Make No Little Plans

Schuey wrote:

Dave-O wrote:/still awaiting update....

Maybe he got lost in Spain and hasn't made it back yet.

When do they run the bulls again? I hope Chris didn't think that was a 5K or something....

I saw a few photos trickling out on Facebook, but other than that, nothing......

Nice! It looks like you had a great time.

And as for the tux, it looks like you were born to wear it, Chris. If the whole law thing goes kaput, you could be a kickin' maître d’.

Wow!

Awesome!

Ok, I've messed up the order of all of this. Long story short, the Mediterian cruise was AWESOME. 11 nights on ship. We started in Barcelona and then went to Malta, Siciliy, Rome, Pompeii/Vesvius, Portofino/Santa Margagrehta, Corsica and then Eze/Nice before going back to Barcelona. These pictures are all out of of order so just bear with me...

Up above is the "Blue Grotto" of Malta. If you ever saw Count of Monte Cristo, it was filmed in Malta and the treasure is found in the the Blue Grotto. Gladiator filmed in Malta as well. My buddy Scott and I went on a very hilly run in the city after our tour with the family and we came across the filming of a Brad Pitt zombie movie (really). But no Pitt or Angelina sightings.



the Colosiuem in Rome. Rome was amazing. It was the one day I didn't run on this vacation and took fully off because we drove about 90 minutes from the ship to Rome and did a ton while there. I loved it but it was a crazy day.




Up above is Corisca. It hit 90 degrees that day and that run was a tough one! 10 miles along the coast you see in the picture above. While we were running, the girls went to the beach. They got the better end of the deal!





The ancient city of Eze. Right next to Monte Carlo. To Catch A Theif filmed up here. No running on land that day - that was one where I just used the track (1/3 of a mile) on ship. Can you imagine living in a place like Eze and being a runner? You better like hills!



Formal night. I do actually own a tux but I have no idea why. I must have bought it 10+ years ago. Did I think I would regularly attend black tie events!? But hey, it came in handy that night!




That's us in Portofino. The tour guide let Scott and I run between Portofino and Santa Margarehtia while everyone else took the ferry and then we ran back as well while they did the return boat trip. 4 miles each way - one time we went over the craziest hill I've ever run and the
2nd run just along the shore. This is between runs touring Portofino. Great place to live....if you are a billionaire. Seriously. Paul Allen of Microsoft has a house there and I can see why. If we strike oil in our backyard a la Beverly Hillbillies, I'm heading to Portofino..

This is Monte Pellegrino in Palermo, Sicily. Truly crazy run that day. After finishing our tour of the city with the family, Scott and I set out to run up that hill. It was nuts. A couple of miles in town (not fun with crazy Italian drivers) but then straight up towards that Castello Uteveggio on the hill. Climbing and climbing and climbing. Garmin says just over 1,000 feet. Felt like way more. Relentless switchbacks once we got out of town. But wow what a run.








Opera House in Palermo. Godfather III's final scene was there. See how much movie trivia you are getting here?




We had a LOT of pizza and gelato when in Italy! Had to try out each at each city.








The ruins of Pompeii. This picture does not do it justice. It is amazing to walk around a city frozen in time and in place in the year 79.






Portofino again. You see why I'd want to live there if cost was no object?




Portofino again? Here you can see the hill I ran over to get from Santa Margherita to Portofino. That was a crazy run. Basically climbing or descending stairs for 4 miles.





And here's that same hill from the other side - Santa Margerita. Take the boat between the two towns! Way easier than the run we did. But the views from up top were incredible - sorry, no camera along on the runs.





Formal night.




Our ship, the Disney Magic. By the way, the 1/3 of a mile running track was under the yellow boats you see. Very nice running surface. On our two at sea days, I did 2 x 11 miles on that track. So two days at sea, 22 miles each day. That helped keep my average daily mileage for the trip well over 10. Roughly 80 mile weeks.




Cassidy and her best bud Gillian swimming in the Med.

Nice is niiiiicccceeee. Maybe one downside of the cruise is that you are really in each spot only for a day. I'd like to go on a trip to just Italy or the South of France and set up in one town for the whole week.





