Sustainability

There was a series of articles in the Arizona Republic this week about sustainability (conserving water, recycling, and stuff like that). This week's long run with Bill was at D.C. Ranch. I got off to a bit of a rough start-- the alarm didn't go off at 3:45AM (I guess I didn't slide the button all the way over), and I didn't wake up until 4:10. I was supposed to be at Bill's house at 4:30AM, so my plan to enjoy a leisurely pre-run breakfast was out the door. I got to his house at about 4:50, and we made it to the starting line at about 5:15. Not TOO bad. The first mile or so of our run was slower than we typically run-- about a 10:00 pace. There didn't seem to be any reason for that, and it was pretty enjoyable. And then we turned on the jets. At one point (albeit a steep downhill), we were cruising at a 7:15 pace. That's BLAZING for me. I turned to Bill and said, "We should run the whole run at this pace!" Heh heh. We did the out portion of our run at a pretty brisk (for me) sub-8:30 pace. Would I have enough juice left in the tank for the return trip? Did I expend too much energy in my exuberance to run as fast as I could downhill? Would I have to pay the piper for our foolhardiness? Would we be able to SUSTAIN? What goes down, must come up. When I lived in Boston, my friend Dave and I called the stretch of Commonwealth Avenue between Warren and Washington Streets "F**kyou Hill." It's a fairly steep hill, and we would ride our bikes up it and try to go as fast as we could. When our lungs and calves and quads were burning, one of us would yell, "F**k you, hill!" There's a new F**kyou Hill now. At about mile 5, the uphill starts. It's about a 200ft. elevation gain over 2 miles. Yikes. But I stared toward the top of the hill as we started to climb, gritted my teeth and thought, "F**k you, hill!" Luckily, I had plenty of energy left, and I attacked the hill. It's fairly challenging, because just when you think it can't get any steeper, it does. When we crested the hill at about mile 7, I thought "YES!" We brought home the last mile at a respectable 9:30 pace. This was a fantastic run. Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 1753 ft Location: Carefree, AZ Elev. Gain: -4 ft Date: 06/28/08 Up/Downhill: [+360/-364] Time: 06:20 AM Difficulty: 3.0 / 5.0 Performance Distance: 7.89 miles Time: 1:14:35 Speed: 6.3 mph Pace: 9' 27 /mi Calories: 1369 Map Elevation (ft) Pace (min/mile) Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Elevation Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 9' 52 +0' 25 6.1 -0.3 +49 ft 2 8' 46 -0' 41 6.8 +0.5 -79 ft 3 8' 37 -0' 50 7.0 +0.6 -105 ft 4 8' 56 -0' 31 6.7 +0.4 -56 ft 5 13' 04 +3' 37 4.6 -1.8 +46 ft 6 10' 42 +1' 15 5.6 -0.7 +95 ft 7 10' 44 +1' 17 5.6 -0.8 +95 ft 8 9' 29 +0' 02 6.3 -0.0 -36 ft end 7' 38 -1' 49 7.8 +1.5 -13 ft Versus average of 9' 27 min/mile

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Mid-week Golf Course Run

Just a quick almost-3-miler this morning. It's still hot, hot, HOT out! Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 1094 ft Location: Phoenix, AZ Elev. Gain: -4 ft Date: 06/24/08 Up/Downhill: [+22/-26] Time: 06:35 AM Difficulty: 1.8 / 5.0 Performance Distance: 2.90 miles Time: 0:25:46 Speed: 6.8 mph Pace: 8' 53 /mi Calories: 480 Map Elevation (ft) Pace (min/mile) Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Elevation Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 8' 48 -0' 05 6.8 +0.1 0 ft 2 9' 47 +0' 54 6.1 -0.6 -4 ft end 9' 49 +0' 56 6.1 -0.6 0 ft Versus average of 8' 53 min/mile

