Last week I hinted at some new shoes coming in the mail – a pair of Saucony Mirage. They arrived from Holabird Sports over the weekend and I finally got to run in them yesterday.
Saucony Mirage
I will never judge a shoe by one run, but I really liked the way they felt. The lightness of the shoe was much nicer than I expected.
I got these shoes because I am a huge fan of trying something new without going too extreme. I am pretty sure I won’t get a pair of Vibram’s or anything less of a shoe than the Mirage any time soon. Notice that I’m not saying “never.”
If I can transition to this shoe quickly I will, but for now I’m not going to force the issue. I’ll have one or two runs a week in them before anything high mileage. That said, I would love to wear these awesomely green shoes for the Shamrock Half.
I also have another new product in my hands … or on my wrist – a Soleus GPS 1.0. It’s a long story about how I got this watch, but I want to thank Soleus for the opportunity to wear this.
Soleus came onto the scene recently with an affordable GPS option with a watch that is just that – a normal looking watch with GPS features. Unlike Garmin or other similar companies, you cannot download the data to a computer.
After a few runs with the watch, I like it a lot. The connection to a GPS is quick and the various screen options are nice. I do miss the data that my Garmin 205 provides, however, I never really started using those features until last year. I still don’t download my data often, but I do like looking at elevation profiles and maps on crazy runs.
I have done some comparison with the Garmin – the first run it was just .06 more on a 5.3 mile run; with a co-worker it was .15 more on a 3-mile run. I know that GPS watches read differently and aren’t 100% accurate, but I will continue to compare the two as I decide on which one I like better.
How I handle not having quick access to elevation or maps is yet to be seen. The question is, do I really need it? The quick answer is no. I did fine without it for years. Perhaps I’ll keep my Garmin for those crazier runs, although it seems ridiculous to leave it sitting around when I can easily sell it. My Garmin, though, is old and I don’t know how long it will last.
On the health side of things, I am finally feeling better. I’d say I’m about 90% now – still a little ways to go, but I’ll definitely be ready for 10 miles this weekend.
Three weeks into the year and I can’t believe that I’m saying training for the Shamrock Half has gotten off to a bad start. Sort of.
Last weekend, I wrote about not feeling well. My mileage fell short by a few miles and I had a long run that just didn’t feel right. It was nice to push it, but it left me feeling bad later in the day.
All last week I struggled with feeling good — lots of snot, headaches and everything else associated with a cold. That led to completely skipping a run, something I haven’t done in a while.
Then yesterday I felt pretty good again. My head was stopped up, but I felt like I could think clear. I went out for 8 miles and had a great run. While it was a bit cold, I enjoyed every second of it. The super snot rockets I got out made me feel even better.
Then yesterday afternoon I took a nap that made me feel crappy again. Same thing last night; then today it’s like I couldn’t even wake up. I decided to stay home from work because going to work every day last week obviously didn’t make me feel better.
Now that it’s afternoon, I once again don’t feel too bad. This up and down and up and down thing is annoying — I feel like the end is near and I know that taking today off running will only help.
Today is all about rest and fluids. I want to run tomorrow and I want to run 10 miles this weekend. I want to have a normal week of training and get my focus back on what I want to do for the Shamrock Half.
Fellow #runchat co-moderator Scott has been in a funk lately. To give himself some motivation, he created a great list today of 10 things he loves about running.
While I haven’t been in any running funk (although I have had a bad cold all week that’s now cutting into my running), I’ve had a bad case of writer’s block lately — my mind is full of thoughts that just don’t make sense when I try to put the words down. As a longtime writer and editor, both personally and professionally, there’s nothing worse than stuck thoughts.
So to take his idea, I’ll give you 10 things I love about running. I should do this more often; I encourage everyone to make a similar list sometime soon.
In no particular order, I love …
1. … watching the sunrise while the rest of the world is asleep.
2. … having my “me” time to sort out thoughts or come up with random ideas.
3. … tackling hills in my small hometown of Bedford, Va.
4. … saying “hi” to strangers even if they don’t speak back or even look at me.
5. … experiencing euphoria at the end of a race.
6. … getting lost on a trail.
7. … getting to know strangers on a group run.
8. … very random music on those rare music days.
9. … drinking a cold Magic Hat No. 9 to reward myself for a long run.
10. … new shoes.
My training cycle for the Baltimore Marathon was definitely the best. Any issues I had were minor.
