Darkness on the Edge of Town

  In my endless search to keep training runs new and interesting, I tested a new approach Wednesday morning. As my night shift brothers and sisters can attest, it is sometimes difficult to squeeze in a workout due to our schedules. I have taken to keeping my gym bag in the car, with a full compliment of running gear. My work takes me to different towns throughout NC, and I am always scoping out spots to run.

My crew finished up Tues night/Wed morning around 4 am. On my way to the job, I noticed  nice stretch of road, well lit with sidewalks running all the way along the road. It had several nice inclines along the way as well.
I sent the crew on their way, and changed into my running gear. Starting out in the parking lot of the local at Trader Joes, I set off into the early morning darkness. It was a little chilly, and I initially cursed  myself for not wearing my gloves, but after the first mile or so, the hands warmed up. The condition of the sidewalk was even better than I expected, with no uneven spots, so the chances of an epic pre-dawn face plant were minimal.
I planned to run 5 miles, going out 2.5, then turning back around. The streets were empty, and the only sign of life was a possum that wandered across the sidewalk up ahead of me. I hit the turnaround at 2.5, feeling good. A couple of nice inclines on the way back, and before I knew it, I was back at the parking lot, my five miles completed. It was a little before 5am, and traffic was still light, so the ride home was easy. I had to teach spin class later that morning at 9:30am, so I even had time to get a quick nap in before class too!
So, the new "commando" training run technique was successful. I hope to make it a regular feature in my training week!

4/4/2011

Back to running today. Had kind of a rest day yesterday, ran/walked a mile or two with a friend and her dog.

 Today I headed back to the trails. We are in the midst of our annual "Pollen scourge", and every outdoor thing is covered in a  neon green coat of the stuff! So what better place to go than a trail in the middle of the woods? On top of that, there was the wind. Now I thought that March was supposed to be the "windy" month, but it appears that April (so far) is picking up where March left off.
 I did a easy seven miles on the Peninsula Trail at Harris Lake. Normally I would just run the complete 5 mile loop, but I felt pretty good about 2 miles in, so I decided to turn around on the trail at 3.5 miles, and double back. I had never run the trail in reverse, so it was a nice change of pace.
I was pretty sheltered from the wind when I was in the forest, but every now and then the trail would jut out to the edge of the lake and WHAM! a nice slap of 20mph wind mixed with pollen was there to greet me.
 I actually saw another runner on the trail today! Saw two other folks who were walking their dogs as well. Spring has returned, and the temp was right at 70 degrees at 10am this morning.
Now if we can just get a nice rain storm to wash some of this pollen away!

G 

Bengal Booster 5K

A little home cookin' this morning at the Bengal Booster 5k race here in town. It was nice not to have to get up at the ass crack of dawn to travel to a race!
It was a tad chilly this morning and we had a nice little breeze working. I arrived about an hour prior to the start, mainly due to the fact that one of the race organizers called me the night before to ask if I could burn a couple of audio CD's so they could have music playing at the start/finish line during the entire event! After dropping off the CD's to the audio guy, we mingled with the rest of the early arrivals. The start/finish of the race was in the parking lot of the gym where I teach, so we were able to go inside and keep warm. We also got to use REAL toilets for our pre-race business, another nice perk.

My daughter was also running this race, and being the "sprinter" of the family, this was considered a "distance" race for her.
There were a total of 177 people at the start. This was a nice change from the massive hoard of people at the start of the Half  I ran on 3/20 (some 3000 plus!) . I knew the course pretty well, (more home field advantage) although they did change the route slightly from the original. A few hills, but nothing crazy.

My daughter did great, finished in 32 minutes and some change. ( This was the longest distance she had run to date.  The old man finished in 24:58
A good start to the weekend, for sure!

March 2011

I had a good March, run wise. Logged about 80+ miles between Road and trails. Ran the Tobacco Road Half Marathon on 3/20. Was shooting for a goal of  2:15, finished in 2:05:16, so I was happy with my time. At mile ten, It looked like I may be able to break the two hour mark, but a couple of little hills near the finish cooked my ass! 
I did notice that hydration belts have become quite popular! There were some folks that had them strapped on bandolero style. I saw one women rockin this look, along with her phone, mp3 player and compression socks. She looked like an ATF agent about to raid a Meth lab! ( There were aid stations along the way, with water, gatorade and Gu!)
I also noticed the increased popularity of the run/walk method as well. I noticed this due to the fact that it seemed that everyone doing this stopped to walk right in front of me and my friend Heather! If it works for folks, God bless 'em. If I stop to walk, game over!! I gotta keep running!
So next big run is the Race for the Land, which is a Trail Half Marathon.( www.racefortheland.com) It will be run on trails on a 1400acre section of private land, with a maximum of 200 entrants. April 30th is the date.
Can't wait!!

