There's Sand in my (Running) Shoes!

Ahhhhh!   That felt good......

In Nags Head, NC for the new year "Glugfest" celebrations.  The Puppeteer scheduled an easy 30 min run at slow pace as a rehab for my back.   Beautiful sunny morning.  Went 1.5+ miles south on the beach road and then back on the beach.  Pretty much just me and the pelicans!   A couple of guys fishing and a couple walking their dogs, otherwise I had the whole beach to myself.  Very peaceful.

A brisk northerly wind and the soft sand made it work on the return leg, but I didn't feel my back at all, which we'll declare a victory!

Patience Grasshopper....

Why do back problems apparently take so damn long to heal?   It has now been two weeks since I "twinged" my back and, while it's no longer "killer" and making me hobble around like an old man, it's frustrating that I can still feel it as I sit here typing.

Have done a "test run" on it without too much trouble (but the 8" of snow we received on Christmas night in Raleigh has stopped me running since) and have also been swimming and done numerous workouts on the bike trainer.  Due to do my first "Puppeteer scheduled" comeback run today.  So I'm still working out and stretching etc., (it would kill me if I were really laid up!) but I'm starting to get annoyed that I can still feel it pretty much all of the time!

Oh well, I guess I just have to be patient.......

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!

Wishing everyone a safe, happy and healthy Christmas!

Petite women OWN me! (especially blondes......)

What the heck happened to me this past month or so?   It used to be that I was manipulated and pushed around (and happily so) by just one blonde (well, maybe three if you count my lovely daughters!) but otherwise was "my own man".  Yes, of course She Who Must Be Obeyed still holds huge sway and influence over me, but suddenly the ranks of petite ladies who are having influence in my life are swelling!

As you know, I signed up for coaching so The Puppeteer was added to the list of controlling influences some weeks back.  This one's my own silly fault - I actually pay for the privilege of being told what to do; scolded if I don't do as ordered and ridiculed where necessary!   :-)

Then, as detailed in a previous post, I officially became The Snitch's beee-eatch when she rode longer on the trainer than I did.  I'm still throwing a red flag on this one but never-the-less, until I prove otherwise, I am also officially "owned" by The Snitch.

Now, much to my horror, there is another petite and attractive blonde administrator of pain and suffering..... Holly!   Perhaps 5' 2" and a generous 100 lbs of pure evil! 

Seriously though, Holly is actually a saviour!

Because of the back issue that I have been experiencing for the past week I decided to try some "therapy".  On Tuesday I visited a chiropracter for some Active Release Techniques (ART).   A form of muscle massage designed to release pressure etc.   To be honest, I was a bit underwhelmed.

On The Snitch's recommendation SWMBO very kindly also booked me a one hour deep tissue massage today with Holly.  The Snitch has been getting regular treatments and highly recommended her.  Holly practices at a pretty swanky "spa" in Raleigh (relaxing music and all sorts of scents - not necessarily my thing) and when I met her I doubted that she had the phyiscal strength to do much damage - boy was I wrong!!

After asking about my back Holly pretty quickly got to work and based on quickly finding muscles that were "as tight as guitar strings" recommended that we spent the whole hour working on my back.  Holly is a runner herself and quickly demonstrated a tremendous knowledge of muscle inter-connectivity, physiology etc.  Then she really got to work - it was PAINFUL!   In the words of John Mellencamp...  "hurts so good"....

It turns out that while my neck and shoulders aren't so bad, my back is very tight and I also have some build-up of connective tissue that may be a contributing factor.  When Holly was done with me I felt well beaten-up, but I could also feel some loosening in my back. 

I felt a little uncomfortable sitting in the car on the way home, but after lunch did some stretching and ventured out cautiously on a gentle 20  minute test run.  Wow!  I actually managed it without any discomfort - something that I wouldn't have thought possible yesterday.   Now it's alternating ice and heat this evening and working the connective tissue with a tennis ball!

Hopefully I'm on the road to recovery.  I will certainly be going back for a series of deep tissue massasges in the new year!

Back on the road!

Back, Back, Back.........

No, it's not Chris Burman calling yet another Tom Brady touchdown, it's the cause of some discomfort and not a little frustration for me this past week....

