school girl in a soccer uniform and a mom in a triathlon suit led the charge. I just loafed along, helping up fallen children in the stampede. About 1/4 mile in everyone had already blown their endurance and were slowing down a lot. I just kept jogging and soon I was 200 yards in front. I stopped at the water stop (yes, a water stop at the 1/2 mile point) for about 15 seconds, drank a couple cups of water and waited for the next person to come in view around the corner. I had time for a little conversation with the lady serving the water. Finally I took off again at a jog.

It was all very quaint. We had to run on the sidewalk. There was a guy on a bike who was supposed to be leading the course but he just told me to go ahead. They had written 1/4 mile markers in chalk on the sidewalk, along with motivational phrases: “you can do it!” “Almost home! Sprint to the finish!” I felt so stupid. I should have just run home. But I didn’t. I finished and the race director lady couldn’t believe it. “Wow, 6:50! You’re so fast!”

I ran back about half way and finished again with my boys. They both did great. Joshua felt sick and still pushed through to finish. Elijah ran harder than I’ve ever seen him. Then I ran back again to help one of Elijah’s friends. Finally I went and hid in the pool. When I saw them about to hand out that trophy, that was almost too much. But oh well, Jessica said just take it in stride and accept it in gratitude. So I will. Thanks to Sendera for a fun family run and a beautiful trophy. And all the kids loved the race, the medals and the trophies they won.

Yesterday at lunch ran on the Greenbelt with Andre and Pat. It was a lovely run, 47 minutes, easy pace, shaded, with free Gatorade at the end (woo hoo!). I did take a spill over a rock, but that just puts me 2 falls behind Pat.

Ran a solo 4-mile tempo late tonight. 6:14, 6:28, 6:20, 6:18. That second mile was into a strong, strong wind. Bad stitch in the third mile. Some lady looking for bats under the bridge blindly backstepped into me and I took a shoulder in the rib cage. It was a good workout I guess, but it’s sad how fast you can lose your fitness.

I’ve been slacking on my running over the last few weeks, with mileage output after that Chuy’s 5K down about 40%. I’ve even taken a few unscheduled days off here and there. Gasp! I sort of planned this semi-break after a hard spring of doubles and racing, and before a sweaty summer, but I also just got caught up in other things like, you know, life. But I feel lazy and fat. I still eat the same amount which a couple times has made me feel sick since I’m used to burning it up as soon as it goes in.

Anyway, most of my running has consisted of short, hot slogs around the neighborhood. I’ve been to a few Gazelles classes, haven’t really done any long runs (11 miles max maybe), generally just been coasting on my Spring work.

I have raced the first two races of the Rogue Trail Series … wait, I guess the first one was before Chuy’s so that’s old news. The second race, The Loop, was this past Sunday out at Emma Long Park on some motorcycle/bmx tracks. Not sure how any two-wheeled vehicles manage out there as it’s very rocky, ledgy, pebbly and bouldery, with lots of twists and turns and ups and downs and single-track trails. I think everyone will tell you it’s quite a bit tougher than the first course. And yes, this is the race where I got lost last year.

I wasn’t overly motivated going into the race, and even planned on “taking it easy”, or at least not killing myself. Frankly, I’m still a little pain-shy after Chuy’s (hmmm, I keep bringing that race up) and in want of a mental break from beating myself up. I saw lots of the same faces at the start, including Gate who won the first race going away, so I knew I wouldn’t win and wasn’t too concerned about where I placed. I just wanted to run hard but not in too much pain.

Without too much of a blow-by-boring account, I’ll summarize the race thusly: Gate was gone in 60 seconds, the first half I ran with David Grice whom I sort of know as a fast guy, switching second and third spots with him a couple times, until I gave up at the midpoint aid station, and kind of cruised it on in for third in 43 minutes+, about 40 seconds behind David. I’m a little disappointed in my mental toughness and not sticking with him. I was hurting, but not too bad, and after my shoelace came untied a minute into the race I used it as an excuse to stop at the aid station. It was pretty hot, fourth place was nowhere to be seen, so I really didn’t feel the need to battle it out for second place. I mean, I could have, if I wanted to … you know how that goes. You run what you run.

