The Crooklyn Half

Second race of the year is scheduled for Saturday, May 21st. The Brooklyn Half Marathon, part of the NYRR Grand Pre. Recently I had an unexpected PR for the half at the 13.1 Half Marathon series in Flushing, Queens. Unexpected because I was hoping to not run slower than a 1:50 finish, I crossed the finish line at 1:41:29, about a minute faster than my last half in October of last year.

So, with a 1:41 on the board I want to shoot for a sub 1:40 finish in Crooklyn next month. No, no typo, I spelled it Crooklyn. That's stolen from an old Spike Lee joint, but is a good term for my current feelings toward the hipster playground south of my beloved Queens.

What was missing from my first leg of training was the same thing missing from most oft training, dedicated speed work. By that I mean track work outs. Intervals. It's a dirty, pain in the ass word. Even if you half ass speed work your lungs still burn some, but man does it help make for faster mile splits. I jumped bak into track work last week with 8 X 800's. This week it's 6 X 1200's. Ouch. I felt a cold burn at the bottom of my throat just typing that. It'll be worth it I'd can run sub 1:40. Goodness know the time would mean a lot to me. I just turned 40 and though I had a doable goal of racing a full 26.2 in 3:15 ( + 59 seconds grace period) to qualify for Boston. Bit the a-holes at the Boston Athletic Commission decided to add FIVE minutes to each age group, meaning I would now need to run 26.2 in 3:10!! With no grace period. Anyway. That topic is for another more angry blog to be posted on the future.

Right now I have to focus on shaving at least one minute and thirty seconds off my current PR. Coney Island, be good to me.

Rusty Mondays

The goal for Monday runs is to shake off the rust from the weekend. these runs are usually done in the mornings when Ella is in UPK, two glorious hours for working out, writing, or watching House! Well, NYC kids get a 'Winter Break' in February, just a few short weeks after their long xmas break, were I bale to get a teaching job I would love this relaxing approach to education, however, I can not get a teaching job, so my feelings about the breaks are that they STINK! I forgot to mention in that rant that Universal Pre-K also enjoys this break. This means that I miss out on my two hour window of alone time, leaving me only the evenings for runs. Not only is it colder, but that cuts into time set aside for my girls. Curse you NYC Educational System. Curse You!

Anyway, Rusty Mondays. Last night I headed out for a six miler but cut it short due to an achey right knee.   Maybe it was the lack of dynamic stretching before hand, or the new shoes I'm trying out. Whatever it was it went away soon after heading home. So maybe it was all in my head. The run ended up being 8:30 miles, it was a 3.5'er. This is my current average, I ended last season running 7:30 average or faster. I don't think I'll be that fast for 13.1. I'm hoping to be at that speed for the Crooklyn half in May, and maybe even run a sub 1:40 half sometime in 2011.

In a side note I have been entertaining myself with other running blogs, most of which have some pithy closing phrase like "Gotta Run". So here are some ideas for my closing line. Let me know what you think, or if you have a better one.

Lace em up
Daddy's gotta run. 
Run 'til you puke
That's a lap (ties into the actor thing)
Mmm...Fartleks
Stay on Tempo

The Race Calendar

Well, I have my next two races on the Cal. First up is the 13.1 Series in Queens on April 2. This race benefits World Vision, however, my support is limited to the entry fee. Next up is the Crooklyn leg of the NYRR Grand Prix. This is a series of half marathons ran in each of the five boroughs. I've done the Queens half, my first race ever, and the Staten Island half, my fastest race ever.

My goals for these two races are vastly different. For the 13.1 I just want to finish sub 1:50, I'm not looking for a PR. The weather in the city has been crazy, making both Hill workouts and Track work next to impossible. Last week both runs were still covered in slick ice. We had a couple of warm days since, in fact, I ran in shorts twice last week, but then a fresh white blanket was laid out last night. The roads are fine but the city doesn't much care about the track, or my hill loop, JERKS!

