Is it over yet?

Less than 3 weeks to go until Cleveland. I'm not ashamed to say it but I honestly can't wait until the big event. Sure I'm super anxious to push myself to run 26.2 miles but the other part of me is I'm just anxious to be done with it. I have seemed to slip into a cycle where everything just seems to hurt. Not painful like broken bones pain, just sore like sore muscles and joints. Part of the problem I'm sure stems from my shoe issues. I'm still trying to find that perfect pair. My Nikes are too old and cause my toes issue due to the tight toe box. My Mizuno's are spacious in the toes but have made my legs super, super sore. I'm now deciding to train in my Nikes but run the race in my Mizuno's. I'll suffer the consequences later. Besides that, I think I'm just sore from the weeks of mileage that I've been continually running. My body is in great shape for runs up to 7 or 8 miles, but continually doing longer runs on the weekend is taking its toll. I'm learning a valuable lesson, I need to rest but then start running those longer runs sooner in the marathon training plan if I'm going to take another shot at Columbus later in the Fall. I just need to make the physical adaptations of running at that distance just like I did when I started getting to 5 or 6 miles in length. That being said, I'm happy that I'm still relatively healthy and barring any disaster like catching the Swine Flu, I should be on the start line very shortly.

b

5 weeks to go

To be exact, there is 5 weeks, 3 days, 18 hours, 31 minutes and a few odd seconds until the start of the Cleveland Marathon. I sit here today terribly frustrated and worried as I'm feeling a bit nervous that I may have sustained yet another marathon ending injury. My left leg is again hurting similar to how it did when I ended up with a stress fracture. How could this have happen? I'm sitting here really contemplating that... I picked up a new pair of running shoes as my old Nike's were well past their expiration date. I switched brands to a pair of Mizuno's as the Nikes were too cramped in the toe area as I've been having issues with blisters and bloody toes. The Mizuno's opened up a bit and in the few runs that I have in them so far I can tell a world of difference. Besides that, this past week was actually a rest week so my mileage was way down. I put in a solid 13 mile run on Sunday where my buddy Pat joined me on the later half, but mileage, tempo and terrain (trails) were nothing out of the ordinary for me. I am still sore from that run so I must have over did it and I'm praying that this will all quietly go away tomorrow. Waking up in the morning and limping to let the dog out though brings back some bad memories. I'm going to wait another day before I schedule a doctor's appointment.

brian

Running...ouch

This past weekend was another long one...18 miles. I wasn't as pumped up about this one for some reason as I was when I had to run 17 miles the previous week..probably because it was only one more mile :)

Thanks to a hint from my wife on the weather forecast, I decided to run the 18 on Saturday in lieu of Sunday. I'm all about avoiding bad weather at all costs when I'm running. It's work enough, why throw lousy weather into it?

This week I decided to focus more on my nutrition during my run so I can figure out how much and what I should be eating during the event. This week I carried along a Gu and some Jelly Belly Sport beans that I picked up from somewhere as well as some Gatorade. My cousin lent me his belt a few weeks ago that has 4 small bottles on it as well as a pouch for carrying some food. Man, I look more geeked out than I normally do but unless I want to run circuits around my house there's just no other way around it. The solution...turn up the tunes on my iPod so I don't hear the bystanders and countless wildlife creatures that pass my way laughing at me. I seemed to do better this week but I'm still having problems getting it to work out right for me. This time my stomach was a bit upset. I think I'm getting a bit too much sugar and in lieu of bringing only Gatorade, I'm going to try to pack half water and half Gatorade to give my stomach a break. I had planned on hitting the drinking fountains down on the Towpath but they're still turned off for the season. Darn freeze/thaw cycle.

I would link to my data now but once again, the Garmin site is down. That site seems to be down every week. If you're a Facebook friend you can see the link there. If not, get on Facebook and become my friend so you can see the data!

What I learned this week is that 18 miles is a heck of a long way. I finished up with the thought of how am I ever going to run another 8.2 miles? It was that difficult for me. I think my long runs are on a much more difficult course than the marathon will be (lots of elevation....you'd see it if I could link to it) so I'm hoping the more difficult training course pays off for me on race day. Also, I had just ridden 40 miles the day before with Tim House which I know affected my legs. My current cycling schedule is that I seem to ride my bike only once every other week. Not nearly enough to keep up with the elderly in their motorized wheel chairs but I'm hoping to make cycling workouts a bit more regular now but with all the irons in the fire I'm not too optimistic. My cycling season starts May 20th...look out!

b

And then there was one....

This past week I received some bad news from my training partners for the Cleveland Marathon. Both my brother-in-law and cousin went to the doctor to get some leg pains checked out. Several x-rays and MRI’s later, both of their doctors told them that because of the injuries that they sustained, that their marathon ambitions for this spring would most likely out of the question but there was a chance that depending upon their recovery process…maybe they could attempt the ½ marathon. Wow, sounds exactly like my situation last fall. Looks like I’m running Cleveland this year solo. Running is a tough sport. I once read in my running magazine a coach say that you need to be an active runner for at least a year before you attempt training for a marathon. At the time I thought it was a crazy statement to make but now that I’ve been running consistently for a year, I can see the absolute truth in that comment.

