PLANET3RRY

This is what I want to run for this year (well, considering that I am FINALLY posting it near the end of February):

Legend:
The Races in BOLD are the ones that I have every intention on doing
The Races in GREEN are ones where I have a Time Goal in mind for that race
The Races in YELLOW are Marathons that I would contemplate doing if the logistics worked out
The other Races are ones that I would like to do, but I probably won’t because of time & cost, but I may volunteer at them

Local Knoxville area races can be found at the KTC Website
US Marathons can be found in a number of places, I usually go to Marathon Guide.com

Or in my case: Strollers Broke!

We purchase a double stroller for the kids back in 2007, which I have taken on a number of different runs with me (including the 2007 and 2008 Worldwide Half Marathon) and some family excursions. Here’s a picture of the kids in the stroller on the 3rd Creek Greenway sometime in 2008.

We Like Running with Daddy

Well, on January 16 when I took the kids out on Third Creek Greenway from the Bearden Entrance to Tyson Park (2.5 miles one-way) where they can play on the nice big City of Knoxville playground. On the way back, I noticed that with about 1 mile to go, the stroller wanted to pull to the right. This was odd because The Elder was sitting on the left side and Vector Theory would suggest that it would pull to the left. I thought that it might have been a tire issue, with the right back tire having less pressure (thus creating more friction) and slowing that side down.

When we got back to the parking lot, we went over to look at the map of the Greenway and I showed the kids, where we were and where we went, etc. Then, when I went to leave, the kids seat dropped… how odd.

Getting back to the van, I took a closer look at the stroller and found a couple of places where it had broken:

EGADS! It’s pretty DARN broken there at the weld. I am not sure that even Duct Tape could fix it at this point. Looking at it with an engineer eye, I figured that it could be disassembled and the broken tubes could be replaced. I thought that the manufacturer would be able to supply the pieces for me, either for free or for a low-low cost.

So, I went hunting for the Dreamer Design website…

The first site that I found was for Stroller Ideas, where the had this to say about Dreamer Design Strollers…

“Dreamer Design does just that “Dreams to Design”. With years of Jogging Stroller experience behind their creative team, they have taken all the requests from parents over the years and turned them into an AWESOME stroller line. They back up our product line with a 20 year warranty and include features that no one else offers. The extra foot brake for added safety and the all weather canopy included with the purchase, just to name a few. From their creative research team to our customer service staff, your buying a name that says quality and strollers from the heart.”

and then when I went to the

Dreamer Design website… this is what is there:

Yeah! So now I am screwed! I can’t get any help from the Manufacturer… there are “no” spare parts. I’d basically have to buy a used one and gouge that one for parts, or just buy a new stroller. It totally sucks! The little glimmer of Optimism’s Flame is that now that The Younger can ride his bike, I can him with me on shorter runs. There is also the possibility of using a “not-really-for-running” stroller for The Elder while the The Younger follows behind. But the traffic on 3rd Creek is a little too much for them right now.

Yesterday (Thursday Jan 21 2010), the weather peeps said that there would be Rain and more Rain until the afternoon and then a break and then MORE rain. And sure enough, the morning time was surely rainy and so I concluded that a lunchtime run wouldn’t fit into the schedule. Plus the fact that we had an IEPish meeting at the primary school earlier that morning and I would be taking time off for that, I could at least “Work” through “Lunch” and redeem that hour back. Plus this week at work has been rather unusual with the work requests.

Go Figure… about 11am the sky cleared up a bit, the rain stopped and it was almost pleasant. And it stayed that way until… OH until the evening! I could have managed that Lunchtime run, BUT (wait, here’s the rest of the story) I didn’t have 1) Shorts or 2) Underwear Incognito (i.e. “shorts”) or 3) Towels because I had “thought” about checking off my list of stuff to restock my workout bag (and car) but I never actually got around to “doing anything about it”.

Today (Friday), I had The Younger with me at work, then with everywhere I needed to take him, I didn’t get back to my desk until 1:30pm. But no worries… I just have a 10miler tomorrow.

