PLANET3RRY

This is one of those “boring, running posts”, so if boring and running posts bore you, you can move along. If somehow, they do interest you… sad, so let’s get going!

After my trail run from Last Tuesday, I took Wednesday off from running. Could have been that I had a doctor’s appointment at lunch. I really wasn’t sore from the run either, but really, most of the trail was flat and I didn’t go that far (7 miles).

Thursday, I think are going to be my ‘Tempo to Easy’ days. I said it this way, because they should really be Easy days with everything that I have planned out, but let’s face it. I can’t run easy unless I am running with someone else who wants to run easy. If I am the lead, then I will creep into Tempo pace. So, I should really call them Tempo with a chance for Easy pace.

So on Thursday, when my first mile was a 9:24, I was pretty pleased that I was more on the Easy pace. I was off to do 4 miles on my Market Square Fab 4 course. Mile 2 in 9:18 and I was at mile 2.5 when I started to get a call from Nature. Then, it got Urgent (Urgent, Urgent, Urgent, Emergency…) and I went from an Easy run to a walk. Once again, I was stuck with no where to go and and 1.5 miles from the Aquatic Center. It took me 24 minutes to walk waddle back. I think the main catalyst for this was that I started back on my morning smoothie and there is a ridiculous amount of Fiber in the mix I use… and Fiber + Running = speedier process.

Moving along…

Fridays, I have dubbed Brick Days. I thought a funny ‘Frickin’ Brickin” workout name, but thought it was too Frickin’ stoopid. But I think through the summer, I will make Fridays Brick Days. I chose a swim/bike brick for Friday’s workout. I originally wanted to do 800m swim / X mi bike. Meaning that I would just bike as long as time allowed to see where I was. I wasn’t sure how fast I could ride anyway, so this was a feeler sort of  ride.

I ended up only swimming 400 meters (9:13) then took a 9:33 min transition. But really this was getting out of the pool and figuring out how to get my goggles and cap into the bottle holder so that it wouldn’t fall out during the ride. Plus a little bit of the time was getting from the aquatic center to the 3rd Creek Greenway. I averaged at 15 mph ride for 6 miles once on the greenwat. I did have to stop a couple of times for traffic, plus some of the hills and just getting tired. So, I was very pleased with the Brick workout.

Saturday and Sunday, I didn’t do anything workout related. There was a window of opportunity to take the kids in the stroller, but I was a little lackluster about going out with the kids in that. I just wasn’t motivated.

Mondays are Speed Days… I had decided that I would again do 800meter repeats, but that didn’t last long. Mentally, I was ready for the day. Physically, the forces of nature were “testing” me. Monday was near 80F and so that warrants running shirtless during the high heat months of summer. It was also the hottest conditions that I have run in since Fall of last year, by 10 degrees. I did wear my heart rate monitor and the output wasn’t helping either. I maxed at 89% of (my overall) Max Heart Rate and it felt very very difficult. My Average heart rate was 146 (78%) but my Speed Intervals weren’t even 5k race pace. They were more like 10k race pace. My performance had dropped off enough at the end of mile 1 that I had to switch to a 400m interval to survive getting back to the Aquatic Center. Oddly enough, mentally I was still into the run. I could tell there was something wrong. I thought back to what Chelle had commented on my Expo post about the allergens and how that might be affecting my horsepower. Plus, the heat… 800s may have been to long in the heat. I’ll probably have to switch to a shorter interval for the summer.

So, I am heading back out to Forks of the River today for a trail run… and I am little better prepared this week! (but that won’t preclude me from doing something stoopid).

[My Lovely and Talented Wife, this post is about running... this is not the post you are looking for]

So tomorrow is the Expo 10k, it’s not too late to enter my Guess My Time, Win Crap Contest, and what a wicked horrible person I am! I never took a picture of the bag. Oh well, surprise on the winner! Well maybe I will take it to the race and use the remote for Stella to take a picture.

As you may already know, I am volunteering for the race in the morning. I get to be there around 6:15 for pre-race activities. Sounds like I am going to be a set-up dude for some of the vendors that are going to be there… Not a big deal. That’ll mean I will have more time to warm up.

