Club West Philly - West, Part 2

9 miles/1:13

DAB is in town for the week and stayed with us last night. I promised
her this morning we could go on a run that includes Marin Ave, a hill
that starts gradually and works its way to over a 15% grade at the apex.
It's actually a novelty, like a giant foam cowboy hat: attracts your
attention, but completely impractical for actual running.

Once Si got some raisins in him, I packed him up and we headed out to
the Greenway to get started. We got off to a shuffling start, still
feeling the effects of Sunday's running (me more than DAB, I think), but
got down to a pleasant pace soon enough. Silas enjoyed the chatter and
chilled in his stroller for the whole journey, occasionally pointing out
a bus or a BART train.

We missed Marin, which wasn't marked, but looped back at the next block
and started heading up, joking that I felt like Rocky - maybe one day
I'll make it to the top of the hill. By that time, Si will be old
enough to get out of his stroller and jump around with his arms in the
air at the top. I have always quit once I hit The Circle, which is
where the real hill begins, but we decided to head up one more block to
Shattuck. Even that short block was intense, and I was nearly laid our
horizontally pushing the jogger up that bit. A map of the Marin Ave bit
with elevation is here; the end of the road is another 3/4 miles further
and 700 feet up.

Took Shattuck into town, ran through campus a bit, and then back south
on College Ave and toward home on Russell. I didn't map the run, but
it's probably just shy of 9 miles. I give myself a little extra credit
for the hills. DAB kept going for "a couple" more miles, while I ate
breakfast, showered, and changed 2 diapers.

San Francisco Half LBRR

First, for the record, Silas and I ran about 5.5 in :46 on Friday evening. A slightly longer version of this loop, and I threw in a couple of surges at interval pace on the way back.

I woke up at 4:00 this morning to pick up a couple of folks and drive to San Francisco for to run the San Francisco Marathon (First Half). My training has been inconsistent, but I was signed up for the Wave 1 start (sub-1:29), so that was my goal for the race. I parked easily and jogged around a bit after checking my clothes, then found DAB at the start. The SF marathon has 2 companion half marathons, covering the first and second halves of the course and starting a few hours apart. We started with the marathoners at 5:30 on a cool and foggy San Francisco morning on the Embarcadero. Dean Karnazes said a few words (something like "Who's going to run under 3 hours?" - DAB cheered) and we started. DAB, who is in much better shape than me, still didn't have a race plan and said that she'd just run with me and keep an eye on the women at the front to decide if she wanted to make a move.

The first few miles were along the waterfront, and mile 1 felt slow but split at 6:29. Foolishly, I took this to be a good omen. I dropped DAB accidentally but decisively (or she dropped herself) on the first hill of the race, around mile 3, and took the downhill pretty hard, but my third split still read 7:02. I picked it up a bit as we ran along the north side of the city towards the Golden Gate Bridge, but not a lot. We began to see signs posted along the course, Ron Horn style but classier, with inspirational quotes from the likes of Mohammed Ali and with trivia about San Francisco (did you know that the Golden Gate Bridge goes uphill in both directions? This is done via a system of hydraulic pumps that were devised for the 1906 World's Fair. Unfortunately, the great earthquake that year forced the fair to be moved to Milan, and the world never learned about this amazing feat of engineering. Except for the poor schmucks running it today).

Although we were technically running over the Golden Gate at dawn, the fog was so thick that there was no indication that a sun existed. In fact, I just realized that I was looking west for the sun, when I suppose it was probably somewhere to the east of us.

After the turnaround at the other side of the bridge, I looked over my shoulder and saw DAB about 50 meters behind. She had apparently decided against making a move. This was around mile 7, and my legs were feeling it - the big hill leading up to the bridge, plus the dual uphill nature of the bridge itself, were taking their toll. I decided to slow imperceptibly to allow her to catch up so I'd have someone to hang on to. Unfortunately, I continued to slow imperceptibly after she caught me, and before long I was, imperceptibly, on my own again. By that time, the marathon 3 hour pace group had blown past me as well, and they were out of sight in the fog. I passed the 10 mile mark in the Presidio at about 1:13 into the race and did some quick math - if I could manage the last 5k in 21 minutes, I could still break 1:30. I have no idea why I believed this to be true.

At this point, we finally got some downhills to run, but with all the fog and mist the road was too slick to really get much of a boost from gravity. We continued through the Presidio, and across to Golden Gate Park. At the 12 mile mark, I realized that I could still look respectable at the finish, and picked up my pace a bit for the last 1.1 miles. I crossed the finish line at 1:35:16 and was quite glad to be done. A 2 mile cool down with DAB (who came in 5th) and stick a fork in me.

