Tribute to My Running Group

I've been running with a group of runners in the area since 2004. Actually before that the only running I did was the occasional 2-3 miler at the gym on the hamster wheel. Or in my early days in the Military I thought 3 miles in 30 minutes was pretty good. I laugh out loud as I read what I just typed. 10 min./mile for 3 miles. That's hardly worth getting out of bed for these days. Unless it's the second part of a 2-a-day and you're just trying to get the miles under your feet. Even then your short distance fast runner friends would call you a bum.

But, I digress. Like I said, I've been running with a group of runners in the area since 2004. This group has been the best thing to happen to me in a while. Every morning, every morning, they run. Now not the whole group but, there are factions (all friendly) and between either the core group or any faction of the group you can find a run somewhere in the city every single morning. I don't know about you but, the thought that someone is "waiting" on me just helps me to show up. Now they are not really waiting on me and everyone expects that if you want to run with the group you show up on time. Because they won't "wait". So, I guess it's something like, "We will wait for you until it is time to go and then we're going". I like that because I can safely say that at 1 minute past 6am they are gone but, they positively will not leave before 6. I mean 5:59 is unacceptable to the group and is considered rude, we all leave together and we wait just in case that last minute person is still trying to get there on time.

I certainly would not be running still if it had not been for the group and all the new relationships I've developed out of it. Bunch of fun folks all ages and all speeds all backgrounds. Imagine that, a diversity of runners. Well they're income must be pretty up there. After all, the simplest, most natural sport on the planet still requires expensive shoes and technical shirts and shorts. And if you can afford the Garmin 305, you've got to get that, too.

Interested in more Garmin related stories? See these fine sites:

How Accurate is a GPS Running Watch? | ClearPathGPS - How Accurate is a GPS Running Watch? By Mick Doolan. There are many times that I have been asked, just how accurate is a running watch with GPS? Can they really tell you how fast and far you are running? As a case ... Timex Run Trainer (R.I.P. Garmin 305) « Running With T1 - After many, many miles of running with my trusty Garmin Forerunner 305, it recently kicked the bucket. I used RunKeeper on my iPhone for a while and I like it, especially for programming intervals and for the automatic posting ...

Finally, A Decent Long Run

So, this Saturday I ran 20 miles with my running group. It was the first long run in a while where I did not feel like I might not finish. The 18 miles two weeks earlier and the 16 miler two weeks before that both left me feeling like I might be done with marathons. OK. we all know that cannot be the answer. I'm really not sure why I've been so energy depleted. But, this run was quite a bit different.

When we start on Saturdays for our long runs we begin at the lake and run along it for about 4 miles before head out into the nearby neighborhood. The neighborhood is where the butt whipping begins. Between the numerous hills (mere inclines for some but, they're all hills to me) and the nasty camber of the streets, it seems like the stress never ends. After the neighborhood whipping we return to the lake for another 5k before reaching the end. The humidity adds its own brand of malaise to the run. No matter, we all prevailed.

Since I'm resting all my efforts on a strong performance at the marathon in December, West Palm Beach, I really should not over do it on the miles for the next few weeks. My plan is to run 20 miles of the Denver marathon and walk the final 6 miles. Of course, I'm not certain that I can walk 6 miles. Imagine that. I must have run 700 miles this year but I have little belief that I can do anything like 6 miles of walking. Maybe I'll do some form of the Galloway thing. How about 10 minutes of running then walking for a minute or run 5 miles then walk a mile. I'm still working out on some ideas.

Sometimes Running Hurts

"pressure is nothing more than the shadow of great opportunity." - Michael Johnson

Where Have You Been?

Well I've been through the desert on a horse with no name...It has not rained in this town in about a month. Funny thing is that just last month it rained 22 days. In June it rained 23 days and in May we had 25 days of rain. Dallas is not known for this so all us runners have had to spend the month of August getting reacquainted with the dreaded humidity and pure, hellayshish (yes, made up word) heat.Over the last three weekend I had a tough 16 miler, a nonexistent 12 miler, then a painful 18 miler. Today was a little different. I ran 12 miles again but, I did pretty well. I actually had a couple more miles in me for the first time in a while.

I failed to mention that during the week I've been doing those tempo runs with my fast running buddies. A little advice...It's always good to keep a few fast friends in your line-up so they can push you to better performance. The problem this month has been that they are just too dang fast. They're doing so well these days that when they run they talk the entire time with no real problems. Oh well, I guess they talk the whole time, they run so fast that they lose me after about 15 minutes.

That's OK. I'll muster up something for this week's tempo and be sure to hear their entire conversation.

