Retro Music Themed Post

Often when I’m running my mind is so clear that I’ll just take a thought and run with it (no pun intended).  Sometimes though, because my mind is so clear, that thought just keeps going out of control because there isn’t anything to get in its way.  With that in mind, I bring you this musical hodgepodge of a post.

I wrote a post on Friday about last week’s running but never got it up on the blog.  With other things from this weekend worth sharing, I figured I would do a themed mega post.  Why a theme?  Well, “Why the hell not?” I ask you.

There Was Something in the Air This Week (written Friday)
 

(This video creeps me out and cracks me up all at the same time.)

To the tune of ABBA’s Fernando –

                There was something in the air this week

                My nose couldn’t breathe

                Damn pollen

That quick spoof came to me during my run yesterday.  It was yet another day where I could barely breathe on my run because of allergies.  The pollen has been so high that not only can you see it floating around in the air in the sunlight, but you can even see the golden pollen underneath trees on the blacktop of the street.  I suffered through my run which ended up being at a decent pace, but besides just being stuffy, my eyes were also stinging at the end from the allergens.  

Earlier in the week I could barely get out of bed and get going I was so stuffed up.  For me it’s all watery itchy eyes and upper nasal congestion.  Basically draw a triangle from eye to eye and to the bridge of my nose and you have my allergy problem area.  I’ve been doing a regimen of Halls cough drops, tea, and generic 24-hour Clariton.  The tea and Halls sooth my itchy throat and clear up my airways.  The meds basically don’t make me feel as worn down.  

My allergies are a newer thing for me too, one I don’t understand.  Growing up on a farm, I never had a problem.  Sure, you get a huge billow of hay dust in your face from unloading small hay bales, then I might sneeze but then anyone would.  Now that I’m older though, I’m apparently developing allergies.  

Tomorrow I have a 6 miler to run, so I’m a bit concerned about well, not being able to breathe.  To make matters potentially worse, tomorrow is also going to be a hot one with high temperatures in the mid to high 80s.  I think I’ll try to get going early, before it gets too hot but also before the pollen really gets swirling around. 

Until then, could you please pass the bag of cough drops? 

Feeling Hot, Hot, Hot (Saturday)

(I think everyone knows (or knows of) that song…)

Yep, the 6 mile run today sucked.  Allergies weren’t a problem.  It was just plain hot.  When I left for my run around 11, it was 82.  When I got back, it was 88.  Not that I needed to check the temperature when I got back to know that I had cooked outside. 

I started out well , at a pretty decent pace but by mile 3 however I knew the heat was taking its toll.  I would either need to cut my loop short or find water somewhere.  Luckily, I knew I was running past my old favorite water stop from my 2009 Madison Marathon training, a popular west side park pavilion.  So just shy of mile 4, I jogged into the park and got some water.  Not remembering where the drinking fountain was, I just ran into the bathroom and got water from that sink.  I just used the “hands cup” method and drank a good 5 or so “hand cups” of water.  I also doused my head and back with water as well to cool off.  

My water break lasted about 4 minutes and I was back on the road.  To keep cool, I took a wet balled up paper towel and placed it at the top of my back underneath my shirt.  That only stayed put for about a quarter mile, but it was of no help anyway as the towel had already basically dried out in that little time.  Did I mention it was hot?  With my parched bunched up paper towel in hand (there wasn’t a garbage and I didn’t want to litter), I trotted home and finished off the remaining 2 miles.

My finishing time wasn’t great.  With the 4 minute water break included, my time was 52:15, a per-mile pace of 8:43.  With the 4 minutes taken out, the run was a more respectable 48:15, a pace of 8:03 per mile.  Although on a different route, I was able to run my last 6 miler at a 7:55 per mile pace.  Maybe my expectations were a bit high for such a hot day, but that’s the time I was shooting for.  

I did my normal post-run stretching routine outside, but with a non-normal bottle of ice water at hand.  I really just kept putting as much water in me as I could, continuing throughout the rest of the day.  One thing I didn’t do as well is replenish with electrolytes.  I ate regular food after my run but not enough to replenish the salts and other stuff I had sweated out.  Because of this, my lower legs were killing me, enough that I had to get out my old trusty compression socks.  Without these I had issues just walking around the apartment without my lower leg muscles twinging.  

Hot Running (Sunday)
 

(I saw this video and had to post it as Foreigner’s lead vocalist looks like a bad 1980s version of a grudge hipster.)

To the Tune of Foreigner’s Hot Blooded –

Well I’m hot running. Check it and see.

I’m pushing a pace of 7:33…

Come on lazy, go faster than that!

Hot running, I’m hot running…

After my rough Saturday run, I slept in a bit too much on Sunday.  That meant my run had a late start and also meant that I was running in the heat again.  The temperature was just as high but luckily there was a strong south breeze from 15-20 mph that was cooling things down enough to make it tolerable.  Again possibly not making the best decision, I decided to go out and put all I could into my planned 3 mile run to make up for Saturday’s let down.

With the south wind blowing on my left and eventually pushing me along with a tailwind, I got off to a very good start on my run.  I’m not sure how fast I was going, but it felt like I was flying.  After the first mile though I wondered if I was going too fast and thus started to slow down and conserve.  There would be some hills mid-run and then a long finish into a strong headwind.  Luckily I did hold back a bit because as I rounded a corner to go up the long steep hill in the loop (right at the 2 mile mark), the heat found me.  I chugged up the hill as fast as I felt I could within reason and then hung in there for the rest of the run.  With about a half mile to go, the point where I would start a bit of a kick, I had nothing.  I really had no more coal to add to the fire.  This steam engine was holding steady and coasting into the station.  