That’s right! It’s the annual Calhoun’s 10 miler in Lenoir City, TN! I’ve run this one a couple of times and with a Fall Marathon, it’s typically the first long distance of the year for my Spring Training. Which technically, it will be longest distance so far this year (decade) but I have not figured out what I am going to race this Spring.

I doubt that I will be asked back to the Knoxville Marathon as a pacer, given my CRASH AND BURRRNNNNNN (i.e. DNF) from last year, which means that I will Volunteer somewhere out on the course like I have done in the past. So that means we will have to travel somewhere (not far probably) for a race and if we do that… I want to do a race in a State I have ran before (‘Being Sober’ doesn’t count).

So, I’m going to look at the calendar of 2010 races from Marathon Guide (around 411 of them starting the first weekend of April through end of December) and which ones are candidates and go from there.

But I think in the mean time, I will concentrate on the local races, which will help build for a Late March/Early April marathon at the very least. Calhoun’s 10 miler (now), Strawplains Half Marathon (2-13-10) and Whitestone 30k. Also, there are a number of shorter races that I “can” run, but given they cost money… I might run a few and volunteer at some. That way, I can earn volunteer coupons for Race Entries, KTC items!

“planet3rry Getting ready to do a lunchtime run… MAN it has bem a loooong time! http://tinyurl.com/yd7e58e about 2 hours ago from Tweed”

From my twitter on Tuesday (1/19/2010), I was VERY excited about getting back into the Run-At-Lunch thing that I used to do, but hadn’t in MONTHS. I think sometime November, I ran ONCE at lunch time. So, I was excited to get back out on the streets of the UT Campus and Downtown area for my runs. The lunchtime runs are truly the meat of my running life. I’ll post what my mileage was for 2009, and it was some what of a joke. Some of the mental trash that went on in 2009 carried over into 2010… and it was FINALLY 18 Days that I broke the seal on running in 2010 and today’s lunchtime was the second run of the year (hell, decade for that matter).

And in my second tweet on my running, I commented about my dilemma… a lack of running attire in my workout bag for the run, namely: SHORTS.

“planet3rry So what does a runner do when faced with no running shorts in you workout bag and you can’t exactly run in you work pants? about 2 hours ago from Tweed “

Being rather excited to get out and up to the Aquatic Center, I threw my workout stuff into my backpack and headed out the door. I knew that I should have everything, as I had started to (but only got halfway) organizing my workout bag last week. This time I HAD shoes… so I should be good… right? Wrong.

I got to the Aquatic Center and while I was disrobing, I realized that I couldn’t re-robe myself with running shorts because there were none to be found. WHA? I didn’t have shorts… COME ON NOW! I should have shorts… I mean, I have forgotten socks, towels and shirts before, but SHORTS? Sweatpants… I usually carry sweatpants! Except this time. I’m thinking now, “Oh great, now I have to back to my office and mope around because I forgot stooopid shorts.” Who knew if I had shorts at my desk at this point anyway. I thought that I had them in my bag, but nooooo…

Pants… I could run in my pants. Denim Jeans to be exact. Friends don’t let Friends run in Cotton and surely not Denim. I didn’t have a backup for the pants… and I didn’t want the denim to get wet then heavy, not to mention the stench. Bathing suit! Yes! I could wear my Speedos… they aren’t the European Old Man Cut. They actually have like a 1/4″ inseam so, they are about as long as some of the running shorts out there. And while I would run in them (and have), that is warm weather attire since I run in them when I do a Brick Workout (swim then run).

So what else could I do? Run in my skivvies? Well, not to mention my unmentionables, but I wore a pair of technical skivvies since I knew that I would be running today. While I “could” run in these seeing that they would be the equivalent of the “sports bra”, I did not want the chance of them becoming Running Thongs during the run.

