I decided to take a full week off after running the P.F. Chang's Rock'n'Roll Arizona Half Marthon last Sunday. I wasn't feeling well before the race, and I needed some time to recover-- both physically and mentally. I was a little disappointed in my time in the race, and I felt I needed a little break to get my head back into running. Barry and I decided to run on the canal at 7:30 Saturday morning. Unfortunately, our cat Lucy passed away Friday night. I needed to take care of her on Saturday, so we delayed the run until Sunday. Lucy was about 11 years old, and was the sweetest cat I've ever met. She will be dearly missed.To further make this run more difficult, Jen and I went out with Dorian for a belated birthday sushi dinner. I managed to drink 3 beers during dinner and 6 glasses of wine afterwards. I woke up feeling pretty uninspired to run. But I took some ibuprofen, drank some Vitamin Water and got ready to go. I was happy to find out that Barry had engaged in similar activities the evening before. We hadn't really settled on a distance before we started, but I was hoping to get in 11 miles. As we started out, I had to fight with my new earbuds and the placement of my iPod. I decided to go hatless today, and clipped the shuffle onto my shorts. It took a half mile or so to figure out a configuration that would stay put. I re-cued the Genius playlist I used during the race last week: Eddie Amador - 6 AM (Belocca & Soneec Dublife Remix) (feat. Joy Allura) - Yoshitoshi Ibiza Mixed By Miss Nine The Prodigy - Get Up Get Off (Fujikato+Dancingdiscoduke Remix) - Always Outsiders, Never Outdone Spektrum - Kinda New - Groove Armada Presents... Paul van Dyk - Connected - Reflections DJ Icey - Filthy Who 5 (VIP Mix) - Twisted Tiësto - Magik Journey - In My Memory Tom Novy & Lima - Take It (Radio Edit) - House 2006 Olav Basoski - Waterman - Ministry of Sound: The Annual 2005 Fila Brazillia - The Sheriff - Old Codes, New Chaos Paul Oakenfold - Hold Your Hand - Bunkka Moby - Next Is The E - Moby DJ Icey - Under Constructo - Twisted Keoki - Caterpillar (The Crystal Method Remix) - Altered-Ego-Trip (The Remix Album) The Crystal Method - The Dubeliscious Groove (Fly Spanish Version) - Keep Hope Alive The Funky Lowlives - Inside - Hi:Fidelity Lounge, Vol. 4: Res Ipsa Loquitor Paul van Dyk - Words (feat. Roland Ateundred) - Seven Ways (Special Limited Edition) The Chemical Brothers - Get Up On It Like This - Dig Your Own Hole ATB - In Love With the DJ (New Vocal Club Mix) - The DJ in the Mix Ferry Corsten - Fire (Original Mix) - Ultra iDance 05, Disc 2 (Mixed by Johnny Budz) Thievery Corporation - Warning Shots (feat. Sleepy Wonder and Gunjan) - The Cosmic Game The first 3 miles of the run were great. We were clipping along at an 8:30-ish pace, and I felt surprisingly good. The weather was nice (about 53 degrees), my legs didn't hurt at all and my breathing was fine. As we crossed Camelback Rd., I could feel myself wanting to slow down just a little. The next mile was an 8:49 pace. As we passed the 4 mile mark, I was starting to feel the week layoff and the booze from the night before. While I used to be able to hold my own liquor-wise, I drink so seldom these days (not intentionally) that when I do I really feel it. I was starting to feel pretty hot and my legs were starting to get a little sluggish. But I could tell that I would at least be able to make it to the 5 1/2 mile mark, so it was looking good for 11 miles today. As we approached the 5 1/2 mark at 56th Street, I felt the urge to use the restroom. I thought, "Herberger Park is only 1/4 mile ahead, so let's just keep going." We kept on running across 56th Street and onto the bathrooms at the park. After we used the restroom and cooled off for a minute, we headed back out again. I immediately felt a sharp pain in my lower back on the left side. "Ouch! What's THAT?!?" I thought. I rubbed it a little as we ran, and luckily it worked itself out. The break was just what the doctor ordered, because the next 3 miles felt great. We were doing an 8:40-ish pace, and the hotness and sluggishness I felt in my legs was gone. As we re-crossed Camelback Rd., I could feel the fatigue starting to return. I fought through it and kept running. I was rewarded with a nice little runner's high that lasted for about a half mile. The song that was in my ears, the quality of the light and the endorphins mixed to create a cool buzz. It wore off as we crossed 32nd St. Only 2 miles to go! I started petering out over the next 2 miles. I could definitely feel the week layoff and the heat. Still, I kept pressing. A short walk break at the 1 mile point and another as I crossed 24th Street were enough to get me to the finish. I finished the 11.6 miles in 1:42:19, a decent enough 8:49 pace. I'm encouraged by today. I was worried that the race schedule I was trying to follow would be too much. I need to put in some more work over the next 3 weeks to be ready for the Lost Dutchman Half, but I feel like I'm almost ready. Activity
  