In these first couple of weeks of Shamrock Half training, and now Cleveland Marathon training, things haven’t started so well. While last week’s trail race was a ton of fun, the tumble I took really left me banged up and threw off my whole week. I still have scabs and bruises.
Instead of my first run coming Monday, it came Tuesday; I was planning to do my long run of 8 miles on Saturday, but I just didn’t feel up to it after I ran Thursday and Friday; I ended up just not feeling well at all Saturday, which led to waking up not feeling great Sunday; I actually debated on not running today, but after a nap I felt better and ended up doing a mid-afternoon run of 7 miles.
At the end of all this, I’m glad I pushed through it today. I’m disappointed in falling short of my planned distance today and for the week, but getting in an hour of running felt good. It was actually my first run of more than an hour in the winter in more than 2 years. Last year I didn’t run anything beyond 4 miles in the winter.
I won’t let some minor setbacks get me down, but I certainly hope I don’t have any other weird things come my way any time soon.
I enjoyed doing “11 things” so much last year that I thought I would extend it to this year and call it “12 things.” I will refrain from making any “rules” about it other than posting on the 12th day each month.
While I want to be random or do ones with themes, I can’t promise that I won’t talk about running. Simply put, 12 things will be whatever I want it to be – a list of 12 things. For my second 12 things list this year (my first was going to be my last), I give you this, in no particular order.
1. While I like upsets and good stories, I’ll be rooting for the Patriots this weekend. Please don’t think that means I hate Jesus.
2. I am about 2 months away from being able to get rid of my Blackberry. It was a cool phone initially, but I have grown to really despise a lot of things on it.
3. I started the 100 push-ups program again. Don’t ask how many times this is.
4. My son told me the other day that his poop looked like a Christmas tree. I should have taken a picture … because it did look like a Christmas tree.
5. I’ve had three salads this week.
6. I’m hooked on Words with Friends, so it may be a good thing that I only have a Blackberry right now.
7. Rumor has it that Dave Matthews Band and Steve Lillywhite are in the studio together again. This could go two ways — the best album ever, or no album at all. There will likely be no in between.
9. For those who you complaining about the lack of cold and snow this winter, please don’t complain if we get the biggest snow storm ever in the next month.
10. I keep thinking about shaving my beard, then I remember how much I hate shaving. I haven’t even trimmed it in nearly 3 weeks.
11. I usually delete the Runner’s World quote of the week, but I keep thinking about this week’s quote from Desiree Davila and how it can apply to me: “Running is just you, the work you put in, and the clock. You can’t cheat yourself. If you don’t put in the miles, you can’t go to the starting line thinking you’re going to pull a miracle out of nowhere. You get out exactly as much as you put in.”
I signed up for the Cleveland Marathon on Friday, which drastically changes my approach to the whole year. I have been indecisive about what to do this spring for a couple of months now – while the Shamrock Half Marathon is my No. 1 priority, I believe that a spring marathon will only enhance my experience in Virginia Beach in March.
With doing some initial planning, the timing is perfect — Shamrock is 9 weeks before Cleveland; this summer I ran the Lynchburg Half Marathon 9 weeks before the Baltimore Marathon. My planned mileage and long runs before Shamrock really don’t change all that much by signing up for the marathon.
I have had a lot of thoughts wrapped up in my head about a spring marathon, and it’s relieving to finally have the chance to get them out. As I hinted yesterday, this hasn’t been an easy decision.
Of all the possibilities for a spring marathon, Cleveland makes the most sense – it’s less than an hour from my in-laws, so I can make a dual-purpose trip to Ohio. As the marathon gets closer, I will explain that in more detail.
Even though I have had a couple of really good springs in a row, I haven’t given myself the opportunity to see what training for a marathon is like in the cooler winter and spring months. A 20-mile run in April sounds pretty appealing right now.
If I’m going to do two marathons in a calendar year, this is the year to do it. If things fall into place in me and my wife’s lives and careers this year, don’t be surprised if a future runner is added to the family “soon.”
I kept having a nagging feeling to do something different. I don’t know where it’s coming from. Sure I’ll be doing Richmond in November, but I like “getting away” for races. My Baltimore weekend was a lot of fun, so this spring will be full of that with traveling to Virginia Beach in March and then Ohio in May.
