And here we go...

Call me crazy... so this is marathon #4 in 2 years. The training has begun. But this is Boston. This one is different. So yes, it's time to get serious about the training. The last 2 years since recovering from the surgeries have been, well, interesting. I built up the base, now it's time for some speed. Why so serious? Why not... I think that if I stick to the program, I can have one hell of a race.

Week one of the training has gone very well. I hit my mileage goals and the interval training was better than expected.

Weekly totals: 51 miles
Interval workout: 6 x 1000m @ 3:30 (all were within a few seconds of goal pace, last one was the fastest).
Tempo runs: 3 @ sub-7 pace
Long run: 12.1 miles on Leif Erickson trail (hilly) at a comfortable 7:40 ave

I will break 3 hours, the question is by how much...

14 weeks to go...

Feeling the need, the need for speed...

So the job's been going quite well. I've spent time volunteering for the Border Clash XC meet and the Nike Cross Nationals. So much fun helping out and being a part of these big events for HS runners. I wish they had some of them back in my day, but at least now I do get to help out with the meets.

My speed work has been going very well lately. I'm pushing the tempo to see what I can do. Last week I did a 2k at threshold in 7:05, which is pretty fast considering what I've been doing. That should roughly work out to a 17:40ish 5k, so I figured I'd give the Jingle Bell 5k a shot to see what I could do. I went out a little too fast, but I don't think that had any significant bearing on the race. 5:24 at the mile, about 11:15 at the 2 mile and 17:55 at the finish. So, not a bad effort at all. I'm happy with the progress and that's all that matters... for now... ;-)

Portland Marathon take 2...

Got there early before the Honey Pot lines were long so I could use the facilities, took my time to stretch and get "warmed up" (or as much as I could at 6 am in 50 degrees). Bad part... had to pee again with about 20 minutes to start and the lines were huge... I can wait!

Start off real easy and conservative, cruise through the first 3 miles right on pace for 3:10 - jump into a porta-potty and take care of that pee thing and jump back into the race. I figured now was better than later.

As I catch up to the group a young guy comes along and asks if I'm Mrs. Herman-Davis husband, I recognize him from running with the Aloha team this summer (he graduated last year), so I encourage Alex to run relaxed and stay with me. He has a goal of BQ; 3:10:59...

We're doing great on the pace, within a few seconds at the 10k and I decide to pick it up a little to close that time gap. We get from 20 seconds off to less than 5 by mile 11 and we're cruising. At 11 I see Beth and Ken (Aloha head coach). Ken joins us up around 12 for a half mile and I'm feeling relaxed and also feeling like I'm really holding back the pace, but I want to help Alex and 3:10 is my goal. At the half way, he has to jump into a porta-potty and I remind him to stay relaxed and keep focused, slowly work back to the pace group.

I take off dropping from 7:14 ave to 6:54 ave and by St. John's bridge I'm 1:20 ahead of pace. I lose 20 seconds on the bridge, which is OK... that was by design to recover and take the "hill" easy. As I cross the bridge, another friend sees me and his encouragement helps me pick it back up again. By now I'm passing a lot of people that went out too fast (been there, done that). At 20 I'm about 1:40 ahead of pace and that's the largest gap I have on the pace group. Around 21, one of the other coaches joins me for about a half mile and the conversation is a nice distraction from not being able to feel my feet. By now it had rained a lot and at 50 degrees, my feet were cold and my fingers were a little numb too.

Greely was a nice feeling. I'm now past 22 and feeling good. I can relax the downhill and not work too hard for a mile or so. Up to 24 I'm back and forth with another runner and encouraging her, she's trying to get under 3:10 for BQ too. Old pharts got it good with that extra 10... I've also slowed back down some, feeling tired, but knowing all I have to do is keep running and I've got BQ.

