Mark runs far

Hilly White Clay 7.8 miler

Mark — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 18:23:38 +0000

As I was driving home from Maryland today, I didn’t want to pass up the opportunity to run in one of my favorite places to run — White Clay Creek state park, in Newark, DE just up 896 a few miles north of the University of Delaware. I love it there. There’s a scenic, moderately challenging 3.9 mile trail that circles the park and is constantly going up or down, not much flat. It’s hella fun. I got to the park lot around 10:30am, and took a little nap in my car because I didn’t get much sleep last night after going out in Baltimore with some friends and sleeping on a floor.

I had half an orange and left the other half in the front seat to eat with my half gallon of Gatorade after the first loop. I decided to video tape the first loop on my Flip and I’ll try to add that video later, not sure how it came out but it’s the entirety of the trail from my perspective while running. It decided to get pretty hot while I was running and when I came out of the woods to do the biggest uphill right near the end, the heat hit me hard. My achilles also started feeling… uncomfortable. It didn’t stop me from running and it didn’t affect my gait in any way that I could notice, but I was certainly aware of it and because of that I decided to cut the run at two loops. My fitness right now is absolutely incredible (compared to my fitness at any other point in my life that is) and if I can just maintain that while letting my leg get to 100% so I can run pain free and not have to worry about it anymore, than that’s what I wanna do. Even if that means not running the high mileage that I wish I were doing last week and this week and probably for a few more weeks at least. It’s worth it in the long run. I’m also happy with the pretty consistent pacing from start to finish.

3.9 miles – 34:15
7.8 miles – 1:07:29 (33:14)

North Point 7.2 miler

Mark — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 23:19:07 +0000

I went down to Baltimore County, Maryland today to check out what will become my home for the next year (starting in October) and meet my soon-to-be roommates. I’m going to be on a crew at Gunpowder Falls state park and living in a house inside North Point state park with two other crew members. This is absolutely awesome for me. The house is nice enough — I’ve got my own room, the kitchen is really spacious, we have a gorgeous view of the water from the back deck, etc. But there’s also lots of trails to run on!

I didn’t do much exploring today though. I measured 1.8 miles from the parking lot next to my house to the front entrance of the park with my car. Then I ran it twice. It was mostly on grass/dirt which I liked. And despite feeling like I was going pretty relaxed, yet again the pace seems pretty quick (by my current easy runs standards which may need to be revised some). And I had a big negative split!

3.6 miles – 28:27
7.2 miles – 55:27 (27:00)

I was thinking about doing another 2-3 miles but the park closed and I had to get to Baltimore to hang out with some friends. Plus my achilles was a little sore towards the end so I figured best not to push it unnecessarily.

Haverford nature trail w/ Jess

Mark — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 23:11:43 +0000

Yesterday all I did basically was drive home from Boston with Jess. First to LI to get her car and then to Bryn Mawr where I’ll stay so that I have a shorter drive to Maryland tomorrow (dag yo, I’m quite the travelin’ man!). Today Jess planned on running for an hour, heading over to the Haverford nature trail so I decided to tag along. We did the 1.5 miles there pretty relaxed. I found my legs feeling really good when we got on the trail and I was slowing down some for Jess occasionally. Towards the end of the first loop, she told me to do another and she was gonna sit it out. So I did. It didn’t feel like I increased my effort much, I just felt warmed up on the second loop but man, apparently I was cruising! I did the second loop over two minutes faster than the first, and about as fast as my fastest loop the last time I ran the trail (and at that point it felt REALLY fast!). Today it just felt normal. Then we took it easy back to campus and ended right at the dining hall. Nothing like a good dinner right after a great run

Campus to Haverford Nature trail (1.5 miles)

1.5 miles – 12:43

Haverford Nature Trail (2.25 miles)

3.75 miles – 30:41(17:58)
6.00 miles – 46:36 (15:55)

Trail to campus (1.5 miles)

7.50 miles – 59:36 (13:00)

Impromptu Charles River tempo run

Mark — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 17:09:46 +0000

Today Jess was supposed to run a 4 mile race in the morning. I was going to go with her and run some miles during her warm up/cool down nice and easy. But then last night we dealt with some crap (primarily my car getting towed) and this morning she was underslept and sickish so she didn’t run. I headed to the river to run along the bike path again, wanting to go a little longer than yesterday but realizing I couldn’t go more than 5 or 6 miles because I still had to shower, put on my tux, and get to the wedding at 3pm.

