W4D7

This is has been an odd week of training for me. It was my highest mileage week, at 34 miles, since November 2007. That's right 2007. I started off 2008 injured (stress fracture) and my mileage build to my one and only marathon, St. Jude, got me close at 33.7 but needless to say it has been a long time for this kind of mileage. I hope I'm not tempting fate by getting there. The schedule only goes up from here, making 34 look like an easy week.

This week was also odd in that there was no long run, i.e. a run longer than 10 miles. There weren't really any short runs, less than 5 miles in my mind. The whole week was a bunch of medium length runs. 7, 7, 8, 6 and 6 miles were the daily tallies.

The week ended with today's 6 miler. I got up and ran from home another one of my old routes on the streets. I followed that up with a session with the personal trainer. We worked out shoulders and biceps. I really like working with the trainer because he pushes me beyond what I would do on my own.

After a quick shower, Mrs J and I followed the lead of David and Mrs T, and headed off to spend the afternoon on the beach at Corona Del Mar, enjoying the sun, the surf, the cooler temps and catching up on some reading.

We returned home to temperatures at least 15 degrees warmer, took the kids to dinner, I went to church, went to the grocery store and another week has come to a close.

Next week's schedule looks doable. There's a traditional long run and even three runs of 5 miles or less. Very traditional.

W4D6

Lisa and I have dinner with Mike and Maria several times a year. Our youngest sons grew up together. They were in the same sports league but on opposing teams. The boys went to different schools starting in junior high and sort of went their own separate ways but we parents have stayed friends even now that the boys are a year out of high school.

Mike and Maria have both run at times. so they understand my mindset when it comes to that discipline. Mike is mostly into pick up basketball and bike riding now. He and I have talked about getting together for a ride one day. Back in December we made tentative plans for a ride in the spring. One thing or another kept postponing it until finally this weekend, technically summer, we made it out for the ride.

I rode the street bike with the only issue being achy shoulders. The ride from Azusa to Seal Beach was about 35 miles and took us about2.5 hours. We met our wives in Seal Beach for breakfast at the River's End Cafe at mile marker 00.00. It seemed to be a favorite hang our for bikers and the food, at least breakfast food, was pretty good.

It was a beautiful morning for a ride and a beautiful day at the beach but we loaded the bikes into the car and headed back home before noon.

W4D5

The life schedule necessitated another change in the running schedule. Rather than a rest day, Saturday's workout was moved up to Friday after work. The schedule called for a 5K race with a 2 mile warm up and a 1 mile cool down. 5K's on a Friday night are hard to come by.

I decided to modify things a little by heading over to marked trail on the San Gabriel River Bike Path. I modified the 5K to a simpler 3 miles. I kept the warm up nice and easy at around 10:20 pace. My goal for the 3 mile section was 8:00 miles.

I took off down the path at a pretty good clip. I hit the first mile mark in 7:46. "Whoa there Nellie, slow down a little or you'll never make it to the end", I thought to myself. I kept on going. At 1.5 miles I was beginning to wonder if I could really keep up the pace for 3 miles. It had been a long time since I tried to do anything even remotely resembling speed. I hit the second mile mark in 7:27. what, what, WHAT!! Way faster than expected. I tried to slow down a bit for mile 3, but I still came in at 7:27. I think I sped up a little near the end to just get the thing over with. 7:34 pace overall is way beyond what I expected out of this run. You can bet I took it nice and easy for the 1 mile cool down.

I'm calling this a successful little test of the speed capabilities. Yasso says "the point this week is to go out and enjoy racing." Although I only raced myself, I'd have to say I did enjoy it.

W4D4

I'm Starting With The Man In The Mirror
I'm Asking Him To Change His Ways
And No Message Could Have Been Any Clearer
If You Wanna Make The World A Better Place
Take A Look At Yourself, And Then Make A Change
- Michael Jackson

I was never a die hard fan but back in the day I enjoyed a good MJ song or two. This one wasn't particularly a standout for me until I heard it while running the Las Vegas Marathon in 2005. It was playing over the loud speakers while we ran through the Fremont Street Experience early on that cold windy morning. It was a cool memory of the day. This video is a bit long, but I'm a sucker for anything with a gospel choir. Enjoy.



Today was 8 miles with Hills. The instructions were still to find a hilly route and not to treat it like an easy run. I strung together two of my favorite 4 mile routes in Bonelli. I tried by best to hammer the run, but I felt more like a tack hammer than a sledge hammer. I took a fair share of walk breaks but tried to keep them to 30 seconds before "tacking" away again.

I wore a new pair of Adrenaline ASR, the all terrain version of my favorite Adrenaline GTS. I wore these once back 6 months ago and wasn't too sure I like them. They have heavier tread and seemed bulkier all around although they do have a nice roomy toe box. They've been sitting in the closet ever since. Today I appreciated the new shoe bounce as I made my way over the hills.

W4D3

Another 7 miler today. Seven miles isn't a distance that I run often, at least not lately. Monday I mapped out a couple of routes from home. One was the route I did yesterday and the other was a route I used to do a couple of years ago occasionally when I needed the 7 mile distance. That particular route is straight out one street to a main intersection and then straight back. Not a very exciting route but an easy one to get on cruise control and just run.

During the day today I remembered a route I used to run a couple of years ago when my left hip (sciatica) first started hurting. It is mostly on equestrian trails in the city of Walnut. The loop is almost exactly 7 miles. The route is gently rolling with quite a few left and right turns that make it more forgiving on the legs and more interesting for the brain. The other nice thing about this route is that it passes two parks with bathrooms. Today was a good day to choose this route over the simple out and back. For some reason I needed to stop at both bathrooms. I guess I did a pretty good job of getting my water in this afternoon at work.

W4D2

Had a midweek visit with the personal trainer. We worked on chest and triceps today. It was a good workout.

I followed that up with 7 miles easy. I ran straight from home over to what used to be the equestrian trail in Via Verde and then back.

I need to send a Thank You note to the city of San Dimas. The equestrian trail in Via Verde extends all the way from the horse stables near the freeway up the hill to the entrance of Bonelli. There is an additional section that runs perpendicular on Puente Ave. My regular easy 3 mile route was run on the dirt along Puente and Via Verde Avenues and back again. I've run that route extensively in the last six years. The dirt has been there for well over 20 years.

For some reason, maybe it was Obama stimulus money, someone in the city government decided that the dirt on Puente Ave needed to be turned into a proper sidewalk. There are only 6 houses on that stretch of Puente Ave, why a sidewalk was necessary I'll never know. Many people ride, walk or RUN up and down that section of the street. The concrete will be nice for the walkers and riders, but now the sensible runners are forced into the street. I wish someone had consulted me before they poured all that knee busting cement. My easy 3 milers will never be the same.

W4D1

My legs are way sorer than I expected them to be after that workout yesterday. I guess I should have thrown in a few more sets of biceps. Then again, my biceps are pretty darn sore too.

I was orginally planning on switching things up a little this week too since I'd just had a rest day yesterday. But with the sore legs I opted to stick to Monday as a rest day anyway.

I did finally spend some time on the road bike. It is quite a different sensation from the mountain bike. I could definitely get up more speed, which isn't necessarily a good thing. Faster just means a harder and uglier fall, at least in my head. I had a hard time getting used to the gears and the angle of the brakes is way different than the mountain bike. I only rode for about 10-12 miles. The only thing that really hurts is my neck and shoulders. The road bike certainly doesn't have the shock absorbtion of the mountain bike either. The long ride to the beach should be an interesting one.

The picture is the happy graduate on his way to reality. Notice he's still smiling!!

W3D7

My second rest day this week had gotten pushed out to Sunday since I took advantage of the mornings at home at the end of the week to get the miles on the books. I was looking forward to not running although I usually like to "celebrate" holidays with a good run. I had already tallied up my weekly/annual/lifetime miles on Saturday evening. The numbers, in case you wondered, were:

32 for the week (5 days of running)
472.7 for 2009
7794.2 Lifetime (since June 2003)

I had an appointment with my trainer this morning. He always has me do about 10 minutes of aerobic activity before beginning the weights. Since I've been on the marathon training plan, I've used the elliptical to accomplish this. I don't track those miles. For some reason I jumped on the treadmill this morning and put in a mile before the work out. When I got home I upped all my totals by one. (I'll let you do the math.)

I did a leg workout with the trainer but it was tempered somewhat by inserting a few bicep sets into the mix.

When I got home, Lisa made breakfast for us. That was nice, since weekend breakfast is usually my forte and responsibility. The whole family went out in the middle afternoon for Father's Day Mexican Food. We've been doing this annually for 22 years since Lisa was pregnant with Tyler and I wasn't quite officially a father yet.

I hope all the Dads out there, especially the running variety, all had a wonderful family filled day.

Off to week 4 of the plan with 11 weeks until the big day in the Heart of America. I'm #66, Joe is #61. Looks like there's still plenty of room for you. You've got plenty of time to train for a marathon, right? Anybody else want to predict #65 as the winner?