I dug into the depths of my workout bag and I discovered a pair of Boxer-Briefs. Hmmmm, Salvation? They had more fabric real estate than my current skivvies or the Speedos. They were dark-gray which would not stand out as some of the other vibrant under garments that I have. They kinda “looked” like spandex except that the stitching on the backside was not disguised not were they very shiny, but the might work.

I ended up wearing them, with my shirt no tucked. This way, the shirt would cover some of my backside, so unless you were really looking, you wouldn’t see the underwear stitching. Plus, I was hoping that if people were to look, they might just think they were short-short running shorts and I’d be gone down the road. I wasn’t trying to draw attention at this point because this was not a clothing-optional organized race and I didn’t want to violate any pub(l)ic decency laws in the city.

So, I went out to run in my underwear. Things went fine. No unusual honking or whistling or yelling that I noticed. I didn’t go quite as far as I wanted… I ended up going 2.8 miles, which was fine. I tested out some GPS apps on my Palm Pixi, which is my first experience using GPS equipment, so now I get to see how that all worked out.

I’ve made a list of stuff I need to restock my workout bag, but nothing was going to stop me from running at lunchtime.

[This was written on New Year's Eve...]

Our household has been without internet since September as a way to cut spending. Also at the end of September, we turned off our home phone AND our Cable. Although, we have not totally become TV free in our household, we have made that step to stop the crap that Hollywood can only seem to reproduce time and time again. And if there is anything news worthy, we do have the internet via our mobile phones (My Lovely and Talented Wife’s Palm Pre) and my work. I do now have the Palm Pixi (which I call ‘Pi-11′ to soften the tinkerbell connotations of the phone…. disclaimer: my most recent phone was a pink Katana II, so having a phone that “sounds” girlie is nothing compared to one that “looks” girlie) [uh, where was I], which I can access my email and web and a bunch of other cool stuff that I could only do if: I borrowed My Lovely and Talented Wife’s Pre or be at work.

Now that I am on a forced vacation… December 28 through January 1st, because the University of Tennessee is in its annual “administrative closing” cycle, this meant two things: More Kid Time, Less internet. My BRILLIANT Lovely and Talented Wife suggested that I go to the Library and work “1/2 day” to maintain some normalcy in our household. Both The Elder and The Younger are on their Christmas Holiday Winter Whatever Break and so with everybody home that is just a recipe for Clutter and Chaos. So, a few things had to happen for me to get to the point where I could work 1/2 days. 1) I needed a place to work with Internet Access 2) I needed a place conducive to getting real work done 3) I needed a place that I could work and then when I was done working, I could run. yes, I said RUN. As of me typing this blog entry, I have not run since December 3rd, but there is hope on the way. I need am INTERVENTION from this not running.

The place that satisfied ALL these conditions was the Knox County Public Library… 1) I can get internet access, 60 minutes with a library card, 2) It’s quiet in the library and you can really “buy” anything… but does have some strange personalities that roam through the collections and 3) The Farragut Branch is really close to my house AND adjacent to the Campbell Station Greenway! So, 2 weeks ago, I signed up for my library card… which means that now the The County and The Government is following my every move… wait, don’t they already do that?

Since my “real” work has actually been full of legimate work, thanks American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, I have had little time to do the things that I used to do mainly at work: Blog and Trade (stocks/options). So that is what I have been doing this week… well, when I wasn’t sitting in the waiting room of The Clinic.

Seems that the other day, in one of those simple instances… like putting down a cup of coffee… strange things happen in our world which follows the rules of Physics. Seems that I was able to apply enough Force (F) which was enough to break (coeffiecent of adhesion) the handle of the mug into two (n) pieces which cause one of the pieces to interact with my hand, namely the knuckle of my right hand’s middle finger (FU). Following Newtonic Rules of Motion, it was the ceramic piece which ceased to be in motion once it came into contact with my knuckle. Seems that about an inch (1″) of flesh was enough to stop the ceramic piece’s motion, however, it caused an incision to open in my hand (OWWIE). Noah would have been excited because with the blood, it was like the parting of the Red Sea. (I put the wrong person down, just to check to see if you were reading this… everybody knows that Abraham parted the Red Sea). Being a guy, and previously been certified in Red Cross First Aid, even to the First Responder level, I knew that I needed something… and a beer was not that thing. It was direct Pressure (P), and I applied that in a millisecond (ms) of the cut. At this point, I wasn’t sure of just how big the cut was, but I knew that it wasn’t going to be pretty. My Lovely and Talented Wife was in the next room and hopefully not engrossed too deep in a game of Five or More to hear my body hit the hardwood floor as I bled out.

