Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Forecast of Saturday at 6am: 87 degrees with a 40% chance of thunderstorms

This past Saturday didn't start out to be a picture-perfect running day.

It was absolutely pouring when I left my place at 6am. I was soaked walking out of my building and getting in to my car (distance is about 20 feet). But I was determined to run with the training group that morning.

Lake Michigan had relocated itself onto Lake Shore Drive, which made the drive south a challenge instead of a delight. The underpasses were flooded. I still found my way to our meeting place.

I pulled next to Kim's Rabbit. She wasn't in it, but I had a text from her, saying something along the lines of 'Run canceled. Go get back in bed.'

I called her to find she was in Larry's car a few spaces down. We waited for another half hour to see if we'd get the all clear to start the group run a bit later. In the end, CARA canceled the training run - but we didn't.

Kim suggested we dry out and regroup at Carbio. John joined us there. The four of us sat, talking about running and many other things, until 7:30, when it appeared that the weather was passing.

That's when we made the decision - we would still do the 12 miler. Even if the Fleet Feet aid stations were down. Even if we were the only ones out there. We were determined. Our social calendars did not allow for a Sunday morning run (who does that?) or getting up before the sun was up on Monday to get in a nearly three hour run.

So we did it. We were tough. We took the road less traveled. We ran north and then south along the path. We ran around Montrose Harbor and then along the east side of the golf course.

At the North Avenue soccer field, we talked the Gatorade people in to sharing their supply with us. We were very grateful.

In the end, we were done with the 12 mile run before noon, and we had mostly cloudy skies, a nice breeze, and just a hint of sprinkles.

Sounds like a perfect training day to me.

Music is Essential

Music is Essential.

Not just in running, but in life.

I happen to listen to upbeat, fast-paced music with a strong base line. It's great to work out to.

I listen to music during the week when I run by myself. On Saturdays the iPod stays at home.

Week 8 of training calls for two three mile runs and one six mile - that's roughly two hours of running, just during the week.

I need a good playlist, and it needs to be updated often.

No more than a few weeks goes by before I'm downloading some new stuff.

I listen to an internet radio station at work. I'll write down song names and DJs I like, then go home and try to find them on iTunes.

Although running may be an inexpensive sport, iTunes gets me every month for new downloads.

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Run. Rest. Eat. Repeat.

Welcome to week 7 of training.

The first few weeks are a cakewalk. Now training's stepping it up a notch on us.

Six miles was the long run the first week. In week seven, six miles is the mid-week run.

It's about this point in the training where I notice training's starting to take over my life. Having a few drinks on a Friday night's no big deal when you're doing 5 or 6 miles in the morning...12 miles is another story.

I start to pay closer attention to getting a a good night's sleep on Friday night. Even during the week for that matter - I've been getting up at 5:30am on Wednesdays to get the mid-week longer run over with in the morning!

If you're running and sleeping more, you mind as well eat more too, right? Now we get into the enjoyable part of training. Eating.

At this point, with a few exceptions, I'm eating all the 'healthy' food I want. I'm not worrying about carbs or calories. If I have a taste for it, I have it. Granted, I'm not stopping for ice cream or going through a drive thru all too often...yet.

There will come a point in training (about a month from now) where I'll really go all out and have things I'd normally never eat - like a Big Mac.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Hot Summer Days

It's July 20th - the heat of summer - and man, has it been hot.

I checked the weather on Sunday and was excited to see that we were going to avoid 90+ this week. Apparently weather.com is not as a reliable source as Tom Skilling. Skilling told me on Monday that in fact it will be in the 90's this week. Once again.

My body doesn't like the 90's much, especially not for exercising. Lunchtime workouts are out of the question. Even after work is too hot. I tried a week of running at 7:30 in the evening, but even then it's humid.

So I did something I've never done before, well, at least not on a weekday - I started working out before work. I know, there are countless people that do this everyday. I could never motivate myself to get out of bed early if I didn't have to. In the last week, the heat has done just that.

I thought about it, and if I get up at 5:30am on Saturdays, why not just do it during the week as well?

So far, I'm enjoying getting out in the morning. There's less people on the lakefront path and driving on the street. It's cooler and quieter.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Shout Outs

Saturday mornings start at Montrose Harbor around 6:30. Shortly thereafter, we're heading south on the lakefront path. Inevitably, we run into other training groups along the way - CES, Team in Training, etc. We also run into cyclist and other runners.

The cyclists definitely despise us. We are herds of runners clogging up most of the path every Saturday morning. Every once in awhile, we have a not-so-friendly exchange with one of them, usually after there was a close call. Truthfully, in a bike vs. runner collision, who would be worse off?

When I'm riding I think 'you stupid runners, stay over to the right. If one of you makes a bad move, I'm flying off this bike.' When I'm running I think 'you stupid riders, give us more space. I don't want to be run over by your bike.'

I'm a getting a bit off the subject though -

Every Saturday my group heads south. We almost always pass my friend Kim.

Kim's a marathon veteran. She knows her stuff. Maybe it's with all that wisdom and experience that she's able to pick me out of a crowd every morning when she passes me and I, somehow, remain oblivious. In my defense, the problem is I'm usually talking [imagine that] to someone.

Kim will scream for me, usually multiple times. After she passes, it will finally register - 'Oh no, I just missed her' and I make an attempt to shout back.

She told me Saturday afternoon she's about to give up on the shout outs because I'm so bad at them.

Something to work on this week. It is a recovery week after all.

Tuesday, July 06, 2010

Running Home From Work

Week four of training. Saturday the group was scheduled to run 9 miles.

Unfortunately, I was going out of town. That's one of the tricky parts about training - life gets in the way. Sometimes it comes in the fashion of staying out too late on a Friday night when I'm up at 5:30 on Saturday. Or its that weekend plans are to not be in Chicago.

I am presented with two options.

Option A: I run 9 miles in my weekend location, which I've done before in San Diego, Ft. Myers, Miami, Indy...or

Option B: I complete my long run before vacation. Ah ha!

But when will I have time to do 9 miles?

In comes the 'need' to run home from work - and it's about 9 miles to my place.

So Thursday, I leave work around 3:30 and head north on the lakefront path. As luck would have it, the lakefront path will end before I'm done running, but it's nothing short of a beautiful commute home.