Posts from — February 2008

Ah well, the unexpected has happened and it appears that I will be taking two days off from training this week. I hate when that happens, which is why I never plan for a day off or let myself slack very often. You never know when something beyond your control is going to come up and force you to miss a workout. When this happens, I begin to start feeling all out of shape. I need to keep up with a regular dose of exercise to feel normal.

My first day off was Monday. I had intended to spin on my trainer after I got home from work, but I was feeling a little lazy so I said that I’d do it after dinner. Well, that was the end of that. I sat on my couch after eating and promptly started to fall asleep. I just decided to screw the workout and went up to bed at 8pm. I guess I needed the sleep, because I slept through the night without any sleep aids until 7am the next morning. In fact, I wanted to sleep longer, work was my unfortunate reality.

Tuesday night though I got back into the swing of things. I had my regularly scheduled run with my friend Larry and we headed out to Prospect Park for a couple of loops (we ran 8.1 miles in 1:11:11). At first I was a little worried about doing this run. On Monday morning, my shin was hurting pretty badly and by Tuesday night it was only somewhat better. So far my method of ignoring the pain and hoping it will go away has been working, but if the pain starts to get any worse, I fear that I may have to revisit that strategy for dealing with the injury.

So anyway, it was with a bit of trepidation that I went out and hoped that the pain wouldn’t get any worse. I was feeling ok during the first few miles and I began to relax. The pain was there, but nothing too bad. At just before midway into the run, I remembered about a website on Chi Running that my Twitter friend Gracie told me about. It espouses the idea of running with a more forefoot stride. I changed myself to a forefoot stride a couple of years ago and that had been very successful until relatively recently. In fact it worked until I came back from an injury to my left hipflexor back in September of last year. Thinking about Chi Running, I realized for the first time that perhaps my stride had changed a bit since I came back from that injury. That could explain why my left shin has been such a problem lately. So I re-concentrated on landing forefoot, especially with my left foot and noticed an improvement in the way my left shin felt. It wasn’t much but it was progress.

I guess the real test came this morning when I first started to walk around. I was expecting the type of pain that I had on Monday morning, but it just wasn’t there. The shin was painful alright, but it felt different somehow. It was the type of pain I could definitely deal with, even if it is always present. I’ll just need to pay a little more attention to my stride, until really landing forefoot once again becomes natural.

So this leads me up to today (Wednesday), in which I need to take another day off from training. I have a school event to go to for one of my children that will take me into late this evening, so I have no chance of an evening workout. I suppose I could have made sure I got to bed real early last night, so I could have done a workout this morning, but I just didn’t feel like making myself go to sleep. In the past, I would take an Ambien to force myself to go to sleep, but that doesn’t really work for me anymore. My body has learned how to fight it off and stay awake right through it. So basically I am annoyed at myself right now for getting myself into a situation where I miss two workouts in a week.

Maybe that is a good thing though. Every time this happens to me, which isn’t too often, I get hard on myself and tell myself that it is time to focus and recommit. Every now and then I need to reset myself and get my act in gear. I have a big race coming up and I can’t be fooling around with it. What I put in today will show up tomorrow. It is all cumulative. If I don’t put it in now, I won’t have it to draw upon when I need it most.

Superbowl Sunday, 2/3/08

What a glorious day to be alive. It was cool, but not cold, clear and sunny with just the hint of a breeze. The perfect day for another running of the NYRR Gridiron Classic; an easy 4 mile run through Central Park. I had planned to once again run to the start, but I woke up too late to do so. But I wasn’t to worry, as I was able to get a lift to the start from my friend Chris (he was also doing the race) who lives next to me and was good enough to give me a ride. I am glad that this is the way it worked out. Instead of running to the start while it was still dark, I got to run home from the race on a beautiful sunny day.

Chris dropped me off near the NYRR club and then went to park the car. I went into the club to register for the race and then ran into another friend from my triathlon club on the way out. We ran down to the start together and headed to the Longest Football Throw Competition. This race and competition is held every year on Superbowl Sunday. I wasn’t going to participate in the throw, as I don’t have the best of arms, but after watching a bunch of pathetic throws from other guys, I decided to go for it as mine would be no more pathetic than the others.

I made my sad attempt at trying to match the longest throw and then hung around to watch others throw the ball. After a while the competition was over and I headed for the start in hopes of finding and running with my friend Chris. This was impossible as there were just under 5000 other people at this race. I stood up on a road divider to see if I could find him among the masses, but it was to no avail. I was however able to get this cool picture of myself while waiting for the start. As you can see from the picture I lined up pretty far away from the starting line. Usually I line up closer to the 6 minute mile flag, but I knew I wasn’t going to run fast, especially since I still had to run another 10 miles after the race.

I took it real easy while running. It’s nice to do a race without putting pressure on myself to do well. You would think that not trying to run your fastest in a race kind of defeats its purpose, however I was really doing the race just as a way to give myself an excuse to run in the city and to build up the 9 races I need to qualify for the 2009 NYC Marathon. Besides, its run to be running amongst 5000 other people. Since I wasn’t in a rush to get anywhere during the race, I even stopped in the middle of it to use a port-o-san. I still ran that mile in under 9 minutes. The race was only 4 miles and before I knew it, the race was over. I felt like I was barely warming up when I crossed the finish line. The highlight of the race was running behind a really cute girl with a spectacularly hot ass. She made the unfortunate wardrobe choice of wearing a Patriots jersey and a Red Sox cap, but truth be told I didn’t really mind such was the view.