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The Wall

The Wall. Not the Pink Floyd album. Not the trippy movie starring Bob Geldoff. (As far as Pink Floyd goes, I am partial to The Dark Side of the Moon and "Live from Pompeii.") And not the Berlin Wall. No, today's post is about hitting The Wall. That point of exhaustion so great, and so severe and so... special, that runners have given it a special name. It's not the usual, normal ache or fatigue or pain. That's just part of running. No, this is a special feeling. Where your body screams, "What are you crazy, man?!?! Stop what you're doing before you kill us!" Where your physical ability to keep going is gone, and the only way you can keep going is through sheer will and determination. I hit The Wall today. I hit it hard. And it hit me back. Bill and I decided to do a 12 miler this day. The high was forecast to be about 115. It had been blast furnace-hot all week, so the overnight low probably wouldn't get down much below 85. Blech! We met at Granada Park at about 4:30 AM. After a little stretching and pre-run hydration, we headed east. The out was pretty uneventful. We got to see the sun come up over Camelback Mountain, and a spectacular sunrise it was. Our turnaround point was Herberger Park. There were some sprinklers going, so we got to cool off a bit. I also got to use the restroom and refill my water bottles. The trip back is where it got interesting. The first couple miles were fine. But then the sun came up over the horizon and really started pounding us. I had on a visor, but it didn't help much. Over the next mile, I started feeling woozy, and lightheaded. When we crossed 48th St., I took a short walk break. When we crossed 44th St., I took a little longer walk break. I started feeling worse and worse. At one point between 48th St. and Camelback Rd., I thought I might vomit. But I kept plugging along, concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other. When we got to Camelback Rd., I had had enough. We walked across Camelback, and then for a couple minutes thereafter. The thought of running any more just seemed like a laughable proposition. I told Bill to go ahead-- no sense in him spending any more time in that godawful heat than he had too. He went on ahead, and finished our run in a decent enough time. I spent the last 3 miles struggling to even jog. I fell in behind a guy that was running at a manageable pace, but I could only stay with him for a 1/4 mile or so before I had to walk again. Even the time-tested trick of just trying to make it that pole or that tree didn't work. Eventually, I made it back to where we started. I wasn't disappointed. Rather, I was honored to meet The Wall, and to see what happens when you hit it. I'm sure I'll run into it again. And when I do, I'll be more prepared.... Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 0 ft Location: Phoenix, AZ Elev. Gain: +0 ft Date: 06/21/08 Up/Downhill: [+0/-0] Time: 05:42 AM Difficulty: 0 / 5.0 Performance Distance: 11.70 miles Time: 2:00:08 Speed: 5.8 mph Pace: 10' 16 /mi Calories: 1966 Map Elevation (ft) Pace (min/mile) Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Elevation Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 9' 19 -0' 57 6.4 +0.6 -- ft 2 9' 26 -0' 50 6.3 +0.5 -- ft 3 9' 30 -0' 46 6.3 +0.5 -- ft 4 9' 28 -0' 48 6.3 +0.5 -- ft 5 10' 04 -0' 12 6.0 +0.1 -- ft 6 10' 06 -0' 10 5.9 +0.1 -- ft 7 16' 37 +6' 21 3.6 -2.2 -- ft 8 10' 01 -0' 15 6.0 +0.1 -- ft 9 10' 59 +0' 43 5.5 -0.4 -- ft 10 12' 45 +2' 29 4.7 -1.1 -- ft 11 11' 57 +1' 41 5.0 -0.8 -- ft end 12' 01 +1' 45 5.0 -0.9 -- ft Versus average of 10' 16 min/mile

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Scouting out the track

My legs were still feeling a little sore and tired from Sunday. When I went to bed last night, I fully intended to blow off running this morning. I woke up at 3:45 AM and was just kinda sitting around. When my alarm went off at 5:00, I figured I might as well run. I bought the book "Run Less Run Faster" a few weeks ago and have been reading it. Part of the program it prescribes is speedwork on a track. Phoenix College has a track, so I figured I'd cruise over there to check it out. It seems like this will be a good speedwork option. It's close, it's a really nice track, and it appears to be open to the public. There were some older folks walking laps around the outer lanes, some sweaty middle agers looking like they were doing a recovery lap and a few college-age-looking people doing some warm-up stretches. I just did a light cruise lap around the track. The funny thing is that I hit about a 6:10 pace on the last 1/4 lap. I'm always surprised when I can hit that kind of pace-- even if I don't sustain it for very long. On the way home, I did a short detour onto a part of the golf course I haven't run on before. That will be a good option for the future. In all, I ended up doing about 2 1/2 miles at quicker than a 9:00 pace. Not bad for a day I thought I wouldn't run at all. Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 1097 ft Location: Phoenix, AZ Elev. Gain: -4 ft Date: 06/11/08 Up/Downhill: [+9/-13] Time: 06:21 AM Difficulty: 2.1 / 5.0 Weather: Fair 79 F temp; 21% humidity 76 F heat index; winds E 6 Performance Distance: 2.56 miles Time: 0:22:10 Speed: 6.9 mph Pace: 8' 40 /mi Calories: 394 Map Elevation (ft) Pace (min/mile) Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Elevation Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 8' 47 +0' 07 6.8 -0.1 +6 ft 2 9' 44 +1' 04 6.2 -0.8 -6 ft end 8' 58 +0' 18 6.7 -0.2 -3 ft Versus average of 8' 40 min/mile

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Green Belt 8-miler

I ran 8 miles with Bill on the green belt on Sunday morning. I had just flown back from a vacation in Philadelphia on Saturday afternoon and was a bit jetlagged. I managed to drag myself out of bed and was on time for our 6AM rendez vous. My right ankle/shin was a little tight on the out, and it never fully loosened up. I didn't realize until I looked at the data that it was over 81 degrees that morning. No wonder I was so hot! I guess we'll have to start running at 5 if we're going to beat the heat. At about mile 5, we saw a group of 20-somethings lolling in the grass. They were all dressed in black and looked a little sauced. I chuckled and said to Bill, "We're up early and they're out late." We managed to finish the run in 1:14, about a 9:20 pace. I was very pleased-- especially since I wasn't feeling 100% and because of the heat. Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 1324 ft Location: Scottsdale, AZ Elev. Gain: +0 ft Date: 06/08/08 Up/Downhill: [+111/-111] Time: 07:10 AM Difficulty: 2.7 / 5.0 Weather: Fair 81 F temp; 18% humidity 77 F heat index; winds SE 3 Performance Distance: 7.99 miles Time: 1:14:35 Speed: 6.4 mph Pace: 9' 20 /mi Calories: 1208 Map Elevation (ft) Pace (min/mile) Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Elevation Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 9' 12 -0' 08 6.5 +0.1 -22 ft 2 9' 19 -0' 01 6.4 +0.0 -22 ft 3 9' 01 -0' 19 6.7 +0.2 -23 ft 4 8' 55 -0' 25 6.7 +0.3 -16 ft 5 13' 12 +3' 52 4.5 -1.9 +16 ft 6 9' 29 +0' 09 6.3 -0.1 +23 ft 7 9' 32 +0' 12 6.3 -0.1 +22 ft 8 9' 39 +0' 19 6.2 -0.2 +22 ft end 7' 00 -2' 20 8.6 +2.1 0 ft Versus average of 9' 20 min/mile

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