What would you do?

There is a race looming on my calendar that I have been eyeing since I crewed for Sarah Stanley last September. I met a bunch of people who have become fast ‘virtual’ friends, and we are looking forward to our paths crossing again this September 30th.

Yes, I am talking about the Vermont 50. An epic (BAHAHAHA….) race in and around the hills of south central Vermont (although not as dangerous as south central LA back in the early 90’s). The course is predominantly on unimproved roads, single track, horse trails, and some snowmobile trails. There are some miles on dirt roads, and only a handful of paved miles. I think that it is right up my alley, but I don’t really know that for sure. I hope to be able to know better by the evening of the 30th, and I’ll be certain to pass that along to you…maybe.

Here’s the glitch: one of my cousins is getting married on the Saturday of race weekend. Five hours away. In (I think) the afternoon. SO. that means we wouldn’t get home until after midnight, and then I’d have to be up again at 3:30 or so to get to the race site and be all ‘ready’ for the start. Adam and Steve, I think you know what I mean by that…(do either of them even know my blog exists?)

So I don’t know what to do. I haven’t registered for the race, but I really should do that like within the next two weeks. Unless of course we get the official invitation to the wedding and we decide to go. Then I won’t sign up. But if I sign up BEFORE we decide to go, then, well, I’ll be hard-pressed to kiss that entry fee good-bye. Know what I mean???

BAHAHAHA…but that’s a bit of dirty pool, eh? I couldn’t do that and sleep well at night (not that I do anyway). I have decided not to decide anything just yet.

Tracey and I talked about it, and I’m just going to train/run as if I WAS going to enter the race, that way I won’t be too far behind in terms of fitness. If we go to the wedding, well, at least I’ll have had good times running.

Make sense?

Big Little Steps

This coming Saturday is the first race of the year for me. I ran it last year, too, as it is a nice local 5k.
Last year was COLD, I over dressed, and didn't really train for the event. The check in and start area was a bit confusing, but I still managed to have a decent time out there. I got to see some friends who I hadn't seen in a while, and likely made it home in time for lunch.
This year.....it is a noon, we have virtually no snow, and I have learned better how to dress for days like this.
Oh.
And i've been working with a running coach. So, yea. My buddy Adam, from TheBoringRunner (@theboringrunner) and I have been working together for several weeks, and I am very happy with my running!! I feel fast, strong, and ready to take on this 5k. I have no intention of winning the thing like Adam did last weekend, but my goal time is lofty; 23 minutes. In last year's race, that would have put me in 94th place overall. Yep. I finished in 225th last year with a time of 26:48.90. So nearly a 4 minute improvement over only 3.1 miles. I've been working my little legs off on the treadmill, and I'll be ready. I am NOT going to worry about that lung busting hill. I know it is there, i'll do what i need to do to get over it, and i'll still be fairly fresh for that last push to the finish.
That's my plan, anyway.
I'll be sure to let you know how it goes.
That's all i have for now; i wanted to put my little goal out there with the hopes that it will help push me through this last week. Thank you for lending your ear.
Last, but certainly not least, thank you to Tracey and the boys for putting up with my thump thump thumping on the treadmill. Many more miles to come.....
Peace, YO!
Geno  

"Worst Parade EVER!"

That was one of my favourite signs seen during my first ever marathon. Last Sunday, me and 10,000 of my closest friends ran the Philadelphia Marathon. One of those people was Colleen, from The Fit Bee. You can read her report here. As she said, a big special THANK YOU shout out to ARCTIC EASE for helping to make this possible. They are a major sponsor of the event, as well as a big supporter of me and my running craziness. Their product played a BIG roll in my training and recovery from the event.
Imma start right off by saying that it was a great, wonderful, emotional experience. Sounds cliche, for sure, but for those of you who have been there, you'll understand. Sadly, my wife and kids weren't able to make the trip with me, but I am glad to have had some friends in attendance. One really cool thing is that I got to run into some family friends who I haven't seen in over 10 years. Talk about a small world!
The beginning of the race flew by; I was able to stay between 9-945 pace, which is what i had planned. My intent was to go for slightly negative splits over the second half, so if i had any chance of doing that, i had to go a little slower in the beginning. Good thing i did, too....
My main concern going into the event were my feet. One pair of sneakers makes my RIGHT foot hurt after 8 ish miles, while the other makes my LEFT foot hurt after only about 6 miles. I chose the former, and taped my left foot just in case. I was fine until near mile 10 when the right foot started to ache right where i thought it would. So far, though, the left was fine. The crouds were amazing; i did my best to pump them up as our little group passed them by. It was pretty cool to hear them come to life after i was raising my arms up in the air NFL style.
Around mile 15, i noticed that every time my left foot swung forward it felt like there was water sloshing around my foot. Strange. So of course i kept running, and around mile 17 (i think?) i finally stopped and took off my sneaker. My sock was soaked with sweat, and then i realized what the sloshing was; the tape had gotten pretty tight after my foot started to swell, and there was fluid trapped around the end of my foot. I quickly took the tape off, rubbed my foot a bit, put my sock and shoe on, and got back into the race.

