Jack's back.
Sunday, November 23, 2008
The following takes place...
Today's an off day. No gym. No running. Not much of anything, really, except one important thing.
Jack's back.
Jack's back.
2008 Davis Turkey Trot 10k
Anyone who's been running for a length of time can tell you, there are good days running, and there are bad days running. Sometimes it seems the world is yours and you could run for hours, days, weeks, etc... then others, you're ready to quit after 5 minutes and couldn't tell anyone why for your life. There are also good races and bad races.
Saying that, you might expect me to tell you all about a bad race. Your expectations also might be wrong.
Yesterday was the 2008 Davis Turkey Trot. There were quite a few different races, including a 5k stroller run, the regular 5k, a 10k, plus kids' events. I ran in the 10k.
Before I go further, though, congratulations are in order for Tim Schafer, my coworker who registered for the 5k event. He's only been running for a month, maybe a month and a half, and this was his first race. He performed tremendously, surprising me, and especially surprising himself, averaging an 8:21/mi pace, and finishing with a 25:55 chip time. Way to go, Tim!
We got up early Saturday morning, and started feeding the kids breakfast at 5am. It's a good thing we were up early, too, because as we found out on the way, the fog was thick the entire way. It's been a long time since I drove Highway 113 through Woodland, and had forgotten how bad it can get this time of year. It's only 45 miles to Davis, but the going was slow. Even once we got into town, it was hard seeing street signs. Once parked, though, we were able to follow folks to the destination.
The 5k was set to start at 8:20, so we made our way towards the starting line. I tried to find Tim, but wasn't very successful. Once that race started, we had a look around before I changed into my running clothes. I was already wearing them, of course, but had outer layers to remove and running shoes to put on. Those would be the new Brooks Adrenaline GTS 8's I bought a few days ago. Call me crazy, but today was the first time I wore them.
I pinned bib #1904 onto my shorts, different from the past, when I've pinned the number to my shirt. This made a huge difference to me, because I wasn't constantly smacking it as I ran. I also packed two gels into the baby-pocket of my running shorts, and shivered while waiting for the race to begin. I ate one of the gels and got a drink from a drinking fountain.
Rather than a starting gun or horn, they started the race with a countdown from ten. 3... 2... 1..., and we were off! I realized quickly that I had picked a place too far back in the pack. It took maybe 1/2 to 3/4 of a mile to finally settle in on a decent pace, but I lucked out a few times with a dirt path that ran next to the street that gave me (and quite a few others) a chance to make up some time.
At Mile 1 I glanced down at my time, and surprisingly, the 1-mile mark was right on track with the Garmin: 8:18! I was doing better than I expected.
At Mile 2 was the first water stop. I usually run with a water bottle in my hand, but because of the water stops I chose not to, so it was a welcome sight. I grabbed the water, folded the cup with gusto, and downed it, making sure to thank the volunteers as I passed. The GPS read an 8:05 pace.
Just past the water station, the course turned onto an asphalt path. This immediately caused a bottleneck, moving all of us to a surface about 1/3 the width we had been running on so far. The surface, while asphalt, was a lot softer than the street, and had it been maintained well, would have been perfect. Unfortunately, it was cracked and upturned quite a bit, and I ended up twisting my ankle! I thought for sure it would slow me down or even make me have to stop, but after a quarter mile I was able to get back on track.
At Mile 3, I started thinking about the end. Halfway there, I told myself, seeing 8:10 for pace. But could I keep it up?
Mile 4, I made a bee-line for the water station. The day before the race, it was announced that the "official hydration" method of the race would be Cytomax. Woo! I love that stuff, we used backpacking at Mt. Whitney last year, and it kept me going pretty well. As I approached, I heard some screaming, "Gatorade! Gator... uh, whoops... Cytomax! Cytomax!" I went straight for him and the cup, but ended up splashing it all over my arm, my shirt, the Garmin. At least I got what my dad used to call a "swaller" into my mouth. 8:09 pace.