W3D6

The graduation ceremony went off without a hitch. By the way things went it wasn't too difficult to tell that the place is a liberal arts school in California. All the regular pomp and circumstance was just a bit more casual and twisted than you might find at an East Coast Ivy League school. The place is full of talented out-of-the-box folks, both teachers and students. Afterwards we headed over to the Little Italy section of downtown San Diego from some great Italian food (of course). Ten friends and family enjoyed a wonderful meal at Cafe Zucchero.

We had made arrangements to spend the night in San Diego, so I woke up this morning and ran 4 miles on the San Diego River Pedestrian and Bike Trail. Being concrete, the trail is very well suited to pedestrians and bikes. Concrete is not a runner's best friend, at least not this runner, but for a one off run it was a nice little route.

On the way home we accidentally came across Road Runner Sports store headquarterd near San Diego. We decided to stop in and Lisa bought me a couple of pairs of shorts and new shirt as a Father's Day gift. The RRS stuff was buy one get 40% off a second item. Can't pass up a sale. While I was there I decided to have a running analysis done. It seems that I've been using the right style shoe - stability - all along. It is always good to have confirmation, especially in light of the last two years injuries.

We made a leisurely trip back home by 2:00 in the afternoon. Tyler and his girlfriend on the other hand had left San Diego at 5:30 a.m. to rush home to spend the rest of the day doing food prep and final arrangements for a 75th birthday party with appetizers, salads, main dishes and desserts for 60 people. They have been doing a couple of catering jobs on the side but this is their most ambitious project to date. They've been prepping for the better part of the week. The graduation ceremony mid stream just when the major work needed to be done added an extra little wrinkle to the whole project.

I pitched in a little at the end by helping grill some steaks and picking up the cakes that had been stored in Grandma's fridge and delivering them to the party. Otherwise the two of them did all the work on their own and from the reviews I heard at the party (we were invited guests) the clients and their guests were very happy with the food. Hopefully this will be the beginning of a new venture.

W3D5

Friday is supposed to be a day off but because of the graduation festivities later today I took to opportunity to get it done this morning on familiar paths near home.

Last night I loaded up some new music on the ipod for today's run. Mat Kearny makes some good music for LSD runs (not the 70's kind), especially the City of Black and White album. I have two of his albums on the ipod and with it on random his songs came up frequently.

Strange coincidence the first song that came on today as I started the run was "Hit the Ground Running" by Keith Urban. I'm not usually a country music fan, but I really like the duet he sang with Kris Allen on the American Idol finale, I Want to Kiss a Girl, and ended up downloading the entire CD from itunes. I've probably already listened to it too many times, but I really like it.

I did the 13 mile run over on the San Gabriel River Trail. I ended up running into a friend of mine out for a bike ride. He and I are supposed to ride bikes to the beach next weekend, but I have yet to get on the road bike for any kind of practice. I usually ride my mountain bike but I will be hopelessly behind since he'll be on a road bike.

I actually was able to pull of negative splits on this. I hear about this practice all the time, especially in training plans but I rarely am able to pull it off. My first few miles were 9:45, 10:01, 10:13 and 9:41. With 5 miles left to go I was able to ratchet things up a bit with the last 5 clocking 9:33, 9:30, 9:33, 9:02 and 8:40. Good stuff.

Now its off to San Diego as Tyler gets his Bachelor's degree in Culinary Management.

W3D4

On vacation today. Had another good workout with Chris at 7:30 a.m. and then just over 12 hours after the hill run yesterday I was back out running again. This time it was 4 miles easy.

I decided on the picnic loop at Bonelli; into the park, 2 times around the picnic loop, then back out of the park is 4 miles. It was a beautifully peaceful morning. At times it seemed like I had the hold place to myself. On the first trip around the loop I came upon the grassy section and it occurred to me to give barefoot running a try. I've heard good things about it so on my second loop around off came the shoes and socks and into the grass I went.

It felt sort of cool to run barefoot, kind of free. The grass was wet and cool from the dew and the ground was even sort of soft and moist. I ran for about a half mile on the grass. Putting my shoes back on for the run up the road out of the park felt a little odd at first. My feet were warm with the shoes on, the weight of the shoes was noticeable and the tightness of the laces was even a little annoying at first. I'm not sure how much barefoot running there will be in the future, but it was fun to take advantage of the opportunity that presented itself.

Lisa and I spent the rest of the day in Temecula visiting with her Dad and step-Mom. We visited a couple of our favorite wineries and then had dinner at Rustico. Tomorrow is the big graduation day so we'll be back in San Diego in the early afternoon.

W3D3

7 miles hills - Done!

At this point in the Yasso schedule the hill runs are described as: " The seasoned schedule calls for runs on hills this week. Later in the program, these will become hill repeats; but this week, just pick a run with lots of hills with possible." This week the hill workout adds this little tidbit: "As usual, this should be the hilliest loop you can find for the distance and shouldn't be treated as an easy run."

Well, I got the hills and the distance right. I may have messed up a little on the part about not treating it as an easy run. Last week's note on hills did say "You'll know you've found the right (hill) loop if it's too steep to run easily." I did get that part right. My hill is runnable but not entirely easy.

The route I've used the last couple of weeks includes a hill that is 0.7 mile up. I've been keeping track of my up and down times. This week I ran the hill 3 times. The up times were 7:41, 7:59 and 7:58. The first two downs were 6:38 and 6:40. On the third downhill I decided to kick it in gear a little. I concentrated on keeping by chest up and my shoulders back and just let my legs fly a little. I made it down in 5:48. The rest of the flatter part of the route was taken at a fairly easy pace.

I'm not sure how I feel about the idea of hill repeats coming up in the future. I've got a couple more weeks before they show up on the schedule so I've got a couple of weeks to fret about them.

W3D2

I took full advantage of the rest day. My sister and her boyfriend arrived from Ohio. It seems like only yesterday that I saw them. We took the whole family to In-n-Out Burger so the boyfriend could be properly indoctrinated to SoCal. He enjoyed his Double Double and Fries Animal Style.

Tomorrow, I will be back at it with 7 miles of hills.

W3D1

Running plans are an ever changing thing. Once its on paper I like to stick to it the way it is written but I'm not so rigid that I can't change things around as the rest of my life dictates. Really, I'm not and I can.

In anticipation of my sister's arrival tomorrow evening; in for the graduation ceremony later this week; I ran my 4 miler today, a scheduled rest day. I ran the same route I ran yesterday but didn't feel nearly as peppy as I did then. It may just be the difference between running in the morning and running after a day at work. I took about 1:30 longer than the day before to cover the same distance.

My favorite little spot of local running haven has been marred by violence. It really is too bad that people feel the need to shoot each other, but can't they do it in their own backyard rather than in mine?

W2D7

Week two complete and pretty much the way it was written on paper. 28 miles in 5 days.I made up for the shortage on the hill run when we accidentally missed the turn around point on the long run on Saturday. It's nice when things work out like that.

I went back to the gym this morning for my third session with the trainer this week. I followed my trainer to his new gym and finally used up the last of the sessions on Friday at the old gym. I will settle into a routine with one, maybe two sessions a week at the new place with Chris and once or twice a week at the old place on my own. I used the gym extensively during my rehab to cross train but now that I am in full swing marathon training it is harder to get there.

I got on the scale at the gym this morning and I'm down 6 pounds from about 3 months ago. Almost down to 160. I ran my best marathons when I was closer to 155. I was down to 150 at one point but most people thought I was too skinny then. If I could get back there, I might actually be able to see the abs I've been working on beneath the layer of middle aged blubber.

After the workout, it was off to Bonelli as usual for a 4 mile run. I felt really good. Many times on the return trip I'm just pushing forward to the finish. Today I felt like I could have easily kept going for awhile.

Back home, I made breakfast for my wife and me. Bacon, egg and cheese sandwiches on whole wheat English muffins with some sliced strawberries on the side and a pot of coffee.

I can actually see glimpses of blue sky peaking out between the clouds today. We may see some sun for the first time in nearly two weeks.

W2D6

Time for the long run of the week, the second one of this training cycle. It is the shortest one on the schedule except for the run in two weeks which includes a 5k race.

I met the CA Cruiser for our old faithful run along the river path in Yorba Linda. I had invited my friend Terry from work to join us. Part of the group this morning included Kevin. Kevin is husband to a woman who runs with us frequently. Kevin is a much less frequent member of the group, being self employed Saturday is often is day off from running. Kevin and Terry have never joined us on the same day. It turns out that Kevin is Terry's accountant. Small world.

The three of us ran together at a fairly relaxed pace, taking walk breaks every 7 minutes. The kettle corn from last night did not materialize into the disaster I dreaded, but I did take advantage of the restrooms that were conveniently located about 7 miles into the route. Weather conditions were as expected; coolish, overcast, yet a tad humid. We did catch a very brief and faint glimpse of our shadows on the return trip, but otherwise the gloom continues on unabated. We totaled just over 10 miles in around 1:45.