Treadmills are for Hamsters but Juarez is Neither for Man or Hamster

So, on Tuesday morning I woke up in the Camino Real Hotel in Juarez, Mexico. Very nice room and the bed was soft and comfy. It was pretty early I thought when I went downstairs to run on the dreaded treadmill. Not early enough, I soon learned as I got downstairs and saw that the only two treadmills in the entire hotel, probably 200-300 rooms, were occupied by some other Americans walking at about 2 miles an hour. The unadulterated nerve. Selfish Americans. Hang-on, that's me.

Well, I decided that I was not going to blow the perfect opportunity to run simply because Plan A was a bust. There's more than one way to skin a cat, ain't no two monkeys going to stop this show. "I'll just run outside", I said cleverly to myself. How bad can it be? I've got my Garmin 305 and my Oakley Thump Pro shades fully loaded with music. So, I hit the street. I was surprised that my Garmin actually located a satellite. I'm not sure how those things work, do they fly all over the world or what? However, there are clearly more floating around over the U.S. than there are over Mexico. My Garmin lost the satellite at about 2 miles into the run. No matter though, I was choking to death by the time I hit the two mile mark anyway so I decided to only do about another two miles.

There are clearly no emissions requirements in that country. Not only was I dodging early morning people going to work staring at me because they've never seen a runner before, but the pollution, OMG the pollution. When I finally circled back to the hotel I concluded it best to stay inside at all cost the next day.

Wednesday I woke up went downstairs by 5:40 am and still there were two lofty Americans walking on the blooming treadmill again. I mean they could mall walk for crying out loud. So, I waited for a short 20 minutes when one of them finally jumped off, leaving his sweat on the HR monitor bars. I ran that dang machine hard for about 50 minutes. Sporting my Oakley shades the entire time to avoid the boredom of running in place like some poor, stupid hamster. BTW - really who's dumber, a hamster running on a wheel thinking he'll eventually get to wherever he's going, or me running in one place all the time knowing I'm going nowhere and never will but, still I run anyway?

Who am I fooling? The sensation of running is just too good, even if you have to run in one place for 50 minutes or so. I still say treadmills are for hamsters. Now I'm back home so back to the street (where I'm just running in a great big circle) I go.

Did I say Tucson, New Mexico?...

I really meant Tucson, AZ. I just momentarily forgot my geography. My 50 in all States is not that far fetched...I had no real idea where I was when I ran that marathon anyway. It was one of the toughest ones for me. I guess for a couple of reasons. First, I had just completed Marine Corps and then just came back from 10 days in Malaysia literally the day before I left for Arizona. I was easily 10-15 lbs heavier than marathon weight. Second, the down hill does take a toll on your legs if you're not ready. So, if you plan on running Tucson this winter then you better do your down hill training and properly hydrate. It starts at 4400 ft and drops to 2200 ft at the end. For Dallas runners both start and finish are quite a bit higher than we're used to.

Now the hotel on the other hand was very nice. Westward Look Resort245 East Ina Road, Tucson, AZ 85704. I certainly recommend if you can afford it, $140+ per night. Get a roomy. Hot tub after the marathon was great and a nice little porch outside your room facing the pool and back patio/restaurant, if you get the right spot. Very enjoyable place. I'll talk more about the Italian restaurant we went to night before the marathon. I cannot remember the place but some of my buddies will remember for sure.

14 Miles Today

On my way to the October 14th marathon in Denver I ran 14 miles today with my training group. This is the longest run I've done since the Austin half marathon in February. Felt pretty good. I'm trying to run with my own hydration system these days. I've tried the water belt, twice and hated it each time. Now I'm simply carrying a 16.9 oz Ozarka bottle. They have this new nipple deal that's very easy to pop open and sip on without getting too much in. Not bad, still mastering the technique of switching hands and all that.

My formula in my hydration kit includes one NUUN tablet. It is suppose to have 700 mg of electrolytes. I think this is important because I lose a lot of water weight during my runs. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 8-10 pounds in a marathon. You know that's all water and in order to maintain the proper weight you must take in water with electrolytes. So, I'm giving this NUUN a try to see if it can give me what I need without upsetting my stomach. I tried the Electrolyte Stamina Replacement powder but it was giving my belly all kinds of trouble. Additionally, my taste buds get very sensitive somewhere around mile 15. Too sensitive to tolerate the flavor in ESR.

One of my running buddies said I'm always trying something new and experimenting. Darn right, I'm going to find the right solution to give me all the advantage I can get. Too many times I found myself too weak to perform well near the end of a 26.2 and I know it's not because of my training. I bet losing 10 lbs during the process has something to do with it. If I can keep half that weight wonder how much better I can do. More to come. We'll see how it goes.