Six Word Memoir

Lisa at I'm a Runner? has tagged me with writing a 6 word memoir. I looked at the website and it is pretty interesting and it did get my creative side flowing. Here were the rules posed to me:

(1) Write your own six word memoir.
(2) Post it on your blog and include a visual illustration if you want.
(3) Link to the person that tagged you in your post, and to the original post if possible so we can track it as it travels across the blogs-universe.
(4) Tag at least five more blogs with links.
(5) Leave a comment on the tagged blogs with an invitation to play.

I am fine with playing along; however, I won't be tagging anyone else. If anyone wants to play along feel free.

Here are few of mine:

Always fighting, not always the winner

I don't fear death, I live

Determination never takes any days off

Church never explained life, Army did

3 Continents, 13 Countries, 44 States

Well this was fun, Thanks Lisa.

Just an Update (of sorts)

This weekend was a pretty tough one, I went out for a quick 8 miles on Saturday and this was a miserable tough run in the humidity. I remember the full force suck that is running in humidity. Terrible. I managed to pull out an 11:10 pace but it was a Herculean effort to get that out. Sunday, I did my long run. I ran for 3 hours and 23 minutes and ended up with 18.25 miles at an 11:09 pace. This does put the full effect of the suck that was my Saturday run in context.

On Sunday I ran more than 10 miles more and ended up with a faster time. Anyway, the long run taught me a few things (besides that I am a bit off balance for considering this distance) first miles 15 to 17 seem to be a bit of a lul period. Nothing serious but I have been worried as my pace drops by 30 seconds or so during this stretch. I was concerned that this would keep dropping and keep dropping. I have found that I found a second (third or maybe forth) burst of energy at mile 17 and I was able to run about 11:00 pace from 17 to 18.25. This is only a mile and quarter but it is a good sign that there are a few more energy reserves. Well this week is a scale back week and then next week is my 20 mile run. That sounds far.

Bad news from the run, I blew out my shoes. Well I probably did it before but after the run I felt my hips, back and ankles. I need some new shoes there is no doubt. I am at about 300 miles on this set so I should go get some new ones this week. Today my hips are stiff but this appears to be a minor thing.

Take it and Run: The Training Plan

Is it Thursday again? The good people at Runners Lounge have their take it and run Thursday and this week's topic is running plans. I have a few points I have picked up on the subject that be useful only to myself but here it goes:

1. A Running Plan is not a statute, law or hard set of rules. It took me a while to turn down the anal on this point. If my plan said run 3 on Monday, 5 on Wednesday and 3 on Thursday, that is what I did no more no less. I am much more loose on the plans these days. If the plan calls for 7 on Wednesday and 4 on Friday, I have no problem switching the days if I have some other schedule issues to contend with. Also, I don't beat myself up if I run 3.5 on a day that calls for 4. This is an exercise program not the building of the space shuttle. So I look at it like a guideline rather than a set of rules. As long as I make steady progress toward the end result I am fine with it.

2. Build flexibility into the program, for myself this is a must. I always add one to two extra weeks into the program. I do this because I have a life with demands, much like anyone else. I may intend to get it all done but sometimes I just can't. So I put in a couple of extra weeks in case I spin my wheels for a week or two along the way. This reduces the stress of I have to do 18 this week. If I don't make it I can try again next week with no penalty in the overall training.

3. Write in pencil. I have found that I don't know as much as I like to think I know. When I write the plan out I think this is what I need to do to get to the end. Yet, I reflect on the way. I am currently training for a marathon and have two long runs left on the program. I had set this up in terms of miles but I will be changing to time based for the last two. I believe it will take me 5 hours to do a marathon. So I think for the last two runs I will run for 3.5 hours and 4 hours. I came to this decision because I didn't want to lock myself in 100% to my training plan. I want the flexibility to change my mind, so for me training plans need to be adjustable.

Those are my three points for training plans. I suppose I am just saying take it easy and take it all with a grain of salt. Use the training plan to get where you are going but don't be afraid to change it. It is a sign of my insanity that I have rules about not having rules.

Ate Something

Well the title is a bit misleading. I did some intervals today a half mile of speed with a half mile recovery over 3.65 miles.

The Up portions were: 8:55 pace, 9:22 pace, 9:02 pace and 9:35 pace (for the last .15). The down portions were also encouraging at 11:34, 11:22, 11:21 and 10:53. I think this a nice result. I was quite happy with the 8:55 pace for the first speedy half mile.

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In other news, I have been going to my martial arts classes but I have been in a funk. I have been a bit more tentative than I usually am. I believe this all started a number of weeks back when I caught a training partner with an elbow under the chin. That was the intended target I just didn't intent to strike the man. I like to pride myself on control and when I hit someone I like to mean it. So I think when I hit someone without the intention of doing so, it bothered me. Rationally, I know things happen; however, it did get to me anyway and made my training less enjoyable. I think that I can try to overcome this mental block a bit now that I know what it is. More mind games, it is unfortunate that my own subconscious was plotting against me.

