RunningRamblings

Podcast Alley Feed

2008-05-15T18:39:00.001-04:00

My Podcast Alley feed! {pca-c8cc1197d6a8a3332ee7d602960e723e}

RunningRamblings #0004: Mighty Mice

2008-02-16T22:27:00.003-05:00

This week we run in Seneca Creek State Park located in Gaithersburg, MD and talk about the possible causes of muscle exhaustion. I also ramble a bit about cheaters.

If you are looking for some good episodes of Phedippidations, check out this thread.

Music this week includes Introvert 5 from base-box, Light Longing from Catya Mare, plus the songs Music Chair and Blue Shirt from my friend Drew Gibson. You can visit Drew on the web by hitting; www.drew-gibson.com (don't forget the hyphen) or www.myspace.com/drewgibson.

All music provided on this episode of Running Ramblings comes courtesy of the PodShow Podsafe Music Network. Check it out at http://music.podshow.com.

Special thanks to Kevin (www.theextramilepodcast.com), MarathonChris (http://marathonchris.blogspot.com/), and Krister (www.runningthenarrowpath.blogspot.com), who all provided some feedback this week. Make sure you visit their blogs and checkout their running podcasts.

For the latest in the RunningRamblings world, go to www.runningramblings.com. I really enjoy receiving your feedback, so feel free to send e-mail and audio comments to runningramblings@gmail.com, or leave a comment on iTunes.

RunningRamblings #0003: Obtaining Balance

2008-02-10T22:42:00.001-05:00

Well it wasn't easy, but I finally got this week’s episode of RunningRamblings posted. We are having Internet problems that likely will not be fixed until Wednesday or Thursday. After about four unsuccessful attempts at getting this online, I finally connected my Treo to my laptop and uploaded it that way. Upload speeds were really slow but it got the job done. I hope you enjoy this episode.

This week we take a short run along the Capital Crescent Trail in Chevy Chase, Maryland, http://www.cctrail.org/, and talk a bit about obtaining balance in your life. We also discuss one of our favorite running podcasts, Phedippidations, taking a break.

Music this week includes Sophisticated from Savoir Vivre, The Real You from Black Lab, and Drum Dub from Lion of Joppa Soundsystem.

All music provided on this episode of Running Ramblings comes courtesy of the PodShow Podsafe Music Network. Check it out at music.podshow.com at http://music.podshow.com

Visit the RunningRamblings blog for the latest in the RunningRamblings world, www.runningramblings.com. You can also e-mail comments and suggestions to runningramblings@gmail.com

Use this feed with your RSS reader: http://www.podshow.com/feeds/runningrambling.xml

Copy this link into iTunes to subscribe: itpc://www.podshow.com/feeds/runningrambling.xml or search iTUnes for RunningRamblings.

RunningRamblings Podcast

2008-02-03T13:31:00.000-05:00

This might seem a little backwards but I'm cross-posting this from another blog I have. I need to pair-down some of this stuff.

Hey folks, guess what? I decided to start a podcast. Since I listen to so many of them, I thought I'd produce my own and maybe someone will enjoy it. I guess it's just my way of giving a little back to the community that spends time creating so much really good, free, content. It's fun to do in any event. If you are wondering what a podcast is, I explain a little in this post, http://marlyns.vox.com/library/post/financial-aid-information.html. You can also find a bunch of info here, http://www.apple.com/itunes/store/podcastsfaq.html.

So my show is called RunningRamblings and you can find it on iTunes by searching for RunningRamblings or The Rambling Runner. If you are into RSS feeds, you can use this one, http://www.podshow.com/feeds/runningrambling.xml, for new episodes.

The idea is that I'm going to produce a weekly show recorded while I train and just blab about whatever comes to my mind. In reality, I'm going to need some type of agenda because I'm not nearly as entertaining as I thought I'd be. Admittedly they kinda suck at this point, but I'm sure they'll get better. My biggest challenge at the moment is trying to remember the show name as I'm talking!

There are two episodes up now RR0001 and RR0002 and I'd really appreciate some comments. You'll notice in iTunes that there are two versions of episode 0001. The one with the 01/27/08 release date is in stereo and has music, so that's the one you should get. I can't figure out how to delete the other. RR0002 should be up now, or in a few hours, and is a report from the Country Road Run from this morning.