This weekend I took several steps into unchartered territory. Previous to Sunday’s run of 17 miles, my longest run was 16 miles about 4 years ago. With having run 15 miles two weekends ago, I felt pretty comfortable that I’d have no issues but based upon the injuries that I’ve been hearing about, I couldn’t help but be a little nervous heading into it. I used the same strategy that I did several weeks ago where I decided to run down from my house down to the towpath trail in the Valley. This allows me to get the majority of the miles on somewhat softer surfaces therefore limiting the overall abuse on my body. Seems to have worked out well because as I sit here today typing this blog, I’m feeling pretty decent. A little sore but nowhere like I would have expected it to have been. Here’s the link to my data.

Overall the run was good. Some things that I learned from my run:
1. Eat something substantial at least a few hours beforehand next time. I had only eaten a bowl of Cheerios about 4 hours before I started running. I had planned on being out on the run much earlier than I thought I would have.
2. Eat something while running. I had packed an energy bar and a Gu with me. I was able to eat about half a bar and I never ate the Gu. I paid for this big time as I was feeling great up to mile 15. After that I started feeling really sick and pretty tired. It took me a long time to recover after my run. A 2 ½ hour effort take a bit more than Cheerios and half an energy bar…oh and some Gatorade, at least I didn’t forget to hydrate during the run.

It took nearly 3 hours before I felt like I could even eat anything and keep it in my system. I know better than this as this isn’t my first experience in endurance sports. Not sure what I was thinking but I’m glad to have paid the price on a training run and not race day.

brian

Pain Is......

Pain is having to run on the treadmill to get your 15 mile run in for the day. I pride myself for having a high tolerance for things like riding for endless hours on the trainer but yesterday I came to the limits of what I'm physically and mentally able to do. I had been watching the weather all day and there looked to be no end to the downpour that was happening outside of my window. I don't mind running or riding in the rain, but mid 40's and rain is just no fun so running for 2 hours in the rain results in even less fun. Knowing that this was my only day to get that run in (I can't make it up today due to how much time it takes) I gave in and headed to the gym to find a good treadmill. Once there, I found a treadmill and got started. It wouldn't have been so bad but now that football season is over, there's just nothing on to watch. One TV had golf (boring), another was set to HGTV, one was on Fox News (who watches that crap?) and another was set to VH1. So with limited bad options, it was about trying to keep some good tunes flowing through my headphones and do some people watching while not looking like the resident pervert. I think I succeeded in both choices but at the end of two hours I was done. I couldn't have done another 2 minutes on it if I had wanted to. I'm hoping for better weather next weekend.

b

Training Progress

I missed it. I missed the near 50 degree on Saturday and hence the opportunity to hook up with some teammates to get the first road ride in for the year. I had a pretty full schedule and unfortunately it just didn't turn out in my favor. That's ok, I see it's supposed to be even nicer tomorrow so I think I'll be taking a little bit of PTO and getting a nice long bike ride in. The weekend wasn't a total disaster, I did get some running in. Saturday I was at the gym when they opened the doors at 6:30. I knew with my schedule for the day that if I didn't get it in then, I wouldn't be getting it in at all. On tap was a 6 miler at race pace. For me that means running 6 miles at a 7' 30" tempo. I'm a bit of a sissy and I know through experience that I need a long warm up before I can get my engine firing on all its cylinders. I'll fess up, I ran that first mile at an 8'00" pace before I pushed it up to race pace. I made up for it by running the last mile at a 7'10" pace. Well looking at the math, I guess I didn't quite make it up but came close!

Sunday was another long run day, this one being the long day at a slower tempo. My program showed me needing to complete 11 miles. I was a bit nervous heading into it as the last time I ran a 9 miler I had some pain in my left femur, the same leg that I had the stress fracture in last summer. I noticed that the discomfort was on the outside of my leg and not on the inside where the fracture occured so I figured with close monitoring and taking my increases in mileage pretty conservative, I should be ok. The goal in Cleveland is to just finish the race, nothing more nothing less so there is really little reason for me to push things too hard right now. So w/ the break in the weather, I ventured outside on the roads for the first time of the year. Hard to believe that I've been confined to running indoors for almost 6 weeks but time flies. I don't mind running outside, in fact I enjoy it more but it seems as though few people in the Falls shovel their sidewalks so I'm forced to run in the roads. I'm ok w/ running there if I have to but I prefer the safety of the sidewalk when possible.

One thing that I realized about running outside, it's not as easy as running on the treadmill. I haven't googled any research on this but I have to imagine that it takes more effort to move yourself outside than to keep yourself upright on the treadmill. I'll have to do a little more research on this. The second thing I noticed is how much I missed running outside. I get super warm inside so having the cooler air keep my core temperature down was nice as I was able to run the route in a bit more comfort. It's also nice not to have to watch episodes of Tool Academy or Rock of Love on VH1. The last thing that I noticed is that there are some really weird people living in the Falls. Besides those running during the middle of winter :) I noticed a lady walking down the street carrying a 'boom-box' like she is an extra in Beat Street. Yes, I am that old-school to pull out a pop culture reference like that.

Besides that bit of a break, it was a pretty uneventful run. I am happy to say that I completed the run, I felt good and at no time did I ever feel like I couldn't complete the run. In fact, I felt like I could definitely keep going which is a good sign that my training is coming along nicely. Now if I can just get that cycling training back on schedule. Here's to good weather and the ability to get out of work tomorrow.

