It’s An Honor To Be Nominated

I’m minding my own business when TK apologizes for whacking me with one of those what-did-we-do-before-the-Internet? things (which, in Internet World, is a “meme”):

1. Answer this question: if you had the chance to go back and change one thing in your life, would you and what would it be?
2. Pick 6 people and give them this award. You then have to inform each that she has gotten this award.
3. Thank the person who gave you the award.

A bit ago Facebook has a meme in which people listed something like 25-things-people-don’t-know-about-me which I found in some cases quite interesting because I found, well, things I didn’t know about some folks, not like favorite colors but important stuff. Such can be a useful exercise.

Anyhow, here’s my response to this meme.

Cha-cha-cha-cha-changes

Apply to Stanford Law School. The longest stretch in which I’ve not slept in either New York or Westchester County is 14 days. I’m not the adventurous sort — in contrast to my brother who’s spent significant time all over the world — and college and grad school provide the chance to physically go to a new place. Had I gone to California for law school, I could always have returned to New York to practice, but at least would have had a great new experience. (Indeed, for the first time someone in my immediate family is attending school outside of the east coast; my niece is at Stanford B School.)

Of course, my life would be different in a fundamental way; although I met my wife in college I solidified the relationship in law school. And there’s something to be said about having had, getting back to running, the chance to live fifty yards from Central Park while I was in and for years after law school. (The item in the “Here’s To You” link? We heard that concert in our living room and stopped by the night before during rehearsal, which we heard as we came home from the market.) Nor did my legal education suffer for staying in New York.

So to the if-you-could-would-you? question, the answer is no.

Running-wise, my regret is not trying to run for a Division 1 college. I attended Manhattanville College (where, as noted, I met my wife) and we had a rag-tag cross-country team in my first three years. I don’t know if I was good enough to run in Division 1 — the half and the mile would be my events if I were — but I’d like to have given it a shot. Back in 1974, things were not as they are today with all sorts of information available about such opportunities. Running was important to me then, but I never did connect the dots to figure it out.

For the record, I ran off-and-on in college and picked it up again during my first year of law school. And on day 2 of the NY Bar exam in July 1981, which I took at Columbia, I wore shorts and a t-shirt, finished early, and ran home through Central Park.

Here’s To You

I’m going entirely with the running world here. If you’ve done a road relay, you know how important it is to have an interesting, varied gang of six in a van. You could do worse than the following, and you could hardly do better:

1. Dave
2. Ewen
3. Flo
4. Herb
5. Julie
6. Robert

Each is interesting, articulate, honest, curious, and athletic.

Who Are You?

The deal is that I must “thank” the donor of this honor. “TK” means “to come” in the publishing biz (if you’re reading this in 2012 or later, that was an industry that made books (Google it) and, no, it had nothing to do with public houses (except in the getting of inspiration)), but TK has arrived. If she has a deficiency as a blogger it is the infrequency of her posts (and the frequency of her use of “fuck”). If you don’t read her stuff, you should.

On The Porch

The strange weather continues as I sit lazing on the porch at noon. The past week has had a whiff of fall in the air, and it’s seemed hard to believe we’re still in August.

Houston Hopefuls

If you read this blog you probably read JT’s and her fine HoustonHopefuls project. If not, you should read both. Her most recent HH interview was with Heather May and was another interesting effort, in this case someone who’s qualified for the Olympic Trials twice before. She makes the observation apropos to marathon racing that too much fast stuff at the expense of marathon-pace runs can create its own problem. You feel comfortable at a tempo pace and you feel comfortable at that pace in the race itself. “‘The problem was, I went out at tempo pace. And tempo pace at the start of a marathon feels really darn good! You know, you’re tapered, it feels awesome, you’re around friends. It felt very comfortable. You feel like you might have a breakthrough and you don’t want to think, “Oh, that’s tempo pace. I’m going to dial it down.”‘” I think this is what happened to me in 2006. Live and learn.