The rest of the day's activities included some much needed yard work and shopping with the older son for appropriate graduation attire. Being a youth in California he rarely has need for real grown up clothes. The color of the shirt was the big sticking point. Black is the usual fall back color. He wanted to branch out a little but was afraid. Finally he picked a tie that he really liked and we went from there to find the shirt to go with it. He assured me he had a decent pair of dress pants. He was planning on wearing his black canvas Vans with the ensemble. I talked him into some real shoes and we found a pair of pretty hip looking black leather lace ups to bring him a little further into adulthood and fashion forwardness. His mother and girlfriend approved so I guess we did all right.

W2D5

Its Friday and a scheduled rest day, at least from running. I got up early and headed to the gym and road the bike for a while and then did some ab work before meeting with my trainer for a leg workout.

When I got home from work today I grabbed a bag of kettle corn the kids had brought home the day before from a trip to zoo. I sat and watched TV and munched kettle corn for over half an hour. I could stop myself even though I know that popcorn is not going to bode well for my intestinal health during tomorrow's long run.

Tyler cooked dinner for us. We had steak, sauteed carrots and risotto. I ate my helping of risotto and ended up cleaning up another portion left in the pan. I'm calling that carbo loading.

The June Gloom continues on with another sunless day. My gut may not hold up well tomorrow morning but I'm sure the weather will be runner perfect.

W2D4

Under the category of "Really!! Are you kidding me??!"

When I returned to work after my trip to Ohio all of the paper towel dispensers, the ones in cafeteria, in the lab and in the bathrooms, were adorned with the following laser printed sticker:

"The paper in this dispenser is recycled and EPA compliant"

Again I say, are you kidding me? How are we supposed to react to this. My morale meter certainly took a huge leap in the right direction based on this announcement. Yeah, right! This year many things have happened at work; A) our department was downsized by 25%, B) there are no merit increases for 2009, C) we are being forced to deplete our vacation balances and D) the CEO's base salary is $1.7 Million and with bonus, stocks and options can reach nearly $13 Million, for the year. For crying out loud what does he actually do to earn that amount of cash? But hey, our paper towels are EPA compliant! Good grief!!

(I know some would say I should be happy to be employed and I admit I'm not as happy about it as I should be. But being employed or not doesn't change the truth of A, B, C and D above.)

On the physical fitness front, I had a great work out with my trainer. I've being seeing some rewards in upper body strength lately. I followed that with a planned 6 mile run with hills. I had mapped out a route last night but altered it on the fly and ended up running 5.6 miles with 3 pretty good hills in the mix.

We had another pretty gloomy day, but the sun did shine for about an hour in the late afternoon. Even without the sun the temperatures were in the mid 70's, but still pretty enjoyable for running.

W2D3

This time of the year most of the mornings are grey and overcast. The phenomenon is caused by the clouds coming inland off the ocean; known by the meteorologists as marine layer or on-shore flow. The mornings are cloudy, but the sun usually takes over before noon. We call it May Grey and June Gloom. Today was the mother of all June Gloom days. I don't think the sun ever peeked through. We ate our lunch on the patio at work in the gloom and I drove home and then ran in the gloom as well. I really don't mind it. It makes for good running weather. Although for the most part I am a sun worshipper.

For my 4 miler I was back in Bonelli, heading out on the trail that goes north along the west side of the park and then back on the road from the dam. After the run I went to In-n-Out Burger to pick up dinner for the family and to celebrate my return to SoCal. If you've ever had a burger and fries from In-n-Out you'd agree that it was a good choice.

W2D2

Memories are funny things.

I have a sister that is 13 months younger than me. She recounted a story of a January when she and I were 18 and 19. She had just left the house and slipped and fell on ice on the sidewalk and broke her ankle. She crawled back up onto the porch and knocked on the door. I let her in and apparently questioned her on how she knew her ankle was broken. I called our Mom at work to come home to take her to the hospital. My sister remembers the whole ordeal in vivid detail, of course. She went back to college with her foot in a cast and on crutches. I have absolutely no memory of her with a broken ankle.

We both remember a story when she was 8 and had fallen off a bike riding down a hill and I ran back to the car and took care of her knee with a bandanna and left over water from my lunch box thermos. Wonder why I remember that incident and not the other?

For my last day in Ohio I headed back over to the Wellington Reservation and ran every inch of the trails there to get in my 4 mile run. It seems to be a pretty popular little destination. There were quite a few other folks out there walking the loops.

Tomorrow its back to work and back to my old faithful routes.

W2D1

Still in OH. My niece's graduation was yesterday. It sure takes a long time to read off 371 names. One cool thing during the ceremonies they had groups of students - athletes, honor students, etc - stand to be recognized. The group that got the most resounding and longest lasting applause where those that had enlisted in the military. Pretty cool, I thought.

Today is a scheduled rest day. I had hoped to take a long walk this afternoon. We've had rain showers this morning. I would have run in the rain, but see no real reason to walk in it. The weather seems to have cleared up for the moment so I may head out while the getting is good.

Tonight is the graduation party. Tomorrow afternoon I get on a plane and head back home to my real life. Hmmmmm..........

W1D7

Spent the rest of yesterday afternoon sitting on my parent back patio, reading a (running) magazine, watching the birds, took a little nap, then came in to catch up on some long overdue blog reading. Ah, vacation.

Up by 7:00 this morning. I only wanted to run about 3 miles this morning. The plan had 5 miles but I am trying not to increase my weekly mileage too much too soon so I had decided to scale back slightly. My plan was to go out and run around the above ground reservoir just outside of town. My Dad told me about a new park just across the road. The Wellington Reservation is also part of the Lorain County Metro Parks. There were about 4 miles of trails, some asphalt, some crushed gravel. I ended up running 3.8 miles. I will definitely add this run to list for future visits back home.

Week One of marathon training is in the books. The plan as written called for 30 miles in 5 days. I had hoped to keep that to no more than 28 miles. With the extra I ran on Thursday in Findley State Park, a little extra on the bike trail on Saturday and more than planned this morning at the Metro Park I actually ended up exceeding the plan by 0.3 for a total of 30.3 miles. The best part is so far the leg pains and aches are in check.

Off to week 2. Thirteen weeks to race day.

W1D6

Woke up at 6:00 to go pee. Decided that was too early to get started on the run so I laid back down. Didn't wake up again until 9:00. I haven't slept that long in quite a while. My Dad asked if I was going to run. My comment was that I should be almost done by now and I hadn't even started yet. I had some oatmeal and a cup of coffee before heading out on my run.

I headed on over to the North Coast Inland Trail. I love that the trail is known as "the skinniest park in Lorain County." I jumped onto the trail in Kipton at the 2 mile mark and headed northeast. The first mile was 9:40, the second and third with just over 9:00. I needed to slow down, but once I'm in a rhythm I am pretty powerless to change it. The mile markers disappeared after that. I'd run for about 57 minutes when I came to an intersection that had a trail sign. I tried to mentally add up all the trail segments (from Rte 511 to Oberlin Road) and figured I run at least 6 miles.

I turned around at that point and headed back. I had a nice breeze on the way back that kept the heat level in check. It was too late to be running and the sun was shining brightly. Once I hit the mile markers I found that my pace had slowed due to fatigue with the last three being: 10:02, 10:13 and 10:48. This is really the pace I should have been all along.

Back home I g-mapped the route and determined I ran 12.5 miles in 1:57; 9:26 pace overall.

W1D5

Findlay State Park is just a couple of miles from my parents home in Ohio. When I was a kid our family camped there frequently. It was nice that we could pick up at a moments notice and be there. No reservations necessary. As kids, my oldest two sisters and I would wander all over the trails of the park. It seemed like we were gone forever exploring. Our parents usually had little idea of our exact whereabouts. We always made it back when we were supposed to. Times have changed.

Today I headed out to Findlay for a run on the Thorn Mountain Bike Trail. This trail didn't exist when I was a kid, but it is a fun little place to run. I ran here a couple of years ago when I was in town for a visit, my brother's wedding I think. The trail twists and turns like a snake on an acid trip. It was a little muddy, but that made it all the more fun.

The entire trail is just over 8 miles. I planned to run 6. I ran for 1:20 then walked the remaining distance back to the car. I got a little twisted around early on and ended up where I started about 20 minutes into the run. I finally figured out where I was and got on track. I figured I probably ran about 7 miles in reality.

Tonight I'm meeting with my brother and sisters to try to finalize the plans for our parents 50th wedding anniversary party in September. Another trip to Ohio so I hope another spin around the bike trail at Findlay State Park.

W1D4

Up at 4:00 a.m. to get to the airport. Arrived in OH at 5:00 p.m. Flew on Continental Airlines and actually got food on the flight. Cereal, milk and raisins from CA to TX; tuna sandwich, carrots, and a KitKat from TX to OH. I was shocked, I haven't gotten any kind of food on a flight in a long time.

Scrambled the schedule around a little and will run today's planned 6 miler on Friday.

W1D3

Yesterday's weather was beautiful, today's was So Cal June Gloom at his fullest. We even had rain, an actual bonafide thunder shower. I sit outside on a patio at work most days with several coworkers for lunch. One of the lightning flashes hit so close and exploded into thunder almost immediately that we all jumped.