Data from my run:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/2052134


b

I'm back!

Miner's Blog is back ladies and Gentleman. Not that it actually went anywhere, I just haven't had that much to blog about recently. For all of my riding friends out there, I'm happy to say that I'm finally, finally back on the bike. I think it's safe to say that I have started training for the 2009 road racing season. Let me just start things off here by saying that my season will once again be different this year. I am registered to run the Cleveland Marathon in May. Therefore a lot of my training time will be dedicated to that event. That being said, I learned my lesson last fall by putting all of my eggs in one basket. I got hurt and couldn't do anything. This year I am dedicated to finding that right balance between running and cycling hoping that somehow each can be supportive of the other. Since I am not a gifted athlete in either discipline, this will most likely result in me being mediocre at best this year. Good news for my competition...bad news for my teammates.

I have assembled my training program for the year and as I can make it more user friendly to look at, I'll post it here online. Currently, it's a bunch of scribble that only I could decipher. In short though, it looks like this, I'll be running four days a week and riding my bike three days a week. I'll have one rest day which will most likely occur on Mondays. Riding time right now consists of me on my trainer at 5:00 am in the basement. Not ideal as I've turned into a non-morning person but I've got to get it in when I can and unfortunately that's it. I've always tried to keep the training as invisible to my family as possible so I don't sacrifice quality family time. With the kids now getting older, that's leaving me to these ungodly hours of the day. I'm hoping this can change a bit once the weather gets out nicer but I'm not holding out much hope.

One thing is for sure, the running can't be sacrificed on the weekends as that's when I need to do my marathon pace runs as well as my long runs. Cycling and unfortunately racing will be determined day by day as I can't blow the prep for the 26.2. in May.

I'm really looking forward to training on the bike which I can honestly say isn't something I was all that excited about even 2 weeks ago. I think this later start will do me a lot of good too. Normally I train hard starting in November but come May, I'm completely spent. Now, I should start to really feel good in May or June, when it really counts and when the weather is pretty decent. I'm hoping that this leads to an overall longer cycling season for me this year. We'll see, only time will tell.

b

Presenting My Best of 2008

This is something that I started a few years ago and in the midst of having to listen to all the endless countdowns for everything from the greatest Holiday destination of the stars to 2008's best movie soundtracks, I proudly present Miner's Blog.....Best of 2008.

Miles ridden: 2,500.
I'm noticing a disturbing trend here. I'm down 1,000 miles from last year and down 2,000 miles from 2006. It's to be expected though as I literally hung up the bike in mid July after the last Chapel race and besides a few weekdays spent commuting to work, I haven't been on it since. I predict great pain in early 2009 for my body when I try to get back into my 2x20's.

Best 2008 Bicycle Racing Experience:
I really have to think back on this one since it's been 5 moths without racing. I had a lot of good races. Race at the Lakes is always a blast because of the proximity to my house and the usual turnout of teammates. I would say the Chapel Series this year was my favorite experience. Cheap Racing, good eats at the end of the series and a large turnout of Stark Velo mates. It's also the one race of the year where guys seem to race tactically which makes it fun. For me, the added bonus was that I surprisingly went into the series with good fitness so I rode pretty aggressively. I hate being pack fodder and would rather be off the front or off the back from trying.

Best Cycling Purchase:
Once again I laid pretty low on the bike accessories this year. I ended up buying Nicholas a new Haro BMX bike. He had a blast racing out at the Akron Derby Downs this summer. My new bike purchase in 2009 will hopefully be a BMX cruiser for myself. Not sure I'll race it...yet but it'll be fun to go out there and ride on the track. BMX racing is how I got started into this sport as a kid so it's fun to see this path come full circle.

I don't know if I can call this a cycling purchase, but I was able to scrape up enough money to pick up the new Garmin 405. This watch is amazing and it's now clear that I am addicted to numbers, data and just plain information. I never thought of myself as a 'techy' guy as I don't need those kinds of toys, but when it comes to physical exercise and training, I'll get any proven gadget that I can to help me improve myself. Somehow in my own mind that justifies the purchase. I will clearly be a dork on my bike this year with my PowerTap giving me all the power data that I can consume and my Garmin giving me endless information as well. I can't wait to hear the comments from House and Troche.

What I missed in 2008:
Not much time spent on the bikes means not much time spent with my good friends. I miss those times the most. I remember saying this last year but I hope that I can find a better balance between running and cycling.

I also missed the annual trip to Boone, North Carolina. Hopefully I can find a way to resurrect that trip for 2009. There's nothing better than taking a cycling specific trip with friends where the only thing you have to do is to have fun, eat, sleep and ride your bike for three full days.

What I hope to accomplish in '09:
My plan in 2008 was to upgrade to Cat 3 and that obviously didn't happen. Not sure if I can state that as a major goal for me this year or not. It would be cool to be able to upgrade to race with all my teammates who seem to be progressing in the sport but what I've learned in the past 5 years of cycling is that I'm not really as good as you think I am. I know that's hard to believe but I don't seem to have a lot of natural God given talent, it all comes from lots of hard work. With the boys growing up, Elves & More and work, there doesn't seem to be that much time anymore that I can dedicate to my bike. I think I can be content being an average Cat 4 who goes out and rides with his friends for the fun of it and not necessarily because I'm trying to accomplish specific wattage goals on my PowerTap. I'm not giving up racing, look for at the usual places in 2009.