Went for a six mile hilly run last Wednesday and finished feeling good.  By that afternoon, however, while attending my youngest daughter's class Christmas party I could hardly move!  Yep...  nasty, incidious....  lower back pain!

I haven't done much except stretch and enjoy (???) some sessions with the foam roller since then.   Thankfully things seem to be feeling a lot better and I will likely be back on the bike tomorrow and will swim on Wednesday (no running yet).  Rest and heat have helped, but I'm also going to try something called Active Release Technique (ART) tomorrow.  I'm somewhat sceptical about chiropractice, but this is a new technique that has become very popular and is a technique that uses movement based massage of soft tissues.  I'm visiting a local therapist who is a friend of The Puzzler - I'll report back on how it goes!

She Who Must Be Obeyed has also booked me a deep tissue massage for Thursday.  Hopefully this will all add up to me feeling much better in time to take advantage of some time off over the holiday period to get back to doing some real workouts!

Baby's got better back than me......

It's a Bit "Brassy".....

My UK (and Commonwealth?) friends will instantly know what I mean...    "It's a bit brassy" basically means that it's cold!

I went for a six mile hilly circuit run this morning and I'm guessing that it was somewhere around 20 F (-7C). Beautifully sunny but very windy the wind chills were probably single digits Farenheit..  I layered-up and wore my beany hat and gloves and was soon toasty warm once I started working.

For my non-Brit friends, "It's a bit brassy" is actually short for "It's cold enough to freeze the balls of a brass monkey!".   Before my colonial friends start envisioning small metal primates down on all fours looking for their cold little spehrical gonads, I should explain the supposed origin of the phrase....

Back in the 18th and early 19th centuries, when Britannia still ruled the waves and we Brits were fond of lobbing cannonballs at Napoleon's fleet, we needed somewhere to store the aforementioned projectiles that would prevent them from rolling all over the deck of HMS Victory and other ships of the realm.   The solution to the problem was a pyramidal structure, with a base typically made out of brass that was known (for some unknown reason) as a "monkey".  Supposedly it looked something like this:

The story goes that when the weather got really cold the brass contracted, causing the cannonballs to fall off, hence "cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey".

[As a footnote I now need to potentially spoil the whole story because I took a look at Wikipedia and there are now a lot of historians that doubt this origin of the phrase and now think that it originated elsewhere:

• The first recorded use of freezing a "brass monkey" dates from 1857, appearing in C.A. Abbey, Before the Mast, p. 108: "It would freeze the tail off a brass monkey".

• Thomas Wolfe (1900–1938) wrote in one of his notebooks:

Ernest said, "It would freeze the balls off a brass monkey — that's how cold it gets."

Some killjoy even did the math on the coefficient of expanison of brass and ran physics experiments to demonstrate that the popular derivation of the phrase couldn't be true..   Ah well.....]

I'm a beee-atch!

The Puppeteer told me that I'm "Lisa's Bitch", so it must be true.....    :-)

Yes, it's official, I have apparently become The Snitch's bitch.  How did this happen I hear you ask.  How did you get smacked down so hard that you're totally and utterly "owned" by a petite blonde lady who looks as if butter wouldn't melt in her mouth?

Well....   I don't actually think I did, but the female triathlon mafia are gannging-up on me.  They must feel threatened.....   (OK, OK, I can dream!).

On Sunday The Puppeteer set The snitch and me identical workouts on the bike trainer.  We were originally going to try to meet to do it together, but this didn't work out because it's so ridiculously busy over the holiday season.  The workout as originally described called for a 15 min warm up at high cadence (~95 rpm) followed by three 12 min threshold sets with six mins easy in between each.  The last minute of each set was to be at "sprint" pace.  Once these intervals were complete we were to continue to ride easy to a total of 1 hr 45 mins (mind numbingly tedious unless you have good music to listen to or something to watch - I went for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban!)

