Running Times, Online

Running has given me many gifts. The opportunity to make friends and race in high school; the ability to compete at the collegiate level and enrich my experiences during my years as a student-athlete; the experience of going to Athens to represent the United States at the 2004 Olympic Games; and now a life-long relationship. Adam and I met when we were both injured and were visiting our agent in New Jersey. Four years later, we are now engaged. Fitting that he proposed to me on a run!

Since last weekend, I have repeated the story of our engagement dozens of times. Almost every time, someone asks me if we actually finished running or if we ran straight back to the car to call our parents. Of course we finished running! We never a cut our runs short unless one of us develops an injury (and I did almost injure myself that day because I kept looking down at my hand to admire my new ring).

We were running up a particularly steep hill when he proposed. I have hated this hill since the first time I ran up it four years ago. That hatred vanished in just one hour – I find that I have this sudden love for a hill that I did not enjoy running just a week ago. This lesson was best summarized in a quote by Adam’s high school coach Clay Lewis (he borrows this quote, not claiming it his own): “The difference between an ordeal and an adventure is attitude.”

Monday AM speak at a running camp

PM 22+, in 2:24:48, starting easy but getting down to 6:00 and faster after the first half hour, which got tough with the temp pushing up in the high 80’s and some good humidity. Then 1:44 light jog to track, then finished with 1 mile on the track at about marathon pace, 5:17. Was going to do reps but I was completely finished. tot. 23+

Tuesday AM 4 with Melissa, 33:53, around reservoir, tot. 4+

PM 4 at Keene State Cross Country Camp with campers, 32:46 tot. 4

XT stretching

Wednesday AM 3+ warm up, 22:01, 10K progression run around reservoir trail (2500m a loop), 33:00, 8:38.6, 8:23.8(17:02), 8:15.4(25:17), 7:42.6(33:00)  Huge improvement over last few progressions. Last time my last lap was 8:06, the first time my last lap was 8:36-basically the same as my starting loop this time. My total times on those runs were 34:55 and 33:45.  4 cooldown, 26:23, tot. 13+

Noon chiro and other treatment with Mika

PM 8+ at Battle Road trail, 1:02:43, first 50 mins with Melissa,  would normally do short hills but not after getting body work done, tot. 8

XT stretching

Thursday AM speak at camp

1PM 50:09 with Melissa at Walden Pond trails, lunge warm up before, tot. 6++

6PM Reservoir 4 solo, 29:43 tot. 4

XT Lunge warm up (Jay Johnson video), stretching

Friday Noon 3 warm up over to Harvard track, a couple light strides, 24×1K with short rest (34 to 53 seconds avg.42 seconds) reps avg. 3:13.8, legs very tired after, but this was 15 miles of work at 2:16 marathon pace on a windy track (20 to 25mph). I’d rather this workout have been a month ago but I’ll take it.  I tried to do this a month ago and ran 2 reps and was done so the improvement is huge! 3 cool down home- 23:58- tot. 21+

PM 50:00 easy with Melissa around reservoir. Again would have liked short hills here but my legs, which haven’t been getting much work because of my inability to go hard for the last few months, were so shot that there was no way; the easy jogging was about all I had in the tank, tot. 6++

XT stretching

Saturday AM Reservoir 4 solo, 29:37, tot. 4

PM 39:50 at Battle Road with Melissa, tot. 5+

XT lunge warm up

Sunday Noon 22+ at Mines Falls, 2:18:00, last 18 miles sub-6:00 pace. Was going to do reps on track after but my water bottle got snagged and with the 88 degree heat and a good bit of humidity I was pretty done after the 22. tot. 22+

XT lunge warm up, stretching

Summary 122 miles, 2 solid long runs, 2 solid workouts, one huge step in the right direction.  Everything didn’t go right this week but man was it a reversal from how things have been going with my training.  The iron I’m taking in huge amounts is kicking in and I was able to get quite a bit of good work done this week.  What is above is what I consider good marathon training.  I have in the past done bigger easy days but I’m not worried about it.  I would like to see short hill reps but they didn’t happen this week, that is OK.  I’ve been getting them in up to this point and I’ll get in next weeks I’m sure.

The question, of course, is time but I am a pure marathoner so my fitness very quickly equals marathon fitness. I have been keeping my miles at an OK level for the last month and before these hiccups I averaged well over 100 miles a week for the 18 months before.  Huge goals may have gone out the window at this point but I think I can go and run a respectable marathon.