Speedy Morning

I am getting faster:

3.1 miles, 31:32 time, 10:09 pace

I thought it might take me until the end of the year to get down to a sub 10:15 pace. I actually recorded a 9:47 mile on mile 3. Well here is to speed and knowing that it is out there for all of us.

"As you think, so you shall become" -- Bruce Lee

I used to think I was slow, I don't think that anymore.

Cherry Blossoms and Row Boats

Today I went on my long (read really long) run. I decided to shake things up a bit and run down at Kelly Drive. This, as I have said before, is the nicest part of Philadelphia. The shores of the river are lined with cherry blossom trees, statutes, and other manicured areas. It really is an excellent place to run. The whole thing forms an 8.4 mile loop. I did two loops today plus a little extra for 17 miles.

The trees were all in bloom adding splashes of white and pink for my run. It reminded of my time living (and visiting) in Tokyo. It really did make the miles melt away as I did them. Added to this was the fact that there are lots and lots of runners out there doing the same thing. This is a nice change from my normal routes where I usually see only one or two folks running. I do like to share the road with like minded people.

The other interesting thing today was that there was a regatta on the river. Rowing is an interesting sport. It was a nice distraction to watch the boats race by as I was running along. It really was a nice three hours.

The numbers: I started strong doing the first 10 miles between 10:20 and 11:00 pace. The first 6 were around a 10:30 pace. The next few miles were at a little below 11:00 pace. Then the trouble started. Miles 15 - 17 were not anything to write home about. I hit a mini wall and could only manage about 11:45 per mile for this distance. In the larger scope of things this is quite good. I remember running down these last few miles during the Philly Distance Run (miles 10 to 13) feeling spent and putting 12:30 to 13:30 minute miles together. I think this is quite a good improvement in 6 months. I do think I could have kept up the 11:45 for another 4 to 6 miles if necessary. When the marathon comes up I will have to start out slower. The end result was 17 miles at a 10:58 pace (half marathon pace was 10:46 - a pr).

This is one of my favorite parts of Philadelphia.

Week in Review

4/2/08 ..... 38:31 time ..... 3.65 miles ..... 10:33 pace

4/3/08 ..... 39:07 time ..... 3.65 miles ..... 10:43 pace

4/4/08 ..... 1:19:00 time ..... 7.50 miles ..... 10:32 pace

4/6/08 ..... 3:06:39 time ..... 17.00 miles ..... 10:58 pace

This was a good week. I will give a more detailed summary on the long run later on. That said I will note that at the half marathon mark today, I was at a 10:46 pace. Which is my best to date.

Philadelphia, Where are we going?

There has been a rash of violence in Center City Philadelphia, for those not familiar with the city that is downtown. The elevated train to Center City has seen three attacks in the past ten days. It is a concern. Two of the incidents involved groups of teens attacking single persons and the final was three men attacking a lone man. The first two happened at about 3:00 and 8:00 pm where the last was late at night. I understand the reality of living in a large urban area there is crime. Yet, there hadn't been daylight attacks on public transportation in my recent memory. I am sure that this will lead to an increased police presence in Center City. A perception of city hall being a dangerous place is simply not good for business. If visitors are afraid to visit the city it will affect the city revenues and they will do what is necessary to prevent any ill effects.

I think what gives me pause is not that there is violence on the train system. I mean things can happen any place and any time. I think what I am concerned about is the first two attacks. In both cases the attackers were groups of teens attacking adults in a random fashion. There is some fundamental disconnect that I just don't understand. Today life is different than it was when I was a teen, of this I am sure. That said, I can't imagine a set of circumstances under which the series of options in my head as a high school student would lead to "attack random person". I just can't get there. Maybe these kids don't think about the consequences. The first attack is a homicide so that is a murder charge the second is robbery and aggravated assault. From my time with a local district attorney's office, I can say that these are not the type of charges that the Commonwealth takes lightly. These young people are looking at multiple years behind bars for these random acts of violence, to get some sort of thrill (I guess that is the reason).

I certainly don't know the situation of the kids parents in this case. I am left wondering what is going on, especially in second attack. It happened at 8 pm. These teens were out at 8pm on a Wednesday night attacking a woman on her way home, this was 6 boys and 6 girls. Shouldn't these kids been doing other things on a school night? This confuses me. I do understand poverty, I grew up with the kind of poverty that makes most people uncomfortable. I also think that condoning violence as an outlet to poverty is the wrong reaction to the issue. So what do we do. More cops and more jails? I certainly wish that was not the answer.