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Sunday, January 25, 2009
Post-Chang's Recovery Run
2009 P.F. Chang's Rock'n'Roll Arizona Half Marathon
 Today was the big daddy of running events in Arizona-- the P.F. Chang's Rock'n'Roll Arizona Marathon and Half Marathon. The event was huge again-- 6440 finishers in the marathon and 22098 finishers in the half marathon.Going into the race, I had high expectations. I turned in a good (for me) time in the 2008 Fiesta Bowl Half Marathon in mid-December. Despite my lackluster training in the intervening weeks, I was really hoping to shave 4 minutes off that time, which would be a 1:52 finish. I put in some good long runs in the weeks before the race and was feeling pretty good. I had every intention of running my first full marathon at this race, but my trip to Paris really put a damper on my training, so I decided to run the half marathon instead. And then "it" hit. I got a stomach bug last Wednesday. Right after lunch, I felt a dull pain in my gut. It worsened throughout the day, and by that evening I was really feeling rotten. I didn't eat for over 24 hours, and wasn't drinking much either since my stomach felt so horrible. I felt a little better Friday, but I still wasn't back to normal, and I still didn't have much of an appetite. I tried to eat normally on Saturday, but it was probably too little, too late. Despite this bug, I was still expecting big things when Bill and I got to the warmup tent at 7:00AM the morning of the race. We relaxed, ate and chatted with a few people we knew in the warm-up tent. After I ate, my stomach started feeling a little queasy again. I had to... uhhhh... evacuate. That didn't provide much relief, and I felt even worse after it.  As the starting time approached, we dropped off out gear bags and worked our way to our position in Corral 5. There were sooooooooo many people! There were 35 corrals, and I suppose there were 1000 people in each one. The line of people waiting to start stretched for what seemed to be a mile. As we waited for the gun, I checked the weather on my iPhone and was a little dismayed to see the temperature already in the high 50's. I was wearing a black long sleeve running shirt, and was already feeling a little warm. Drat! After the gun went off, our corral started about 5 minutes later. Bill and I agreed that we would start off slowly (a 9:30 pace was the goal). We were both feeling pretty good, so we did the first mile slightly faster than 9:00. At about the 1.5 mile mark, I saw Jen, Ella and Sarah (and even got a high five), which was very exciting. That's the first time they've been able to see me in a race.As we turned onto McDowell Rd., I was still feeling pretty good. I was feeling pretty comfortable with the 8:30 pace we were maintaining. As we approached the 3 mile mark, I was feeling pretty hot. I had already pushed up my sleeves, and was realizing that the new hat I was wearing wasn't too good at letting the heat from my head escape. As we went through the first water station at the 3.5 mile mark, I took a half dozen cups of water and poured them over my head. I felt much cooler, but that was my first inkling that today wasn't going to be my day.  As we continued down McDowell Rd., I felt like we were doing well. However, I checked my Garmin and was surprised to see our pace had slowed to about 8:45. Miles 6 and 7 were even slower, at about a 9:00 pace. At about the 6 mile mark, we spotted a runner carrying a large wooden pole over his shoulder. He was running faster than us, which was a little disheartening. I also saw a man with a shirt that said, "84 and still running." Thank God we passed him. I walked through the water station at mile 7 and took off my hat. It made me feel cooler, but by that point I felt like I was right on the cusp of bonking. The heat, the lack of eating and drinking and the fact that I hadn't run in a week had caught up to me. But I was determined to gut it out and finish with as good a time as possible.We saw Trudy and Jessica from work at about the 7.5 mile mark. It's always fun to see people you know during a race. We turned south on 44th Street, and then east onto Washington Street. This is where the long steady uphill is. I turned in a pretty slow 9:30 - 9:50 pace between miles 8 and 11. I was able to run up most of the hill, only walking through the water stations. Even though my pace was slow, I was feeling pretty proud considering how crummy I was feeling. I tried to focus on keeping going, and on elevating my spirits. As we reached mile 12, we could see Sun Devil Stadium off in the distance. That was just the pick-me-up I needed. We did the 13th mile at a 9:15 pace-- slower than my normal race pace but quicker than the previous 4 miles. As we crossed the Mill Avenue Bridge, there were throngs of spectators lining both sides of the road. As we turned onto Rio Salado Blvd., I wanted nothing more than to walk the rest of the way to the finish line. I was hot, my legs hurt and I felt completely depleted. But the energy from the crowd kept me going.  