I started where Talia’s race was held, near the Publik Theater. Marathon Sports is so awesome for providing a map of the river complete with all the distances for loops between various bridges along the Charles. The pace was kinda quicker than I had planned at the start. But I felt good, and my achilles felt good, and I decided to just cruise. So I did. The effort was probably slightly slower than a true tempo effort but it’s certainly the fastest I’ve run for any significant duration in a while. And I didn’t start out fast and crawl in, the pace was consistent start to finish. All told it was 5.7 miles in 38:51, about 6:50 pace.

Afterward I did some wallball shots w/ my 25# medicine ball and drove back to the apt to get ready.

Boston run w/ Jess

Mark — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 23:05:22 +0000

Jess and I drove up to Baaahston this morning. We finally got around to running around 5pm. She had to do a half hour shakeout and I figured that’d be good enough for me. The beach running on Monday hurt my Achilles (the same one that I hurt back in May/June). I took Tuesday-Thursday off and it was feeling better, but not 100%, today. We ran a little ways to the Charles River near Cambridge St, ran along the river, and covered about 3.5 miles in the half hour. Good, not terribly challenging, my legs felt a little sluggish which is always the case for me after a couple days off it seems.

Whoops

Mark — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 21:48:30 +0000

So it appears that running almost 10 miles, barefoot, on the sand (which is significantly harder to run in than the track/grass) was not the greatest of ideas. I should have realized this sooner instead of trying to push it more each week. As a result, it seems I’ve aggravated my left Achilles again. It’s not nearly as bad as last time, and a bit higher up on my calf. I’m thinking I will not miss 3 full weeks like last time, but I’ve taken yesterday and today off and will probably do so until the end of the week at the earliest just as a precaution. I’m getting closer to dates that matter (3 races this fall, starting with the Baltimore Marathon Relay October 10th) and I want to be 100% for them, even if that means less mileage/speedwork than I had originally planned. This comes at an ok time and gives me a chance to step back and realize that I’ve ALREADY run more miles this month than the entirety of last September. Keep stuff in perspective, be smart, and don’t panic.

9.6 miles at Jones Beach

Mark — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 18:00:11 +0000

I biked down to Jones Beach a day earlier than usual to do my beach run. This week’s schedule is going to be a bit screwy with the traveling and wedding in Boston this weekend. I got down to the beach feeling pretty good, walked the boardwalk until I got to the West Bathhouse, where I was starting today. I decided to run east instead of west because it gave me the ability to run to Tobay which was a little further than my normal route.

This was a pretty fun and pretty tough run. There were really no spots where the sand was wet but firm. I was either running on the dry sand that caused lots of slipping or the wet sand where I was sinking in, occasionally up to my knees. I was soaked a couple times, although the water did feel nice. My splits were pretty even too, which makes me happy. All told, 9.6 miles in 1:26:13.

The only other thing of note about today’s run is… apparently if you go west of Field 5, it turns into a clothing optional beach. This would have been awesome for me if the beachgoers there were mostly young, hot women. However, I don’t think such beaches exist in real life, or I’ve not found them yet. 95% of the people were gay men. And about half of them were totally naked. I have absolutely nothing against gayness or nudity, but I was totally not expecting to see both so prominently displayed. After a bit of initial WTFness, I settled back in, ran to Tobay, turned around, and ran back. My right calf is a little tight/sore, but it’s not the achilles so I’ll just use some heat on it tonight and make sure to Stick it thoroughly.