Over the bridge, around to Front, and we're about 1.5 from the finish. I stil look good, and really, as Vera would agree, that's all that matters. I see Beth again with Karen and Malcolm Costello (at mile 1 I could hear Karen asking if he'd seen me yet right as I was passing in front of her... lol) and it's a pretty emotional moment... seriously. I tell Beth to watch for Alex becuase he's going to need the push at the end.

I cruise through the finish, tired, elated, and done... I turn in time to see the gal that had been with me make BQ, and a few seconds later Alex also crossed for is BQ. I never was in doubt about not making 3:10, it was all positive. On top of getting my BQ, I also helped a few others by encouraging them along the way.

Still have my toenails, lost a little skin, hamstrings are done... but I feel great... and I'm shipping up to Boston!

Running is my life

I was asked this question (while reading Runner's World on the bus), "coach, do you live and breath running all the time?" Well, yes... at least for the moment it is my life. I run on my own, I coach a great group of kids and run with them, I read running, I think about running... I am running...

Running centers me. It keeps me grounded and focused. I used it when I was working for stress release and to think through problems. It is something that gives me purpose these days and a means to take a break from the job search.

Besides... I am three weeks away from the Portland Marathon. This will be #3 in a year. I'm not as focused on the training as I have been in the past. Right now I'm just trying to keep up mileage and stay free from injury. Knock on wood...

In 2 weeks we have the Nike Pre-National XC meet. It'll be a conflict of interest for me... SEHS will be there (go Axemen!), but so will my Warriors. Too bad McChesney is down south for a different invitational...

I run because I can. And as long as I can run, I'll never stop.

5 weeks to Portland...

It's like deja-vu all over again...

The training has been going well, perhaps not as much mileage as I should be at, but it's about quality more than anything else. I put in a 17.26 mile run yesterday, which went exceptionally well. I was trying to run a very easy pace so that I had energy at the end. I also wanted to be relaxed and feel like I wasn't running hard. Easy being the mantra of the day. At the half mark, I was around 1:36, certainly not as easy as I had intended it to be, but I felt strong and relaxed. The final average pace was 7:33. My "goal" (Boston cutoff) pace is 7:38.

My feet were a little tender, but that may be in part due to the Hood 2 Coast last weekend. That took most of the week to recover from, and I'm still not at 100%. So, there's still work that needs to be done. I need to continue focusing on rehabing the tight, sore areas. I need to get in at least an 18 and a 20 (I'd be better off if I could get in a 20 and a 22) and stay injury free.

The kids motivate me. Watching them run is like a breath of fresh air. I miss the "good ol'" days of running XC. Coaching them has been a good distraction for me and more importantly, I think several of them will benefit from my wisdom (how scary is that!).

We may be old... but we're not slowing down!

Hood to Coast Part 3:

In the wake of losing my job, I had time to run a little more, coach, and find a competitive team to run on. That was the last thing I wanted to try, run H2C on a competitive team. There was a group of 40 yr. old guys that lost a runner in the 11th hour and needed a 39 minute 10k runner to fill in the gap.

There's nothing like jumping into a van with 6 strangers for 24 hours with little to no sleep, running in the dark, trying to stay ahead of the congestion, trying to keep your intestines, well, flowing...

197 miles and a love for the Honey Bucket. The lines, the traffic, the running half asleep, the excitement of Fred Meyer in Sandy, the feeling of standing in the Pacific Ocean after a long, hard 24 hours. I love it. I hate it... or at least my body does today.

The excitement really sparked up when we found out that we were projected to finish second in the Masters Men division. Could we hold it together and finish second? How close and how possible would it be to win it all? Anything can and will happen on the Mother of all Relays...

First leg, our runner had bad calf cramps towards the end and lost a few minutes on his leg... this is NOT how to start off the H2C. Leg 1 is hell. It's been the death of many runners. This is an extreme downhill sprint. After the first van exchange we were down 10 minutes on our projected time.