Mile 5, I was starting to feel the fact that I was running consistently faster than I normally do during training. As the path led over the freeway, the final aid station was in view, and again I went towards it. Water this time, but in styrofoam cups! I did my best, but ended up with some water coming out my nose, and I came very close to throwing it all up! I consider myself lucky that I didn't. 8:11 pace.
Glancing down at 5.18 miles or so, I remember mentally pushing myself to keep my pace. This guy passed me, and as he did, I decided to use him as my pacer. Thank goodness he was there, because I probably would have slowed down otherwise. Maybe not, I suppose there were plenty of people to keep up with. There were weird sculptures of dogs along the path here. One was a dog riding a tricycle, another was a dog chasing a turkey on top of a giant mushroom.
The path went over the freeway, and as we got to the other side and into another park, there was the marker for Mile 6. Keep going, the volunteers started chanting, only six blocks to go! I sped up as much as I could at this point, although I'm sure it was a feeble attempt. I concentrated on not looking like I was in pain for the photographers, but we'll see how that went. 8:06.
Then all at once, I had crossed the finish line. The final .22 miles ended up at a 7:22 pace. I stopped the Garmin, with a final time: 50:27.29! Check out these splits:
Splits
Mile 1: 8:16.72
Mile 2: 8:04.83
Mile 3: 8:08.62
Mile 4: 8:06.12
Mile 5: 8:08.64
Mile 6: 8:04.99
.22 mi: 1:37.97 (7:25/mi)
Needless to say, I was happy. I found my wife and kids, and Joy said to me, "You running!" Liberal kisses and hugs were exchanged, while my wife told me all about how much fun they had doing crafts at the kids' fair.
I made my way over to the food and couldn't believe how famished I was! I ended up having a bagel, a banana, an apple, an orange slice, and a mini bran muffin.
At the booth for a local gym, they had a sign showing how many calories are burned while running at different paces. I ended up having a discussion with the guy there, talking about paces and how many calories I usually burn (I average about 125 calories per mile typically). Then I noticed that they had a body fat device, the same model I had used when I picked my wife up at Curves about 6 months ago.
So I had the guy read mine: 13.6%! For good measure, I had him read it again: 13.4%. This is good news! My previous low was 18%.
We made our way back to the starting line for Gregory, who's 6 years old, to run his 1-mile race. I took some pictures of him at the starting line, but ended up overexposing the end. He was far from first place, but had a blast nonetheless. I had Jenny (4) and Joy (3) signed up for the 1/4-mile and 200 yard dash respectively, but Joy wanted to run with her sister. So they both ended up running 1/4 mile, while my wife "ran" with them. Note the quotes: my wife was going joy-speed, which wasn't much faster than Joy's toddler-walk. Jenny smoked both of them and the announcer at the mike told everyone she was skipping to the finish line.
When it was over, we ate at Baker's Square. I had an omelette, my wife had a turkey wrap, while all 3 kids ate corn dog bites. On the way home, everyone but me slept the hour back home.
Stats copied from the results page:
Overall: 316 out of 1142
Men: 237 out of 532
M 35-39: 33 out of 73
Age/Grade: 55.59% Place: 478
Finish: 50:23 Pace: 8:07
Tag Time: 50:23
Gun Time: 51:05
791 calories burned.
And if you made it this far, thank you very much!
Saying that, you might expect me to tell you all about a bad race. Your expectations also might be wrong.
Yesterday was the 2008 Davis Turkey Trot. There were quite a few different races, including a 5k stroller run, the regular 5k, a 10k, plus kids' events. I ran in the 10k.
Before I go further, though, congratulations are in order for Tim Schafer, my coworker who registered for the 5k event. He's only been running for a month, maybe a month and a half, and this was his first race. He performed tremendously, surprising me, and especially surprising himself, averaging an 8:21/mi pace, and finishing with a 25:55 chip time. Way to go, Tim!
We got up early Saturday morning, and started feeding the kids breakfast at 5am. It's a good thing we were up early, too, because as we found out on the way, the fog was thick the entire way. It's been a long time since I drove Highway 113 through Woodland, and had forgotten how bad it can get this time of year. It's only 45 miles to Davis, but the going was slow. Even once we got into town, it was hard seeing street signs. Once parked, though, we were able to follow folks to the destination.