Easy 6.6 miler

Mark — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 01:45:24 +0000

There was some craziness in the house around dinner time and it caused me to alter my plans for this evening’s run a bit. I had planned on going up to the track for 6.4 miles around the fields, but by the time I headed out, I knew the lights would be shutting on me about 2 miles in. So I did my usual Wantagh Ave route with the extension around the soccer field. I felt a bit off mentally at the start. My pace was easy, but I was sweating quite a bit. I stopped around a mile in to re-tie my right shoe and then got caught at a light or two. Overall, 6.6 miles in 58:27. The pace was on the slowish side but that’s fine. A good end to a very successful cutback week (successful in that I feel re-charged and have no weird/disconcerting aches or pains now). All told I ran 70.2 miles this week, pretty much right on for a 25% cut from last week’s 93+

Now I’ll be ramping back up, but I have to do a little juggling with the schedule because I’ll be traveling to Boston on Friday for my cousin’s wedding Saturday. Regardless, I WILL run 90 miles this coming week. Cluck, cluck, cluck.

Recovery 5 miler

Mark — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 17:00:41 +0000

Went up to the track today to do an easy recovery run. After yesterday’s effort I had NO problem keeping the pace nice and easy. I did the whole thing barefoot on the track, and got to watch some little kid soccer games that were being played on the football field as I ran. Nothing much else to report, it was exactly what I needed and my legs feel much better. Now a hot shower and some Sticking/stretching before tonight’s run.

All told, 5 miles (all barefoot) in 46:28.

Weekly long run

Mark — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 19:38:33 +0000

What a run! The weather today was absolutely perfect for a long run. We had rain all day yesterday and today’s temperature was in the high 60s/low 70s, not much humidity, a gentle breeze out of the south, and overcast skies. I headed up to the high school a little later than I’d planned. I had been following the Brooks Ragnar New England ultra relay team as they tweeted along their 6-person journey from New Haven, CT to Boston, MA. but it was no biggie. Scott, Pete, Greg, James (and later Mayor) were up there playing tennis for pretty much the entire duration of my run. Up on the football field, there was a semi-pro football game getting ready to start when I arrived (it basically lasted for the duration of my run, too). I brought with me one GU (strawberry banana, NOT my fav) and three half liter bottles — 1 water, 1 whey protein/sugar mix, and 1 50/50 OJ/water mix and aligned them, like I normally do, along the fence (more on this later!). My legs felt good from the lighter mileage during this cutback week and yesterday’s day off and I had a really good feeling about the run. The plan was ten 1.35 mile Tours and then 4 miles barefoot on the track.

I took the first Tour out nice and easy. It felt like I was going even slower than Thursday’s recoveryish run. I was looking to do the first two or three in 11:30ish (~8:30 pace), but when I finished that first Tour I looked at my watch and saw 11:11. I was kinda stunned. I really thought I was barely jogging. I knew the weather was close to ideal and that influences it a bit, but my perceived effort was really low. This was my first inclination that today was gonna be good. I kept the effort consistently easy for the next Tour and saw it was actually faster. I think at this point I exclaimed out loud “Holy shit!” After the third I grabbed the OJ/water mix and sipped on it throughout the fourth Tour. When I got back to the track I put the OJ back on the fence and noticed my other two bottles were missing. WTF?! I looked quickly and concluded that they were indeed nowhere to be found. Either someone made off with them or threw them out. This pissed me off. Kind of a lot. However, I did NOT panic. I wouldn’t let myself. The entire fifth Tour I kept reminding myself that shit like this happens during races and whatnot sometimes and you have to roll with it. Fortunately, I hadn’t gone out crazy fast, I felt great, the pace, while increasing, still felt like I was basically jogging, I had half the OJ and a GU still, and the weather was beautiful. I convinced myself that I’d be able to get through the run with what I had left. But I was still pissed off that someone would do that.