This is a really good series.

Today at the Rockies

For the third successive Sunday, I headed up to the Rockies. I was again determined to do it alone, and hoped to get up to 1:15-1:20. I would head out to Rockwood Hall and then into the Rockies themselves. This would get me three tough hills, all in switchback format. That’s the first of them in the photo, the Hudson in the background. A number of folks I know were assembling when I got there, but I decided to do it alone as planned. Through 40 minutes, I had gotten up two of the hills, but was dead. I stopped for about a minute then, knowing I couldn’t handle much more, headed back, figuring I’d match last week’s hour. Alas, the knee was no problem until about 3/4 of a mile to go, but it hurt enough to relegate me to walking it in.

This is getting quite frustrating. It’s not bothering me not running at all, although it hurts a bit when I sit for prolonged periods, which is an improvement. And it bothered me not at all during this run until fairly late. Same thing happened yesterday, when I was fine through 6. But no problem on Friday’s trail run. It’s frustrating.

The big overhang for me is the Josh Billings Relay on September 12. This is a bike-canoe-run race in Lenox, Mass. I’m to finish it with a 5.5 run around the Stockbridge Bowl, finishing at Tanglewood. There is a brutal uphill in the final mile, about 200 feet of climb. Normally that wouldn’t be a concern, but the lack of work makes it so. I’m more worried, though, about my knee. One’s perspective changes when running for a team.

Irvington Cross-Country Race: Aug. 28

I wrote last year of the good experience I had at the inaugural Peter K. Oley 5K Trail Run. Well, the second version will be held this Saturday at 9am at Irvington High School. As I wrote, it’s a nice course created and maintained by the XC team. I’m missing it because of my lingering knee issue, which I don’t want to push, but I encourage folks to check it out. It was misty last year; this year’s forecast is cool, clear skies, XC the way we like to remember it.

Only day-of-race entries. Race fee is “0″ but folks are encouraged to make a donation to the team.

View Larger Map

Today’s Run

Determined, I was, to keep to a soft surface, and the best for that in these parts is the Rockies. My other trails tend to have some harder sections. In part I was reacting to a thread on LetsRun about Alberto Salazar commenting on the differences between hard and soft surfaces.

So up to Sleepy Hollow I went. I was determined as well to run it alone. I noted the trouble I have with group running last Sunday, and in part wished to compare a solo effort to that one. There were folks I knew a little getting ready to head out, but I decided against going with them. And I largely duplicated last week’s course.

No shirt — Humidity: 98% — and off I went.  With my Garmin. The charts give a pretty broad range of appropriate “easy” run paces, and I usually am at the faster end. This means that I can slow it down and be fine. So the Garmin helps as a control.

In the end, I got in my hour plus, which was the goal. The paces (even accounting for the vagaries of the Garmin in this terrain) were strong throughout, and once I crested the big hill of the day at about 3, a climb on which I struggled mightily, I felt solid. (I think the drop and climb in the first mile are exaggerated in the terrain chart.) The numbers: 8.56 miles in 1:03:10 (7:23 (against 7:30 last week)).

I’ve spoken with folks, such as Herb, about the seeming ease with which they seem to be able to put in big miles and been told that much of it is mental. As I was moving along hurting a bit but not so much it struck me that if I can get over the mental hump I can get in the mileage. I found it helpful to think of 2011 when I did this, that being when I hope to give another shot at racing the Marathon.

I started the final VCTC 5K on Thursday. I did not finish. I got about 100 yards when I pulled over. My left knee hurts now and then but not so much when I’m running. On Thursday, I was fine during warm-up until I tried to do some straights. Then I felt a pick ax in the knee. This made doing the race doubtful. But start it I did. The pain came pretty quickly, so I DNFed. I took Friday off, and it seems to be gone. No sign of it today.