I made it the Laundry Room, which is also our First Aid Triage Room and our Pharmacy. I was now faced with a dilemma… I couldn’t get the band-aids (please don’t sue me) bandages with one hand incapacitated and the other one engaged in self-preservation. I tried for about 30 seconds, before I called out, “Lovely and Talented Wife, I need your help!”. I was met with an immediate response since I NEVER ask for help, even if getting help is EASIER than the way that I am doing it. So, with the calling for help, she was like a cat hearing the can-opener, except… no tasty treat. Surprisingly we were able to get the bandage on with little problem. There wasn’t much blood, but there was “sinking” of one of the flaps of the skin. I didn’t think that I needed stitches, but still followed (yes, dear) my wife’s request of trying to call the doctor. But given that it was 7:30pm on a Sunday, I had no chance of being seen. That meant, if I wanted stitches, I would need to go to the Emergency Room. Seeing that I 1) I did not have a head injury or 2) a gunshot wound, the chance of being seen in the Emergency Room before Sunrise, was slim to very very very slim. I decided to do my own First Aid handy work and try to survive the night.

Although I was never a Boy Scout but rather watch MacGvyer in the 80s (and had the hair at the time), I was able to fashion a split for my finger using a bandage, prewrap, athletic tape and popsicle sticks. And it worked, just peachy! No duct tape needed (darn!).

The next day, once the kids were up, I had some full frontal reality. In about 10 minutes, they must have hit my finger at least once if not TWICE! (and once was enough). I decided that I would be going to “The Clinic” so that I could get it looked at by a ‘professional’ and see if I really needed stitches. The Clinic didn’t open until 2pm though and I didn’t want to go to my PCP because that place is full of sick people. At least at the clinic, they are doing mainly tests at time of day. After a 2 and 1/2 hour wait at the clinic… I walked out with a metal splint on my finger, which was a nice upgrade to my home-grown splint. All it cost was the price of a co-pay.

### Fast Forward 2 weeks

I guess now I have to play catch up on my blog. The good thing is that I have a smart phone now which makes texting, browsing, etc SOOOO much easier. So, now I still have to figure out my running calendar this year!

2009 Flying Monkey Marathon Race Report

Date 11.22.2009

Location: Percy Warner Park, Antioch TN

Abstract

This was my second consecutive running of this race, and while I was excited about the event, I was grossly undertrained. With low motivation in August, when training was supposed to start, to a sliced heel in September and then in early November, a mysterious chest congestion which produced some amount of phelghm, I hardly was able to train like I wanted, or how I should! Regardless, I was signed up, even pleading after the race had filled up to capacity to be an entrant, so I was going to run the race even if was the death of me. [ed. Note since I am writing this, I did not die, although I would have been nice monkey fodder if they knew my state on the course]. The race was a nice tie-in to our trip to California, we were flying out of Nashville and so we would be in Nashville the day before our flight which, in theory, should make the flight easier for the whole family.

Pre-Race

Having the advantage of running this race previously, I knew when and where the race start would take place. This logistic point would be very important, as when I go to the race site, I had about 4 minutes until race start. We used reward points to stay at our hotel, which was actually the second time that I had used points to stay at a hotel for a race.

At the hotel, I got ready for the race and did most of my pre-race ritual. I tossed my clothes that I was going to use in the race near my race bag. I pinned my gels (4 ACCEL gels 2-Key Lime, 2-Orange) to my shorts. I found that I had to do this the night before, because doing that when you are rushing around doing this leads to getting poked with the safety pins!