About the same time (fifth Tour) I was also noticing that I was kind of gassy and also had to pee. Neither of these things are very uncommon for my runs, but I was cruising along so well I didn’t want to stop and break my rhythm. It would figure that I get through runs feeling fine after eating horribly and this time I was so careful with my fueling the past two days and I was starting to have GI issues. They became much worse and more dire during the sixth Tour and I told myself if they didn’t improve, I’d stop at the port-a-pottie after the seventh and then turn up the effort a bit after. It’s a REALLY good thing I did. For whatever reason, I had a bad case of the runner’s trots. I spent 3 pretty uncomfortable minutes in the port-a-pottie, sweating all over myself. But I felt MUCH BETTER afterwards, and shot out of there like a bullet when I was done.

I knew that eighth Tour was going to be quick, but I was surprised at just HOW quick it actually was. I decided to keep the pace the same for the last two, then see how I felt when I got on the track. I had the GU at the end of the ninth Tour and finished the OJ during the tenth. When I got back to the track, I was feeling really strong, like a locomotive that had gathered some steam and was running downhill now. When I got on the track, I just took off. The game was still going on and one guy watching on the backstretch asked me how many I was running as I passed on lap one. I yelled back, “17.5 miles today,” and I think he just shook his head and laughed. I cranked out that first mile in 7:00 flat, feeling like I had even more to give but deciding this was a good enough pace. I figured I’d allow myself this little bit of hard/fast running. It’s not quite speedwork but I think familiarizing myself with the running strong at the end of long runs will help at the end of races more than just banging out a quick tempo or intervals on the track, mentally AND physically. After four and a half laps the same guy asked me how many I had left and I said just under three. His response, verbatim: “Damn, you a running muthafucka!” I laughed out loud, it was priceless. The first two took 14:00 and then I changed directions to run counter-clockwise. I still wasn’t feeling that bad, my legs just a little tired, my lungs not overly taxed. A light drizzle started falling and it felt AWESOME! The game had also gotten pretty exciting apparently but I wasn’t paying much attention. I ran that third mile in 6:45. Yes, 6:45. And I felt ok still. In fact, looking at my watch after each lap I saw I was getting FASTER still. What. The. Fuck! I guess I did pick it up a bit that last mile. I wanted to be done and I wanted to finish strong. Well I would say a 6:37 for the final mile of 17.5 qualifies as “finishing strong” and that’s just what I did. Wow. My fitness continues to amaze me. If I have this, at the end of a long run, in the middle of base building, on NO speedwork, what will I have come Thanksgiving?! I’m really excited to find out that answer.

I walked a cool down lap and some cool stuff happened — I was stopped a few times by people who were watching the game, most of them asking me how far I ran today. When I told them, they mostly gave me a look of disbelief followed by me explaining today was a long day, usually it’s closer to 10 or 11 miles (which was still met with amazement). The obvious follow-up to that was to ask me if I was running a marathon or something. I told them I do race marathons, that I’m training for some fall races including a 50 kilometer trail race in November. One older guy, Rick, was there with his son watching the game. He was the first person to talk to me after I finished. Then when I went over to my bike and put on my shoes, he came up to me again and asked me about running shoes. We had a nice little conversation about running shoes, I told about how awesome Brooks was (of course) and told him a bit about my training. I hope he finds some good shoes and sticks with his 5 miles a day stuff. He asked me my name and then said, “Thanks Mark. You better keep running. I’m coming for ya now.”

Great end to a great long run. Tomorrow is a recovery double to finish off what has been a really solid cutback week. I’m mentally and physically recharged. BRING ON THE MEGA MILES!

Tours (1.35 miles each)

1.35 miles – 11:11
2.70 miles – 22:17 (11:06)
4.05 miles – 33:24 (11:07)
5.40 miles – 44:19 (10:55)
6.75 miles – 55:04 (10:45)
8.10 miles – 1:05:50 (10:46)
9.45 miles – 1:16:29 (10:39)

3:09 emergency bathroom break

10.80 miles – 1:29:43 (10:05)
12.15 miles – 1:39:53 (10:10)
13.50 miles – 1:49:42 (9:49)

36 seconds to take off shoes

Barefoot on track (4 miles total)

17.50 miles – 2:17:40 (27:22)