The rain continued on into the afternoon. It was pretty light and wouldn't affect my planned run later in the evening. The problem was the thunder and lightning continued on until well into the afternoon. When a coworker left work they cautioned me about running outside. They'd just heard a report of a women getting struck by lighting at an outlet mall about 60 miles east of us.

The weather subsided sufficiently that I got my planned 4 miler in after work, outside. I texted my coworker "4 miles and no lightning strike." 24 hours after yesterday's leg work out I could really feel the effects on this run.

More foam rolling is in order. Now I've got to pack up my suitcase for the third time in 5 weeks for a long weekend trip back to OH for my oldest niece's high school graduation.

Today was National Running Day. I hope you were able to get your run on today.

W1D2

After the rest day yesterday, the real work began today.

Right after work I met with my trainer and did a 30 minute leg workout. That guy loves to do leg workouts. Me, I tolerate them. Today made me realize how tight my quads and hips are. I need to get back to the stretching and rolling. I've gotten lazy about them since I've been feeling better. Marathon training will be better served by finding the time to include them.

I followed up the leg work out by an doing an easy 3 miler. I ran in Bonelli- down Raging Waters Drive, across the dam and back again. I keeping the pace easy. I broke the run into quarters and took a one minute walk break every 3/4 of a mile or so.

I'm off to roll the quads and hips.

W1D1

I think I can do this. Marathon training has gone well so far. Today, W1D1 (week one, day one), went well. Today, like every Monday in the plan, was a Rest Day. I think I can do this.

Ryan Reynolds had an interesting quote in the March Men's Health magazine after having run the NYC marathon about goals versus expectations. He tries to avoid expectations saying, "When you have expectations, you are setting yourself for disappointment. I didn't expect to finish the marathon; I trained to finish it."

And so will I.

Time to Get Serious

The month of May has been a blur. I have managed to run consistently, 4 days a week. My weekly mileage is still on the low side at, 27, 27.4, 17.4, and 25 over the last 4 weeks. I even snuck in one of my favorite races, the Malibu Creek Trail Challenge. It is 14 miles in the Santa Monica Mountains. This was my third and slowest attempt at this race but it was good to be running. I haven't seen the physical therapist since April 24th. I've been running without any really significant pain and have eliminated walk breaks for the most part.

This month I put in some miles in Boston, some miles in Baltimore, and some miles in Carpinteria, CA with a few more thrown in at home and at various SoCal running destinations with the CA Cruisers. Mother's Day weekend we ran at a new destination; Powder Canyon; in La Habra Heights. The run has some nice rolling hills through both wooded terrain and open meadows with a mix of fire road and single track. I really hope we keep this in the regular rotation. This weekend we did another one of my faves - the Crystal Cove Beach run from Corona Del Mar south to the "wall". The tide was super low so it was great to run on the hard pack sand at the water's edge.

The really exciting news is.......State Number 14 is now on the schedule. Joe and I swapped a couple of emails a week or so ago and we are planning on meeting on Labor Day weekend to run the Heart of America Marathon in Columbia, Missouri. The registration forms calls it one of the oldest and toughest marathons. We'll be running the 50th anniversary edition. I'm always a sucker for a gimmick. Take a look at the reviews on marathonguide.com. Feel free to join us. It should be fun and you can't beat the $25 registration fee. I've paid more than that for some 5K's.

I've got 14 weeks to race day. I usually train using Hal Higdon's programs I found on-line back in 2004. This time around I'm going to give Bart Yasso's training schedules a try. I found them in his book "My Life on the Run" that I picked up while in Big Sur last year. I like the long run progressions. The mid week runs seem to get a little long, with a fair share of 8 to 10 milers sprinkled in. Those may be tough to fit into a weekday but we'll see how it goes. None the less I am excited to be continuing the 50 state journey, healthy at this point, with high hopes of staying that way for awhile.

Running Concierge

I just spent the end of last week, through the weekend, and into this week in Boston. Our annual industry trade show was there. When I found out last year that the show would be there, I hoped I would be able to attend. Thanks to being part of two teams that launched new products at the show I was given the green light. While my main focus was the show you know that running was a close second on my mind.

How could I go to Boston and not run? Boston is a running town. Or at least I imagine it so. We were staying at the hotel adjacent to the convention center. I had scoured the net for some suggested routes in the area and the hotel had a feature sponsored by Runner's World magazine. They had mapped out a 3 mile and 5 mile route from the hotel. Pretty cool.

Even cooler, when I arrived at the hotel and checked in there was a message on the room phone. I checked to see if some of my workers were checking in. The message was from Paul the Running Concierge at the Westin inviting the guests to join him the following morning, Friday, for a 3 mile jog around the area. How cool is that. I had already planned to run and now I had at least one partner.

I showed up at the fitness center at 6:25 the following morning and met the Running Concierge and 6 other folks. Two of the other runners were from my company. I had no idea they were runners. Cool again.

The run was a fun little jaunt around the south end of Boston, a recent redevelopment area. Our route took us just short of the North End and Hanover Street, home of some great Italian food.

The other two employees and I met up again on Saturday morning. We ran a 5 mile loop suggested by the RC, Paul. I took Sunday off and then met Paul for another 3 miler on Monday.

Tuesday Paul had invited anyone who was interested in joining in on a 5 miler. He was helping a fellow Westin employee train for a half marathon. I decided to venture out on my own instead and plotted a route to get me over the the Boston Marathon Finish Line. I couldn't travel to Boston and not see a running landmark as famous as the Boston Marathon Finish Line. It was, what else, pretty cool to see. It is 3 foot wide yellow band painted across the street. The route turned out to be about 5 miles.

On my flight home I was catching up on back issues of Runner's World and I came across a little blurb about Westin Hotels and their Running Concierges. They are piloting the program in several major cities. Westin Hotels are out of my personal price range but it a really great perk that lends a lot of credence to the popularity of running.

Dispelling Concern

Busyness and prioritization are the name of the game. I owe my readers a race report on the Wine Country Half Marathon. The week since the race has been a busy one - work, team project due in my accounting class, accounting class and homework, the first real yard work of the spring, a couple of appointments with trainers, one with a physical therapist and let's not forget keeping up with Dancing with the Stars and American Idol (Survivor is still sitting in the DVR cue unwatched). It has been a lot to keep up with.

Suffice it to say it was a great weekend. Paso Robles is beautiful this time of year. The race went pretty well all things considered. My official time was 2:01:49. I'm pretty happy with that. The details will have to come later. We did enjoy a really nice visit post race with Dori and her husband at Justin Winery and Vineyard.

My primary goal today is to dispel the concerns over my other injury and the MRI. I've reread my post and I can't quite figure out how MRI equated to head injury. Thanks to Billy's vivid imagination, I guess. (No worries, you're still a great guy in my book, lol)

The injury and possible MRI/neurologist had nothing at all to do with my head. The injury was a little further south; in a place that many people probably believe my brains to actually be. A couple of weeks ago I fell pretty badly on my derriere doing plyometric box jumps. I landed pretty hard. I was able to run but, two weeks post fall I still had trouble doing any kind of ab work like crunches or sit ups; I couldn't pivot on my arse. Plus the minor sciatica in my left hip flared up pretty badly. The orthopedist doesn't deal with sciatica. He says it is a nerve disorder, thus the possible trip to the neurologist and MRI. We decided to wait a month or so to see how it goes before taking that drastic of a step. Thankfully everything seems to have healed up and calmed down nicely. I put in a nice ab workout last Thursday without any pain in the butt, literally.

Thanks for the worry, but now get back to the important stuff like will Cheryl be a three time champ on DWTS since she is paired with "the naked neighbor" on Sex and the City AND will someone please tell Adam to stop screeching on American Idol. I really liked him in the beginning, but now he's just grating on my nerves (and you all know how touchy my nerves are these days.... don't even mention Regulatory!!).

Have a great week!

Breaking News

I wanted to post a quick update on my doctor's appointment on Wednesday. The ITBS has pretty much been resolved and the extra work on the hip seems to have kept that at bay as well. I do have to be diligent about the stretches and using the foam roller or it crops back up pretty quickly. The pain level has decreased 98% from mid December when I couldn't run at all.

In the "there's always something" department - I sustained an injury at the gym that the orthopedic doc will need to refer me to a neurologist and possible MRI, but for now we are going to see if some time will heal. More about that another time.

I don't have much time to post, because in any minute Terry, my coworker and running buddy, and her husband are picking up Lisa and me and we are heading up to Paso Robles. Paso Robles is one of several wine producing regions in California. The four of us will be doing some wine tasting and Terry and I will be running the Paso Robles Wine Country Half. It should be a fun time. My time will be slow but I'm looking forward to getting back into the racing mode.

I hope you all have a great weekend.

It Is Well

It was during my long run, 8 miles that the following moment occurred. A good number of the CA Cruisers were running the inaugural Pasadena Marathon Redux the following day (don’t think for a minute that I didn’t want to join them, at least for the half marathon, but I digress) so I was pretty much on my own. I had gone solo over to the San Gabriel River bike path. I was about a mile and a half into my run when this song came up on my ipod. I was alone at that point at one of my favorite spots along the trail. The song, stripped down to the vocalist and the piano, combined with the rhythm of my footfalls was a moment of peace from the frustrations that life had been throwing my way lately. Nothing else mattered; just being in the moment and at peace for a few minutes was a gift.



