Tuesday, August 14, 2007

A Quickie

Not much time. Tired, did much room rearranging (the karma is palpably better), and I have a big day at work tomorrow (well, a long day, 8-5 mtg).

Speed workout today, and as the temp was 100, and I didn't need to advance in the Yasso workouts, so I did the prescribed workout of 3x1200x400. My 1200 times were 5:38, 6:02, and 6:19. Needless to say, the heat started wearing on me. Almost five miles, and I'm glad I did the 1200's, as I think variety helps, and week on week of Yasso 800 would make me a great 800 runner, but I question the value of the repetition for my marathoning.

Tomorrow I hope to do a tempo run of some kind. Thursday, an easy run, though I'll gladly cancel it if the legs feel beat. If I do all those runs, I could top 30 miles for the week, which would probably be a first for a seven day stretch without a marathon in it. It's requiring some sacrifices, but as I'm finally healthy, I want to give it a try.

Monday, August 13, 2007

Running Rhythm

Inches of rain, the forecast for July
Gave way to August, and a lofty high
100 degrees, maybe in spots more
No one was outside, not even the Rankin Road whore
Four days of sloth, an Indiana wedding
If not drinking, I was slumbering in the Marriott bedding
A run a run, was desperately needed
35 minutes easy, HoustonFIT Chicago runners heeded
Brenda was to run, Chris Sowers too
I'll hook up with them, a Monday running party anew
To Memorial Picnic Loop, that was our place to meet
But find them I didn't, my failure was bittersweet
At the park at least, I could get in a run
But a solo after promise of a party, not very fun
Off I went, by the soccer players' cheer
Surprisingly I ran up there back, Brenda, Chris, and Samone were near
Memorial we crossed, picking our way with caution
Then Brenda kicked out, using quick motion
"She always runs ahead", Chris said while waning
"I hope I can keep up", I thought while gaining
I got on Brenda's hip, around the loop we went
Hey, there's Felix, by the Finish Strong tent!
9:49, the first measurable mile
An easy run?, I questioned with a smile
Go ahead if you need, Brenda said with a huff
I could run no faster, her claim of an easy run, clearly a bluff
8:37, came nine tenths of a mile
Starting at the corner, the markers are full of guile
9:24, the last mile did come
Brenda said I'm done, water, I need some
I said a quarter mile more, no farther shall I go
Then turn around we did, joining the opposite flow
Water was had, hydration was a plenty
Then to the corner we came, departure such a pity
On Brenda went, a little more to cover
Then Claire appeared, from her bad back she did recover
Meeting Astros, while she convalesced
Though famous, I thought, their team is quite a mess
Goodbyes were said, hope to see you later
Saved by the Bell, the most famous is AC Slater
Random thoughts, were clearly in my head
Maybe I needed rest, make an early trip to bed
Four miles I covered, and I did so with relative ease
The heat not so bad, but wait for the sunset please
Four more days, five days total of running
That's my goal this week, it's the goal for which I'm gunning
Thanks for reading my poem, I wrote it with a smile
Blogging can be boring, so I went the extra mile
This is a different, an old kind of view
A running poets musings, I bid you adieu

Thursday, August 9, 2007

Night Three - Tempo

Last night's third night of back to back to back running this week brought a tempo night. The idea became a 45 minute tempo run (10 easy, 25 hard, 10 easy), as this was a small step up over last week's tempo run. Leon and I tried to run with Jon and Lynette (I have grown weary of solo runs), but a meeting time could not be established, so off we went to the Rice football field. Simple route, start running the loop, and keep moving. Things went OK, but late in the 25 I was certainly aware I was working. Though I'm not aware of mile markers at Rice (2.9 miles around), I'm confident my speed, much like last week, was sub nine minute miles. Four more miles in the books, bringing me to 13 for the week. Saturday morning the plan is still to run with HoosierFIT while in Indy; this will be my first week with four runs in quite a while. I thought I knew, but maybe wasn't sure, that the entire USA FIT network started with HoustonFIT; something I learned from the HoosierFIT web page. Anyway, my fuel belt is packed, I've got my GU, I'm ready to run amongst the soybean!

Tuesday, August 7, 2007

Smoking Hot and Fast

Key Words: Chicago/Indy, Head Band Man, Whose Ear?
Word Count: 425
Likely Next Topic: Do they make a dri-fit suit?

As for my promise of Chicago travel plans, I'm still not sure what's going to happen. I will be in Auburn until the Friday before the run, which means I either need to get a Houston, Atlanta, to Chicago/Indy, to Houston set of flights, or fly back to Houston on Friday, only to hop on another plane to head to the Windy City. Details, details .... will hopefully know soon.