I believe that we do need more police. In this city it has been shown that this does work. However, this does not treat the real problem. The youth of our city, maybe our nation - I don't know, have less of a problem with committing acts of violence than is comfortable. It's bad. Our city seems to be losing some of its humanity. It is sad.

We sit back and look at the violence in places like Kenya, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur and we think how sad. How could such things happen? There must be something different about those places: there isn't and we are not that far off.

The Coming Seasons of 2008

I am a what is next sort of person. So when I fell ill on Monday, I did some thinking. What is next after the Marathon in May? When the year started I thought I would break the year into seasons. Winter was the season of building the base. I spent my time logging the miles to build a base to get ready for the spring. Spring has been the season of the marathon. With the very nice Philadelphia weather it has been a very nice time to run. What is next? Summer. With the amount of time necessary to train for a marathon I need to make it up this Summer. Running is a wholely selfish act. There really is no doubt or arguing the point. (I will say that you need to be selfish some times in life. If you are not healthy you cannot do for others so in this circumstance selfish is necessary). That said with this marathon kick I have been a bit more selfish than usual. So for the Summer, I will try to take the family a few places and restrict my running to speed work and maintaining some distance work (maybe about 10 miles on the weekend) I will try to fit in a couple of 5k's.

Then comes the fall. I have a half marathon scheduled for Baltimore in October. I think I will add another half marathon in November. However, the amount of time needed for a full marathon is a bit too demanding to do it twice in one year. So there is my year to come. So, Winter was to build a base, Spring for the Marathon, Summer will be for speed and Fall will be for the half marathon.

I am looking forward to the marathon. That said I will said that the training is hard and very time consuming. Phew.

Tonight's run was a tempo - 7.5 miles with 3 miles at 10:05 to 10:10. The remainder was at about 10:45. It was a good run.

Marathon Training

I have been training for my first marathon for a couple of months now and I thought I would take some time to say how it has been going. During that time my long runs have gone from 11 miles to 16 this last weekend. I have learned a lot from these runs in particular and in the training as a whole, here are my observations.

1. Your body gets used to running certain distances and when you venture beyond your comfort zone there is a period of adjustment. My comfort zone was up to 14 miles. When I went beyond this my body really barked at me. After finishing 13 I am just fine; however, when I finished 15 I felt like my ankles were going to burst into flame and the fatigue was overwhelming. Last week I did 16 and the last mile was a bit of a torture. I will say that I did a lot more hills than usual so this probably had an impact on my post run feeling.
2. Your body adjusts much quicker than you would think to the new stress you put on it. I did struggle with some of the longer runs, the first time. I found that after I ran a distance once I was able to have a much better run at the distance the next time I ran it. Moreover, my feeling at the end of a distance that the week before would leave me exhausted, I felt pretty fresh. Not like a creepy guy on a subway, but as in not so tired.
3. Your ability to recover from long runs gets shorter the more that you do them. I remember doing a 15K a year ago that took me the better part of a week to get over. On Saturday, I ran 16 miles. I felt fine to run on Monday but for a bit of a head cold and fever.
4. Speed comes with practice (and weight loss). I remember when I started running about a year ago doing 14 and 15 minute miles. I was flat out slow. I was sometimes passed by people walking. I have worked at it (and lost 70 pounds along the way). So now I am averaging about 10:30 to 10:45 pace. I am also doing some interval training and will add some track work this summer. It was hard work pushing the pace down. Your body gets into a comfort zone and it doesn't really want to break that. So you have to mix it up to get beyond this comfort zone. I think part of training is doing things that are a little uncomfortable.
5. Respect your rest days. I have learned that you can't rush the training. If you miss a day and it can happen, everyone's life has demands some unexpected, you often times can't make it up. Trying to push 4 running days into 4 consecutive days is asking for trouble. Your body needs time to recover. I have found that my spirit and willpower exceed my physical ability. I can push myself to complete the distance and put all the runs in but the price I pay is too steep. It increases the chance of injury and the fatigue it generates lasts more than a day. In addition, the later runs will not be at top ability because the recovery from the previous run is incomplete.
6. Sleep matters. I am a busy man and often work long hours. My family demands are much like others. When I sleep 5 to 6 hours a night, my running is not as crisp as when I sleep 7 to 8 hours a night. (Less sleep also leads to weight gain). I find that getting a good night's sleep is vital to my performance. Plus, I am more likely to get out there if I am well rested, otherwise the call of the pillow is too strong to resist.
7. Running is complicated. I used to think what could be easier, just put one foot in front of the other and try to do it quickly. I am learning that the more I know the more I realize how little I know about this sport. Running is a simple natural act but it requires a good deal of concentration and dedication to learn how to run well. That is what I strive for not to be a someone who runs but someone who runs well. I am learning, everyday.