Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Why Do I Run?
I've often been asked by my cycling friends why I run. To tell you the truth, I really don't like running. Some people run because it clears their mind, gives them a zen feeling, or something else like that, but I've never found my 'happy place' when running. I just run for a quick way to stay in shape and train for Ironman. I guess I do it for the 'I can do this and you can't' bad-ass feeling from running a marathon, ultra or Ironman. I guess until I can find a better reason to not run, I'll keep doing it.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
I Am Now an Ultra-Marathoner
Well, at this point I'm recovering sufficiently to be able to type...a bit of drama, but my legs were really sore the next day.
The day started off with temperatures in the thirties and snow flurries, which I don't know how it could snow and be above 32, but that is a different blog entry...see 'The Crazy 2007-2008 Effed-up Madison Winter', to be posted. The week before I swore off junk and tried to drink as much water as possible, but it really wouldn't be too helpful. With the temperature at an odd degree, I was not sure how warmly to dress, with the cold and wind. The day before, I purchased a clear running/riding raincoat to keep on for the first lap until I warmed up...which only took a mile. So, I ended up wearing a vinyl raincoat with minimal ventilation for the first loop because I didn't want to ditch it somewhere and loose it. So I ended up getting sweaty instead and dehydrating myself much earlier than needed.
I never felt like I was really going that fast, I felt like I was running efficiently within myself, but looking at my pace, I needed to listen to my head more than to my body. My first lap went well, I ran 49:15, 7:56 pace. I grabbed Gu and took off again for another loop. My second was even faster, a 47:05 loop for a 7:34 pace. My third was a bit slower, 50:29 and 8:08 pace, but I stopped to use the bathroom for a bit, so it was probably just about as fast as the second. My fourth was 50:54 for 8:12 pace. At this point, my stride that was easy and efficient for the first four loops because labored an fatigued. I had to stop, stretch my legs and shake them out to try to keep my legs from shutting down completely. It helped the first time or two, but after I left the 6km aid station, my legs were almost completely shot. My hands were freezing running back along the lake with a north wind coming across the lake with no wind break. At the end of the fifth lap, I was questioning whether it was worth continuing. I had only decided to do this on a whim. I thought running 62.1 miles would be an interesting proposition. My goal this year is to qualify for the 2009 Boston Marathon at Madison in six weeks or Duluth in ten. Rather than continuing another five, six, seven, eight hours or more, I decided that sounded like an extremely dumb way to spend a Saturday, so I decided to shut it down. After questioning Kathryn if it is worth it, I ran across the timing mat to complete my fifth loop and notified the race director that I was dropping out. The jog across the mat was enough to know that it would have been a long second 31 miles.
So what did I learn? Running 100km is a long race and you really should train for it, rather than deciding to run it three weeks before the race. It is also best to run a conservative pace even if you are feeling pretty good. If I can qualify for Boston this year, I will run Boston next year and run the 100k the following year. I ended up finishing the 50k in 4:21, a 8:25 pace, with the stopping at the end trying to decide if I would continue. It didn't seem like a long race to me actually because I was able to get back to the start/finish line every fifty minutes. It felt like a criterium to me, though the laps were a little longer. I did enjoy it in the end and will do it again. I still can say though, that I am an ultra runner after completing a 50k. It just wasn't the 100k I had planned.
Go here for the results.
Photos to follow.
The day started off with temperatures in the thirties and snow flurries, which I don't know how it could snow and be above 32, but that is a different blog entry...see 'The Crazy 2007-2008 Effed-up Madison Winter', to be posted. The week before I swore off junk and tried to drink as much water as possible, but it really wouldn't be too helpful. With the temperature at an odd degree, I was not sure how warmly to dress, with the cold and wind. The day before, I purchased a clear running/riding raincoat to keep on for the first lap until I warmed up...which only took a mile. So, I ended up wearing a vinyl raincoat with minimal ventilation for the first loop because I didn't want to ditch it somewhere and loose it. So I ended up getting sweaty instead and dehydrating myself much earlier than needed.
I never felt like I was really going that fast, I felt like I was running efficiently within myself, but looking at my pace, I needed to listen to my head more than to my body. My first lap went well, I ran 49:15, 7:56 pace. I grabbed Gu and took off again for another loop. My second was even faster, a 47:05 loop for a 7:34 pace. My third was a bit slower, 50:29 and 8:08 pace, but I stopped to use the bathroom for a bit, so it was probably just about as fast as the second. My fourth was 50:54 for 8:12 pace. At this point, my stride that was easy and efficient for the first four loops because labored an fatigued. I had to stop, stretch my legs and shake them out to try to keep my legs from shutting down completely. It helped the first time or two, but after I left the 6km aid station, my legs were almost completely shot. My hands were freezing running back along the lake with a north wind coming across the lake with no wind break. At the end of the fifth lap, I was questioning whether it was worth continuing. I had only decided to do this on a whim. I thought running 62.1 miles would be an interesting proposition. My goal this year is to qualify for the 2009 Boston Marathon at Madison in six weeks or Duluth in ten. Rather than continuing another five, six, seven, eight hours or more, I decided that sounded like an extremely dumb way to spend a Saturday, so I decided to shut it down. After questioning Kathryn if it is worth it, I ran across the timing mat to complete my fifth loop and notified the race director that I was dropping out. The jog across the mat was enough to know that it would have been a long second 31 miles.