Off the bike, I hope to complete my first marathon in the spring. I will be targeting the Cleveland Marathon (I plan on registering today) in May with the goal of completing it and then I will target the Columbus Marathon in the Fall with my goal of getting a Boston Qualifying Time. Running is something that I'm really enjoying. It's really therapeutic for me and I love the fact that I can go run for an hour and feel completely destroyed as if I'd just been out riding my bike for 4 hours. I also love when I tell people that I went out for an easy 10 mile run.

I also hope to help grow Elves & More this year. Tim and I determined that our volunteer base has outgrown our contributor base. We need to continue to grow both but we need to find more funding. We think we could have easily built 2,000 bikes this year and I'm sure we could have just as easily given away 2,000 bikes. Here's to finding more money in 2009!

Well, that's it for my 2008, time to move onto 2009. I didn't do all that I wanted to with my racing, but sitting here on December 31st, I'm very lucky to be where I'm at. I'm happy and healthy, I have a loving wife and two wonderful boys, I have a great job and I'm a partner in Elves and More. This year, Tim and I along with countless volunteers and contributors, helped make Christmas special for 1,000 kids living in the Mason Park neighborhood in Akron. It's good to be a part of something larger than just yourself. Happy New Year!

brian

The month of December

December. What a wonderful month. It's just too bad that I historically have to fit 6 months worth of work into 31 days. Between clients trying to get projects out before the end of the year (Bidding is historically better during the winter) and Elves & More I also threw in a new project into the mix this year....a trip to Portland, OR.

I was contacted by NCARB in the middle of the year about being a tester/reviewer for their new architectural registration exams. They originally wanted me to go to Tuscon in August but fortunately I had a conflict that kept me from visiting the desert during the hottest time of the year. When I heard there was a trip to Portland I jumped on it faster than Stephen Baldwin jumps on a really bad script. Portland is an area that I've always wanted to go to. Site unseen it was also a place that I could imagine living in. Now I would get the opportunity to visit at no cost to me! What could be better.



My good friend Pat up in Chicago's brother and sister-in-law just moved to Portland. When Pat found out I was going, magically the trip out west became more than just a business trip, we decided to head out a few days early to hook up w/ his family and try to get some snowboarding in on Mt. Hood. Unfortunately Mother Nature didn't cooperate with us and there was too little snow on Mt. Hood to justify taking the snowboard across the country so we decided to get some hiking in. That turned out to be the best decision ever because besides the lack of snow, they had unseasonably warm weather that was in the 50's and more importantly, it was nothing but sunshine.
On Friday, Pat and I decided to head up to Mount St. Helen's for some hiking. I've traveled with Pat before and whether it's a trip to a mountain or a trip to the grocery store, you are definitely in for an adventure. We made up our way to the last visitors center and got out to make our best effort to find some good trails. Everyone we talked to recommended us taking this one trail up to a neighboring peak to get the best view of Mount St. Helen's. We decided that we had a pretty decent view from where we were standing and decided to make it a quest to try to hike up to the crater. After all, that would be an adventure. The hard thing about Mount St. Helen's is really being able to judge distances. There is absolutely nothing left after the explosion in 1980. No trees, no vegetation, nothing. Nothing that we could use to really judge scale. What looked like a trek of only a few miles would be more like 7 miles one way. The other thing about Mount St. Helen's is that because there is absolutely nothing there to sustain them, there is really little signs of wildlife. I think we saw a few Elk which I was really surprised about and one bird. That combined w/ the total lack of wind there made for a very eerie experience. It was like you were truly hiking on Mars.





After 3 hours, we finally made it to the water fall on the Mountain. Unfortunately it looked like our goal was still about 1 hour further up. We were also at the end of the 'sanctioned' trail which was sort of a joke since the only thing that was there were rocks. Hard to disrupt the environment when there is nothing but rocks to hike over in my mind. It's for that reason that we decided to take the most direct route back to the visitors center.
I should clarify, we only did this because we were getting challenged by losing sunlight (It gets dark at 4:30) and on the hike out when purposefully trying to stay on the trail, we'd lose it because it was really hard to distinguish where the trail was and where it wasn't. It made for a really fun walk back. We got to experience an area that maybe only a handful of people and elk have but it made it difficult because there was some really tough terrain to navigate through.
In the end, we estimate that we saved nearly an hour by taking a bit more direct route. I would imagine that their established trail takes you so far out because of how much water might be running through the valley during the spring melt off of the snow on the mountains. With it being dry we were pretty safe. The only difficult part was having to climb a 30% slope back up to find the trail. It was a blast though and by far one of my best experiences in the mountain. I only wish we had more daylight to have been able to make it up to the top.


Day two in Portland brought a trip to the Columbia River Gorge. This time we went with Brad, Em & their friend from Chicago Evan. I don't want to take the easy road here, but Brad did a good job blogging it so I will refer you to his site as well as some good pictures for the day.