That song was followed up with one of my favorite artists in a completely different genre. The video is totally goofy but I can’t help but smile through the whole thing.



Some time later I ran through group of Army recruits around mile 5 and again at 7. I ran a little more erect and a little lighter on my feet as I passed them. It was definitely cool to share the path with those kids committed to serving our country.

The run was completed without any major, or really any minor, pains in my right leg. I had seen the PT the day before and we made plans to cut back to once a week for about a month and then once again I’d been on my own. I have an appointment on Wednesday with the orthopedist. I will post an update on that midweek.

Sunday morning while the Cruisers were running around Pasadena I ran around my neighborhood for 4.5 miles. The weather was heavy mist at the start, although I had awaken to rain. By the time I finished the sun was doing its best to peek through the cloud cover.

I ended the week at 21.5 miles, my 2009 maximum so far.

I start my week off next week, with a visit to the dentist for a crown prep I’ve been putting off for a couple of years. That should be fun.

A Much Needed Dose of Relief

Saturday morning, I gathered along with a small group of CA Cruisers in front of the Snail's Pace Running Store in Brea. Our planned route was the 2 Parks-2 Loops with the possible addition of the Summit House Loop.

I had no idea whether I'd be running or not, but I decided to give it a shot. Based on the bad results of Thursday run, I didn't have much hope. But based on the work that Jeff, the PT, did on Friday I was more hopeful.

Our group was small and even fewer of the group was interested in doing the Summit House Loop. The loop includes some hills that some wanted to avoid. The one's that did want to give it a go were unsure of the directions. I fell into the leadership role.

I started off running and everything fell into place. I was running with some of the slower members of our group which necessitated frequent stops at key intersections so that I didn't lose anybody. I think the slower pace worked in my favor. No matter the pace I was able to run without the nagging hip pain that had sent me over the edge on Thursday.

After the Summit Loop was accomplished, without losing anybody, I headed off an abbreviated 2 Parks - 1 Loop route. At this point I was running with Adolfo. The rest of the group cut their run short so it was just he and I doing the 2 Parks. Adolfo, a 5-plus hour marathoner, was urging me to go on ahead of him. I stayed with him enjoying the easy pace and pain free run. After a couple more urgings I headed off ahead of him around the 6.5 mile mark. I ended up running the rest of the route without a walk break, feeling pretty darn good.

The entire route - Summit House Loop and 2 Parks-1 Loop was 9.3 relatively pain free miles. Whatever the PT did, and boy did he work me over, on Friday seemed to work.

Sunday morning, after a session with my personal trainer, I headed over to Bonelli for a second go at the 2x Picnic Loop route. I got it done without hip pain.

Things seemed to have turned around. So far, so good. I ended the week with only my second week over 20 miles in 2009 at 20.5 miles.

On other fronts, the offending Regulatory Affairs person actually scheduled a short meeting on Friday to work out one of the issues from Thursday. The teenager helped a friend repair the friend's car so they could take that on the weekend trip they'd planned. Let's see what the next week has in store for me.

FAI

I've mentioned the accounting class I'm taking. The text has special highlighted sections called FAI - Financial Analysis and Interpretation. Friday night we were learning about inventories. The prof thought this stuff was difficult. I actually found it to be pretty easy. Calculating Inventory Turnover and Number of Days in Inventory was pretty simple. I think since she thinks like an accountant it was difficult because it is pretty much just easy math, not accounting math.

I related about what a bad day Thursday was. I had contemplated cancelling my physical therapy appointment on Friday afternoon over the frustration with the hip. The doc and PT both were focused on the ITBS, not the hip. The ITBS was pretty severe and since that tendon runs from the hip to the knee is seemed reasonable to believe that improving the ITBS would improve the hip. The ITBS was not my primary concern. I know how to deal with it. The hip issue was my motivation for seeking medical treatment. The hip pain was what was keeping me from running earlier in the year. Time off had helped. When it flared back up the other day, I was obviously frustrated.

I did keep the appointment and made sure to explain my symptoms to the PT. He listened and even called over one of the other PT's. Based on the symptoms they both suspect FAI - femoral acetabular impingement. He worked on my hip a lot at that appointment. He wants to continue to address the hip at PT and to discuss it with my orthopedic doc as well. I have a follow up appointment with the orthopedist in a week and a half.

The ITBS is 95% better, so now hopefully we can figure out the hip thing, FAI or not, and the appropriate path to take.

I'm a Liar

I ended my last post with this statement: "The other definition is from my work with orthodontic adhesives and that's the last thing on my mind when I'm out running."

Liar, liar, pants on fire!

Thursday after work my intentions were to head over to Bonelli once again to enjoy the BHT.

I made it to Bonelli but its certainly wasn't enjoyable. At work I sat in a meeting with some regulatory affairs people. One of which doesn't understand the workings of the database that was causing issues and another that was just far too chipper. If you have time to flow chart with color coding something that isn't even your responsibility; you have way too much time on your hand. I'm sick and tired of dealing with their over zealousness.

Once I got home I got to deal with the youngest son's explanation of why he needed to use the truck this weekend. He's lost all privileges to it - no school, no job, no insurance payments - no truck.

Once I made it to Bonelli and started running the run stunk from the get go. To top it all off, my hip started hurting again like it had hurt right after Memphis. I knew it was going to be a pain from the very first step. I suffered through one lap of the picnic loop and called it quits. During the run my mind was racing a mile a minute cursing the regulatory affairs a$$f**ks up and down. That alternated with more curse filled thoughts on teenagers and their friends. And add a few more select curse words for injuries.

It wasn't my best day to say the least and it certainly wasn't Bonelli Happy Time!

So I guess I do occasionally think about work while I'm running (and stupid teenagers and injuries).

Just call me Mr. Negativity.

(as expected all things - attitude, work, teenager, PT and running - all improved eventually. So hang in there. I just had to get this off my chest.)

DST is BHT

BHT - butylated hydroxytoluene, a preservative in many foods and in adhesives

On my first week night run since Daylight Savings Time I headed straight on over to Bonelli after work. I was there and running by 6:05 p.m. The sun was still well above the horizon. My mental plan was for 4 miles. I headed out down Raging Waters Drive and then onto my Cottontail Trail. There's no 2 mile landmark so I went right on to the end at 2.5 miles and then turned around and ran back. I'm still sticking to the 5:1 cycle for now.

5 miles total in Bonelli after work. The first one of the season, yahoo! It was a slow one at over 52 minutes. My right knee was squawking a little, but to run in the light after work I was sure a happy camper.

BHT is really Bonelli Happy Time!

The other definition is from my work with orthodontic adhesives and that's the last thing on my mind when I'm out running.

Foreign Accounting

It has been a busy week all the way around. Three nights worth of American Idol, whew. Now let's get the competition going here.

The weather has been pretty schizophrenic this week. We've gone back and forth almost daily from cloudy rainy weather to warm sunny weather. Definitely not our typical weather pattern.

Two sessions of physical therapy. All is going well. The IT band is sore to the touch afterward after having been manipulated, but I can run.

Although I ran 4 times this week, it was a pretty low mileage week. I made 3 trips to the equestrian path in Via Verde - Tues, Thurs and Sunday. Thursday I cut 45 seconds off my Tuesday time and then Sunday I added 30 seconds of it back again.

My long run for the week was just me and my music. The CA Cruisers were heading to one of my favorite places, Chino Hills State Park. Any other day, I'd have been right there with them, but following the PT's advice I'm avoiding hills for now. My friend Terry was planning 16, so I headed over to the San Gabriel River Trail near home for 8 miles on my own.

The PT had given me clearance for 8 to "put the leg to the test." He doesn't know about the 12 last week. I think that was pretty much all the test the leg had in it right now. The 8 miler was way tougher than it should have been. The IT was fine. There is just a general feeling of weakness.

The weekly/weakly mileage was 17, about what I'd planned. I hope to step that back up closer to 20 next week.

I also added in two personal training sessions this week and two 5 mile walks in Bonelli over the weekend. Not such a bad week in the physical fitness department.

On another topic - I've been taking business classes at a local community college for the past year and a half. I have a science degree and wanted to broaden my horizons a little. So far, so good, until this semester. I'm currently taking Financial Accounting and may I say it is a foreign language. All those debits and credits (which don't mean the same thing all the time), deferred and accrued, asset and liability, adjustments, journal entries, expenses, dividends, and revenues. It's just not sticking in this science majors head. Luckily I have a great tutor (my wife is an accountant), but I feel like I'm fighting a losing battle.

Running, even running injured, is much easier than this stuff.

New Shoe Good

I've been reduced to weekly recaps. I wish I had more (or shorter) posts, but this is the way it is.