So, recapping on my running… taking you back to last week, when I was training at Altitude in Draper, UT. I somehow managed to run some 800m repeats (okay, they were “technically” 1/2 mile repeats…) with increasing speed. I only made it 3 miles (or 6 repeats) but I significantly increase the pace (by 30 seconds) each time. I did take the last 0.1 of mile and cranked it up to a 6 minute mile… I can do THAT for 0.1 of a mile.

Then on that Tuesday, the next day, I ran shy of  5miles out on the road. It was a fairly gradual up hill to the turnaround point and then back down. Some of the hills were reminding me of Knoxville but the view was breathtaking… check out my last post for the album pictures.

I then did nothing until Saturday as my legs were tired from the speed work, then hill work (at altitude) and then traveling on Thursday. Saturday, I took the kids out in the double stroller and ran 5.24 miles with the kids. I think their favorite part, after the train tracks and playground is holding on to the camelback (that Petra gave me) and drinking ALL of my drink! Oh well. I let the kids play for about 20 minutes and then it’s back in the stroller. It’s a nice strengthening workout for the legs, something that I owe my marathon PR last November to.

Then came Tuesday, were I ran the exact same course, except instead of running 5.24 miles, I made it an even 7 (which is really odd). Not only was I able to crank out the 7 miles, but with the new quarter mile markers, I was able to record that I ran 1/2 splits pretty consistently. I’m not where I want to be speed wise, but I am getting there. I ran an average 8:38 per mile pace. I’d like to get that down to 8:00 per mile if I could.

Oh, I did want to share a Running MacGyver Trick… if you are out running and you have absolutely NO water and the stream that your running next to has signs that say “Failed bacterial Standards” and you are so thirsty you feel like you have a mouthful of sand… look to Mother Nature. I was out on the run on Tuesday with about 1 mile to go, extremely thirsty and no water. I then thought what would MacGyver do? I dunno what he would do… I didn’t have duct tape and a paper clip… but I did see the honeysuckle bushes off to the side. I used the honeysuckle to just get barely enough taste in my mouth (and you had to get alot) to curb the dryness. It wasn’t a cureall but it worked long enough for me to get to the car!

Wednesday my legs were beat, so I took the day off. They were sore on Thursday too… so I decided to swim instead of run, with the race looming on Saturday. Even my swim times were alot faster than earlier. After my swim, I convinced myself that I am going to do the Tellico Sprint Triathlon on June 22nd. More on that at a later date.

I feel like I am ready for the race… my legs aren’t 100% but they are 90%+ and by race start I should be doing just fine! Not PR shape, but judging by the times submitted so far, I think their good ones! Remember, you can submit your guess on what my time is going to be and win crap prizes! If you miss this time, you’ll definitely be able to guess for the Tellico Sprint.

More about the title later… That’s just a marketing ploy to sucker you make you click the post.

The midweek status for me so far has been pretty good. Although I took Monday off from working out, I had a great 2-fer workout yesterday. Since Tuesdays are my “Terry Days”, I try to plan the errands that work more efficently without other people around. Typically this is a long list induced shopping spree, that requires “Touch and Go” shopping from place to place. No real dilly-dalling around looking at stuff.

Also, I try to include some running. I just remembered, IT’S RACE WEEK! AH! I have a 5k race on Saturday. Okay… more on that in a post that doesn’t include Mountains or Hooters… or any other euphemisms to female anatomy.

So, walking to the Aquatic Center, I was trying to decide how far I wanted to run. My schedule made it possible to run 5 miles at lunch and then not run after work. Or I could run 4 miles and maybe run 2-4 miles after work. The problem was that I was having a craaving for Chicken Wings and the local place that I wanted to go to was near my house. However, the Lowes/Home Depot I wanted to go to was on the other part of the town. So, I could run at 3rd Creek Greenway and then make my way back, but I wasn’t all that thrilled about running on the Greenway.

I decided that I was only going to run 4 miles, but I would do them Tempo(ish) so that if running in the afternoon fell through I wouldn’t be too sad. Also, I didn’t want to do a speed workout since I had the 5k later this week, I didn’t want to burn myself out or violate the 10% Rule (Thou Shalt Not Have Speed Mileage Be More Than 10% of Your Total Weekly Mileage)… of course, I am a “Regular Law Breaker” when it comes to that 10% Rule.