Ah. sweet relief. for my left, but not right. the right continued to bother me the entire race, and by the end it was nearly impossible to run on. I knew that the funcitionality hadn't been compromised, so i pushed through the pain as much as i could. The real show-slower for me was the cramps in my left quad, specifically my VMO, indicated in this picture:

What was it doing? well, it was doing its own thing, actually. Sometimes, when i planted my foot, it would ball up, other times it wouldn't. Sometimes when i lifted my leg, it would flatten out completely; disappearing under my skin. Odd. So i stopped a few times to stretch it out, but then my hamstrings started to cramp, so i just interjected more walking into my pace. I watched sadly as the 4:30 pace group passed me and then disappeared out of sight. Strange.....I tried to drink some watered down gatorade, but almost puked it up, so i decided NOT to do that anymore and just gut it out. The last 3 miles were horrifically slow for me, but hey! I was moving forward and not passed out under blankets like a few people I saw off to the side.

As i climbed the last hill to the finish chute, people were cheering for us like banshees! It was great to see that many people still out there cheering, so late into the morning. The finish area was pure organized chaos. I've never seen a finish chute so long. the thing HAD to be 3 blocks long. well, maybe. i dunno. i ducked out early and headed to meet my pals.

The Expo was big, and fun, but not quite as big as I had expected. I met up with some other bloggers, albeit briefly, and that was pretty cool. What an intense group of young ladies I met!

Sadly, I can only remember Amanda (third from left). She has a better recap over on her blog. Their conversation started to turn to getting carded, etc., and I was all, "I've been OVER 21 longer than i was UNDER 21, so, yea. Nice to meet you, have a great race!" and I went back to my middle aged pals and probably talked about bunions, AARP memberships, and early-bird specials at Cracker-Barrel.

My (not middle aged) friend Colleen snapped this photo of me after the race. I am very greatful to have been able to participate in the event. As usual, my wife was UBER supportive, tolerand, and encouraging. ArcticEase was accomodating and helpful, too. Colleen,  Dan (@cubicledad), and others from twitter and IRL were helpful in keeping me going and keeping my head on straight. I greatly appreciate all that they did and continue to do for me. I've set my sights pretty high for 2012, but hey. That's what we do, right?

2011 Philadelphia Marathon 4:40:56

Yasso 800's and Fast Food Review

a coupla days ago (was it Monday???) Jeff from www.jeffg-runningthroughphoenix.blogspot.com tweeted that he was going to do some Yasso 8's. I replied asking what the plan was, he sent it, i told him i'd join him. see? comeraderie! misery loves company! all that stuff....
thing is, HE's in Phoenix, and I am....not. I am in New England, right along the VT/NH border. Some say the NH weather is worse than the VT weather, but..well, there's a joke there, but i'll save that for some other day. At any rate, I couldn't get to the track on Monday (little dude has had a cough, so we went to the Pediatrician's office...) so i planned to go on Tuesday after work.
I got to the track around 3 because i played hookie and set up Christmas Decorations some time in the afternoon. Not a sole in sight. Wind at my back on the front stretch, in my face on the back stretch. Walked one lap as Teri tried to find out where she was. Jogged a lap, then started the sequence of 800 run, 400 jog, repeat x4 800's. I'd never done them before, and here are my lap results. The first one is skewed b/c i forgot to hit the lap button before i started. whoops.