I had Physical Therapy on Monday and Friday. The ITBS felt really good after not having Jeff, the PT, beating me up since Wednesday last week. I've actually gotten worse at doing a couple of the single leg balance exercised they have me doing. When I left Friday I was initially approved to run 30 minutes this weekend. Say what?? I negotiated for an hour, but ultimately ran the 12 I had planned. That probably turned out to be more like 2 hours. Oops!

Tuesday I ran 3.5 miles from home. I wore the new Brooks Adrenaline GTS 9. It was a good run. It felt a little like the old days. My pace was 9:25, about the same as last Saturday's run, but this run felt "new shoe good."

Wednesday I took the day off and realized later in the evening, after dinner and settling in, that I wouldn't be able to run on Thursday or Friday due to prior commitments. I should have run but I didn't.

Saturday, I met the Cruisers and my friend Terry for a 12 mile run in Huntington Beach. Terry and I ran together using a 5:1 run:walk interval. Around mile 9, my right IT was sending me signals that it had had enough for the day. I stuck it out and made it the whole 12 miles. The IT has since calmed down but the quad/hip flexor is more concerning. I'd mentioned this to the PT on Monday. Friday they gave me some extra exercises to help strengthen that area.

Sunday I had an appointment with yet another PT. This time it was my personal trainer. I decided to run to and from the appointment. The gym is about 2 miles from home. The trainer always has me do some aerobic warm up before starting the strength session. I figured the 2 mile run would be plenty of warm up. What I didn't expect was how difficult the run home would be after the strength training. The run was made somewhat more difficult by the summer-like heat wave we had this weekend. It was 80 degrees by 10:00 a.m. The new shoes weren't much help this time around.

Later in the day after doing some chores at home I headed over to Bonelli for my 5 mile walk. I ended up sharing the trail with somewhere around 200 mountain bikers. I didn't realize it but today was the first race in the US Cup Mountain Bike Series. I made it about 2/3 of the way around my loop before meeting the racers head on. I had to step off the trail for several minutes to let them all pass by. I gathered up 5 dropped water bottles on my way back. The riders were on their way around for loop #2 as I finished up my walk.

I ended February with 71.9 miles, nearly double what I achieved in January. Still pitiful by 2007 standards but heading in the right direction. I ended the week with 19.5 miles, a slight decrease from last week.

My intentions are to scale back the long run next week but to try to get in four runs. I'll probably hit 17 to 20 again next week. If all goes well, I can ramp things up a bit the week after that.

Slow and steady is my mantra this time around, but patience is definitely not my strong suit.

Rememberable

Lisa and I spent the weekend in Temecula, again, and it was rememberable. (more on the use of the word in a bit).

We started off the weekend by meeting Joe and his wife for breakfast. Joe was in San Diego taking a much needed break from the Midwestern winter visiting family. Happily, Temecula is about an hour drive for both of us. We had a great time over eggs and pancakes. Our time together was short but Lisa finally had the opportunity to meet Joe. She and most of my friends thought I was a little crazy three years ago to fly to Indiana to run a trail marathon with a complete and total stranger. I'd have to say it all worked out quite well. We've met twice more and I even stopped off in Indiana for a weekend during a long business trip a couple of years ago. Any fears of this guy from the Internet being a crazy ax murderer have long since been dispelled.

Lisa and I become regulars in Temecula of late. We spent the rest of the day picking up club selections and trying a new winery known for their reds. We met some interesting folks during the day. We met a couple having issues with their young teen that echoed many of the same issues we were having with our youngest. We commiserated. They recommended a winery that we hadn't tried before. We met a lady dentist from a town near home that knew a lot about my company and some of our customers. We took a break during the day for a light lunch around 3:00 and headed to our hotel for a nap.

We went to dinner around 8:00 to Rustico. We had eaten there in December when we'd picked up our last club selections. We'd had a really great meal and enjoyed our server. We ended up with the same server, again. She welcomed us back, which is always nice. We talked for awhile and she recounted what she had remembered about our last visit. Along the way she commented that we were "rememberable." We decided to take that as a compliment. After the meal we chatted with her for about 20 minutes. It was a nice way to end the day.

The next morning we had brunch at a local country club. The food was satisfactory, but for the price, I'd have to say it wasn't worth it. We visited the winery recommended the day before and then headed home.
____________________________________________________________

On the running front I was pleased to tally the mileage today and find that I had broken the 20 mile barrier for the first time in 2009, with 21.3 miles. I wasn't expecting that since I wasn't planning on a long run due to the early morning drive to Temecula on Saturday.

I got a 5 miler on the roads in Bonelli on Wednesday, followed by a 3 miler in Via Verde on Thursday. Friday I warmed up on the treadmill for 10 minutes before beginning my workout with the trainer. I gave myself credit for a mile. Saturday morning I had time for a 5 miler on my Bonnie Cove 5 loop before heading south to meet Joe and his wife. That run was done in a 9:24 pace. The fastest I've gone in a long time.

I got up early on Sunday morning and left my wife to sleep in before brunch. I ran the same loop around Temecula I'd run back in August. When I was done it had only taken me about 36 minutes. I wanted to run a little more so I ran another block and ended up running for 70 minutes. Mapping it out later I determined I'd run 7.3 miles; for that 21.3 total.

Starting with the run on Wednesday I bumped my run:walk cycle up again to 5:1. Working with the PT and regular stretching seems to be keeping the ITBS in check. There is still some of the quad pain that plagued me before and during St. Jude that I will talk to him about at my next visit.

I ordered and received a new pair of Brooks Adrenaline GTS 9 to get into rotation. All my current Adrenlines have 400+ miles and the PT isn't crazy about my Brooks Trance. I'll give them their first spin next week provided it doesn't rain all week.

I hope all your runs were rememberable.

Run for Life

I've mentioned Dr. John frequently on this blog. He and his wife are the de facto leaders of the CA Cruisers. They are instrumental in planning each week's running destination and taking pictures at each and every outing. We all get weekly emails letting us know where to meet each Saturday morning and another with pictures from the run the week before. They encourage us all to run the myriad of races and distances available to us in SoCal. They are also plan our yearly destination race. The CA Cruisers have been to Chicago, Washington DC, Big Sur and are planning to run the Redwoods this year, thanks to the Strands. Any one we happen to meet along the trail or at the race gets invited to join the group. The email list has grown quite large. I mentioned that at the Surf City Marathon we had well over 50 runners associated with the Cruisers to some extent. We even had our own tent in the organized group area.

John is my running hero and inspiration. John completed his 50th state, in his late 60's, during the time that I was training for my first. I thought the accomplishment was so cool I adopted it as my own goal. He has also run marathons on each of the seven continents, as well. His marathon total is currently over 110. His running has been chronicled in the local newspapers.

Now you can all read about Dr. John. His running exploits are part of a new book by Roy Wallack, Run For Life. Roy identifies his book as “the anti-aging, anti-injury, super-fitness plan to keep you running to 100”. It has a lot of interesting chapters, including one on John Strand. The book describes fitness plans and devotes a section on people who have distinguished themselves in athletics. Pages 204 through 209 cover the story of John Strand and his marathons.
This is John and Dorothy with Roy Wallack at the unveiling ceremony. Roy is the author of Run For Life. The book is available on amazon.com

I'm adding it my my amazon wish list. I may not meet the author but I intend on getting Dr. John's autograph somewhere on pages 204-209.

Happy Reading. Happy Running. Both good prescriptions for a long happy life.

Good Patient, Bad Patient

Good Patient:
Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday I did the complete compliment of stretches prescribed by the physical therapist. Based on the advice that I could run if the pain level was a 2 or better (from both the orthopedic doc and the PT), I ran three miles on Wednesday evening. I had my second PT appointment on Friday - more exercises and stretches, heat, ultrasound, massage and ice.

Bad Patient:
I had made the decision on my own to dial the mileage back just a bit for this week. My goal was 14 miles for the week, including an 8 mile long run on Saturday. When I first met the PT I told him I'd run 10 the weekend before. On Friday I told him I'd run 3 mid week. I noted improvement in the ITB and hip pain. I guess all that stretching did some good. When the PT was done massaging/torturing my ITB he told me I could run 3 miles over the weekend. What!! 3 miles?! I met my friend Terry at the Santa Ana River trail and ran the 8 miles I'd planned. I obviously still have an IT band, but I was able to run. The pain level was within the "2 or below" range so I made the decision that it was OK to run. We kept to the 4:1 run:walk. Our pace was around 10:00 minute miles.

Sunday, I walked my traditional 5 mile loop on the trails in Bonelli. The trails were a little muddy so I wore my Cascadias. After the walk I headed back to the car, changed my shoes and shirt, and put in 3 miles of running around the Picnic Loop +. Total weekly mileage was 14.

Good news about the orthotics and shoes. I wore my Brooks Adrenaline 7's with the orthotics to the appointment on Friday. Jeff likes these shoes better than the Trance and he gave my orthotics a "B" grade. He gave me the go ahead to stick with that combination for the time being.

Active Runner

This was written on my prescription to the physical therapist. The owner and PT is Jeff. I get a kick out of the description "active runner". That's me, pretty cool.