Race Morning

There’s always anxiety and anticipation on race morning… and for a while, I had convinced myself that I wasn’t under trained for this race. I was having delusions of grandeur of coming in under my bib number (#438) at 4 hours sub-38 minutes. Then I was distracted with having to get the kids ready to take me to the race. I felt pretty decent about the amount of food that I ate for breakfast… which was mainly oatmeal, but I had saved some chicken for some protein.

Even though we “sorta” knew where the race was, we still used the GPS to get us there. I was getting pretty nervous as the estimated GPS arrival time was getting dangerously close to the race start time… and I had to use the bathroom (just #1).

My Lovely and Talented wife drove me through the parking, up to where the bridge was which connected to the race festivities. I hopped out of the van, said a few quick good-byes and headed to get my stuff.

I somewhere around 4 minutes from the time that I left the van until the race gun went off. I hurried to the registration table, got my goods and my bib number. Being in a state park does hold some advantages. There’s basically hundreds of places to use the bathroom.

The weather wasn’t fore-casted to be all that great, possible rain, but it was surely overcast and the temperature not all that warm… just about perfect for a marathon. The race director was warning us runners (although he is foolish to run as well) of all the hazards of the park and running… so I knew that it would be just a few seconds. And it was, because we were off!

Mile 1 “Who is the more foolish? The fool or the fool that follows?”

I probably had one of the best starts to the marathon that I ever had. I wasn’t shooting off like a rocket, since I wasn’t planning on making any crazy attempts at a course PR. The first ½ to ¾ of a mile is long reprieve of being relatively flat, that probably helped too.

Mile 4 “Battling against that is more like… suicide”

I had another delusion since I had started off so well, that even up the first section of hills, I felt steady in my pace. I knew that the split times would vary from mile to mile, given the hills, but I felt great. At least for the first 8 or 9 miles

Mile 13.1 “Will he finish where he begins?”

As the race started, I decided that I would make race strategy would be to run the first half of the marathon as best as I could, trying to keep a 10:30ish pace. I had even factored in some time buffer time so that my goal time to cross the half-way time would be near 2:30. Then, I would change strategies and switch to the run-walk.

Crossing at 2:34 and knowing that I was past the point where I would be able to hold up my desired pace. I decided to do a 4 minute walk/ 1 minute walk and somehow, I was able to set my watch’s interval timer to do this. So, there I was… 4 minutes run, 1 minute walk and I was still in great spirits even knowing that I would be past 5 hours.

Mile 15 “Curse my blasted circuits, I wasn’t fast enough”

There’s one difficulty with the run-walk method… when you are really hurting, it’s hard to transition from the walk back to the run. I’m not a huge fan of switching from running to slowing down to a walk, especially on a hilly course, because it makes up hills longer and down hills harder on the knees. However, I wasn’t not going to deny myself of any walk breaks… so if I was in “run” mode and came to a water stop, I was walking through to refill my bottle… and if my watch signaled that it was time to walk just after the water stop… oh well.

Mile 20 “I won’t give up! I am not afraid!” “Oh, you will be, you WILL BE!”

The proverbial Wall of Mile 20 had come much earlier, but still there is something special about reaching the 20 mile mark. It’s the end of the warm-up for the 10k that you are running! And while this spot of a marathon has it’s own evil influence over the psyche of runners, I look to a different sci-fi movie as my mantra for Mile 20, The Matrix.

When Neo is finding out if he is “The One” (a similar title that Qui-Gonn Jin heralded Anakin, in The Phantom Menace) , he is an apartment room which children who see to have some special abilities. One of the kids is bending a spoon with their thought which leads to the phrase “There is no spoon”. Hence, at Mile 20, “There is no Wall”.

Mile 22 “The circle is now complete, when I left you I was the apprentice. Now I Am the Master!”

The Mile 22 marker is one of my favorite signs. Double-Deuce! Only 4 miles away… and it’s at this point that you can start to estimate finishing time. I knew that it wasn’t going to be anything to write home about, but still a refreshing sight.

