Thank You Cleveland!!!

Nats: 10-18, 0.357

Cleveland Indians: 11-20, 0.355

And, they live in Cleveland...

Nats staN

Well, I am suffering through another lame effort. When will I learn? Manny seems completely detatched from the game, just mechanically going through the files in the inbox. On the bright side, Hanrahan seems to have found the strike zone and big Zim seems to be locked in. Willie is doing his thing and Dunn makes me smile---because he reminds of Ricky Bobby. And, I guess being a fan of the home team is better than being a fan of somebody else's home team.

philly post mortem

The good the bad and the ugly. The good was I finished around 3:18; the bad was I finished around 3:18; the ugly was my post run "monkey butt" as so delicately phrased by an anonymous runner. He spoke the truth, but the pain was intense and it was still below freezing. And the finish was far from the hotel.

Here is a quick overview of the Philly experience. (I know it has been a very long time since I posted, but facebook is easier... and I am sort of lazy.) The course sort of stinks. Mile 4 or 5 was cobblestones. The end of the race is out and back along the Schuylkill river. Boring and cold. In the middle we run up some hills near the fairgrounds, I thought the course was flat and fast. Overall, I give the course a C-.

Race management seemed overwhelmed and the 7 am start made for a very cold late November race in Philly. Little medical support at the end, I just needed a chair so I could put my clothes on... wheel chair would have been nice too. I grade it a C.

Weather was crazy. Below freezing from start to finish, water stations were, as you could imagine, ice stations. The run up the Schuylkill was mostly in the shade whcih made it even worse. Thankfully, the wind was not that much of a factor. Cold, but not miserable, B-.

My performance stunk. Not enough speedwork coupled with an abbreviated training schedule meant I was stupid to run sub 7 at any time during the race. I did and I paid. And, the bathroom break (bad diet management) at the half marathon point cost me 4 minutes. Other small issues were the knee pain the developed after a Friday easy run and the quad pain that has been around since last summer (it's still around). D-


My p

Running well

I seem to be rounding into shape as my lunch runs are becoming less laborious. It's probably conditioning and the close to perfect weather. I may weigh in this weekend to see where I am, but will likely wait until next week. I plan on a run around Hains point tomorrow, reflect on what we have lost and learned the last couple of years.

Philadelphia

The stars aligned and I pulled the trigger today and signed up for the Philadelphia Marathon. Several important factors led to this seemingly nutcase idea. (1) The race is on November 23, 2008, a comfortable 12 weeks away. (2) It's the Sunday before Thanksgiving; man is that turkey going to taste good. (3) There happens to be a professional conference in Philly for me the Thursday through Saturday before the race. (4) My last two long runs, 16 and 18 miles, though not easy, were not complete disasters. (5) Ian's sleep patterns have improved tremendously. And finally, (6) Kelly realized running Steve is more interesting than sedentary (relatively) Steve, thus, Saturday mornings can be reserved for long runs. I have not decided on a goal pace, more than likely it'll be in the "just finish" neighborhood.

By the way, that weight thing played a role too. After the 16 miler I weighed in at 177.5 after fully hydrating. So, I have some work cut out for me. Ideally, I can get down to 170 or which is about 2 pounds a month. With higher mileage and fewer adult beverages, I should get there.

Graeme wants to type a GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG....

Until next time (hopefully sooner rather than later).

179.5 and sick

Almost without fail, I get sick every two weeks. Typically it is some sort of head cold or cough that is more irritating than debillitating. Running is not fun because I have to run more slowly than desired and I can't breathe. This week has been particularly frustrating because the noon-time weather has been perfect for running. I slogged through my routine run today and the pace was OK. But, I had new shoes and the weather was perfect. Should have been a tempo run. I keep telling myself that I would rather run relatively slow and spend time with my boys, but I really do want to train seriously for a race before I'm 50. The whole weight thing will solve itself if I had a goal race to train for....

Whatever, I run enough to still identify myself as a runner, that's good enough.

Bridges Run

Yesterday, I identified one of my lunch runs as the "bridges run." I work on Capitol Hill in DC and this run starts at the top of said hill. After a nice little warm up trotting down the hill, I run along the mall in a westerly direction, dodging leagues of school kids acting like, well, school kids. The construction that is the Folklife Festival preparation has added additional impediments, but on the whole, the mall is a great place to run. The WWII memorial is a choke point, which is a good thing. About once a week, a group of elderly veterans, many in wheel chairs, will cluster around the memorial. I cannot imagine the memories that well up in those guys; I'm glad they now have their spot on the mall.

The run continues over the memorial bridge, with the Arlington House in clear view. I loop down to the Mt. Vernon Trail and run south (more or less) to the 14th st. bridge. This part is unpleasant, unless you have run the Marine Corps Marathon. Running next to the interstate is better than running on the interstate as one does in the MCM. At least on my run, you can look down at the water and imagine how good it would feel to be in the water. In the MCM, there's no view from the HOV lanes. A run through the grass field adjacent to the Jefferson Memorial and over a wee little bridge separating the tidal basin from the washington channel, leaves me at the best spot to watch the MCM (Mike will attest to that). A short run north on 15th st. gets me back to the mall where I head east and back to work. Blech. Anyway, after that run I can scratch 7.3 miles in my log and I have run through two states (well, a District and a Commomwealth) and three bridges. I will have run past the US Capitol, the Washington Monument, WWII and Korean War Memorials, Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials, and run past Arlington Cemetary. Not bad for under an hour.