Best day of the whole cruise was this.....start off taking a bus to the foot of Mt. Vesuvius. Then we transfer into 4x4 vehicles to rocket up towards close to the crater summit. We were still about a 20 minute hike away. Some fool starting trying to jog up towards the summit and I took the bait and chased him down and ran the whole thing up there. Extra credit running. So then we are high up above Naples and looking down into the crater of Vesuvius. Amazing stuff and a scientist gave us a cool lecture on what we were looking at on the volcano (which is still active!). Then we tromp down the trail again - no running for me this time - and head to a vineyard! BEST WINE AND BEST LUNCH I'VE EVER HAD. We have a case of the stuff being shipped to us. For a second I thought the guy was telling me it was $6 a bottle and almost passed out from excitement and was going to order like 10 cases. Uh, no. $6 a bottle SHIPPING. Uh, just one case please! But I'm so excited for that wine to arrive here. After our wine and lunch, we then headed to Pompeii which I mentioned up above. That was my favorite day of tours.





Cassidy and Gillian at the Vesuvius vineyard. No, they didn't drink the wine! They are only 10 years old!




Here's our group (McKees plus Scott, Gillian and their 16 year old daughter) after a DIFFERENT wine tasting in Nice, France! Yeah, we liked the wi ne tours. This one was good too.....see next pic





The one in Nice was held in an underground cave that had been used in WWII as a hiding place from the Nazis for the Resistance and for French Jewish families. Now its this awesome wine and jazz club. The owner gave us a history of Nice, of French wine and cheese and that cave hideout while we worked our way through glass after glass.






Valletta, Malta - We did several loops running around the island to the right as the run that day.






St. Peter's Basicilla in Rome. The Vatician Musuem was amazing. Stunning. I would need 2 weeks to see everything in there. More probably.





The Trevi Fountain in Rome





St. Peter's Square in Vatician City



So, in conclusion....trip was great. I ran a ton, relaxed, caught so much grief from work for being gone so long, and completely enjoyed the family adventure.

This site has EXPLODED while I was gone! It is so great to see it taking off. I'll need to go post in that "Introduction" thread soon.

We got back on Wednesday night so I've really been busy catching up on things and hadn't had a chance to post before now. But I've been running a lot. Did 20 today on the trails. Hot and sticky out there. On the cruise I did a ton of mileage but not too much in terms of speed workouts. I did one set of 8 x 800s on the mill on the ship and one of my other runs on the mill I turned into a progression down to about 10K pace at the end. I have a 5K on July 23 so I want to keep up the mileage I've been logging but also work in some faster stuff to take a shot at that. I ran a 18:31 without really going after it a couple of weeks ago so I think I can do something in the 17:59-18:15 range. Breaking 18 would be sweet but I don't think I'm really there right now but we'll see. Running health wise, I feel great.

One big development that popped up while I was gone is that they are going to close my gym at work for remodeling for 2 months! NOOOOOO!!!!! Not good. Not good at all. I completely depend on that gym and its showers for both my pre-work and lunchtime runs. The gym is still open another 10 days but I've got to find some kind of Plan B quickly.

Awesome pics! Sounds like you guys had a great time.

Oh, and that Brad Pitt movie filming in Malta is called World War Z, I think.

Wow!

Why did you come back?

Ken Mello wrote:Awesome pics! Sounds like you guys had a great time.

Oh, and that Brad Pitt movie filming in Malta is called World War Z, I think.

The last night of the cruise, they slide a little piece of paper under your door. That lays out all of the charges that WERE NOT included in the fairly large all inclusive price. Drinks, all of the shore excursions and guided tours, Internet access, sunglasses x 2 because Cassidy keeps losing hers, professional pictures, arcade games (hey, they had a Golden Tee machine so I had to play) etc etc

My thought after seeing that bill was "Run, do not Walk, back to WORK!!"

Back into the normal flow today. Dropped Cassidy off at camp this morning. Regular work day. I'll do 7-8 miles at lunchtime down on the treadmill in my gym. I'll do another 5 or so tonight. I saw an interesting thread about recovery running but the thread is dated enough that I won't post more. But it surprised me about how many people who were posting in there are training for marathons and yet question the value of basic easy mileage done slowly. The definition of recovery mileage for me is that you finish the run feeling more refreshed than you started. Adjust the pace downwards/slower as needed. But more importantly, that's the only way I really know to add the necessary mileage for optimal marathon training. I can't imagine anyone running a marathon time on the McMillan calculator that matches up with their shorter distance times if they do less than 70 miles a week of training. Are there examples of people here doing just that? Peaking out at 40-50 miles a week but then actually running a marathon time that is in line with their best 5K and 10K times? People made a big deal about that article in Runners World where a guy did the Hanson's plan for Chicago training and never did a long run longer than 14 miles or so. It kept him healthy and he did a nice time at Chicago. But he was still 10+ minutes slower than his fast 5K times would suggest he should have run. The whole thing was touted as "Less Mileage Works!" but it seemed to pretty much prove the opposite to me and that was with a very talented and experienced runner.