Subsequent to the original workout being posted on Training Peaks, The Puppeteer sent me a message that said (to my way of reading it at least) to stop after 90 mins instead of 105 mins, so that's what I did.  The workout basically went well, although I repeated it today and managed a more elevated heart rate - I guess I didn't push as hard as I could have on Sunday.  Both days it was a "sweatfest"

Somewhere down in Morrisville, NC The Snitch was doing the same workout (no doubt in her matching pink shorts and top) while eating bon bons; filing her nails; planning her week; writing to Santa and negotiating world peace, but she didn't get the memo about stopping at 90 mins and dutifully finished the full 1 hr 45 mins.  I'm pretty sure that it was because she's scared of me...   OK, maybe not.....   there I go playing in the self amusement park again!

Anyway, to cut what is becomming a very long story short, after we both dutifully reported our stats to The Puppeteer I received a torrent of abuse (OK, OK, some sacrastic emails) from the aforementioned Triathlon Divas, stating among other things that I had obviously become "Lisa's Bitch" for only doing 90 minutes!    While I guess that I can think of worse things to be, I definitely didn't apply for that position!

All in good fun of course (and I have absolutely no doubt that The Snitch can kick my tail in every discipline except drinking in the bar afterwards - and perhaps that too?) but I will use this as motivation and payback will indeed, be a......  (delete as you see fit)

Malham Moor, Yorkshire Dales, UK

I have spent this week at a management retreat in the middle of the Yorkshire Dales in the UK.  The Puppeteer knew I was going and that there would be no gym, no pool and about 10" of snow on the ground, so my workouts this week were modified accordingly.  I was hoping to get a couple of runs in, but the roads were very icy, even when cleared of snow, so I enjoyed two hikes of about five miles each around Malham Tarn (a shallow glacial lake) and some stretching exercizes from Mark Verstegen's Core Performance book (http://www.coreperformance.com/).

The scenery was magnificent!

Too icy for a run!



The frozen tarn

At this point I did start to wonder if I was going in the right direction!......

                                                     ....but I ran into some local ladies who showed me the way:



A few ancient farmhouses dot the landscape

Including the one I stayed at: High Trenhouse. 
Definitely somewhere to get away from everyday work!

These guys outnumber humans by a considerable number!

Also saw some amazing wildlife including a short eared owl;
fallow deer; pheasants; a merlin (I think!); some ravens
and an enormous number of rabbits.

Ah well, back to reality...  another swim workout scheduled for tomorrow!

This is going to be fun!

OK, so I'm starting to get a bit more comfortable with this whole coaching thing.  A few observations on the experience to date....

• Firstly, The Puppeteer is great!  (I have to give that disclaimer so that she doesn't beat me or take some sort of evil revenge by devising some torture workout routines when I get back from my business trip this week!)
• It's a great motivator.   I'm really excited about being driven harder and doing this "properly".  I did my second swim session yesterday at Pullen Aquatics and found myself determined to put in a much better showing than I did for my first.  The Puppeteer listend to what I had to say about the first session (another tremendous asset) and modified accordingly - I'll be working on stamina and increasing my swim frequency until I can more comfortably do some of the longer sets.  Even though I didn't finish every part of the prescribed workout flawlessly, I found myself really concentrating and putting in a hard effort to finish the session.   I was driven not by fear of The Puppeteer (although no doubt that will come in time!) but rather than not wanting to let her or myself down.
• Staring with the basics/essentials...   The Puppeteer has already put in a lot of time into learning more about how I train/workout; my mechanics; past injuries; lifestyle; nutrition and so on.  I'm quite obviously going to be working a lot on core fitness/strength, flexibility and so on.  I really like the holistic approach and as an "older" athlete this stuff becomes even more critical to improving performance and avoiding injury.
• The tailored approach to training is clearly a major step-up from "self-coaching" using generic training plans from a book or the internet.  Not only is The Puppeteer (have you noticed that I kind of enjoy typing that?  (-:  ) tailoring my workouts based on my starting point and actual performance in previous workouts, but she's also able to take into account my work travel and other events as they come-up and schedule workouts (both time and type) according to what I have available.  By way of an example:  I leave for the UK tonight and will be at a management retreat which is at a farmstead in the middle of nowhere in the Yorkshire Dales (http://www.high-trenhouse.co.uk/).  Not only that, but there's 16"+ of snow on the ground there at the moment.   Swimming and biking are non-starters, so this weeks workouts will feature runs (or hikes if the snow makes running impossible) and a lot of core work that can be done without specialised equipment.
• It's fun!!!   Can't over-emphasize this part.  If you're having fun along the way the workouts will seem a whole lot easier.  Errr....   they will?  right?     Stacey (I'll give you that one coach!) has a great sense of humor and makes it fun.  It's also great that Lisa is in the same "stable" (did I just call you a horse Lisa?) of athletes, so we'll sometimes get to do joint workouts.  I'm looking forward to meeting some of the other victims too.