Van 2 takes to the roads and we nail it. No time lost, and we dropped a few teams that we were trying to keep pace with (OK, so really we were a bunch of 40 year old men that didn't want to get passed by the girls...). I killed my first leg, a short 4.38 mile that I was supposed to run at 6:20 pace. I was less than 30 seconds over the time, which was awesome considering several of the intersections I had to cross.

Tragedy: A teenage girl in the P2C high school relay was hit on HWY 30. First accident in 27 years. She's alive, but will have a long road to recovery. I wish her well. I saw the emergency vehicles on the side of the road and knew something bad had happened. My heart goes out to her, her family, and her team today.

Little to no sleep for the wicked... we get 2 hours at St. Helen's HS and we're off again. Fortunately I get to snooze a little longer in the back of van. My second leg is around 4:30 in the morning heading into Jewel. A nice 4.1 mile roller through the early morning mist. At one point, my Nike+ registers a 5:28 mile pace. The projected pace for me was 6:05, ummm, yeah, OK. I was only 5 seconds off my time. Sweet! At the start of the third round of legs, we're still only about 10 minutes off our projected time. However, there are 3 legs to this relay (just as there are 3 phases to a race). You have to finish what you started. And finish it right. The good news was our first leg injury has proved to be cramps and he is still able to run (just slightly hobbled).

No rest for me at the second rest stop. Bathroom and food lines won over the sleep. That's the challenge of a competitive team. You don't get as much rest as you normally would. Plus I needed to try and get something in me. My intestines were not happy.

Last legs. Our top guy had a rough last leg. I've done leg 33 the previous 2 times and know how bad it is. The weather can make or break this leg. Even though it was only about 70, the exposure to the sun, the rolling hills , and the fact that you are beyond exhausted from lack of sleep and proper nutrition. He only lost a few minutes, but you could see the pained look on his face. I've lived it and know it... and knew that I might just be feeling the same thing soon.

Last leg. 7.2 miles on a trail. Sounds good right? Yeah, whatever. No shade, little breeze, and it was either flat or uphill the whole way (mixed pavement and gravel, which kills me). I went shirtless as I knew I'd just take it off in the first mile. I had water to pour on my head and drink as needed. But I was tired, my calves were lifeless from the previous 2 runs, and I had to average 6:40's. It was brutal, not overly bad, but not that great. I kept it going as strong as I could, hoping that the time lost wouldn't be the difference (the winning women's teams were seperated by 8 minutes). In the end, I lost a few, averaging 7:05's. It felt like it would never end...

In the end, it was worth it. I'm tired, but not too sore today. The Parkland Youth (PLU) Masters team took third in our division, 28th fastest overall team out of 1000. Not bad for a bunch of old farts!

Updates...

It's been a while since I last updated, so here's the short version...

July was a busy month with a trip out to Toronto for work followed by some big meetings with partners. Beth headed out to Longmeadow for the start of her "vacation" (one week with Mom before I joined her and we headed to the Cape). The doctorate program is, in a nutshell, hell for her.

All was going fairly well until the day I was supposed to head out east to join her. I had a "download" meeting with my boss and was informed that they were going to have to let me go. Restructuring. Whatever the reason, it sucks. Sure I can collect unemployment and I got a package, but it still sucks. Job hunting today is not easy. To some extent it's not really about how good you are, it's about who you know. Fortunately I was given my vacation as paid time off and would be on the payroll until the 6th of August.

So, off I go on the red eye to Hartford, wondering how I'm going to tell my already stressed out wife that I'm no longer employed. She took it in stride and has been extremely supportive. The 2 weeks out east were great, we had a whole week on what was almost a private beach on the Cape Cod National Seashore, I went to Fenway Park TWICE (Yankees and Angels, although we lost both), ate lobster TWICE, and got real tan. Considering I'd just lost my job, it was a great vacation.

Back home and ready to leave InFocus after 7 1/2 years it all feels so surreal. I'm going to volunteer at Aloha HS as a cross country coach for a while (hopefully for the season) and find the next great adventure in life.