The 5k was set to start at 8:20, so we made our way towards the starting line. I tried to find Tim, but wasn't very successful. Once that race started, we had a look around before I changed into my running clothes. I was already wearing them, of course, but had outer layers to remove and running shoes to put on. Those would be the new Brooks Adrenaline GTS 8's I bought a few days ago. Call me crazy, but today was the first time I wore them.
I pinned bib #1904 onto my shorts, different from the past, when I've pinned the number to my shirt. This made a huge difference to me, because I wasn't constantly smacking it as I ran. I also packed two gels into the baby-pocket of my running shorts, and shivered while waiting for the race to begin. I ate one of the gels and got a drink from a drinking fountain.
Rather than a starting gun or horn, they started the race with a countdown from ten. 3... 2... 1..., and we were off! I realized quickly that I had picked a place too far back in the pack. It took maybe 1/2 to 3/4 of a mile to finally settle in on a decent pace, but I lucked out a few times with a dirt path that ran next to the street that gave me (and quite a few others) a chance to make up some time.
At Mile 1 I glanced down at my time, and surprisingly, the 1-mile mark was right on track with the Garmin: 8:18! I was doing better than I expected.
At Mile 2 was the first water stop. I usually run with a water bottle in my hand, but because of the water stops I chose not to, so it was a welcome sight. I grabbed the water, folded the cup with gusto, and downed it, making sure to thank the volunteers as I passed. The GPS read an 8:05 pace.
Just past the water station, the course turned onto an asphalt path. This immediately caused a bottleneck, moving all of us to a surface about 1/3 the width we had been running on so far. The surface, while asphalt, was a lot softer than the street, and had it been maintained well, would have been perfect. Unfortunately, it was cracked and upturned quite a bit, and I ended up twisting my ankle! I thought for sure it would slow me down or even make me have to stop, but after a quarter mile I was able to get back on track.
At Mile 3, I started thinking about the end. Halfway there, I told myself, seeing 8:10 for pace. But could I keep it up?
Mile 4, I made a bee-line for the water station. The day before the race, it was announced that the "official hydration" method of the race would be Cytomax. Woo! I love that stuff, we used backpacking at Mt. Whitney last year, and it kept me going pretty well. As I approached, I heard some screaming, "Gatorade! Gator... uh, whoops... Cytomax! Cytomax!" I went straight for him and the cup, but ended up splashing it all over my arm, my shirt, the Garmin. At least I got what my dad used to call a "swaller" into my mouth. 8:09 pace.
Mile 5, I was starting to feel the fact that I was running consistently faster than I normally do during training. As the path led over the freeway, the final aid station was in view, and again I went towards it. Water this time, but in styrofoam cups! I did my best, but ended up with some water coming out my nose, and I came very close to throwing it all up! I consider myself lucky that I didn't. 8:11 pace.
Glancing down at 5.18 miles or so, I remember mentally pushing myself to keep my pace. This guy passed me, and as he did, I decided to use him as my pacer. Thank goodness he was there, because I probably would have slowed down otherwise. Maybe not, I suppose there were plenty of people to keep up with. There were weird sculptures of dogs along the path here. One was a dog riding a tricycle, another was a dog chasing a turkey on top of a giant mushroom.
The path went over the freeway, and as we got to the other side and into another park, there was the marker for Mile 6. Keep going, the volunteers started chanting, only six blocks to go! I sped up as much as I could at this point, although I'm sure it was a feeble attempt. I concentrated on not looking like I was in pain for the photographers, but we'll see how that went. 8:06.
Then all at once, I had crossed the finish line. The final .22 miles ended up at a 7:22 pace. I stopped the Garmin, with a final time: 50:27.29! Check out these splits:
Splits
Mile 1: 8:16.72
Mile 2: 8:04.83
Mile 3: 8:08.62
Mile 4: 8:06.12
Mile 5: 8:08.64
Mile 6: 8:04.99
.22 mi: 1:37.97 (7:25/mi)
Needless to say, I was happy. I found my wife and kids, and Joy said to me, "You running!" Liberal kisses and hugs were exchanged, while my wife told me all about how much fun they had doing crafts at the kids' fair.