Today is the big Elves & More Delivery day. I can't sleep which is why I started blogging this at 6:00 this morning. I will blog about the delivery here in the next few days as well as hopefully get some pictures posted. All I can say is that although its only going to be in the 20's, there's going to be about 1,000 happy kids in Akron.

b

My thought on Bernie...

A quote from today's Cyclingnews.com:

Bernhard Kohl is "terribly disappointed" over the two-year doping suspension handed down yesterday by the Austrian Anti-Doping Agency. He called it "the wrong signal and the wrong direction."

No Bernie, the only "wrong signal" and "wrong direction" that was taken was by you when you decided to dope and get away with it. I hope you have a miserable two years off the bike that is filled with endless saddle sores.

b

Life Updates

Not much cycling...not much running...too much work. That sums up my last three weeks of life. I'm currently designing two building projects, one for Kent State and one for The University of Akron which is taking up too much of my time. Although they are lots of fun it's not leaving a whole lot of time to do anything else I'm afraid.

I was lucky enough to make it out on my bike a few weekends ago when we had the really warm weather. It had been 4 months since my last real ride so time went by fast and before I knew it, it was time to go back home. I haven't been on the bike since. You know it's too long since your last ride when the tire pressure is below 40psi. I'm hoping to get back on the bike a bit more routinely here this week. I hate to do it but it looks like it's back to early morning rides in the basement on my trainer. I normally don't mind trainer rides but I'm not looking forward to it this year.

I have been routinely running 3 times a week at the gym. Those workouts on the treadmill aren't actually too bad. It's a lot like riding indoors, w/ some good tunes on the ipod time goes by quickly. My only issue is that I get so hot that when I'm done running, I'm completely drenched in sweat. Fortunately I'm married and not looking to pick up chicks or else I'd be labeled as that weird sweaty guy! Who knows, I probably am already labeled that but I guess I don't care. What I don't know won't hurt me, right? My plan is to continue running 3 to 4 days per week, with one of those runs being a long one between 7-10 miles. Looking ahead to the Cleveland Marathon, I really have to be in full blown training mode in mid January so I don't want to lose any fitness or gain any excess weight that tends to happen to me at this time of the year.

Besides that it's Elves & More time. I'll be doing a lot more blogging about how that effort is going but in the meantime I'll say that the volunteer dates have all been set and registration is now open. Check it out.

b

Cycling vs. Running

Now that my big goal is over for the season, it's time for me to reflect a bit on the physical impact on my body when making the switch to running from cycling. In no particular order, here is a list of ailments that I have had in both disciplines this year:

Cycling:

• Occasional razor burn.
• Weird tan lines which are hard to explain while on vacation at the beach.

Running:

• Bloody nipples (learned that Bag Balm works well here on runs up to 15 miles in length. Anything over that and use band aids.
• Rubbed raw certain, sensitive male parts. Once again, Bag Balm works well here. This was a tough lesson to learn....
• Blood blisters on ends of toes.
• Lost toe nails
• Stress Fracture to my left femur...the largest bone in the body.
• Strained lower back

Seems pretty apparent that running just plain sucks....somehow I'm hooked and already looking forward to training for the next one.

b

Columbus 1/2 Marathon

Columbus...what can I say? It is a city that as an Architect I have had a love/hate relationship with for years. There are some examples of amazing architecture, incredible historical neighborhoods and parks but Columbus is also a city that has expanded with reckless growth and is the epitome of Urban Sprawl. No need to conserve as long as there's another corn field or forest to destroy. My personal feelings aside, this past weekend might have been one of my greatest experiences in our State's capital (w/ the exception of being married there).


My wife's family lives in the city and typically we stay with them on weekend trips in. This time, we decided to get a hotel room downtown. Not knowing what to expect in terms of available parking and traffic in, I wanted to minimize any anxiety and sleeping a few blocks from the start line seemed like the best way to do it. This also gave us the opportunity to leave the kids with my in-laws which really made both of their days. The hotel was awesome, with our room being on the 19th floor it really gave me a greater perspective of the city which I can now come to appreciate more. The hotel was also connected to the new convention center downtown which made getting to the expo and my race packet a lot easier. That also gave us the opportunity to see all the other events happening there like some big cheer leading competition. Before you go crazy thinking thoughts about hot college chicks or high school girls, it seemed like this was cheer leading for the pre-tween girls. I swear that I even saw girls there younger than Nicholas who is only 5 years old. With all the criticism the Ramsey's received about how they exploited their daughter JonBenet, it seems like some parents just haven't learned the lesson yet...but once again I digress.

Saturday night was spent hooking up with my family who came into town to watch the race and heading out to dinner at the Spaghetti Warehouse. After being disowned by my parents, it was nice to have the support of my grandparents, Aunt and Uncle and of course my wife's family. They weren't there just to see me but my cousin Tim and brother-in-law Brian was also running with me. Tim's an experienced runner and is currently the boys' cross-country coach for Ashland High School. If I have a question about running, he's one of the two people I go to. The other is a friend named James Miller who was also there this weekend taking a stab at a Boston Qualifying time.