This was my 5th, and slowest, half marathon. My best was in Philly last November, when I ran 1:24:40. First, the excuses. This was a legitimately hard course! The winner, who ran a 16:04 5k earlier this year, only managed 1:18 for this race. I came in 79th place, among over 2000 men, which I consider a pretty decent finish. Realistically, though, I don't think I passed anyone for good after mile 3, and I was passed by plenty of folks over those last few miles. In fact, looking at the 7.4 mile splits, almost half the people who finished ahead of me passed me in those last 5.7 miles. My training just wasn't up to snuff, as I knew going in. June was a solid month, with 153 miles, 5 hill workouts, and 3 long runs, but instead of building on that in July I pretty much imploded. Only 1 week with 30 miles, and 1 tempo run. I had a sore ankle, I didn't feel like getting up in the morning, and I didn't try to get long runs on the weekends. I'm going to have to consider whether I'll run a marathon this fall and decide whether I can be serious about getting the mileage that I need. I'll have to give that a few days (or weeks) of thought before I make up a plan.

On the plus side, while I was writing this the Cardinals had a 5 run inning to beat the Brewers, so my Cubbies are now 1/2 game out of first place in the rockin NL Central. I think this will be the year!

Sunday, 6.1 miles in :50
Wednesday, 3.5 miles in :29

Christine was taking an herbs class on Sunday, so Silas and I headed out around lunch time to meet her on her break. We hung out in the garden at the Berkeley Eco House for about 30 minutes, then continued on our way. One of us slept for the rest of the run.

I'm not even trying to get in a lot of miles this week, since I have a race on Sunday, but I've just been having a lot of trouble getting out of bed. Any run either needs to end before Silas gets up, which means leaving by 6, or start about 30 minutes after he gets up, which means these days leaving as late as 7:30. I slept through my alarm this morning, but instead of bagging the run again I just decided to take Si out for a short spin on the Loop That Shall Remain Nameless. A pleasant run, in perfect marathon weather (overcast with a slight chill). For some reason, Berkeley didn't smell very good this morning. Maybe because it was garbage day on all the streets we hit. I've noticed that my right ankle feels a bit sore for a mile or so at the beginning of all my runs recently, but the pain dissipates after that.

Club West Philly - West

Unfortunately I only have 2 runs to report. I've been working on fellowship applications and Silas has been sleeping in, so there's not a lot of motivation to get up early and run.

I went out with Silas Wednesday evening - before dinner, this time - for a modified Hopkins loop. I figured out the loop was shorter than I remembered and tacked a little bit on in the middle and at the end. 6.6 miles in 50:25. I remember feeling like I was really dragging and probably running pretty slowly, but gmaps doesn't lie, and the run came in under 7:40 pace, which I consider a good clip for an easy run. I'm not sure if this is a good thing or not.


Seebo came to California for a family vacation, so we met up for dinner (burritos and gelato) last night and a run this morning. He's taking a break from serious training, and apparently I am too, so we decided to run for an hour or so down to Oakland. Si and I met him near his hotel, and I tried to play tour guide by running past such sites as People's Park and the old Black Panthers headquarters. I missed most of the spots I was looking for, though, so I guess I'll have to keep my day job. It was nice to shoot the shit and catch up a bit, though. My 7.8 miles went down in about 1:08, just like the slow days of Club West Philly (sans Deirdre, of course). Later, Steve brought the kids over for breakfast, and Christine and I made a chard tart and pancakes. Seebo's parenting style seems pretty similar to mine; in spite of this, his kids seem pretty well adjusted, so that's a good sign.

I slept in Friday morning, but Friday night I went with the philosophy
that something is better than nothing. So, after dinner I headed out
with a belly full of Indian food to get in a 30 minute run. Silas,
wisely, stayed home. We shall not speak of this again.

Things were looking better on Saturday. I headed out with the boy for a
90 minute run. We started with an out and back on the Greenway,
stopping to pick up a mini bagel for Silas, and then headed into
Berkeley to revisit the Loop that Shall Not Be Named. I noticed a sign
on a barbershop on Alcatraz Ave - "Wimpy's Place: Where Class Isn't Just
a Word". I'll have to check it out if I ever cut my hair again. A bit
under 11 miles in 1:27.

Sunday morning, Silas and I did an out and back to Oakland, sticking
mainly on Shattuck/Telegraph. I took a little detour on the way back to
stretch it out a bit, but also picked up the pace. Out in 29:44, back
in 29:45, for 7.4 miles.