One thing that I hadn’t expected was that I was well hydrated. Despite being deep into the race, I had an urge to use the bathroom that did not go away after a mile or two. Again, I took advantage of being in a State Park.

Mile 24 “Help Me Obi-wan Kenobi, you are my only hope!”

This was probably my worst mile from an attitude point of view. I knew the terrain ahead, I knew how I was feeling and was starting to lose focus on the race. At this point, I was alone on the course, with no runners ahead that I could see. I started to get myself focused on the finish, despite the fact that I wasn’t going to finish with the time that I wanted, I was still going to go through my normal finish ritual.

Mile 25 “The Force is strong with this one”

There’s one volunteer that you pass twice that you enjoy seeing. He gets to see you early and at the end. So when you see him the second time, you know that you are close to the finish line. It also helps

Mile 26 “Echo Base, this is Rogue 2, I found [him]. Repeat, I found [him]

Mile Splits

1 – 10:19

2 – 10:45

3 – 11:46

4 – 12:14

5 – 10:58

6 – 12:41

7 – 10:22

8 – 12:05

9 – 11:16

10 – 12:16

11 – 11:55

12 – 11:58

13 – 14:23

13.1 – 2:34:35

14 – 13:17

15 – 14:00

16 – 11:59

17 – 13:38

18 – 14:37

19 – 12:56

20 – 16:17

21 – 13:52

22 – 13:39

23 – 13:05

24 – 11:22

25 – 11:57

26 – 13:14

26.2 – 5:31:58

I started typing up my race report to the Flying Monkey Marathon weeks ago! unfortunately it is on a computer that has limited internet access and I failed to bring it into work today to load up what I had. I also didn’t copy the file to a removable media so that I could bring it to work and upload. Bad Terry. The good news is that it is pretty much done. I need to go steal some pictures from My Lovely and Talented Wife who happen to catch me at the beginning of the race. I might even see if there are any professional pictures of me out there… I don’t think so. I think that the photographer took pictures of all the real runners, you might see me way in the background. Of course, I can be easily recognized with my Red ASD Athletes shirt and white DUMP RUNNERS CLUB headband. Hopefully, I will get that post posted tonight.

I also have the audio version of the race report to edit as well. That is sitting on my iRiver as well… I am such a slacker. GEEZ!

I am not sure how much I will get done. I am going to a free ABA Training workshop here in Knoxville from 1-4pm which means that I will be at work for half-day. Work is the only place that I can get a block of time to do stuff. The Younger is always wanting to “Get on my shoulders” or lately, play Lightsavers Lightsabers. And I know there will be a time when he won’t want to do any of that, because his Old Man is a freaking idiot! I think that is the same time that aliens come an suck out his brain until he is roughly 20 or so. The Elder is wanting me to play the “real” races or games on the Playstation 2. He is more than capable of doing the practice races (for the CARS game) but I think the stress of racing against other competitors is a little much right now. This too will pass and he won’t want me to play for him and I will get stuck off on the sidelines. That is when I will be able to blog more.

Plus, apart from the Race Reports, I do have some other stuff to write about, that well, 140 characters just doesn’t do it justice… so those are in sitting in my Creative Repository until I get some time.

I’ve been listening to B97.5 which is Knoxville’s Official Christmas Radio Station since the beginning of the month. They play Delilah from 7 – midnight and last night was a rerun from earlier in the month, which is the second time that I have heard a rerun of one of her shows. Of course when it comes to traditional commercial radio stations, there is a limited pool of Christmas songs to play. They do make up for it by playing the same Christmas song but from a different artist, but it is Christmas music. I now need to watch A Christmas Story and Christmas Vacation as part of the Terry Traditional Christmas. I’ll eventually get to the Black & White Classics too…

Here’s the current Forecast for the Flying Monkey Marathon on Sunday in Nashville

I’m dancing running in the Rain

SUNDAY! SUNDAY! SUNDAY! FLYING MONKEYS! RUNNERS! HILLS! SUNDAY! SUNDAY! SUNDAY!