The Sunday morning wake up came early but fortunately with the short distance to the start line, I was able to sneak in a few extra minutes of sleep. Heading out to the start line at 6:30 I immediately noticed that it was cold. The temperature was mid-30's...ouch that's cold. Coming back from dinner the previous night I rethought my clothing strategy and decided to go with a long sleeve shirt, gloves and shorts. I also had on a sleeveless Under Armor on which made for a nice base layer. I'm really glad I made the switch to long sleeves because during my warm up/stretching and staging for the start, I couldn't keep myself from shivering. I could only imagine how much worse it might have been in short sleeves. There is nothing worse than having chattering teeth on the start line.

My strategy going into the race was to just have fun and to try to hold an 8'/mile pace. I haven't run longer than 9 miles in over 3 months so I wasn't sure how my body was going to react. Going out of the start we hooked up with the 8'/mile pace group. Within the first mile, Tim and I decided to pick it up a bit to get in front of them and if necessary, we could ease up and rejoin them if we weren't feeling great. Mile after mile, we pulled further and further away from them to the point that if they caught us, it was because we would be running backwards to rejoin them. It was obvious that Tim and I were both feeling good and that we would average much better than an 8'/mile tempo over the 13.1 miles. A new thing for me was to try to drink while running. Normally I carry a water bottle so it's not a big issue but drinking out of a cup is a bit more difficult. I was able to get a few sips down but that always came with Gatorade shots up my nose. I need to perfect drinking I guess.

I lost contact with Tim around the 9 mile mark. We caught up to the 3:20 pace group which had a lot of runners and Tim made it through but I didn't. Here's where I might have taken it too conservative. I was still feeling good but being in uncharted territory here, I played it conservative. I decided to hang with this new pace group and then if still feeling good, pick it up by mile 11 and finish as quick as I could. That's what I did but in hindsight I wish I would have made the effort to try to regroup with Tim and finish even faster. As it turns out, I beat the secret goal that I had set for myself. I was hoping to come in around 1:40. I finished the race in 1:38:56. That gives me an average pace of 7'34"/mile pace.

A lot of people have asked me about how the race went. My response is this...in all of the competitive events that I've ever participated in, this by far ranks as one of the best experiences, if not the best. I don't know what it is. Maybe it's being a part of nearly 12,000 runners trying to accomplish the same goal which is to finish. Maybe it was miles and miles of spectators along the sides of the road cheering you on. I don't think there was ever a stretch of road where there wasn't at least one person watching. Normally when I run I notice every mile that goes by. This event I remember hitting the 10 mile mark and being surprised that I had already gotten that far. The effort just seemed that easy.

Here are some stats from the race:

Mile 1 – 7:59
Mile 2 – 7:41
Mile 3 – 7:26
Mile 4 – 7:37
Mile 5 – 7:25
Mile 6 – 7:22
Mile 7 – 7:29
Mile 8 – 7:34
Mile 9 – 7:25
Mile 10 – 7:17
Mile 11 – 7:28
Mile 12 – 7:39
Mile 13 – 7:20
.1 – 1:07
Total – 1:38.56

bib number: 3034
age: 35
gender:M
location: Cuyahoga Falls, OH
overall place: 354 out of 5290
division place: 3 out of 160
gender place: 279 out of 2230
time: 1:38:56
pace: 7:34
10k: 47:09

brian

2 days to Columbus

Here I am, sitting comfortably at my computer 2 days before the Columbus Marathon. Because of an unfortunate injury which I've already discussed in previous posts, I'll only be able to complete the 1/2 marathon this year. I have mixed emotions about it. On one side, I'm only running 13.1 and when I'm done my body most likely won't feel trashed with the shorter distance. On the other side, I had set some really lofty goals like completing my first marathon while I was 35 and doing it in a Boston Qualifying time (3:15). Training for this event was unlike anything that I've ever done before. Training for a bike race is different. Sure, you spend lots of time training hard just like you do for running, but if you get hurt, sick, get unlucky or have a bad day on the bike, there's another bike race somewhere the next weekend that you can travel quickly to and have another go at it. With running, it's not like that (or at least it just doesn't appear to me that way). With marathon training, I focused all of my attention and energy to running to make sure my body was ready for the big goals that I set. I dedicated almost 5 months of my life to a singular event. Running is so physically demanding that racing the next weekend if something happens to go wrong most likely just isn't an option. Unfortunately with the fracture, I can't take a stab at even completing the marathon this year. I'm currently only up to running 9 miles at a time and trying to take a stab at 26 is just asking for another injury. That's just something that I can't risk. The 5 months of training for Columbus could be looked at as completely down the drain. Those were 5 months that I could have been on my bike riding with good friends that I haven't been able to keep in touch with because we don't share that commonality at the moment. Do I regret it? Absolutely not. I'm still in decent shape, just not cycling shape. Will I take a stab at another marathon? Absolutely. Just not sure when and what my plan is for 2009 yet. I still have 13.1 more miles to go this Sunday before I think about next year.