At the end of the run I came upon Dennis coming from the Sleepy Hollow HS parking lot. I had seen him briefly on the trail. He said he was in New York for a memorial service for John Scherf. John, who I knew by sight and spoke to once or twice, died recently of cancer, age 62. I’d see him often at races. He was enthusiastic if not fast (unlike his daughter, Lindsey). A year ago he was running, and now he is dead.  He was a part of the running community and will be missed.

Rockies Report: Free At Last

[Edited to add: Tony Portera noted this change late last year, with a discussion of how it came about. But I know of two runners who say they were accosted six months ago for running around Swan Lake. So I've posted a thread on LetsRun soliciting comments.]

I mentioned my run on Sunday at the Rockies. We did not, though, venture near the Visitor’s Center, the site of all manner of agitation about access.

After hearing that someone a bit ago was pulled over running around Swan Lake by a Park official in a golf-cart I heard that the signs restricting access to that part of the Park were taken down. This morning I called the Park and was told that restrictions on runners at the Rockies have been lifted. Runners are, as always (and do we have to say this), asked to be courteous to other Park users.

I’ve not seen this. I pass this info on. I’d appreciate any confirmation.

Group Shrink

My knee’s been holding up pretty well, not bothering me so much when I walk or sit and not aching when I run. A run Friday, a (trail) run Saturday. (I’m beginning to think that my knee pain was the product of trying ever so slightly to move my landing point a bit forward with my brain overflowing with advise about the most-efficient way to run and have decided to stop even thinking about it and just running.)

So I decided to head up to the Rockies this morning, and I awoke early enough (for me) that I thought I’d hook up with Paul T, who regularly heads out at about 8:30 from Sleepy Hollow High School. A couple of email exchanges this morning, and I was ready to join Paul and Fabio (sporting a cast on his left wrist, broken in a soccer game) for what Paul describes as an “easy” run. That’d be the ticket, thought I, an easy hour or so.

Paul’s “easy” and the civilized (or civilised) world’s “easy” are not necessarily the same, though, and dark clouds appeared as he said he hoped to meet-up with Jimmy L. “Jimmy starts out with a group he coaches,” Paul said, “and after about an hour he cranks it up.” Jimmy is a very fast guy (he ran 25:07 last week, at age 45) and is supplanting Paul as the primo Masters runner around these parts.

We came upon Jimmy a bit past a mile out, he with a group of three. Paul, Fabio, and I turned around to run with them. I was doomed. I held on the back for as long as I could, successfully making it to the top of the switchbacks (which we would go down) before 13-Bridges Trail. After that, the group was gone, kept in sight for the most part, but gone.

I struggled home in about 56 minutes, but was buoyed by feeling quite strong for the final stretch back to the parking lot. Paul and Fabio continued on — I waved as they headed back out — and I found myself at the high school packed with cars and runners. I don’t know if I’ve seen so many folks — including Iona College’s team — using the Park was I saw this morning. It truly is a Mecca.

What’s the Point?

What I glossed over in the foregoing is speed. I’m curious about other’s experience. You would think that running in a group would be easier than running alone. You would think. I find, however, that this seems not to be the case. I’ve run with clubmates in the Rockies several times and, as with today, wearing my Garmin. On the same course my pace is a good 20 seconds or more slower than when I’m on my own. Yet I struggle mightily, as I did today.

The pace was pretty relaxed, nothing I shouldn’t be able to handle with ease. But I can’t.

On Form (Again)

Status report: I skipped the Club Champs because I’m having lingering knee-ache issues. I’m giving it a few more days.

In the meantime, though, I came upon some stuff on running form. In an earlier post I linked to some super-slo-mo videos from Boston. The source is Pete Larson, who has a nice blog (I’ve added the link), and has a couple of pieces derived from Alberto Salazar’s recent comments about running form. Larson’s an evolutionary biologist so he looks at these matters in a scientific manner. He just posted a piece entitled “On Running Form; Variability in Elites, and What it Means to You (and Me).”