Ancillary to the race, it was nice to hang out and have some burgers and beer at 10am on a Sunday morning. Jessica ran too, we brought our boys (yes, at 6am) and it turned out rather lovely, what with P-to-the-Legate even showing up and picking up some Masters hardware. I’d recommend these trail races for anyone looking for something different and more laid back than the normal Evilsed road race.

To that point, the third and final race is June 29, right in the middle of our house move weekend, so I don’t know about that. Gate said he might not make it either, so if I can manage to show up and not crater, I could have a good shot at placing in the series. Regardless, I feel like it’s about time to ramp up the miles again for a good, strong Summer of Knob.

The Chuy’s 5K this morning was very hard for me. Very hard. Not so much painful, as 5Ks usually are, but just … difficult. My legs felt like cement, every step as if they were lifted up and thudded down. It was almost a surreal experience of having to mentally instruct myself on each and every stride (”ok, bend knee, raise foot, move leg…” THUD! “ok, bend knee, raise foot, move leg…” THUD!).

The weather sucked, warm and humid, but it sucked for everyone and some people looked like they were flying. Still, I found it hard to breathe and after the race my ears were stuffed up from …. breathing? The course was a great course, lots of long straights, a nice downhill, pretty fast finish. It just wasn’t my day. It hasn’t been my week either. Due to the house sale and the 10K on Sunday my mileage has been cut in half and every run has been a struggle. I managed a one mile tempo on Wednesday (one mile!) and barely made it through. Thursday did a little 600/300 x 3 track workout and it felt much harder than it should have.

So anyway, I knew going in to the race today that I wasn’t in my peak, but I still thought I might pull something out of my bony little backside, as I find that we often do our best when we don’t feel our best. Uh, not today. 200 meters in I felt OK, but 400 meters in the wheels fell off. I was already struggling to keep up. 800 meters in and I was resolved to DNF. My legs wouldn’t move, my arms were achy, head stuffy and I knew it was going to be a bad, bad day. When I saw the 1 mile sign I figured I’d check my time there and reassess. 5:27. What? Ok, I’ll keep going. People were passing me left and right. Keith Dowland, Chris Gunderson, Patrick Hall, some guy in a triathlon suit. Scott McIntyre ran by and I squeaked, “I need help Scott.” Kyle L. raced by and looked awesome. Half a dozen more oozed by me and I again resolved to just DNF. What was the point? (Well, whatever is the point in these “fun runs”, winning, finishing, walking or what?)

Some guy in a Dodge drove by and yelled “arrogant assholes!” Some spectator yelled, “kick these whipper-snapper’s butts Gundy!” The guy I beat in the Heroes 5K had long ago disappeared off the horizon (he ran 17:05!). I doused some water on my head and felt better for .05 seconds. Mile 2 marker was just ahead so again I decided to reassess at that point. 5:51. Ugh. Ugh. Ugh. Oh well, I’m two miles in so I might as well finish the damn thing. Michael Woo passed me and I just wanted to hang on to him, which I did (he finished 5 seconds in front of me). Scott Birk passed me but I caught him at the end. The last mile was even slower (5:56) than the second. I got a small flicker of energy and kicked it home in 34s for the last .1 (5:40 pace). Jessica and the boys, Andre and Pat, some neighbors, were all cheering near the finish, screaming at me to run faster. Damn, people, I’m running as fast as I freaking can! Finally, thankfully, blessedly, it was over.

And I’m going to put it behind me. After the race I had a lovely jog home with Joshua (”Buttercups!”), then I ran a hard three miles to get the taste of this race out of my system. Like I said, it just wasn’t my day. 21st overall and 17:50 is still pretty good, and like the Maze I’m happy I withstood the mental battles (though maybe if I was mentally stronger I could have….). Oh well, I think I’m done for the season, gonna take it easy for a couple weeks, then try to have a big summer of base.

My boys ran the Kids K and I’m proud of both of them. Elijah went out hard, said he was struggling at the half-way point and wanted to walk but he toughed it out and ran it all the way in. Joshua turned it on after the half-way point and kicked it home hard, passing dozens of kids (”I passed a big girl!”).

Boston? San Antonio? Dunno.

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