So what did I learn? Running 100km is a long race and you really should train for it, rather than deciding to run it three weeks before the race. It is also best to run a conservative pace even if you are feeling pretty good. If I can qualify for Boston this year, I will run Boston next year and run the 100k the following year. I ended up finishing the 50k in 4:21, a 8:25 pace, with the stopping at the end trying to decide if I would continue. It didn't seem like a long race to me actually because I was able to get back to the start/finish line every fifty minutes. It felt like a criterium to me, though the laps were a little longer. I did enjoy it in the end and will do it again. I still can say though, that I am an ultra runner after completing a 50k. It just wasn't the 100k I had planned.
Go here for the results.
Photos to follow.
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Go Brewers...
...where our magic number to clinch a spot in the playoffs is 140!
It is too difficult to keep up with the Brewer's magic number every day, so instead, I recommend the UC Berkeley's RIOT baseball website. Click on the American League and National League icons to see the magic numbers for each league. The website is automatically updated every morning, so the information is always accurate.
RIOT (Remote Interactive Optimization Testbed) is a website that has solutions to many optimization problems, basically 'What is the best way to solve Question/Problem A? What solution to Question/Problem A gives us the greatest return/result?'. It's a computer science/mathematics thing, if you don't get it, you don't get it. I can only do so much.
Go Brewers/Twins!
It is too difficult to keep up with the Brewer's magic number every day, so instead, I recommend the UC Berkeley's RIOT baseball website. Click on the American League and National League icons to see the magic numbers for each league. The website is automatically updated every morning, so the information is always accurate.
RIOT (Remote Interactive Optimization Testbed) is a website that has solutions to many optimization problems, basically 'What is the best way to solve Question/Problem A? What solution to Question/Problem A gives us the greatest return/result?'. It's a computer science/mathematics thing, if you don't get it, you don't get it. I can only do so much.
Go Brewers/Twins!
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Mad City 100k
For whatever reason (mainly to do something else bad-ass), I've officially signed up for the USTF 100k Road Racing National Championships, aka the Mad City 100k. I'll do the solo race, running all ten loops of the UW Arboretum 10k loop by myself, 62.1 miles in total, on Saturday, April 12th. The race starts at 6:30a and I should get done around 3:00 or 4:00p. I'll post again after the race to let you know how it went...if I didn't die. You can visit the Results website during the race to view my pace and progress, and read the live race blog.
Happy Birthday To Me!!!
Haven't written anything in a month, but nothing new has happened of note, so don't get on my case. A daily post saying 'I did noting today' would be pretty lame.
So, I now have a little time to write, I'll let you know what I did for my birthday. Last year, I had a big celebration, going out with friends for supper, then the Comedy Club and out more later that night. After planning something that involved last year, I didn't really feel like planning as much this year. I still had a busy day, it was long and tiring, but it was more low key.
I'm training to run the US Track & Field 100k National Championships, see next post, so I used the day to train. I ran twelve miles in the morning, refereed three soccer matches, and ran fourteen more miles with my friend Andrea. My twelve in the morning were pretty easy. I went at an easy pace and felt pretty good, but I somehow got a very large blister. I've never got a blister before, and the shoes and socks are ones I've had for a while and are broken in, so there should have been no reason. I popped the blister before soccer and bandaged it for soccer and my afternoon run. My afternoon went less-well, but the blister wasn't a problem. I was later than the time I planned to meet Andrea. I was planning to run some loops of the UW Arboritum, the course for the 100k. I was going to be late to meet Andrea, so I ran the first loop by myself at a pretty fast pace, grabbed a swig of water, and then took off with her at a slower pace. By then, my legs were feeling a bit sluggish, but still good. By the end of our run, I was 'bonking' pretty hard. That means that my glycogen (sugar) stores in my body were completely depleted and I had no more energy. When that happened, I got the chills, my head started to get a bit foggy, I got dizzy and was in pretty bad shape. I walked a little bit to allow my body to catch up a bit and I consumed some food and drink once I got back to the car. In a minute or two I was feeling much better.
After the physical part of my day, Kathryn and I met my parents and my friend Sarah at the Great Dane downtown for supper. The place was packed because it was a Saturday night and the Badger men's hockey team played that night. It was fun to catch up with Sarah since I hadn't seen her for a while.
So, I now have a little time to write, I'll let you know what I did for my birthday. Last year, I had a big celebration, going out with friends for supper, then the Comedy Club and out more later that night. After planning something that involved last year, I didn't really feel like planning as much this year. I still had a busy day, it was long and tiring, but it was more low key.
I'm training to run the US Track & Field 100k National Championships, see next post, so I used the day to train. I ran twelve miles in the morning, refereed three soccer matches, and ran fourteen more miles with my friend Andrea. My twelve in the morning were pretty easy. I went at an easy pace and felt pretty good, but I somehow got a very large blister. I've never got a blister before, and the shoes and socks are ones I've had for a while and are broken in, so there should have been no reason. I popped the blister before soccer and bandaged it for soccer and my afternoon run. My afternoon went less-well, but the blister wasn't a problem. I was later than the time I planned to meet Andrea. I was planning to run some loops of the UW Arboritum, the course for the 100k. I was going to be late to meet Andrea, so I ran the first loop by myself at a pretty fast pace, grabbed a swig of water, and then took off with her at a slower pace. By then, my legs were feeling a bit sluggish, but still good. By the end of our run, I was 'bonking' pretty hard. That means that my glycogen (sugar) stores in my body were completely depleted and I had no more energy. When that happened, I got the chills, my head started to get a bit foggy, I got dizzy and was in pretty bad shape. I walked a little bit to allow my body to catch up a bit and I consumed some food and drink once I got back to the car. In a minute or two I was feeling much better.
After the physical part of my day, Kathryn and I met my parents and my friend Sarah at the Great Dane downtown for supper. The place was packed because it was a Saturday night and the Badger men's hockey team played that night. It was fun to catch up with Sarah since I hadn't seen her for a while.
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