Posts from — January 2010

Well it was not quite a triple half marathon, but almost.  I ran 36 total miles and would have gone the 39.3 to make it a triple, but my running partner didn’t see the appeal of going for that distance so I just went home as my odometer clicked 36 about a block from home.  All summed up it was a beautiful day.  Here is the day’s recap.

My friends @aristorat, RY and one other got started at 5:30am under the cover of darkness.  This was the second year in a row for us to run to the Manhattan Half Marathon (MHM) and the conditions this year was a vast improvement over the previous.  The temps were in the 40’s under an overcast sky as opposed to 14 degrees from the previous.

I wasn’t sure how I would do this year.  As I’ve been mentioning, I’ve been fighting injury and malaise and don’t have any sort of training distance in me to warrant attempting a 25-35 mile run.  However, I was in the right frame of mind, so I figured I would give it a go.  RY set out on a moderate pace from the start and I asked him to back it down a notch.  I was going to play the run conservative and I was not going to expend a lot of energy so early in the day.  He was agreeable to running slower and from hence forth we set out comfortably into Manhattan via the Manhattan Bridge.  We ran to 12^th Street and 4^th Avenue and took our first rest break in a Starbucks.

I took the rest break opportunity to shed some clothes as I was over dressed.  RY and his friend took off from @aristorat and me since they still had to pick up race numbers.  @aristorat and I used the bathrooms, had some water and then set off for Central Park.  Along the way I ran past my work office.  I wanted to see the distance from home as I soon plan to start running home from there.  I am happy that it is a respectable 8 miles which would make a good daily workout, a more pleasant commute and a time saver to boot.  Commuting to work by foot or bike is a good way to save money, get exercise and have a reliable method of transportation.

We ran another 2 miles from my office into Central Park for the start of the MHM.  We got there with approximately 20 minutes to spare, so instead of running some more we just had some water, snacks and relaxed on a bench.  The 20 minutes zipped by though and soon enough we were off running.  @aristorat set out on a more aggressive pace than I was able to maintain and after 2 miles I had to let him go.  The MHM is over two loops of Central Park.  I will admit that the first loop was a bit of a struggle.  However, just as I was finishing the first loop, I took a Hammer Gel and by the 7 mile I was feeling much better.  My pace improved and I had a new found energy.  In fact I negative split the race.

I had a nice runner’s high by the time I finished and I felt good enough to run home.  Had I not felt good enough to run home, my fall back plan was to join fellow running and tweeter @BklynRunner for brunch nearby.  I found @aristorat and RY at the finish of the race and I talked them into at least stopping by the brunch location so I could say hello and meet @BklynRunner.  It turns out that I knew one of her friends, the tough as nails runner @cdopher.  When we met up with the brunch crowd we were at 25 total miles.  Everyone was amazed at the amount of miles we were running, but honestly it is nothing once you put the training in.  We didn’t stay for long and soon set out for the West Side Highway for the trip south to the Brooklyn Bridge.

The run along the WSH was pleasant and uneventful.  We made a couple of stops along the way for water and bathrooms, but otherwise held a steady pace until the Brooklyn Bridge.  There we came across our usual Hot Dog Cart Vendor and bought some water and chatted a bit.  People say that my friends and I are hard core for running the distances we do in all many of weather.  I’ll tell you what though, being a Hot Dog Cart vendor on the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge throughout the year is hard core.

The run over the bridge was pretty as always, but also filled with oblivious tourists with which you have to dodge and weave between.  It’s a pain in the ass to run over, but the view makes up for it.  Once off the bridge, it was through the neighborhoods of Downtown Brooklyn, Cobble Hill, Park Slope and then into Prospect Park.  I always love saying that I ran in NYC’s two great parks in the same day.  I tried to talk @aristorat into going for a loop of Prospect Park to complete the triple, but he was having none of it.  I thought of calling another friend to talk him into going a few miles with me, but as we exited the park my odometer turned 36 miles and I was only a block or so from home.  I decided to just end the run and call it a day.