800 #1 3:30, 1:46
800 #2 1:43, 1:52
800 #3 1:45, 1:52
800 #4 1:42, 1:53

HOLY CONSISTENCY OF PANCAKE BATTER *mmmmmm paaaancaaaakes*, BATMAN.....
this effort translated into a PR for 5k!!! (24:05) now, with this knowledge, if i had jogged the middle laps a bit faster...then the PR would have been even sweeter! good to keep in mind for a race....maybe integrate Yasso 800's during a race????

&&&&Fast Food Review&&&&

(more correct title: review of fast food)

recently it was annouced that Wendy's would be offering a NEW FRENCH FRY. yes, folks "Natural-Cut Fries with Sea Salt" with the tag line "Discover Real Fries". The fries are "Naturally-cut from whole russet potatoes" Stop right there. "Naturally-cut"? What the heck does THAT mean? As opposed to "Artificially-cut"? does naturally-cut use bamboo knives or flint arrow heads instead of Ginsu knives? Seriously. Take some grammar classes, Wendy. sheesh.

Ok. the product description page goes on to say that they are "cooked with the skin on, and served up hot and crispy with a sprinkle of sea salt for a taste as real as it gets". sounds reasonable, but the person who made my fries must have been ABSENT from Wendy-School (naturally) when they defined SPRINKLE.

The only difference the Sea Salt made on my fries was that I could SEE IT! Someone must have poked holes in Bubba's Sea Salt Shaker.

Here is what my Real Fries looked like, fresh (naturally) out of the bag:

Here is how Wendy's would like you to think they look fresh out of the bag:

Bah! Oh, right. Flavor review. Meh. Not bad, not great. I prefer sweet potato fries to regular fries, but if Dave Thomas (rip) and crew wanted to sprinkle OLD BAY on these instead of crusty sea salt, well.......

Disclaimer: No potatoes were hurt during the making of this post. Remember, french fries are made (naturally) from already dead potatoes. Also, any reference to persons real or imagined named "Bubba" was not intended to cause harm, defamation of character, or a desire to work in the fast food industry. Naturally.

My Hidden Stash

My morning started out well enough: Bryce had come into bed with us around 4:30, which meant I have been awake since 4:30. This is ok, though, because it is very comforting to have 2 of my favourite people snuggled in so close and safe. The biggins were missing, but they've had their turns already...
So I was outta bed at 5:15, made coffees, and finished watching "Running", starring Michael Douglas.

What a great movie! I had never heard of it and just happened to stumble across it Sunday while scoping out the movie channels (which will be my undoing as colder weather approaches!) I found it sad to watch the movie, seeing Michael in perhaps the best shape of his life, knowing that he is now perhaps in the worst shape of his life. After the movie finished (I only had 10 minutes left!), I surfed around and found a documentary about some Olympic Athletes from the 2004 Athens Summer Games. It was toward the end and they were interviewing a female sprint cyclist, the ones who go round and round on the Roller Derby track. Massive Thighs. Holy Crap. So when THAT was done I bounced around again and landed on Prefontaine (do i really need a link here? nah.), but they were already at the Olympics, so I turned it off. Will have to check and see about recording it some day. OR....(hint hint) someone could get it for me as a b-day or Christmas gift. Just sayin'. Anyway..
So it started out to be a good day. Then something happened while I was at work, somewhere around 9:45, and my day went to Hell in a handbasket. Not from a productivity standpoint, but more from a mental outlook standpoint. I was getting stuff done, but just didn't give a rat's ass crap about it. I snuck out of the office to run an errand, and after that snuck home to see the fam. Mike was home from school, which lifted my spirits, but I didn't get to see him 'cause he was holed up in that cave he calls a room downstairs studying. I miss seeing him around.
So I went back to work. Slogged through the rest of the day, sat in on 2 conference calls, helped a friend with her school project (reviewed, commented via email), created some database forms and reports, and daydreamed (daydreamt?) about being outside. Which was easy to do since I have positioned my monitor so that  I can see out the window. That is, I can see out the window until my gum-chomping-heavy-sighing-moaning-and-groaning office mate decides to CLOSE THE BLINDS. What? Yep. You read that right. But enough complaining about things I cannot change.
In a few minutes I will change my clothes and go run on the dreadmill for a while. Can't decide how long I'll go, so I'll just let my legs determine that. A BIG HEYOOOOH! thank you shout out to Tracey for being so fexible and supportive of my hobby.
One fun thing I did do today was to take a picture of my 'stash'. Does anyone else have a stash like this?

Don't forget to enter my One Sweet Giveaway!! (scroll down)