Lisa and my folks went in on a Garmin Forerunner 110 for my xmas gift and it makes the ole' Timex Chronograph look like a hand full of boogers. No more laborious plotting of routes before runs, or, laborious remembering what exact street I took at mile 9 of a 15 miler. 'Cause if you know me, you know I probs don't remember. Lisa calls it not being "mindful" I call it trapped in a flashback.

The boring Daily Training Log is gearing back up, I'll try to throw in some humor along the way. First up; Rusty Mondays.

Return of Daddy Legs

Return of Daddy Legs

On my dresser sits the picture of runner 15227 nearing the finish line of the Seattle Rock-N-Roll Marathon. His eyes suspiciously cast aside as if he can’t see the photographer a few feet in front of him. Off the left shoulder of 15227 is runner 12127. In each runner's eyes is the glean of 26.2 miles . Yet, 12127 has his thumb cranked up, a small gesture acknowledging a huge accomplishment. 15227's experience of this same accomplishment is merely intellectual. For him, there is no elation, no cashing in on four months of sacrifice, discipline and hard work. There is only exhaustion.

This is what was going through my head when Lisa caught me staring at my Finishers Photo one day.

I thought my first marathon would be transformative, but afterward I felt the same, except tired and sore. So, maybe I just needed to wait. Something in me was bound to change. Some understanding would surely come, some pathway showing me the
direction toward patience and mindfulness. But the months passed with nary a lesson learned. Nothing! You don't want to help me Marathon? You don’t want to whisper the secrets of life in my ear? HUH!?! Well…BUGGER you Marathon!

Now, hold on. There was that moment when I ran past my family coming out of mile 25. Andrew was screaming, “You’re going to do it brother”. My girls were there with home made signs yelling out their love and support, and the high-fives of total strangers was pretty cool. And then there was the look on Lisa's face as she made her to me through the crowd. All the elation and pride I found absent in me, could be seen in her eyes. Clearer than any mirror, the best of myself could be seen in the smile she was giving me. She buried me in a hug, and as my head lay on her shoulder, all the emotion and purpose I was seeking tried to make its way up from my gut in what would have might've been a refreshing release of emotion, but I stopped it in my throat and squashed into an un-embarrassing lack of emotion. So I haven’t blogged since that day in Seattle, because, as Lisa would say, “I wasn’t being mindful”, and she would be right. 'Mindful' is the hip vernacular for 'being in the moment'. I was stuck somewhere between the training leading up to the race, and how I wanted to feel at the finish line. P

Over the months following the Seattle Marathon I kept asking myself why wasn’t it more fun? And I kept coming back to the same answer, because I was too serious. Which is odd since I’m not a very serious person. So to ready myself for my second and final race of the year I decided to take a decidedly different approach to training, a Laissez-faire sort of thing. To put this new training philosophy to the test I chose the Staten Island half-marathon. Mainly because it's numerical alliteration 10/10/10 was too irresistible. But also because I never believed that Staten Island really existed.

I started by not making a calendar with prescribed workouts. I would just increase my mileage from one week to the next, except for when I couldn’t. It was all very Forrest Gump. Actually just a touch Gump, as I did have a schedule. Mondays would be hill work. Most important would be track work on Wednesdays with the Hellgaters. If you have followed my blog, you know I have likened speed work to weekly root canals, and why would anybody want that. Fridays were for long runs, again, nothing prescribed here. Never more than three work outs a week. However, every work out was targeted to running faster over long miles. The short-term goal was to do 8-minute miles in an attempt to break 1:50. This would be 4 minutes faster than my Half Marathon PR of 1:54. Secretly however, I wanted to do a sub 1:45. So, how’d it go? Larry would say it went “Pretty, pretty, pretty good”.

The Pain Report: Seattle Rock-Roll Marathon

In an earlier post I tried to give an objective recounting of the Seattle Rock-N-Roll Marathon. Now its time for some straight up Daddy legs style blogging. Any pretty prose or words of inspiration found hereafter is purely coincidental.