I made my way over to the food and couldn't believe how famished I was! I ended up having a bagel, a banana, an apple, an orange slice, and a mini bran muffin.
At the booth for a local gym, they had a sign showing how many calories are burned while running at different paces. I ended up having a discussion with the guy there, talking about paces and how many calories I usually burn (I average about 125 calories per mile typically). Then I noticed that they had a body fat device, the same model I had used when I picked my wife up at Curves about 6 months ago.
So I had the guy read mine: 13.6%! For good measure, I had him read it again: 13.4%. This is good news! My previous low was 18%.
We made our way back to the starting line for Gregory, who's 6 years old, to run his 1-mile race. I took some pictures of him at the starting line, but ended up overexposing the end. He was far from first place, but had a blast nonetheless. I had Jenny (4) and Joy (3) signed up for the 1/4-mile and 200 yard dash respectively, but Joy wanted to run with her sister. So they both ended up running 1/4 mile, while my wife "ran" with them. Note the quotes: my wife was going joy-speed, which wasn't much faster than Joy's toddler-walk. Jenny smoked both of them and the announcer at the mike told everyone she was skipping to the finish line.
When it was over, we ate at Baker's Square. I had an omelette, my wife had a turkey wrap, while all 3 kids ate corn dog bites. On the way home, everyone but me slept the hour back home.
Stats copied from the results page:
Overall: 316 out of 1142
Men: 237 out of 532
M 35-39: 33 out of 73
Age/Grade: 55.59% Place: 478
Finish: 50:23 Pace: 8:07
Tag Time: 50:23
Gun Time: 51:05
791 calories burned.
And if you made it this far, thank you very much!
Friday, November 21, 2008
It's almost my birthday!
Normally I really don't care if it's almost my birthday, but I managed to buy a few birthday presents for myself. Not that I wouldn't be buying them anyway, but the dates just sort of fit together.
Present #1: New running shoes! They arrived yesterday, a new pair of Brooks Adrenaline GTS 8's. This time I bought a green pair, and used a coupon at shoes.com to get them for $79. Great deal.
Present #2: New insoles! It'd be silly to buy shoes without insoles, and since my old ones have the same mileage as the shoes did (about 280 miles), it was time. I wear green Superfeet.
Present #2 Garmin Forerunner 50. Yes, I know I wrote about it the other day, but it arrived today. HRM manufacturers must all use the same chipset and customize them for their own needs, because the watch operates quite similarly to my Reebok HRM. It also made the menus easy to navigate. The watch looks a lot better than the Reebok, with larger numbers, so I'm going to use it. I haven't paired the foot pod with my Garmin 305 yet, but it seems to work pretty well with the 50. I'll probably give it all a try on the treadmill at the gym on Monday.
Ooh, and speaking of the gym, here's today's workout:
Warmup, w/45lb bar, 3 circuits
* Overhead Squat
* Squat
* Good Morning
* Barbell Lunge
* Romanian Deadlift
* Bent-over Row
Workout
* Drop Squat, 3x20
* Underhand-grip Dumbell Row, 3x20x20lbs
* Reverse Hyperextension, 3x20
* Elbows-in Elevated Pushup, 2x20
* Side Bridge, 3x10 (both sides)
* Side Lateral Raise & Rotation, 3x20x10lbs (both arms)
45 minutes, 210 calories burned
Tomorrow's the Davis Turkey Trot! Got our bibs, shirts, & goodie bags on the way home from work, which included some Snickers Marathon bars. I haven't tried those before, and I certainly won't tomorrow. What I will try tomorrow, however, are my new shoes. Fun, fun, fun!
I'll post once I get home and settled.
Present #1: New running shoes! They arrived yesterday, a new pair of Brooks Adrenaline GTS 8's. This time I bought a green pair, and used a coupon at shoes.com to get them for $79. Great deal.
Present #2: New insoles! It'd be silly to buy shoes without insoles, and since my old ones have the same mileage as the shoes did (about 280 miles), it was time. I wear green Superfeet.