I am very happy with my effort and I am still riding the endorphin high from it.  I have no idea where the strength came from to do such a run, especially since I have had nowhere near the training miles necessary to put in a marathon effort, much less an effort of 36 miles.  @aristorat tells me that the strength has always been inside me, built up from the number of years Ironman training.  I just have to get my mind out of the way to release the inner Beast inside me.  If it wasn’t for the mind, just give the body some fuel and you can probably go on forever.

Next up is a 32 mile run around the circumference of Manhattan on January 31.  I am really looking forward to that.  It is a run I’ve always wanted to do.

Since my last post, I’ve been running strong with the exception of 1/11 – 1/15.  The plantar fasciitis in my left foot had been acting up again so I saw my podiatrist to get a cortisone injection.   I had to take off for that week to let the injection settle in and let some of the swelling go down.  A cortisone injection is possibly not the best thing in the world, but it takes the pain away and allows me to run.  If only I would stretch and ice my foot, perhaps the condition would go away.

Unfortunately, Beast Jr has been sick over these past few weeks.  He has come down with a general malaise and is nauseous and with a headache all of the time.  So there has been no running together with him.  So far the doctors are befuddled.  He goes for a second blood test today to rule out more illnesses.  It is weighing on my mind and I wish he would get better.  I want my blossoming running partner back.

Recently, I’ve been talking to someone about our motivations that keep us working out.  One of these motivations is anger, the need to work out the frustration caused by third parties or outside influences.  This motivation has been used through the ages.  I remember as a kid the coaches telling us to vision an older sibling, a parent, teacher or anyone else that we are mad at.  This definitely works and can help us achieve a higher level of fitness and skill than ordinary desire alone.  However, I don’t think it can sustain you long term; although the short term can actually be quite a few years.  Eventually anger burns you out and you need to find some other sort of motivation.  Like a fire though, anger can always come back, igniting once again to get you working out with vigor.

Lately, I’ve been motivated to work out from several factors.  The first and possibly most important is that it is feeling good again (except of course for the plantar fasciitis which feels awful).  Another is a small undercurrent of anger I have in regards to the situation that I find myself in (however, that is off topic and will not be discussed here) and third is a new found support from quarters that I had not expected to receive.  The combination is making me feel good again and desirous to go out and put in the miles.  I guess it is a healthy combination of all three factors that one really needs to keep a person going.  Hopefully this will last for me throughout the year.

It’s been 10 days into the New Year and my goal of running 2010 miles in 2010 is going strong.  I am at exactly 57 miles thus far, which is two miles ahead of schedule.  Today, on the 10^th of January, I set out to run 11 miles.  I figured I needed that much so I could take tomorrow off, but after running only 9 miles, I was close to home and just decided to stop.  When I checked my yearly distance later on I discovered that I had 57 miles on the year.

I think this is a fitting number.  The route I took today is what I call The Big A Memorial run.  It takes me into Greenwood Cemetery so I can visit my father’s final resting place.  My father considered his lucky number to be 57, so I think it wasn’t an accident that on this day, the day my father died (it’s his 1 year anniversary up in the big casino in the sky today) my total yearly mileage turned out to be that number.

Lately, I’ve been having some very vivid dreams.  Several of them have been about my Grandmother, the mother of my father.  I don’t think I’ve ever dreamed about her before and we weren’t particularly close, so I find that she should be appearing in my dreams somewhat interesting.  I can’t remember exactly what the dreams were about, but I am sure in one of them it concerned making sure I finished all of my food.  Maybe it’s her way of telling me to make sure I finish my goal of running 2010 miles this year.

So yes, I am going strong.  I have some outside influences keeping me motivated and I am once again looking forward to running.  The only thing I have to be careful about is staying injury free.  I am battling Plantar Fasciitis and if I am not careful, I will become crippled from it.  I’ve already learned that applying denial to an injury doesn’t work.

