sleep, interrupted
it was a rough night in the cameron house. the youngest was up in the middle of the night and didn’t want to go back to sleep. her crying woke up the oldest two who then wanted mom to cuddle them too. consequently, i slept in until 5AM and only mustered 7 miles in a little less than an hour. my intent was to run a bit longer this morning. i have more time in the AM to run now that my wife is home for the summer. looks like i’ll have to give it a whirl tomorrow morning.
4 races so far this year. 2 with the ipod and 2 without. the 2 with the ipod resulted in a near miss on a personal record and an overall win. the 2 without included a marathon taking almost 20 minutes longer than my personal record and a humiliating debacle of a 10 mile effort. coincidence?
i haven’t used the ipod for awhile. in the spring/summer/fall there really isn’t as much need for me for extra motivation. in winter, with the cold and darkness of the early AM, i need all the help i can get.
add another 7
it rained pretty hard last night so it was a bit humid this morning with temps in the mid-60’s. i headed out for an unremarkable 7 miles at a slightly faster clip than yesterday. i got to use my second new pair of running shorts from father’s day this AM, which were much less controversial than my blaze orange pair.
back at it
i headed toward town this morning along the glacial drumlin trail. temps were in the low 70s with moderate humidity. i wore a new pair of shorts from father’s day, and covered 7 miles at a very slow and easy pace.
what’s up?
wednesday the 13th i ran an easy 5M in 43:30.
thursday morning i was out at the grand geneva resort for a business meeting and ran the "old" S*N*O*W run course. it looks alot different in June compared to January. unfortunately, no "schnapps stop" at the end…that’s only in January. i ended up running 5M in 40:45, which was brisk considering the amount of red wine i had the night before.
i took friday off from running to rest for saturday’s effort.
saturday morning i headed to racine with my friend Dana. we got in a 10 minute warm up and i was drenched with sweat. not a good sign. the 10M race started and we went through the first mile in 6:08…a bit fast. i backed down on the pace and let Dana go. by the 2 mile mark, i was at 12:50 and not feeling well at all. by 5 miles, i was at 34 and change and fading fast. i passed the lighthouse – i think- as yet again i failed to pay attention while running by. needless to say, it was humbling to be slogging along considering the last time i had run through there i was leading a race.
for the 2nd half of the race, i just kept putting one foot in front of the other. the frequent water stops were a blessing as i took a quick drink at each and poured the remaining water over my head. with less than 2M to go, the walkers were on the same course as the runners. i just kept myself moving forward and avoided walking along with them. the last mile seemed especially wicked as it was uphill and seemingly into a headwind. i crossed the line in 1:15 and change for one of the worst race efforts i’ve ever had.
after rehydrating at the finish line, i noticed i was seeing "spots"…a precursor for a migrane. we headed back out of town and stopped at a CVS where i got some sudafed with the psuedoepinephrine and a coke. shortly thereafter, the spots disappeared and i was left with just a headache.
what went wrong? my guess is that a number of things. first, i’m carrying at least 5 pounds more than i should be. second, i’m not acclimated to any heat or humidity since i run in the early AM. finally, if i did have a migrane…that didn’t help things either.
10 years ago, i headed to a trail 10M race and began seeing spots. i took some sudafed about an hour before the race which cleared things up. i remember tearing through the first 5 miles at a torrid pace with effortless ease. i held on and finished in 1:02 and change for 2nd overall. effectively, i was doping as sudafed’s active ingredient is effectively synthetic ephidrine…the stuff your body releases when you have a "fight or flight" situation. even better, the sudafed is time released…giving you a nice even dose rather than a jolt. never mind that my heart rate didn’t slow down for 12 hours after the race. in your mid-twenties…you’re invincible…right?
nonetheless, i had been a member of my company’s running team for the lighthouse run. thankfully the team took first in the corporate division without needing my time.
a running friend of mine once told me that he only wears shirts from races that he did poorly at to remind him of what it felt like. i’ve worn my ’99 lakefront marathon (4:00+) sweatshirt for that reason on many occasions, to the point that the graphics are fading on it from being washed so frequently. the lighthouse run will be getting some free advertising for quite some time as it’ll be worn very frequently.
today i took the day off from running. this morning i registered for the lakefront marathon as it was filling up very quickly. it’s now 16 weeks away from race day. time to get the jelly out of the belly and get some pep back in the step.
show me the money
just another morning constitutional. temps in the upper 50’s and a light breeze. heading north on university, north of UW-Waukesha, to my surprise was a $10 bill laying on the street.
i paused momentarily to pick up my fortunate find and put it in my pocket. overall, i ended up with seven miles in slightly under an hour.