Let me know what you think.

RunningRamblings #0002: The Country Road Run

2008-02-03T13:06:00.000-05:00

You may have noticed there was no race report for the January 19, Shooting Star 5-mile run. Why? Because it was freezing and I chickened out. I mean seriously, I had no desire to get out of my warm bed and run in 20-something degree temperatures for a mere 5-miles. Of course, no sooner did I blow that off that I began to feel guilty. So this morning I ran the Country Road Run, another 5-mile race. It was still in the 20's but I figured I needed to get back in the swing of things and this could make up for the Shooting Star.

This race was held in Olney, MD along, as you might imagine, a country road. Despite the fact that it was cold, the run was really good. They just posted results and 290 people ran. I came in 79th with a time of 36:36. 69th out of men, 18/31 in my age group, and a 7:20pace. That's a good time for me considering I hadn't run much the week prior and didn't decide to participate until about 1:00am the night before.

As is usually the case, the food was very good, especially for a club race, and the course marshalls did a wonderful job keeping people aware of cars, ice, etc. Double thumbs-up go to those brave souls manning the water station. I doubt I could pass out water when it's that cold.

Overall, that's about all there is to report. I was able to kill two birds with one stone by participating in the race and creating a podcast. I didn't record while I ran but I did capture some of the pre- and post-race sounds. Give it a listen either here (RunningRamblings #0002) or by subscribing to the feed in iTunes, itpc://www.podshow.com/feeds/runningrambling.xml.

RunningRamblings #1: An Intorduction

2008-01-26T16:16:00.000-05:00

This is the first of, hopefully, many RunningRambling podcasts. Being as this is the inaugural episode, I've kept it short. It's really just a test episode as well as an introduction. So give it a listen and let me know what you think.

2008 Running Campaign

2008-01-13T20:31:00.000-05:00

2008 Campaign

With the New Year upon us, there is no better time to put together a list of running goals for 2008. With 2007 being pretty successful, especially since I didn’t have much of a plan, I’m looking forward to an even better 2008. I have yet to identify any particular time goals for races although I might go for a personal record at the Pike’s Peek.

After writing everything out, I realize that my schedule is about as ambitious as it was last year. Unfortunately I was sidelined by injury a couple of times and those caused me to miss a bunch of events (two half-marathons and a 10-miler). So I suppose I should add “smart training” as a goal as well. My body doesn’t respond well to a lot of fast training (too much pounding) so I’ll be mixing things up this year.

So, without further ado, here’s my 2008 plan:

Completing the Tinkoff 1000: This was an idea started by Adam Tinkoff of The Zen Runner and Another Runner podcasts fame. The idea is to run 1,000 miles in a year. On January 13 I have 44 miles under my feet so I’m on pace for about 1,056. We’ll see how that goes. From April 2007 through the end of the year I did 768 miles, but I’m not sure how many I had prior to April.
Podcasts: I really want to contribute to a running podcast since I listen to a bunch of them and want to give a little payback for the free content fellow runners produce. I’ll probably start contributing to The Extra Mile Podcast.
Shooting Star 5-mile run: January 19, 2008
St. Patrick’s Day 8K: March 9, 2008
Piece of Cake 10-mile race: March 22, 2008
Pike’s Peek 10k race: April 27, 2008
Bethesda Trolley 5 Mile: May 10, 2008
Capital Crescent Run 5k race: June 1, 2008
Rockville Rotary Twilight 8K: July 19, 2008
Riley’s Rumble half marathon (13.1-miles): July 27, 2008
Annapolis 10-mile Run: August 24, 2008
Parks Half Marathon: September 14, 2008
World Wide Half Marathon: Date TBD
Rockville 5K/10K: November 2, 2008
Turkey Chase 10k race: Date TBD
Jingle Bell Jog 8k race: December 14, 2008

End of the 2007 Running Season

2007-12-31T20:44:00.000-05:00

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

2007-12-16T20:49:00.000-05:00

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^thplace 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

2007-12-09T20:58:00.000-05:00

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.