So, I did my Market Square Fab 4 Miler course in splits of 8:32, 8:33, 8:28 and 9:02 for a total time of 34:35 and I was pleased with that workout.

Once i was back at the office, I had an epiphany… or so I thought. Just turned out that I had to go to the bathroom… BUT while I was there, I thought… I should run in the National Park (i.e. Great Smoky Mountain National Park). Everybody loves Cade’s Cove, but I have never ran there. I was actually thinking of running a different trail. I really enjoy trail running, but I was a little skiddish of running on a trail, in the woods, in the park, my first time. But I was in luck. One of my coworkers hikes in the park about every week he is in town. So, I went to the free consultant on the Park and trails.

Just so happens that there are a few decent trails in the park right near the entrance I would be using. Also, since it was in the middle of the week, there should be little traffic (car and foot). So I had a place to run and then the plan fell into place. I would drive to the mountains (about an hour), run, then after that I would drive to Maryville because I could get Mulch at the Lowe’s and it wouldn’t be too inconvenient and what’s in the same shopping center as Lowe’s? Hooters. Chicken Wings and Beer.

It was about an hour drive to were I parked to run. Partly because you can’t go 70 in most places… either the cops will get you or you’ll fly off one of the curves. I decided to run on a unmaintained road. I didn’t want to run on the trails yet, but I wanted to be out in nature. The road that I was on was an old railroad bed, so it was pretty wide, flat and had an incline of 3-4% or so. It also followed the Middle Prong Little River and with the water levels up, it was loud and beautiful. I didn’t see any bear, but I had my Road ID on, just in case I became Bear Chow.

The road that I was traveling was a 3 mile one-way run. 3 miles uphill and 3 miles down hill. At some points, I thought I would turn around early, but I actually went all the way. Turned around and made it back. If When I run Boston, I will run this road or others in the park as a training for the initial downhill section of the Boston Marathon course.

Split times: 30:48 and 24:43 for a total of 55:21

No that’s not a misprint. Some how, I was able to crank up my speed, thanks to gravity and the fact that you use some different muscles on downhill running, I was able to keep up my speed the entire way down. So, I ended up running 10 miles (for the day) in 1:29:56 (although this number is useless for predictions).

But with all that running, I was hungry and wanted to get some food. I had decided that I would eat some gluten by eating the wings plus the beer…. but I forgot that you can get naked at Hooters. Okay, the person getting naked at Hooters will end up having one arrested. You can get your wings “naked” (i.e. no breading). So, that was the gluten source that I was most worried about. My reaction to gluten (now that I have been off of it) is less pronounced with beer (which is nice), so coupled with the fact that I busted my ass on the running, I figured that the beer would a nice way to get some calories back.

So, I sat at the bar, watching ESPN (under closed captioning) and had 20 Naked 911 Wings +2 Yuengling Drafts. You know what, the wings were GOOD. The sauce was actually spicy hot, the wings were a decent size. It hit the spot.  Now, sitting at the bar watching ESPN makes it a little obvious when you are turning around trying to absorb the atmosphere, but it does lend credence to see what the fry-cooks are doing, especially when it comes to your food. All I can say is that fry-cooks were some weird looking dudes. I don’t know if the management just hires these dudes to avoid employee relationships or what. But despite their appearance, they fried up some mean wings.

But in the presentation of the check, I was hit by some marketing ploy… would I support the Hooter’s Breast Cancer Fundraising Campaign. A restaurant that is named after slang for women’s breast, known for marketing their waitress’ breasts so that Men (and some women) will frequent their restaurant to see said breasts is campaigning for the fight against breast cancer. Oh yeah, that’s marketing that I can’t decline… sign me up! I’m blogging about this! Actually, you get to write your name on one of the little cards (that very few people read), So I put my name and a plug for my website.

I did make it to Lowe’s and got back home without a problem and not too much later than I normally would. Next time I go to the mountains, I am going to run on one of the trails, but I doubt that I will frequent Hooters in the near future. It’s a nice place to go for wings, but if you are like me and the guy next to me at the bar. It’s a little creepy when you are there sitting by yourself watching the fry-cooks when you aren’t straining your neck to see the TV.