Now, they say it take about two weeks for iron to complete replenish everything, I started taking the  large doses last Thursday so I have 5 more days and may have one more jump in fitness; that remains to be seen but even if I don’t I got in more than 20 miles of work this week at under the World Championship A stardard marathon pace so I’m at least back in the ball game.  I hope your week has gone well as well.

nate

Quote of the Week “Fall down seven times, get up eight.” Japanese Proverb

Monday AM 4 around res. easy solo, 27:58 tot. 4

PM 6 at Phillips Andover on trails and grass, w/Melissa 49:49 tot. 6

XT stretch

Tuesday AM 4 easy solo around res. 27:04 tot. 4

PM 5++ at Battle Rd. trail with Melissa, 45:49 tot. 5++

XT stretch

Wednesday AM 3+ warm up, 4? mile progression run on grass fields at Brooks School, 5:36.7, 5:28.6(11:05.3), 5:25.7(16:30.9), 5:21.8(21:52.7), 2:11 standing, 2mins bathroom jog, 4.2 cool down, 28:52 tot. 12

PM 20:26 warm up, 12×14-second hills at Bradford Ski (18:07), 21:17 cool down, tot. 8

XT streching

Thursday AM 8++ at Maudsley with Melissa, 1:05:50 tot. 8++

PM volunteering at Sapienza 4-mile race

XT stretching

Friday AM 30:04 at Weir Hill with Melissa, 4- tot. 4

PM 34:23 at Brooks Hill with Melissa, 4++ tot. 4

XT stretching, Also I started taking much higher doses of iron today

Saturday AM At Phillips Andover, 86 degrees with 95% humdity, 30:31 warm up, few strides, light stretching, 5K on track, 16:08.7(3 miles at 15:29), 2 mins rest, 2 miles at 10:30 (stopped for bathroom), I think with the heat and humidity I would have been done after 2 Kks, but still the pace was better than what I’ve been doing and I didn’t feel like total crap for the first time in a while. I’m hoping that this was the first step in the right direction, I cut down on the pounding and have been taking iron pills instead of liquid for a week and a high dose for a couple days, 26:17 cool down, tot. 13

PM 19:44 warm up, 12×14-second hills at Bradford Ski (21:17) recovery slow with humidity, 19:57 cool down tot. 8

XT stretching

Sunday AM 35:01 shakeout with Melissa at Maudsley State Park, tot. 4++

PM 4.2 on road solo, 27:01 tot. 4+

XT stretching

Summary 86 miles for week, two workouts, two sets of short hills. The second workout wasn’t anything to write home and tell mama about but it wasn’t the total shit I’ve been putting out of late.

For those who don’t read the comments section I was diagnosed with hemolytic anemia. Basically I have become anemic by bursting blood cells in my feet (which we all do).  But my hematicrit, hemoglobin, and red blood cell count have all dipped slightly below normal ranges, making them very low for a male athlete, and my haptoglobin is very very low.

So what to do? Basically I need to reduce pounding and get a ton of iron into my system, way more than the normal daily value. So after sending some emails around I am taking 400mg of elemental iron in tablet form (feosol green triangles), spread over 3 times a day always with orange juice. I’m going to get some thicker shoes and I’m going to try to do as much running as possible on grass and trails. Also I’m going to go “Kenny Moore style”: real short days on the easy days, 4 and 4 doubles and 4 and 6 doubles, some drills and strides most likely. Then keep my hard days longer. My overall mileage will obviously drop. I may keep this going for at least one cycle after the world champs.

This week I started like this but only had two hard days as I was recovering from Boilermaker. I also did a lot of the easy runs very slow with Melissa, which I’m thinking I may end up not doing at all, but I’m sure I’m going to cut back. With the lower volume I’m going to go faster on the shorter runs–I feel better when I do it and it is better work.

Quote of the week (this one is for Chris W.) “Here is the thing that makes life so interesting. The theory of evolution says ‘only the strong shall survive.’ Maybe so. Maybe so. But the theory of competition says that just because their the strong doesn’t mean they can’t get their asses kicked.  Thats right!  You see what every long shot, come-from-behind underdog will tell ya this:, The other guy may, in fact, be the favorite.  The odds may be stacked against ya. Fair enough. But what the odds don’t know is this isn’t a math test. This is a completely different type of test. One where passion has a way of trumping logic. So before you step to the starting line, before the whistle blows and the clock starts ticking, just remember, out here the results don’t always add up. No matter what the stats say and the experts may think and the commentators may have predicted, when the race is on all bets are off. Don’t be surprised if somebody decides to flip the script and take a pass on yelling ‘uncle.’ And then suddenly, as the old saying goes, we got ourselves a game.”–From the Versus commercial that has been running a lot lately.  Also for those who love underdogs like me, you had to give it up to Tom Watson this weekend. I’m not much of a golf fan but the man is 59 years old for God sake!

