Help me, Clarence! Get me back!

KathyK wrote:Way to tough out the 20 miler, and then tackle the pond to pool experiment. Yikes!

Thanks Kathy! Worst part of "pond-to-pool" was hauling hose and pump up and down the short/steep embankment to the pond. I had to contort a bit around brush and poison ivy, on treacherous footing, dripping sweat, and cramping at the same time. I gave up on that, and now we are risking it with the well and praying for rain!
Oh, and after some rest, feeling a lot better today!

Easy 6 miler this morning, kinda slow (9:23 average). Cooler this morning, but mugginess making a comeback. Limiting factor mostly was just thinking I should take it easy, and a little bit of tiredness remaining after the hard 20. No worries.

We have the pool back up and filtering, after using the well for that. Bad news is that my wife reported this morning that the water was now coming out of the tap somewhat discolored. Yeck. I guess that is the price we pay, and hopefully we don't need to do more with that any time soon!

Ahh, the joys of country living.

Michael, there's a Half down in Milford next month I'm thinking of running. Have you run it before and if so how was it? Thanks.

We're familiar with the whole well thing as we live in the country, too. We had one day this spring when the water was an interesting color, and we thought...uh oh, time for a new well. But it cleared up and we've been fine since then.

Probably a good plan to take it easy on the 6 miler after the hard 20 and effort involved in the pond/pool exercise!

Alex Kubacki wrote:Michael, there's a Half down in Milford next month I'm thinking of running. Have you run it before and if so how was it? Thanks.

Alex, this is the first I've heard about that race. I guess last year was the first running. I don't know anything about it. The course looks to be scenic, for sure, as you are right on LI Sound. I like the fact that it's put on by one of the local running clubs (I've heard of them, at least) and that timing company (Last Mile) usually does a good job, so that's a good sign.

I wish I wasn't scheduled to run a full two weeks after that, or I'd run it, too - I love that flat course profile!

KathyK wrote:We're familiar with the whole well thing as we live in the country, too. We had one day this spring when the water was an interesting color, and we thought...uh oh, time for a new well. But it cleared up and we've been fine since then.

Probably a good plan to take it easy on the 6 miler after the hard 20 and effort involved in the pond/pool exercise!

Yes, I think the best advice I've received on the well was from the guy who took a look at our water supply right after we moved in (the first time we ran out of water altogether and were wondering "WTF?"). He was an old-timer who could have told us just about anything and we would have paid a ton for him to do whatever he said. Instead he said it made sense to locate a likely place where the water was running and we were unaware (which we found), and let the system have a chance to recharge. He also slightly improved the above-ground equipment in our basement. That was it, and we are just careful with it. Other choice is to drill a new well, but that can get expensive fast, and there is no guarantee we'll end up better off!

I also ended up taking it easy this morning. I woke up about 3:45, because one of our dogs was outside (the boys let him out and didn't think to let him back in!) and had cornered some critter and was barking wildly. I got out of bed to investigate, and got him away from whatever it was and safely in the house. Then I walked back over there with this tiny flashlight (only one available), and couldn't really see what I was trying to find - whatever this critter was. As I got close, it growled menacingly (scared the you-know-what out of me) and I bolted back in the house, figuring I didn't need to know! Like a scene from a bad horror movie. Anyway, had trouble going back to sleep. After I finally did, I woke up at 5:15, in time for my morning run, but it was thunderstorming out, so I couldn't run on the road. I thought momentarily about the treadmill, but it has been unreliable lately, and I felt tired, and I just figured to heck with it, it's a stepback week, and decided to sleep in. Nice! Woke up a couple of times, but managed to stay in bed and get some sleep until about 7:30, which I never do. I think I needed the sleep...

Did my (now standard) six miles this morning, and paced it just like these have been the last couple of weeks. Kinda slow. Whatever.

This seems to be the summer of humidity. It was cooler this morning, but still way humid. I will be glad when that changes for the long term. I feel like all the paint ought to be peeling off just about everything around here, like some shack in the bayou!

Had a nice dinner out with my wife last night, followed by ice cream and a walk. A very pleasant diversion.

I have a practice group meeting at noon that I really don't want to go through, and the place down the street is having its weekly meatball sub special, which I will have to miss. Mmmmmm, meatballs. How sad.

Seems like the dog days...

A little cooler this morning, and the 6 miles seemed faster (and was) and much more pleasant. Stats below.
Time for my Cheerios...

Michael, are you doing a tune up before Clarence?

Alex Kubacki wrote:Michael, are you doing a tune up before Clarence?

I don't have one planned. I've considered the New Haven Road Race (20K), which is on Labor Day. I really like the race, and it is four weeks out from the race. But for some reason I'm not that motivated to sign up for it. I have plenty of time to change my mind.

An easy 13.1 this morning, much of it in a gentle rainstorm. Very nice. It was cooler this morning, probably in the upper 60s for the run. The rain felt great - I missed it once it stopped.