Berkeley smelled good this morning. I'm not sure if it was coming out from under the (unfulfilled) threat of rain the last couple days, or maybe just because I was running on the sidewalk and was that much closer to the flowers, but it stuck with me. Si has been sleeping in of late (he's still asleep as I write this, after stretching, eating breakfast, and making coffee) so I got up early and headed out on my own. I found myself heading toward the dirt track at MLK middle school. There's a nice synthetic track at Berkeley High, closer to home, but it doesn't open until 7. Checking the log now, I haven't run on a track since March 9th. Given that, and the proximity to a half marathon, I decided that a tempo run was in the cards. I'd been looking for an opportunity to do this so that I could start developing a race plan instead of pulling one out of thin air.

The track had plenty of people walking, jogging, and stretching, including one woman running clockwise. There were no lanes, of course, and parts of the track were muddy from the sprinklers running overnight, but I was able to beat a pretty clear path. The plan was 3 miles at 6:30 pace, which is just about my half marathon PR pace. Went down like this:
6:16
6:31
6:32
Not half bad, especially considering the fast first mile and that I couldn't hug the rail. I felt pretty beat by the end and walked half a lap before heading home. Ideally I will follow this up with a 5 mile tempo next week, maybe at 6:35 pace or so, to try to triangulate a race pace.

total, about 7 miles in 48:55.

For Shame

OK, so I slept in again this morning, and was shamed when I read a posting in a friend's blog. She works for the State Department and is currently posted in Iraq; her most recent post describes squeezing in her daily workouts around her 13 hour workdays: running on a treadmill in a trailer in the Green Zone at 5:30 in the morning, or swimming in a pool in the Palace complex. I'm not allowed to link to her blog, but here's a quote:

I had some wonderful runs while on my trip outdoors at the military bases. The most memorable one was a 5 miler along the flight line (i.e. runways) at Al Asad airbase. It is in the western desert and one of the JAG office folks took me on his regular route at 8pm and so we saw the sunset with all sorts of planes and helos landing and taking off against a barren empty sky. Pretty cool on the scale of memorable runs and it stands out even more because I haven’t been able to run outside here. At the other base we visited I ran on the paved streets alongside a multitude of others also doing their PE but in uniform. So I stuck out like a sore thumb! The mornings are really nice - only about 90 degrees Farenheit right now as the sun comes up and no humidity so it feels wonderful in comparison to the daytime highs of near 120.

So maybe I'll squeeze in a run tonight....

Treading Water

4 miles, 31 minutes.

It's pretty frustrating when my training gets interrupted this close to a race. I had been hoping for a fast half marathon this month in SF, maybe not matching my 1:24:40 in Philly last November, but maybe 3 minutes faster than my Caesar Rodney time. It's pretty clear to me that I won't be able to put in my best performance, which makes it just that much harder to get out for a run in the morning. Hence, I skipped yesterday, and just got in a short run with Silas after work today. Strangely enough, even this run was shrouded in malaise. My legs were barely moving, I felt short of breath, and when I turned around I briefly considered walking home. I kept at it, though, and I'll just see if tomorrow is another day.

I watched NOVA tonight instead of the All Star game, which I've always found to be the most boring game of the season. They had a piece that relates to a topic from a Thursday night run last summer. The swarming behavior of insects, or flocking behavior of birds, or, umm, swimming behavior of schools of fish is described by emergence theory, or the emergence of complexity from individual actions. There are a few simple rules that govern this behavior in animals, like stay close to your neighbor, move when he moves, and avoid predators, but the result looks like these animals have a hive mind. They also interviewed some scientists who are applying this theory to neuronal organization - hypothesizing that thought and even consciousness can arise from complex networks of neurons - and self organization of molecules as a possible origin theory. Crazy scientists!

Hola amigos!
I know it's been a while since I last rapped at ya, but don't say I didn't warn ya. After a planned layoff during a long weekend in San Diego, my heel was still bothering me. Add to that that Silas was sick with hand, foot, and mouth syndrome, and so nobody was sleeping well at night, much less ready to run in the morning. By Saturday, though, he was feeling better and I was getting stir crazy, so I decided to take us out for a run in the morning. Nothing special besides a stop at the bagel shop, about 6 miles untimed. Plenty of stretching and ice, and my heel didn't really feel any the worse for it.

Inertia threatened to take hold again this morning, but I got an email from back east that got me in the spirit. Around lunchtime, we went on a meandering run through Oakland and Berkeley that went something like this. We kept to the sidewalks for much of the route, which were particularly crowded in Rockridge, which meant lots of starting and stopping, so it was hard to get a good rhythm going. We even stopped to help an old lady cross the street. Silas dozed for about 30 minutes of this run. Total was about 8 miles in 1:04.

Later this afternoon, we went for a 2 hour hike in the hills with Christine - Silas on my back - and he napped again. Needless to say, my legs are feeling it, but I'll try to get back out again tomorrow.