This past January I sat in front my computer, cold rocks in my stomach, staring at the 'click to continue' button pulsing in Apple blue at the bottom of my screen.  Once I hit that button I would be committing myself, and my family, to the biggest physical endeavor of my life.  The seed of the idea took root during the Christmas Holiday in NoDak (North Dakota). I had been talking about maybe running a marathon for charity, but was afraid of picking up the balance of whatever I couldn't raise.  My brother-in-law Andrew was itching to race again and best his finishing time of 3:41 at Grandma's of the past summer.  Then Jen, my sister-in-law, and wife to the eldest Howe boys, Christopher, presented us with the fateful worm on the hook; the Seattle Marathon. The race was sometime in June, which meant fantastic running weather, and we could stay at her and Chris' house. The four of us would run, Jen, the elder Howe boys, Chris and Andrew, and myself.  My fave girls Lisa and Ella would be support crew. To complete the full Howe set, we all pitched in to fly out the youngest member, Anthony, as a graduation gift. Lisa would be with all her brothers, which is rare these days, and we would be rolling into race day with a crew, and thats the best way to roll. So, to rewind, me sitting in front of the computer.  $100 to punish myself.  Cold rocks in my stomach, huge sacrifice for me and my family. Ahh shit! Here we go. Click.  I was going to let 26.2 miles have its way with me.

Before I got deep into training for the Seattle Marathon the farthest I had run was 15 miles. This was the result of getting lost in Brooklyn and trying to find my way back to Astoria, Queens.  It wouldn't be the last time that getting lost somewhere in NYC lead to a long run, but those are stories already told. January and February were to be a base building period but the actual miles logged were inconsequential. So the base building started for reals at the end of February with the kick off of my official training season. I love that I had a training season. I played sports for a brief period a s a young kid but there wasn't a 'training season'. There was football, soccer, and baseball season, with time off in between.  In high school I played tennis for a single season. Again, there was no period of training.  After that one season of tennis in high school I decided to remove the sports from my calendar and focus on the 'off time' found in between.  This respite lasted for almost twenty years. So to make a short story just a little bit longer, I started my first ever Training Season on February 22nd, 2010.

Thanks Hal
For the mileage build up I used as a template one of Hal Higdon's novice marathon training plans. I inserted into this template various workouts I found in Runner's World, which I added in after a six week base building phase.  Look at me dropping the work out lingo. What, What?! My run days were set at four, with weekends off as these are my money making days at the Tea Salon.  Mondays would be the start of each week and the start of every microcycle. Yeah. I just used the term microcycle. My microcycles were always three weeks in duration. The Monday runs were set to always be the lowest mileage of any cycle. Tuesdays gradually increased in mileage, by up to 2X the Monday total late in training, and would always be my medium-long run. Wednesdays were typically one half of the Tuesday run and should have been devoted to speed work. I however, showed no such devotion to speed work and that is my biggest regret of my training. Thursdays were rest days. Fridays were for the long run.  The mileage for the long runs would go up for two Fridays consecutively, then scale back for the third Friday, allowing for rest before a nice jump in miles. It starts with six miles and ends with a 20 mile long run in week 15.  You can take a look at the actual plan as devised by Hal here, (http://www.halhigdon.com/marathon/Mar00novice.htm). This plan is free and even comes with workouts and recommendations for rest days and cross training.

Don't Hate the Orange Circle
As mentioned earlier the one big disappointment in my training was the lack of attention I gave to speed work. The Hellgaters meet at the Astoria Track every Wednesday night for Intervals, which I treated like root-canal surgery, constantly cancelling my appointments, paying the price on race day. I reached my goal of sub-four (sorta) but could have done better with some track work. My mantra going into the next training cycle will be 'Don't Hate the Orange Circle'.

