Passed Inspection--Company leaving

With the new garage roof shingled and water tight, the deck to porch conversion passing inspection and the company heading out, I suddenly feel a sigh of relief and a hint that life will get a bit back to normal. I am looking forward to some relaxing nights of running then cooling off at the pool.

Don't get me wrong, I really do enjoy building things and it was great to have a project with the boys, but somehow everything mushroomed up at the same time, my mom, my mother inlaw,vehicle repairs and  having company almost continuously for a month, there just wasn't much time left for me, the wife and a little running.

 Of course I still have to close up the porch walls and finish the storage floor in the garage, but these things can  be done alone and at a slower more comfortable pace.......as long as I beat the winter.

I know, I said the " W"  word and we are only in the middle of August, but I am actually looking forward to the fall, I think it is the best season for trail running.

Time Make The Donuts (or base running)

Now that the Breaker is behind me(even though I didn't actually run it), I am starting my quest to gear up for StoneCat....pretty darn excited and hope to do well. SO, distance is on my mind and I have cleansed my mind of anything sounding like speed.

Last night I hit Bradbury East and planned on 6-8 fairly easy miles. It didn't take long before I was pushing a bit faster than I planned. That was OK because I felt great. Perhaps my unplanned taper has given my legs a bit more pep.

I fully expected to start fatiguing by 8 miles but was surprisingly comfortable and so zoned in to running that I somehow took a wrong turn and ended up way off course. By the time I got back to the start I had run 11 miles and honestly I felt pretty darn good. Easily could have run a few more.

This was odd because I didn't bring the normal implements needed when running past an hour, no gels, no water, just me running and enjoying the trails.

I started at somewhere around 12 minute pace but ran the last two miles at 9:30 pace. My average was in the high tens and actually I think a PR for 11 miles on the East trail.  Anyway, it sure felt good and was a good first run for my training.

11 miles @1:53:47

Bradbury Breaker no race, race report.

 It seems no matter how well we work schedules, there is always something that will creep up and kick you in the ass.

It is official........I am not a bass bradbury racer this year. It is hard to believe as I would have bet millions that nothing could stop me from running the Breaker. I was destined to PR and quite excited.

Sunday morning, 7am, A bit lame form working on the porch roof but not too worried about the race. The phone rings.....my mom who had a tooth pulled Friday was suffering from so much pain that she felt going to the emergency was an immediate need.

Ironically, she had already gone in at 3am ( my brother took her) but there was no doctor available so they gave her a shot and sent her home. I am just guessing here but I suspect the shot helped for about 2-3 hours.

Normally if I have something important going on, I get my brother to help out. In this case, I was her only option other than an ambulance. I swallowed the notion that I would be back before the 9am start and I was right as I didn't get back home until 11:30

So.....I missed the race and I am not going to be a badass this year, I guess this means I will really have to kickass at the Bruiser .......I'll bet it was real cool shirt too!

Beach To Beacon

I honestly didn't know what to expect at this race, not only because I haven't been running that much lately, but I have not been training for 10K road speed.  My original plan was to run with my wife at her pace which is much slower than mine so kind of a breeze for me.

My wife opted out of the race so it left me wondering how I should approach it. Now the pressure was on to attempt a respectable time. The one flat road run of a couple weeks ago put me at about 9 minute pace so I hoped to at least beat 9 minute.

In my head, I felt certain I should be able to find some hidden power over my body and pull off an 8 minute pace (best case scenario, beat 50 minutes, worst case, no slower than 55 minutes)......who the hell was I kidding? none the less I started at the 8 minute pace sign in the chute.

 First problem of the day was the way they start this race. Once in the chute and packed in like sardines, it is impossible to relieve ones self and get back in. The wait time is over a half hour and even though I thought I timed everything perfect, I found myself looking very longingly at various trees in the distance. One tenth of a mile from the start is a portapotty and I found myself reluctantly pulling off the road and entering. The hundreds of runners passing by sounded like pouring rain.

Finally I ran back into the crowd and assumed I was probably back with the 10 minute milers. Problem with this is I wanted the 8 minute  crowd to suck me into a faster pace at the beginning to hopefully get a better time. This surely was not the best way to start a race, but the was no other  place in the first mile to accomplish the task.

 I passed quite a few people and was glad to see 8:44 at the first mile instead of something slower. Not as fast as I wanted but it could have been worse. Each mile I ran faster and by mile four I was down to 8:06 pace. My excitement quickly turned sour as I calculated a minute lost in the first two miles and two miles of tougher uphill running ahead of me.

Though I was feeling a bit tired, mile five went surprisingly well as I only slowed to 8:37 pace. I quickly calculated that If I could maintain this pace for mile six and get a good kick going, I might be able to pull off a 8:20 pace over all.

I felt good on the hills of mile six as it seemed my pace was steady. Somehow I slowed to 9:17 pace and as I think about it now, it makes sense. I should have NOT felt good on those hills, if I was pushing then I would have felt bad...........

Rounding the corner into the park is a short steep hill that always seem to kill me. I assume my Bradbury legs took over because this time the hill was nothing as I kept to the inside and literally passed twenty people laboring up it.

 From this point on I put on my race face and tried to pass as many people as I could pulling off a 6:53 pace for the last .2 to the finish. I swear I passed a hundred runners. I felt great as I passed the finish line and if not for the dilemma in mile one and the brain fart in mile six, I think I would have been quite pleased with the whole race.

As I walked up the hill after the finish, the thought of waiting in line in the hot sun for an hour to catch the bus was overwhelming so instead I decided the hour would serve better as extra training rather than suffer the muscle stiffening of a long bus ride.

I ran back to the start and turned this into more of a long run. The first couple miles, the quads were cramping and I almost wished I had not made this decision, but each mile I felt better and ran faster going from an 11:37 in the first mile to a 9:14 in the last.

Though not quite the under fifty I wanted, I was happy beating fifty five and doubling the effort with an extended run.

6.2 race 53:56 (8:41 pace)
5.5 return 56:57

Not Pretty But Lots Of Character

 I got married 34 years ago, the same year this jeep rolled off the assembly all shiny and new. I don't know much about the history of it as it has only been in the family for about 10 years. I got it from my son who got it from my daughter who purchased it from some guy up north........it sat in my yard as a "future" project for about 5 years. Last spring my son and I decided to put it on the road as an antique because we never seemed to get around to working on the rebuild project.

Spending many joyous hours in this simple jeep last summer and many more fun hours this summer, I have come to the conclusion that I didn't really want a spiffy new jeep after all. I have the up most respect for the character of my jeep.

 I suspect, when new it was strong, responsive and quite impressive ..........now it requires a little understanding and is not expected to perform like it once did.  There is obvious fatigue in its core structure yet it is still majestic in many ways.

 I am proud to drive it as it does not reflect a bad image because of it's age or condition ....instead it invokes an aura of mystical memories of times gone by and happy smiles. Even with age and fatigue, it still trudges along, moving forward and offering much more good times to come.

 I suspect there is a lesson to be learned here, as we grow older and our bodies fatigue, of course we can not do things of days gone by, we are not quite as strong or fast,  but we can still command a certain amount of
dignity  knowing that we are out there and moving forward.