As we turned into the parking lot of the stadium for the final 200 yards of the run, the crowd was even thicker and louder. We picked up the pace a little bit, and managed to finish right at 2:00:50. Bill and I even managed to finish with the exact same time! When I looked down at my Garmin, I was disappointed that I didn't have a faster time. I tried to remind myself of the reasons for it, but I was still a little down. I guess I managed to cut 6 minutes off my time from last year's event, so that was a small victory. With the benefit of a few days between me and the race, I'm pretty okay with my time. I managed to make the starting line and I was able to finish, despite not feeling 100%. I feel a new determination to improve my time, and I want to ratchet up my training over the next few weeks so my time at the Lost Dutchman is where I want it to be. Activity
  
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Sunday, January 11, 2009
Final Pre-Chang's Long Run
| Today's long run was the last one before the P.F. Chang's Rock 'n Roll Arizona Half Marathon, which is only a week away. Today was also the first time in quite a while that Bill, Barry and I ran together. We think the last time might have been The Other Half in Moab in October. We decided to run 8 miles this morning. I actually wanted to do 9 or 10, but I'd rather run with someone than alone, so 8 it was. I was up later than usual last night. We went to visit our friends, the Hargroves. We watched the Cardinals and their most improbable win over the Panthers. If the Eagles win today, the Cardinals will host them in the NFC Championship next weekend. Wow!! I thought I would be dragging this morning, but I didn't feel too bad. I loaded my shuffle with a new Genius playlist based on a DJ Icey track from his album "Twisted" which I just bought on iTunes: DJ Icey - Under Constructo - Twisted Keoki - Caterpillar (The Crystal Method Remix) - Altered-Ego-Trip (The Remix Album) Boozoo Bajou - Under My Sensi (Les Demon Flowers Mix) - Remixes Paul van Dyk - Connected - Reflections Eddie Amador - 6 AM (Belocca & Soneec Dublife Remix) (feat. Joy Allura) - Yoshitoshi Ibiza Mixed By Miss Nine Tiësto - Battleship Grey - In My Memory Paul Oakenfold - Time of Your Life - Bunkka DJ Icey - AB/DC - This Feelin’ (Boy 8-bits Grindhouse Mix) - Y4K Timo Maas - First Day (Radio Edit) - House 2006 The Prodigy - Get Up Get Off (Fujikato+Dancingdiscoduke Remix) - Always Outsiders, Never Outdone Tosca - Gute Laune (feat. Tweed) - Dehli9 Trentemoller - Le Champagne - Ibiza Grooves: The Best in Chill and Club Sounds Diesel Boy + Kaos - Barrier Break - The System Dozen eMusic Sampler Paul van Dyk - Forbidden Fruit - Seven Ways (Special Limited Edition) DJ Icey - Escape (Electro Mix) - Essential Mix I continue to be impressed by the playlists that the Genius feature produces. I love Tosca and have all of their albums, but I never would have put any of their tracks in a running playlist (especially anything from the super-mellow Delhi9) because they're more downtempo than I like. But somehow it worked. I'm not sure exactly how the Genius feature works. It must use more than just the mp3 tags like Genre (unless Trip-Hop and Dance are related in a way I'm not familiar with) and do something similar to the Music Genome Project , like Pandora. However it works, I like it!! When we met this morning, it was COLD! The weather forecast called for 43 degrees at 7AM. It felt colder than that when we met at Granada Park at 7:30. I wanted nothing more than to get right back into my car and drive home and climb back into my warm bed. But we stretched out a bit and got going when Barry arrived, heading east on the canal. The first mile was slower than the next 7 (a 9:00-ish pace). My fingers were painfully cold at the beginning. The ends of my thumbs were purple from the cold and even my lips were hurting from the cold. As usual, I warmed up and the cold stopped bothering me after a mile or so. The three of us ran the next 3 miles together at an 8:40-ish pace. I'd like to finish Chang's in about 1:52 (which is a little quicker than an 8:30 pace) so this was about right for a training run. We paused for a couple minutes at the turnaround. Bill and I had steam coming off our necks and shoulders from sweating in the cold. It looked like Barry hadn't even broken a sweat. When we started off again, Barry ran ahead. After a mile or so, he was just a distant speck. Bill and I ran together for the rest of the run. We ran miles 5, 6 and 8 at an 8:30-ish pace-- right at my goal race pace. My Garmin says we ran mile 7 at a 9:04, probably because we had to stop for cars at Camelback, 32nd St. and 24th St. At the end of the run, my legs felt perfect. After a little light stretching, I felt good and loose and I didn't have any soreness or pain in my legs or back. I feel ready for the race next weekend. I'm not nearly as nervous for it as I was last year. Instead, I'm going into it with goals and a plan in mind (more on that later). Today's run was a total success. I'll probably run once or twice this week, and maybe get in a spinning session or two. Otherwise, I'm ready for the starting line! Activity
  