Birkhead Mountain Wilderness Trail

Super Bowl Sunday afternoon was sunny and mild here in NC, so instead of the usual pre-game debauchery, I grabbed my friend Hannah and we set out for the Birkhead Mountain wilderness Trail. It is a bit of a drive to get there from where we are at, but I figured with the dawn of the new ice age in this country, we could stand some global warming. (Anybody seen Al Gore??)
After parking at the trail head, we warmed up a bit, then set off. My friend Hannah is part Native American, and immediately began channelling that energy as she glided along the trail effortlessly. I tend to start off at a slow rumble, and was staggering along the trail like Charlie Sheen at the Two and a Half Men Christmas party.
Settling in on the trail, I got into a nice rhythym, just in time for the hills. The trail was relatively empty, save for a few hikers and folks with their dogs. Our pre-run debate on mileage was something like a country auction. I believe the bidding started off at six miles, and somewhere between the car and the trail head that figure increased to nine. So the deal was we run 4.5 out, then 4.5 back.
Having ran with me before, Hannah knows that when I start responding to questions with monosyllabic grunts, this is my way of telling her she can go on ahead, I am done trying to pace her. Left to my own devices, I play my favorite running game "Gene, don't look at your Garmin!!". Finally, we approach the 4.5 mile turn around.
I take on some water and a Gu, and we begin our return trip to the trail head. I pass check point "poodle" where two women are walking their little dogs, which bark incessantly at me. We only make one wrong turn, of course it has to be on a downhill, so we trudge back up and reorient ourselves and continue on.
Ah, the last mile. Forget that I know that Hannah is probably at the car already. I feel good. As I pass a group of older folks hiking on the trail, a man calls out "Matthew!" Apparently I have a twin I did not know about. This man swears up and down that I look exactly like a kid he taught in high school twenty years ago! Seeing me again back at the parking lot, he just shakes his head. "Looks just like him" we chat for a few minutes. It's a nice way to end the run.
We make it back just in time for the super bowl, thankfully missing the attempted murder of our National Anthem.
Plugging in the ole' Garmin to the laptop, it tells me we climbed a total of 3,050 feet of elevation during our run.
Maybe not worthy of a Gatorade bath, but I will take it.

MTV

Hey kids, Here's some trivia for ya. Anyone remember when MTV just played music?? Now one can tune in to the latest episode of " I am a fat, pregnant unemployed teenage lesbian bipolar drug addict" or the myriad of other "reality" programming the good folks at MTV have to offer. Let's scour the country and find the most fucked up people we can, and make it seem like this is the way life is supposed to be.
"That ain't workin, that's the way you do it. You play that guitar on the MTV."

Somewhere, Sting and Mark Knofler are shaking their heads.

Restless Heart

Well kids, I went out and bought myself a heart rate monitor. Now I have scientific proof that I am old,fat and slow.
I have always approached new technology with a certain sense of unease, but in a moment of weakness, in the friendly confines of our local performance bike shop, I faltered, and subsequently gave in.
Carefully reading the multinational "easy" set up guide, (forget Rosetta Stone. Want to learn another language? read the owners guide to any piece of electronic equipment) I soon coaxed the unit to life.
Not content to merely subtract my age from the number 220, I set forth into a complex formula of algorithms, incorporating resting heart rates, lunar cycles and relative humidity.

Now for the first test ride. Peddling along at a easy pace, I glanced at my shiny new handlebar mounted monitor, hoping to glean precious data from my maiden voyage. Only one problem. According to my monitor, my heart rate was higher than Captain Phil Harris's during opilio crab season. What the hell? The monitor is not working properly. Wait, Am I not working properly??? The formula, it must be the *%$!!** formula that's wrong! (I knew I should have consulted the tide chart!)

So for the next several weeks I tinkered with the max heart rate formula, muddled through hundreds of articles on the web, and rode dutifully with my monitor, feeling exhausted every time I glanced at it during a ride.
Then one morning, in a rare moment of clarity, I went out for a ride without the heart rate monitor. And guess what. I felt better. I rode hard. I felt strong! Glancing over at the the monitor on the handlebar, it merely flashed the time of day. Ha Ha! you bastard! you shall not torment me this day!

So now my transmitter strap sits in my gym bag, waiting for me to return to it one day. I am sure I will, perhaps in the winter, when the conditions are too miserable to inspire one to get outside. Plenty of time to reformulate my max heart rate, and maybe learn to speak Portuguese at the same time! (I have saved the user's guide) For now, I will enjoy riding.

See you out on the road