Anyway, here’s a picture of me from my run… and I have more pictures (and videos) to post soon.

I hate it when I get off on internet Tangents… I went to Google Latin Translations for “speed and interrupt” and then realized that it was getting late in the afternoon… *sigh*

So let me catch you up on my running. I got a weekend run in! I know! Usually, the running on the weekend is limited to races, but this Saturday, due to scheduling, I was able to run. And I wasn’t alone either. I had two running buddies with me who traveled as fast as I did!

Yes, I said traveled and not ‘ran’. That’s because my running buddies were none other than The Elder and The Younger in our double stroller. My Lovely and Talented Wife went to the Women’s Expo to check out all the free (and not so free) stuff that they had. As a result, I had the kids to myself in the morning and with a window of oppurtunity to get a run in before the rain, I took the kids out.

Now, with the Kids, they love 3rd Creek Greenway. 1) There is a playground (Tyson Park) about 2.6 miles from the Parking Lot. 2) There is a train track that runs parallel to the Greenway. 3)There are bridges. 4) There are underpasses and finally 5) There is a train track that runs parallel to the Greenway.

The Reader’s Digest of the Saturday run was that I ran in about 50:50 (I do stop my watch when I have to tend to the kids). It was fairly easy and I wasn’t totally sore on Sunday. We did get to see a train (we’re about 50 feet from the track) and play at the Park, so they were accomodating for the most part to Daddy. Only bad thing was that 1) I forgot my Heart Rate Monitor in the van and 2) I left my iRiver in the van as well.

Today (Monday) I decided to some speed work. I actually have dubbed Monday as speedwork day. My intention was to rnu 400m intervals. But unfortuantely, I don’t know my 400m (~1/4 mile) splits very well, so I would have to do a 400m, 400m, 800m, 800m, 800m, 800m, 400m, 400m run with a speed interval follow by a recovery interval. I made it to the 2 mile (out of 3 mile) mark when all of sudden I had that “Nature’s Do Not Call” phenomenon again. If you check out my Buckeye Outdoor running log, you’ll see my last mile is at a 13:43 pace. Oi!

I am looking at tomorrow to be a long run day with a long run of 6-8 miles in a 2-fer configuration.

I got more to post but I have no more time right now… ending transmission. Over.

Editor’s Note: if punny references to natural bodily functions grosses you out, I suggest skipping down to the 3 starred lines, where the regular post will commence.

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“Private!”

“Status Report”

“Yes, sir! Sir, the Operation is going accordingly to plan at this point sir. Reports from the field are coming in as we speak.”

“Damn you, private. I want the reports, not some monologue!”

“Yes, sir! Our first report is from Captain Lung of the 101st Villi Division. His troops manage to break up come of the militant cells that were hiding in the pleural region, sir. He used some some Shock, Awe, Hack and Cough attacks sir to flush out the militants up to Capitan Larynx who then expelled them from the Runner.”

“Excellent, all according to plan”

“Intelligent reports that there are still some in the area, but with supply lines cut, we should be able to take them out”

“Right! What about Major Nasal, Private?”

“Sir, Major Nasal successfully fired two Snot Rockets. Two others were fired but with little success. Major Nasal reports no balant enemies running in caves.”

“Excellent! Private, Get the Rear Admiral on the horn. We have a debriefing on the release of his new submarine this afternoon.”

“Yes, Sir!”

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I did it! I actually RAN today, for the first time in like…18 days! It’s like I gave up Running for Lent or something. Actually, you could, I mean, I could really tell that I it had been a number of days since I ran. We’ll see tomorrow exactly how out of shape I am…

I ran my Market Square Fast 3 mile course, which I am very familiar with… I figured that I should try something new on my first day back. Plus, I can really gage how well I am doing.