brian

Akron Roadrunner Marathon

Last Saturday was the Akron Road Runner Marathon. This is the sixth year of existence for the race and the 4th time that I've had the opportunity to run a relay portion of it. I have to say that each and every year it just gets better and better. Earlier in the year the strategy for this event was to fun the final 12k leg with some kick. I had delusions of running 6' mile pace. Obviously that all changed a few months back. With me on the right road to recovery, I opted to run the shorter 10k. In hindsight, this was a great move because I am now only able to run a slow 6 miles without any discomfort in my femur. This year was the first year that I was also able to run the opening leg of the event. This was important for me for two reasons. Firstly, it was great practice for Columbus to get started in a big mass so I could see how I needed to maneuver around people to hit my goal pace. Secondly, it allowed me to finish in plenty of time to see Nicholas and Will run in the Kids Fun Run later in the morning. My strategy for today was to finish somewhere close to 45'. My normal 10k pace is 43' but with recovery, I knew I would have to sacrifice some time so I didn't injure myself anymore. The plan for the day was to hook up with a friend of mine named James who is an avid runner and seasoned marathoner. He was running the 1/2 marathon (in preparation for Columbus) and was hoping to run a 7'10" pace, a touch faster than what I thought I could do but idealistically right about where I wanted to finish up. Running that morning felt great. There's something about the adrenaline and the excitement of the day that really gets you going. It was probably that quicker than goal pace that helped tire me but just after 5k of running, I began to lose touch with James as I just couldn't hang at that pace. Seems like I've lost a bit of that high end speed. As I was beginning to suffer more and more , I noticed that we were running right by the Summit Lake neighborhood that we delivered to last winter with Elves & More. The thoughts of that day pulled me away from the pain and the doubts that I was beginning to suffer. I have to imagine that running which is really a solitary sport is probably a lot like Time Trialing on a bicycle. When you're by yourself, I'm not sure if the bigger battle is between you and the road or you and your mind. Ultimately I won because I didn't stop, but I wonder if I slowed down at all because of the mental debates that I was holding with myself.

I'm happy to say that I finished the 10k if 45'24". That's where I realistically figured I would end up being, but deep down inside, I was hoping that I could have pulled out a much faster time. This was a good test for me for Columbus. From this experience I learned that the marathon is for sure out of the question. I realistic goal will be now to complete the half-marathon in Columbus. Not sure what my goals other than completing relatively pain free will be yet but I'll let you know.

b

Follow up from the 40'

I'm a bit late in getting the latest report out but here it is, after running for 40 minutes at a moderate tempo, my leg is doing well. This gives me some confidence with just under two weeks until the Akron Marathon that I will be able to finish the 10k test there with a somewhat reasonable time. In fact, I've already run twice for that duration and I'll be back out there early tomorrow morning to test it again, this time a bit faster perhaps.

b

New Milestone

Tomorrow I'm taking a big step, or to put it more accurately, about 1200 more big steps. I'm going to attempt my first 40 minute run since recovering from the stress fracture. This will be my longest run in almost 7 weeks. 40 minutes should put me somewhere over 5 miles for the day. I'm a bit nervous because I really don't know how my leg is going to feel. Running at 30 minutes this past week my leg has felt great but I just don't know how I'll respond to adding 10 additional minutes. I need to make this step and get past the mental fear if I want to make it to the next goal, which is running the opening 10k leg in two weeks at the Akron Marathon. I have a goal in that race of finishing somewhere around 45 minutes. That will be the slowest that I've ever run it but given the fact that I'm still in recovery mode, 45 minutes will be a great accomplishment. I'll post something tomorrow on how it went. That's saying that I actually make it out with all of this rain that we're having.

b

Getting Back into the Groove.

A few posts ago, I talked about the5/5/5/ plan that my doctor put me on to allow my femur to fully heal. He also prescribed several weeks of physical therapy so I can work on some deficiencies that may have led to the fracture. I only use the word 'may' because unfortunately determining the exact cause that led to the injury is somewhat hard to determine and in all actuality, it was probably caused by several factors. What I've learned in PT is that I have a weak core and running really utilizes those muscle groups. There was a point in time where I used to weight train but that was prior to having kids and thinking back, I'm not sure that other than performing a few crunches here and there that I really ever worked on core muscle development. I'd say the last time I truly did core exercises was when I was in the Army and we were getting 'smoked' by our drill sergeants for doing something wrong.

This past weekend was the end of the 5/5/5 plan and I was free to start running again, well sort of. With the longest run being only about 2 miles long and at a 10 minute/mile pace, I was a long ways away from the previous distances and times I had been clocking in prior to the injury and I was even further away from being really ready to run in Columbus in now less than 8 weeks. Sunday I decided to push the distance a bit but keep the tempo right around the 9'30" tempo. Instead of 20 minutes, I'd try running for 30 minutes. The run felt great and I knew I had begun to slowly increase the tempo up a bit but I was feeling good so what could it hurt, right? So how did my leg feel? Well, unfortunately I never feel the pain during the run so it's hard to know whether I'm pushing it too far until the next day. Monday morning I woke up and felt the dull pain where the fracture occurred. It didn't hurt, I wasn't limping around but my leg didn't feel like it did the day before so I know that I pushed it too far too soon. Time to throttle the training back down again and give my leg a bit more time to heal. My PT tells me that broken bones typically take 6 to 8 weeks to heal. I'm now at 5 weeks since I last truly ran on it so I should be getting close to moving past this.

This morning I did another run. This time I went back to the last phase of the 5/5/5 plan and I ran for only 20 minutes around the 9 minute/mile pace. Again, I'll have to wait to know for sure but I'm hoping that I can push it just a bit more this weekend. Fortunately, I have a follow-up visit with my Doctor and Physical Therapist this Friday so I'll be able to get some advice on where to go from here. It's frustrating, without a doubt.

b

Oh Lord, it's hard to be humble...