Run Like HELLgate
My favorite runs consistently fell on the Tuesday Switch, and almost always when I combined the Hill workout of Monday nights with the medium-long run of Tuesday morning. The Hill workout consists of running a .33 mile loop sandwiched between the Hell Gate Bridge and the Astoria Pool. By the way, my running club, the Hellgaters took our name from this bridge. The name "Hell Gate" is a corruption of the Dutch phrase Hellegat, which could mean either "hell's gate" or "bright gate/passage", which was originally applied to the entirety of the East River. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell_Gate) The .33 mile loop is ran 10x, which is about 3.4 miles. The up side of the loop reaches an 11% grade of elevation. It can be a tough workout. On the days I added this into my med-long runs I would do a two mile warm-up right into the Hill loop. After the tenth lap I would head north along Shore Boulevard toward the Con-Ed plant for a short cool down and then into the return leg home. It was during the return leg when I often found my legs to be lighter and quicker, accompanied by a since of floating over the ground. This was my Forrest Gump running from the bullies moment. I was fast, and it didn't feel like it was costing me anything. The few track workouts I've done have actually been at a faster pace, but each stride felt like a deposit of lactic acid. On these precious few runs I simply felt fast, and fast feels sexy.

Beer Goggles
My long runs went pretty well. No run left me so depleted I couldn't resume training after a few days rest. However, the lack of speed work shows up in my log here more than any other workout. I rarely recorded negative splits. I start every run slow, but only because my body demands I do so. Once it allows me to pick up the pace, I do. I would throw in fartleks (Mmm...fartleks) and tempo runs into workouts, but it was informal and lacked focus. Having specific workouts on the schedule helps me to get over mental road blocks.  I can come up with all kinds of reasons not to do a speed workout despite the fact that my best ever mile is 7:00 flat, on the track, doing speed work! I need to find the runner's version of beer goggles to make track work and tempo runs sexy. Mmm...Tempo, Nope! doesn't work. For a while Lisa and I convinced Ella that raisins were bits of chocolate. Perhaps I can find a similar trick for myself.

Snags
I hit only two snags during training. The first was some knee trouble that halted a workout about seven miles into a run. It hit early in the run but I kept going in hopes it was a kink that could be worked out. The kink didn't work itself, but was gone the next day never to show up again. The second snag stole a whole week of training. The first run lost was the long run of peak mileage week. A 20 miler flushed down the toilet, literally. I had caught some kind of bug which sapped my appetite, yet sent me running to the potty chair often. Each trip left me with chapped lips and noticeably dehydrated. At the start of my Taper week I got in one workout, some Hills with the Hellgaters. The workout went great, my legs felt great and I posted a pretty good time.  Afterward I ran into a friend I hadn't seen in a while. We had a nice conversation as we caught up and set up a date to get together for some drinks.  The run home...not so good. It ended with "Chapped Lips" again. This time sans potty chair. Yep! I took three days off and then jumped into the 20 miler that same week. The 20 was too crucial to my training to leave on paper. I felt I needed it both mentally and physically. Also, it had to be run with enough time to recuperate before the marathon.  So I did it. It went...OK. I plodded along at a 9:43 pace. Still I turned in a PR of 3:15 since I had never gone 20 miles before.

Taper Week
Not a fan of Taper week. It left me feeling rusty rather than rested. My first split for the marathon was 9:34. Thats the type of pace I put up after the winter break. After the base building phase I had never posted anything above 9 minutes until this first split of the marathon. OH BOY! Two days off had ruined me. Or, I was entering undiscovered country as the poet said. The start of the marathon was the end of four months anticipation, the nervousness of which slowed my  first mile. It was a feeling similar to what I experience just before going onstage. An hour or so before the lights go up, cold deep breathes stir the butterflies in my stomach into a broiling frenzy just under my skin. I don't think its noticeable from the outside. On the inside however,  I'm filled with no small amount of anxiety as I wonder if I'm about to suck, or be brilliant. Also, I get very gassy. I confided to Lisa a few days before the race that maybe it was a mistake to sign up for 26.2. We both knew Iwas going to run. But still. Was I going to suck? Or be brilliant?

Special Sauce
The day before the race brought a trip to the air port to pick up the final Howe boy, Anthony. We made stops on the way back to collect ingredients for my homemade spaghetti sauce. Which I will now share with you. The following batch served six adults, and two toddlers. One of which has a fantastically voracious appetite.