Today was speed work. Our coach, Head Band Man (I don't know his name, and I don't mean this moniker disparagingly; he's actually an excellent coach), said last week that we probably wouldn't be doing sprints this week, so I think that (and folks getting over the 15 miles) dulled attendance. Leon joined Jon and I though, and did some side running while we did 6 Yassos (6x800mx400m). Last week I tried to nail 4:15 over each 800, this week, I just wanted to run hard and accepted that my time would slow. The times were 3:56, 4:01, 4:01, 4:10, 4:17, 4:12. I got water after each hard part and allowed myself 30 seconds of walking at the start of each easy 400. I was pleased with my performance; I felt a lil' queasy at the end (I was running hard to pass some smuck in a red shirt who was cooling down), so I think I gave a good effort.

I'm trying to be brief(er) than yesterday, but I'll still leave you with a philosophical comment on the mental side of running. It's worth noting that at the start of the fifth repeat, which was more than last week, things suddenly got harder. Of course, they didn't, it was just in my head. When I misread my watch in repeat six and thought I had ran a very slow 39 second first 100m, I suddenly felt very winded; again, the brain working against the body. The way I broke down on last Saturday, and all this ill mental energy at the speed work has me thinking that I really need to spend some time getting my running head back on straight. Getting out there three or four times every week will help, and sprints, which give you many chances to doubt your ability to finish, should help too. I hope to run tomorrow, and I'm running with HoosierFIT on Saturday morning (Whose ear? Whose ear??) while in Indy. Back in the saddle again! Now, time for some glutamine :o)

Monday, August 6, 2007

Job 38:11

Key Words: God, Cauterization, Glutamine
Word Count: 998 ... worth it, I hope
Likely Next Topic: Chicago Travel?!?!?!!!

".... Hitherto shall thou come, but no further...." Job, Chapter 38, Verse 11

This passage from the King James version of the good book was made famous, well, by God, but our modern, sometimes agnostic and secular world, was reaquanted with it by Dan Brown in The Da Vince Code (Silas, that giver of a bad name to albinos everywhere, found a flagstone with this verse under the Rose Line, then clubbed that poor nun with it ... as a pale person, I assure you, you need not fear me).

This verse summed up week nine of Houston FIT, particularly mile 12 of 15. I don't know if it was the heat, the lack of training (I've missed four of the nine weeks), or the solitary nature of the run, but I was utterly beaten on Saturday morning. I bemoned "Why won't it just end" shortly after the Luke's Locker aid station; I normally reserve such cheery outbursts for mile 22 of the marathon! I will say no more about the run, other than I had time committments to keep, and had some hard decisions to make to keep them. I'm happy to say I finished the run healthy, and kept my time committments; I had just put on my dry t-shirt when the seminar started. As for my nagging hamstring injury, I am ready to declare myself healthy enough to run with reckless abandon, though admit that I am behind when it comes to the training schedule.

Tonight I ran three miles at Memorial. More of those pesky time committments kept me from running more miles, but as I was shooting for a marathon pace run (10 min/mile), it was just about the right length according to our training schedule.

Now the important part .. I really hope you make it this far. If you don't F YOU :) Kidding. Jokes. Here's the secret to staying healthy when marathoning; I knew it all along and have reconfirmed it with my speedy recovery from the hammy injury (speedy since I started treating it, as I'll detail below). First, a little back story ...

Many years ago I had to have an abscess cut out. Abscesses are nasty little puss wads that your body walls up simply because it doesn't know what to do with them. Many times, if you don't leave an abscess open, it will fill back up with puss, so I was left with a nice open wound on a part of my body post-op (just don't ask me to show you the scar :o). For about four weeks, the wound healed very slowly. My doctor cauterized the wound twice in the name of reminding my body to heal, but the progress remained slow. So I did what I do, I read .. a lot. I learned that every cellular division is driven by an amino acid known as Glutamine or L-Glutamine depending on your nomenclature. This amino is traditionally known as "non-essential" because your body can produce it. Europeans, being crafty and European and all, realized much ealier than the American medical establishment that there are times when the body cannot produce enough; thus it's current clasification as a "conditionally essential" amino acid. So I said, "Maybe I don't have enough Glutamine in me to heal this wound."

Now friends, I admit, I could be falling into the trap of causality. That trap being, "I want something to happen, so I'll do X, that something happened, so X must have worked!" Wrong, voodoo logic. Regardless, after about one week of glutamine supplementation, the wound was healed. It had barely made any progress through four weeks of normal healing, but then sealed up in only a week's time of glutamine supplementation! I am convinced that the glutamine was the source of my healing.

Fast forward to two weeks ago. I know running puts your body under huge stress, and I had a hamstring injury; why couldn't a lack of glutamine be slowing the healing? I started taking 500mg of straight glutamine supplemant after long runs, and took a protein supplemant everyday that has about 3000mg of the stuff. I can say that my problems seem to have gone away, and my legs feel about as good as they have in quite a while.