6 miles nice and easy this morning. I got off the big hills for a change for this one, and that was pretty pleasant. Also, another beautiful morning for a run - what a difference that dew point makes! Averaged 9:16, and that finishes off the stepback week. Now onto another peak and we'll see how that feels.
My daughter leaves for dorm move-in on Friday (UConn), and I will be taking her (her Mom can't stand the emotion of these things - that's the reason I've always had to do the first day of kindergarten, etc. - I kinda like that!). So, I think I'm going to move my schedule back to a more typical 5 day a week schedule this week - t/w/th, sa/su. That way, I don't have to try to get a run in Friday before the move.
So, big doings here this week. Not that traumatic, though, in the grand scheme. UConn is not far away (in fact, her older sibling is going to be a junior there this semester, and he has opted to live at home and commute!). Plus, it makes it easy to get things (and her) back and forth - he'll be going back and forth every day. I predict this will work out for the first semester, which ends by mid-December. Once the real weather kicks in, we'll see how he does driving that twice a day.
School for the other two doesn't start until the middle of next week, but that will bring an end to my morning running mid-week, as that becomes impossible (I leave the house by 6:40 to drive my third child to Hartford, and then me to the office). And though I've stayed off the treadmill almost the entire cycle, I expect I'll spend at least a little time on it when I head to those evening runs. We'll see...

My daughter's friend will be a freshman at UConn too, and we were just talking about her moving in on Friday. My daughter is headed to Boston with her Dad next Sunday. BU has a freshman service project the week before school starts, and they get to move in then. I will then fly in on Saturday, 9/1 as she starts school on the 4th.

Glad to see the running going along well.

Michele "1L" Keane wrote:My daughter's friend will be a freshman at UConn too, and we were just talking about her moving in on Friday. My daughter is headed to Boston with her Dad next Sunday. BU has a freshman service project the week before school starts, and they get to move in then. I will then fly in on Saturday, 9/1 as she starts school on the 4th.

Glad to see the running going along well.

Thanks Michele! She's really excited, I can tell.

Went in for my annual physical today. All is well. He did have them x-ray my left foot, where it still hurts a bit from when I fell on the trail about a month ago. Results to come later today, I guess. I am doubting anything is broken in there.

Of more interest to me - he had my lab results. He had me go in at least a week prior to today, so he'd have the results to discuss. Other than our annual cholesterol discussion (my total cholesterol is somewhat high, but I have very high levels of HDL, which is good, and he tells me I should watch what I eat, but nothing dramatic is necessary), nothing exciting. But he noted that the ketone level in my urine was higher than normal. He knows about my training, and volunteered that he wasn't worried about that - I must have been running and got to the point that I was converting fat instead of carbs.

So, I went back and looked at my blog entry for the day of the blood and urine tests at the lab. Of course, for the cholesterol test I had been fasting since the evening before, and had nothing pre-run, or pre-test. It was a Friday and my 4th day in a row running (6, 8.3, 6, 6). I noted in the blog that I ran it kind of slow. And the next day I mentioned (while describing the awful 20 I ran the next day) how tired I'd been the night before. I think maybe I'm onto something here - I just plain ran myself out of carbs (and started to bonk after just 6 miles?). Maybe the beginning of overtraining?

Whatever the precise answer is, I think I need to eat more carbs for the next few weeks!

Wow, is it getting light later, or what? So as to avoid getting run over by cars on our narrow, curving, hilly roads, I waited until it really seemed like daylight, more or less, to run this morning, and it was already 6:00 a.m.! That is happening fast. Good thing I only have two or three more early morning mid-week runs left before I have to switch to evenings for schedule purposes anyway.

Uneventful 5 miles this morning, averaging 9:07. Felt really solid. I haven't run less than 6 in a single run in several weeks, so it was nice to have the shorter run. Moving to a 5/8/5/8/20 schedule this week, for several reasons.

I wore the HR strap that came with my new garmin for the first time today. My past experience with HR training (which is almost nonexistent) informs me that my max HR is way higher than the formulas would suggest. Based on 220 - 55, it would be 165, and I almost hit that at the top of the second hill, without feeling very stressed! I will play with this some more in the weeks to come and see what I find. I think I will go do what it takes to do a max HR test and get a real reading on that for calculating target rates. But not this week - maybe next!

Off to lunch to commiserate with an old friend over some of my current problems - it's good to have friends!

Heard fire trucks going by in the middle of the night, but they stopped, so I rolled over and went back to sleep.

Got up for my 8 mile run and headed out when it was light enough for safety. Almost immediately came upon three minicam vans for the local tv stations, with cameras out on tripods and the guys who do the remote news stories milling about (and not surprisingly, they weren't there to film my run!), and an emergency vehicle blocking off traffic where the road splits about .2 miles from my house. Ends up that the house at the top of the bluff there had burned down over night. We used to live right next door to that house, before we moved 9 years ago, and know the owners. We had our issues with them (a large part of why we moved), but would not wish a house fire on them, that's for sure. The home is up a steep and unpaved driveway, so I'm sure the fire crew had a hard time getting water up the hill in time to do anything. Fortunately, no one was hurt.

