Sunday, April 25, 2010

Long Run, 4/24

Before you read what follows: I'm toying with the idea of doing the same run that I'm about to describe below, again, in two weeks time -- on 5/8 or 5/9. Anybody interested? Run part or run all -- I would *love* the company. I also love the shared experience of running -- the blog is cool, but it needs to start to expand and we need to build up the culture of running even more, and bring the social into it (something I've loved stemming from the Cherry Blossom 10 blog and race). Let me know about 5/8-9. I published this on my other blog first but wanted to keep the CB10 blog moderately alive....

On reflection, my planned 20 miler was pretty darn tricky given that I'd run 5 miles in the previous 2 weeks. Never one to be deterred by such trifles, I proceeded as planned. David C. came down from Maine, I put on a nice spread Friday night, we carbo loaded, chatted for a bit and hit the sack.

We were on the road by 7:50 only 30 minutes late. We strolled to the jump off point and headed out. I started this long run like I do most of them: through the center of town, into Wellesley. Rather than turn around at the bridge or head into Weston, we turned right on Rt. 16 and picked up the Boston Marathon Course. We followed that for the next 7+ miles, through Wellesley Hills, Newton, to Comm Ave and BC.

Let me tell you, the Newton hills are no joke. I've driven Comm Ave dozens of time. I never realized though how high those hills are. Starting at about mile 9 on our run, and 17 on the marathon course, there are three, long hills in a row, culminating at Heartbreak Hill at mile 12/20. Everything was going swimmingly the first 8 miles. I took on the first hill with no problem. My legs swelled on the second and I actually walked a bunch of it, running more as I neared the top -- my first sign that yesterday was going to be tough.

We met our families at mile 10, dropped a layer, chugged some Gatorade and headed off. I ran Heartbreak Hill with little issue, but all respect to the Boston Marathoners who hit that beast at 20... After HBH we turned left at BC and headed down Lake St. and made our way to the Charles River. The long down was nice for the cardio, but murder, I think, for my legs. We wound our way through Brighton a bit to make it to Soldier's Field Road, dodged some traffic, jumped a guard rail and hit the Charles River Trail.

After a hippy, Earth Day, Charles River Cleanup chick nearly took David's eye out with her idiot stick (don't wave around a long wooden pole with a giant spike in it while talking to your helpmates, without paying attention to your surroundings, chuckle-head), we chugged along and met the families at mile 15. By this point, I was done, but I'd committed to the full magilla.

I dropped my water pack and on we went. My left leg -- just my left leg -- went into spasm essentially, it wasn't working like I wanted it to nor needed it to. My right leg felt fine. Well, as fine as screaming shins and calves can actually feel, but my left quad was completely shot. I had some stretches where I was trying to stretch, trying to give it a rest by walking, but I was walking, running walking running (and the left leg is far more sore today than the right). David rolled with me, and was an awesome partner. We chugged along, both of us hurting, but me hurting worse, and finished at the Esplanade, right in front of the Hatch Shell.

The weather was amazing. The familial support astounding. The running buddy fantastic. The muscle fitness not so great. Could the left leg issue be because I push off on it more since it is my dominant leg? I don't know. Anyway, glad I did it, hoping to glean some lessons from it, and use it to my advantage in a few weeks. Consider 5/8 people, consider it....

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Monday, April 12, 2010

Cherry Blossom Race

Ironically, the cherry blossoms were gone. So it was a great race, along a great course. I'm really psyched how well everybody did how much fun we all had working together towards this goal, and have seen, once again the transformative power of running.
Once upon a time we used to gather 'round a keg and get bombed. Now we gather around a race and run hard. So cool, so great. Speaking of transformative, David ran the race of a lifetime yesterday and I've never seen anything like that.
Way to go David, you rocked it, you rolled it, and I'm stoked for you (you also smoked me, and have given me something to shoot for). Nancy, you killed it despite illness and stress, and you did great. I'm really proud of you. Abby you powered through rickety legs, nicely done, and Cheryl you ran despite an injury and a wicked schedule. Lilly, you did great and it was fun to see you -- next time, don't eat the tamale for breakfast on race day. Carolyn, way to go, you got out there and ran despite one of the major, wonderful upheavals of life -- Baby A is adorable -- and you and Dan were awesome hosts. Thank you so much!

Well done, I hope you all still use this blog, it'll stay open and you always have a place to congregate and talk running. See you all in a couple of weeks for the "Boston Running Jamboree."

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Saturday, April 10, 2010

National building museum

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National building museum

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logan airport pretty morning

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Thursday, April 08, 2010

Not The Week I'd Hoped

Tough week, another one.

Ran 5+with Child 2 on Saturday. Nice day for a run and was surprised to work in a run on Easter Weekend -- which is really busy since we host. It was fun and he and I chatted the whole way.
I banged out another 5+ today with Child 2. It was fun, but not a great run. It's all about consistency. On it again tomorrow. Mileage is suffering this week. Oh well, there ups and there are downs.

Saw a great article come across Twitter, it's ultramarathon man in condensed form: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/15.01/ultraman.html?pg=2&topic=ultraman&topic_set=

See you all Saturday.

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Wednesday, April 07, 2010

Charles River in Needham near Dover

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Thursday, April 01, 2010

10K

Got out for a mellow 10K today before running off to a meeting. It felt pretty good, not great, but not bad. It was mild and not raining today, so that was good. The sun came out after the run, but what can you do?
I'll try for another 10K tomorrow as well to get in the mileage. I noticed that my left leg was a bit sore today in the quad -- I think it has something to do with the fact that for much of the ES20 it was the leg on the high side of the road and it felt more tired during the run than the right leg (could be total poppycock, I don't know, but it seems like a plausible theory).

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