So....  absolutely no regrets so far - this is going to be fun! 

It's important to note, however, that even if you don't have a coach there are other motivators for improving your breast stroke....

The Puppeteer.......

As I pointed out a couple of posts ago....  Holy Crap!   I'm being controlled!

OK, OK, so I volunteered for this....   I want to be coached.....   I want to improve.....   I even pay for it....    but it is, never-the-less a new feeling to have someone else dictating your workouts instead of planning your own.

Via TrainingPeaks Stacey inputs workouts for me to execute on a day-to-day basis.  I'm imagining that in time there will be a little more advanced warning, but at the moment Stacey is still learning more about where I am starting, what needs most work etc. (and she's probably sitting at home, swigging whiskey and plugging herself into the nearest light socket now that she's starting to realise what a huge project she has taken on!) so it's like opening an Advent Calendar - every day a new surprise!

In all seriousness, I am very excited about having a coach and entering a new phase in my training.  It's also fun!

Stacey is wonderful, but if I can get away with calling my wonderful wife "She Who Must Be Obeyed", I can sure as heck come up with a blog moniker for her!     I have thought long and hard about this and numerous possibilities have been discarded along the way.  "The Freak"?..   too easy.  "The Pansey Punisher"?...   not bad, but no......    I need something that conveys the power that Stacey has over her victims athletes....  something that conveys evil and pain.....    ah, yes.....   that's it......

Ladies and Gentlemen, I introduce to you.....   THE PUPPETEER!

Blech! What happened to my swimming?

Things became very "real" the other day when my first designated workouts from Stacey magically appeared on TrainingPeaks.com.  One was some core work, consisting of planks, push ups, abdominal work etc. - not too bad.   The other was, gulp, a pool workout.

I didn't work particularly hard on my swimming this summer and I haven't done a structured pool work out for more than, wait for it....   30 years - I knew that this wasn't going to be pretty!

I printed out the work out and put it into a Ziploc bag for "wet consultation", grabbed my stuff (Stacey kindly suggested that I should "take my flowered cap" - and she was basically right) and headed to the Triangle Aquatic Center in Cary. 

The work out was basically broken down into:

400 yard warm-up
10 x 50 yard sets
50 yards "your choice" drills
1 x 200 yard set for time
3 x 300 yard drills for breathing; using hand paddles etc.
Cool down   (COOL DOWN?   How about call an ambulance?)

To cut a long story short - I was gassed by the time I finished the 10 x 50!   Yes, I really need to work on my freestyle endurance.  I can breaststroke forever, but freestyle is a different animal.  I'm fully anticipating spending much of the winter wrinkled-up like a prune after spending a lot of time in the pool.  It will come, but there's a lot of work required!

I'm being controlled!

Help!  Some sort of crazy troll is taking over my life via a strange cyber mechanism called Training Peaks!

Yes, it's true....   She Who Must Be Obeyed is no longer the only woman who is monitoring my every move and scaring the living you-know-what out of me!.....   yes, that's right, I broke down and hired a triathlon coach!

As posted previously, I'm serious about this triathlon thing and determined to put in some real effort in 2011.  Rather than try to work out your my own schedules and try to improve via Brownian Motion, I decided to call in the professionals! 

My friend Lisa works with a coach called Stacey Richardson who is based in Chapel Hill.  Lisa speaks very highly of her (and judging by Lisa's kick-ass perfromances this season she must be doing something right!).  I met Stacey briefly at a bike trainer workout at Inside Out Sports a few weeks back.  She impressed me with her enthusiasm and approach, but I initially decided to look elsewhere as I didn't want Lisa to think that I was some type of crazy triathlon stalker!  Thankfully Lisa had no such qualms and highly recommended Stacey so, to cut a long story short, I contacted Stacey, swapped some emails and, hey presto, Stacey has a significant new "project".....   the poor lady has no idea what she has taken on!   :-)

Stacey is part of a local group called Triangle Multisport http://www.trianglemultisport.com/home.html and has her own website at http://tristacey.wordpress.com/.  