I had my first appointment with the PT on Monday. I was there for nearly three hours. Right off the bat he told me that if I'd ever had PT before that this was going to be completely different. I really liked my old PT that I saw last year after the stress fracture. But it didn't take long to figure out that he was right this place was different. That fact that Jeff is a runner made a huge difference. He knew what my shoes were at the first glance and had an obvious opinion about them. He also wants to see my orthotics (I hadn't thought to bring them). I went through a whole new regimen of stretches and strengthening exercises.

Some things are the same as before. I need to work on developing some better flexion in my ankle, I need to strengthen my gluteus behindus and I really, really, really need to stretch out my hip flexors. I got heat. I got ultrasound. I got ice and e-stem. I got it all!

I go back on Friday. Jeff will evaluate my orthotics. They've already checked my insurance and I can get another pair if needed. He will also likely make a shoe recommendation. He wanted to know if I was in love with my Brooks. I've worn Brooks Trance or Adrenaline pretty much exclusively since the beginning. I love my Brooks, but if it means running pain free then I'm open to try whatever he suggests. I just hope it won't be Nike. (I've got a thing against super giants like Nike.)

I'm allowed to run as long as the pain is no more than a 2. He described a pinch as a 2, a headache as a 5. So it looks like I will continue to run as planned for the week. Although no hills and no cement allowed.

I had planned on heading to the gym after the PT for an hour on the bike and some upper body work. Jeff suggested 20 minutes each on the bike, elliptical and stairmaster. So being the good patient that I am I did just that. I've never used the stairmaster before. He said it would help with the glute strengthening I need. If it works so be it.

Tonight I went back to the gym for another round of bike, elliptical and stairmaster followed by shoulder and bicep work. I followed that up with nearly and hour worth of prescribed stretching routine. So far so good.

I'm doing what I can to live up to my prescription description - Active Runner!

The Groundhog was Wrong

Wednesday's mid-day doctor appointment gave me the opportunity to take the day off. I headed over to Bonelli, of course, got some vitamin D exposure. I walked my usual 5 mile loop and then I ran 4.5 miles on the trail that heads north on the opposite side of the park. It is 2.25 miles of mostly down followed by 2.25 miles of mostly up. I was pleased that I did both directions within a minute of each other. The temperatures were in the low 80's and the sun was shining wonderfully bright. I got a little head start on my summer beach tan. I love that.

The next day, a cold winter storm rolled in from Alaska. It rained pretty steadily until Friday and has rained off and on through this afternoon. The weather heads say we'll get more tomorrow. On Tuesday I was pretty happy that the groundhog predicted 6 more weeks of winter. Our winter so far has been exactly like the day I described above. Who wouldn't want more of that. But winter decided to come a couple of days late. So much for the the groundhog.

There was a wonderful break in the rain during the Cruisers planned run on the 2 Parks-2 Loops course in Brea. I upped the ante to 4:1, nothing too drastic. After about the third cycle I fell in step with John, a 73 year old member of our group. He'd just had double hernia surgery 4 weeks ago and was back running. We ended up running the remaining 8 miles together. He walked when I walked. The pace pushed him a little but he was happy to have the company. He's got some great stories from a long life lived well, that's for sure. I ended my run after the second loop while he continued on for a couple more miles.

Today I headed out after one of our scattered showers and was able to get 3 miles of running followed by 3 miles of walking on the Picnic Loop at Bonelli. My legs were feeling a little tired so I decided to give the muddy wet trails a chance to dry out before I wandered them again.

I ended up with 17.5 miles for the week. A nice gradual increase from the 1 mile I got 6 weeks ago in Peters Canyon. The weekly progression has been 1 - 5 - 8 - 12.7 - 14.6 - 17.5. My legs were kind of tired and the ITB was singing pretty good on the 3 miler so I think I may scale things back a tad next week before heading on up towards 20. Right now I'm only running three days a week. Once I can run 20 for a couple of weeks comfortably I will try to add back in the fourth day. Ultimately I'd like to get back to being a 5 day, 40-50 mile a week runner like I was back in 2007. That may take until 2010 for all I know.

That doctors appointment I mentioned earlier went well. My wife has been seeing the same guy for her knee and we both had appointments within an hour of each other. In addition one of my wife's coworker's wife had a knee replacement done by this doc. According to the girls he is "easy on the eyes." Apparently he is one doctor's appointment they don't mind keeping. Anyway, my hip problem is just really bad IT Band Syndrome and bursitis. The doc is a runner so he understands that not running is not a good prescription for someone like me. He prescribed a regimen of Aleve and is sending me to a physical therapist for a couple of appointments. This guy is a runner as well so I am optimistic that I will be getting good care and advice and should come out the other end OK.

Meep, Meep

On each of my last two walks in Bonelli I've seen a road runner. It was doing exactly what you'd expect it to be doing. It was running across the road (fire road in this case). No coyote in chase though; that would have been awesome. I haven't seen a road runner in Bonelli in at least a couple of years.

This week I've stuck to the 3:1 run:walk. It seems to be working out for now. I upped the total weekly mileage to 14.6 in three runs. Saturday I joined the CA Cruisers on our home turf, the Santa Ana River Trail. Many were running short because they were running the Surf City Marathon on Sunday. We had about 60 members and friends signed up for either the full, half or 5K. I used to be one of the faster members of the group. Couple the short mileage for the rest with my current pace and run:walk strategy and I was one of the last ones out there. My pace over the 8 miles was 10:32. The days of 8:30's are a distant memory for now.

Besides the running, there was 105 minutes of bike riding and 10 miles of walking.

The end of the month calls for mileage totals. January 2009 was a whopping 37.7 miles. It has been a slow and steady climb on the weekly mileage since the beginning of the month after nearly 5 weeks off after St. Jude.

I'm going to rely on my inner Wile E Coyote and keeping chasing that Road Runner towards the next marathon.

For now I'm off to partake in the national day of denial and escapism from the real world and watch the Super Bowl. I have no real interest in either team but its my civic duty. Come to think of it I'm supporting the Cards; dislike of the Steelers runs deep in this ex-Ohioan.

16 Days

Thanks to all who weighed in on the accounting issue. I've decided to pretty much continue what I've always done. If I'm on a training "run" it will count towards my mileage totals, no matter the run:walk ratio. If I'm simply walking or biking as an alternative to help maintain fitness, it gets written down for posterity, but not counted toward the lifetime mileage. Right now I'm writing down more activity than I'm adding to the total but that will change again someday.

Where do 16 days go? There's no way to capture the all the minutia of the last two weeks so I will try to hit the highlights.

Weather wise we've gone from temps in the 80's to chilly 40's, from sun to rain and back to sun.

I've been running very little, but running non-the-less. Even though my running isn't where I'd like it to be, I am active. I ride the bike and use the elliptical at the gym and I'm really enjoying lifting weights and working on improving my core strength. I haven't done a leg work out since a couple of weeks before St Jude, first in anticipation of the marathon and since due to the injury. Two weeks ago my trainer still wouldn't let me do a leg workout. In his words "It will only take one thing to go wrong and we won't work legs for a whole year." He was probably right. The following week he relented and I finally worked the legs with no apparent ill effects. My only rule was no jumping - white men don't jump! It was a pretty benign leg workout but my quads sure let me know they weren't used to moving that way.

The first week since my last post I covered 8 miles in two runs. I stuck to a 2:1 run:walk ratio. The hip and IT still let their presence be known. I also biked for about 2 hours and got one good 5 mile walk in Bonelli.

The second week, last week, I upped the running ante up a little to 12.7 miles in three runs. For the second two I upped the ratio to 3:1. That week also included the leg workout. By the end of the week the hip felt fine and the IT still creaked now and then. Besides lifting, I rode for about 90 minutes and walked 12 miles.

One of those runs last weekend was on Saturday morning. It was a misty morning. I had told myself I would stay on the roads to take it easy on the leg, i.e. no hills. But on the way back I couldn't help myself and ran about 2.5 miles on the muddy trails. While I was running a tune was playing in my head that included "misty morning" and "I come following you." I looked up lyrics and can only come up with Mr. Tambourine Man, but that's "jingle jangle morning..." The tune sounds right in my head but I don't know where misty morning fits in or if I'm confusing two different songs.

This weekend, Super Bowl Sunday, the first of my 2009 goal races will go un-run. I had hoped to run the Surf City Half Marathon. Admittedly, I was running it for the super cool medal and the chance to complete the California Dreaming Series. Alas, I run Huntington Beach all the time and as the the Cub's fans always say, "There's always next year!"

The appointment with the orthopedist, I scheduled back in December when my hip and ITB would not let me run and even walking was painful, is finally scheduled for next week. At this point I'm not sure I should keep it. The hip pain that I feared was serious is 98% gone and I know how to deal with the ITB. Part of me wants to save the deductible expense, but it took almost 6 weeks to get an appointment, part of me feels like I should keep it. Probably by the time I post again, you'll know what I decided to do.

Let's not wait 16 days to get together again, OK?

Running Accounting

Last week, while on vacation, I walked 39 miles. Of those 39 miles I ran about 1 of them in Peters Canyon. My running log shows a whopping 1 mile for the week 12/29 to 1/4. That got me thinking. What can I actually take credit for? What will I actually give myself credit for?