So I've always firmly believed volume and endurance is the best way to optimize marathon times and the safest way to add that necessary mileage is easy stuff done 60-120 seconds per mile slower than MP.

(Raises hand)

Just ran a 19:54 5K, which equates out to a 3:14 marathon. Just ran a 3:16:43 in super windy conditions and have never cracked 65 miles in a week. I averaged 52 miles/week last cycle. But your point stands. Running lots of miles without getting injured requires going easy on a decent number of them so you can build volume.

Vacation looks like it was a blast! Being back in the real world is less than ideal and it was tough to roll out of bed this morning after 10 days of not working.

Hey Chris great pictures of you vacation. Can't stop laughing at the "Run, DON'T WALK back to WORK"

As for your question about mileage and running shorter races and then running a marathon time that matches them, I'm the opposite. Not once have I every ran a 5k,10k or even Half at the time that my marathon times say I should. I'm sure I'm in the minority! The funny thing is that it doesn't matter whether I was running lower mileage or higher mileage. I think for me the deal is that I don't do the training that is needed for running faster times in the shorter distances. Even when I trained for the 10k my time was still slower then what it should have been even though I was very happy with my time. So I now question the fact I might be better at longer distances. Hence my whole deal of trying to do some 50 and 100 mile races in the future.

We took a family cruise in the summer of 2007, and all three of us kids were over 21. I saw the look on my Dad's face when the first alcohol bill showed up.

Welcome home, and thanks for sharing the pics. Looks like a ridiculous vacation, one you'll never forget. Nice job getting in the mileage where you could.

Now, the real fun starts.

Schuey wrote:Hey Chris great pictures of you vacation. Can't stop laughing at the "Run, DON'T WALK back to WORK"

As for your question about mileage and running shorter races and then running a marathon time that matches them, I'm the opposite. Not once have I every ran a 5k,10k or even Half at the time that my marathon times say I should. I'm sure I'm in the minority! The funny thing is that it doesn't matter whether I was running lower mileage or higher mileage. I think for me the deal is that I don't do the training that is needed for running faster times in the shorter distances. Even when I trained for the 10k my time was still slower then what it should have been even though I was very happy with my time. So I now question the fact I might be better at longer distances. Hence my whole deal of trying to do some 50 and 100 mile races in the future.

Stupid work laptop settings. I'll have to wait until I get home to check out the pics. This is the cruise that my wife wants to take. I'll have to get more of the 411 from you. What was the youngest aged kiddo you saw?

Che bella vacanza, Chris!

Where did you find your favorite pizza/gelato? Nice to see you got some runs in, and you even had to brave Italy's roads. Oof.

jimd wrote:

Schuey wrote:Hey Chris great pictures of you vacation. Can't stop laughing at the "Run, DON'T WALK back to WORK"

As for your question about mileage and running shorter races and then running a marathon time that matches them, I'm the opposite. Not once have I every ran a 5k,10k or even Half at the time that my marathon times say I should. I'm sure I'm in the minority! The funny thing is that it doesn't matter whether I was running lower mileage or higher mileage. I think for me the deal is that I don't do the training that is needed for running faster times in the shorter distances. Even when I trained for the 10k my time was still slower then what it should have been even though I was very happy with my time. So I now question the fact I might be better at longer distances. Hence my whole deal of trying to do some 50 and 100 mile races in the future.

Stupid work laptop settings. I'll have to wait until I get home to check out the pics. This is the cruise that my wife wants to take. I'll have to get more of the 411 from you. What was the youngest aged kiddo you saw?

3 months old was the youngest and there's tons at every age from there on up to 21 years old. On a Disney Cruise, a big part of what you pay for so it is fully included are these Kid's Clubs that run all day. The Nursery covers 3 months up to 3 years and parents drop their kids off in there for a couple of hours so they can go to a dinner or a show or workout or whatever. Then there are 4 different age bracketted "Kid's Clubs" where the kids sign in and hang out with kids their own age and do activities around the ship. Every kid is different, of course, but my daughter would love to spend ALL her time in that Kid's Club. Her buddy though is more shy so they did not check in there too often on this cruise. But its a really well run program.