Present #2 Garmin Forerunner 50. Yes, I know I wrote about it the other day, but it arrived today. HRM manufacturers must all use the same chipset and customize them for their own needs, because the watch operates quite similarly to my Reebok HRM. It also made the menus easy to navigate. The watch looks a lot better than the Reebok, with larger numbers, so I'm going to use it. I haven't paired the foot pod with my Garmin 305 yet, but it seems to work pretty well with the 50. I'll probably give it all a try on the treadmill at the gym on Monday.
Ooh, and speaking of the gym, here's today's workout:
Warmup, w/45lb bar, 3 circuits
* Overhead Squat
* Squat
* Good Morning
* Barbell Lunge
* Romanian Deadlift
* Bent-over Row
Workout
* Drop Squat, 3x20
* Underhand-grip Dumbell Row, 3x20x20lbs
* Reverse Hyperextension, 3x20
* Elbows-in Elevated Pushup, 2x20
* Side Bridge, 3x10 (both sides)
* Side Lateral Raise & Rotation, 3x20x10lbs (both arms)
45 minutes, 210 calories burned
Tomorrow's the Davis Turkey Trot! Got our bibs, shirts, & goodie bags on the way home from work, which included some Snickers Marathon bars. I haven't tried those before, and I certainly won't tomorrow. What I will try tomorrow, however, are my new shoes. Fun, fun, fun!
I'll post once I get home and settled.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
I've fallen, and I can't get up!
Not really. I did get up. But it got me thinking about injuries and my recovery time. Not the major injuries, not broken bones, or hamstring pulls. Nothing that major. No, I'm talking about tripping, landing on whatever part of the body you land on, scraping it up, and then bitching about it. The kind of injury you spend the rest of the day shaking your head about, saying next time, don't do that.
At least, that's how those types of injuries are now. There was a time when these types of injuries were major. For instance, many years ago before my children were born, I played on my church softball team, which I wish was still in existence. I was on first base, and someone hit an outfield home run. As I rounded second, I tripped and went down, hard.
Remember, I was 250 pounds at the time. Instinctively I put my arms out, but after the impact, the soft dirt of the baseline made me slide a good 20 feet. Not a purposeful slide either, it was completely out of control. I skinned myself up pretty badly, but that wasn't the worst part. The worst part was somehow I injured my right arm and shoulder to the point where I could barely move it. It wasn't broken, but it affected every aspect of my life, including work. I remember it was at least 3 or 4 months before I was back to normal.
Another time, I was out doing night photography on Pass Road, out among the Sutter Buttes. The camera was on a tripod, and I was waiting for a long exposure to finish, just wandering around in the dark. To the side of the road, I took a step to what looked like solid ground, only to realize too late that it was a 3-foot-deep ditch. In I went, and my foot went to the side, making it difficult to walk.
I had it x-rayed and again, no break. After a short while it healed, but with this particular injury I kept re-injuring it by doing not much of anything. One time I was doing dishes and I stepped wrong. BAM, down I went, and the pain was so bad that I was in tears. Re-injuring the thing happened at least once or twice a week for what seemed like six months or more.
Shortly after I started losing weight, perhaps 15 pounds in, I took a hike with a friend from church. At one point, I slipped and down I went, but this time, I was able to get right up. In fact, the thought of how quickly I recovered made me laugh out loud. Of course, I explained all of this to my friend.
Nowadays, when I fall like that it's really no big deal. I fall, curse myself, get my bearings, and off I go. It's amazing the difference that extra weight can have on a person in so many aspects of life. Yes, it slows you down, but you become less graceful. And when injured, it takes that much longer to recover. Thank goodness I never had major injuries back then!
Today on my run I decided to treat it more like a tempo run, going close to what my goal pace will be on Saturday morning. I was actually proud of myself, and ran an amazingly good 5k (for me, anyway). When I got to 3.25 miles, I tripped on an upturned portion of sidewalk. That's not what made me go down though, in fact I caught myself.