I'm a runner. I keep a running log. I keep track of the miles I run - or do I?

I ran/walked my first seven marathons. I've done plenty of long runs using the run a mile, walk a minute strategy. Most recently I ran Memphis with Joe using a 3:1 schedule. I did the rough math and figure I "ran" about 22.5 miles and "walked" the other 3.7 miles. My running log clearly shows 26.2 miles. I allowed myself credit for each of those miles.

In 2008, I was injured, and I wouldn't have even gotten to Memphis if I had insisted on running every step of the miles I had in my plan. I currently find my self injured again, so walking it is. I have absolutely nothing against the run/walk technique. It has served me and many others very well.

But last week my walk segment far outweighed my run segment. I don't feel right taking credit for those 38 walked miles, but I proudly wrote down the 1 mile I ran. My questions: Do miles covered when I only walked count? Why is it all right to count miles that are covered with a combination of run/walk? Should the Peters Canyon Run really count as 6 miles since I technically ran at least part of the planned route?

Silly questions maybe, but can you relate?

Since going back to work for a full week, my "movement" routine has been up in the air. I did use the elliptical on Monday for 15 minutes before my workout and made it back to the gym on Wednesday for 45 minutes on the bike. Friday, my wife lured me away from the gym with an invite to an Italian place we hadn't tried yet. (Our time together was fun, the food was mediocre).

Saturday I volunteered at the Boney Mountain 21K. I walked about 5 miles of the course. I ran this course last year.

Today while the Chargers were freezing their pattooties off and losing to the Steelers (I'm originally from N Ohio. There's no way I could ever root for the Steelers, NO WAY!), I was over in Bonelli. It was sunny and in the high 70's. I went around my 5 mile loop and used a 2:1 schedule. There was no problem with my right hip and quad. My right ITB squawked a little but not much. I made it home in time to see the second sad half of the game.

I had no problem recording the 5 miles in my running log when I got home.

2009 racing plans are on hold. I had things in mind but until I can run more consistently and pain free, I am wary of making any plans. If the plans were on paper I would push myself to get there with the risk of injury. Knowing that, I will hold off putting anything on paper or here until the time is right.

St. Peter(s Canyon)

I don't know if there is a patron saint of runners. But after today, I'm convinced that he is St. Peter.

As you know I haven't been running since Memphis. Over the holidays I took up serious walking as a substitute mental/physical boost. I've put in at least 5 miles a day for the last week, consistently. This morning the CA Cruisers were meeting in Orange County for a little trail running in Peter's Canyon. From the Alberton's on Jamboree, around the reservoir, up and over East Ridge View Trail and back Peters Canyon Road is a little over a 6 mile loop. For something different to do besides Bonelli, I decided to join the group and would walk the loop.

Our group today was quite large. We had runners from the Brea Snails Pace store joining us for a change of pace running venue. The group took off and I was surprised how quickly I was left behind. I knew I would be alone, so it wasn't a huge factor. I marched along, up and down the rolling hills of the East Ridge View Trail. There were several runners coming in the opposite direction as well as many people out for their morning walk, so I wasn't exactly alone. Peters Canyon is wedged between to fairly expensive housing developments, so many people take advantage of the park. Civilization is almost always in your peripheral view.

Once I made it too the far end of the park and began to head back on the flat Peters Canyon Road, I was feeling pretty good. I decided to give my leg a little test run. I set my watch for a one minute interval and off I jogged. There was some stiffness and a little weakness, but things held up. I followed that with a one minute walk segment. One minute later, the watch beeped again, and I was off and "running". I kept that up until I reached the end of the park and was back on the sidewalks. I think I ran at least ten 1-minute segments on the forgiving path for about 1 mile of running. I can't tell you how good it felt to even get that little bit of running in. It was a giant step forward.

I was all smiles when I met up with the Cruisers for some carbs, protein and coffee at the coffee shop where we'd parked. Then I was off to the gym back near my home. At the gym I rode the stationary bike for 60 minutes and then did some leg and core exercises. I've gleaned a lot of good tips from books I have, from the web and from fellow bloggers. I want to thank Wes and Nick for their ideas on how to beat the ITB and to strengthen the core.

And thanks to St. Peter for being kind to me today and letting me run, even a little bit, for the first time in 4 weeks.

2008 Ups and Downs

2008 could be called “The Year That Darrell’s Legs Gave Up”. 2008 was my lowest mileage year, 750.2, about half the 3 years preceding it. I had three months with less than 50 miles and two with big fat zeros.

2008 was the year of the stress fracture, the shin splints, and most recently the strained quad coupled with a super duper case of IT band syndrome that has kept me from running, not for lack of trying, since Memphis.

2008 was the year of my first ever DNS when I had to back out of the Catalina Marathon in March due to the stress fracture and then my second DNS at Big Sur in April. I didn’t even bother to sign up for the inaugural Big Bear Marathon in September and the Pasadena Marathon in November. I ultimately had to bow out of my first attempt at a 30K at Twin Peaks, rescheduled from February to December.

2008 was the year that I was only able to move 2% closer to my goal of 50 states by adding Tennessee to the list in December. I have gotten 4 states in previous years.

2008 was the year that all my race times were slower, well beyond anything nearing a PR, almost back to square one race times.

Even with all that, 2008 was a year full of incredible running experiences.

2008 was the year I started off on the trails. I ran the Boney Mountain 21K in January, rescheduled from October the prior year by wildfires. It was a tough 21K, but I love the trails.

2008 was the year that I was able to continue on the trails by finally running the Winter Trail Run Series put on by Baz in the mountains of the Cleveland National Forest. I ran the series with my running buddies Terry and Mike. Jim and Julie from the Cruisers were there as well. Even though this was the beginning of the stress fracture it was a hoot heading to those trails every other week for the four race series.

2008 was the year I ran the sloppy, muddy, rainy, windy, hilly, whole heck of a lot of fun Mission Gorge Trail 15K. Tyler volunteered at the finish line and was soaked through the bone as well. I’m still a little miffed that he didn’t save me a finisher’s medal (wink, wink).

2008 was the year that I cheered for runners at the finish line of Big Sur along with my friend Kitty, also on the DL. We rang some good cow bell out there. The night before the race I had an enjoyable dinner with Donald, Eric & Michelle, and Dori and her husband. Tyler ran the second leg of the marathon as part of 4 Cruisers relay teams. He went on to run leg 3 up Hurrican Point as well. It was a great weekend in a beautiful place.

2008 was the year I made my running comeback at the Surf City 5K on July 4th. The time was not stellar but I was glad to be running again.

2008 was the year I was able to run the last 2 races of the Summer Trail Series in Peter’s Canyon. It seemed only appropriate to balance the Winter Trail Series with the Summer Trail Series. I ran into to Jeff for the first time in a long time and was able to meet his wife and little guy, tc.

2008 was the year I got to spend the weekend with my wife in a cute little hotel in Crestline and I ran the Run Through the Pines Half Marathon. Four loops around Lake Gregory accompanied by half dozen or so of my Cruisers buddies.

2008 was the year I finally gave in and ran the Long Beach Half Marathon. Many locals use this as a precursor to Los Angeles Marathon in March. I paced my friend Terry for the first half and she went on to finish the full.

2008 was the year we made a trek to Temecula for a day of wine tasting that starting off with me setting my 10K PR of 55:45. This race was one week prior to my scheduled marathon. The quad pain that had been bothering me for a while was evident at the start but seemed to dissipate during the run. It seemed to grow worse as the week wore on. I hobbled through 3 miles two days after the race and didn’t run again until Memphis.

2008 was Year 3 of the December Blogger Reunion. I met Joe and David in Tennessee. Joe and I ran a very enjoyable 26.2 miles through Memphis, hitting Beale Street twice plus an extra trip for post race barbeque. I finally crossed the 13th marathon off the list.

In a nut shell my races were:
Boney Mountain - 21K
Winter Trail Run Series – 12K, 15K, 18K, & 21K
Mission Gorge Trail Run – 15K
Surf City 5K
Peters Canyon Summer Trails Series #2 & #3 – 5 Miles
Run Through The Pines – 13.1 Miles
Long Beach Half – 13.1 Miles
Temecula Turkey Trot – 10K
Memphis St. Jude Marathon – 26.2 Miles

Post Memphis I decided to give my self the luxury of a full week off. That stretched to two when it became apparent that running on my right leg was an impossibility. The pain with each impact radiated from my knee to my hip accompanied by a sense that the whole thing would collapse mid stride. On December 19, I tried to do a Christmas Light Fun Run with the Cruisers but I ended up having to walk 90% of the 2 mile loop.

Since then I have put all my efforts into riding the stationary bike at the gym and walking. Since I been on vacation for the last two weeks, I’ve taken at least a 5 mile walk everyday since Christmas with all but one of those being on my Bonelli 5 Mile loop. The hip doesn’t hurt while riding the bike and the pain is tolerable while walking.

2008 was a forgettable year and a memorable year, like most years I guess. Up next - my plans, hopes, wishes and dreams for 2009.