Anyway, after crossing the finish line, I made my way through the finishing crowd, grabbed a cup of water and then made my way out of the park by Columbus Circle. I never run past this area unless I am running late to or from and appointment. On this day I decided to stop and chill out for a while (literally), checked my email and snapped a picture. From there it was over to the West Side Highway for a run down to the Brooklyn Bridge by way of the West Side Greenway.

The view of the Hudson River and New Jersey from the greenway was spectacular. It was so calm and clear and the river was flat as a pancake. On a day like this it seemed as though so many more people should be outside. I felt as though I had the path to myself. I stopped a few times to take pictures along the way. I love to memorialize my runs, especially when I am running in places I haven’t run before. I’ve ridden my bike up and down the Westside dozens of times, but I’ve never run it. It path is flat as can be and a nice and easy run.

I took a couple of pictures along the way down to Chambers Street, where I made my left turn to head to the Brooklyn Bridge. The bridge was a lot more crowded and offers the most amazing views of the city. I’ve run/rode over this bridge so many times and I never get tired of the view. Words can’t describe it and pictures just can’t capture it. You need and IMAX camera to take it all in on film. By the time I got off the bridge I was starting to feel a little hungry. I thought of stopping into Juniors to get some cheesecake, but kept going. I wasn’t that far from home at this point and soon made it back to Prospect Park and then a short mile to home.

Once home I ate, showered and relaxed. I wanted to be rested for the Superbowl party I was going to later on in the day. I brought to the party a batch Guinness (beer) Chocolate Cupcakes that my wife helped me bake. Yummy. Watching the Giants defeat the Patriots was the perfect way to end a fantastic day.

I am a masochist. I guess though that anyone who is into endurance sports is part masochist though. How else to explain why people push themselves through such great lengths to complete a grueling endurance event. The pain that they receive brings to them a certain level of pleasure, especially when the complete the event that they set out to do. That is a good pain.

These days though, I am experiencing a bad pain. The pain in my shins is really becoming a problem. It hasn’t stopped me from running yet, but the pain is almost always present. I am trying hard to convince myself that what I am feeling is pleasure. I need to rewire my mind so that I view this discomfit (understatement) that I am feeling in my shins should be relished the same way as I relish the feel of muscle soreness after a good hard workout. Only difference is that this soreness never goes away. I get to experience the pleasure of it all the time. I guess I am taking my masochism to a new level. I just don’t give a fuck this time around. I’ve let shin pain sideline me for several races in my life and I am fed up with it. I will command my body to do what my mind wants it to do regardless of the way my body feels about it. I will keep taking another running step until the point comes that my leg collapses because it is no longer able to bear my weight. Maybe then I’ll go for the amputation and run with one of those new fangled artificial running legs.

Pain is a very interesting thing. Some people are addicted to it like a drug and actively seek it out. For me, part of it is how good it feels once the pain is gone. The sense of relief and release stimulates endorphins in me and makes me feel good. I enjoy knowing that I got myself to the point of such hurt. What is pain anyway but the remembrance of it? Once it is gone, it’s over. It’s like it never really happened.

I’ve wondered what some people would do if presented with the opportunity to become filthy rich if they endured the worst horrific and agonizing pain they could imagine for 24 hours. Would they do it? Probably not, but then add into the equation that they would have no recollection of what they went through over the 24 hour period. Once the 24 hours is up, it would be like they fell asleep and just woke up with no memory of what they went through. Would it have ever really happened? Would you do it then?

Maybe I’ll do some permanent damage to myself and always have a pain in my leg. I wonder though if every time I feel the pain, I’ll look back and smile over the achievements I accomplished that caused what I am feeling now. Will it have been worth it? Right now I believe it will have been.

So anyway, getting back to the training I’ve done this week, it’s been pretty uneventful so far. Monday I did an easy one hour spin on my bike after I got home from work. I worked up a nice sweat, but didn’t push myself all that hard. Tuesday night was a good workout. I went out with my friend Larry and we did two loops of a virtually deserted Prospect Park. The park was so empty that it felt more like 2am, rather than 7pm. We talked about various shit, but especially the VT100 from the time he did it. I am amazed at how much recollection he has of the event. To help me remember it and to keep my friends informed of my progress, I plan on doing an Utterz every 10 miles or so. I should be very interesting to go back and hear how I sounded as the race progressed.

Wednesday night I wasn’t sure what I was going to do. I was supposed to swim, but that is such a pain in the ass. I decided to skip the pool and spin on my bike for a while instead. My coach tells me it doesn’t matter what I do, that Wednesday s and Fridays are just recovery. I have to say that as of right now, training for a 100 mile running race has been a lot easier than training for an Ironman. But tell me to say that again when I start doing back to back 40 miles on the weekends.

Tonight I downed 3 ibuprofin and took my aching shins out for an 8 mile run. At first my shins were hurting and with every step it was as if someone was tapping the insides of my shins with a hammer. However, as the run progress, the pain from the hammer tapping diminished and I was able to resume a normal running pace. I was able to space out during the run and get myself into that runner’s zone where things just start to flow. As I slowly progress towards 8 miles, I began to get confidence that I will indeed be able to run the VT100. I have seriously doubted it from the way my shins have been feeling, but if how they feel now is the worse they will get, I will be able to handle the pain. It’s already becoming something I am accustomed to feeling all of the time, sort of like being accustomed to always have tired legs when you climb up a flight of stairs. I finished these 8 miles strong and filled with the confidence that I will have what it takes come this July. Does a mid-week run get any better than that?