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Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Birthday Run
Happy Birthday to me! I turned 38 today. I still feel like I'm 12 on the inside (e.g. I still like toys, I can laugh at a good potty joke, etc.). I celebrated by dragging my ass out of a nice warm bed at 5AM, totally against my desire to sleep in. I continued my Genius playlist from Sunday, and here's the playlist I got this morning: Armin van Buuren vs. Herman Brood - Saturday Night - 10 Years The Crystal Method - Trip Like I Do - Vegas The Crystal Method - Comin' Back - Vegas Deep Dish - Say Hello (Original Radio Edit) - House 2006 Narcotic Thrust - When the Dawn Breaks (Original Mix) - When the Dawn Breaks EP Paul van Dyk - Words (feat. Roland Ateundred) - Seven Ways (Special Limited Edition) Eric Prydz - Call on Me - Ministry of Sound: The Annual 2005 Paul van Dyk - Time of Our Lives - Reflections I did my usual mid-week 3-mile route. I tried running it in reverse this morning. It's interesting because it seemed much quicker than usual. I've run this route dozens of times, but today was much more fun than the last few times I've done it. It was downright COLD this morning. My computer tells me it's 39 degrees as I'm typing this, 15 minutes after my run. The fact that I can't feel my hands confirms that. My pace this morning was slower than a typical mid-week run. That was partly by design (I just wanted to get in the miles this morning, and I don't want to overdo it before the race next week) and partly out of soreness (I'm still feeling the 12 miles I did on Sunday). When I was finished, I was pretty happy with the pace I had on this run. I had forgotten it was my birthday when I woke up, but my daughter Ella shouted "Happy Birthday, Daddy!!" when I walked in the back door. Happy Birthday, indeed. :) Activity
  
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Sunday, January 4, 2009
Pre-Chang's Long Run
| I needed to get in a good quality 12 miles today to prepare for the P.F. Chang's Rock & Roll Arizona Half Marathon which is only 2 weeks away. I'll probably do a shorter distance (8 - 10 miles) next weekend, and the next 2 weeks will be focused on staying healthy so I get to the starting line in good shape. Bill and his troublesome knee decided to join me this week. I'm in awe that he is going to try to run the Half Marathon since he was just diagnosed with ITBS. I would probably shut it down completely for a month or so, but he is determined to run the Half. Cheers, Bill! Despite the threat of rain, we decided to run on Sunday this week. This is partly to line up my long runs with race day, and also I was busy with family activities yesterday. As usual, the threat was inaccurate and we had perfect running weather-- overcast with temperatures in the low 50's. Musically, I decided to go with a selection of dance music:
I'm still building back up from my short running vacation over the holidays, so I figured today wouldn't be the best run I've ever had. We started off at a moderate pace, running the first mile at a 9:02 pace. After that, I felt like my tight muscles loosened up a little and we did the next 2 miles at 8:41. After that, my back felt a little sore and I had a couple minor aches and pains in my right shin and my left quad. We did the last half of the out section at an 8:50-ish pace. We stopped at the facilities at Herberger park to rest, refill and stretch. There seemed to be quite a few people out running today. I would guess it's partly because The Big Race is coming up, and partly because of New Year's Resolutions. After a short break, we headed back out for the return leg. My aches were present to varying degrees during the rest of the run. They don't feel like anything serious, but rather something that just needs to be worked through for the next couple weeks. We ran the second 6 miles at a 9:00-ish pace. It wasn't blistering by any standard, but I felt like it was a good performance considering Bill's knee and my break. According to my Garmin, we finished the 12 miles in 1:47:52, a decent 9:02 pace. I'm feeling pretty confident for the race in 2 weeks. Activity
  
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