Daddy Legs Special Sauce
Ingredients  
10-12 on-the-vine tomatoes
1 Red pepper
1 Poblano pepper
1 pkg. sweet peppers
1 lg. yellow onion
as much garlic as you can handle.
Rosemary, Oregano, salt, pepper. to taste.
1 pkg. whole grain pasta.

(You can pick any veggies you want. I always use sweet peppers then add other veggies by season and color. the wackier the better. I didn't had hot peppers because of the race. Otherwise I always put in a Jalapeno)

Optional (but Highly recommended)
1/2 lb. ground pork
1/2 lb. ground lamb (or beef, turkey, whatever you like)
The meat can be combined with some spices and breadcrumbs and rolled into balls, or just browned and thrown into sauce. I actually prefer making a meat sauce, but meatballs make for a better presentation.

The Sauce
First preheat oven to 350 F, then wash an deseed veggies. Cut into small slices and place on a large baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and any desired spices. I always go with salt, pepper, and rosemary. Bake for about an hour, I like the veggies to start blackening around the edges. Set aside to cool.

Prepare an ice bath and set aside. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and begin adding tomatoes. Leave for a minute or so, or until skin starts to break, then place in ice bath to cool. Once cooled you need to squeeze the juice and seeds from each tomato. Warning! This can be very messy. I like to squeeze the tomatoes over a strainer and bowl so I can keep the juice as a thinner. The pulp of the tomato should then be liquified in a blender, or food processor. Also liquify 3/4 of the roasted veggies.

In a large pot sauté garlic and onions in olive oil until translucent then add a stick of butter. For a little kick add some red pepper flakes to the sauté.  Once the the butter melts throw in the liquified tomatoes and veggies along with the whole veggies and let simmer for several hours. Throughout the simmer you can add in the tomato juice until the sauce reaches desired consistency. The sauce can simmer for two-four hours. It can be left in a crock pot for up to eight hours on Low. I've done this a few times and don't like it as well as when simmered on the stove. That's it. This is a labor intensive meal, but man is it good. If you try this with some variation I would love to hear about it. Its the type of recipe that could go a thousand different ways.

After the meal we all chillaxed and had a mini fashion show of what we would wear the next day. We were all basically waiting around for the appropriate time to go to be and NOT sleep. I'm a fitful sleeper anyway. On a good night I only get up three or four times to pee. So going five or six times wasn't so bad. All in all it wasn't a bad nights sleep, but I was glad when 4:30 AM finally got off its ass and arrived. Almost four months and eighty days of workouts were about to tested against a full marathon.




Next up: The Race.

Race Report: Seattle Rock-N-Roll Marathon and Half Marathon

So my first ever full marathon now lives in hind sight . On Saturday morning of June 26, I and three siblings-in-law took to the streets of Seattle to race in the Rock-N-Roll franchise race series. This franchise has recently been on a buying frenzy, including Seattle and the New Orleans Marathon. I don't know how I feel about local races being swallowed up by a nation wide racing conglomerate, but these guys sure know how to facilitate a good race. In addition to this being my first marathon it was my first big event race, with an Expo and everything. So I'll start with the Expo and then get into 'everything'.