Last night was my first attempt at a 'jog' since determining that I have a stress fracture in my left femur. After a new shoe purchase at my local running shop called Second Sole, I headed up to the local towpath trail to find softer running surfaces than the concrete sidewalks in my neighborhood. As in cycling where my philosophy has been why drive to start a bike ride when I can bike from my house, I've always tried to run directly directly from my front doorstep. This not only saves a few dollars in gas but helps minimize how long I'll be away from the house; and ultimately how long I'll be away from the kids and my wife.
With my leg finally feeling good and the limp in my step gone, I wanted to play it ultra safe and run somewhere a little more forgiving concrete so the towpath would have to do as I don't have a gym membership to find a treadmill. Pulling into the closest trail head at Sand Run, I was reminded of how busy this place is. If running ultra slow in privacy was my goal, I wouldn't find it here. Sand Run is to running what Bally's is to working out. Essentially if you're into being seen or seeing others, this is where typically go. Don't get me wrong, it's a great place to run but there's more to look at than the trees and wildlife. I didn't want to be seen but it was the closest place so I'd have to suck it up, after all, Doctor's orders was jogging for no more than 20 minutes so how bad could it really be?

Bad enough to be passed by every runner, walker and three legged dogs in the area. The only people who didn't pass me were the 80+ year old crowd, but that's probably because they were home getting ready for bed. It was so tough to not try to pick it up to save some dignity but better to be safe than sorry I guess. Truly a humbling experience. I think I will make a T-Shirt the next time that says "Fractured Femur on Board" or something.

brian

Running Pains Part II

As an endurance athlete (if I can call myself that), you become somewhat accustomed to at least some level of discomfort when training for your specific sport. Running definitely falls into this category. At first, there's nothing pleasurable about running and typically every step hurts so when I started feeling some pain in my thigh about a month ago I figured it was just the next level of discomfort that I needed to work through to get to that next great plateau. After a few weeks I noticed this pain wasn't going away but it certainly wasn't getting any worse so I figured I'd do my best to run through it in hopes that it would eventually disappear. The trick for me was to run the first quarter mile or so (usually with a limp) in pain but know that after those first few minutes the pain would go away and I'd be back to running my normal stride pain free. After the run, I'd feel better than ever before and think that I was finally through this hurdle but like that one loud neighbor that everyone has, it would always return the next day. Two weeks ago when I was out running one of my 8 mile runs, the pain didn't go away. In fact it got worse during the run. It was at this point that I knew something was wrong. It was also at this point that I could no longer hide the pain from my wife as I came hobbling through the door. Atypical for me and probably most males in the continental United States, I made a doctor's appointment the very next day to rule anything serious out. To shorten the story, once I worked my way through my primary physician I was finally able to get to see a sports medicine professional. There I had some x-rays done which showed nothing. Yes!!! No stress fractures so it's something muscular and I can keep my running hopes alive. Not so fast, the doctor wanted to perform a Bone Scan just to rule out any fractures that might be too small to show up on the usual x-ray. I had the test this past Friday and I'm happy to say that I'm no longer radioactive, but I did find out some bad news in the process. My worst fear came true, actually my two worst fears came true. The first one is that I do indeed have a stress fracture in my left femur. The second fear that came true is that unlike what I was telling everyone in grade school, the scan shows that I am not big boned but in fact, I am just fat. So much for being able to use that excuse!

In all seriousness, finding this out is horrible news. It completely redefines what I'm going to be doing for Columbus and in fact there is even a big question mark on whether I can even compete in Columbus which happens in only a few months time from now. My physician who is an avid marathoner who feels that there is still a chance I can do it, but I will have to throw out all ambitions of running a fast time and only focus on trying to finish it. As he said, I might have to settle for walking a portion of the race. Walking is a long ways away from my Boston qualifying time, but I guess I should be happy that it's nothing more serious than it is.

So what's my next step to recovery? Well, take it slow day by day and manage my recovery by what level of discomfort that I'm having. I will do what my doctor calls the 5/5/5 plan. For the first five days, starting today I will walk briskly every other day for 20 minutes. If I feel any pain doing this, then I'll stop and rest more. On the days that I'm not walking, I'll do some cross training like riding my bike or doing an elliptical machine or something at the gym. During the next 5 day cycle, I'll start to jog for 20 minutes. This jog will be at a slightly faster pace than my walk. Not fast enough to get cardio benefit out of it, only fast enough so that my left leg is striking the ground with all my body weight on it without the support of my right leg. Again, I will cross-train like crazy at this point to keep my cardio up high. If I feel any pain, I go back half a phase and start over. It's my hope that I don't feel any pain. The last cycle of 5 days will be running for 20 minutes. Again, not running for cardio but running a bit quicker than before so I get more repetitions on my left leg during the 20 minute time period. These will be run at about 2 minutes slower than my normal running pace, so for me I will target about a 9 minute/mile tempo. Most likely, I will even try to run these a bit slower like around 10 minute mile tempo just to take it a bit easier. If after all of this, I'm still pain free, I'm good to go on training, only I will take the schedule much, much, much easier at this point as I will be only running to condition myself for long runs and not necessarily for fast running. Here's to the hope that I can go pain free!

brian