Steve Magness is a very fast runner who also writes good stuff on running in his “Science of Running” blog. He posted a piece, “How to Run: Running with proper biomechanics.” (I’ve made a couple of comments there.)

In the end, what does it mean? Damned if I know.

Running

It’s been a while since I’ve posted about, you know, my running. This is because there’s not been a lot to report. I’ve struggled, as have many, with the recent heat we’ve been having. I’ve had a few annoying three-day injuries in which something’s bothering me and I take a few days off to let it heal. These interruptions have not been helpful from the consistency front.

For that and other reasons it looks highly unlikely that I’ll be racing New York. Not only haven’t I gotten in the work I need I’ve not been of a mind to get in the work I need. So as I said on the recent RRT, I plan on enjoying going through Brooklyn this time.

I’m doing yet another RRT this coming Wednesday, on running in the heat. I don’t know what I can say about it except ratchet things down.

The impetus for this post is a fine run that I had this morning. I hadn’t gone into the City for the Warren Street Saturday morning run for quite a while because I’ve not been confident of being able to hold on. Today, though, I decided to give it a shot. I met Paul “Tex” Thompson at 125th Street and unfortunately we were alone until we picked up guys at 90th at 9. I say “unfortunately” because Paul is quite a bit faster than I am and while he chats blithely away I find myself struggling. (Sayeth Paul in the new “New York Runner” magazine, speaking of running in a group, “You want to run with them, not away from them,” which for him means slowing down and for means speeding up.) Fabio normally tempers this, but he’s out with a broken wrist.

Water at 90th and we picked up four more guys. The six of us continued around the bridle path, but I began to fall back, joined by one other member. We were able to latch on again when the others turned around and back north we came. One new scene: people lined up for tickets to Shakespeare in the Park along the bridle path.

At first I just wanted to make 1:10 and I was struggling at the back hoping for that. I soldiered on as we went to the south of the Reservoir and somehow got to 90th St. again just at 1:19. Water, another minute, and I’m done. Now I was on my own as the others opened up. Somehow I was able to keep going to the 102nd Street Transverse, where one leaves the path for the Park Drive. I was glad of the change; as I tired I found my feet shuffling a bit on the path’s cinder.

Now the downhill to the Lasker Rink, stiffly, and, hey, just keep going to 1:30. Then I can make it to where I parked, at 120th and Marcus Garvey Park. And that’s what I did, getting 1:33 very tired miles in. This is far more than I’ve done in quite a while. It was a beautiful morning with temperatures far below where they have been. I was spent. But happy about this as “progress.”

On tap for next Saturday: The Club Champs Five-Miler.

If you don’t break 2:10 you’re only running for yourself

Or words to that effect. Or maybe it’s 2:12, but that was something that came up on Wednesday in the most recent RunnersRoundTable in which I participated. Entitled “Compete or Complete,” the idea came from a slower runner who took offense at a series of articles and ads that demeaned the efforts of people who were slow. It’s a topic about which I’ve written, and “people of the land,” as the Waco Kid described them, have demeaned my view on the subject.

I was drafted as a voice from the other side of the fence (which is why I included my 2006 in my bio).  What do faster folk think of the slow? After noting the 2:10 standard (for men in the marathon), I figure we’re all in the same boat.  No one cares about my times except me.  The issue is not how fast you are but how you get there. (I also managed to get in what I sometimes think is the motto for some on LetsRun: “You suck if you haven’t run X” where X, in a marathon, is one minute slower than the speaker’s PR.)

RRT on iTunes

Houston Hopeful: Jill Howard

JT has published another in her series of interviews with runners hoping to make the women’s marathon OT as masters. This is of Jill Howard, who’s out in Colorado. She’s done numerous triathlons and JT gets some good background information about that sport. Worth a read. Plus there’s a nice sidebar interview with Bobby McGee, her coach.