I wanted a new challenge. At one point in the past few years, I really thought I wanted to do an ultramarathon in the nearby mountains. That desire is still there, but it’s not something I’m ready for. I feel like I have something to prove on the roads before taking a leap to an ultra. The Mountain Junkies races, like Saturday’s race and last year’s Trail Nut 10k, give me a chance to gain more experience before I’m comfortable tackling more.
Lastly, friends on Twitter spoke highly of Cleveland. There were definitely other options out there, but nobody said anything too negative about their Cleveland experiences to make another race jump to the top.
I’ve had an issue in the past month or so in which I have a lot of things on my mind, but they haven’t made their way to my blog.
This past weekend’s race is a perfect example – I signed up a couple of days before Christmas, but it only got a small mention in a post last week. I had a lot of thoughts about doing a trail race and running an event in January, but I just never put those thoughts together.
While some may say it’s no big deal or who cares, it comes down to something I need more of – focus. During last night’s #runchat, Scott and I asked fellow runners what their word for 2012 would be to help achieve their goals. Out of nowhere I came up with “focus.”
I was definitely focused last year, but I’ve lost a lot of that lately. It’s weird to say that, especially after the holiday run streak and ending the year strong, but I feel like I’ve lost something.
So now it’s time to get refocused and do the things I say I’m going to do. Lists of goals and letters to myself sound good, but I have to put those things in action.
I have the Shamrock Half Marathon in 68 days and then something after that a little more than 2 months later. And that “something” is something I have to save for another post …
Today was one of those days that made me feel like a new runner all over again — I ran a race for the first time ever in January, and it was on a trail in the mountains near Roanoke.
Since I knew I wasn’t running with a specific time goal in mind for the Mountain Junkies Frozen Toe 10k, I left my watch at home so I could fully enjoy this experience.
Oh, and it was about 50 degrees at the start. The previous two times this race has been held it has been cold with snow and ice.
There’s really no reason to do a traditional “race report” — this was a learning experience that I wanted to utilize for future trail races. Plus I did not know the course at all.
I went out with a very conservative approach and hung back quite a bit at the beginning. In hindsight, I could have pushed it more in the first half mile before entering the trail. That said, I was very comfortable with things in the first couple of miles. Since I’ve only run on trails a few times in the past couple of months, there was no need to push it hard.
The aftermath.
Somewhere between the 2nd and 3rd miles, I took a tumble. A hard tumble.
I hit a stretch of very leaf-covered ground and I guess my right foot hit a rock — I’m not really sure what happened after that other than I rolled on the ground. Oddly enough, nobody saw this happen.
I got up and realized that I was pretty banged up — there was a cut on my right knee and elbow. But I could walk fine, so I just ran. I could feel some discomfort in my right thigh, but nothing too major.
Around mile 3, I stopped at the water stop and took a closer look at things — while there was blood, the cuts weren’t bad, so along I went.
The course consisted of some of the best trails I’ve ever been on. I think some of that is because it was so cold earlier this week that anything that could have been mud had dried up. Passing people and getting passed was pretty smooth.
While there definitely were some tight areas, there was no getting backed up behind people for too long. The continuous up and down hills kept everyone spread out fairly well.
I crossed the finish line in a time of 56:14. The first thing I did was go to my car to get my phone to take pictures of my battle scars. Pretty disturbing, right?
I’m pretty sore tonight, especially my elbow. I have a bruise on my thigh pretty high up — I’m pretty sure that I hit a nice-sized rock under the leaves with my upper thigh with the multiple marks I have. All in all, though, I feel good.
Knowing what I know now about this course, I probably could run it a few minutes faster than that. I’m definitely happy with today though. It’s a great way to kick off the year and official training for the Shamrock Half Marathon.
When the Runner’s World Holiday Run Streak came to an end Sunday, the next day I did what just felt right — I went for a run. Then I went for another run Tuesday. 41 straight days of running.
Today, though, as I shift my focus to Shamrock Half Marathon training, the streak comes to an end. I thought about extending it to 50 days, but that mark is no more special to me than 41. In fact, streaking isn’t all that “special” of a thing to me, but it’s a lot of fun. Those people who go for 100 days or 1,000 days, I completely understand why — it’s just not for me.
Here are some highlights of running 41 straight days:
After a few runs with the watch, I like it a lot. The connection to a GPS is quick and the various screen options are nice. I do miss the data that my Garmin 205 provides, however, I never really started using those features until last year. I still don’t download my data often, but I do like looking at elevation profiles and maps on crazy runs.
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