I had my first working session yesterday, when I met Stacey on the American Tobacco Trail in Durham and she assessed my limited running capabilities.  Stacey is still recovering from her Ironman Arizona race a couple of weeks back (where she put in a seriously impressive performance!), so she rode her bike whilst analyzing my running.  I was impressed when pretty much the first thing she said was "what's up with your right shoulder?"  - this is the shoulder that I have had problems with since my rugby days and it took Stacey about 0.3 nanoseconds to realise that I hold it lower than the other one when I run.   Stacey went on to identify all sorts of quirks (who knew that I ran with my knees close together and bring my right leg forward differently to my left?).  Judging by the number of different quirks that were identified, watching me run must be much the same as "watching a monkey f#ck a football" (thanks to my  buddie Colford for that one!)  Lots for her to work on!

After the assessment Stacey made me do some stretching exercizes to determine whether she could straighten me out by beating me with a 2 x 4 or whether she would need to do something more serious!   We then adjourned to a local restaurant to discuss how things will work going forward and how Stacey will work with my sometimes crazy travel schedule.  Physiology; nutrition; sleep patterns; psychology etc., etc....  a training geek's paradise.  This is going to be fun!

One of the main vehicles by which Stacey will apparently take control of my entire life is a web based program called Training Peaks http://www.trainingpeaks.com/ .   It's a great program, but the extent to which Stacey can push, pull, prod, yell, spaz out and generally use me as a compliant puppet became really clear this afternoon when a detailed swim workout for tomorrow turned up on my computer screen....  gulp!

Seriously though, Stacey is a hoot and I'm really looking forward to working with her and learning from her amazing knowledge of all things swim, bike and run.  I'm really stoked!

One final thing.....   thanks to Lisa, Stacey is well aware of the existence of this blog, sooooo..... she needs a blog name!  Hmmmm...  so many possibilities....     watch this space!

OBX Gobbler 5k

Turkey Day this year found us in Nags Head, NC.   Last year we did the first ever OBX Gobbler 5k with the kids and had a blast, so this year we signed-up again.  The event is organized by OBX Running Club through FS Sports.  The alarm went off early and by 7:30 am we were registered and wearing our new OBX Gobbler shirts.

Thankfully it was a mild and pleasant morning and we soon found ourselves moving towards the start line. 

The event had 250 participants last year and it must have won a good reputation as this year it was up to 450 plus in all shapes and sizes!  Definitely a family event and it was great to see so many young kids out to run with their parents.  Our youngest walked it with She Who Must Be Obeyed while I ran it with our nine year old.

Poetry in Motion!



I was very impressed as we kept a nice even pace any only stopped to walk twice for a very short period each time.  Finished in a very respectable 35 minutes and then enjoyed watching the rest of the family cruise to the finish!

Big Hair Girls!

A great time and I hope that it will become an annual family tradition.  It provided a great excuse to over-indulge in a fabulous turkey dinner prepared by the wonderful SWMBO later in the afternoon!

Thanks to race director Karen Warlitner who did a spectacular job and, as aways, had a ready smile for everyone!



Little Things Please Little Minds....

Went for a 5k run on my usual hill circuit this morning.  Beautiful sunny Fall day, but pretty breezy.

For some reason my legs were like lead, especially on the hills and I just couldn't get anything going.  I resigned myself to plodding back when I came to a place with a dip where the leaves had collected to about six inches deep all across the road for about 100 yards.  Yippee!  What fun!   I felt like a kid as I kicked my way through and somehow the rest of the run didn't seem quite so hard!

Cobwebs II......

Went out for a four mile run this morning.  Was traveling on business this week and had a very busy schedule, so this was my first run after the half marathon.  I have been very pleased with my recovery.  Last year I seem to remember having stiff legs for several days after the race, but this year no issues at all.

Beautiful morning!   Clear Carolina Blue skies; mild temperature (around 52 F); fabulous fall colors.  Nice easy pace and kept heart rate low.  Legs felt a little heavy on the hills, but not a big deal.

