Posts Tagged ‘Bedford’

Running 1,000 miles this year was never on my radar, especially after running less than 50 miles in January and even less in February.

Today, as I neared a quarter mile to go to 1,000, I was forced to stop …

I’ve run across these tracks probably a dozen times this year and not once did I encounter a train. It struck me as being pretty funny that I had to wait a couple of minutes to run a little farther before hitting 2.2 miles into my run, marking my 1,000th mile. And, that too, was kind of funny as I hit the mark in front of the church I went to much of my life (Main Street United Methodist Church in Bedford).

My running log from today - miles, shoes and total 2011 miles.

Unlike last year, I hit this mark today healthy and more confident than ever about what’s ahead. In the final couple of weeks of 2011, I’ll do some reflecting on what’s happened in these 1,000+ miles — this has been a special year in so many ways and I’m looking forward to taking some time and reading posts I haven’t visited in a while.

While I reflect, though, I’ll keep running. It’s day 24 of the Runner’s World Holiday Run Streak — I have quite a bit more running to do and some early 2012 goals to start getting serious about.

In these last two weeks I’ll continue to hit milestones I’ve never seen with the most miles ever in a year and my most consecutive running days.

Until then, I’m going to celebrate a bit tonight.

After Saturday’s Peaks of Otter Christmas Classic, I didn’t hang out for long. After being out in the cold for a while, my son was ready to go home. I ended up missing some exciting news though — an age group award.

My official time of 22:53 put me 3rd in my age group, which was really surprising considering the top 3 in my age group last year had finishes of 20 minutes or better. So I’d like to thank all the REALLY fast guys 30-34 for staying home Saturday.

My award was the coffee cup above; the inset photo is me and my son showing off our awards — he ended up getting a medal for his race.

I ended up being 60th out of 369 finishers, the largest Christmas Classic ever. My official time puts me at 1:41 better than my previous time from two years ago when I was 100th out of 322.

It always seems like “next year” is so far away, but then it never really is. When it comes to running, I’ve thought about this year’s Peaks of Otter Christmas Classic nearly every time I’ve gone for a run in Bedford. It’s nearly impossible to not run part of that course.

A year ago this weekend, I sat on the sidelines and watched many friends run the race; it was that day that really set the wheels into motion of coming back from my injury that I still have a hard time shaking from my head.

It was that day I felt like I was more determined than ever to get back to running; it was also the same day I had my initial visit with Wimmer Chiropractic and began developing a strategy with how to run more than a half mile at a time.

Today was a special day as I was able to get to the start line of the Christmas Classic healthy, and with a strong goal — break my course record. I did that today with a Garmin time of 22:54, more than 1:30 better than two years ago.

It was such a great race, despite my nose being stopped up again. I actually ran with a Breathe Right strip to help battle that issue.

Today’s cold air felt great — it was in the upper 30s when it started.After last week’s lesson, I finally got brave enough to not wear a long sleeve shirt under 40 degrees.

I hit the first mile, which was a gradual downhill, in just under 7 minutes. I was very happy to battle the infamous hospital hill in the second mile and hit about 7:45. I wish I had some juice left in the final mile, but with a gradual uphill finish and a course record in the bag, I stayed focused on finishing under 23 minutes.

While the focus of this race was about completing my comeback and ending my racing year strong, I also thought a lot about my grandfather who passed away earlier this year. The loop course was his favorite walking loop, and through the neighborhood my grandparents lived in until this year.

I thought a lot about him today, as I often have on runs by myself this year. With Christmas near, the memories of him wearing a “I told you the Schmidt house!” Santa sweatshirt every year are as clear as ever in my head.

To add to today being a special day, my son also completed another race — a simple quarter mile in which he was able to dust another little kid at the end who veered off course. This was after my son’s shoe fell off and he was complaining of his legs hurting.

Seeing him doing this on his own terms is just awesome. I don’t think he quite “gets it” yet when it comes to races, but I’m sure he will soon enough. And when he does, he’ll quickly break all of my personal records.

For now, it’s all about having fun. Something I’m doing a lot of, too.

As a follow up to my sort of “what’s next” post the other day, I put the wheels into motion this week to finish up 2011 strong. For the first time ever, I’ll be running three races three weeks in a row.