At the 1/4 mile mark into the run, I could tell that I was going be slower than normal for this course. It felt like I was exerting myself like a Tempo Run, which isn’t surprising because that’s the pace that I seem to find if I am not monitoring my pace. Mile 1 was 9:10, which is relatively slow to my normal (or in training) pace of 7:50-8:15. what was nice is that during the run, although I wanted to stop a walk at a couple of points, I didn’t. I kept along. Mile 2 was 9:16. So at least I was being consistent.

On the last mile, I was really feeling it on the hills. They seemed to go on forever, but I still made it up. By about this time, I was warmed up all the way and on the last 1/2 mile, I could feel my body ease into a nice rhythm. I think that is why Mile 3 was a 8:52.

Given the fact that the weather is supposed to be CRAP tomorrow, I probably won’t run… which isn’t a bad thing. I need to ease back into the regular grind, plus, I have a different schedule tomorrow anyway. Thursday is a significant milestone in my running, so I will HAVE to run something on that day. Even if it is at 10 O’clock at night.

SO hopefully, I have beaten this cold thing that has been plaguing me FOREVER it seems like. Because of it, I am NOT running the Whitestone 30k on Sunday. It’s a Damn Hilly course and that’s from someone who LOVES hills. I probably will also NOT try to run the Knoxville Marathon relay. Given that what I am running now will really start to show mid-late March, I’m not going to try to run the Relay.

I will however go ahead and volunteer for the marathon. I was already asked to help as a course monitor (FUN!!!), so I will probably do that and still be part of the marathon experience. Plus with the money that I save with not running Whitestone and the Marathon Relay, I might be able to budget in some more 5k races this year. We’ll see. I am not going that far into the future quite yet.

Running these past two days has been expectantly nice. It’s great April December weather when the temperature on Monday was over 60F and today, we might even be able to break the high of 69F and we are fore casted to get to 74F. Nothing says Christmas in East Tennessee like shorts and 70 degree weather. Of course on Saturday it’s a Mixed Bag of Rain and Snow… what’s this world coming to?

So Monday I blasted through 4 miles of Tempo pace and today, I when through 5 miles of more Tempo. I expect that tomorrow, I will do some more Tempo, as my outpatient thing is on Thursday and I really won’t feel like running for a few days and even then, I will take a couple more days off. It could be a week off, but then again, I am not too worried. I have taken a week off DURING training before and be fine. I’m not really training for anything, so it’s a nice break.

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For those of you who were wondering where Gravity@1053′ has been, expect an update episode in the next few days about the future of Gravity@1053′. For those of you who don’t know, Gravity@1053′ is my podcast companion to Planet3rry, the Blog. With everything that has been going on, I just have not been able to put together anything. I have recorded some material, but now it’s out dated and since things are evening out somewhat, I think that I have a plan for the podcast.

I worked my computer to death sometimes. I think after I publish this entry, I will reboot this thing.

I didn’t run today, mainly because I don’t enough cold weather clothing here at work. Technically, I could run in 2 or 3 shirts or something like that. I do need to bring another hat and pair of workout gloves to work so that I have a spare set. Something that I can wear two or three times before they get really stinky.

Although I didn’t run today, I did run a 2-fer yesterday. 4 miles at lunch and 5.8 miles after work with Soon-To-Be-Dr. David. Both runs were at a good Tempo pace (8:36 avg for the first run and 8:39 avg for the second) and I was pretty please at that. I’m not sore today and still have a positive attitude toward this December Running.

Looking at the rest of this Volatile December,  I’ll run again next week (Mon, Tues and/or Wed) and then take probably 5-7 days off. Run the last part of the wee, right before Christmas Holidays. I’ll probably run maybe once while we are in South Carolina, then I’ll need to give blood on the 27th or 28th. Then I can start running again after the New Year as I prepare for the Calhoun’s 10 miler at the end of January and the Spring Running Season.

My interval run today was my tune up for the race tomorrow. I am fortunate to work very close to the Autumnfest course. In fact, I could run the entire course, if I had planned my day appropriately, but I wasn’t in running the whole course, just the finish line. This will be the 4th running on this particular course and it’s one of the flatter courses in the Knoxville Area. By no means is it level, but the last 2.5 miles of the course (I should have just said last half) is gently rolling.