Meanwhile, in other news, I've started investigating coaches for next year.......  Watch this space!

Kind of pumped.....

.....about the half marathon on Sunday.  I really enjoyed it and now am more convinced than ever that with some consistent training and higher weekly mileage that I can go sub 2 hours.   Thinking about signing-up for the Tobacco Road half in March and picking out a "A" race for next fall.   The really scary thing is that I am also seriously thinking about the Beach to Battleship half ironman next year......

Outer Banks Half Marathon

Another one in the books!

Yesterday was the Outer Banks Marathon/Half Marathon.  Is it really a year since we ran it last?

As those of you who have read the posts below will know, I wasn't really sure what to expect from this one.  I really haven't done much distance work recently and on top of that a nasty cold and too much business travel recently have really "cramped my style" when it came to training over the last month or so.

I was signed up to run with my lovely wife ("She Who Must Be Obeyed") but a combination of circumstances including illness and a host of kids activities meant that she couldn't make it this year.  Rather than let the registration go to waste, our friend Kim stepped in at short notice and decided to do her first half marathon with no training!   Now that's not quite as crazy as it seems.....   Kim claims that the furtherest she has run before is eight miles, but she's a fitness trainer and basically works out for a living giving classes at Gold's Gym and the new HEAT studio in downtown Raleigh.  She's also incredibly "high energy" (I'm being nice Kim!) so I certainly wasn't expecting to find her crumpled by the roadside!

Traveled down to Nags Head on Friday evening and spent Saturday doing some chores and at the race expo. to pick-up race packets with 8,000 of my closest friends!   Got good deals on a fuel belt and a hat for cold weather running.  Always a good festive atmosphere and good to see so many fit people milling around!  Somewhat disturbingly, when I went to collect my number and goody bag, before I even opened my mouth the lady behind the counter said "oh, you're that English guy who ran it last year".  I was a little stunned - am I really that memorable?  I can only think that my accent and well-known reputation for "bantering" with people I don't know must have been the cause!

Kim's husband Chris cooked a great dinner on Saturday evening (thanks Chris) and I got a relatively early night after watching some college football; laying out my gear and putting my Accelerade in the fridge.

5:00 am alarm and a breakfast comprising a Powerbar; two vanilla Ensures and a large coffee.  Picked Kim up at 6:00 amd and took the short drive to the designated parking area at Nags Head Elementary School before strolling up to the start.   It was, thankfully, a beautiful morning.  Saturday was pretty windy but the winds dropped overnight and the low was around 52 F, so nothing to complain about.....   actually scratch that......   Kim whined like a three year old about having to get up early and being chilly, but hey, I only had to put up with her for the  morning!  :-)




Porta Potty Row at the start



Kim displaying S.W.M.B.O's race number

Looking pretty relaxed before the start

 Soon enough we were being called to the start and quickly dropped our race bags off at the UPS truck (for retrieval later at the finish) and headed to our corral.   Based on last years performance I opted for front of the 10:00 to 12:00 min/mile pace group.  After some banter with fellow runners and waiting patiently for our turn (it was a wave start) we soon found ourselves underway and heading out onto route 158 South. 

The route takes you south on 158 for about 8 miles through Nags Head (with a couple of detours through neighborhoods) at which point you basically turn right onto the route 64 causeway and over the bridge that connects the Outer Banks to Roanoke Island and the finish in the town of Manteo.

Kim passed me (smiling) within about a quarter of a mile and that was the last I saw of her!   She did an awsome job on her first time out and finished in 2:06:30 - not bad for someone who "doesn't run"!

For my part, I kept a pretty good steady pace to start and was pleased to see that my mile splits were coming-in at comfortably under 10:00 pace.  For about the first six miles or so I found myself running with a very cheerful group of ladies dressed as Wonderwoman, so that provided some entertainment!

For nutrition I had mandarin flavored "Gu" that I took at miles 4 and 8 plus some sips of Accelerade from my new fuel belt.

Here are my splits for the first seven miles:  09:45    09:29    09:33    09:43   09:42    09:42    09:42  (look at the consistency of the last four!).   Heartrate was pretty steady at around165.