It’s Race Week, and I have been getting anxious… more than I have in the past (except for 2009 Knoxville Marathon). The Race that I am running is the 4th Annual (A New Hope) Flying Monkey Marathon run in the “rolling” hills of Percy Warner Park just outside of Nashville, Tn. Like any of my marathons, I am very excited about it, but I am holding some reservation on getting too excited. When I get to excited, I get delusions of grandeur and when I get delusions of grandeur, I get stoopid. Usually this comes in the form of “temporarily forgetting” the amount of training that I have completed before a marathon. I have yet to train adequately for ANY of marathons, despite the passion for running them, I find myself not having enough time to get it all in. Sometimes it is that clever avoidance technique that has me miss runs or cut runs down in length. THIS time was supposed to be different. Oh, and it was… just not in a “good” way.

What was supposed to be around a 15-16 week multi-moderate distance (16-18 miles for long runs), ended up being a sporadic shorter distance 5-6 week training plan. With the “Taper” being NO running because of chest congestion issue that I didn’t want to inflame to pneumonia or something in that neighborhood. As of today’s chest x-ray (part of my annual physical exam) my lungs are clear and my symptoms are gone. I am being to believe that my issue was 50% cold and 50% allergies. While I did have a slight sore throat, I never had a fever, but was really tired for a number of days… one of which I slept close to 18 hours. I kept having a cough with some phelghm with little improvement. Last week, I did an overhaul of the kids bedroom, thinking that they were having allergy issues, and I felt better, but I still had the cough.

In running, there are a few Rules of Thumb that most people abide by. One of them is the 10% Rule, which is used for different aspects of running. I don’t necessary follow (but understand the logic and reasoning behind it) the 10% Rule for Weekly Mileage: Thou Shalt not increase weekly mileage by more than 10% of the previous week’s mileage or suffer the wrath of INJURY. I do follow the Sickness Rule… if your cold symptoms are Above the Neck, You Can Run; If Below, Don’t!

Since I still having the cough, I took an Allegy med late Sunday and in a few hours felt much better. Monday, I was feeling MUCH MUCH better, but I still had “The Cough”. On Wednesday (which is yesterday as I type this), I only had times where I felt the need to cough and the volume of phelghm was smaller and smaller. Today, I have only coughed once, with minimal results. Plus, verification from the doctor who not only saw my Chest X-ray, plus listened to my breathing said he couldn’t find anything. So, I feel that I am Free and Clear now. But where does that leave me?

###

Over in the STRAT3GY MARATHON ROOM, the debate on “How to Run the Marathon” is being discussed. There are 3 different methods being debated. The consensus is that it will not “Be Raced” but that leaves the questions, ” How Shall it be Run?”

1. Race It
2. Start Running and Hope for the Best
3. Tortoise and Hare method (Run-Walk)

You might think that this marathon situation is new to the Planet3rry Universe of Running, but you would be mistaken. I have encountered a very similar situation back in 2002. I was on a project in Lake Charles, LA when it went from going okay to “uh-oh”. The tritium clean-up we soon discover would take longer (it ended up being 3 weeks longer) and that left me the opportunity to run the Mardi Gras Marathon. Previous to the Mardi Gras Marathon, I had run the Strawplain Half-Marathon the week before and cumulative mileage for 2002 up to the Mardi Gras Marathon was 40 miles. I was in the “Rest” mode coming off my PR performance at the 2001 Richmond Marathon (November 2001). I was at the Mardi Gras Marathon where I perfected my “Marathon Survival Mode”. I knew that since I had little to no training, plus running with a friend for the first Half of the marathon, but by myself the rest of the way, that I would need to be “Slow and Steady” for the entire race. The course is ridiculously flat. Seriously, the ONLY incline that we went over was a man-made bridge that rose to 10′ or so over a culvert, which we ran over twice. Other than that, it is FLAT! But too much of one thing is not always good. While it was flat, you use the same muscles over and over and over, with no reprieve given from rolling (i.e. gentle) hills. So my deficit in training miles was also amplified from the fact that we were in New Orleans the night before. If there was any carbo-loading, it was from the sugar in the alcohol. Plus, we didn’t get to hotel until later in the evening early morning leaving the amount of sleep to a few hours. But, I one of the maxims that I use is that it is not the Night Before the Race where sleep is important, it’s the ‘Night BEFORE the Night Before’ the Race that counts.