So the 2009 holiday season has come and gone and another year had begun.  I finished the 2009 with 1167 running miles.  I will not even mention my swim and bike miles since they are absolutely nothing to speak of.  The only training goal I am setting for 2010 is to run 2010 miles.  It is a lofty goal, but one that I think I should be able to achieve. 

It is already 7 days past the New Year as I write this, but I feel it bears documenting how the New Year went.  So far it has started well.  On New Year’s Eve I got my last run of 2009; a strong 7.5 miles.  I then spent a few hours with my good friend Aristorat at our local pub recounting how 2009 was not one of the better years of our lives and how we made the most out of some difficult situations.  I’ve talked about them ad-infinitem and I have no desire to go back into again on this new year.  We remembered our loved one’s past and toasted towards having a more joyous 2010.  After we left our pub, I then headed with my family to another friends house to boil meat in a vat of boiling oil.  It’s a yearly tradition and it was a pleasurable way to kill off 2009.

New Year’s Day started with a successful 6.6 mile run with Aristorat.  We did what we call The Big A Memorial Run.  This is a run around Greenwood Cemetery in which we stop inside to visit my father.  I asked Dad to watch over me and my family in 2010 and told him I hope he is having a good time up in Heaven.  I am sure he is playing cards, betting on the horses, at the Craps table and chasing women.   I wish I was half the man he was.

After the run, Aristorat and I quickly went home to prepare for the annual Polar Bear plunge into the Atlantic Ocean in Coney Island.  Beast Jr was joining me for the 2^nd year in a row, although I will admit he was a little bit more nervous about it this year than last.  It was very cold last year and I think he was afraid of the suffering that would be involved after he came out of the water, based on his past experience.  He is a trooper though and plunged right in without hesitation.  Aristorat and I met our usual crew, which included our good friend Willie.  This day would be the last time we see Willie for quite some time as he is about to ship off to Afghanistan.  There was a lot to be said about this, but I think everyone was afraid to vocalize it.  We all know what we are thinking.  I pray that he will come back home safely and in one piece. 

Also at the Polar Bear dip was my friend @Brujitalinda.  I don’t get to see her often enough and it was a sincere pleasure to see her in her usual skimpy Polar Bear outfit.  I tried talking her into coming back with us for some Hot Toddies and Chile, but she was having no part of it.  One of these year’s I’ll get her to go.

The 2^nd day of the year I spent skiing with my children and a friend of my daughter’s.  We went to Mohawk Mountain up in the middle of Connecticut.  I hadn’t been on the slopes in exactly 1 year 3 days, but my skiing legs held true and I managed not to fall at all.  My quads felt a little tired as I went down the hills, but I attributed that to being out of shape more than being tired from any running I was doing as of late.  It was a long day of driving and skiing and by the time we got home I was ready for bed.  Having taken the 2^nd day of the year off from running, I was already putting myself in a deficit for my 2010 mileage goal for the year.

On Sunday, the 3^rd, I ran with Aristorat and we did the 2 Bridge run.  This is a run over the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges.  It was cold and windy and we encountered several periods of snow along the way.  I was a little nervous about doing the run as I hadn’t run this far in quite a while and I was coming off of 4 days of decent athletic activity – one of these days which included a double; a 2am drunken run through Prospect Park, followed by a 7pm longish run around Prospect Park on the same day.  However, I was successful in completing the 12.1 mile run; I appear to have broken through my malaise.

I took off Monday, the 4^th of January from running since I was crippled with a stunning migraine headache.  However on the 5^th and 6^th days of the year I ran 7.7 miles and 7 miles respectively.  This put me exactly even with the number of miles I need to run per day (5.5) in order to meet my 2010 running goal.  I am a little tired tonight, Thursday the 6^th, but I am going to go out an attempt the run.  I usually go out with a friend for some libations on Thursday evenings, but I am psyched about my newfound running vigor.  I want to keep my momentum going.  I’ll report back later how I’ve done. – I ran 7 miles…