While they’re “only” 5ks, my goals for each are different, but all will have the same underlying similarity of figuring out what a realistic goal for the Shamrock Half Marathon will be in March.

Turkey Trot
For $20 and a long-sleeve moisture wicking shirt, plus running for a good cause, why not run this? It’s a new course this year in downtown Lynchburg, so no matter what happens, it’s a course record. And coming off two 5k PRs earlier this year, I want to see where I stand with that distance and speed.

I’m expecting a large crowd, so most of all I just want to have fun and an excuse to have seconds on Thanksgiving. This race is more about setting me up for the next race a little more than a week later.

Christmas Classic
This will be the first race I have ran five times — three of those from my pre-blogging days — with one of those being a 10k that no longer exists. My main goal will be to beat my course record of 24:34 from two years ago on a cold, rainy, almost snowy day.

This is my home course — the loop route includes streets I have ran on dozens of times since I moved back to Bedford two years ago. I feel like there’s no better time than now to make it the best Christmas Classic yet.

Jingle Bell Run for Arthritis
The final leg of the 5k trio takes me to Roanoke, where I fully expect to run a race purely for the fun of it. It’s free through a workout program at work and I’ll be running with co-workers that I’d really like to see push themselves in this distance.

That said, this is going to be a very crowded race and it’s all about bringing awareness to a great cause, ending the year with a fun run, and giving a push to co-workers. I won’t be setting any goals for this other than to have fun.

Way back on June 25, on the first long run of Baltimore Marathon training, one of the first streets I ran on was Baltimore Avenue in Bedford. Today, 15 weeks later on the final long run of training, I revisited that street as one of the final streets of my run.

I have a lot on my mind that I want to reflect on next week. I know I’ve been staying quiet, but I realized this morning that I need to hammer out my thoughts about training. No matter what happens next week — good or bad or anything in between — I’ve had a tremendous 16 weeks of training.

As I approached my second 20-miler of Baltimore Marathon training this week, I’ve been doing some reflecting on the past few months, and even years, but I’m also staying focused on the final weeks of training. I’ve been continuously paranoid about a re-injury occurring, but at the same I’ve been extremely excited about my progress.

I’ve made a promise to myself to stay quiet about a lot of things, so don’t expect many deep thoughts from me through my taper. Yes I’ll still post blogs, but I have a feeling there will be some more randomness to things.

So what about that 20-miler?

It was pretty good. I hit the middle miles a little too hard and the humidity got to me more than I was expecting. Overall, though, it was a good run — 2 minutes faster than a couple of weeks ago, no major pains and no crazy animal sightings for once. And with Bedford’s Centerfest setting up, I got to see things like this:

Yesterday’s run also included a road to one of the highest points in Bedford, as you can see below in the spike around mile 7. The hill didn’t seem all that big at the time, but thinking back is was definitely pretty big. Comparing this 20-miler to two weeks ago, yesterday’s had 100 more feet of elevation gain.

I like runs that leave me with thoughts all over the place. I finished today’s 14.3-mile run feeling good, strong and eager to do more. Instead of fearing next week’s second 20-miler, I’m embracing everything about it.

Here are some highlights from today’s run:

• My time — 2:09 — was 38 seconds faster per mile than a 14-mile run from a year ago. It’s more than a minute faster per mile than either of my 20-milers from then; it was also 20-plus seconds faster than last week’s intentionally slower long run.
• My continuous intentional start slow, finish strong method of training was well executed today. The first mile was 9:43; the final mile was 8:47. All the other miles were within 26 seconds of each other.
• The weather was perfect — a consistent temperature in the low 50s and lots of clouds made this an ideal training run. I’d gladly take this for the Baltimore Marathon in 4 weeks.
• There were hills in Bedford I hit for the first time since last summer. It was part of getting rid of the injury fear factor that’s plagued me all year.
• Four weeks to go … all I have to do is stay focused, run smart and stay patient.

With respect to the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, I wanted to move today’s 11 things post up a day. It didn’t feel right to do a silly post for tomorrow. I also am going out of the norm of my 11 things concept and making it a post about running. Today’s 20-mile run was full of observations and thoughts, some serious, some not so serious. Without further delay, here is this month’s 11 things a day early.

1. To all my friends who made the obvious statement about it being dark at 5:30 a.m. when I started my run, guess what? It was, in fact, very dark. The sun came up as scheduled.