My time wasn’t so bad I guess.  The 3 miler took me 22:25 to finish, with a pace of 7:28 per mile.  A few weeks back my fastest 3 mile run was done on the same route, but with a 7:16 pace.  I always go out on a run hoping to better a previous personal best, but I knew it wasn’t going to be today.  It was too hot, the wind wasn’t going to help, and my body was still recuperating from Saturday’s long hot run.  Still I was hoping I would get that high note to end my weekend running on – but didn’t get it.  

Monday, Monday (well…yeah, Monday)

(Classic 60s / 70s music videos like this are just too cheery not to share)

Real lyrics from the Mamas & the Papas Monday, Monday –

                But whenever Monday comes, but whenever Monday comes

                You can find me cryin’ all of the time

Not that Monday’s are ever the best day of the week, but today was a particularly a bad one.  Life, work, and of that stuff was perfectly good.  With my current running schedule, today was also a rest day.  So what was wrong?  My lower back.  

I don’t know if I slept weird or if it was something I pulled while running over the weekend, but I was in pain.  I wasn’t crying like in the lyrics above, but I was scrunching up my face if I moved the wrong way.  Besides taking some Ibuprofen right away in the morning, I also had to make a lunch time run to Target for some Icy Hot.  I felt bad that I was engulfing my office cubicle-land with minty muscle ointment smell, but whatever, I was hurting.  

My wife so lovingly gave me a massage once I got home, which then I followed up with another round of Icy Hot.  Hopefully my wife will find pity on me and try massaging some deep knots out of my back before bed.  I’ll lay off the Icy Hot before bed though.  I don’t think I could stand the noxious fumes while trying to sleep.

20 Before 30: Update 3 - One Minute Down, One More Minute to Go

I’ve been exhausted lately, due to the fact that I never go to bed early enough but more so that I’ve been overworking my body with running and bike commuting. On Saturday, I did my scheduled 6 mile run but instead of running the scheduled 4 miles on Sunday, I reduced it to 3. Sure I only subtracted a mile, but taking it down to 3 mi allowed me to do a 3 mi “speed test.” 

With my overall goal of running a 5K under 20 minutes, running a 3 miler (just .1 mi short of a 5K) is a thermometer of my progress. Back in February I ran the same 3 mile loop, in the same direction as I did on Sunday. My overall time then was 25:10, a pace of 8:23 per mile. On Saturday my time was… (drum roll please)… 21:48, a per mile pace of 7:16. I’ll admit that the notes in my running log show that the 3 mile run back in February wasn’t run as hard as I did my run on Saturday, but still. That’s a one minute per mile progression. I’m pretty pumped. I’m also excited that I’m now within a minute of the per-mile pace to break the 20 minute, 5K barrier. That time is 6:26 per mile. I don’t want get too cocky with so far yet to go to reach that fast pace, but with my 27 ½ “birthday” having just past at the end of April, I feel like I will easily run a sub-20 minute 5K before I turn 30.

Race Report: Crazylegs Classic

This past weekend, I eschewed my typical Saturday morning routine of drinking tea and watching soccer, for doing the Crazylegs Classic.  The 8 km, or basically 5 mi, course runs from Madison’s downtown state capital square, through the University of Wisconsin campus, and ending in Camp Randall the university’s football stadium.  I last did this race back in 2009 when I was training for the 2009 Madison Marathon.  My finishing time then (in a raining downpour) was just under 45 minutes – 44:49.  

This year I was focused on improving my time to be under 40 minutes.  I’ve been building a better base, one especially of shorter distances with more speed.  If everything went perfect, I was going for under 38:00.  Like in 2009 though, the conditions would be far from perfect.  The race time temperature was 42 degrees, with a misting rain, and winds that were at least 15 mph.  Before the race, I did a warm-up jog from the downtown Panera Bread where my wife and I parked the car (it would be our post-race meeting place).  My legs were really tight because of the damp cold and were still feeling stiff by the time I got to my wave in the start line staging.  Luckily I was in the front end of the waves in wave “I” versus say the last wave “ZZ,” so my legs didn’t have too much time to get really cold before starting. 

Once I crossed the finish line, my legs had a bit of an adrenaline surge but they were still really stiff.  It definitely made the running crowd dodging more difficult.  As you can imagine with the wave start – 52 waves in fact, that there are a lot of people that do the race.  This year’s entry total just came short of 20,000 runners.  With that said, the 5 mile course is still very tightly packed with runners.  I probably didn’t really stop doing full on running “dodge” mode until at least mile 3.  That’s not to say though that I didn’t bulldoze my way up the decently sized and switch-backed Observatory Hill just after mile 1.  (I really like going up hills fast and to feel that pain).  

Looking back, that hill climb probably was my highlight of the race.  Growing up in Iowa, I don’t really get caught up in the “I love the University of Wisconsin!” theme of the race.  With that said I ignored all the badger loving red and had very focused tunnel vision during the race.  With my legs not feeling the greatest though, that tunnel vision just kept me focused on keeping a steady decently quick pace.  I held onto an under 8 minute per mile pace and managed to sprint through the finish inside Camp Randall for an official time of 38:51.  

I should be excited with my time as it’s under the 40 minute mark, but I feel like I could’ve done better.  Because of the cold, but especially the amount of people, I don’t feel my legs were really able to test themselves out and go as fast as they could.  

What’s next then?  Well, I’m debating about doing the Madison Marathon 10K on May 26^th.  It would be kind of a neat race as it takes place at night, but it’s mostly the same course as Crazylegs.  My legs could take revenge on a familiar course, but is that worth the $45 entry fee?  I’m not so sure.  We’ll see how I feel about it after this next week of training.