The Expo

Held in the Quest Convention Center in downtown Seattle, it was large, fast and efficient.  Greeters were stationed at the door to direct racers toward registration and non-racers unto the Expo floor.  It took all of 30 seconds for me to get my registration packet. I went on the Thursday before the race so it may have been mayhem for those attending on Friday.  Based on my Thursday experience I have to give the registration a bug thumbs up.  Getting a big, double jointed, thumbs down is the event Tech tee and the schwag bag. The shirt is a horrible lime green and has no sense of style or class. The ugly green monster will be stored away until I collect enough shirts to have a quilt made. Going into the schwag area racers were teased by two smartly dressed mannequins wearing really nice Seattle marathon singlets. These were of course for sale on the Expo floor at full retail value. The schwag bags were little more than a bag full of advertisements. Again, this was my first Expo so I don't know if this is out of the norm or not. What was brilliant is that attached to the bib was a racer identification tag. Inside the schwag bag was a rip cord with which you could attach the racer ID to your bag. On race morning you could stuff whatever you wanted in the bag and hand it off to a UPS worker. The boys in brown then secured the bag with another rip cord so it could sit safe until retrieved at the finish line. This allowed racers to layer clothing for the brisk morning and layer up again after the run, which in Seattle was a must do. Big ups to the event crew and UPS for providing such a fantastic service. The Expo floor was what one would expect to find on any Expo floor, lots of stuff to buy and a few cool give-aways. I don't know what it is about free stuff but I become such a little junkie when its handed out. I collected about 15 packs of Zicam Allergy relief swabs and an equal number of Zicam Cold Sore relief swabs. I don't have allergies to anything other than a couple of antibiotics, nor does Ella. Lisa does have allergies but doesn't use meds to fight them as many are triggers for migraines, which my lovely love sometimes suffers from.  Still, I greedily took what was offered because it was FREE! So if you need some Zicam I'm your man. First one's free. As are all the rest should you want them. One thing that was nice but a little unsettling was the video tour of the Full and Half Marathon course. The vid was sped up and that’s what made it a bit unsettling. I watched the whole video and felt the twenty minute presentation was long. I would need to add another three and half hours. YIKES! All in all I really enjoyed the Expo. I loved being saturated in all things running. It’s wildly convenient when capitalism takes a shine to your own interests.

Everything Else

The course was tough. How’s that for short and sweet? There were several hills, especially on the full marathon course. Some were ascents up the onramps of highways, but most were a part of the natural landscape. Seattle is hilly, the hilliest city I’ve ever been in. In fact the road leading up to my brother-in-law’s house is literally like a roller-coaster drop…with a stop sign at the bottom. The porta-potties and water stations were spread out perfectly and the bands every mile were a nice touch. Medical aid was available at every hydration stand in addition to medics patrolling the course on bikes. You could get into trouble on any part of the course and have full medical attention within minutes, very impressive!

The course was made hard by the many hills, mostly found on the full marathon portion. This coupled well with fantastic Seattle weather. Cool breezes off the waterfront runs, of which there were several, and low temps, helped to whisk away sweat. If you’re an out-of-towner racing in Seattle, do your HILL WORK! In all honesty I don’t know if the course was hard or just the miles. My brother-in-law, who BQ’ed, yeah Andrew!, thought the course tough as well. 

There were a lot of people out supporting the runners. Part of the Rock-N-Roll package is recruiting local high school cheer squads to line the course. The squad with the ‘most spirit’ gets some kind of reward. I don’t have a clue what kind of reward but it was great having them out there. One of the coolest cheering squads was what appeared to be a motor cycle gang of Vets, all of whom were holding American flags, offering up cheers and high-fives. Fan support thinned only along the highway over passes and bridges, but no spot was bereft of at least a few people offering encouragement.

The finish line was all dolled up and offered all the spectacle to be expected of a big event. The exit chute funneled runners past volunteers draped with finisher medals like
ornaments on a Christmas tree, unto medical, and into a large runners only area with plenty of hydration and nourishment. Wrapped around the finishers area was the Family Reunion center, bag pick-up, concert area and Beer Garden. No one in my family had any interest in the bands playing so we didn’t check that area out at all. Unfortunately I wasn’t strong enough to cash in my free MGD 64 card, or even have a seat in the Beer Garden. As we headed toward the water taxi I was walking away from four months of hard training. Would I do it again? Could I? My immediate response was HELL NO! But now, after a week to recoup? Hmmm…

Daddy Legs

Up next...The Pain Report. Reflections on punishing myself for 26 miles.

Avoiding the Tantrums

The race is days away and I have to talk myself out of upping my miles everyday. Today is a loosing battle. Instead of a four miler I'm going to do an easy two then finish up with 3.5 of Hills with the Hellgaters. I'll take the rest of the days easier. I promise.

Update: I actually didn't do the Hill workout so I only went over my prescribed run by a half mile. Hardly a tantrum at all. More whiny than anything.