The course is run on Neyland Drive and all though I couldn’t run on the road at lunch time, I did run on the generous shoulder and that was pretty close. I was in good spirits during the run and did some race day visualization for tomorrow morning. I was imaging, how I was feeling at points on the course, and I also started to this of some race say strategy on when to begin the final push toward the Finish Line and when to “engage” the boosters at the end of the race.

My Lovely and Talented Wife will be on the Finish Line crew volunteering and I will be part of the Day of Race Registration. This is one position that I can volunteer for and still run the race. It’s like double dipping!

So everything looks pretty good to go. I’ll need to eat a little extra tonight and have a solid breakfast in the morning. But other than everything else is about ready to go.

Don’t forget to play the It’s Race Week! Be a Winner contest

I mentioned yesterday that I was a little dinged up. And I was, but I found a miracle cure: Running Shoes. When I put on my running shoes yesterday before running (and I almost considered NOT running) the pain almost instantly went away. I was really amazed.

Once I was running, there were a handful of other things that arose. I had twisted my ankle pretty severely on Tuesday, I believe and it was making itself known during my run. I was having a weird light pain on the bottom of my foot, near the heel, something I had never felt before. It wasn’t a problem and did go away after a while. My Blister didn’t cause any problems, so that should take care of itself.

On Wednesday (shoe-less day), I could not move fast at all, it seemed like I was crawling an based on my relative split times, I was close to a minute and a half slower per mile the last 2 miles. And what was worse was that I felt slow and I felt like I was struggling.

Thursday’s run was much different. I did feel like I was going slower, in that I had more in me and could run at a faster pace, but even though my perception was that I was going slower, my pace was telling a different story. The loop at Lakeshore (where I ran) is 2.1 miles and has every terrain imaginable. There are flat areas, hills, big hills, steep hills with turns, gradual hills,  downhills. It the variety pack in running routes. I was able to keep a consistent 9:03 average pace for the first two loops and then an 8:45 average pace for the last loop.

Hmmmm, I did some calculations on an estimated marathon time and it looks like I should be able to run a 4:05 or so marathon if conditions are right. Of course, if conditions aren’t good, then who knows… skies the limit on the high end. If I had a really good day, then I could break 4 hours, but that’s speculation at this point.

It has been a busy week of running for me. I was able to run 4 out of the 5 lunch day runs, which usually is just 3, so that was pretty nice.

Monday
I only had one rest day from my 20 miler and took  Monday as an easy run day. However, my 9:07 average pace was not something I would consider easy. It felt easy enough but I was really thinking that 9:45 would be a lot  easier.

Tuesday
Rest Day.

Wednesday
I could tell from the start that this was going to be a speedy day. My legs weren’t sore anymore from the 20 miler  and I went out with a fury. Although the fury didn’t last very long my 8:01 average pace over the 4 mile course was enough to please the inner speed demon

Thursday
I was hoping to get around 13 miles in for the day. Soon-To-Be-Doctor David had to cancel on me and other things came up so I didn’t run after work. I was able to get in a 5 mile Tempo session (8:17 average pace). I wasn’t happy with the speed. Let me clarify, I was happy with the numbers, but I was not happy that I ran that fast. I came off a long run the Saturday before and now my body thinks that it can runs these excessive speeds everyday. That only leads to one thing my friends, injury.

Friday
Not too sure if I was going to get any longer distances for the week  and so I was eyeing my 5 mile course. However, I didn’t give myself enough time and had to settle for my 4.32 mile course. I did try to slow down this run. After my sub-9 (8:52) first mile, I tried to slow down and that worked, kind of. I had an 9:03 average pace for the run, still not slow enough.

I do need to decide on whether to commit to November or December marathon or just not run one this fall. I have a feeling that I am more of a Fall Marathon kind of guy. Actually I am an Anytime Marathon kind of guy. I would run any and all marathons I could get to the starting line regardless of time. Now that I know how to survive a marathon with little to no training (but with an okay running base, ref: 2002 Mardi Gras Marathon), I would run them if could be there. However, I think that the weather/sickness variables are more in my favor in the fall and that if I try to train for a marathon in early spring (such as March/April) that I set myself up (but not guarantee) getting sick.

So now… I have to sit down and give a little think about what to run.