Last year I did the race in around 2 hours 19 mins, but really hobbled home the last few miles on my bum right knee.   As you can see in one of my posts below, I thought that 2:10 was probably a reasonable target for this year, so at mile 8 I was feeling pretty good about things.

Unfortunately, as I crossed the bridge onto Roanoke Island  at about mile 10 I could again feel some slight discomfort in my right knee.  Certainly nothing like as bad as last year, but troublesome none-the-less.  I also started to feel a little fatigue creeping-in, which was not particularly surprising given that I had done so little distance training - just one seven miler and one nine miler in the past few months - not exactly an ideal build-up!

The bottom line is that I managed to keep it going and got home in 2 hours 11 mins and a few seconds.   Eight minutes faster than last year and, all-in-all, not too bad given my lack of training.   My splits for the latter half of the race looked like this:    09:52     10:06    10:17    10:14     10:14    10:35    10:14

Overall average pace was 09:55. 

After receiving my medal and chugging some finish line Gatorade I very quickly found Kim who was basking in the glory of finishing her first half and had a facebook picture posted for her adoring fans within about ten minutes of finishing (what a crazy connected world we live in!).

Finishers!

I was a little concerned for Kim for a short while as her fingers were like blocks of ice and she started feeling very cold, but we found a nice sunny spot to hang out for a while and thankfully she soon started to feel better. 

A chilly Kim warming-up in the sunshine.

Where did the bottom half of my medal go?

After enjoying the finish line festivities for a while we managed to find Kim's husband Chris and her kids and were soon heading back over the bridge into Nags Head and watching the full marathoners push their last few miles in the opposite direction.

After showering and resting a while it was off to the OBX Brewing Station for a pint of BlackEye PA (yum!) and a well deserved burger and fries!

A really nice day and a very well organized and fun event.  It was the  fifth anniversay race this year and it continues to get bigger.  Well over 8,000 participants this year.  Because it's a "flat track" it seems to attract quite a few folks trying to qualify for Boston.   The winner of the mens half this year was a Kenyan guy who ran it in 1:02:30.....   do you think he made it?   That's the entire 13.1 miles at well under 5 min/mile pace - unbelievable!

Time for a rest!

Fingers Crossed......

Went for a "taper run" this morning on my usual 5k hill circuit.  After about 2 miles I felt a distinct "twinge" behind my left knee...   uh oh!    Didn't want to mess anything-up before the OBX half this weekend, so I walked for a bit to be safe.   Don't think it was a big deal - ran the last half mile at about 8:30 pace and didn't feel it.   Fingers crossed!

How Lucky Am I?

Went for a nine mile run this morning.  A magnificent clear fall day - couldn't be prettier.

I always do a lot of thinking on my long runs (I prefer not to take an i pod -  both for safety reasons and because somehow it seems to "pollute" my runs) but for some reason today my mind was doing overtime....

Spent a lot of time thinking about our friends and how lucky we are.   Thought especially about friends who were running the City of Oaks Marathon/Half Marathon today....   Lisa, Chantal, Casey, Dan and others...   and how lucky we all are to have our health and to still be able to go out and run, bike and swim .

Also got to reflect on the beautiful fall colors and how lucky we are to live in such a beautiful part of the world.

Finished the nine miles and was barely out-of-breath.  Legs feel great.  Hopefully a good sign for next weekend and the OBX Half Marathon!

Finally!

After really struggled with my training in late October because of some international travel and a nasty cold, I finally felt well enough to run again today.   Went for a steady 3.5 miler (hills).  Kept heartbeat at around 160-165 and did about 9:50 pace.   Finished pretty well with a 8:05 pace spurt for the last third of  mile.

Legs felt fine (as they should have after all the rest they have had!).  Lungs still "spongy" but definitely on the road to recovery.  Coughing a little, but manageable.

I can't believe how much I have missed getting out there (a good sign I guess). 

Not really sure what to expect for the OBX half on Nov. 14th but I'm at least confident now that I can put in a few more good runs before I start to taper.

The Torture Chamber

A while back I posted about my new bike trainer being an instrument of torture somewhat akin to the rack that was used in Medieval times.  While I'm not going to start my serious winter bike program until after I've finished the OBX half marathon on Nov. 14th, I have learned to quite enjoy some sessions on the trainer.