No, the sidewalk was a little damp and there was some sort of fungus, whatever you want to call it. This made the sidewalk slippery, so the second my foot came down, SLIP, down I went. Hand first.
Elbow second.
Knee third, but with a strong showing.
But as I said before, recovery time is much, much better now. I probably would have gotten up faster than I did, had I not been lying there screaming at myself. Just to make sure I was alright though, I walked for a quarter mile. Then I started up again to finish it off. And there's a bonus, too, because my split chart gives everyone the bird! So I got that goin' for me.
Splits
Mile 1: 8:40.78
Mile 2: 8:18.98
Mile 3: 8:29.16
Mile 4: 13:36.67
Mile 5: 8:44.75
Mile 6: 8:40.09
.20 mi: 1:38.04 (8:17/mi)
6.2 miles total, 58:08.47, 9:22/mi pace, 766 calories burned.
My goal for today was to run as well as I could as an indicator as to how well I'll do in Saturday's Turkey Trot. Things look good!
At least, that's how those types of injuries are now. There was a time when these types of injuries were major. For instance, many years ago before my children were born, I played on my church softball team, which I wish was still in existence. I was on first base, and someone hit an outfield home run. As I rounded second, I tripped and went down, hard.
Remember, I was 250 pounds at the time. Instinctively I put my arms out, but after the impact, the soft dirt of the baseline made me slide a good 20 feet. Not a purposeful slide either, it was completely out of control. I skinned myself up pretty badly, but that wasn't the worst part. The worst part was somehow I injured my right arm and shoulder to the point where I could barely move it. It wasn't broken, but it affected every aspect of my life, including work. I remember it was at least 3 or 4 months before I was back to normal.
Another time, I was out doing night photography on Pass Road, out among the Sutter Buttes. The camera was on a tripod, and I was waiting for a long exposure to finish, just wandering around in the dark. To the side of the road, I took a step to what looked like solid ground, only to realize too late that it was a 3-foot-deep ditch. In I went, and my foot went to the side, making it difficult to walk.
I had it x-rayed and again, no break. After a short while it healed, but with this particular injury I kept re-injuring it by doing not much of anything. One time I was doing dishes and I stepped wrong. BAM, down I went, and the pain was so bad that I was in tears. Re-injuring the thing happened at least once or twice a week for what seemed like six months or more.
Shortly after I started losing weight, perhaps 15 pounds in, I took a hike with a friend from church. At one point, I slipped and down I went, but this time, I was able to get right up. In fact, the thought of how quickly I recovered made me laugh out loud. Of course, I explained all of this to my friend.
Nowadays, when I fall like that it's really no big deal. I fall, curse myself, get my bearings, and off I go. It's amazing the difference that extra weight can have on a person in so many aspects of life. Yes, it slows you down, but you become less graceful. And when injured, it takes that much longer to recover. Thank goodness I never had major injuries back then!
Today on my run I decided to treat it more like a tempo run, going close to what my goal pace will be on Saturday morning. I was actually proud of myself, and ran an amazingly good 5k (for me, anyway). When I got to 3.25 miles, I tripped on an upturned portion of sidewalk. That's not what made me go down though, in fact I caught myself.
No, the sidewalk was a little damp and there was some sort of fungus, whatever you want to call it. This made the sidewalk slippery, so the second my foot came down, SLIP, down I went. Hand first.
Elbow second.
Knee third, but with a strong showing.
But as I said before, recovery time is much, much better now. I probably would have gotten up faster than I did, had I not been lying there screaming at myself. Just to make sure I was alright though, I walked for a quarter mile. Then I started up again to finish it off. And there's a bonus, too, because my split chart gives everyone the bird! So I got that goin' for me.
Splits
Mile 1: 8:40.78
Mile 2: 8:18.98
Mile 3: 8:29.16
Mile 4: 13:36.67
Mile 5: 8:44.75
Mile 6: 8:40.09
.20 mi: 1:38.04 (8:17/mi)
6.2 miles total, 58:08.47, 9:22/mi pace, 766 calories burned.
My goal for today was to run as well as I could as an indicator as to how well I'll do in Saturday's Turkey Trot. Things look good!
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