I just went down the street at lunch to a gym that I'm considering as an option for when they close the one in my office building. Did 7 easy paced miles on the mill. On the plus side, they have the same Precor treadmill I do at home with downhill grade. Big club with tons of mills, full showers, hot tubs etc. Downside is that its $1 for parking (more annoying than expensive), the TVs DON'T have close captioning (I like to run with music on my iPod and watch CC - on these I have to choose whether to plug in the headphones to the TV), and even though it is only a mile away, its the wrong direction from my work in terms of traffic as there's a ton of Tyson's Corner Mall backup right there. It will do if no better option reveals itself but I'm going to check out a different spot tomorrow. Man, I already miss my gym downstairs and its not even closed yet!

Poor Jerry never cruised except between mile 6-15 in a marathon.

Great time, Chris!

Trip looks like an awesome time, Chris. I've been to some of those places, and I agree that I wish I never had to leave.

As for your question, I guess the only time I ran sub 3, I did indeed meet all the criteria that my 10k and half marathons times said that i should indeed run. I've never done it again, and maybe because I've never run mileage that high again or never have really been able to. My priorities changed after that race as well, and I did not run another marathon for over 13 yrs. In that time frame, I dropped my PRs in the 5k, 10K, and half marathon before having my daughter and backing way off.

Looks like you had a blast on your trip. I thought you weren't going to do another Disney cruise?? I guess the ladies won that battle again....you are such a sucker but so I am.

Good luck getting that 2:xx, I sure hope the sodium is the key for you because you have been working your tail off to nail that goal.

Looks like an amazing vacation, Chris! And an incredible amount of running on your part, considering it was vacation. Impressive. That 1/3 mile track is very nice. The Sun Princess has one of those -- it's called the Promenade deck, lol. Does double duty. But, the ship I just went on was like 7x= 1 mile. Fully exposed to the sun, too.

Fantastic photos from your cruise Chris (you clean up pretty nicely!).
1/3 mile track on the ship is pretty convenient. It was below the lifeboats, but I assume you had a nice view of the sea as you ran.
Glad you guys had such a great trip.

Allright, this is a running and not Europe Cruise blog so a post about training...

For those just tuning in (do I have new readers in this new 365 Runners site?) I am preparing for the Chicago Marathon and Dave is my coach. The way we do things is Dave quizzes me on what's coming up in terms of travel for work and family stuff, mid-cycle goal races I want to do and general plans about the types of runs and mileage I want to aim for. He goes off and develops the day to day plan and then he gives me about 2-3 weeks of the training plan in advance. What then happens is I often tinker with it depending on what's happening life-wise for me that week and we adjust it on the fly. For example, when we did the schedule a few weeks back, I forgot that Monday was the 4th and I'd have it off of work so when that day came around, I did a 20 miler instead of the two shorter runs on the schedule. Dave then readjusted the plan (taking out a tempo but leaving the weekly mileage at 90) so that this is this week's plan:


Monday – 20 (on trail)

Tuesday – 4&7 recovery

Tomorrow – 10 miles with 2x2 tempo

Thursday – 4&6 easy

Friday – 9 general aerobic

Saturday – 20

Sunday – 4&6 miles recovery



Today was the 10 miles with 2x2 at tempo. Yesterday, Dave told me he wanted set #1 to be 6:40/6:30 and set #2 to be 6:20/6:10. I went out early to get this one done before work. Glad I did because it was getting hotter and sticky even by the end of this run.



Mile 1 8:14

Mile 2 7:49

Mile 3 8:07

Mile 4 7:25

Mile 5 7:04

Tempo #1 (6:35/6:28) (6:40/6:30 goal)

I then took a water break. Maybe 3 or so minutes

Tempo #2 (6:20/6:09) (6:20/6:10 goal)

Mile 10 7:16



First 2 mile portion of the tempo was pretty smooth and easy. I looked down maybe 0.5 miles in and saw 6:44 for that mile and then overeacted in speeding up but in general that one was fine. Pretty good on the 2nd one too although I can't pretend I wasnt working pretty hard during that 6:09 mile. I passed one of my neighbors during that part and barely managed a nod in her direction. No smiling and waiving at that point! Still HR never hit 150 during this run so by that measure I wasn't working too hard. If "comfortably hard" is the measure of a tempo pace, that first block of 2 in the low 6:30s was very comfortable and that second one more around 6:15 was more "hard".



And then off to 7-11 for a Slurpee. For those who don't have 7-11s where they live, Slurpees are like slushies or icees. A little strange to drink at 7:30am but it hit the spot!
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Nice tempo, Chris. Was the rest between the intervals completely inactive? Or did you walk/jog any of it?

Nice recovery from your 20 miler. I know I always have a hard time doing anything hard 2 days after a long run, but then I'm good to go on the 3rd day. I would have pitched a fit and made Dave change the schedule.