I have it set-up in the spare room over my workshop that doubles as a work out room.

A few things to note....    Firstly, you tend to really work up a sweat on the trainer.  Much more so than you do out on the road, because you don't have a constant 20 mph ish breeze coolong you down when you're static.  You can't see it in the pictures, but the bike is directly under a ceiling fan.  More importantly, I bought a cheap window fan which does a nice job of pulling-in cool air from outside.  A towel is a must!

The television isn't yet hooked-up, but it does get tedious on some of the longer sessions, so I'm planning on buying a cheap DVD player.  There are some good motivational DVDs such as the "Spinnervals" series. 

Hopefully I'll be spending many hours over the winter prepping for next season.  I really need to gain some minutes on the bike if I want top be competitive in my age group.

This Really Sucks!

Considered going for a run this morning, but I'm still coughing!   It is at least loosening-up, but I'm going to give it one more day.  Not the way I envisioned getting ready for the half marathon!

Lowering expectations.....

So, the OBX Half Marathon is two weeks out and I'm scheduled for my last long training run this weekend.  Not looking likely to happen based on the fact that I can hardly breathe; am coughing-up a lung and have the chills .  Bugger!

Maybe it's time to stop thinking about any specific time objective and just worry about having fun and finishing? 

Blech! The Only Thing Running Is My Nose......

Tried to go for a run this morning, but it was a no go based on the fact that I seem to have contracted some sort of late summer cold.  Very congested and sneezing like crazy.  Damn, Damn, Damn!

Doh! I'm an Idiot!

Went for a 5k run this morning and was really sluggish over the second half.    I guess I could blame residual jet lag from last weeks business trip, but it's much more likely because I stayed-up late last night watching recorded sit coms with She Who Must Be Obeyed; drank the best part of a bottle of wine and then was stupid enough to stay up even later to watch the end of the meaningless (to me at least) Monday Night Football game between the Giants and the Cowboys (OK, I admit it, a small part of me does enjoy watching the Cowboys struggle!).  Basically I'm becoming a Homer....

Why do I do this?   I'm an idiot!   Time to set and adopt some new mid week life rules to cover Monday through Thursday (I'm not a complete masochist - weekends are sacred!).

Here goes.  New Rules:

1.   EAT BREAKFAST!    I often skip breakfast, which is just ridiculous!

2.   GO TO BED EARLIER!   There's really no reason to be staying up until midnight.

3.   NO ALCOHOL (unless we have guests!).  There's really no reason to chug a bottle of wine just because it's Tuesday!

Time to stop being a Homer!   As added incentive on rule number three I think I'll get a jar and everytime I successfully go an evening without drinking I'll add the price of a half bottle of wine or three beers to it.  All proceeds go towards new winter work out gear.

I'll report back on progress!

Ah.... that's better!

Went for a 7.5 mile run this morning and averaged 10:10 per mile over a hilly course.  Finished with both legs and lungs feeling fine.  A very different experience from last week, when I think that the work on the bike trainer the day before turned my legs to mush.  Feel that I could have kept that pace going for a lot longer - would equate to around 1:12:06 for the half marathon distance - not too bad.

Will train lightly on the bike until after the OBX half marathon and start Jorge's winter bike training program in late November.

Back on the Horse

I have spent this past week on a business trip to Europe - a couple of days in Liverpool for a board meeting followed by a couple of days in and around Hamburg to meet with one of our collaborators.   Long week and very happy to be home!

I enjoy my international trips and always take my work out gear, but find it very difficult to actually do anything!  Generally there are dinner engagements every evening and I find that my craving for sleep seems to quickly overcome any desire to get up early and exercise.   This week all I managed was 45 minutes on the treadmill on Tuesday morning in the Liverpool Hilton (which happens to have one of the best gyms I've ever seen in a hotel - and I've seen a lot!).   Ah well.....

On the plus side I managed to eat pretty well.  I didn't go too crazy on my old favorites while in Liverpool and the food around the Baltic coast is designed to be eaten in  moderation - how much eel, zander and pickled herring can you eat?  

A light week now and again is probably good for me, but now it's time to get back on the horse and do some serious work. 

Albert Dock in Liverpool

Hamburg