End of the 2007 Running Season

Happy New Year

With the Jingle Bell Jog 8K a few weeks ago, the end of the 2007 running season is here and I thought I'd post my thoughts for posterity.

My 2007 was a mixed bag. Things were good in that I set a number of personal records (PR) for various distances. Bad in that I had a much more ambitious race schedule but was thwarted by a variety of injuries. Each year I think I'm running smarter than the last but I've yet to have an injury-free season ever.

Injuries are part of running, so the best thing you can do is try to prevent them through smart training and recuperation. When that fails, pay attention to your body and take preventative measures as soon as you sense something is wrong. The problem is that a lot of runners are hard-headed, and I'm no exception. When everything points to an injury and rest is the prescription, we tend to run, often harder, and that results in more trouble. That practice kept me out of the Riley's Rumble Half-Marathon, Annapolis 10-Mile Run, the Parks Half Marathon and a couple other events.

On the other side of the coin I set PRs in the Rockville 10K, World Wide Half-Marathon, Rockville Twilight 8K, Bethesda Trolley 5-Miler, plus came within about 6-seconds of setting another PR in the Chevy Chase Turkey Chase.

2008bulbs-optb

While the positives are well, positive, I tend to focus on the negative or what could have been. Here's what I learned over the course of the season:

• (1) Set a goal, (2) Develop a plan, (3) Stick to it. The third thing is the one that challenges me the most.
• Running more frequently during the week at shorter distances kept my body more acclimated to the pounding;
• I prepared better nutrition-wise for weekend long runs (add carbs and experimenting with race day meals);
• Adding a short run the day before a long run or race kept my body loose and made the first few miles of those events a lot easier;
• Base Training might be the key to much success. Listen to this, Base Training, to get a great education.

Given this new found knowledge I'm anxious for next season to start so I can build on these 2007 experiences. At this point I'm flirting with the idea of doing another marathon since I think I can make it through the training injury-free. More on that in a future post.

2007 Jingle Bell Jog 8K

Jingle Bell Jog 2007

Today (Sunday, December 16, 2007) was the final race on my 2007 calendar - the Jingle Bell Jog 8K in Rockville, MD. This is the final race of the Montgomery County Road Runners Club Championship Series. I had planned to participate in this but injuries and schedule conflicts kept me from making the 5-run minimum for consideration.

Jingle Bell Logo

The race started at 9am and I was still in bed at 8am, unsure if I was going to run. The night before, I told Lynn that I would likely run if it was not raining when I got up. Turned out that the weather was a lot better then the sleet and rain mix they had been calling for 24-hours prior. A fine mist came down throughout with temps about 34 degrees and not much wind. When I got home it started to pour, so we were lucky. The biggest issue with the weather was that I dressed too warmly.

Jingle Bell Jog-1

About 280 people ran this race which started at the Rockville Senior Center and wound through a number of parks and residential neighborhoods. The course was billed as one of “rolling hills” – in other words, just plain hilly. This was not an event to attempt a personal record. The ground was wet, covered with leaves and portions were run on uneven asphalt park trails and side walk with a lot of tight turns. There were also many single-file areas, so if you got behind slower runners, you had to wait to safely pass.

Jingle Bell Jog-2

My plan was to be as competitive as conditions allowed but mainly run for fun. I was doing well with that plan until about 2.5-miles in when my Achilles started to hurt. The pain increased over the next mile and I thought I might have to walk (I didn’t). At first I thought it was something I could run through but eventually it became apparent that I had hurt myself. So I fought that mental battle until the end.

Jingle Bell Jog-3

Other then that, the run was uneventful - as far as I knew. When I was back in the Senior Center, post-race, a guy came up to me and asked if that deer had scared me. I had no idea what he was talking about. Well somewhere on the course he was running about 50-yards behind me when a huge deer, according to him, came running out of the woods and apparently almost ran me over! He yelled, “DEER!!”, which I heard, but since my hat was low on my eyes, it blocked some of my peripheral vision. The guy said he was positive I was going to get run over and need an ambulance. He remarked that if the deer didn’t hit me, I surely felt the wind as it rushed past me. He said that I was running alone at this point so the deer probably thought it was safe to make a dash. Either that or it was just spooked. Anyway, I laugh at the thought of being broadsided by a deer. That would be a good story to tell.

With the results in, I ran the 8K in 37:10 (7:29-mile pace) which put me 44^th out of 136 men and 14^th out of 24 for my age group (the 40-44 year old men were booking!). My overall finish was 50^th place out of 244. The only lingering issue is my Achilles, which is very stiff right now. Fortunately I don’t plan on doing another race until January 19, at the earliest, and I should be fine by then.

So the 2007 Jingle Bell Jog was a success and thanks to the race directors and volunteers who did their best to clear the paths and direct traffic.

Winter Blahs and Running

With Winter upon us in North America, the DC area has entered a particularly ugly time of year. We just had our first snow this past week, followed by temps in the 40’s. The result is the brown and grey colors that cover the area until Spring. When combined with the shorter days, I’m left in a general funk.

Normally I turn to running as a mental release but that becomes difficult during the week when it’s dark when I leave for work and dark when I return. As a result, I am running more on the weekends (almost 20-miles over two days) and tempting injury.

Grey, Brown, Winter, YUCK! Dec 9, 2007

Today I ran about 11-miles at a leisurely average pace of 7:50/mi. My main reason for going out was the elusive search for an attitude adjustment. Work has been increasingly stressful (do I hear a faint voice yelling mid-life crisis) and the lack of sun has just compounded my doldrums. Conditions when I went out were as seen in the picture with temps 38-40. While nothing to look at, the environment was perfect for a long run, even if my mindset wasn’t.

To help focus my thoughts, I took Steve Runner and Phedippidations 125: Running Legend Billy Mills with me. Billy’s story is very inspirational and I recommend everyone giving it a lesson. Around 4.5-miles in, some traditional Native American music was playing and I looked up to see a very large, fog encroached field with a beautiful farmhouse sitting in the distance. At that instance it occurred to me I had been looking at my problems all wrong. Instead of the ugliness I felt around me and professional dissatisfaction, things were very pretty and opportunities abound. Life was just different then what I might normally expect. Then before I had a chance to let that sink in, my view became obstructed by construction on a new housing development, office buildings and large parking lots. So much for my enlightenment. It appeared that the elusive attitude adjustment would have to wait for another day.

Back in my state of disillusionment, the remaining 7 miles or so went by in a mental numbness. My body guiding me along a familiar route and my thoughts focused on absolutely nothing. I wish I could say that I ended with some inspiration but the stars just were not in the proper alignment I suppose. Instead of the 180-degree personality flip I was hoping for, I returned with, maybe, a 90-degree change for the positive – better than nothing but remaining less than satisfactory.

This time of year is always difficult for me for a variety of reasons. I am thankful that I have a positive outlet for the stress (running), but the opportunities to get out there are not as frequent as I would like (running in the dark on snowy/icy streets is not advisable) and I feel the need for real change, new challenges, but I’m short on ideas. Hopefully something comes to me soon.