Monday AM 28:52 warm up, 6 mile very hilly progression run on 1.5 mile sanctuary loop at Phillips Andover, lap splits- 9:05.7, 9:00.2(18:05.9), 8:47.5(26:53.3), 8:37.5(35:30.8), 1:20 standing around, 20:53 cool down, tot. 13-

PM 40mins warm up, 12×12 second hills at Bradford Ski area, 20 min cool down tot. 9+

XT stretching

Tuesday spent all day catching up on online coaching schedules that had built up on me

6:30PM 18 miles easy, 2:10:17, very, very tired tot. 18

XT stretching

Wednesday PM 8 mile easy, at Winni Kinni, 1:03:09, tot. 8

XT stretching and some light core

Thursday noon 29:30 warm up, 3 mile progression run around very wet fields, slow, splits 5:33.5, 5:27.3(11:00.8), 5:18.4(16:19.2) 1 mile cool down tot. 9

PM spent the vast majority of my day at docs getting more blood and also some urine tests; well, that is inaccurate the tests took like 2 minutes, the waiting took most of the day.

XT core, stretching

Friday AM drive to Utica

PM 40:03 easy shakeout, followed by strides and a bit more easy jogging (like a half mile) tot. 6

XT stretching

Saturday AM 36:07 shake out, full drills after tot. 4++

XT continuous warm up drills and stretching

Sunday 4:30AM 2 miles shakeout, 16:00 tot. 2

7AM 3 warm up, drills, strides, race Boilermaker 15k, horrible, 49:20’s, won’t bore you with the splits, only one mile was under 5 mins.  Ran hard just didn’t have anything to fight with.  2 cool down tot. 15

Summary: Another shitty week. Basically my body has something wrong with it and I ain’t going to race well till I fix it. I got more tests done this week and haven’t got the results yet, but what I know is this my neutrophyls are high, my lymphocytes are low (they are types of white blood cells). This usually indicates either a viral or bacterial infection, or an auto-immune disease. My liver enzymes (SGOT and LDH) are elevated. which might mean my body is metabolizing muscle. That is what I know. Oh and I don’t have AIDS and I didn’t test positive for Lyme disease, though apparently that doesn’t mean I for sure don’t have it.  Hopefully this next round of tests tells the doc what is going on and I can get back on my game. Hope your training is going well. -nate

The summer in Palo Alto, California has been off to a slow start. Most of the month of June was unseasonably cool. Last week, we finally had some days in the mid-90s. The first day of the heat wave, I didn’t quite grasp how hot it had gotten. I did my morning run before the temperature had peaked. As soon as I finished, my boyfriend and I went over to our friends’ house to walk their pet dog Bentley.

We pet-sit often for Bentley. He has short legs, but he can move fast. He starts jumping up and down with excitement when he hears me take his leash out of its drawer. As soon as we step outside, he starts darting from side to side on the sidewalk, sniffing everything in sight. He always wants to start running ahead and looks back at me with an exasperated look on his adorable little face. I always imagine that he is thinking, “Why are you two so slow?”

On that particular day, Bentley started off with his usual level of energy, but soon he started to slow down. After we had been walking for 10 minutes, he lay down on the sidewalk. He looked up at us as if to say, “You people are crazy. Why are we walking in this heat when we could be sitting in a nice air-conditioned apartment?” We let him rest for a few minutes, but when he still would not get up I decided that I would need to carry him home. By the time we got home, I felt exhausted. (Bentley, on the other hand, was fine. He was re-energized as soon as he felt the air conditioned air on his fur. He immediately brought one of his chew toys over to me so that he could play fetch.)

When I went for my second run later in the day, I noticed that a few people driving past me stared at me as though I were nuts. It was the same expression that Bentley had given me that morning when he had refused to get up off the sidewalk. (Some people might not think that dogs can show expression on their faces, but I swear that they do.) Maybe I am crazy, along with all of you runners who have been toughing it out in less than ideal weather conditions. I think this summer craziness is okay, as long as we combine it with some smart planning.

• Stay hydrated throughout the day! You’ve probably heard this before, but it’s worth repeating.
• Water isn’t always enough. Try out some different electrolyte replacement products. My personal favorite is a Cytomax flavor called Peachy Keen.
• Look for cooler places to run. My sister and I always ran on trails in the woods when we were in college. We were almost always in the shade. As an added bonus, we could also hide our sports drink bottles behind trees. We would circle back to the bottles every half hour or so.
• If hiding a bottle isn’t an option for you, look for some routes that have water fountains. Athletic fields and public parks often have fountains. If you are going to be out in the heat for awhile, carry a gel with you and drink it during your water stop.

Of course the most important thing is to listen to your body. Don’t wait until you are tired and then insist on being carried home like Bentley.