I hadn't figured out which house it was at that point and continued on my run (didn't learn the details until I saw the news reports when I got back home). It was a surprisingly good run, considering how hilly the route is. I ascend +260 feet over the first three miles. Although I do get to go back down that , it's not all down, but pretty "bumpy" along the way, with a couple of pretty big climbs that conclude at the 4.5 mile mark. But from there it is only rolling, and pretty easy, compared to the first part of the route. Anyway, I just took it at an easy pace, and felt really good the whole way.

I got a good night's sleep last night, which was essential, because I hadn't slept much at all either of the two prior nights. My oldest (just turned 20) is in some trouble. It's been pending all summer, but is finally coming to a head, and that's causing a lot of stress in the family. Plus, my second oldest heads off to college Friday, which has us in a state of heightened emotions anyway (more my wife than me, but one affects the other!).

Anyway, we will get through this, but it will take a while. Having an exercise regimen does help with the stress!

Thoughts and prayers sent your way for the family stress right now.

About the Max HR thing...that formula doesn't work for me, either. But I've been keeping an eye on my HR over the past couple of years during different kinds of runs.

KathyK wrote:Thoughts and prayers sent your way for the family stress right now.

About the Max HR thing...that formula doesn't work for me, either. But I've been keeping an eye on my HR over the past couple of years during different kinds of runs.

Thanks, I'm always happy to get whatever prayers I can!

Thursday I did a nice easy 5 miler, and it was a good run.

Friday, I did not run. I took my 20 year old son in to be booked on some charges, and immediately bailed him out. These are serious, and it is not certain how they will come out. We are hopeful that this will come out okay, but only time will tell. That was stressful, and will remain so for some time, as it works its way through the system.

At the same time, my wife was taking my daughter out to UConn to move into the dorm. Although that was a much happier event, it was very stressful on my wife, because she dreads my daughter moving out and going to college (although she very much wants that for her). All went well. I think it was a good thing that my wife went with her - they had a lot of fun organizing the room, etc. Girls!

Today I did my 3rd 20 miler of the training cycle. It went really well. Much better than the one I did two weeks ago! Although I didn't sleep that well last night, and not well at all on Thursday night, I was rested enough, hadn't run since Thursday, and was well-fueled beforehand. Plus, I had a lot on my mind, so the miles just flew by.

The weather cooperated. Although it got up into the low 80s for a good part of the run, it was shady where I was, and the humidity was reasonable (dew points only in the high 50s, yay!). I drank several bottles of water, a quart of gatorade and ate two roctanes. It was all good. Felt nice and strong, right through to the end, and nothing bothered me too much, though I felt that ITBS from time to time.

The two longer split times were when I stopped at the car for water/gatorade/gu and/or to pee. I picked it up at the end, which felt just great. I could have gone further, for sure.

I was pleased with this run. I am 5 weeks out from marathon Sunday, and have one peak week left.

An easy 8 miles today. My legs were tired (though I wasn't especially sore) from the 20 yesterday, and I couldn't get out until near midday. Given that it was warm to start, and based on how I felt, I just took it really easy (averaged about 9:35 - about the same pace as the much longer run yesterday). Everything felt fine.

Now I've got a stepback week, followed by the final peak week, and then a three week long taper.

Getting there.

Hopefully things will work out Michael. Just keep plugging away at the training and next thing you know you'll be on a bus heading to the start line in NH.

Alex Kubacki wrote:Hopefully things will work out Michael. Just keep plugging away at the training and next thing you know you'll be on a bus heading to the start line in NH.

Thanks Alex. You're the expert - how early did you go out on the bus, and is there a reason to get out there particularly early for this race? Just curious as I begin to contemplate logistics...

Michael Enright wrote:Thanks Alex. You're the expert - how early did you go out on the bus, and is there a reason to get out there particularly early for this race? Just curious as I begin to contemplate logistics...

I think I got there around 6:30. It was still dark. Picked up my number then got on the bus. There's only a couple of hundred that do the race so there's no real rush to get there early. I always arrive early for races so it was no big deal for me. If it's raining you may want to wait to get on the bus as there's no real shelter once you get up there.

Alex Kubacki wrote:

Michael Enright wrote:Thanks Alex. You're the expert - how early did you go out on the bus, and is there a reason to get out there particularly early for this race? Just curious as I begin to contemplate logistics...

I think I got there around 6:30. It was still dark. Picked up my number then got on the bus. There's only a couple of hundred that do the race so there's no real rush to get there early. I always arrive early for races so it was no big deal for me. If it's raining you may want to wait to get on the bus as there's no real shelter once you get up there.

I will probably be there early, as well, "just because." But thanks, that gives me some context.