Despite the fact that the Mile 4 water stop was grossly unmanned for the number of runners demanding water, nor the fact that at the Mile 9 water stop, it had either NEVER been staffed or had been abandoned because there were two 6-foot table with packages of cups and two trash cans of liquid for you to “Self-Serve”, I still had a decent first Half-marathon. By Mile 14 I was starving, which means “It’s TOO late for fueling, eat and wish for the best”, I started to succumb to the fatigue and began shifting into my survival mode. At first, it was purposely walking through water stops and food tables to maximize my intake of solids and liquids. At Mile 21, I had shifted into stopping to massage and stretch my legs after each water stop (now a mile apart). Near Mile 24, I had created a simple stretch routine that would give my legs a breather while being quick to perform it. And then at mile 26, I had gone through my Finish Line “procedure/technique” and knew the point where I could go “full throttle” to the Finish Line. My finish time was 4:38:14, which was a surprise to me since I knew that I wasn’t going to “race” it. My original Race Report of the Mardi Gras Marathon can be found here.

Here’s my Mile Split Times from last year’s Flying Monkey Marathon

I should match this with the Course Elevation Map!

So what does that leave me to believe that I can do? I am not too sure!

Today we were on the Hallerin Hilton Hill Morning Show in WNOX 100.3 for a few minutes this morning in support of ASD Athletes! Special thanks to Legacy Firms for allowing us time while they were the broadcasting location for his show this morning. Even Eric Chessen from Autism Fitness was able to share his involvement with ASD Athletes.

I have had Windows 7 on my computer for about 2-3 weeks now. Most of the known universe got Windows 7 this week. Me Likey! There are just a few things that are a little quirky about it, my biggest complaint being that when a new window is created as a result of an action, it doesn’t automatically show up. The Taskbar flashes. I know that there is an option (somewhere) that will remedy my problem.

My biggest issue has been my iRiver ifp895. It’s an archaic item (in the realm of electronics) and while it played well (most of the time) with Windows XP, it does play well with Windows 7. I have the driver file for the iRiver, but it’s not a *.inf file, it is rather the actual *.sys file. Windows 7 completely ignores the file and so I can’t load the device. I say this because my audio from the World Wide Half marathon is there and I am wanting to download it so that I can create the next episode of Gravity@1053′! This is the 3rd audio that I have recorded for this podcast episode, and yet, the audio seems to be outdated before I can get it downloaded. I think that I will be getting a new device, something that is a little more streamlined when it comes to retrieving the audio.

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I was trying to compile my running log on Thursday, since I had something logged in Buckeye Outdoors, but something not. I am surprised at my HUGE LACK of running this year! It’s ridiculous. I did update the Race Results on my site to reflect through this year. It was somewhere stuck in October of 2008… Wah? I haven’t broken any of my PRs this year, so that info is the same. My next “issue” is resolve my shoe mileage. I currently have 2 different Symmetrys in rotation right now, I have to figure out what the mileage is on them. If I need new running shoes before the Flying Monkey Marathon (Nov 22 2009), I need to start breaking them in now!

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The leaves are starting to change here and it’s making for some awesome opportunities for me and Stella! Hopefully will be able to get out and about this weekend. I am, if schedule allows, going to do a long run this week… I am looking for something for 15-17 miles. It’s an away game for the Tennessee Volunteers, so that should make getting around town pretty easy. Good luck to all those racing this weekend!

Oh and next week, I think it’s time for a new WordPress theme around these parts!