2007 Turkey Chase 10K

2007-11-22T21:03:00.000-05:00

One of the great things about being a runner in this area is that on any weekend there is always a race to do, generally within 30-miles of where you may happen to be. Thanksgiving is no exception and this morning I started turkey day with a nice, pre-dinner 10K run with 7,000+ fellow runners in Bethesda, MD at the

25th YMCA Bethesda-Chevy Chase Turkey Chase. The first time I participated in this race was last year after being too lazy to get up that early the past few

years. Actually, it wasn't the getting up that was the problem but me being a chicken (turkey?) about the chilly weather. However, I had so much fun last year, despite the cold, that I decided to run it annually. My run went pretty well in 2006 with a 34th place finish out of 247 in my age group (151th out of 1,033 men, and tied for 174th out of 1,882 overall) at a time of 46:18 (avg. 7:28 min/mile). My personal record for a 10K is 44:29 (avg. 7:10 min/mile) set earlier this month at the Rockville 10K/5K.

Today was just perfect weather-wise. About 60 degrees and partly sunny at the start my myself and over 7,000 fellow turkey chasers. This race is the largest in Montgomery County and represented by many families. About 3,600 were registered for the 10K and a similar amount for the 2-mile walk/run. I wasn't expecting to do much today since I hadn't been eating well (for racing) and my training the past few weeks had been poor (very long runs on the weekends and almost no running during the week). Last night and the night before I woke up with really bad phantom pain in my hamstring, a left over for my injury a few months ago.

This race had a wave start (6:30/mile and faster, 6:30-8:00/mile half-fast, haha, and 8:00/mile and beyond). My plan was to start with the 6:30-8:00 group and see how it went. The course is very hilly and I knew that I'd probably start out too fast, which I did. Miles 1 and 2 went by in 6:45 and 6:56 respectively. Once the hills began, and I started to run out of steam, I did miles 3, 4, and 5 in 7:18, 7:46, and 7:24. The final 1.2 miles are pretty flat and I was able to pick up the pace to 7:03 and a major sprint for the last 0.2 at a 5:31 pace.

Around the start of mile 5, I heard a guy running next to me encouraging a fellow runner but I didn't see anyone. Then I noticed that a tiny girl (12-years old and maybe 80lbs) was running next to him. Now we were going at a good pace, so it was pretty impressive to see this kid. She was running with her firefighter dad and he was pacing her. I thought there is no way I'm letting this girl finish ahead of me but she was flying. Ultimately I pulled ahead and crossed the finish line about 7-seconds in front but, wow, what a race for her. Her chip time was only 1-second slower then me! My sprint to the end was driven by a 15-yeard old girl, who was determined to beat me. I had other ideas and we ran the last 0.2 miles shoulder-to-shoulder and she matched every bit of acceleration I threw in. However, in the end, she too went down and I beat her by literally 2 or 3 steps. My chip time was about 8-seconds faster. How pathetic is it that I'm getting any satisfaction out of finishing ahead of little girls?!?!? Man, am I lame. :-)

Speaking of kids, this race encourages participation of high school kids. When you register, you can select a school to sponsor and I did Northwest, Bria's school. It was interesting to see all the kids in my starting group and the number that passed me in the first few miles, only to run out of gas later in the race. All of the kids I'm speaking of looked like they ran track and were in good shape. I attribute most of their performances to lack of experience in pacing. It's so easy to let your adreneline get the best of you in the early stage of a race. Nevertheless, it was great to see so many kids in the event.

So how did I finish? Well I think I either set a PR or missed it by a few seconds (the results haven't been posted yet). My watch time was 44:37 with an average pace of 7:08/mi., so that would mean I missed a PR by 8 seconds, but this course is much tougher then the one in which I PR'ed. With the results now posted, I placeed 171 out of 1,748 men (34 out of 435 in my age group) in 45:57-gun time and 44:37 actual time. Overall I was 185 out of 3,317 finishers. So I did in fact miss a PR by 8 seconds, but that's just fine considering I didn't expect to run so well. The 2007 Turkey Chase was a great way to start the day and I'm looking forward to the 2008 event. Gobble, Gobble!!