Causality? Could be. A deficiency in Keith body that other's might not have? Could be. The point though is there is little downside to glutamine supplementation, and big potential upside. My PhD friends might point out that there is fear that glutamine supplementation could cause an undiagnosed cancer to spread like wildfire (remember, every cellular division, including cancerous ones, need glutamine). The only study I've ever seen on the topic (a well constructred breast cancer study) showed no increase in metastasisation due to glutamine supplementation, so the fear seems, at least, somewhat overstated. Again, we're not talking about lots ... let's just top off the tank to make sure that, as you tax your body, you are getting enough of this critical amino acid.

GNC 100% Whey Protein supplement has a good amount of glutamine in it, or you can simply buy the supplement at the same place.

I encourage all you marathoners to consider trying it. Start slow, of course, making sure you have no ill effects. Perhaps you just consider taking it after long runs? Maybe, if you already take protein containing glutamine, you just make sure you take it daily, and maybe hit it extra hard after high milage. You just might find yourself healing faster and feeling better than you have in a long while!

Friday, August 3, 2007

4 miles + 2 Shiners

Topic: Tempo running and tempo drinking
Key Words: Tempo, "Working from Home", Double Fisting
Next Likely Topic: 15 Miles and Some Furniture

I've been saying I would describe my Chicago travel plans for a few days ... but I still don't have Chicago travel plans! Getting close to having them though ....

Last night (Thursday), I went to Memorial and did a tempo run; 1 mile easy, 2 miles hard, 1 mile easy. I wanted to run the easy miles around 10:30 to 11:00, which is the pace I should be running my Saturday long runs, and bang out the fast part in about 9 min/mile. It was kind of hard to keep my foot on the brake, but I did the slow first mile in about 10:45 and then struck out for the fast part. I can say that for the first 3/4 of a mile, I could tell I hadn't ran "fast" since Alaska .... my lungs were protesting. I stuck through it, started my "just run to the next tree" trick, and my body slowly stopped protesting. The next two miles were 8:56 and 8:43. Though I was BLASTED after that (and completely drenched), it was good to run fast. No terrible pain, and today, I feel pretty good. I contribute the two post run Shiners to my legs feeling good today (I took the first one easy, trying to pace myself as if it were a long spell of drinking, then I hit the next one hard, trying to improve on my VBeerMax).

Tomorrow is 15 miles ... I'm not terribly excited! I think it will be a challenge for me given my lack of mileage over the past month. The goal ... nice and slow and even. I hope to make it to at least 12 miles before things get rough.

And for good news ... I'm at home at 2PM on a Friday! We had a lunch downtown, and my planning co-worker asked the boss if we could both head home "to work" after the lunch .... he said sure ... and here I am ... working :o) Actually, I'll double fisting; I have the work laptop up and running in case something comes up.

If you've got running plans this weekend, have a good one!

Wednesday, August 1, 2007

Speed Workout Update

Key Words: Clean Running Shorts, Polar or Garmin, Nail Gun
Word Count: 400
Next Likely Topic: Chicago Travel Plans

Well I'm glad to say I survived the day after the speed workout! Unlike last weeks speed workout, which was much less grueling than yesterday's Yassos, today brought only mild leg stiffness, and that can probably be attributed to the fact that it was my first run in eight days! I'm still experiencing some pains in the hammy, but I think the healing progress is still progressing; a good thing. Hopefully the next few long runs will go well, and then I can pronounce myself well, and just maybe consider stepping it up to four runs a week.

Today was just a short bike ride, but tomorrow will hopefully be some kind of tempo run (I hope I have clean running shorts :-o ... better go check). Oh, and to follow up on the late birthday gift I was to get myself, one of the girls at speed training had a version of the Polar watch I was thinking of buying .... still got to figure out if it's time to step into the world of high tech running, and then whether Polar or Garmin.

Now a new feature: the Leon Tax update! As I may have mentioned before, the Leon Tax is the high cable bill I have since Leon loves his TV. I've been trying to get more out of the tax by cruising the movie channels late at night (which is hurting my sleep time; I really need to stop). Last night's flick - Final Destination 3! You may have seen the first one (not bad, for a blood and gore movie), but I think this one went straight to DVD. Still though, the occasionally dismissal from this world via nail gun is just plain funny! It's one of those movies where you find yourself yelling "LAWD GIRL, DON'T FALL ON THE NAIL GUNNN .... dang, helluva way to go." Oddly entertaining! Unfortunately, I'm a sucker for Star Wars movies, Matrix movies (even the bad ones), and "V for Vendetta" .... hopefully, in the name of sleep, none will be playing tonight. Oh, and if you get a chance to watch "Thank You for Smoking", do so, it's a really good flick that most everyone seems to like once they watch it.