2. I saw a deer poop for the first time ever. (It was still dark then. And she had the audacity to do this in front of her two kids, me and Duke.)

3. Two families were setting up their yard sales before 6 a.m. (In the dark.)

4. Someone in the middle of Bedford has a rooster. It was confused because it was doing its wake-up call before the sun was even thinking about coming up.

5. This may have been the most even-split long run ever — the second half was just 57 seconds faster than the first (dark) half. I wasn’t out there for speed today, but I’m happy with the (slow) consistency. Plus in the second half I walked a few hills, so I’ll take whatever negative split I can get.

6. Three GUs are better than two for this distance. That’s a very important lesson I’ve taken from previous bad runs.

7. I was really struggling in the middle miles. All of a sudden I got to mile 14 and I thought about stopping and walking home. I turned to Twitter for motivation. About a dozen tweets rolled in giving me some inspiration. I went from having my slowest mile at mile 14, to my fastest mile at mile 17.

8. 20 miles in Bedford is really hard. I know that from last year, but I was reminded of that today at nearly every turn. It’s so freakin’ hilly here that it makes it easy to drop F bombs at the sight of another hill. I think I may have offended some old ladies today.

9. I have a new favorite running song. It’s slow, but it’s easy to sing along to. And here is where I give you the parental advisory to not click on THIS LINK if you get easily offended by Ben Folds doing covers of Dr. Dre songs. This might have played when I ran my fastest mile today. And I may have hit repeat a few times. And I may have offended old ladies again.

10. Post-run I had a chocolate milk, a watered-down Gatorade and an egg and turkey burger sandwich. Good stuff. I’ve increased my protein intake this summer pre- and post-long runs and it seems to help me recover faster. Next run I’m finding that rooster and eating him for breakfast.

11. In more seriousness, though, I want to say that I had fun. And that’s what matters more than anything else. Even if it was dark.

“Tough.”

“OK.”

“Miserable.”

“Not so bad.”

I’ve had a variety of descriptions of yesterday’s long run of 16.2 miles. In hindsight, nearly 36 hours later, I’m not sure how I feel about it. I at least covered Bedford, Va., fairly well:

And it was hilly as usual:

I got it done with no major side effects today. That’s a good enough victory to move on to another week of running.

I do know that I’m not running a race and running long the next day again, especially in the summer when the weather can vary so much day to day. Perfect for Saturday’s 5k; 91% humidity at the start of Sunday’s run … yeah, not fun.

This week is shaping up to be my third consecutive week of mileage increases before a recovery week next week. At one point I had hoped for my first 40-mile week ever this week, but I’m not focusing on that. I want continued good runs and Hurricane Irene to stay away long enough to avoid torrential rain on my long run. We’ll see how I feel come Sunday on a recovery run what the final mileage will be.

Now that I’ve soaked all this up, it’s time to mark it off and move along …

I took off all week — with the holiday mixed in it’s the first time I’ve been off work for more than a week since I got married seven years ago. (Minus that part of being unemployed a few years ago.) So instead of doing anything normal with running this week, I ran on a Tuesday in Ohio for one more flat run and shifted my long run from the weekend to today.

The sun was trying to burn through the clouds this morning.

That’s right, a Friday. I did mid-week long runs in winter 2010 and loved it, but for marathon training it’s tough to do long runs on a week day.

I got in 12 miles today and head into the weekend having 25.4 miles for the week. I actually have more than 35 miles in a 7-day span by moving my long run.

Today’s run, though, was not really about the miles or how fast or slow I was. It was dreadfully humid today — 96 percent humidity and 70 degrees at the start, 92 percent humidity and 72 degrees at the finish.

After running my dog for a few miles, I grabbed a frozen water bottle to help keep me cool. It was some much-needed relief that I think saved me from quitting on this run. I drank 32 ounces of water on the run, which doesn’t include a little bit before I headed out and some on a pit stop when I dropped Duke off.

To beat the weather today is yet another victory in my early part of training for the Baltimore Marathon. With another short run later this weekend, I will have three solid weeks of training under by belt with some awesome runs. Next week will be a recovery week with fewer miles, but a race mixed in with the Percival’s Island 5 Miler. I definitely couldn’t have asked for a better start to my training.

Here’s a look at today’s very up and down run around Bedford: